Only Me and You │TAYLOR SWIFT │Book ONE │

029

trigger warning: mentions of ow*n
but for real, there is a TW in this. Please skip this chapter if it makes you uncomfortable.
i'm watching heartstopper season 3 while making this!

october 21, 2023

Today was a good day. Or at least, Elara thought it was.

Bright and early, Elara woke up to go see Lucy. When she arrived at the New York Apartment, it was a mess. Elara stood at the threshold of the kitchen, her eyes widening at the sight before her. Flour dusted the countertops like fresh snow, and an assortment of bowls and utensils were scattered around. She eyes swept across the room, following the trail of batter to the sink.

Lucy stood at the sink, her red hair tied back into a messy bun. She was scrubbing aggressively at a pan, groaning at a spot that wasn't clean enough.

"Need some help?" Elara asked, scaring Lucy with the sudden extra voice.

"Oh! Hey, I didn't know you were here!" Lucy laughed, her voice bubbly. "What's up?" Her lips popped, exaggerating the 'P'.

Always forgetful. Elara shook her head, giggling at her older friend. "We planned this last week! We were supposed to go get lunch!"

Lucy's jaw dropped. "Wait, What?"

"Yeah, I texted it to you!"

Lucy dropped the pan, rubbing her hands on her pants and opening her phone to find out she did in fact plan this. And put it in her calendar. Twice. "Whoops? I actually am making a cake for my favorite patient. She beat Pancreatic cancer yesterday!"

Lucy was a pediatric oncologist. (It took Elara two years to be able to say it correctly.) It was a hard job, and there had been times when Elara would come over and Lucy would be crying in her room from a kid dying. That's the hard part. They're just so young, and going through something so hard.

Elara thought about going into the same field. Her mom died of cancer when she was young, and she hated how it took her. How weak she got. The life slowly fading from her. She took a course when she was sixteen, but withdrew from it quickly. It hit too close to home.

"Wait, Tara? The little blonde?" Lucy nodded, a warm smile appearing on her lips. "Oh my god, that's amazing!" Elara did a private performance for her, per request from Make-A-Wish.

"Okay... Done!" It seemed in the blink of an eye, Lucy was holding a tower of Oreos with a picture of Taylor on it.

The sound that came out of Elara's mouth sounded something along the lines of 'JSIWNAHHOWMWO', so it's safe to assume she was excited.

"I know you'd love to eat out Taylor, so maybe you could eat some Taylor oreos?"

"Oh my god! Stop! I don't- we've- no. But yes, I will eat your Taylor Oreos." Lucy smiled, handing her the contraption.

"I'm proud of you." Elara had ate every day all week. She was officially a week clean of.. not starving herself? She wasn't sure what the terminology for that was.

"Oh!" Elara reached into her leather bag, fumbling through it to find her supplies. Her life seemed pretty organized to the public eye, and her purse did not represent that. Lipstick (Hers and Taylor's), Hand sanitizer, wads of cash, tissues, a... green turtle plastic thing (?) were all scattered around her bag. She found her phone, pulling it open and showing Lucy the app on her phone.