The Singer's Girl

Chapter 16

TAYLOR'S POV

I checked on Caroline periodically throughout the night last night after her little meltdown. She was in a better mood when I woke her up this morning so that was a good sign, now the only question was would she be okay after a day at school? I was busy with things this afternoon so I'd gotten my mom to pick her up from school and bring her to me, just like I had a few times earlier this year.

I was in the middle of a phone call about my upcoming tour when the two of them walked into the management office. There was a huge table with lots of chairs in the room, but not many of the seats were taken. This wasn't as much a meeting as it was a low-key planning session with the three other people that were helping me.

Caroline came and sat in the open chair next to me, I immediately reached out my one arm that wasn't holding the phone for a hug. She leaned into me and I gave her a side hug, while still paying attention to the other end of the line. As soon as I got off the phone I turned to her.

"Hey Care, how was school?" I asked.

"Good, Kelsey started dating that douche that she had a thing with, me and Grace have been discussing all day how much we hate him." She said to me quietly and I remembered her telling me about the hot douchebag that her friend had a thing with.

"Well, sounds like you had a really productive day at school." I said and she smiled at me. I could tell that she'd had a good day so far, even if she had spent it talking about some guy she hates with her best friend. Those were the types of things that I used to talk about in high school. And now that Caroline had friends she was starting to get a lot more high school experiences.

One of the reasons why I came back to Nashville after release week instead of promoting some more was that Caroline was in school and I didn't want to take her out longer than I needed to. She'd be gone when my tour started anyway, I didn't want her missing more.

I had to get back to my non-meeting after I caught up with Caroline.

CAROLINE'S POV

I had had a good day. It was a good day at school, then Andrea picked me up from school, which was good because me and Andrea were a lot closer now after some release week experiences. Then she took me to go see Taylor and after that the three of us went out for ice cream. Now I was home getting ready for bed, all my homework had been done and I'd had supper.

Of course I laid there for an hour or two just tossing and turning and thinking. It wasn't anxiety attack inducing thoughts this time, but it was still frustrating that I couldn't get to sleep. The whole time I'd been laying there I was wondering if it was really cold in this house or if it was just me, I kept telling myself that it was just me and I must be getting sick or something.

Finally at around midnight I decided to get up and get a drink, because considering how cold I was it was a very real possibility that I was sick. I got out from under all my blankets and I was wearing only athletic shorts and one of Taylor's old tshirts. I made my way down the stairs but before I got to the kitchen I saw that Taylor was up too.

She had a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and reaching to only her knees. She was messing with the thermostat on the wall. She jumped when she heard me coming down the stairs.

"Oh hey, does it seem super cold in here to you?" Taylor asked. I nodded and she turned back to the thermostat. I went over to her instead of to the kitchen and she opened her arms and then folded them around me so I could be wrapped in the blanket too.

"This thing is set for 72, but it says it's 50 in here right now." She said messing with the controls some more.

"Maybe the heater is broken." I said into her chest, holding onto her warm body tightly as she had me wrapped up in her blanket.

"That's what I was thinking." She said then looked down at me.

"Come here, let's get you some warmer clothes." Taylor told me then lead me into her bedroom. She opened up the closet and got me some of her sweatpants (which were way too long on me) and an old hoodie from her high school years. Then she opened a drawer and gave me some of her fuzzy socks. I put everything on over what I had on as Taylor pulled back the blankets on the other side of the bed for me.

Even with the extra clothes on I was still shivering, it was November and it was supposed to freeze tonight. I got into Taylor's bed right as she was leaving the room. I pulled the covers up to my chin but I could still feel the cold. Taylor came back in with a huge stack of blankets. She came over to where I was laying and spread half of them out over me. Then she put the rest on her spot and climbed in next to me.

"I'll have to call somebody to fix that in the morning." She said shutting off the lamp, making the room dark. You'd think I'd be warm with all these clothes and all these blankets, but I still wasn't. I scooted towards Taylor and layed closer to her.

"Awww Care." She said when she felt me shivering. She turned so she was laying on her side and she arm was draped around me, her hand rubbing my arm in attempt to keep me warm. I was surrounded by her scent, it was in the clothes I was wearing, the blankets on top of me, and her. It comforted me in the way the smell of my dad's sweatshirt used to comfort me. Now his sweatshirt just brought pain, so I opted for Taylor's clothes instead.

I laid awake for another couple hours after Taylor fell asleep. But at one point I was so cold I had to wake her up.

"Taylor." I said, laying my head in her chest since now she was on her back.

"What's wrong?" I heard her say a few seconds later.

"I'm so cold." I said. She brought her arms over me and kissed my head. It didn't warm me up much, but it made me feel better.

"How have you been sleeping?" She whispered to me.

"Bad." I said and Taylor sighed. Suddenly I remembered how I'd told myself not to tell Taylor I wasn't sleeping.

"Actually I was asleep for a few hours, but then I woke up because I was cold." I said as a coverup.

"Mmm." She responded and I knew she was going back to bed. I tried to go back to bed too, but with it being freezing in this apartment and with my mind racing it was hard. The only reason I got the 3 hours of sleep I did that night was because Taylor was there.

When Taylor woke me up for school the next morning she was out of bed and all the blankets were on top of me. If I could sleep in Taylor's bed and get the solid 3 hours of sleep that I got then I wouldn't mind if the heater was broken all the time.