Mad Woman✓

29. Fade into view

"Fade into view, it's been a while since I have even heard from you"

   TAYLOR

"Ladies and gentlemen, Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn!"

Joe grabs my hand and we walk toward Kyle Douglas. He left his crutches backstage, but he seems to walk normally. I just hope he's not biting through any pain.

"Welcome, welcome lovebirds!" Kyle exclaims. He shakes our hands and tells us to sit down, gesturing towards the black velvet loveseat.

I sit on the couch, making sure to keep my back straight and my chin slightly tilted up, my hands folded securely in my lap. Joe puts his hand on my lower back and sits back, crossing his good ankle over his other knee and he looks completely relaxed. As if he's done this so many times before.

"Taylor Alison Swift! It's been a very long while!" Kyle smiles at me, "How are you doing?"

"I am very well", I smile back, "I'm healthy, happy... How're you, Kyle?" "Very good, very good! And Joseph Matthew Alwyn, how are you?"

I would have laughed at him for calling us by our full names, but I am nervous to feel anything but nerves.

"I am sitting next to the greatest and most beautiful woman in the world, so I could not be doing any better", he says, sounding so charming and everything but nervous... He knows what he's doing. He's flirty and kind and just perfect.

I look up at him and he caresses his thumb over my back, noticing how tense I am.

"So, we all know why you are here", Kyle continues, "There have been a few- a lot - of rumours about the Gardner Dynasty over the past few weeks. And most of them were about you two."

"Yes, there have been quite a few rumours yes", I nod carefully.

"So tell me about it.." he says, letting me decide where to start. I like that about him. A lot. He lets his guests talk, and doesn't put answers in my mouth.

"Well, rumours are terrible and cruel", I begin, "And most of them are true." I shrug and chuckle softly, getting laughter back from the public and Kyle. Joe smiles too, his gaze turned on me.

"And even when they aren't true, the rumours", I continue, "There is usually still some.. truth to it. Which is why I wanted to come here tonight and explain everything to you. And hopefully, help those.. Those horrible rumours.. out of the world."

"So tell us about Morris." Behind us on the big screen, a picture from around my twentieth birthday appears. I am wearing a blue summer dress and Morris is holding my hand, he's got a cigarette between his lips.

I swallow the lump in my throat.

"I met Morris Byrne when I was eighteen years old. He was.. completely beautiful and so so charming and kind to me... I remember it was in October 2008 at a cafe where I was studying for finals.. He just came and sat next to me and he told me that I looked stressed and I shouldn't be.. Stress isn't healthy, or something like that. Then he ordered me a coffee and helped me study.." I almost smile at the memory.

This is stuff I haven't even told Joe and I feel his hand tightening on my back.

"He had no clue what everything I was studying was, but he quizzed me and I aced those finals... But then.. We started meeting up more often. And one night he kissed me and I was so in love with him, I loved him so much... He was my entire world."

Joe gets a little uneasy and I smile at him. I make sure my eyes tell him that he is not only my world, he is my universe.

I look back up and another picture of me and Morris is on the screen. I look so young.. This must have been taken a few days after I met Morris... When everything was still normal, for as far as my life has ever been normal...