till forever falls apart | Taylor Swift

80

real life

After Taylor had woken up and received the news from Tree, she had put on some clothes along with a beanie and a pair of sunglasses to go for a run and clear her head. With a bandana around the lower half of her face, she was unrecognisable.

She managed to get a few miles around the block before her lungs gave out and she continued walking the rest of the way back home. She stopped by the coffee shop on her street and got two black coffees to go. It felt great to be able to walk into a café and not have a dozen cameras shoved in her face.

There shouldn't have been any cameras last night. Having been followed for the better part of her life by photographers, she had grown accustomed to noticing whenever her picture was being taken. It had become sort of a talent of hers, if you will. And last night, sure there were a few cameras pointing their way at the restaurant and as they were leaving, but Taylor was pretty sure no one had seen them in her car. Besides, it had only been for a second or two. She could have missed it... with her focus centred solely around August last night. She might have definitely missed the stupid phone pointed their way.

Her curiosity had been getting the better of her all morning. Though she had decided to stay off social media for a while, she knew she had to at least check it out for herself. Years had gone by since she had truly allowed something so small worm its way into the worst part of her thoughts but when she got home, she couldn't stop herself from grabbing her phone and opening twitter, knowing the picture would be the first thing she would see.

It was pretty blurry and pixelated. That was the first thing she had noticed. Which meant whoever had taken the picture would have been pretty far away and it must have only been a phone camera. She couldn't have possibly seen whoever it was and prevented it.

And still, her mind still travelled back to the past. How she had let carelessness come between them. How she couldn't deal with it all and had let them slip away so easily.

Taylor couldn't go through that again.

"Good morning!"

Taylor jumped in surprise, dropping her phone on the kitchen counter she was leaning against. She chuckled awkwardly, pulling her hair away from her face; it had become quite matted with sweat from her earlier run.

"Hey! You're up!"

"Oh, I've been up for a while," August explained. Taylor noticed she had her curls plopped in an old t-shirt, fresh out of the shower. "Good run?"

"Uh, yeah, I mean as good as runs can get," Taylor chuckled softly. "I got coffee."

"You really know how to treat a woman, don't ya?" August said with a wide grin, walking over to Taylor to grab one of the disposable cups. She pressed a kiss on Taylor's cheek, lingering close for just a second too long before settling back down next to her. "Thank you."

"Of course," Taylor smiled but her eyes only darted back to her phone, the screen now black. But with a single swipe of her finger, she would be looking at the picture again.

August seemed to have caught on. "It's not that big of a deal, is it?" She asked, opening up the lid to blow on the coffee that was still steaming hot.

"No, probably not," Taylor murmured. "I mean, you're okay, right?"

August nodded, shooting her a small smile while she sipped at her cup. "Yeah, I don't mind if people talk. But... I know you're probably not thrilled about it. How are you doing?"