almost | taylor swift au

chapter 29

The morning after the show, Gracie and Taylor wake up with just enough time for a final breakfast in LA before it's time to go to the airport.

Taylor is excited, not only to see her family but to show Gracie around. The only thing is that her family doesn't know yet, about everything that happened with Jett.

She has no idea how she's going to tell them. She's honestly terrified. They told her Jett was bad news from the very beginning... and then he won them over. They really liked him, or at least they were pretty damn good at pretending. She doesn't want to hear it from them. Any of it. She doesn't want to hear 'we warned you this would happen,' nor does she want to hear, 'oh, what a shame, he was so lovely.' None of it. She doesn't really want their sympathy, condolences, anything. She just wants to move on with her life. To repress it all and pretend that it never happened.

The two girls are relieved to have a trip across the country without any hassles, and after a long flight, they touch down in Philadelphia.

"Have you ever been to Pennsylvania before?" Taylor asks. Gracie shakes her head. "Well, then we'll have to make sure you see everything important."

"Perfect," the other girl replies with a smile. They walk through the airport side by side, making their way to the baggage carousel where they can pick up their suitcases and meet up with Taylor's mom. And sure enough, Taylor's gaze falls upon Andrea Swift almost as soon as they make it to baggage claim.

"Mom!" Taylor exclaims, running over to the woman. Andrea smiles and instantly opens her arms for a hug.

"Taylor, it's so good to see you," she says. "And you must be Gracie?" Andrea turns to the other girl beside her daughter.

"Yep. It's lovely to meet you, Mrs. Swift."

"Please, call me Andrea. My husband, Scott, and I are so thrilled to have you as our guest for the next few days."

"I really appreciate you having me," Gracie smiles. Suddenly, she spots something out of the corner of her eye. "That's my suitcase, I'll be right back."

As Gracie runs over to grab her bag from the carousel, Taylor looks to her mom. "You're going to love Gracie. She's the best. We had the greatest time in LA."

"Oh, it sounded like it," Andrea nods. "I can't wait to hear all about it. And all of your adventures on the last part of tour."

Taylor gulps. There's so much that they don't know. Not only the breakup with Jett, but about all of the fights that they got into leading up to it. Nor do they know about the song that he stole from her.

"It wasn't too eventful," Taylor says, lying through her teeth. She feels bad. She's always told her mom everything, but she just doesn't want to talk with her about this. Luckily, she then sees her bag coming around the conveyor belt, and runs off to grab it.

With both girls having their suitcases in one hand, guitars in the other, and their backpacks strapped to their back, they're all ready to go. Andrea can't help but smile at the two, looking like mirror images of each other. She can already tell that the two are kindred spirits, and Taylor just seems so happy to be in the presence of Gracie.

Andrea likes that. Taylor has never had all that many friends, and making friends hasn't come easily to her daughter. She's kind to everyone, something that makes her mother very proud, but Taylor has few people who she is truly able to confide in and trust. But Gracie seems to have earned a spot on that short list, in spite of having been in Taylor's life for such a short period of time.

"So Taylor," Andrea asks as they're walking out to the car, "how has everything been with Jett?"

Gracie lets out a grunt. She really doesn't mean to. It just slips out of her mouth. She hopes nobody heard it... but she's not so lucky.