golden [2] | TAYLOR SWIFT

21

"No," Taylor sighed, sniffling lightly. "But I'm too tired for anything else."

"Me too," Kaia admitted.

Taylor let out a breath and opened her arms wide, giving Kaia a smile that never quite reached her eyes. "C'mere," she murmured.

Kaia swallowed back the lump in her throat that had been stuck there for hours and kicked off her shoes before rushing over to Taylor. She collapsed by her side, throwing her arms around her waist and hugging her close. Taylor embraced her just as tightly, leaving a small peck on her temple.

"You're going to catch my cold," she murmured.

"I don't care," Kaia responded, clinging to the fabric of Taylor's t-shirt. "I missed you."

"I missed you too."

As they finally pulled away from one another, Kaia could still feel the tension between them. She knew they needed to talk things out but they were both way too tired to do so. Just for the night, Kaia wanted to forget about everything and just be there with Taylor. She hadn't felt the warmth she radiated in one too many weeks. She needed this.

"Do you mind if I just change first and then we can...?" she trailed off, shrugging her shoulders because she had no idea what else to say.

She hated this.

Taylor just nodded quietly and moved to sit under the bedsheets. Kaia noticed she was already in a pair of plaid shorts and a black t-shirt that belonged to her, an image of Sponge-Bob printed on the front with a few fading bits.

"When did you steal that shirt?" She asked with a little smile as she crouched down to unzip her bag. She turned to glance back for a second as Taylor pulled the front of the shirt to take a look at the picture.

"Half the clothes I brought with me are yours," she admitted softly. "The other half is divided like, ten percent mine, ninety percent tour-outfits."

Kaia laughed softly, opening her bag the whole way and rummaging through it to pull out a clean pair of pyjamas. "That adds up to a hundred and fifty percent."

"What— no, it doesn't. It's fifty percent your clothes, ten percent mine, nine—" Taylor paused, her face bunching up in that cute way it always did when she was deep in thought. Kaia grinned widely when Taylor shook her head. "No, wait. That's not even what I said! I was dividing my half of the clothes. So, that half adds up to a hundred— that's a lot of math."

Kaia's laughter grew and she nodded in agreement. "Yeah, my head can't handle numbers tonight. Or ever."

"Mhm, mine either," she huffed, turning to lay on her side. She slipped her hands under her pillow, squishing her face into it as she watched Kaia set the clean clothes on the back of the chair before turning back around to grab her toiletry bag.

When Kaia glanced back at her, she couldn't quite read her expression. Well, besides the fact that she was wiggling her nose in an attempt at holding back a sneeze. It didn't work, unfortunately.

"Bless you," she said softly as Taylor reached for the tissue box.

"Thanks," she mumbled halfway through blowing her nose.

Kaia snuck into the bathroom quickly and freshened up before walking over to the bed. She slowly made her way over to the other side and climbed up, staying over the covers. She noticed they could now hear a Brittney song playing loudly through the walls and she let out a chuckle.

"They really did raise the volume," she said under her breath.

Taylor slowly turned around to face Kaia and smiled lightly. "We've traumatised them one too many times."