Love Story (Taylor Swift x fem!OC)

Chapter 28

After enjoying a nice and relaxing dinner at KUMI, Gabi and Zach finally paid the bill and left the restaurant, practically closing the place out after spending 2 full hours eating and talking and being loud. Very loud.

"Well, let's not talk about how much that dinner drained my bank account," Gabi joked. Zach just laughed uncomfortably.

"I'm not even going to think about it. The prices on that menu were... something else."

"Hey, how do we get back to the hotel?" Gabi suddenly asked Zach. He shrugged.

"I dunno, look at Google Maps or something?" Gabi huffed before rummaging around her bag. She suddenly looked up with worry. "What?" Zach asked.

"My phone! I-I can't find it! I swear to god it was here earlier. Where did it go? Did I leave it in the stadium?"

"Woah, calm down," Zach said. "Did you check your pockets?" Gabi shook her head, immediately checking her coat pockets and pant pockets.

"It's not there!" she said, thoroughly freaked out.

"Okay. Okay. Maybe under the table?"

After spending a solid ten minutes looking around the table, under chairs, around the restaurant, and repeating the cycle at least three more times, Gabi finally just groaned.

"Ugh! I can't believe I lost it!"

"I'm sorry..." Zach said. After all, he knew he personally wouldn't survive without his pocket-sized supercomputer.

"Should we go back to the stadium?" Gabi asked. "Or do you think it's locked now?" Zach checked his phone for the time.

"Well, it's been two hours, so the Midnight Lounge thing is probably ending in an hour or so. It'll still be unlocked, so we should have some time to run in and look for it. We can "Find-my-i-Phone" it, too." Gabi nodded.

"Okay... Let's do that." The two got up and out of the restaurant, much to the relief of the waiters.

Fifteen minutes later, Gabi sprinted into the stadium, pausing when she realized all the doors were locked.

"We're locked out!" she exclaimed, frustrated and terrified about what could have happened to her phone.

"Relax! It's not possible! Midnight Lounge is still going on, so there must be an entrance somewhere!" Zach said.

The friends spent what felt like forever checking all the different doors they saw, wasting a ridiculous amount of time.

"Ugh! We're never gonna get inside!" Gabi said.

"Hang on!" Zach said. "Look!" Gabi looked around.

"What?"

"There's a bunch of people in Taylor's merch walking out! They're coming from that direction!" he said, pointing to a couple people walking out. He motioned for Gabi to follow him, and they headed toward where the people seemed to be coming from. Suddenly, the two gasped in shock.

They had come across a closed door. And more importantly, the room the door led to had the lights on. "Is that what I think it is?" Gabi asked, hesitantly. Zach shook his head in excitement.

"I think so!" Gabi hesitantly opened the door.

"H-hello?" she started before suddenly switching to talking to herself in an extremely awkward manner, looking at the floor. "Oh, whoops! Sorry, we probably intruded on something. Zach, Taylor herself is in the room with Andrea WHAT DO I DO" she whisper-shouted.

"Hi!" Taylor said, smiling. Gabi looked up, waving shyly. Taylor seemed surprised, like she'd just remembered something. Maybe she'd- no. It wasn't possible. It happened almost 15 years ago. It wasn't possible.

Gabi cleared her throat. "Er- hi..." Zach suddenly started talking.

"Okay. You're being awkward as hell," he said quietly to Gabi. "I'll handle it from here." To Taylor and her mom, he said, "Hi! I'm Zach, and this is Gabi!"

"I'm Taylor!" the singer said.

Her mom added, "I'm her mom, Andrea!"

"Nice to meet you both!" Zach said. The two women repeated it back. "Um, so Gabs lost her phone, so she wanted to check if it somehow got left in the stadium. We tried a bunch of doors, but none of them would open, so we saw people coming out from this direction and walked over. Then... we found you."

Taylor nodded. "What does your phone look like?" she asked Gabi.

"Er, I- uh, it's an iPhone SE, and it's in a clear musical playbill case. Sorta a collage of different shows..."

"Oh! Actually, someone did drop this off earlier, and I just left it in the dressing room to hopefully return it at some point. Hang on! Lemme go get it!" Taylor exclaimed, rushing to her dressing room.

Andrea, Zach, and Gabi just stood there awkwardly until Andrea suddenly broke the silence.

"So how did you both like the show?" she asked. The two 30-year-olds immediately began gushing about how much they enjoyed the show and how amazing it was. Andrea let them go on for a while before suddenly saying, "Gabi, right?" Gabi suddenly stopped talking, looking like a deer in the headlights. She nodded hesitantly. "Don't worry, it's nothing bad," Andrea said, seeing the woman tense up. Gabi immediately relaxed. "Just... I remember you. You've really grown up, but... well, your eyes are very easy to remember. I know Taylor hasn't forgotten you either." Zach raised his eyebrows. "Is- is this your boyfriend?" Andrea asked.

Gabi immediately denied it, saying, "No! No! God, no! We're more like siblings than... that." She made a face.

"Damn, Lewis, am I that repulsive?" Zach joked.

"Yes. Yes, you are."

Zach clutched his chest. "I'm hurt!"

"I'm sure you are." Turning back to Andrea, Gabi said, "But no. We're strictly best friends. Er, why?"

"Oh, nothing," Andrea said. "Just wondering." Gabi nodded. The trio fell back into silence, and Gabi started to wonder how long it could take Taylor to get to her dressing room and back again.

But just as she was thinking this, Taylor burst into the room, saying, "Hi, guys! Sorry it took so long! It took me a while to find the phone in the mess on my dressing room table... But, uh, is this your phone?" She held out the device to Gabi. Gabi gasped in shock.

"Oh, my god! Yeah! That's it! Wow! Would ya look at that? Who'd have thought?" She said, relieved. She immediately grabbed her phone, saying, "Thank you so much! I thought I'd have to get a new one for sure!"

"Oh, it's no problem!" Taylor assured her. "Well, have a nice night! And hope you enjoyed the show!"

"Oh, we loved it!" Gabi reassured her. "Thanks again! And have a nice night to you, too!"

Zach waved, saying, "Bye, Taylor and Andrea!" With that, the two walked out.