in which;
twenty year old pippa doves attends her very first taylor swift concert and comes away with a little more than she bargained for.
gracie abrams never thought in a million years that she would ever meet somebody who could break her heart r...
"I really hate you right now, Gracie Abrams," Pippa declared, watching as the older girl ran up to the tent, "Like so much."
But they both knew she didn't mean it, especially as Gracie engulfed Pippa in a crushing bear hug, and the shorter girl buried her face in the taller's neck. Her wet cheeks may have slightly stained Gracie's jumper, but she didn't have the will to care.
"Surprise," Gracie whispered into Pippa's ear, cradling her head and kissing the side of it instinctively.
"You need to mentally prepare me when you pull shit like this, Gray, I almost had a heart attack! Do you want me dead?!" Pippa scolded.
"Quite the opposite actually, my bird," Gracie confessed, "I take it you liked the song?"
"No, I hated it actually, too sad," Pippa jokingly shook her head, wiping her ever flowing tears from her eyes.
"You're an idiot," Gracie teased with a laugh, "A cute idiot, but still an idiot."
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2nd of July, 2023, Cincinnati
-1:03am-
Much to Gracie's dismay, she and Pippa didn't talk about the glances they cast to each other for the rest of the night. The smaller girl had claimed that she was too tired from the excitement, and Gracie was inclined to agree.
Though, as she looked over at the other side of the hotel room bed at the way the city lights shone through the window and reflected ever so slightly off of Pippa's cheek, she wished she had pushed for that conversation a little harder.
Gracie hadn't ever fallen for someone this quickly, this hard, this terrifyingly entirely. She watched the slow rise and fall of Pippa's chest as she breathed, reaching a hand out and tracing circles on the hand Pippa had splayed near Gracie's side of the bed. She felt each ridge and crevice beneath her fingertips, savoring the feeling of them in case she did in fact scare her bird off.
Gracie didn't know what horrified her more.
Never seeing her bird ever again, or never telling her how she really felt.
The choice felt downright impossible.
She sighed into the pitch black of the night, rubbing her eyes from exhaustion and frustration. She hated all of it, everything. Gracie really wished playing guitar in a hotel room, a shared one at that, at one in the morning was socially acceptable.
Even as they made the drive to the airport, got on the plane back to Los Angeles and landed, Gracie and Pippa still hadn't had that much needed conversation. Pippa opted to talk about anything and everything else instead, and each time she felt Gracie try to drift the conversation into the direction of them, she would deflect.
Gracie couldn't take it anymore. She was going to boil over and explode if she didn't get some answers soon. Her brows felt permanently furrowed, and it had reached a point where she was certain that Pippa knew she had something at the tip of her tongue, but wouldn't let her speak.
She watched each chance she had at bringing it up slip away as they neared Pippa's new apartment, she watched the way Pippa refused to meet her eyes, the way she'd step a little further away from her whenever Gracie got close. Gracie felt physical pain in her chest, like her heart was being constricted by a boa, and at the same time its fangs were injecting poison into it little by little, the venom spreading throughout her body in her bloodstream, and killing her one cell at a time.
Gracie just stayed quiet after being shot down too many times, keeping her head hung low as the two of them walked on the pavement towards the apartment. She left her luggage with Taylor and her driver, somewhere back up the road. Gracie wanted to walk Pippa to her apartment, or at least the building, even if it hurt her more than it should've when her bird couldn't look her in the eye.
2nd of July, 2023, Los Angeles
-6:17pm-
"About time, Reynolds," Charlotte spoke into her phone, it was on speaker mode as she sped down the highway.
"Damn, not even a thank you? Maybe I won't send you the address, then," Richie joked.
Of course, he would be the absolute biggest idiot if he actually decided to go against Charlotte Martin's word.
"You do that, Richard, and the next life you take will be your own," Charlotte cautioned.
"Okay, okay, god, no need for the dramatics, Martin," Richie recoiled, "Although, I do have to warn you, you might wanna come quickly, because their plane landed at LAX a couple hours ago so they're probably gonna be back soon."
"I'm not even going to ask how you know that, but I am on my way," Charlotte hung up the phone, inputting the address Richie had told her over the phone into her car navigation.
When she arrived, Richie was standing in the middle of the apartment unit with the most smug of looks on his face, clearly proud of himself. Charlotte paid him no mind, simply telling him to get the fuck out so she could do what she needed to do.
Richie left, and Charlotte locked the door behind him. She made herself comfortable on the couch, lighting a cigarette and placing it between her lips. She sighed in contentment, leaning her head back against the plaster wall, and she waited.
2nd of July, 2023, Los Angeles
-6:33pm-
"Pippa," Gracie suddenly stated, her tone serious in nature, "Bird."
Her self control had finally reached its wit's end.
She watched Pippa swing her backpack off her shoulder and look into it for her apartment key fob that unlocked the building's main electrical gate. Gracie fiddled with her sleeves, picking at a loose thread with her thumb as she felt her heart rate rise and rise and rise. God, she was so nauseous.
"Yes, Gray?" Pippa answered.
Then, the words came flying out of her mouth in a whisper before she could stop herself;
"I can't keep pretending anymore."
-✫★✫-
hello my lovelies!
im not even joking im listening to taylor on shuffle rn and now that we dont talk came on and the line 'truth is i cant pretend its platonic' came on right as i started writing this authors note i swear the woman is in my walls (to be fair she is ON them quite a few times)
