Chapter 30
umm this chapter turned out really long???ย
i don’t know why, but we get some background lore into cameron’s taylor swift fan account which may or may not set up for an event in the future ๐ย
i’m gonna take a break from udpating tomorrow but we’re diving into the lover’s era on monday!ย
hope you enjoy, would love to hear your thoughts on this!ย
~ kathy
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Taylor moved back to the states a few days before the reputation album release, one reason was to beat the paparazzi. They rented an apartment on Cornelia Street, and Taylor had given Cameron a house tour when they FaceTimed, and although they called most days than not, there was still a Taylor-sized hole in Cameron’s life that she struggled to fill.
But in her time alone in London, she made do with it and completed the first draft of her new story, which she put on the back burner for now because it is unlikely that book will see the light of day. She made plans to go back to the states by the end of November, and celebrated with her agent about the success of her new story, The Queen of Death, then she put her English degree to good use and got herself an editing job at the Penguin Random House.
Taylor greeted her outside her new one-bedroom apartment with open arms and Cameron ran into her arms and held on tight. “It’s been too long, I’m cuddle deprived.”
“You’re always cuddle deprived,” Taylor smiled fondly and reached out to help Cameron with her suitcase as the brunette unlocked the apartment, pulling her suitcase into the empty space and glancing around the room. It was bigger than she had imagined when she saw it online, and Taylor had looked at it for her before Cameron rented it, so she wasn’t that worried about the apartment looking too different from its pictures online.
“Well, this isn’t too bad, but I have almost no energy to clean it,” Cameron wished for a couch to flop down on, but she hadn’t gone furniture shopping yet and half of her stuff are still in storage, which was a tomorrow-Cameron problem.
Taylor held up the box of cookies in her hands, and Cameron’s eyes lit up. “House warming gifts.”
“Cookies?”
“Yep, I thought you might have been tired of take-outs from London,” the blonde smirked, and Cameron rolled her eyes and took a cookie without another word.
“I can cook, you know? I’m not that helpless in the kitchen,” Cameron shoved the rest of the cookie into her mouth and Taylor made a face. She swallowed the rest of it before she attempted to talk again. “I make a mean cat-shaped cookies!”
“But you can’t survive off cookies, which is why I also brought you home made pasta,” Taylor held up another container and Cameron gasped and followed Taylor into the kitchen.
“I can marry you right now,” Cameron pressed a kiss to Taylor’s cheeks and kissed the pasta container. “I love you so much.”
“Me or the pasta?” Taylor raised her eyebrows, and Cameron rolled her eyes and opened the container, sighing in content as the smile of food filled the new apartment.
“The pasta of course.”
Taylor held up a fork from the bag when Cameron was thinking hard about where she placed her utensils, it was in one of her suitcases, she just wasn’t quite sure which one. Cameron took it gratefully and they sat together on the counter as Cameron complained about her flight.
“-so then the man next to me started snoring really loudly, and I was really trying to sleep, but I wanted to suffocate him with a pillow instead because no one’s snore should be that obnoxiously loud,” Cameron rolled her eyes, and Taylor hid her laughter behind her hands as Cameron pouted. “Hey! Stop laughing at my expense! This was a really traumatic moment for me.”
“I’m so sorry, my love, would you want a kiss instead?” Taylor wiggled her eyebrows teasingly, and Cameron pressed a finger to her cheeks insistently as a joke. But Taylor leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her cheeks, and Cameron pretended that the feeling of Taylor’s lips on her skin didn’t send a burst of warmth through her body. “Better?”
Cameron hummed. “Better. Now, what about that backstage tour access I was promised months ago when you were planning the stadium tour? I’ve already cleared my calendar for the first show ever and the California show dates!”
“Well, as I like to remind someone,” Taylor gave her a pointed look. “If you had told me in advance I would’ve given you VIP and backstage access. Hey, wanna open for my first ever show?”
Cameron choked on her pasta at the horrific image of her being on stage in front of thousands of people with a microphone and an ukulele. “Yeah, no, that is not happening. You cannot pay me to do that. Also, did you know how much work it took to secure three tickets to your concerts? I had to drag my ass across the town for better wifi in this cafe you know I love, and Evelyn used her CEO computer to secure the Arizona one, and Abigail got the Santa Clara one while I got the Pasadena one. You do not understand how genuinely hard it was to get tickets.”
Taylor took a bite into her own cookie and raised her eyebrows amusingly.
“I clicked into one ticket they claim was open, and by the time I try to buy that ticket it is no longer available! Babes, when I tell you I wasn’t looking at price I wasn’t kidding. I think I scored floor tickets for my night because it was the only one available. Evelyn got a seat that would only see your ass, and Abigail got another seat that would probably require binoculars to even see you.” Cameron wove her arms around widely as she tried to retold her frantic story of getting tickets. It had never gotten this bad before, and she had never in her life had to tried so hard to get into her best friend’s concert.
Taylor finally took Cameron’s hand to prevent it from frailing. “You do know I can give you free VIP tickets, right? It doesn’t need to be upgraded from existing tickets.”
“WHAT? YOU’RE TELLING ME I DID ALL OF THIS FOR NOTHING?”
“I’m sure Abigail can tell you all about her backstage experience-”
“ANDERSON WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU!”
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mae.swiftie13 โข 30.5K Following โฎ
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mae.swiftie13 you do not understand the length i went to get these tickets
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lilswift WHICH DATES DID YOU GET WE NEED TO MEET UP OMG!!
ย ย ย mae.swiftie13 LILY LOML <333
ย ย ย mae.swiftie13 I’M GOING TO THE PASADENA ONE
ย ย ย lilswift WAIT REALLY?? ME TOO!!
ย ย ย mae.swiftie13 *screams in meeting my online bestie omg*
abby4513 You’re welcome.
ย ย ย mae.swiftie13 my best friend for forever
ย ย ย mae.swiftie13 i love you omg
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Cameron walked into the empty stadium with a tote bag over her shoulder, glancing in awe at the bleachers and the set-up for the stage. She had never been in the concert arena before the concert actually started, and all of this was new and absolutely fascinating for her. In her head, she started to draft a rom-com about a singer and a small book-store owner that somehow fell in love despite their differences.
“I think we broke Cameron Elsher,” Taylor brushed Cameron’s shoulder as she walked up, standing beside the brunette as she took in the stadium in her three inch heels. One of the crew laughed before continuing on with his job and Cameron was still too in awe to glare. “What do you think of this place?”
“Umm, absolutely breathtaking? Hello? Just for this stadium and stage alone I’m going to write a rom-com featuring a singer,” Cameron finally turned to smile at Taylor, who opened her arms and Cameron fell into them. She was barely past the blonde’s shoulder with her added height, and she can’t help but feel like a child like this. “Was the extra inches really necessary? I’m five-seven, Tay, but you make me feel like I lost inches.”
Taylor laughed and Cameorn pouted in response, hiding her face in her best friend’s neck. “Come on, I want to show you the dressing room and all the cool stuff we’ve planned! No spoiler, of course, I want you to experience the concert first hand.”
Cameron blinked up at the blonde with a pout, and Taylor looked away. “Please?”
“Nope, you’ve been spending too much time with Olivia, I swear those are the same eyes she looks up at me with everyday after dinner.” Cameron adjusted the strap of her tote and linked her arm with Taylor’s as the blonde took them backstage. Some crew paused and stared, and Cameron didn’t blame them because her friendship with Taylor was never really publicized. Obviously, they have posted each other before Taylor deleted everything and it was no secret, but Cameron has a super power she liked to call ‘The Paps Can’t Catch Me’ where no paparazzi had actually caught a picture of Cameron with Taylor yet.
“I want to see your outfits, and I wanna know what surprise songs we might be getting,” Cameron listed off the top of her head as they walked into the dressing room, and Cameron ran to the sparkling outfits and stopped short just before she could touch and ruin those beautiful fabrics. “These are so beautiful, oh my gosh.”
“One, I won’t be putting on a fashion show for you before the show but you can look at the clothes, two, I want to give you a taste of your own medicine,” Taylor smirked, and Cameron was reminded of all the time she refused to tell Taylor went she would attend her concerts in favor of scaring the blonde after the concert (often time when she was walking backstage and Cameron would have a camera ready to take a picture of her face). “Come on, I want to introduce you to the camera crew too!”
Cameron gasped loudly and before Taylor could ask what was wrong, the brunette was halfway across the room and taking Meredith out of her little play pen in the corner. “My daughter, I’ve missed you so much.”
“It had only been a few weeks,” Taylor raised her eyebrows. “How are you going to survive when we go on the world tour?”
“You’re taking my daughters away from me?” Cameron pressed her nose to Meredith’s fur and breathed in the familiar scent and sighed, even the cat reluctantly accepted her fate of being in Cameron’s arm for the rest of the tour. “Did you hear this? Your mother is taking you away from me.”
Meredith blinked blankly, and Cameron decided that she was still a traitor.
“I thought you hate Meredith and that she was a really evil cat?”
Cameron covered Meredith’s ear with wide eyes. “Of course not! Where did you get that idea from? Mere, don’t listen to your other mother, she is obviously evil.”
Taylor just rolled her eyes fondly as Cameron placed Meredith back down with Olivia, who jumped onto the brunette’s arm before she could blink and she staggered back. Taylor laughed, and watched as Cameron flopped dramatically to the ground and held her hand up. “Help! Tay Tay, I’m being suffocated!”
The blonde went over and took Olivia away from Cameron, placing her back in the pen and took a seat beside Cameron, who swooned. “Aww, my hero.”
Taylor blushed, and Cameron pushed herself back up to a sitting position. “I’ve missed you while you were at rehearsal. I think this is the first time in years where we haven’t shared an apartment.”
“I’ve missed you too,” Taylor slipped her hand into Cameron’s, and they sat together and ignored the unspoken words that still lingered in the air. Or maybe it was just in Cameron’s mind, because in Taylor’s this was a perfect for of reconnection after weeks of being apart.
That was how the camera crew found them a while later, and Taylor explained her documentary and Cameron gladly accepted an ‘interview’ with the producer and they talked about Taylor, and how Cameron had met her all those years ago. Taylor left halfway through to get ready for the concert, but Cameron stayed with the producer, a woman named Morgan, and they chatted casually some more with the camera still rolling.
“What was Taylor like as a child?”
Cameron recalled loud laughters and small smiles and the brightest blue eyes. “Passionate, if you can imagine it. She had always wanted to be a singer, and I actually heard the very first Taylor Swift Original back when we were in sixth grade.”
Morgan raised an eyebrow. “Oh really? Any chance you still remember it?”
“If I did I can’t sing to save my life,” Cameron laughed and hid her face behind her hands. “We actually got into a fight once, and because I really wanted her forgiveness I wrote a song, you know what they say about big gestures. Through the process of that I learned that I cannot sing to save my life, and that Austin Swift will forever have black mail material for me.”
“Not that I have to see,” Morgan laughed, and Cameron shook her head and blushed. “Come on, maybe I’ll ask Austin when we visit Nashville. I think the world would love to know what New York Times Best-selling author Cameron Elsher was like as a child.”
“Equally cute as now,” Cameron finally found her footing again and she flipped her hair, winking directly into the camera. Morgan chuckled.
“And humble too.”
“Of course, I’m almost humble.” Taylor walked back into the room at that moment, and Cameron forgot that she was on camera for a moment as she stared at her best friend radiating confidence in the prettiest black sparkling bodysuit. “Oh wow.”
“What do you think?” Taylor spun around, and another set of cameras followed her.
“Absolutely radiating and ready for it!” Cameron blew Taylor kisses, and Taylor blushed. “You’re going to kill it out there, and the haters won’t know what hits them. Knock them off of their feet, babe!”
Cameron got up and pulled the blonde into a tight hug, pressing a quick kiss to her cheeks. “What’s that for?”
“Breaking legs,” Cameron winked, and Taylor laughed and nodded.
“I’ll see you out there?”
“I’ll be there!” Cameron wove as Taylor walked out of the dressing room with two camera men and some assistants following her. When Cameron went back to the director chair to grab her tote, Morgan was there with a raised eyebrow.
“What?”
“So how long has that been happening?”
Cameron feigns innocence. “I am not in love with Taylor, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I didn’t say you were,” Morgan’s eyebrow rose high enough that Cameron was almost afraid her bangs would swallow it. “Want to talk about it?”
“Nope!” Cameron popped her ‘p’ and turned to the camera man with narrowed eyes. “Okay, that didn’t happen, you were never here!”
Cameron hurried out of the room before Morgan could interrogate her more, and she tried to ignore the obvious fact that she had basically confessed her crush on her best friend in front of her rolling camera crew.
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For obvious reasons, Cameron adores Reputation. It was an album born for the depth of love and it was one of the main things that pulled Taylor out of the abyss. The songs were amazing, and Cameron will always love the music her best friend writes, but as a writer herself, it meant sometimes she analyzes lyrics more than she should.
Obviously, it was art, and there are many interpretations of art, but there were only so many ways you can interpret lyrics like ‘only brought this dress so you can take it off‘ and stuff like ‘I don’t want you like a best friend’. And obviously those lyrics were about Joe before they started having sex or something, but Cameron couldn’t help but feel slightly offended that Joe was considered Taylor’s best friend.
Songs like ‘delicate’ was probably also about Joe (honestly, the whole album was a Joe album and sometimes in her own apartment she would think about what that meant to her), but if Cameron was delusional enough she would think that it was about her. But it was art, and maybe it was about her and Joe, so whatever.
She had never looked so deep into Taylor’s lyrics before.
Most times it would be obvious, and Cameron would take the song to Taylor with a smirk and ask if the song was about her, and if she was right Taylor would blush and shyly agree. If it wasn’t, and Taylor was feeling feisty, she would slap her over the head with the CD and tease her that her ego was too big. So it shouldn’t have been a problem for Cameron to just take a song up to her best friend and ask her for the truth. But for the first time, it felt too personal.
It wasn’t like she needed validation from the album that Cameron had actually helped Taylor through a tough times in her life, but sometimes she felt as though Joe was the only one with Taylor there in London, and that maybe Cameron’s role in her best friend’s recovery was more minimal than she had believed it to be.
The concert was absolutely great though, and even with uncertain thoughts swirling around in her head, Cameron screamed out the lyrics to every song and ran backstage before the bows and Taylor ran right into her arms the second she saw her.
“Eww, you’re sweaty,” Cameron grumbled but held Taylor tighter. “It was so good, and the crowd absolutely loved it, and I absolutely love it, and I think you killed it out there.”
“Yeah?”
“Yep.”
The cameramen caught the moment, and Cameron pretended she couldn’t see the look being exchanged between those guys. She made a mental note to kill a cameraman in her story later when she gets home, who said cameramen can’t die anyways?
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mae.swiftie13 โข 5 minutes
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meredithfanclub started following you. 10:23 pm.
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On the Pasadena night, Cameron found Lily in the crowds of thousands and hugged her online friend for the first time in years. Lily was one of her first followers way back in the tumblr days when Cameron was single-handedly carrying the Taylor Swift fanclub (because if her best friend has no fan, than she was dead, and she wanted Taylor to know that there are people out there who loves her and her music), and since then Cameron had moved to Instagram when it became a thing and gained a steady following. She mostly posts random drawings she makes on there as well as share her excitement for swiftie-related news.
She has made many friends through that account, but the one thing she doesn’t post is her face. She even used her middle name as her online name (Surprisingly, Cameron had yet to tell her best friend that her middle name was Mae) to prevent Taylor from finding the account.
Which was why it was super weird when Cameron found that Taylor was following her through her spam account, and it freaked her out enough that she texted Abigail.
Elsher
ABIGAIL!!
Elsher
SOS
Elsher
WHY IS TAYLOR FOLLOWING MY FAN ACCOUNT?? DID YOU TELL HER?
Anderson
WHAT??
Anderson
No I didn’t tell her, what kind of friend do you think I am?
Anderson
Bitch.
Elsher
JLKDSLJKS
Elsher
DO YOU THINK SHE KNOWS??
Anderson
I mean you posted the pasadena night so you were in the audience, I don’t think she knows
Anderson
Also, was Lily actually an old man? I’m assuming that she’s not cause you’re texting me right now
Elsher
obv lily is amazing, and i’m not that easy to kill, anderson
Elsher
w hat
Elsher
i f
Elsher
t a y l o r
Elsher
k n o w s
Elsher
???
Anderson
Then she knows?? Is that that big of a deal?
Elsher
y e s
Elsher
YES! obviously i’m not embarrassed but IT’S KINDA EMBRASSING!
Elsher
like yes, i am tay tay’s number 1 fan
Elsher
BUT SHE DOESN’T NEED TO KNOW I HAVE A FAN ACCOUNT!!
Anderson
I think you’re over thinking this
Anderson
Maybe she’s taylurking you for a secret session for her next album
Elsher
…
Elsher
Oh my gosh, what do i do if she is??
Elsher
how do i go without having her notice me?
Anderson
ummm don’t go???
Elsher
speaking as taylor’s biggest fan, i can’t NOT go
Elsher
it’s a once in a life time chance to meet with THE taylor swift in person!
Anderson
You have shared an apartment with her for years…
Elsher
exactly, once in a life time opportunity to meet her in person!
Anderson
You’re hopeless. And you’re not even invited to anything yet so just play it cool
Anderson
I really don’t understand why you’re freaking out over this
Elsher
;aa;lkfsklfdsjklfdsa
Elsher
fine, i’ll bother lily instead
Anderson
You go do that ๐
Elsher
๐
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“Who are you texting?”
Cameron almost dropped her phone and she closed out of the texting app and smiled up innocently at Taylor, who was dressed in her pajamas as she climbed into the hotel bed beside the brunette. It was their last day in California, and Taylor had suggested that they get a room together so they could have a sleep over before she officially started her tour without her best friend, and Cameron had jumped at the idea.
“Abigiail, she was being annoying.”
“You would have thought after all these years that the two of you will get along,” Taylor sighed in relief as she laid down flat on the bed, and gave Cameron a pointed look. “Are you going to come cuddle me? I’m going to be gone for months without seeing you!”
Cameron placed her phone on the nightstand and didn’t hesitate to wrap her arms around the blonde. “Come here, you better update me on everything exciting that is happening.”
“I’ll even text you good morning and goodnight,” Taylor muttered, eyes half closed, and Cameron laughed.
“Go to sleep, Taylor.”
“Don’t wanna, it means we’re gonna be closer to parting,” Taylor blinked again and Cameron laughed at how adorable her best friend looked. She pressed a kiss to the top of the blonde’s forehead and they laid together until sleep claimed them.
END OF PART VI
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