Long Story Short - Taylor Swift

Chapter 19

There was simply no call or text shared between the two girls until appropriately eleven later that night, when Aspyn texted Taylor first.

Aspyn Grey: Going to sleep. Text me tomorrow, night.

Taylor Swift: Okay, goodnight.

That was all, and that felt pretty rocky to both of them. There's a particular feeling when things are uneasy and you're away from the person you care about, unsure of their emotions or what they're doing.

You want to talk about it, and ask a million reassuring questions, maybe even curl up in their arms and stay there until you're both asleep and things feel okay. Some people match it with numbness, anxiety, or anger.

Others just sit quietly and go to sleep after a while, Aspyn was one of them. So after making a cup of tea, a long time standing in the doorway of her bedroom and watching Quinn's chest rise and fall with her snores as she sipped the beverage and a million racing thoughts, Aspyn took a shower and climbed into bed.

Taylor, in her thirty-one years had reacted to various things in various ways. Had she been eighteen and just learning her footing, blurting out that she loved her significant other would have seemed like the end of the world. At twenty-five it would have just been another problem on the list but it would probably blow over or simply end the relationship, no in-between.

At thirty-one, she called her mom.

"Taylor? It's late here hon, everything okay?" Andrea asked groggily, yawning as her sentence came to a close. She was laying in her bed in Nashville, while Taylor stared at her Los Angeles ceiling two hours behind.

"I think I might have messed up something with someone I care about," Taylor said softly, her slender fingers on her free hand reaching up to her head and running her hair back onto the pillow more.

"Aspyn?" Andrea asking, assuming it was the love interest she had heard about a few times, although yet to meet or see a photo of. She and Taylor had only been together less than two months and with Andrea's illness, Taylor didn't spend a lot of time talking about things that didn't seem the most important to her in the scale of things, but Aspyn was important and she realized now that things seemed weird, she should have told her mother more because she wanted them to know each other.

"Mhmm," the singer hummed in response before clearing her throat softly, "She called me while I was at rehearsal today and I only had a couple minutes, I told her I loved her before I hung up and then I didn't call her tonight even though I was s'posed to. I don't know what to do."

"Well the first thing you need to remember is that you two aren't kids, you're grown and your relationship is a lot bigger than just you because of her daughter. So she's probably not going to be dramatic about it, because when I started dating after your father and I split up, I remember that you and Austin were always my priority and I had to keep myself in check for you two."

"I know that. I've always known Quinn is her world and I'm okay with that. I love being second in her life because it still feels like first," Taylor replied with a soft sniffle, "I left Joe because I stopped feeling, and that was scary. I just knew he wasn't it, and I was so careful with him. With Aspyn it's a lot different, it's never been easy but it's never been too hard not to stick with it. I don't feel like I have to be some version of me, I'm just me and she doesn't care. She's awesome and maybe I do love her but maybe it's too soon to say that and I should have said it differently for the first time."

"You can't take the past back, but you can change what you decide to take from it. So you can either let it break you and start over new with someone someday and maybe you'll feel like you need to be careful again or maybe you won't, but maybe recklessness is exactly what you need because you've never really loved normalcy," the older woman explained, fairly certain that Taylor was just looking for something to latch onto to boast her courage.