Daylight - Taylor Swift

Chapter 29

May 16th, 2017 / May 17th, 2017

After 'celebrating' the one year anniversary of their meeting about two weeks prior, Jo packed her bags and set out on another round of her publicity tour, which for the first time, included live performances in front of real people since she'd left The Bowery.

Everything went tremendously well, and while Taylor was spending Mother's Day in Nashville with her mom, Josephine Collins was performing in Texas for a small crowd after an interview.

She picked up her guitar and sat on the little stool, just like she'd done the time before, and she smiled as she looked down at it, thankful for the opportunity to be there and living her dreams.

Off stage is when the sirens sounded, multiple missed calls from both Tree and Taylor.

Taylor had messaged her a couple times saying something that neither of them had suspected. There was a leak somewhere in their circle, someone had told someone who told the press. The rumours began, people had started talking about them as a couple.

The plans they had made, work they'd put in to build a strong foundation to the narrative, it was all crumbling as her own publicist was too busy on the phone backstage to meet her to tell her how she did.

First things first, she had to get out of that outfit because it was restricting her breathing, and second, she definitely needed to call Taylor.

In her hotel room, finally away from it all and able to give Taylor a call after a dozen or so reassuring texts, the brunette pressed dial and was immediately answered, "Jo. Jesus, Insider published a whole thing! Someone told them about us, about sneaking around in Nevada and Pennsylvania and everything. Tree can't get them to take it down."

"Does she know who?" Jo pinched the bridge of her nose sharply, squinting as she listened to the sigh come from Taylor's mouth.

"Someone named Max? I don't know, I think someone we told ended up telling someone else. Ugh, it's a big mess. We weren't ready, I'm like out and I wasn't ready and—"

"Max? I only know one Max, Taylor. Are you fucking kidding me? I'm gonna kill her, I'm gonna drive to Nevada and bury her in the ground," Jo exclaimed as she interrupted Taylor, tossing things into her suitcase quickly.

"Wait— Charlie! You don't think your sister told her boyfriend do you? I thought she understood... you promised she wouldn't tell!" Taylor began to raise her voice, her knuckles turning white as she squeezed her phone.

"I'm gonna call her right now, and if she told, we'll both kill her."

"We can't actually kill her...?" Taylor whispered, no longer able to tell if Josephine was kidding by how angry her voice sounded. She had never sounded that angry before, usually always levelheaded.

"I'm not actually going to kill her," Jo immediately lowered her voice when she realized Taylor was concerned, "I'm not, I'm just going to... ground her and take away her phone and that's the equivalent of killing a seventeen year old girl."

"Keep me updated, Tree's CC'ing you in an email update from this side of things."

"I will, fuck, if it was my sister... I'm so sorry, Taylor," Jo shut her eyes as she waited for a response.

"I love you, be safe," was all that came.

Jo felt the tiniest bit of anxiety crawl onto the back of her neck as she simply replied, "I love you."

The call ended and Jo was out to the car before Charlie answered her phone. She was on her lunch break at school, and so Jo knew that eventually she would pick up, but more likely, news about Taylor dating her sister would travel through a high school cafeteria faster.