Superstar

Chapter 10 - I'd Lie

He looks around the room, innocently overlooks the truth
Shouldn't a light go on? Doesn't he know that I've had him memorized for so long?
He sees everything black and white, never let nobody see him cry
I don't let nobody see me wishing he was mine
Yes, I could tell you his favorite color's green
He loves to argue, oh and it kills me
His sisters beautiful, he has his father's eyes
And if you asked me if I love him
If you asked me if I love him, I'd lie
- "I'd Lie" by Taylor Swift

It wasn't the fact that Taylor was mad at Nick. Sure, she was still a little bitter over the fact that he wanted to pretend like what happened in the cabin didn't happen. Deep down, she knew it was for the best.

She came on the tour to work and to build her portfolio with concert photography, something that she had longed to do. Getting jobs taking photographs of concerts in Nashville was damn near impossible unless you hand connections.

That's why she couldn't be mad at Nick. He was helping her do something by hiring her to take photos of him.

The only problem was now, when they go out and shoot in different places across Europe, she falls for him even more.

It was hard to believe that she could like Nick more than she already did when they first met. Of course, the person she thought she would marry when she was 18 isn't the person she wished would walk into her hotel room one night and take her in his arms.

The two weeks since she had been back on the tour had been two of the hardest weeks of her life. She and Nick had kept things very professional and very friendly. He would still come to her hotel room some nights and look at photos, talk about different things and just be Nick. Other nights, she wouldn't know where he would be and it made her wonder.

Then again, she had no reason to wonder. She wasn't his girlfriend and he made that perfectly clear.

That didn't mean that he could change the way he made her feel weak in her knees every time he said her name.

"What about over there," Nick said as he stood on a street corner, pointing at a telephone booth. "Taylor?" She kept looking at her camera. "Taylor?!?"

Shit, there he goes again.

"Sorry," she said, jumping out of her thoughts. She walked up to the street corner with him, not even knowing what he had just said. "That's fine."

"Sweet," he said, waiting for the light to turn so that they could cross the street. "Are you okay? You've been really quiet the past few days."

"I'm fine," she smiled, seeing the telephone booth as they began to cross the street. "Hey, why don't we take some photos with the old telephone booth?"

Nick stopped as they reached the other side of the street and Taylor paused, looking back at him.

"What?" she asked.

"Taylor, you weren't listening to me."

"Sure, I was."

"That's what I said," he said. "To take some photos at the photo booth." Taylor sighed and began walking towards the telephone booth. "Seriously, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Nick. I promise," she said as they stood there, waiting for someone to finish their conversation in the phone booth. "Who knew they still had these? I thought everybody had cell phones."

"You're trying to change the subject," he said as she rolled her eyes. "It's not about what happened with us is it?"

"God no, why would you think that?" she asked. "That's old news, Nick. Seriously."

"Well if something is bothering you, I want you to tell me," he said as the man walked out of the telephone booth and Nick went inside.

"I will, I promise," she smiled, putting the camera up to her face.

Just looking at Nick through the viewfinder, smiling at her was enough to make her cave but she knew she couldn't. Not until her job was over and then she could tell him how she really felt.

How she wished being with him wasn't just a one-time thing.

"Hey Nick, what's up with Taylor?" AJ asked as both Nick and Brian looked at him that night before going on stage. "She's acting weird as hell lately."

"I don't think she is," Nick said, popping his collar up on his shirt.

"I think she's just homesick, that's all," Brian said, trying his best to stop AJ from asking questions.

"I don't know. I don't think it's that," AJ said. "You sure you didn't freak her out when ya'll went on that trip, do ya?"

"No, our trip was great," Nick said as AJ walked out of the room and Nick looked at Brian. "He's gonna figure it out. You know damn well that's why she's acting weird around me."

"I don't think what happened at the cabin is what's making her act weird around you," Brian said as Nick sighed, following AJ out of the room.

Taylor walked down the sidewalk after the concert was over. She had stopped off at a shop to buy some cough medicine and didn't know whether the guys were already back at the hotel or not. The hotel was just a few blocks away and she needed some fresh air, even if it felt like twenty below outside.

"Hey!" she heard someone with a thick accent call out as she turned to walk into the hotel. "Blonde girl, stop!" She turned around to see two girls walking up to her.

"Me?" Taylor asked.

"You, yes," one of the girls said. "You are Nick's new girlfriend, yes?"

"That would be a negative," Taylor said. "I'm a photographer." She held up her camera gear bag. "Nick hired me for a project."

"But you went to romantic cottage with him, yes?" the other girl asked. Taylor stared at her, wondering how she knew that but she knew how. Backstreet fans were like the FBI.

"When?" Taylor asked.

"Around three weeks ago," the girl said.

"Oh, when the guys had a couple of days off," Taylor said as the girls nodded. "No, I went home to Nashville. In Tennessee, where they play country music."

"We're French, not stupid," one girl said. "We know who Shania Twain is."

"Right," Taylor smiled. "Yeah, I don't know anything about a cottage or whatever. I went home for a week and came back on the tour in Prague. I don't think he has a girlfriend though as far as I know."

Taylor told the girls goodbye and made her way into the hotel quickly only to have Brian stop her in the hotel lobby.

"Taylor, what were those girls asking?" Brian asked as Taylor sighed.

"If I was Nick's girlfriend," she said as Brian motioned for her to follow him.

They walked into the hotel bar and Brian asked Taylor if he could buy her a drink. He ordered her a water instead and watched her take her jacket off. They both sat down in a chair at the bar and Brian watched as the bartender gave Taylor a bottled water.

"So thanks for the water," Taylor said, taking a sip of it. "What can I do for you?"

"It's about Nick," Brian said as Taylor sighed. "AJ's asking questions about what's been up with you and I think Nick's getting confused about what's going on with you."

"I'm confused about what you're getting at," she said as Brian smiled. "What are you smiling at?"

"I know what happened at the cabin," he said as Taylor glared at him, not knowing what to say. "Nick told me because he was confused and needed to talk to someone."

"Well I assume you know what he told me," she said.

"Yes, but I also see the way you look at him," Brian said. "I know about this stuff. I'm a married man, you know."

"What stuff?" Taylor asked. "I don't understand..."

"You have feelings for Nick," Brian said as Taylor shook her head. "You don't?"

"Nick's a great guy and I don't want you to get the wrong impression of me," Taylor said, scooting up to the edge of her seat. "I'm not the type of girl that, what happened between Nick and I, well I don't go around doing that with random people. I like Nick and like he told me, we make great friends. We get along well and share a lot of common interests but, other than that, what happened in that cabin was just... it happened in the moment."

"So you're telling me that you don't have feelings for Nick?" Brian asked.

"I have feelings like friends have feelings, but I'm not in love with him if that's what you're asking," she said. "It's not like that."

"Okay," Brian smiled, standing up from his seat. "But if you don't want anybody to know that something happened between you two, you should probably stop acting so weird around him."

Taylor watched Brian as he walked out of the bar and towards the elevators.

There was a part of her that wanted to tell Brian that yes, she loved him. She wanted him. She wanted what happened in that cabin to happen every night.

But instead, she lied.