Shoot for the Stars

Kansas City

Taylor woke up in a jet lagged haze at four am. She'd landed in Melbourne at midnight and had made the mistake of sleeping on the plane. She feels wide awake so she reaches for her phone, knowing she has a couple of days to recover and nap before her shows begin. She has a message from Travis telling her he was off to the parade and that he'd talk to her when she woke up. She smiles, clicking on his contact and calling him. It goes straight through to voicemail so she assumes he's still out having his celebrations and that he'll call her later. Instead she opts to open Twitter and see what her fans are up to, knowing the hype for these shows is huge. The first thing that floods her feed is that a shooting has happened at the chiefs parade. Taylor bolts upright, panic searing through her. She dials Travis again, and again, and again, but there's no answer. Her chest tightens as tears begin forming in her eyes. 

"FUCK!" She yells, throwing the sheets aside, yanking open her hotel room door, ignoring her security guard's perplexed look, barely even noticing him following her down the corridor. She makes it to Tree's room and bangs on the door, completely forgetting the time. Tree opens the door, bleary eyed. 

"Taylor?" She asks, a concerned voice as she peers out the door to see if anyone else is around. 

"There was a shooting at the Chiefs victory parade and I can't get ahold of Travis." Taylor says quickly, her tears threatening to fall. Tree puts an arm around her, pulling her into the room. 

"When did you last hear from him?" 

"He sent me a message two hours ago, but the shooting just happened so I have no idea where he is I just woke up." Her breathing is laboured, she's in full panic mode. 

"Taylor, the odds are that he's okay and just doesn't have his phone on him. You know how these events usually go. It would have hit the news if he was injured." As Tree says this, she's pulling out her laptop. "Do you have anyone else's number? Anyone in his team? His manager?" Taylor shakes her head, tears spilling out of her eyes. She feels like such an idiot, wishing she'd just asked for all their numbers, and she will the moment she knows Travis is safe. 

"What if he's seriously hurt somewhere?" She cries, putting her head in her hands. She feels Tree rub her back gently. 

"Taylor, we'll find him. I'm sure he's okay." Taylor hears what she's saying, she knows it's probably the truth but she also knows she won't calm down properly until they hear from him. She hears Tree typing away as she desperately tries to call Travis again, but still there's no answer. Her mind goes straight to worse case scenario. "Okay, it looks like the team had already left the parade before the shooting started."

"It looks like? Or is that actually what's happened?" Taylor asks frantically. 

"I don't know, I'm trying to figure it out."  She says gently, not looking away from her screen. In the meantime, Taylor sends Travis a series of texts. 

Travis are you okay?

Please message me when you can. 

I love you so much. 

She then tries to ring him again, but there's still no answer. She's so frustrated, the fear has infiltrated her entire body and there's nothing she can do. She's on the other side of the fucking world. This is the last thing she'd expected to wake up to. Her hands start shaking as she feels the panic consume her.

An hour passes, a whole fucking hour. Tree seemed fairly certain that the Chiefs had already left the parade before the shooting started, but it wasn't enough for Taylor. She needed to hear it from him. She's also highly aware that even if he's okay, he'll be feeling awful mentally. She understands too well what it's like to have someone die because they've come to see you. But finally, her phone rings. She answers it faster than the speed of light, standing up as tears well in her eyes.