"I'm so sorry, 1989, I really thought—"
"You don't have to apologise, Red, it's fine! You couldn't have known, and I think that '(Taylor's Version)' you looks good." I assure my best friend.
"I disagree," Evermore blurts out. Everyone turns to look at her as she stands, bottle in hand. Folklore scoots to the edge of her seat, ready to whisk her sister away to her room at a moment's notice. Red watches, seemingly unaffected; she's probably used to Evermore's sudden bouts of anger, being friends with her and all.
But Evermore either doesn't notice our stares or doesn't care, instead making her way back to the kitchen, dropping the now-empty champagne bottle into the trashcan as she passes it.
"You don't think the (Taylor's Version) outfit for Red looks good?" Reputation asks, slightly defensive. Over the last two weeks, I've noticed that my best friend and her girlfriend seem to be growing distant from each other, so it's nice to see that my older sister at least still cares enough to defend her girlfriend from Evermore's brutal honesty and temper.
"What I think is that yet another album is stealing from my fame. I mean, the outfit is from my shoot for fuck's sake!" In unison with her stress on the second "my," Evermore thumped another bottle of Dom Perignon onto the counter as if to dramatise the situation even further. Grabbing a corkscrew, she continued. "And, in my honest opinion, Red should apologise to you, 1989. This was supposed to be your era. You should've seen all the tweets Swifties made, talking about how they were entering their 1989 era with or without Blondie just for her to go and announce that it was actually Red's turn. It's intolerable really.
"And it's just like what happened to me—I'm announced and when it's supposed to be my turn for an era, BAM. No promotion then a switch to Fearless (Taylor's Version) less than two months later. I mean—" before Evermore can continue, Red interjects in an attempt to put out what could become a forest fire of rage and bitterness.
"Evermore, I'm sorry, I am. I'm sorry that my cover came from a photoshoot done in your era and I'm sorry that the news of my release came when we were all expecting one for 1989."
"It's okay, Red," I urge again, attempting to comfort her and appease Evermore. "You had no way of knowing what Taylor had planned. She surprised all of us. And, Evermore, I don't think it's that serious."
"Really?! Not that serious? It—"
"Okay, why don't we just calm down?" Folklore offers, finally stepping in and grabbing ahold of her identical twin's wrist. She slowly starts walking in the direction of her sister's room, taking Evermore along with her. Red watches warily, concerned that her friend will lash out at her sister. But Evermore doesn't, just continues mumbling her rant all the way to her room where Folklore nudges her in, releasing the grip on her arm, and gently closed the door, re-joining the rest of us.
Taking a seat in the armchair previously occupied by her sister, Folklore sighs deeply and runs her hand through her dirty-blonde hair, mussing up her bangs and causing strands to stick up awkwardly before flopping over and resting on her scalp again.
"I'm sorry about that. She's been kind of erratic recently... Wish I could say why."
"It's alright," Red assures. "She has a reason to be upset; she feels underappreciated." I didn't miss the quick glance her eyes made to my older sister as she said the last sentence. "I'll apologise again when she calms down more."
In an attempt to dissolve the tension, Fearless (Taylor's Version) speaks. "I'm glad you're next, Red! I've been waiting for someone to join me. Maybe we can talk soon about what it's like going through the re-recording process?" Red nods eagerly, grateful for the subject change.
=+=+=+=+=+=
After the meeting I'm browsing through Twitter on my phone, reading all the tweets Swifties had made about the announcement. It appeared that something we all shared in common was how completely off-guard we'd been caught.
Just as I'm closing out the app, someone knocks on my door. I open the door to see my eldest sister behind it. "Hey, sis, how're you doing?" I shrug. Though I'd been shocked by the news at first, I no longer feel particularly one-way about it. I'm neither overjoyed nor dismayed.
"I'm fine," I respond, stepping back to let her in. She immediately makes herself comfortable on my bed, jumping onto it and landing on her back in a starfish position.
"Wanna talk about anything? Doesn't have to be about Red (TV). Maybe... a girl?" Lover's eyes cut to the string of Polaroid photos hung above my vanity; a blonde woman with green eyes and a smile resembling that of the Cheshire Cat from Alice In Wonderland posed next to me.
"No, I don't wanna talk about her," I say, shutting down any further questions along that line of conversation. That relationship was—is—a... sore spot for me. After all, we both still love each other—or at least I hope she still loves me—but it just couldn't work out between us. Those are the worst kinds of breakups.
"Alright. Well, I wanna talk about Rep then." Lover says, sensing my discomfort. I look up at her quickly. Oh? What does she want to talk about our sister for? "Her and Red. Do they seem... different?" I smirk, glad I'm not the only one who's noticed. Reputation's never been touchy to begin with, but now it seems as though she's pulling away whenever Red takes her hand or wraps her into a hug.
"If by you replace all the letters after the 'i' with 'stant' then yes, they do seem different." Lover laughs at my wordplay but swiftly grows serious again. I know why. We've all dealt with breakups—how could we not? Taylor Swift made us—but never ones within the group. I can only imagine what Reputation and Red breaking up would do. Albums picking sides, the fights that might ensue. It sounds like pure hell just imagining it.
"What do we do?" Lover asks. She's a romantic at heart so I know she wants some magical fix to make all of this go away, to make the love between them blossom again. But if I'm being honest, I don't know if it was there for Reputation to begin with.
"We don't do anything."
=+=+=+=+=+=
Author's Note: First of all, I'm soooooo sorry how late this is 😭 I've been busy watching Fear Street episode two & the new Atypical season. Anyway, I realise now that some of you are confused as to the characters/how they work, so read the description of this book as it should (hopefully) clear things up. If everything goes according to plan, chapter 3 should be up Friday (at a normal time)!
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The Last Great American Dynasty
Fanfiction"But that's not what the announcement read." What if Taylor Swift's albums were people? What if they had personalities and relationships and lives? In this book, that's exactly what happens. Told from the perspective of each album and filled with so...
