Shoot for the Stars

Brazil

The moment Taylor steps off the stage, she realises just how bad she's feeling. She can't help but kneel down on the floor for a moment, trying to catch her breath and stop herself from passing out. Her vision blurs in and out, but as she sucks in more gulps of air it seems like she'll stay awake. Tree comes up next to her, squatting down beside her. 

"That was so fucked up." She says in between breaths. She feels the older woman's hand on her back. 

"Are you okay?" Tree asks her, handing her a bottle of water. 

"I will be, but what about them? Holy shit that was so bad Tree." A feeling of dread has sunk into her, it was too hot, way too hot. She sips the water slowly, trying to hydrate herself properly. If she's feeling this bad, she can't imagine how everyone in the pit is feeling - they were so crammed together and no one was giving them water, even when Taylor herself started begging them to give out water. 

"Taylor we need to leave." Tree says gently. "We can go discuss this back at the hotel, c'mon." Taylor looks up, noticing the concerned glances from her team. She can feel how sweaty she is, she probably looks insanely disheveled, but all she can think about is how this stadium has fucked up so badly tonight. 

"We need to fix this." Taylor says to Tree, looking directly at her. 

"We will." Tree assures her. Taylor can see the serious glint in her eyes and she's so thankful to have such wonderful people working for her that care about the same things she does. 

"Okay." She accepts Tree's hand as she helps her up. Someone passes her a towel and she pats her face down, leaving it around her neck to try soak up some of the sweat. They walk out past screaming fans, and she still stops to wave. She's so sorry about what happened tonight, her heart is bleeding as they walk out of there. Once situated in the car, Taylor keeps drinking water, feeling relief as the air conditioning works its way through the vehicle. She hopes everyone's getting home safe. She can't believe it's still this hot at this time of the night. She can't believe that she'd had to throw water at people so they wouldn't pass out because the stupid stadium fucked up that bad. Tree begins talking about five minutes into the drive. 

"So apparently water was crazy expensive for tiny little bottles, only one booth was accepting card and people couldn't find it, and the stadium closed the vents so fans outside couldn't look in." Tree explains, scrolling through her phone as more information comes through. 

"Are you fucking kidding me?" She's furious, she can't fucking believe that stadium made a decision that endangered thousands of people purely so the innocent people outside couldn't even see in. "What's even the problem with people watching from outside? Why the fuck did they think allowing 70 000 to sit in a sauna was worth that?"

"I have no idea Taylor, we're going to get into contact with the stadium manager and whoever made this decision. This isn't going to go unpunished, I promise."

"They deserve to be sued." Taylor says bitterly. 

"If it comes to that, I'll back you 100% on that decision." Tree continues scrolling through her phone, clearly trying to update herself on everything. 

They sit in silence for a few more minutes before Tree gently touches Taylor's arm. 

"Taylor?" She asks softly, looking more concerned than she had a moment ago.

"What happened?" 

"A girl passed away tonight. In the stadium." Tree's words send Taylor's ears ringing, her heart completely shattering. 

"Jesus Christ." Taylor whispers, the wind having been knocked out of her. She feels her eyes filling with tears. Her show has killed someone. A girl, who probably looked up to Taylor so much, died because of it.