Caught Up In A Moment [Kaylor]

Chapter Twenty-One - Lord, Save Me

It started out so subtly.

Taylor had stopped letting Karlie touch her at all. She always pulled away, never letting Karlie do more than put a hand on her shoulder, her knee, her hand, before moving away without a word. This confused Karlie and somewhat hurt her because while Taylor never ignored Karlie, she had pretty much done her best to avoid being with Karlie.

And the worst thing was Taylor's new... habit of drinking. Again, like all things, it started out slowly. The occasional small pour of bourbon in her coffee. A beer during the day. A glass of wine during dinner. A serving of rum before bed just to fall asleep. Karlie should have paid more attention, because what started out seemingly innocent quickly became concerning. She wasn't sure when Taylor had amassed such a large collection of liquor, but it was almost impressive if not for the fact that the blonde was currently passed out in her bed. Granted, she'd just come back from the bar, but that was no excuse for the past four straight days of passing out drunk and waking up to her head in the toilet.

Karlie had watched as it happened. It was always the same thing. One shot turned to two, which turned to three, which eventually became six. Then Taylor would become frustrated at something and cry herself to sleep. It wasn't for lack of trying that Karlie couldn't stop it. She'd tried telling Taylor to stop, she'd tried hiding the alcohol. She'd tried pouring it out, but all of that only served to make Taylor upset. And somehow, she just replaced one bottle with two more, almost as if out of spite.

So she stopped trying because she was only making it worse. But Karlie wasn't sure what to do. At least this time, she hadn't drunk her way into a breakdown.

That night, two nights ago, had been the worst. Taylor drank, and then drank some more, and then started crying and shaking. And nothing Karlie said seemed to help. In fact, it almost seemed like Karlie was making it worse, that her very presence only set Taylor off more. She had fallen asleep after an entire hour of crying until her throat was raw and the tears stopped flowing. She fell asleep, her face still red from crying.

And so, tonight, well past two in the morning, Karlie sat in bed watching Taylor as the blonde slept, her eyes having long adjusted to the dark.

It was almost cute the way Taylor snored when she was sleeping drunk. She could almost pretend that Taylor had just gotten home from an innocent celebration with friends, too drunk to stay awake. Almost. Karlie frowned and shook her head. What the hell happened? Obviously, Thanksgiving weekend played a huge part in whatever had affected Taylor so much she had stopped taking care of herself, but Karlie just wasn't even sure how to bring it up. Or if she even should. She'd definitely have to wait for Taylor to be sober to do so.

In the meantime, Karlie ignored the exhaustion in her body and stood up, grabbed the half-empty bottle of rum next to Taylor's bed and brought it to the kitchen. She stood there, bottle in hand, and leaned against the counter. Karlie was lost as to what to do. She didn't want to get anyone else involved because she knew it would only upset Taylor more and possibly make things worse, and when Taylor was having a good day, she was almost pleasant to be around! She didn't want to ruin that, but Karlie didn't know how to fix this by herself.

The little things. Karlie unscrewed the bottle and poured out a small amount of the drink. Just enough so that Taylor would have less of it, but not so much that she'd suspect a thing. Karlie frowned and put the bottle back in its place. If she'd been a frat boy, this would have been the collection to be proud of. Rum, whiskey, bourbon, vodka.

She put her palms to her face and sighed. How could she be so helpless when she was right there? Why couldn't she just help? Karlie was just letting it happen. Right in front of her. Not only had Taylor been getting drunk almost every day for the past two weeks, but tonight she got home smelling like smoke, and judging by the smell of her breath, she had been smoking, despite what she'd tried to say. And while she couldn't exactly judge her for that, seeing as she herself was a smoker, she definitely didn't want Taylor to be smoking. Especially not when she was doing it in such a vulnerable state.