She's Aways A Women

4.0

April 2023

As Lydia, Luke and Jack walked towards his car she could feel herself getting more and more anxious. When they arrived and she saw it was a range rover she just had to ask, "What it's with the Hughes' and Range Rovers, I mean Quinn has one too. Are you going to get one Luke? Cause' if so don't. There are so many cool cars out there. Like you could update an old Bronco! Well that's what I did. I love Bertha. Or you could get a Porsche. You know the next car I'm getting is going to be an old Shelby Cobra. They are such wicked cars." When she said cars her accent would pop a bit.

"I mean I quite like Gracie -Hey Luke get in the back- She works nicely, she's comfortable, she's reliable." Jack feels the need to defend his car as well as have her sit up front with him. Luke lets out a groan but is excited to see where things are going to go between his brother and best friend. The idea would usually not make him happy but the two of them would be like ice cream and french fries, the unexpectedly perfect match. He gets pulled out of his scheming to Lydia talking more about her precious car.

"Aww I love her name. My car's name is Bertha." She sort of deflates with the mention of the car's name. The energy sort of deflates with her. There is something about her that makes her the chandelier of every room. People want to talk to her and she wants to talk to people. Her mood sets the tone whether she likes it or not. Not wanting to be an energy vampire she asks if she can put on some music. Jack agrees not expecting what's coming. Suddenly at almost full volume New Romantics was blasting with Lydia singing along.

Now Jack was not a Swiftie but if she came on the radio he wouldn't change the channel he just wouldn't be seeking her out. He had heard Taylor Swift so many times with Z's awful singing he thought nothing could replace it but she had the voice of an angel. What surprised him more was that when they got to the chorus Lukey was singing too. The next song started to play. It was Taylor Swift again. It sounded quite happy, something about marrying someone with paper rings but when he looked over to her at the red, wondering where her angel-like voice was he was worried to see her crying to what seemed to be a happy song.

Now as much as he pretends to not listen to Z when he would talk about Taylor Swift he knew that this song was off Lover (fine he didn't know that the car told him) and was about Joe Alwyn. He had been getting texts all week about how the two of them broke up and if she knew Taylor and was crying this was all the confirmation he needed. He couldn't watch such a nice girl from what he's heard about and witness be sad and so he pressed skip for 'How You Get the Girl' to play.

He doesn't know how Taylor did it but by the third chorus he was singing along after never hearing the song before. He was happy to hear Lydia singing along too.

"You know Luke, Jack, you should take notes from this song." She jokes with the two of them. He can't help but take it seriously.

They get to the restaurant and Jack takes a mental note to start listening to more Taylor Swift songs so he can talk about it with her. He just wants to hear her talk. It could be about something so stupid like smoothies, or her watch, or what it was like getting her ears pierced. He just wanted to be with her. When they walked through the doors he made sure to hold it open for Lydia but he didn't get away without Luke making a joke about it causing Jack to shove him and their parents to intervene.

As they went to sit down Ryan said something to Lydia that Jack couldn't hear. Whatever it was caused the girl to leave the restaurant. He was worried for the girl, Luke seemed to be too, while his parents seemed more confused than anything. As Luke was about to go after her to make sure she was okay she came back inside in a hoodie. A Bruins hoodie. She was out to dinner with two players on the Devils and she decided to wear a Bruins hoodie. From Luke he knew her friend Lydia was not scared of being authentically herself (which included wearing her OSU as well Boston teams merch in enemy territory) and from her Instagram that she was proud of being from Boston. And as much as he thought he would hate it. He loved it. He wanted this girl to proudly wear his hoodie no matter where she was.