Back to me

Chapter 25

Taylor's not one to leave a fight unresolved-- she's pretty sure she's read that from somewhere.

And without Martha, there's no one to stop her from acting on her far-fetched ideas.

She's standing outside Karlie's apartment complex and tossing pebbles up at her window, but her aim's bad and the rocks mostly hit the brick walls.

Taylor lets out a cross between a grunt and a muffled scream then sets her guitar down on the grass to have another free arm for throwing.

"Come on, Swift, get your head in the game!" She whispers to herself as she lines up another shot.

The rocks make contact with the window. She anxiously waits to see Karlie will open.

But she doesn't.

It takes Taylor five more tires to hit the window again, and this time it opens.

Only it's not Karlie.

"Knock it off before I call the cops on your ass!" Yells an elderly woman.

Taylor winces and figures that must be Karlie's neighbor Eda, who she's always baking cookies for.

"Sorry," she stage-whispers.

Eda slams her window with enough force to get Karlie's attention.

She squints into the dark, "Taylor?" She sounds groggy. "What're you doing here, it's..." She turns into the apartment to look at the time, "two in the morning!"

"I'm here to say I'm sorry," Taylor grabs her guitar. "And like said before, two AM's my thing."

"Oh my god," Karlie groans and drops her head into her palms as Taylor starts to strum. She's too tired to deal with her musically gifted and apparently forgetful girlfriend right now.

Before Taylor can start singing, Eda pops up again.

"I meant it!" She reminds the woman on the ground.

"Hey, Eda," Karlie warily waves from her window.

The elder woman softens and smiles at her favorite neighbor. "Karlie, dear, is this one with you?"

Karlie looks down at Taylor before looking back at Eda and sighing, "Yes, unfortunately."

"Hey!" Taylor whines, "You don't find this at least a little bit charming? I even climbed the fence to get here."

"Does she know there's a gate?" Eda whispers to Karlie.

The brunette pinches the bridge of her nose. "I think she's been spending too much time with Cara."

"Whatever this is, you'd better take her inside before she wakes up the whole neighborhood," Eda looks at Karlie knowingly, "but don't be too hard on her now, I think she's earned a little slack."

---

"So?" Karlie crosses her arms over her grey, worn-out tshirt.

She's trying desperately to come off as menacing, but it's not in her nature and she can feel a smile threatening to curl any moment now.

Taylor shifts form foot to foot, averting her gaze. "I'm just really sorry about blowing you off, and I wanted to at least apologize in the best way I know."

"Did you think you could just waltz in here, sing a song, and you'd have me swooning?" Karlie demands, her demeanor starting to break half way through. "Well than you've got another thing--" she shuts her eyes and shakes her head with a wide smile.

"Dammit," she cruses as she tries to scowl again. "If this is your way of saying sorry-"

"-It is!" Taylor earnestly nods, she reminds Karlie of an eager puppy.

"Than it's working," she sighs.

"Wait," Taylor treads carefully. "So you're not mad at me?"

Taking a seat, Karlie gestures for Taylor to do the same. "Believe me, I want to be."

She toys with Taylor's figures and rests her head on her shoulder. "I was worried, you're almost never late."

Taylor places a kiss on Karlie's temple, feeling like even more of an ass as she imagines Karlie waiting on her own. "Man, I am so, so, so sorry, Karlie."

Karlie hums in agreement, "That song of yours better be good than."

"Oh," Taylor reaches for her guitar, "I didn't actually have time to write a song, so I just mashed a bunch of mine together... I hope you don't mind."

The way Karlie stares at her makes Taylor nervous. She plays stadiums full of thousands of people on the regular, but just Karlie alone makes her weak in the knees.

Then Taylor sings about sitting by the water, a sparkling night, staying up till two, and being enchanted.

And Karlie gets this... Feeling in her chest, like she's putting on her favorite sweatshirt after it's been taken out of the dryer, but ten times better than that.

When Taylor finishes the song Karlie pushes her back into the sofa with a kiss and uses her upper-arm strength to hover over her.

And as luck would have it, that's when Cara stumbles in.

"Well," she chuckles as Karlie desperately tries to untangle herself from Taylor's limbs. "This is something else, ain't it?"