Pitch Perfect Harmony

Orange Nightmare

Travis woke up in the middle of the night because Taylor pushed her hands against him. She wasn't awake though. Her body was tense and she kept breathing heavily. Travis assumed she had a bad dream.

"I hate you!", she heard and saw a Trump look-alike screaming at her with a red face and evil eyes. Taylor stood on a small stage in the middle of a sea of people. And soon they all joined in, booing, whistling, and yelling at her. "I hate you!" "Go home!" "Fuck you!" There was no way for her to get off stage alone and there wasn't any security around either. The people stood right at the edge of the platform. "Fuck Taylor Swift, Fuck Taylor Swift!" It morphed into what people had been yelling years ago at a Kanye West concert. She would never forget the clips she had seen but today she was right there. In the middle of all these people. And the stage became smaller and smaller. People began jumping and trying to get up to her.

Travis had decided to try not to wake her up and instead pulled her close. "It's okay. I'm here", he whispered combing through her hair over and over while holding her close. Her breath calmed down slowly and the tension left her body.

Suddenly, there was security coming to get her and they brought her backstage safely. She was still shaking and took her phone wanting to call someone. But there were thousands of messages. "I hate you" directly at her or "I hate Taylor Swift" on every single social media platform. People she loved had turned on her. She saw messages from everyone. Her closest friends, Selena, Blake, and Ashley. But also Pat and Brittany and even Jason and Kylie.

Travis had just started to drift back to sleep when she started moving in his arms again. "No, No", she mumbled, her breath speeding up again. "No, please. No", she even started crying. "Tay, hey, c'mon wake up!", he decided to get her out of the dream finally. But it didn't work that easily. "No, no", she repeated over and over mumbling different things in between. "Allie, wake up", he said again. Louder this time. And when he also shook her shoulder a little, her eyes fluttered open. "It was just a dream, you're okay", Travis immediately assured her. Taylor took a second to realize and then cuddled into his chest again. "You don't hate me, right?", he whispered ashamed to even ask. "What?! No! Of course not!", he told her. "I could never hate you, Allie. I love you", he added.

"What did you dream of?", Travis carefully asked after a few moments of silence. "That everyone hates me again", she whispered still feeling like shit. "Baby, that's not true. It was just a dream", he repeated knowing that she probably just needed to hear that a few more times. "I was on stage and everyone was booing and whistling and yelling that they hate me", she explained further. "That's not gonna happen", he told her again. "I thought they'd jump on stage but... then I got backstage and I thought I was okay, but... when I picked up my phone... everyone had texted or tweeted it too", Taylor went on still almost whispering. "Like... even Sel... and... and Jason and Kylie... everyone", she added almost inaudible. "They won't do that. They like you a lot", he assured her once more.

"I think I can't sleep now", she admitted. "What else would you wanna do?", he asked surprised. It was way too early to get up. "Would you hear the piano from up here?", she wanted to know. "I don't think so", he said. "So, you wanna make some music?", Travis assumed. "I think I should", she agreed. "But you have to sleep! You have a game tomorrow", she added. "Are you gonna be okay?", he asked still concerned. "Yeah", she nodded and sat up. "You sleep, I write. I'll be fine by tomorrow morning", she said convinced. "Wait", he stopped her. Taylor looked at him impatiently. "I love you, Allie", he told her and sat up to give her a quick kiss before letting her go. She gave him a soft smile and went downstairs then.

Travis had a bit of a hard time falling back asleep but he could hear the piano a little bit and it assured him that she would be okay. And she was. Getting lost in her melodies and words, she forgot about time and tiredness. Working through her emotions, she made countless recordings with her phone and wrote out lyrics in her notes app.

When Travis' alarm went off, he groaned and quickly shut it off. Turning around, he surprisingly found Taylor next to himself sleeping. She must've gone to bed again sometime tonight which made him smile. He carefully gave her a soft kiss on the head before getting up silently and preparing breakfast after going to the bathroom. He would have to leave for the stadium in a few hours and before that, they needed to decide if Taylor would come to the game this evening. After tonight, he was kinda hoping she wouldn't, but they'd have to see.

Drinking his coffee, Travis checked his phone only to find that out of all the people, Scooter Brawn had endorsed Kamala Harris and at the same time tried to make himself look like he would try to protect Taylor from something. Travis shook his head. A few months ago, he never would've thought that his girlfriend would be such a seemingly important voice in this election. He was proud of her for still having the guts to publicly speak up and position herself. Because it was scary of course. Her nightmare had only shown him how much it stressed her out and he was sure that she had known this before she had posted the endorsement. She did it despite the stress it caused.

After a while, he decided to wake her up. Her security needed to know if she was going to the game in about an hour. "Good morning, baby. You gotta wake up", he said softly while sitting down next to her and pulling her blanket down a little bit. She groaned tiredly and when he brushed some hair out of her face, she took his hand. "Hey", he smiled and bent down for a kiss on the forehead that finally made her open her eyes. "You went to bed", he pointed out the obvious. "Yeah... not long ago though", she mumbled. "Are you feeling better?", he asked looking at her for any sign of not feeling safe or loved or whatever else the nightmare had made her feel. "I do. I wrote a bunch tonight", she told him and slowly sat up with the blanket pulled around her shoulders. He smiled softly at her.

"We have to tell your security a decision soon", he reminded her. "I'll be there. I wanna come", she stated way more convinced than tonight. "Are you sure?", he questioned concerned. He wasn't fully sure if she was trying to put on a show for him or if she really was doing that much better. "Yes. I am going to support you", she repeated determinedly. "Okay. So writing tonight got you confident, hm?", he smiled still not fully convinced. "Trav, I'll be fine. You can concentrate on your game day", she told him while getting up now. He stopped her pulling her into a hug. "I want you to be a hundred percent honest with me because you should feel comfortable at the game and not stressed about security or opinions. So, one last time: Are you sure you want to be there?", he asked again trying to force her to rethink her decision once more. Taylor sighed and looked at him with a little smile. "I feel confident that I will be okay at the game and I want to be there. I promise you, I thought this through", she told him honestly. He nodded. "Okay. If that changes at any moment, I will not be mad or disappointed if you leave or go somewhere else during the game", he wanted her to know. "Can we go and eat now?", she smiled. He nodded, so they went downstairs.

"I appreciate your concern by the way. But I am honestly sure", Taylor told Travis again after giving her security the info. "Good. I like to see you happy and confident, you know why I'm questioning this a few times. I was worried tonight", Travis explained. "I know. And you are okay to be worried. I would be too and I probably feel better because you care like that", she smiled. "I'll always care", he smiled back at her. "I know. I love you", she answered. "I love you too", he said before they finally finished breakfast and he soon had to leave for the game day. Taylor had a call with Tree about the day and also the developments on Twitter. She found it just as strange as Travis that Scooter had somehow tried to be on her side for something but she didn't pay him much attention anymore.

Congratulations to T 'n' T for being ENGAGED! So happy for them! 💍
I think I will try to find a nice ending with this book around the end of the tour and then publish some one shots or short stories. I just barely find time to write recently and I'd feel bad leaving you all wait. I currently can post chapters because I still have some saved but i haven't written one in a few weeks actually 😅
Hope you'll like my shorter stuff too then.🫶🏼