march 3, 2016; met gala

there will be no further explanation. there will just be reputation.

taylor swift smiled at the phrase she had just typed into her phone. she didn't know what it would be used for, but it was catchy and clever. she'd thought of it that morning, while she showered. taylor didn't normally shower in the morning, but she had a big event today—specifically, the met gala. and now, she was on her way to the venue.

she looked out the window of her limo and saw the paparazzi desperately trying to take pictures. taylor smiled to herself and put the phone into her pocket. she tied back her short, bleached hair as best as she could, though it was useless because her makeup team would do it over anyway. 

the ride wasn't long. she lived in new york already, so she would only have had to ride thirty minutes, if not for the traffic. her driver had said it would take an hour. taylor was tired, so she put her head on the head rest and closed her eyes.

~

"miss swift?" said her driver. taylor blinked the sleep out of her eyes and looked out the window. they had pulled up to the metropolitan museum of art, where the met gala was going to be held. paps were swarming around the building, trying to get pictures of the next celebrity pulling in. taylor put on her sunglasses and hat, and stepped out of the car with her management team. they formed a block around her and walked inside, trying to dodge the cameras.

once inside, her team left to talk with the people managing the met gala. taylor went to the hair and makeup area and was greeted by her makeup artist and stylist.

"hi taylor!" they chorused. taylor gave both of them hugs, and her makeup artist made her sit down so they could pretty her up.

"what are you going for today?" taylor inquired.

"something bold. not a lot of color. it's going to go with your bleached hair."

"sounds cool," said taylor. she pulled her phone out again. not wanting to plan her album with people watching, she scrolled through her tumblr. most of the posts were about how her fans were waiting for her new album. they had given it a makeshift name, ts6. she smiled, and closed the tumblr app.

"hold still," said the woman. she had finished styling taylor's hair, which didn't look much different than the style she had done this morning. the woman pumped some primer into her hand and rubbed it on taylor's face. she closed her eyes as the woman did her face.

taylor sat still as her makeup artist filled in her eyebrows. she lined taylor's eyes and put more mascara on her already-curled eyelashes. lastly, she took out a lipstick tube and swept a fresh coat of color onto her lips.

"look," said her makeup artist, handing her a mirror. taylor looked. there was almost nothing eye-popping near her eyes; the focus had obviously been drawn to her lips, which were painted a very dark, almost black maroon color. taylor spun around to look at her.

"thank you," said taylor. her stylist handed her a silvery dress that looked like it had been made using the skin of a snake. taylor did not know this at the time, but this outfit would be part of the downfall of her reputation.

they ushered her into a dressing room. taylor undressed and put on the undergarments they had put in the room for her. the stylist helped her zip the dress. once done, they both came out and taylor looked expectantly at them. "and my shoes?"

the team handed a pair of sandals to her. she pulled them onto her feet and up her calves. she took a look in the long mirror and smiled.

"that's beautiful. thank you," said taylor, not having anything else to say. she was just about to go see if any of the members of her squad were here, but her makeup artist took a bottle of setting spray and spritzed it on her face. she shoved some perfume into taylor's hands and taylor sprayed some on her wrists and collarbone. the woman attached some earrings to taylor's ears.

"done," she said. "you look great, taylor."

"thank you," said taylor. she got up from the chair and left to find someone to talk to. she steered clear of katy, kim, and kanye, and found gigi hadid, who was posing in front of the mirror. "look at those nails," taylor said, taking one of gigi's hands in hers.

"yeah." gigi smiled. "i was kinda going with the theme. speaking of, nice outfit. it goes with your hair."

taylor laughed to herself. "thanks. your dress is pretty too."

gigi looked up. "thanks. what time is it?"

taylor checked her phone. "it's time to go."

"come on, then," said gigi, and the two friends left the dressing rooms.

~

taylor plucked a flute of champagne from the drink tray a waiter was holding. "thank you," she said, then turned back to blake lively. "this year's theme is actually pretty cool. i mean, it's 2016. technology, you know." she raised the flute to her lips and took a sip.

"yeah," said blake. "i bet it's going to be some awful theme next year, and it's going to be based on an equally awful trend."

taylor laughed. "exactly why i'm not attending next year."

"i bet they'll come up with something cooler next year. also, on an unrelated note, we're all waiting on your new album. when will it come out?" said blake with a wink.

"oh, shut up," said taylor. "it's a surprise. everything's under lock and key."

"if that's true, please give me the key."

"but you wouldn't know where the lock is." taylor smirked. "want another drink?"

blake fanned herself. "i need to use the bathroom." taylor nodded and left to find another person to talk to, specifically the haim sisters. she drained her champagne flute and handed it to a passing waiter. then, she headed to the refreshment table, making sure to steer clear of kim kardashian, who was in her line of sight. taylor maneuvered around the dance floor, her eye on the food table. once there, she was reaching for a fruit skewer when she bumped hands with someone. taylor looked up, expecting it to be one of her friends. it wasn't. it was a man whom she didn't recognize. he looked quite young.

"sorry," taylor mumbled. "what's your name?" she asked casually. she hadn't ever seen him before. perhaps he had just gotten his big break and this was his first met gala.

"joe alwyn. i'm an actor. i'm going to be in billy lynn's long halftime walk. i mean, i am in billy lynn's long halftime walk. it's just not out yet, you know."

taylor laughed. "i'll check out the trailer. what's it about?"

taylor listened patiently as joe alwyn talked about his film. he looked pretty excited. taylor couldn't blame him. it did seem like a good movie, or maybe he was just hyping it up. 

"that's cool," said taylor, after he had finished. "i'll go watch it when it comes out."

taylor started to look for friends. she craned her neck for blake lively, gigi hadid, karlie kloss, or any of the haim sisters, but she couldn't see any of them. she might as well walk around alone or stick with joe alwyn, who didn't look like he knew anyone here.

she was turning around to find joe when he said, "so. the legendary taylor swift."

"the one and only." taylor smiled. "so, is this the first time you've been here?"

"yeah. it seems pretty cool. i got to meet some celebrities i've always wanted to meet. including you." he shoved his hands in his pockets and grinned. joe reminded taylor of the popular jocks at school, who could get a girl in ten seconds. some boys, including her exes, were trying too hard, but joe didn't try at all, though.

he smiled. "is that tom hiddleston? motioning to you?"

taylor shrugged. "oh, tom? we just met today. anyway, want to exchange numbers?"

"yeah, sure," said joe. he looked expectantly at her. suddenly, she realized that she had not brought her phone with her.

 "oh, shit," taylor said. "i didn't bring my phone with me." she grimaced. "i'm sorry."

"that's all right," said joe quickly. he pulled out his own phone. "i'll text you." he handed her his phone. taylor typed her number in.

"here. see you around?" she said, handing back his phone.

"yeah," said joe.

there was a pause, and then taylor said, "also, sorry about asking this, but how old are you?" 

strangely, he didn't show any surprise. maybe he thought that she was wondering about his age for professional purposes. like, "oh, he's so young and he's just graduated from college and he's already doing a movie!"

"twenty-five," said joe.

he was younger than taylor's exes, but he acted like such a man. taylor smiled at him. "see you."

"see you," said joe, and he left. taylor wanted to hang out with him sometime, but she had other things to do. after all, tom was waiting.

october 3, 2016

taylor sat cross-legged on the couch in her beverly hills residence. olivia was curled up, sleeping, and meredith purred next to taylor. she was on her laptop, emailing jack antonoff about a new song idea. she had a couple lyric fragments stored in a lyric book, and she typed those fragments into the email.

she attached a voice memo of her humming the chorus and part of a verse to the email, and hit send just as her phone buzzed with a new message.

taylor picked up her phone, wrapping her fluffy throw around herself. it was joe alwyn. he had faded from her life. the last time she'd seen him in the flesh was at the met gala, before her reputation had come crashing down.

taylor still texted him once in a while, and they would chat about their latest endeavors, or about the news. taylor expected this text to be about those topics as well. 

she looked at the message. it was a simple hi, but the ... of his typing appeared. joe finished typing and hit send, and the message popped up on taylor's phone. it said, wanna grab some food? i'm in l.a.

taylor paused. their relationship had done no more than skim the surface. they had made small talk via text, but never anything else. now, he wanted to go out and have dinner with her. but after all, people went out with strangers to see if they could be boyfriend or girlfriend material, so why not go out to dinner with joe? he wasn't a stranger, exactly.

sure, she finally texted back. the hungry cat?

joe sent back a frowny face. it's so expensive.

don't worry. my treat. also, if you come to california, you MUST eat there. they have the best seafood.

a few seconds later, joe texted back. great! how about tomorrow, eight p.m.?

taylor sent him an okay and put her phone to sleep.

joe was a nice person, someone she could be friends with. she was definitely open to new friends. however, she was definitely not open to another romantic relationship.

her phone buzzed again. joe had texted, can't wait!

and then, ...to see you again, of course.

he was guilty of double-texting, but that only made him seem more endearing to her. taylor could easily get a man wrapped around her finger, but she didn't want to play that game anymore. if she got to know people, it would be because she wanted a friendship, not a relationship. but any sort of relationship, whether romantic or not, was still a game.

   she smiled to herself, running her fingers through meredith's soft fur. baby, let the games begin.

a/n: so that was my first chapter! first impressions make all the difference (from prior experience) so i hope i did well with this first chapter. if you see any typos/inconsistencies/etc in any part of my novel, please drop an inline comment so i can fix it. anyway thanks for reading 💕