almost | taylor swift au

chapter 23

"I just broke up with Jett."

Saying the words makes it feel so much more real. She feels a lump in her throat and begins to fight back another round of tears.

"What?" Gracie asks from the other end of the line. "Taylor, oh my goodness... I'm so sorry."

Taylor suddenly feels a wave of guilt washing over her. "I... Gracie, I..." Taylor stammers. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have called you. It was stupid, I just... I wanted to talk to someone and I know I can't talk to my parents because they'll just say 'I told you so,' and you were the first name that I saw in my contacts, and I know that I don't even really know you that well and we just met a few weeks ago but I just... I saw your name on my screen and I hit the button and I shouldn't have and-"

"Hey," Gracie cuts her off, "T, do me a favor and take a deep breath, alright?"

Taylor does as Gracie tells her.

"Now, listen. You called me for a reason. And I'm here to listen if you want to talk, okay? Do you want to tell me what happened?"

"It was another stupid fight. We've been having them so much lately, and I was just so fed up with it. All of it. We were sinking too much to bother to keep trying to swim. I couldn't do it anymore."

Gracie frowns. "That's really hard," she tells her friend. "I'm sorry."

"I know you didn't like him," Taylor sighs. "But I really, really did."

"I know you did," Gracie tells her. "What I thought of him isn't of any importance right now. What's important is making sure that you're going to be okay."

"I am," she nods. "But god... I still have to go to that show tomorrow night, and to Los Angeles... I have to stand there and smile, sell tee shirts with his face on them. Like nothing has happened."

Gracie doesn't quite know what to say to Taylor, what advice to give. She knows that nothing she is going to say is going to heal the wound in the young woman's heart. That's going to have to come with time. She could try to patch it up, but it also might be the kind of wound that can only be patched up with the one thing Gracie can't provide: a hug.

She doesn't think Taylor necessarily has anyone out on the road who can give her the hug that she deserves right now. She got the impression that Jett was sort of the only one on the tour who Taylor had been able to get to know. Undoubtedly because Jett had been so possessive. He barely let Taylor out of his eyesight to come to Gracie's show. And because of that, she has nobody there to help her through it all.

But Gracie knows that she shouldn't just assume this. So, she asks, "Do you have anybody on tour with you who you can be with right now? For the next few days? Just so you're not alone?"

Taylor lets out a sigh. Tears well up in her eyes as she thinks about what Gracie has just said. Because the answer, is no. She doesn't have any friends out on the road. Jett was the only one. Everyone else is older, and she's one of the only girls on the tour.

"No, just me," she manages to say. She really doesn't know what she's going to do without Jett by her side, and is just thankful that it's only a few more days before she finally gets to go home. She gets to escape from the life that has been her entire world for her past few months, but within the last two hours, has come crumbling down around her.

The more that she thinks about it, the more inevitable the next round of tears becomes. They start to spill out of her eyes and run down her cheeks. "I'm all alone," she sobs, and on the other end of the line, Gracie feels her heart breaking. Shattering into pieces. She hates to see her friend hurting like this, especially at the hands of a man who was so shitty to her.