in my wildest dreams - a taylor swift fanfiction

23 - we had this big wide city all to ourselves

SKYLAR

Yesterday, Natalie texted me the name and phone number to Kai's cousin, Elliot. We texted for a bit and he seemed like a cool dude, and we decided to meet up today by the Hudson River which was apparently close to the apartments. I had never been there before but he assured me that it was only like a quick ten-minute walk and said he would be very surprised if I got lost, especially if I used Google Maps.

"And you're sure the sound is on and the volume is turned all the way up? I don't want you missing any phone calls," Taylor asked for the fifth time, standing in the doorway to my room as I scrolled through Twitter on my bed.

It had been a while since I was really on social media to be honest, and not just to post stuff myself. Ever since Taylor's birthday, I'd had other things on my mind and the need to constantly check my phone in case Taylor did something wasn't as demanding anymore. I figured that if I were to miss something, she'd just tell me in person instead, or I'd get about a gazillion messages from my friends.

"Yes," I replied to Taylor's questions, holding up my phone with the screen toward her. "See?" I pressed the volume button to show her that the ringer was on and turned to the max.

"Good, I'm just making sure. We don't want a repeat of what happened when you went to see Natalie."

I rolled my eyes at her and looked down at my phone again. "I'll check my phone every fifteen minutes. Happy?"

"Yes, that would be great actually," she said, smirking at me, and I sighed. "Woah, where did the attitude come from?" Taylor asked jokingly.

"Sorry, it's just... I'm startin' to get the kids who complain about their overprotective moms. You're kinda acting like one now." I shrugged and watched as her smirk turned into a grin, and she stood up a little taller.

"That's because I am one. When are you leaving? I want you back by seven at the latest. I'm making fajitas."

I stared at her, trying to figure out if she'd meant what she just said or even registered it herself, but she just continued talking and my surprised expression morphed into a small, closed-mouth smile.

***

"If anything happens, call me!"

Taylor's last words to me repeated in my head as I left the apartment and hurried away from the couple of fans standing outside. They didn't even seem to have seen me so I wasn't worried about them.

Her words made me smile, even through my struggle of trying to figure out which way to go. I mean, come on, I can't be the only one who finds it nearly impossible to know which way to go when only looking at that little blue dot on the screen. I ended up walking for about three minutes only to realize that I was going in the complete opposite direction and had to cross the busy streets again.

Being from a city like Jackson had its advantages, but it had definitely not prepared me for the stressful experience of crossing a street in New York City without a traffic light, when there was literally a never ending line of cars driving past. I ended up waiting for about five minutes until a woman and a child came up behind me, and I followed them closely until we made it to the other side. I looked down at my phone again and realized to my dismay that I'd wasted about ten minutes, just because of that stupid blue dot that didn't tell me which way to go.

After another ten minutes — according to the app but it was probably more like fifteen — I finally made it to the river. It was actually very pretty and they had a bunch of activities out on one of the piers. From where I stood I could make out a playground for kids, and I saw signs for mini golf and beach volleyball courts.