the stars in your eyes | t.s. one shots

independent girlies

2023

The Fourth of July has allowed a lot of complicated feelings to arise for Taylor over the last several years. She's come into her adulthood at the same time as she's watched the political state of the country fall to pieces. It all started with the November election in 2016. She remembers it clear as day. Taylor watched every shred of hope that she had for the future get thrown into the flames as state by state, the electoral map turned red. Later that month, she hadn't been able to shake a sense of impending doom, and Joe had held her hand and asked her to run away with him. To go to England, where she could escape all of it. Both the politics and the public scrutiny she had fallen into.

She'd said yes, and that was the end of celebrating the Fourth Of July for her. Of summers spent at Holiday House with all of her loved ones nearby, of red, white, and blue bikinis, and buying sparklers in bulk to light up as the sun sinks down over the Rhode Island shoreline.

Things look a lot different now. There's a different president, and while he's not perfect, she's no longer ashamed of her own citizenship. In the midst of her sparkling Eras Tour summer, and the black ink stain that Matty Healy placed upon it, she wants to be with her people. There's a lot to celebrate, too: her own newfound independence and the way that she's embracing it with a vow to be single for the rest of the year, her reclaiming of her music: Fearless, Red, Speak Now in a few short days, and 1989 coming up in October.

Taylor decides it's time to go back to her old tradition and get everyone together in Rhode Island for the Fourth of July for a few days, the week between her Cincinnati and Kansas City shows.

On the evening of the holiday, Taylor sits beside Selena on the beach, her head resting on her best friend's shoulder. She holds out her glass of white wine. "Here's to the single girl summer."

"Here, here," Sel grins, clinking her class against Taylor's. "And to having you back state side. To lots more summers like this."

Those years spent in London were lonely. She loves the city, loves the culture, and when she did have friends come around to visit, it was great. The country was beautiful, the lush, green nature and the architecture mostly older than America itself. She really does have good memories from those years. Most of the time, though, it was just her and Joe. They did love each other, but it's isolating to only have one person to lean on, no matter who that person is. He had all of his friends, who became her friends by default, but they weren't the sort that she'd hang out with if he wasn't there.

While the breakup was hard, coming home was really quite easy.

"I'm never leaving again," Taylor smiles, sharing a second toast in succession with Selena. "I don't know what prophecy I'm fulfilling right now, I don't know what the future holds, but the one thing that I know for sure is that it's not in England. I'm exactly where I'm meant to be."

The waves lap against the beach and the fireworks crackle overhead, making for the most perfect of nights.

A few days later, everyone parts their ways and life resumes. Taylor goes back on tour, plays two shows in Kansas City, and the world of Eras takes back over her life.

That is, until the end of the month, when a certain football player enters the picture. He breaks her stone cold facade almost instantly, knocking down every wall she put up and tossing the promises of singleness into the raging fire that he lights beneath her.

It's the morning of her first LA show when Taylor sees Selena again. She comes over for homemade waffles on the patio- the best way to start the day, in Taylor's opinion.

"I've got a confession to make," Selena blushes as she scoops sliced strawberries onto the top of her waffle. "Remember how we said we'd have a single girl summer?"