Stay - Taylor Swift

Chapter 37

Growing up the thought occasionally slips into your mind. Maybe it's after a celebrity you look up to loses a parent or maybe a friend, maybe it's when you're picturing your future and it dawns on you that your parents won't be in it forever. However you imagined hearing it or dealing with it is truthfully far different than how it happens when you actually lose a parent.

Robert Kent was never the most affectionate man, he got on Grace's nerves often and sometimes it seemed like he was meant to be a business man solely and not a father but nevertheless, hearing that he had passed away shattered the brunette.

She had spoken to him that morning in the hotel before they left to come to the stadium in Atlanta, it was a quick call because she was just letting him know she sent a memo his way.

The last thing she had said before hanging up the phone was along the lines of "Okay, thanks dad. Talk to you soon, love you."

Grace was incredibly grateful she had said she loved him, because regardless of their past or the mistakes they had made, he had been her father for the last twenty-three years. That was an unbreakable bond, she wouldn't be where she was if it wasn't for him.

The last time Grace had seen him in person was less than a month prior, she had to go to London to help William for a couple days and luckily it matched with one of Taylor's short breaks between shows. The siblings and singer had lunch with Robert and Jennifer at the house and the man was in a pleasant mood, even Taylor (shockingly) had a good time.

She never expected it to be the last time she would see him, the last time she would hug him or watch him get mad that his glasses kept falling off his face. So as she sat on the couch in Taylor's dressing room just moments after being left alone, trying to keep calm for her mom on the other end of the line, she felt broken.

It was a familiar sense of pain, the same kind she had felt when her brother died all those years ago. The air goes cold and your heart stops beating for a second, a lump forms in your throat and tears fall before you can even comprehend it all.

After finding out her mom was in England with him when it happened, she promised she would be there as soon as possible. She couldn't just disappear without telling Taylor, and really, she wanted Taylor to comfort her and tell her it would be okay.

Will it be okay?

Crying on the sofa in the dressing room felt like a low moment in the girl's life, she didn't even try to hold back the sobs that filled the air, letting the hot tears stream down her face. The dressing room was practically sound-proof anyways.

Across the stadium, Taylor was smiling and taking pictures with fans. Her mom was with her as she met many of her supporters, leading to her throat getting dry and looking for water. She realized she had left it in the dressing room and asked Andrea if she wouldn't mind going to grab it for her.

"Of course," Andrea agreed, taking the walk to go back to where the singer had left her girlfriend. Taylor would have asked someone in her staff to do it but she knew Grace was in there and while it wasn't a secret Grace was at her shows, she knew the brunette would be more comfortable with a familiar face going in with her.

Andrea gave a quick knock to make her presence known before entering, immediately stopping as she heard the cries coming from the green-eyed girl. Shutting the door quickly behind her, she rushed over to the woman she had come to accept as a second daughter.

"What's wrong?" Andrea asked as she set her hand on Grace's back and began to rub it up and down in a comforting fashion. Grace adjusted herself to melt into Taylor's mother's arms, needing someone, anyone, to be there for her.