till forever falls apart | Taylor Swift

epilogue

November, 2022

real life

August looked out at the crowd in Paris, her grin splitting her face brightly. Her cheeks hurt from smiling so much that night, and her face was wet from perspiration and possibly tears. She was breathing heavily from the last song that had taken a lot of effort with so many high notes and a pretty cool guitar solo from her second album that had come out earlier in the year.

The whole crowd was cheering loudly, her heart was practically drumming in her ears. She took out her ear monitors for a second, focusing solely on the sound of clapping hands and screaming fans. It was more than she could have ever asked for.

This... this was euphoria.

This was the last show of her first ever tour. She was constantly shaking with nerves and excitement and even then, she loved every moment of it. She couldn't stop herself from bouncing on her toes every once in a while.

Finally, taking in a shaky breath, she flicked her specially made tour pick with her name engraved in it at the crowd, watching as a young teen in the pit caught it and held it up in the air excitedly. August laughed into the microphone, stepping back to remove the guitar strap from around her shoulders. She handed the cherry red instrument back to one of the tech guys who ran off stage with it, and walked back over to the mic stand.

"Wow, Paris," she breathed out into the microphone, her voice wavering just a little bit, so full of emotions. "Vous êtes incroyable! Merci beaucoup!"

She cleared her throat, the crowd going crazy as she spoke in French. She had a small accent when she used her French, but they all ate it up anyway.

She grabbed the microphone, releasing it from the clamps and walked back a little, taking advantage of the spacious stage.

"Putain, je ne sais plus vraiment quoi dire de plus," she spoke softly, expressing her speechlessness to her fans.

[translation: fuck, I don't know what else to say.]

"I love you guys. Thank you," she continued in English. The show was being filmed and though she enjoyed brushing up on her second language, it was best she didn't use it for the whole show.

"Uhm, we've still got one more song for you before we head on home. This one is from the first album," August explained as the thousands of fans quieted down to hear her. "Back when the world was in a state of chaos... I'm not sure it's doing any better now, actually, but hey, at least we get to be here tonight, right?"

August chuckled softly as the crowd laughed at her joke and cheered loudly.

"In the spirit of being with you all tonight, I would just like to share my sentiments with you guys, that, should the world go to shit again, I'm so glad I got to know ya. I'm yours forever... till forever falls apart."

The fans went crazy, screaming their lungs out as August's band started playing the melody to the song.

She closed her eyes, fitting in just one of her ear monitors back in, unable to stop herself from grinning so wide, knowing just what was coming next.

She started singing but over the sound of her fans' voices, she could barely even hear herself.

She stopped at the pre-chorus, an excited laugh bubbling out of her chest as the crowd sang for her, only belting out her own lyrics during the chorus.