delicate [1] | TAYLOR SWIFT

28

It was the picture they had taken together with their matching sweaters that day in London. Of course, Taylor had cropped herself out and kept Kaia's face as her contact picture.

It was an automatic response, her lips twitching up in a smile, which unfortunately Abby seemed to have noticed.

"One sec," she mumbled, taking a couple of steps away and placing her phone up to her ear. "Hey, Kibbles!"

"Oh my god, Tibbles!"

Taylor laughed, furrowing her eyebrows at Kaia's voice. It was very loud and high-pitched. "Hey... where are you?"

"At the wrap-party!" She practically screamed and Taylor had to pull her phone away from her ear for a second.

"Geez, how much have you had to drink?" She laughed, Abby's eyes watching the back of her head curiously. She could tell even with her back turned.

"Quite a bit actually, I'm very— uh, what's the word? Ivre. Saoule. Je suis... bourrée. Pished. Poshed... pish-posh. I'm— fucked."

Taylor couldn't help but laugh as Kaia switched so easily between French and English and still managed to completely forget the word drunk.

"Honey, you are completely wasted!"

"Nu-uh, only slightly inebriated!"

"So, you can remember the word inebriated, but not the word drunk?"

"DRUNK!" Kaia exclaimed, and Taylor could easily picture the smile spread her face, dimples brightening up her face tenfold. "I'm very drunk!"

"I can tell... are you safe? Who's driving you home?" Taylor asked, crossing her arms over her chest as a sudden wave of protectiveness overcame her.

"Spence, don't worry, oh, mother!"

Taylor rolled her eyes. Kaia was quite sassy when she was drunk. "All right, that's good. I'll let you get back to the party," she chuckled, ready to end the call when Kaia complained.

"Noooo, I wanna talk to you!" She whined, her words slightly slurred and muddled together. "We were all screaming the lyrics to Roxanne, right? And then, and then— Tay, they played your song! They were playing— they put Shake It Off. And I was like, singing with Will but then I was like, I miss Taylor! And Will's a genius because he said I should call you. So, I did! You didn't answer at first and the song ended but then you did answer and now they're playing some stupid EDM song, who the fuck listens to electronic music seriously? It's the worst. Anyway, what are you doing right now?"

Jesus... Taylor was surprised she understood the whole rant.

"I'm shopping with Abby," Taylor replied, unable to hide the amused undertone in her voice.

"Oh! Oh! Oh! Tell her I said hi! She was so nice to me at your party. She's so nice. You have nice friends!"

Taylor smiled widely, turning around just as Abby tried to make it look like she hadn't been totally eavesdropping, pretending to read the label on the back of a packed set of bedsheets. "Kaia says hi."

"How sweet, how's she doing?" Abby asked and Taylor shook her head at her friend.

"Great, apparently," she laughed, returning her attention back to the girl on the other end of the line. "Hey, will you promise me to drink enough water?"

"Yes, mother, I'll stay hydrated!"

"I'm serious, Kibbles! Take care of yourself, will you?"

"Baaaaby," Kaia drawled and then giggled; Taylor had no idea why but she didn't complain. It sounded beautiful to her ears. Her heart did a backflip in her chest. "I'm fine. You don't have to worry. I'll see you in two days, right?"