I Hate California

four

"Daddy! More glitter! More!" Sage yells as Joe is frantically sticking glitter onto the sides of her face.

It was the first night of the concert in LA and Sage had chosen a pink dress to match her friend Lily because Lily insisted that they were going to represent Lover.

They heard the door bell ring and Sage sprinted downstairs eager for her Dad to open the door, knowing it was Lily.

"Thank you so much for taking the girls! This is Lily's bag." Anna says handing me Lily's bag since she was going to sleep over afterwards.

The girls head back up to Sage's room, probably trying to apply more glitter and Joe went to pack their concert bags, making sure he had all of the emergency items just in case.

"Girls! Come on, we're leaving in a bit." Joe yells from downstairs hearing the girls giggle and their feet running towards the stairs.

Joe didn't know what to expect today, he was scared he was going to run into Taylor's parents, scared they would notice Sage. He made an important note to keep both girls in his sight at all times.

"Come on! In the car you two go!" He says as he helps the two girls into the Range Rover and helps buckle them in their booster seats.

When they arrive at the stadium, the girls are bouncing with energy, looking left and right, so excited about the amount of friendship bracelets that are getting given to them.

"Daddy! Look at how many bracelets I have!" Sage yells as she holds up both of her arms, nearly full of bracelets.

Little did people know, they were giving bracelets to Taylor's own daughter.

Joe chuckles and fixes her hair as they walk into the stadium, trying to find their seats. Joe looks at his phone, showing a guard for some help and they get led to their front row seats. He takes a deep breath looking at how close they are to the stage, he felt like he could touch it.

"Wow Sage, we're so close!" Lily beams with joy and the two girls start jumping in their spots as they try to look over the stage, but are still too short.

"Here" Joe says as he lifts the girls onto the chairs and they get a view of the whole stage.

A security guard approaches them from inside the barricade, "Are you girls excited?" He asks and they nod with so much excitement, Joe didn't know how much longer they had until they pass out from using up all this energy.

-

"Honey, you need to calm down." Andrea says as she rubs Taylor's back.

Taylor is set to get on stage in about thirty minutes and is having a full blown panic attack.

"The last time I performed in LA was the reputation tour Mom, all I can think about is Sage right now." She says as she takes a seat.

She heard them call her name, signaling that it's almost time and Taylor takes a deep breathe before going inside the cleaning cart.

-

"A clock! A big clock!" Lily yells when the clock appears on the gigantic screens, counting down.

Sage stares with wide eyes and mouth wide open, Joe giggles and videos the girl's reactions as Taylor appears on stage.

"Oh my god!" Sage yells when they reveal Taylor and the girls start bouncing up and down and sing along to the song.

Joe looks at Sage in shock, she knew all of the words. Taylor started with in the Lover era, Joe could feel every hair on his body stand up.

The girls were constantly dancing and didn't take a seat, not even once and it had already been a couple eras in. Joe had made sure both of the girls were drinking water. He realized that they were sweating through their dresses and had them take it off, only for them to be left in matching tops and biker shorts.

Just as another era was ending, a lady with dark hair approached them, "Hi! Are you their Dad?" She asked.

Joe pointed to Sage, "I'm her Dad and that's her friend." He says and the woman nods.

"Do you mind if I take you guys up there to the end of the stage when she starts the Red era? Looks like her friend is getting tired though." She laughs seeing that Lily was giving up and sitting down in her seat while Sage was still jumping up and down to the song.

Joe didn't know what to do, he wanted Sage to have this moment, she would be over the moon, but at this point he didn't want to be anywhere where Taylor might be able to recognize him.

Joe carries a tired Lily as he follows behind Sage and the lady going into the barricade towards the end of the stage. He carefully lifts Sage up onto the platform right before the stage itself and watches as her eyes light up and watches Taylor dance at the other end, not knowing what was going to happen.

Joe stands a few feet back still carrying Lily as the woman holds onto Sage's legs making sure she wouldn't fall. He could feel his heart racing even faster as Taylor slowly made her way down the stage.

He pulled his hat down a little more and used his phone where he was recording to cover a little bit of his face.

Sage lets out a scream when Taylor leans down for a hug and holds Sage's face in her hands. Taylor looked to have frozen for a moment when she takes Sage's features in and Joe knew that she had recognized her.

Taylor starts to look behind Sage and their eyes meet.

"I love you!" Sage yells with the biggest grin on her face and you could hear the crowd "aw".

Taylor looks back at Sage and says the same thing back, pulling her into another hug, but this time hugging her even tighter, it looked like Taylor had tears in her eyes.

Realizing this was probably the longest interaction she has had, she was a little late to the dance and ended up messes up, but giggling it off as she waved one last time to Sage as she went on with the show.

The woman helped Sage down from the platform and Sage holds onto the hat that Taylor had given her and they were led back to their seats.

"Daddy, I'm tired." Sage says as she stopped dancing and was just watching Taylor now.

Lily was fully passed out in Joe's arms as he swayed back and forth. There were only a couple more eras left, but now he was at least hoping Sage would be able to walk out of this stadium, since he had his arms full with Lily.