I miss you, I'm sorry - Taylor Swift x OC

(11) 'tis the damn season

2019

['tis the damn season by Taylor Swift]

For nearly three more years, Katie allowed herself to be tortured by Taylor as a friend.

Taylor didn't go to awards shows because of her 'era' or whatever, which Katie could understand because they generally weren't so enjoyable anyways. It made it easier to avoid her whenever there was a higher chance they would be in the same room.

Katie did in fact attend one of Taylor's shows, but she wasn't invited. She picked her ticket out online like everyone else and ended up with nosebleeds because that's what was available when she finally had the opportunity to run back to her trailer to get tickets for her and Audrey. She brought Audrey to make sure she stayed in line, but she sung her heart out to every song that was about her.

And she was surprised to see just how many about her still made the set list.

She occasionally sucked it up and heard Joe's voice in the background of a FaceTime call with Taylor. She made a point of it to send him a birthday card in the mail too, since she knew it was important to the singer.

But then she got the call one day early in the year that Joe had called it off because he was having a hard time with just how big Taylor's spotlight was, and she almost smiled when she heard the words. She almost threw a fucking party to celebrate the event, but of course she was one who got the call right after.

Katie was one of Taylor's best friends, it was her job to help pick her up when someone else tore her down. It did mean that she had to bite her tongue, even if she wanted to scream, 'look! I'm right here and I love you!'

No matter how much she wanted to scream it, she didn't. It would have been wrong to celebrate someone else's heartbreak, completely and utterly wrong.

And it was totally fine until Taylor was at one of the events. Not only were they in the same room, but someone, somewhere, had thought it would be absolutely thrilling to place them in the same line for the red carpet at the Time 100 Gala that April. Taylor looked incredible in the pink dress she had on, and Katie gripped Audrey's arm a little too tight for support when she saw her.

"What?" Audrey asked. She'd been Katie's date to events for years but she'd never been attacked like that. Half of Katie's fans were convinced Audrey was her girlfriend, the other half had actually listened when Katie said Audrey was her closest friend in the world.

"Look," Katie mumbled, she guided her eyes discreetly towards her former girlfriend in an attempt to get Audrey to see who she was referring to.

"I thought you knew she'd be here, she's been to a few things this year already," Audrey knit her eyebrows once she realized what Katie was on about, "Did you not text on the way here?"

"Not about that! She was telling me that her dress... oh shit, I totally didn't even think about it. What do I do?" Katie panicked when she noticed that Taylor was walking towards her with a surprised expression.

"Stop letting her walk all over you, for starters," Audrey whispered just before Taylor reached the two of them. Audrey was so sick of Katie complaining and letting Taylor stay in her life when all it did was allow her to keep her wishing for more and being unsatisfied with current circumstances.

Taylor was surprised to see Katie at the event. She was performing and had been looking forward to it for a while, but Katie hadn't mentioned being in New York or anything related to it. Katie never really specified where she was, that was usually a mystery, but they'd avoided each other well over the years.

It didn't stop Taylor from texting Katie about the smallest little things. Pictures of her eggs in the morning, the bird on the windowsill. She tried not to mention Joe often when she realized that Kate had pretty much stopped talking about Theodora (not because she didn't miss her, but because she had been pining after Taylor so hard that it felt weird). She took it as a silent thing, until Joe packed up and she was devastated.