the stars in your eyes | t.s. one shots

sparkly beads and stretchy string (part 1)

She stares at her iPhone screen in disbelief, letting out a little chuckle at the idea of such a burly man fumbling around with sparkly beads and stretchy string.

A friendship bracelet.

She never thought, when she penned the lyric in 'You're On Your Own, Kid,' that it would go so far. That not only would people be making friendship bracelets for her concerts, but for other concerts, other events of all sorts, all across the world.

And now, here a football player is, trying to get her attention with one of those bracelets.

And... it might just be working. Because the more that she thinks about it, the more that she can feel her heart racing. The more that she can feel butterflies rising in her stomach. He really did put in the effort. Maybe he at least deserves her time of day in return.

It's not been a year yet, since she broke it off with Joe. Six years of her life, and nothing to show for it. But, it was over way before they ended things. She knew that in her heart of hearts. It was over two years ago, when she asked if he thought he'd ever want to get married, and he said he just wasn't too sure, that maybe he would when he was older but right now, he had too hard of a time seeing himself settling down in that way.

That hurt. They had everything but the ring, but he never wanted to put that sort of a commitment on it. They were living together, they had a cat together... hell, she was writing songs with him. That's not a part of her life that she lets just anyone into. It wasn't a part of her life that she'd ever even thought about letting a partner into. But she'd let him in. He'd been beside her as she scribbled the lyrics in her journal. He'd been beside her in the studio. He'd been waiting at the door for her when she brought home the Grammy- even if he hadn't wanted to be at the awards show.

They were over last fall, when he said that he wanted a break, when he went home to England for three weeks to 'clear his head' after they'd had an argument. They had tried to hold on after he came back to New York. They really thought they'd be able to survive it. But it was never the same after that. It was like she was always afraid of him just running out again on her. She was always tiptoeing around, walking on eggshells for fear of scaring him off.

So, though they officially ended less than a year ago, it's been a lot longer than that since she felt herself falling out of love with him. Since she started wondering how much longer it was going to be worth holding on before she knew that they would inevitably fall apart.

She had one brief fling, back in the spring. Her friends had told her that she needed to have a 'hot girl summer,' so she'd tried. She couldn't bring herself to do it. If there wasn't an emotional connection, she couldn't force herself to have a physical one. Especially not after faking all of it for so long with Joe.

But maybe... just maybe... it's time to try to find that emotional connection again. Something wonderful, something real.

She picks up her phone and does the one thing that she always does when she needs somebody else's perspective on the situation: she calls her mom.

Andrea Swift picks up on the second ring. There is nothing in the world that she treasures more than her daughter's daily calls. But she's not expecting to hear what Taylor has to say today, most certainly...

"Hey Mom."

"Hi sweetie. How are you?"

Taylor bats around the small talk. She just wants to jump right in. "I've got a... situation... would you mind giving me your thoughts?"

Andrea furrows her brow. "What's up honey?"

"Do you know the Kelce brothers? They play football... Jason's on the Eagles, Travis on the Chiefs?"