1 (jaylor) wisteria hearts and caged folk songs

chapter sixteen.

"I'm so sorry, Joe," Taylor said as they walked back to the car. "I'm so sorry that it's all been ruined again."
Joe pulled her into him, smiling. "Don't apologise, I've had a great time. It turns out the screaming from the top of a cliff with the person you love is actually a pretty liberating feeling." He leaned in and kissed her forehead. "I'm more than aware that this is just what it's like for you, Taylor. I know that you can't escape it. You don't have to continue telling me or apologising. Because I've said this before, but it's all irrelevant. You don't need to worry about what I think, or what I worry about. None of the rest of it matters."
This had brought her to the decision that whilst they were in London, she was going off the radar. She was going to buy a new phone, she wasn't even going to bring her old one. She didn't want to hear it. Any of it. She deserved a break. Her phone wouldn't stop vibrating in the car ride home.

First, it was Karlie, who kept trying to phone her and text her. Taylor wasn't interested in what she had to say, because what she had done was unforgivable. At this point in time, Taylor wasn't sure that she would ever find it in herself to forgive her for this pain. Then it was Scooter himself, and Taylor wasn't sure how he had the audacity to try after he'd conspired against her with who she thought was her best friend. The thought of it upset her again because she just couldn't believe that Karlie had done this. She couldn't believe that her other half, her platonic soulmate, her best friend in the universe, was a facade. It was all a mess that she was tired of cleaning up, tired of feeling as if she continually had to pick up the pieces of herself that people destroyed for fun.

Then it was Tree phoning her and her management, and pretty soon Taylor was sure that the entire world would have her phone number. She was pretty sure that the whole world knew the ins and outs of Karlie's betrayal, and she felt overwhelmed. It felt as if there wasn't anything that she could keep a secret, there wasn't anything that she could hide from the world. It was a relief to get home, drive away from the chances of being spotted by paparazzi, and get away from reality. Because Joe's apartment was a sanctuary. It was a safe haven that she'd never had before. She couldn't believe that she'd found out about this today. On Christmas Eve. With everything going on between Taylor and Adam. It truly felt as if Karlie had stabbed her with a dagger herself. It felt as if Taylor had been dragged back into the drama that she'd been trying with all her strength to avoid.

Joe walked through the front door first, and she could already tell that her family were all waiting for her.
"Taylor-" The three of them seemed to say at once. It was overwhelming, having all their attention on her. She wanted to vanish, to disappear into a hole in the ground, but she just gave a tiny smile.
"You don't even know the half of it," Taylor explained. She tried to make herself believe what had happened, but really couldn't. Her family will have only heard what Scooter was doing to her albums, they won't know what Karlie did. They walked towards the living room, where Taylor sat down on the couch with Joe beside her. She held his hand, trying once again to bite back the tears. She'd thought her friendship with Karlie would be forever. She hadn't even really planned a future without her in it. Karlie had always been the sort of friend where there was never a future without her. Taylor had never, ever imagined a time when the two of them weren't friends. Where the two of them weren't going on road trips or calling each other for hours.
"What happened?" Her father asked as he sat down in the armchair beside her.
"Well... he's keeping my first six albums because they were sold without me knowing, without even giving me the chance to buy them for myself. Even when I offered it." The worst part of it was that this didn't even hurt as much as what Karlie had done. It might have been different if Karlie hadn't helped him. "But I already kind of knew that was going to happen when I'd said I was leaving." Taylor paused, shaking her head. "I think that, as much as it makes me mad that the music I spent so long making, the music that is my right to own, is being stolen from underneath me... I think that's not even the worst part. That's not even the part that makes me the most upset," She bit her lip, trying to stop herself from breaking down in front of this room of people. "But what I didn't expect, was to read that Karlie had been telling him everything I told him. Told him my plans for future albums, everything. And she didn't even seem very sad about it." The anger burnt bright in her chest. "She said that it was my fault, that I was the one to blame." Saying the words out loud was an even harder pill to swallow, and the only thing stopping her from sobbing was the fact that Joe was clutching her hand steadily.
Her mom gasped because she'd loved Karlie too. "You're really talking about Karlie Kloss?" She said, and Taylor felt so relieved that her Mom seemed as shocked about this as she was. "She spent Christmas with us two years ago."
"Yes. She phoned me on the hike, apologising. But at that point, the rumour has already been spread and  I've now got to sort out with Tree, on Christmas Eve, what I'm going to do about it." That feeling had been so right and there'd been nothing she could have done to avoid this pain.