"Okay, hear me out. We are stuck in the house with nothing to do, we could do something productive while we have time to kill."
"We wrote and released an entire album, Grace. What sounds more productive than that?"
Quarantine is driving them up the...
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"How do you think Grace is gonna like, feel about this?" Jack asked on the phone with Taylor. They had been writing while she was sitting in her new, makeshift sound booth in the guest bedroom. The cats were playing on the bed and Taylor hadn't gotten out of her pyjamas that day, it was nearing four in the afternoon.
"Uhm, I don't know!" Taylor admitted with slight cheer in her voice, hoping for the best. They were writing a song that was very personal but not to her. She was writing about addiction and feeling like you were having a hard time adjusting. It wasn't her usual style, it wasn't something they'd discussed beyond private conversations.
There had been light speculation about Grace being an alcoholic. A scene in Miss Americana where she had water while Tree, Andrea and Taylor had wine had drawn people to that conclusion or about pregnancy, which was ridiculous in Taylor's opinion. Her water at shows and never beer with Taylor's friends was also a hot topic, people definitely questioned it.
Grace had some miraculous ability to walk through New York and not get noticed unless she was with Taylor. Taylor had the ability to walk through London and not get noticed unless she was with Grace which was handy when they visited Grace's sister a few times last year. They found it hilarious, but the nice thing was that she could walk to AA or down the block to pick up oat milk when they ran out without people swarming and taking photographs. Otherwise, Grace was even more recognizable because of her affiliation with Taylor.
"I don't understand what it's like to have an everyday struggle like she does on that level. She's an alcoholic and so are my brother-in-law and sister-in-law so I'm surrounded by people who do. They're actively trying every single day not to drink, not to go off the deep end and take pain killers, not to feel like they failed at something because of what was engraved into them while growing up. There are so many struggles that this could apply to... so I hope they're okay with it but I'm going to have to ask them all because I'm thinking about them right now and it's not some scorned ex. This is my family, these are the people I chose to have in my life and I don't want them to be uncomfortable if this goes on the record."
"Is that what's happening here? Have you got a record going?" Jack inquired.
"I've been writing for about a month, it's starting to come together so fast. I didn't write much last week, honestly. We were supposed to get married on Saturday and we spent the entire day in bed crying and eating ice cream. That's what inspired this kinda— Grace was so sad, she was just sitting over this like, half gallon container of ice cream crying and I asked if she wanted to go for a walk and she just said that it was taking everything in her not to drink so she didn't think she could get out of bed. She just looked at me and said, this is me trying to hold myself together. It broke my heart, it genuinely shattered me into tiny little pieces like a window during a hurricane."
"Shit," Jack breathed out and although Taylor couldn't see his face, she could tell what it looked like by his reaction, "There's a billion ways people are struggling right now and I hope this goes on the record because you know what, it feels like it could help a lot of people."
