CAROLINE'S POV
It was now late September in Nashville, and I was putting on a jacket for the first time since April.
"Taylor," I called out into the apartment while grabbing my keys. "I'm going to Asher's."
"Okay, bye." I heard her say before I walked out the door.
Asher and I had been talking for about a month before he officially asked me out this week. I had also started going to his church youth group with him on Wednesday nights, it was nice to have a sort of 'Sunday school' to go to again after so long.
I drove out of the heart of the city and into the suburbs, then even further into the country. It took a half hour to get all the way out to Asher's house. And when I did drive up his long gravel driveway I found him standing at the end waiting for me.
He was wearing a shirt and tie, holding a bouquet of yellow tulips in his right hand, and holding up a sign that read 'Homecoming?' in his left.
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"I like that one, Care." Taylor told me as I came out of the store's dressing room in a short gold homecoming dress.
"I do too, but its kind of big." I said, examining myself in the mirror.
"Want me to get a smaller size?" Taylor asked and I nodded.
While she was gone I spun around in the mirror, admiring how the dress shimmered. I'd never gone to a high school dance before. Freshman year I didn't have any friends to go to homecoming with, sophomore year I was in another country with Taylor during homecoming, and prom was only for upperclassmen.
Taylor soon came back with the dress and I slipped back into the dressing room to try it on. When I came back out to show her her eyes lit up and she smiled at me.
"We should definitely get this one, you look so pretty in it." She said.
I went back into the dressing room one last time to take off the dress and there was a rare moment where I was fully content with everything in my life. I was buying a dress to go to homecoming in with my boyfriend. Taylor Swift, who is also my mom, just told me I looked really pretty, and for a brief moment, not even thinking about my parents hurt.
Taylor and I took the dress up to the register and I watched as Taylor fished her credit card out of her purse. I didn't usually get things unless it was a gift, but that was mainly because I hated asking Taylor for things. The whole money thing made me a little uneasy, I grew up learning that money doesn't grow on trees. Moving across the country every few years definitely wasn't cheap, and the hospital bills that my dad was paying off weren't either. Now I live with a multi-millionaire, who is surely paying the remainder of my mom's hospital bills still today, since they got passed onto me when my dad died. So I didn't really like to discuss the money thing.
I let that thought slip my mind when I walked out of the store with Taylor, holding my dress.
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"Taylor will you curl it?" I asked, passing the curling iron onto Taylor.
It was homecoming night, Kelsey, Grace, and I were all at my house getting ready. The three of us and our dates were all going in a group, and we were taking pictures later at Grace's date's house. Kelsey was trying to do Grace's hair and Taylor took the curling iron out of my hands, starting on mine.
I looked at myself in the mirror as Taylor repeatedly rolled up my hair in the barrel and let it fall, making her way around my head. In the middle of it I got a Snapchat from Asher, who was also getting ready. He was in a black shirt and a gold tie that he had matched with mine earlier this week. Asher and I were in gold, Kelsey and her date were in black, and Grace and her date were in silver.
Our hair and makeup was what took us the most time, but by the time we were done it was already time to head over to take pictures.
We each drove our separate cars and Taylor followed me to get there.
Once we were there everyone and their families were there to take photos and see what everyone was wearing. There were a lot of little sisters that kept coming up to Taylor and talking to her. There were group photos, couple photos, and even some of just Taylor and I taken before all the families were getting ready to leave.
"Are you coming back here for a while when it gets over?" Taylor asked me before she left.
"Yeah." I said
"Alright, just call me or text me when your coming home so I know you're safe." She said
"Love you Care, Have fun." Taylor said before she kissed my cheek.
"Bye Taylor." I said and then turn back around to Asher. He was looking to his right and laughing, I looked to that direction too and I saw all the little girls gathered around gushing over the fact that Taylor just kissed my cheek and how I was "like the luckiest person ever". I laughed too as I saw them all simultaneously run out the door to catch up with Taylor for one last goodbye.
We ate supper and headed to the dance afterwards. The dance was fun, I was mostly with my friends but during the slow songs I danced with Asher and it was really sweet.
All in all I had an amazing time, but it was more the events after the dance that stand out most in my mind. We were all back at Grace's dates house talking and eating and taking off our make up. But the after party didn't last long, everyone was tired and once the first person said they thought they were going to go home, everyone took that as their chance to leave.
Everyone was getting in their cars and Asher and I were headed toward mine, talking.
"Now wasn't that fun, I'm telling you you were missing out never going to any dances." He told me laughing as he walked me to my car.
"Well I'll talk to you tomorrow." He said before leaning my way and slowly but smoothly stealing a first kiss. It was a good type of unexpected and I could feel myself smiling as we both pulled away. We shared our goodbyes and both got into our separate cars, driving separate ways.
I was thinking about it when I remembered that I told Taylor I'd tell her when I was coming home. I grabbed my phone and dialed her number, waiting for her to pick up. By this time I was getting closer and closer to downtown, where the traffic was surprisingly still pretty busy for 12:30 am.
"Hello." I heard Taylor say at the other end.
"Hey Taylor, I'm on my way home right now." I said.
"Okay, was it fun?" She asked. A red light turned green and I started across the intersection in the direction of our apartment.
"Yeah it was really-" I didn't get to finish my sentence because my car was being slammed into at 40 miles per hour by another car that was running a red.
The next thing I remember was waking up in an ambulance.
