the lakes [Kaylor]

1

"I wish I could freeze this moment, and live in it forever, I feel..." Karlie paused as she searched for the right words, "content."

Taylor just looked over to her and gave a small smile as she waited for her girlfriend to finish.

"I'm just happy, I don't feel like I need anything else in the world, and for once I'm not worrying about the future and where we'll go after school, or about my family. Out here, it's just you and me with no one to bother or judge us."

Taylor grinned and leaned over and slowly attached her lips to Karlie's.

"I'm really happy too," she said before turning her head to look out at the sun mixing its orange hues into the deep blue of the water against the black silhouette of the forest on the other side. "I'm really glad we decided to come up to the lakes. It's beautiful."

"Not as beautiful as you, my darling." Karlie giggled, teasing the older girl.

"Oh shut up, you goofball."

Taylor leaned into Karlie's larger frame and rested her head on her shoulder as the couple sat the edge of the dock watching the sunset over the lake. Both of them had decided it was a necessary getaway before school started back up for their junior year. Karlie had recently been on edge since coming out to her family a couple of months prior, which didn't exactly go as planned. Karlie decided that she needed a breather from the outside world and convinced Taylor to come away with her for the week.

"Can you play me something?" Karlie asked as she nodded to the guitar Taylor insisted on bringing "just in case."

"Hmmm, so you did want me to bring it along." Taylor winked as she leaned back to grab the guitar and move it into her lap. "I'll always play for you."

Her fingers began to move onto the neck of the guitar as she strummed the strings. Karlie turned her attention from the wilderness surrounding them to her girlfriend, who looked back at her and began to sing.

"You can get lost in the music for hours, honey. You can get lost in a room. We can play music for hours and hours, but the sun'll still be coming up soon.

If things don't slow down soon, we might not last. So, just for a moment, let's be still."

----------------------------------------------

Karlie squinted as she tried to make out the words on the trail map she held in her hands.

"I think we need to go left here?" she said to her girlfriend, unsure of herself causing the statement to sound more like a question.

The couple stood in the middle of a fork of a hiking trail. The two decided to spend their last full day at the lakes by going hiking on the mountains and ended up getting lost on the long winding trails.

Taylor's piercing blue eyes glared back at the taller girl, then she swiftly turned and started walking to the left path as she yelled out, "I told you we should've turned back once there were no more signs on the trails."

Karlie let out a sigh and ran up next to the 21-year-old, "Tay, come on, we'll be fine. It's just gonna take a bit of extra work to figure our way back."

"We're going the completely wrong way, Karlie, our cabin is lower on the mountain, and we've been walking uphill for the past forty minutes, you have no clue as to where we are," Taylor snapped.

Karlie stopped in her tracks, as she processed the blonde's words. She just stared at her girlfriend walking up the trail in front of her. "Well I guess you can just take us straight back then since you know exactly where we are!" she shouted up, "Lead the way miss know it all!"