That's My Sister ➼ tas

Chapter 23

It was rolling up to 7pm on Saturday night, and my house was more or less ready for the party. Cheesy photo frames and knitted blankets were safely stowed away in my mom's wardrobe, with her's and Austin's doors firmly locked. The chairs were lined against the wall with the table easily accessible for the assortment of alcohol, soft drinks and cups. A table was set up in the kitchen for beer pong, and all breakable items were stored in higher shelves.

"Well isn't this, cosy," Kimberly stated as her, Poppy and Layla entered my house earlier than evening. I'd convinced them to get ready at mine, much to Poppy's confusion ("I've never been the first one at a party, I usually stay upstairs getting ready for the first hour when they're my own.")

An hour or so passed and we were ready to party - Poppy insisted on cute photos of us in our outfits, and I promised I would make a cute best friends post on Instagram the next day. The boys had already arrived and had the music booming downstairs. Soon the sound of voices flooded through the front door and we giggled as we grabbed our drinks and sauntered down.

-

The sun flickered through my blinds causing me to stir. I groaned as the headache set in, and looked around in search of water. A plastic cup sat on my desk, and flashbacks reminded me instantly that it was not water.

As if on cue, my bedroom door opened and Austin was standing in the frame. "Nice one, sis, you're trending."

"Sorry, I'm what? What are you doing home?" I rubbed my eyes and reached for my phone. 3 missed calls - Mom, Austin and Kimberly. There was a text from Poppy that read "craaaazy night girl! You won't believe who Layla went home with! Massive shame your neighbours called the police at the end tho, ew!"

"Well, there's a video on Twitter," Austin began. My eyes widened as I opened my socials and scrolled. "And I told you, I'd be home by Sunday midday." I didn't expect it to be that late already, so I really hope there wasn't a mess downstairs otherwise I'd be in big trouble.

"Someone videoed you taking shots and acting extremely wasted," he continued. "Then tagged Tay and some celebrity gossip accounts, and boom, Taylor Swift's underage sister is trending." He shrugged his shoulders and walked back to his room, as if it wasn't a big deal.

I opened a link to a video that matched my living room as I watched a girl spin around with shots in hand. She drank one after the other, and grabbed another two being handed to her. After throwing those back she drunkenly stumbled and danced some more before tripping over, her dress riding up and showing a little bit more than just the lower thigh. Yeah, it was me, and this was embarrassing to say the least.

#DrunkLilSwift was written across many tweets, and whilst many people accompanied their replies with laughing emojis, a few called it out:

How irresponsible of her mum to allow this!

Wow imagine being Taylor right now - that's a family embarrassment.

It seems Taylor's little sister is so desperate for her stardom she's allowing things like this to hit the internet.

Just as I widened my eyes even more, my phone rang. TAS, aka my sister, was calling.

"Cait, what did you do?" Taylor sighed through the phone.

"I didn't do anything!" I exclaimed. "It wasn't what I planned! They invited way more people than I was expecting, brought alcohol, turned it into a real party! I never posted anything, I know to not do that!"

"C'mon just don't act as if you weren't planning a party in secret. Mom would be most upset about you lying than anything else - that's why I'm talking to you now before she does."

I rolled my eyes and groaned loud enough for her to hear on the other end. "And here you are giving me the disappointment talk, huh? As if you and your famous friends don't attend crazier parties? Don't try to parent me."

"You know that's not what I'm doing, but you need to understand this was not your best move. Lying to parents about parties is a usual teen move, but letting your friends stream it with the family name, not so smart."

"Don't lecture me, I didn't even know they were doing that! I planned a night in with my friends, a few drinks and games. How was that bad?"

"I'm not lecturing you, sis. All I'm saying is it very much seems like you lied to have a loud party and now there are videos of you and your friends acting drunk being sent around the gossip sites. This was what I meant what I talked to you about bad press - this isn't about me, it's about protecting you."

"Whatever, I'll see you in a few days when you're back," and with that I cut her off and ended the call. How cliche was it that all of a sudden she was acting like a responsible adult sister trying to lecture me before my mom does, as if she wasn't absent beforehand.

As I flung myself backwards onto my bed, the doorbell rang. Austin had already come and go again, so I had to roll out of bed in my less than presentable state and stomp down the stairs. I swung the door open to come face to face with Jennifer.

"Oh, hey," I squinted at her due to the blaring daylight outside. "What brings you here?"

"Hey, Cait," she shuffled around, trying not to make it too obvious that she was taken aback by my current appearance. "I was just at my sister's down the road and thought I'd stop by a check how you're doing."

"Me? I'm fine, bit of a crazy weekend but nothing unusual." I shrugged nonchalantly. "You guys never turned up, though."

"No, we decided against it. Your, uh, friends, we don't really hang out with them."

"That's because you haven't given them a chance."

"No, we all started school together, trust me, we're not friends."

"So, what?" I crossed my arms across my chest defensively. "You stopped by to tell me you don't like my friends? Just like I have to listen to Amber go on about how much she doesn't like Poppy every time I'm with you guys? Just like I have to hear Kieran make fun of them for being 'preppy' and therefore they must be stuck up?"

"Woah, chill out," Jennifer held her hands up in defence, and I sheepishly retracted my arms. "You haven't hung out with us for a while now, so it's not as if you've been hearing that recently."

It was true, but then again, my effort to invite them this weekend wasn't accepted, so it was still just as much their fault as mine. Jennifer sighed.

"I didn't stop by for this conversation. I actually wanted to ask if you were still available for Blake's birthday this weekend? Remember we planned it last month? Pizza making and movies at Amber's this weekend. Everyone's still wondering if you're coming."

I had, in all honestly, completely forgotten. Luckily I hadn't already made plans with the others, so I was sure I could still make an appearance. Especially after that time we spent an hour grilling Blake on his idea of a Saturday night in for it, I couldn't not go to something I'd helped decide.

"Sure, I'll be there."