in my wildest dreams - a taylor swift fanfiction

40 - 'cause when you're fifteen

TAYLOR

"That looks great babe," I told Joe who was putting up a happy birthday banner in the dining room in Nashville. "I'm just gonna go check on Skye."

I walked through the living room and over to Skye's room, and knocked on the door. She told me I could enter, and I found her in bed, lying on her stomach across the covers with her head at the foot of the bed. At least she'd gotten ready for the party, but she did not seem to be in the right mood. I went over and sat down next to her and looked around for her phone, finding it on the nightstand. Fifteen had been playing from it ever since she woke up, and I wondered how she still hadn't grown tired of it yet.

"How are you feeling, honey? Mike just texted me; they'll be here soon."

She huffed through her nose and stared into space. It upset me that she was feeling like this on her birthday, but at the same time, I could understand why. Skye had texted Maeve and told her that she still very much wanted her to come to the birthday party, even though Corinne was going to be there, but Maeve never replied.

"You guys are gonna have so much fun. You will get to see all your friends, and Connor'll get to meet Corinne... And you have this entire house to yourselves." I nudged her and gave her a small smile, but she just sighed and turned her eyes on me.

"I want Maeve to come. I can't stand that she's mad at me."

I pursed my lips together and gave her a sympathetic look. "I know, sweetie. I might not be the best person to say this, but you can't please everyone. It's Maeve's decision if she's not coming; you were very clear that you wanted her to come. There's only so much you can do."

Skye still hadn't fully gone back to her normal, happy self when the first guests arrived, but she was good at acting like it. I was very excited to finally get to meet her old friends from the group home and her old school, and they seemed very excited to meet me too, but Joe and I were only allowed to stay for a short time before Skye forced us out of the house.

SKYLAR

I tried to act like I was fine, and I honestly became much happier when I got to see my old friends that I hadn't seen in more than a year. They all came in Mike's bus, and everyone freaked out when they saw me which was really fun.

Other than Connor, Ashley, Callie, Jade, Harper and a couple of my old friends from school; Ayleen and Sadie arrived together; Zade, Emma, Elliot, Laura, Ben and Harlem flew in from New York; some friends who I met through online school came; Taliah, Annie, Lexi and Lana arrived together — sadly without Maeve—; and I'd also invited Rebecca, Penny, Jess and a few others who Connor and I met before the show in Nashville and who I'd kept in touch with. Even though I had so many friends there and everyone was in such a good mood, I couldn't help but to think about Maeve not being there, and Corinne still hadn't shown up, thirty minutes after she'd said she would. I tried calling her, but she didn't pick up, so I sent a couple of text messages as well.

I kept glancing over at the door every now and then, absentmindedly fiddling with the black bead on my bracelet and expecting the door to open at any moment, but Corinne never showed. After we'd eaten and some of us had sung a couple of songs at the karaoke machine while the others were either watching us or doing something else, Taliah shouted, "Time for cake! Cake now, everyone!"

We gathered around the dining table that we had extended and squeezed a bunch of chairs around, and they had me sit at one of the short sides. I knew Taylor had prepared most of the cake beforehand without completely putting it together, and I figured Taliah must've finished it without my knowledge. Taliah had Wyatt — who we met at the Swiftie meet-up — pick up the cake, and they all started singing Happy Birthday to me as he carried it to the table.