CLEAN || Taylor Swift Adoption

SIXTEEN

"Why'd you have to lead me on?"

~EVERLEIGH~

August 5, 2019

Taylor had left me alone in the room she said would be mine to unpack, with the promise to take me shopping for new things sometime in the near future. I was more than appreciative of all that she was willing to do for me, but at the same time, it terrified me that this was my first day here and she was already making so many promises that I figured she wouldn't be able to keep. Hadn't she ever heard of how easy it was to let a foster kid down.

I had to assume she wasn't doing it on purpose, though. If she hadn't fostered kids in a couple of years, then she probably would've had them sometime around when Reputation was released. Her public image was drastically different then to what it was now, and it would've been so much easier for her to hide under the radar and still be able to take her then-foster kids out shopping and things. Now that people didn't hate her, though, it was so much easier for her to be papped at an inconvenient time, or for fans to take notice of where she was and swarm the location. I didn't even have her lifestyle, and yet, I seemed to be the one with more realistic expectations.

"Everleigh?" Taylor asked, gently knocking on the door. "When you're done unpacking, please come downstairs. I'd like to talk to you about a few things."

Well, shit. I wasn't dumb, and I could tell that the pitiful glances she had been giving me while we were in the car had a meaning. I knew she would be a little taken aback from my behavior, especially since I had been acting completely different at the Session. But back then, I'd had no idea that Taylor's plan was to foster me, and that it had already been established that I would be moving in with her when the entire Secret Session process had started.

Part of me wanted nothing more than to ask her, why? Why did she lead me on in the way that she did, and why did she have to get others to do the same? How many people at Taylor Nation knew that this was the plan? How long had Ashley known that I was going to be invited to the Session before I got the DM or the call? How had they even managed to plan this behind my back, and how could I have been so naïve to fall for every single one of their traps?

I wished I could've had someone to talk to about it, wished that I had someone on my side who I could tell the whole story to, and who could sympathize with me. But the only people coming to mind were my friends—who had all also been at the Secret Session, mind you, and they probably wouldn't get where I was coming from to really understand why I was as upset as I was about the whole thing. Like, come on. If any of them thought about the situation, they would just think I was the luckiest girl on Earth for being fostered by Taylor Swift.

And yet, Taylor Swift had gone behind my back in order to make sure I didn't find out that she would be fostering me until it was absolutely too late for me to back out. And my social worker had gone along with the whole thing, never once trying to mention or imply something to me. And who knew? Maybe Ashley had been the one to try to plan all of the sneaking around behind my back. At this point, I wouldn't have put it past her to do such a thing.

I figured that I'd spent too much time upstairs, and I might as well get the whole talking to Taylor thing done and over with as soon as I could. Reluctantly, I pushed myself off of the bed that I had been sitting on in the room and walked out into the hallway.

A small 'meow' followed behind me, and I turned around to see Benjamin looking up at me, his blue eyes wide with interest. I crouched down to pet him, and he almost immediately started to purr. I smiled for the first time since I had set foot in the house, stroking his white fur. Eventually, I stood back up and walked towards the large, majestic staircase and made my way downstairs.