golden [2] | TAYLOR SWIFT

05

She shook her head, slowly pushing the covers off her body and getting out of bed. "But you did say it, which means you were thinking about it."

"I— where are you going?" Her train of thought immediately changed as Taylor started to head outside. "Aren't we going to talk about this?"

Taylor turned back around and with a weak and tired smile, she shrugged. "We'll talk about it in the morning."

Kaia opened her mouth to respond but the blonde had already opened the bedroom door and stepped out into the hall. She was left stunned, enough to remain absolutely still. She knew she had to follow Taylor, but her legs would not move. She heard her footsteps reach the bathroom first. And a few minutes later, she went downstairs.

It was quiet for over an hour. Kaia could not get any sleep, mulling over the incident. But then, she heard the soft notes coming from the piano, and she knew she had really fucked up.

She pushed the blankets off and started walking toward the door when she heard a rather dramatic, ear-piercing screech.

"NO!" Mica cried out, crashing down the stairs. "NO. WHAT THE FUCK, TAYLOR? I'M TRYING TO SLEEP!"

Kaia froze in place, listening to Taylor reply to Mica, though she couldn't make out her words.

"GO TO SLEEP!" Mica exclaimed before running back upstairs. He met Kaia's gaze, stopped for a moment, groaned loudly and stormed off toward Layla's old room, slamming the door shut behind him.

Kaia couldn't help but laugh. Mica really should have chosen theatre as his major.

She stepped outside, standing at the top of the stairs, and hesitated between going down or turning back around. She had to talk to Taylor. They needed to communicate if they wanted to make it work. But Kaia was scared that Taylor wouldn't want to hear her apology. She really did feel guilty about it, but Taylor was right, after all.

Even though she didn't mean the words she had blurted out, she had still blurted them out. She couldn't exactly understand her feelings, but she could feel herself slipping into old and familiar habits. Bad habits. And now, she was accidentally taking it out on Taylor.

She hadn't asked Taylor to come to London. In fact, she remembered specifically telling her she didn't need to make the trip because it wasn't exactly safe for them to be seen together. But Taylor did make the trip, and Kaia did want her there. But every single time she went out, she was hit with the crippling fear that someone was going to find out they were together and the media was going to say something that was going to push Taylor out of her reach or cause Taylor to push her away.

It had almost happened before when no one had even known they were together. Kaia could only imagine the things people would say now that they had an idea of what was going on in their personal lives. They would surely ruin the one good thing in her life.

She almost took the first step down when she heard the television turn on. She could have still joined Taylor in the living room and she would have probably let her sit there. But Kaia turned around and went back to her room.

It might have been a mistake, but she could not get herself to go talk to Taylor. She kept dozing off and waking back up at the slightest sounds, having kept the door open... just in case.

By the time the sun had risen, she finally gave up and got out of bed. She put on her running clothes, her head already pounding from all the beers she had the previous night and the lack of sleep, and it didn't help that she had hurt Taylor with her words.

And when she reached the last step on the staircase, she hesitated near the living room. Taylor was laying on the couch with a blanket covering her legs and she was hugging herself in her sleep, clearly cold. The TV was still on, some morning cartoons playing quietly in the background. Kaia reached for the remote and switched the television off before pulling the blanket up to Taylor's chin, tucking it around her.