Taylor x Travis: In Every Life

stay with me (TW)

a.n okay so, trigger warning, self harm, attempted suicide, please please please don't read this if anything like this triggers you in any way. take care of yourself and know your limits

Travis' POV

I checked my phone for the millionth time today, frowning to myself when I saw the empty notifications bar. Drumming my fingers on the armrest, I turned my phone off and sighed. It was unusual for me not to have heard from Taylor by now, and I was getting worried. I'd been a little bummed when she'd told me she wanted to stay home this weekend instead of coming with me to the game, but she'd been having trouble lately and had told me she felt like being somewhere where she felt safe. Ever since she'd packed up her life in New York and moved in with me, things had changed. The media was on her tail all the time, and people kept saying truly horrible things about the way she supported me, saying she was a distraction and annoying. It had gotten really bad lately, so bad that Taylor had stopped wanting to leave the house, and this weekend was the first time she'd missed one of my games that she could have been at. When she'd told me she wasn't coming, I felt awful for leaving her home by herself, but she'd assured me that she'd be cheering me on watching from the TV and that I shouldn't feel guilty about leaving her. She had the pets to keep her company - she'd insisted - and had assured me she'd be alright. 

But I hadn't heard from her since yesterday morning, which wasn't normal. I hadn't noticed that she hadn't been replying until this morning because of how much I had to do with the game and going to dinner afterwards. But I'd texted her three times since I'd woken up this morning, called her twice, and had gotten nothing back. That wasn't normal. We were still an hour away on the bus from Kansas City, and it would take me another forty minutes to get home from where we were being dropped off. Normally I would have reached out to my parents or Jason and Kylie to go and check on Taylor, but they'd all come to the game with me.

"Travis, you okay dude?" Patrick asked, and I looked over to see him leaning across the aisle slightly. "You've been acting off all weekend."

"No, I'm fine, it's just..." I sighed. "It's Taylor. She's...not having the best time right now."

"Is that why she's not here?" I knew everyone had noticed the lack of my girlfriend's presence, but no one had asked why yet.

"I don't know if you've seen anything that's going around online at the moment, but they're really slamming her." I told him. "She was too scared to come out to watch the game this weekend."

"God." Patrick shook his head. "That girl has been through enough."

"I know." I nodded. "And I haven't heard from her in over a day. I'm getting really worried."

"You called her?"

"Twice. Texted her too."

"I'm sure she's fine. Maybe she got lost in songwriting again. You remember the time we went away on that guys trip where you didn't hear from her for three days, and when we got back we found out that she'd spent the entire time in the studio and left her phone at home?" Patrick laughed, and I smiled. She'd really given me a fright with that one, but it had been pretty funny when we'd eventually found her. She'd been working so hard on that album that she'd slept on the studio couch and hadn't left the building once. "Maybe she's just done that again."

"Yeah, maybe." He had a point; Taylor did things like that sometimes. And she was having a hard time, so she was probably writing songs as a way of coping. Writing grounded her, especially if she was alone. "Yeah, that's probably what it is. I'll drive past her studio on the way home and see if she's there."

Patrick nodded, and I managed a small smile. He was right, she'd probably gone off to that place where it was just her and her studio room and left her phone at home again.