a sound she hadn't heard before

sixty-six.

Taylor holds the piece of paper from Joe in her hands, reading his words over and over. Inspecting his shaky handwriting. It means a lot to her, that he wrote that note. She knows that they're both feeling the same way. They want to take some time to think before they talk. They're both a little bit shocked at what just happened. At the words that came out of their own mouths.

Taylor sighs, looking at the clock. It's late in London, but back home, most any of her friends will still be awake. Realizing that, she grabs her phone and does the one thing that she can think to do right now: she calls Blake.

It takes a moment for the FaceTime to go through, but Blake picks up pretty quickly. The two haven't really talked, short of texting, since Taylor got to London. On top of just needing somebody to talk to right now, Taylor misses her best friend.

"T, hey!" Blake exclaims with a big smile. "What's up?" She pauses. "Isn't it super late for you?"

"Yeah," Taylor admits, taking a sip of her tea and pushing a strand of hair out of her face. Upon catching a glimpse of herself on the screen, she can see that her eyes are red and puffy from crying. "I just needed somebody to talk to..."

"I'm always here; you know that. What's up?" Blake asks.

"I'm the worst," Taylor says in a small voice.

Blake frowns. "No, no, you're not. I'm sure that whatever it is, it's not that bad."

"No, I'm the worst," she sighs, feeling the tears forming back up in her eyes.

"Okay, how about you tell me what happened?" Blake says.

"It's just... everything has been so stressful lately," Taylor begins, "and with the trial coming up, Ayla is so insistent that she doesn't want to stay with anybody I've tried naming for her. She can stay with Joe, she could go with her grandparents... even Austin and Kristy... I've tried every bribe in the book... nothing. And it's just getting really frustrating, and on top of that, I've been working endlessly to get this show on its feet for opening night. The audiences are reacting great, but there's still been so many changes we've had to make to perfect it. And I'm just really worried about Ayla, and I'm more anxious than I've ever been, and I told Joe about it tonight, and we just... we got into a big fight... we both said stupid things that we regret, but he went to bed and now I just don't know what to do." When she finishes her speech, she stops and takes a breath. "Sorry... that was such a ramble."

"Hold on, you and Joe got into a fight?" Blake asks.

"Yeah..."

"Oh, T..." Blake frowns. "I'm really sorry to hear that."

"He wrote me this really sweet note... we both know we are going to make it right. It's not that... I love him so much. The thing is, that's why I feel so awful. He's so perfect and I was so nasty to him... and it was over something so stupid that was entirely my fault."

"Do you mind me asking what happened?"

"No, that's okay," Taylor tells her with a sigh. "I just... when I had to start Ayla in therapy, I promised her that I'd go to therapy too, and I only went once... I just... I went and I got so scared. I realized how much there is in my mind that... if it got out, nobody would want to like me anymore. Nobody would want to be my friend, nobody would want to listen to my music..."

"T, that's not true."

"It is true."

"I don't mean to be presumptuous, but do I know most of it?"

"You're one of the only people in the whole world who I'd trust with absolutely anything," Taylor tells her. "You know almost all of it."

"And I'm still here," Blake reminds her.