the unsent project. | Taylor Swift, One-Shots

"sorry i left"

Unsent Message #5:

To Taylor:
it got too much for
me to handle.
sorry i left

• • • • •

Riley James loved acting more than anything else. Her devotion to the craft superseded the allure of the spotlight. She didn't care much about being famous; she just wanted to make art. Her private life was incredibly important to her, and she'd been lucky to work on critically acclaimed films without having to risk the loss of the anonymity she safeguarded like a rare treasure. It was her dream come true.

Then, she met Taylor Swift. And things changed, fast.

Riley and Taylor fell in love, like lightning. Taylor, battling the worst career backlash, sought solace in Riley's serene existence.
The blonde found herself forced to go into hiding, which ended up working on their favor, in a way, since it gave them space to get to know each other while keeping it private for the sake of both Taylor's trashed reputation and Riley's need for privacy. Taylor thought this was what she wanted forever to look like. And for nearly seven years, she was pretty sure about it.

At the start, Taylor tried, multiple times, to end the relationship. She was worried her reputation would bring the actress down, and the weight of her name would only put the brightest spotlight on her. But Riley kept reassuring her she knew what she was getting herself into when they started dating. Taylor trusted her because why would Riley lie? Plus, the blonde knew she would never be as famous as she once was, knowing that the hit her character had gotten in front of the general public would never allow her to reach the peak she once lived in. But, oh boy, was she wrong.

As the 2020 pandemic unfolded, Taylor's decision to release two albums, collaborating with her girlfriend for the first time, propelled her back to unprecedented levels of success. The unexpected surge in popularity exposed fault lines in their relationship. Taylor sensed Riley withdrawing, but she dismissed it, convincing herself it was a figment of her imagination. They had weathered five years together, after all, and were each other's supposed "end game."

After the pandemic ended, things only continued to get more complicated as Taylor got even more famous. The singer was set to start the biggest tour of her career, and maybe even of all time, on March of 2023. Her latest album was reaching sale numbers no one could even afford to dream of in the streaming era. Everyone expected her to be the happiest she had ever been. But she could only feel herself trapped in misery. Her relationship with Riley was falling apart. The person Taylor thought she would spend the rest of her life with was pulling away from her, killing the singer slowly and without even noticing it.

Just weeks before the tour's commencement, Riley did the one thing she promised she wouldn't do—she left, citing the overwhelming spotlight as the reason.

• • • • •

Taylor felt stupid. She felt so fucking stupid.

Days blurred together into a muddled haze, but that night stood vivid and raw, etched in her mind like an unyielding tattoo. The weight of her own blindness suffocated her, the realization piercing through her heart like jagged shards of glass.

She sat alone in the dimly lit room, one they once called theirs. Her usually vibrant spirit shrouded in a heavy blanket of regret and self-recrimination. How could she have been so naïve? The signs were there, subtly woven into the fabric of their shared existence, yet she chose to ignore them, choosing instead to believe in the fragile illusion of their happiness.