The Guitarist (Hayley Williams and Taylor Swift AU)

Prologue

Twenty-two-year-old Hayley Williams sat on the couch in her best friend Zac's apartment, strumming her black and white Fender guitar absentmindedly. She'd been taught to play when she was a child by her grandfather before her mother moved her from her home in Mississippi to Franklin, Tennessee when she was thirteen. This meant that she had to leave everything she knew behind and start fresh, it meant leaving her father, her half-sisters, grandparents, and friends behind. It was rough and Hayley didn't make many friends in her new school for a long time... until she met Zac who introduced her to his brother, Josh, Jeremy and then Taylor York. The five teenagers became great friends and then things turned weird after Josh asked Hayley on a date. Taylor got really jealous for no particular reason and fell out with Josh. They argued and bickered until they went their separate ways in high school. Hayley hadn't seen Taylor since. She missed him, he'd helped her perfect her guitar skills in middle school, building on the knowledge her grandfather had instilled in her. Josh and Jeremy had moved away for college after high school and she hadn't seen or really spoken to them since. This left just Hayley and Zac, they were really close and Zac's girlfriend didn't mind that Hayley was around a lot, she understood that Zac was really Hayley's only friend.

Zac suddenly burst into the living room from the bathroom, causing Hayley to nearly drop her guitar, his phone in his hand. "Hales, you have to do this." He passed Hayley the phone.

Hayley looked at the phone screen, perplexed, frowning curiously.

Taylor Swift is looking for a new guitarist for her band after the departure of the previous guitarist due to his wife's pregnancy.

Hayley looked up at Zac, her frown deepening. "Are you insane?" She asked, holding the phone back out to him. "I'm not good enough for that. I could never play for The Taylor Swift."

"Oh come on." Zac said, waving his hand in the hair dismissively. "You're incredibly. It's not like you're playing for Bon Jovi or Ozzy Osborne or something. It's just Taylor Swift." He shrugged and sat down on the couch beside his best friend, taking her small pale hand from the neck of the guitar. "And besides, everyone at the Mockingbird thinks you're incredible. It's crazy that you haven't been discovered yet." He squeezed her hand supportively.

The Mockingbird Café was Hayley's day job. She was a waitress, nothing special. She took orders, served customers and occasionally played music for them. At night, Hayley would sit at home, alone, and write music. So far, she had written three albums and an ep. The sheet music lay scattered around her apartment, waiting for the day she got discovered. But that day had yet to come and Hayley was okay with that. She'd accepted that she was nothing special, one in a million people looking to sign a record deal so she'd convinced herself it would never happen.

"Zac..."

"Hayley..."

Hayley sighed and shook her head. "It's not going to happen. I'm just not good enough." She said half-heartedly, looking down at her hand still on the guitar.

At this moment, Zac's girlfriend came home from work, tired and warm, kicking the front door closed. She came into the living room, dropped her keys onto the coffee table and sighed, running her fingers through her long dark hair and stretching. She yawned.

"Oh, good, Alice, your home. Now you can help me convince Hayley that she should audition to be Taylor Swift's new guitarist." Zac said, dropping his best friend's hand and getting up to kiss his girlfriend on the cheek.

Alice looked over at the pastel grey haired girl on the couch with her hauntingly bright blue eyes and smiled softly. "Zac is right, you should totally audition." She said softly.

Hayley shook her head dismissively, her hair falling around her face like a shield under her beanie. "You guys are insane. I'm not that good."

"Hayley, you've written a bunch of songs that everyone in the Mockingbird loves. They ask for you to play more often than what you do. They want to hear more from you. I think it would blow their minds to hear that you made it." Zac said coolly, wrapping his arm around his girlfriend's waist.