Pitch Perfect Harmony

Joe

The next day, Travis was at practice again and Taylor sat down at the kitchen table to work. She was pretty concentrated on going through some paperwork about the new album when her phone suddenly started to ring. She grabbed it from the other end of the table where she had put it to not get distracted and looked at who it was. Patrick. Taylor felt the urge to reject the call simply because she had no idea what the brother of her ex could want from her. But he had never hurt her and she didn't want to project her emotions towards Joe onto his younger brother for no reason. "I don't wanna talk to him", was still the first thing she said after picking up. "What? No, I wanted to talk to you", Patrick explained with this so familiar British accent. "Okay... Why? Is it about Joe? Then I don't want to hear anything", she said. "No! It's not always about him!", the younger one got frustrated. "Sorry. Sorry, I'm... I just need to talk and my brother doesn't want to listen, my family seems to only care about him and my best friend has his own problems right now", Patrick told her noticeably struggling. Taylor was surprised that he chose to call her but she did remember telling him, he could always call her. It was a time when he hadn't been doing well and had stayed over with her and Joe for a while.

So Taylor took the time to listen. He honestly didn't even really need her to say anything. It felt like the problem was more that no one was listening to him, so she just let him ramble. Joe's name came up a few times and he seemed to be struggling too but that wasn't her problem anymore. That he wasn't even able to recognize his younger brother looking for help felt very familiar. It was just like at the end of their relationship. Taylor would've needed him to listen but he just wasn't able to for some reason. She could give Patrick a few encouraging words in the end and he was thankful for it. It was all he wanted: Someone who would listen to him. Taylor still felt a little strange after they ended the call. She was wishing Patrick the best but knowing that Joe was still struggling almost felt a little good. Her revenge thinking liked that a lot but she told herself that it wasn't okay to feel good about someone else's hard times even if they have hurt you before. She should get back to forgetting about him, so she continued to work.

Later, Taylor decided to cook dinner but she wasn't dancing through the kitchen like on other days. The phone call was still on her mind. Should she have been recording it? Since the call from Kanye happened, she normally recorded phone calls if she didn't know the other person too well or if it just seemed odd. But she didn't say much anyway. Patrick had been rambling most of the time, so there was no reason to record. "What a smell!", Travis entered the kitchen when he came home. Taylor instantly smiled and greeted him with a hug and a kiss. She would tell him about the call later. Just in case.

"You know, Patrick called me today. My ex's little brother", she started when they sat on the couch later. Travis looked at her confused. "What did he want?", he asked curiously. "I think he just needed someone to listen to him. He has a lot going on right now and no one really had time to listen to him. At least that's what it sounded like", she explained. "So you two just talked?", he wanted to make sure. "I mean... Yeah. He told me a lot about his problems but I think he didn't even want advice. Just an open ear. I told him he could call me years ago", she explained honestly. "How old is he?", Travis continued to ask. "Late twenties. Why?", she said. "I don't know. It sounded like he was a teenager", Travis answered. "Well... It felt like a teenager's call a little bit, to be honest. But what does it matter? He seemed okay in the end and he respected that I didn't want to hear about Joe", she told him. Travis nodded and it stayed silent for a moment.

"Would you want to tell me a little bit about this guy? Joe, I mean. It's been a big part of your life", Travis carefully wanted to know more about her ex. Taylor smiled at his thought-through words. He obviously didn't want to push her to talk even though he seemed very curious. "Yeah... I mean... We met when I was at a pretty dark place and... for some reason, he didn't care about all that and helped me through it", she explained the beginnings of their relationship. "So he was a good guy?", Travis asked. "At the time, yes. Absolutely. He talked me out of panic attacks and insecurities a lot. But he wasn't good with all this publicity, you know?", she said. Travis nodded listening attentively. He wanted to say that Joe should've known what he was getting himself into but he held that back for now. "It was a bit rough when Lover came out and I was on the road again. He struggled with that but... I guess, then the pandemic hit and we were forced to stay home and everything was great between us. The rest of the world was a horror movie but we worked together again. Even though he was struggling with mental health just like we probably all did in the pandemic", she continued.

"We even wrote some songs together but he didn't want to put his real name on it", Taylor trailed off to their writing sessions. "I heard about that", Travis mentioned. "Well and then the lockdowns were over and I wanted to get out into the world again. Missed the stages and even the interviews. I wanted to go to events and I would've wanted him to come with me sometimes but he... I don't know. It felt like he didn't want to be seen with me", she explained. "Then he started to struggle more with himself. He has depression but he has never really let me help him in any way. I don't know why. I always told him I would listen to him or whatever but he rather hid", she went on. Travis noticed that this seemed to be the point where it started to go downhill. "When was that? Like... when did it start?", he asked to get a rough timeline. "At the end of 2021 honestly. We just... or he just ignored it. He started to ignore me sometimes", she answered.

"He ended up drinking and I don't know if he took something else too but it made him... hard to be around. It came in phases, so I always thought, maybe it's over now. But... well... It wasn't. I was scared to lose him but I was also scared of his drunk being", she explained. "Did he get mad? Like... against you? Did he scare you that way?", Travis asked concerned. If this man had hit her, he couldn't guarantee to stay quiet about that. "I mean... he was screaming sometimes and saying a bunch of mean things but he was drunk", Taylor just said. Travis sighed not sure if he should ask more directly. "Tay, did he ever physically hurt you?", he decided to put it out there. "No! No, he didn't hit me or whatever. His words hurt a lot but that was it", she instantly said. "I just... if I would've... said the wrong thing in a bad moment, maybe he would've... That's what I was scared of sometimes", Taylor silently added. "But I was even more scared of losing him. So many people told me that I shouldn't be scared in my relationship but I... I thought I could... help him", she admitted. "But you know now that they were right, don't you?", he wanted to make sure. Taylor just nodded slowly. Yes, she knew that. But it still felt like she failed at helping him.

"It reached a final straw when he was caught cheating", she mumbled. It still hurt to think about that. "What?!", Travis let out. "Didn't you know? Oh... It's been in the media. At least rumors", she said. "Wait, so he's stupid enough to think that no one would notice him going out with another woman? Wasn't there paparazzi following him?", he asked confused. "I don't know. Sometimes I think he wanted to get caught because he was too scared to actually break up with me", she mentioned. Travis let out a bitter laugh. "When I confronted him, he... he tried to tell me that they never had sex and that it was only a few dates", Taylor repeated the words of Joe she could still hear in her head. "Only? What... He seems pretty stupid, to be honest", Travis said making her chuckle a little even though talking about it was still hard. "I don't know... Even if they really never had sex... I mean...", she continued getting interrupted: "It's still cheating. He went on dates with another woman." Taylor felt a weird relief hearing him say that. Sometimes she had doubted herself so much over the past months that she had been close to agreeing with Joe. "He said he needed someone to talk to", she explained. "Wait, didn't you say, you wanted him to talk to you?", Travis remembered. Taylor just shrugged. "I guess he just didn't want to talk to me", she said.

Travis sighed pulling her closer into a hug. They sat on the couch. He had an arm around her the whole time and Taylor had been playing with his fingers while talking. "I thought I knew him and... I don't know... everything just broke down very slowly and painfully over about a year", she mumbled. "I should've left him earlier", she added. "You tried to fight for your love. I... I guess that's normal. After you've been together for so long, you don't want to give up on it easily", Travis said. He had never had a relationship that long but he could understand that. "It's not that I didn't have trust issues before that", Taylor joked bitterly. Travis went with her dark joke and chuckled just like she did but they both knew this was not funny. "You trusted me enough to invite me over pretty early and now you're here. You've been at games and you invited me to your tour again. We talked about your ex. I think we're on a good way", he told her optimistically. "We said I love you", he added smiling widely at the thought of these words. Taylor could not hold back a smile on that too. "And I still do", she said. "Oh, I do too", Travis laughed effortlessly turning her around in his arms to kiss her.

Just to clarify: I do not think that what I wrote about Joe or actually any of the people in this story is necessarily true. I try to write a cohesive story that's interesting, fun to read, and roughly oriented on the timeline of official events regarding Travis and Taylor. It's obviously fictional for the biggest part!