Secrets

Chapter Six

When Karlie looked at her phone during a break between study sessions at her college on Monday, she saw the text from Taylor with the details when and where they were going to meet that afternoon, just as the singer had promised.

Karlie sighed. So they were really going to do this. She replied with the thumbs up emoji. Here I am, casually texting Taylor Swift, she thought and snort-laughed. Her classmate who sat next to her looked at her weirdly, but didn't say anything.

She texted Cara that she wouldn't be able to hang out this afternoon as they had originally planned. Instead of a text, Cara called her back immediately. Karlie quickly got up and left the classroom to answer the call in the hallway.

"Bloody hell, Karlie" Cara said instead of a greeting.

Karlie laughed at her British friend's favorite phrase that the girl overused so much it had lost its original meaning.

"Hello to you too, Cara" she chuckled.

"What is it with you? First you go MIA after the concert, and now you don't want to hang out with your favorite friend?" Cara insinuated.

"Shut up, Cara. Listen, I have an important thing this afternoon, I'm so sorry to cancel on you. I will make it up to you."

"And what could this "important thing" be? Are you going on a date?" Cara asked.

Karlie laughed.

"No!"

"Then what? Are you ditching me to hang out with Jourdan? Derek's on vacation, so it can't be him. Come on Karlie, who else would you hang out with? You don't have any other friends."

"Rude!" Karlie exclaimed, but laughed. She knew that this was just how her friend was, she meant no harm.

"And no, I'm not meeting Jourdan, briefly saw her yesterday, and Derek is indeed on vacation. It's an important meeting, but I can't tell you more about it, I'm sorry."

Karlie hoped that she wouldn't accidentally spill any secrets. She was a terrible liar.

"Alright. What about Wednesday, then?" Cara asked defeated.

"Sounds good! Can't wait to see you again!" Karlie replied.

The girls talked for a while more until Karlie saw that her tutor waved to her to come back into the classroom so they could continue. She told Cara goodbye, hung up and went to her seat.

She did her best to focus, but she was already overcome with nervousness about what the rest of the day would bring.

***

Karlie felt a little lost as she stood before the entrance of the fancy-looking hotel near Times Square. She wasn't sure if she was at the right place, but this was the address Taylor had given her. No one was there yet. Karlie nervously checked her phone. Great, she was twenty minutes early. She began pacing up and down the sidewalk, between the many people going about their day. Most of them were tourists, and the chatter around her came in all kinds of languages. It made her wish she could speak more than English and the little bit of French she had learned in school. The streets were as busy as ever, cars and cabs causing slow traffic and a never-ending honking of car horns.

After a while, a black SUV pulled up in front of the hotel. Karlie looked at the car but couldn't see anyone inside through the toned windows. Then the car doors opened, and her jaw dropped to the floor when she saw her younger twin sisters get out on the one side, and Taylor Swift on the other. Taylor really had not been kidding. Kariann must have heard her thoughts, because she turned to where Karlie was standing on the side walk and waved to her, laughing at her older sister's facial expression.