Chapter 27

did i pick up this book because taylor is going to have a new orange era? maybe… 

anyways, if anyone is still here i hope you enjoy! I’m going to pull our babies out of reputation and maybe give them a few kisses 😉 

or not, i might just make it slow burn, we’ll see heh

~ kathy 

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“I can’t believe you move out here to the middle of nowhere,” Abigail walked into the air bnb, gun ablaze as she dropped her duffle bag on the ground and pulled Cameron into a tight hug. Cameron melted into her embrace, wrapping her arms tightly around her friend. “This place doesn’t look half bad.”

Cameron pulled away. “Again, what is with you and Taylor insulting my taste in an airbnb? I think my taste is amazing!”

“Keep telling yourself that,” Abigail waltzed into the living room and gave the room a hum of approval, grinning at the large Christmas Tree that sat at the corner of the room. They were one week into the little getaway, and Cameron had yet to see the beautiful lake she was promised from the blogger (not for lack of trying, but she didn’t really want to leave Taylor alone at the house). “Where’s my best friend for forever?”

“You mean my best friend, Anderson?” Cameron gasped and pressed a hand to her chest. “I thought we settled this a long time ago so that I am obviously the real one!”

“We did no such thing, this winter air is getting to you!” Abigail scoffed and took a seat on the couch with a sigh. Cameron dropped the act and sat down beside the red head, glancing at the closed bedroom door as she did so. Abigail’s voice dropped slightly, and she turned to the direction Cameron was turning. “How is she, really? Not that ‘she’ll be fine’ bullshit I know you’ve been feeding Tree. I heard all about it from Mama Swift.”

Cameron felt a lumped in her throat which she swallowed, trying to crack a smile. “The three of you gossip too much.”

“Cameron, be serious.”

“I don’t know how to be serious without breaking down,” Cameron looked down at her lap, twirling the ring on her pointer finger. “She cries at night, you know? She only does it when she think I’m asleep, as if she doesn’t want to burden me or something. But I just want to tell her that I am doing all of this for her because I care for her, that I loved her. Not because of her fame, but because she’s Taylor Allison Swift and I had believed her since she played me her very first song in her bedroom when we were in elementary school.”

Abigail placed a hand on Cameron’s knees, and the latter looked up with misty eyes. “Hey, you’re not alone either, okay? We’re her OG! Well, I might not be as OG as you but I’m here for both of you, and I don’t want you carrying the weight thinking you’ll have to fix everything.”

“I am the best OG, right?” Cameron grinned tearfully, rubbing her eyes with her cardigan sleeves. “I just wish the past year had treated her better and I don’t know, sometimes I feel like I could do more. Like I should’ve noticed all the signs, and did you know she refused my cat-shaped cookies? She never refuses my cat-shaped cookies.”

“Those are some really good cookies,” Abigail agreed.

“RIGHT! I just feel like I failed as her best friend by not noticing small things like that. Maybe I should’ve given her more reassurance, or, I don’t know, create a fake account online and verbally destroy her haters online. And what is that about interviewers thinking she has too many boyfriends? So what? You’re only in your twenties once so we gotta live while we can! Who does the media think they are to dictate what my best friend can or cannot do with her life! Every paparazzis deserves to go to hell!”

“That they do,” Abigail squeezed her thigh and Cameron sighed again and slumped down on the couch, placing her feet on the coffee table. Taylor would probably kill her if she found out about it, but that was for later-Cameron to worry about. “How about I go ice skating with you? I know how much you’ve been talking about the rink.”

Cameron’s eyes lit up slightly, before they fell again and she glanced at Taylor’s closed door. “But-”

“No but, we’re going. Taylor is a grown woman who needs us, but we can’t help her if we need help ourselves,” Abigail pulled Cameron up to her feet as she declared loudly. “We’re going to go skate on that lake like our lives depend on it!”

“YES!” Cameron pumped her fist in the air and ran to grab her ice skates. She poked her head into Taylor’s room after a tentative nod, sighing when she saw the blonde was still curled up on her side with her eyes closed. “I love you.”

There was no response, but Taylor shifted slightly in her sleep.

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The lake was more crowded than Cameron would’ve imagined, and Abigail held her rented skate tightly in her hand as they sat on a bench by the lake, Cameron on her knees as she laced up the skate for the redhead. Abigail glanced distastefully at the lake.

“Are you sure this is safe?”

Cameron groaned. “If it wasn’t, the town wouldn’t have opened it. It is successful years after years, I’ve read so many blogs about it trying to convince Taylor that I’m even more convinced to go on it now. I’ve never skated out of a rink before!”

The brunette moved on to the other skate and Abigail sighed. “I am fully with Taylor on this one.”

“You two are both traitors,” Cameron sighed, pulling the laces extra tightly just because and enjoying the way Abigail hissed a warning.

“I am not above kicking you in blades!”

“Duly noted,” Cameron moved away and flashed the redhead two finger guns. “All done and fully safe! So, any ice skating experience?”

Cameron walked with Abigail to the edge of the lake, taking off the covering on her blade as she stepped onto the lake. There was fear, but Cameron thought that if she stayed closed to the edge of the rink it shouldn’t be too bad. Plus, she wasn’t here for practice, she was here to enjoy what it was like to skate outdoors in nature. She took a few tentative steps before trusting the ice enough to do a small circle.

The ground was uneven, but that was to be expected from a natural-made ice rink.

“Are you going to come on?” Cameron offered a hand for Abigail to take, and the redhead watched skeptically before taking a step onto the ice. They took one small wobbly loop with Cameron losing blood circulation in both hands before Abigail decided that this was not for her.

“Yeah, no. I can do this on an ice rink but not on lake. I value my life really much, thank you,” Abigail made a face and pointed to the bench they were on moment ago. “I will be sitting over there, you go enjoy!”

“Suit yourself,” Cameron shrugged, and went closer to the center, where she saw other skater going. From research, the lake wasn’t too big, but the part that most tourist skate on is a smaller pond-like part of the lake that was more closed off from the rest of the lake, which isn’t completely frozen off.

The skate was nice, and it feels nice to breathe in the fresh mountain air as she moves across the ice. She smiled against the wind, and let her mind wander for the first time since the whole incident back in New York.

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cammierulestheworld • Following ⋮

Liked by abby4513, lizzieolsen and 12 others

cammierulestheworld the lake everyone claimed will kill me but i’m too tough to kill 😤

📸 @abby4513

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abby4513 good for you. I think a part of my soul is still on that lake

cammierulestheworld you’re just weak 🙄

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Contrary to what Cameron believed, the lake didn’t magically cured Taylor after their two weeks vacation, and she said goodbye to Abigail at the end of the week and drove back to the apartment in London with Taylor in the passenger seat. She was getting better though, or at least Cameron thought she was. The blonde had finally taken Cameron’s advice and was on a search for a therapist (more like Tree was on a search for a therapist, but they don’t talk about the technicality), and she smiled more often.

Sometimes Cameron felt like they were playing a game of tug of wars, and that if she pull too hard it would all fall apart but if she let go, then it would completely collapse as well. She whispered ‘I love you’ to her best friend every night, and on nights when Taylor didn’t want to be alone, Cameron would crawl into bed and hold the blonde in her arms like they had done many times before.

Their tentative game of tug of war came to an end one evening near the end of January, when Cameron found her best friend in the living room with her guitar and a notebook, and just to keep the atmosphere as it was, Cameron hid behind the wall and sobbed into her hands (no one needs to know).

She wiped away her tears before she joined her best friend on the floor with her laptop quietly. Taylor was the one who broke the silence between them.

“Thank you.”

“For what?” Cameron looked up right into captivating blue eyes. She wanted to brush the strand of hair falling from Taylor’s face, so she did. Taylor blushed, but her eyes weren’t wavering.

“Thank you for sticking by me, and quite literally up rooting your life for me and just… being everything,” Taylor smiled tentatively, and Cameron cupped her cheeks.

“Hey, I will always be by your side, no matter what, okay? Remember freshman year when Adlyn or something try to pull us apart by forcing me to stick with the popular kids but I chose to sit with you instead?” Taylor nodded, and Cameron placed her other hand on Taylor’s other cheeks. “Well, remember how I said something really profound that I don’t remember at the moment, but the point is, I don’t care about them. I don’t care about fame, or what other people want. I just care about you.”

“What if I’m not who everyone think I am?” Taylor’s voice was soft, her eyes dipping downward but Cameron refused to break the sweet moment to think about what it all means.

“Then show them who you think you are. I mean you’ve already fell so far from the pedestal, you can’t fall anymore. And even if you do, I will be right here to catch you. So write new styles of songs, date girls even though people think you’re America’s straightest woman alive, I don’t know, die your hair pink! Be who you are, Taylor, don’t let other’s opinions hold you down and prevent you from becoming the amazing person you know you are.” This would probably had been a great moment to leaned in and kiss her best friend senseless, but Cameron was a coward through and through. Words may be her things, but action never quite come so easily.

She pulled her hand away, and watched Taylor scanned her face for something. “I love you.”

They didn’t kiss, but Cameron smiled, and it felt like everything might be on the road to getting better.