backlogged dreams & day old teas

XXV - the archer

30th January 2019

Taylor woke up to her phone buzzing with notifications. She rubbed her eyes and yawned, still feeling tired. She looked over and saw Joe's side of the bed was empty. She turned around again to face her bedside table, her eye catching the note she missed earlier.

Hi, Love
I've gone to see a friend— she called me very distressed. I'll be back by lunchtime, and I'll bring takeout. Love you.
Joe

Taylor sighed. She got up to use the toilet, but not without a bit of a struggle first. She was six months along now, and her belly made it impossible for her to even see her feet. When she returned to their bedroom, she propped a pillow up and sat down on the bed again, reaching for her phone.

A few weeks ago, she had a movie premiere to attend and the movie she had written, "Dancing With Our Hands Tied" premiered. It was well received by critics and the general industry, and it had its first showing in the theatres last night. Being pregnant, she was too tired to stay up and watch the public's reactions and updates to it so she was only waking up to them now.

She clicked the twitter app open and scrolled through her timeline. It was so messy that she was confused, so she scanned through the hashtags for tweets that were related to the movie.

She widened her eyes as she couldn't believe what she saw. #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty was trending at number 1. She clicked into the hashtag to look further into it, finding a tweet that summarised everything.

user @148174327872 : The movie was overall amazing, but this single quote had me shaking my head in dismay. @taylorswift13 really? I thought better of you. 🐍🐍🐍🐍

The quote was "She goes through men like a train." Yes, it was misogynistic and slut-shaming, but, in her defense, Taylor hadn't actually written that line. The director had added a few things without her knowledge, but since the changes were so minor she still took all the writing credit. She was framed for putting that quote in the movie now.

Taylor felt her breath become laboured and sweat was dripping down her back. Tears sprang to eyes, sliding down and littering her puffy red cheeks like a broken string of pearls. Joe wasn't here to calm her down. She was on her own. One of her worst fears was to be framed by someone. She managed to click out of the app through her blurred vision and sent Joe a quick text, asking for him to return as soon as possible.

She paced around the room, an invisible cloud of smoke pushing her as if it were a strong force. This shouldn't affect her as much as it was. She had to calm down. This wasn't good for her or Willow.

Her phone pinged and it was Joe replying to her message. He said that it would be at least half an hour before he would be able to return. She sighed. Her phone rang again, and it was Tree, her publicist, calling.

"Hey Taylor, I assume you've gone on twitter this morning. How are you holding up?" Tree questioned, concerned.

"Not well. I have no idea why this is affecting me that much, I never let these things get to me. But then again, I've never been cancelled by the mass media before." Taylor laughed sarcastically.

"I think," Tree paused for a second. "The best thing you could do right now is to tweet a paragraph clearing up everything. If people choose to believe you, they will, but if they don't, well— there's not much you can do about it."

"Let's just hope they choose the better option then. It's 11 am, and I'm already feeling exhausted."

"Email me the draft as soon as possible then, and go take a nap. You need it. Is Joe home?" Tree asked, worriedly.