Perfect Release-Round 1

#SwiftiesSWT

I speed walk around my Rhode Island house, trying to get everything ready for my guests. Walking into my kitchen to make sure the food is cooking, I almost trip over Meredith who’s lying in the middle of the floor. Shaking my head, I pause to pick her up, despite her struggling protest. I don’t get why she hates me so much when I give her a place to live and food and water. She loves everyone but me, which is annoying. I didn’t do anything to her besides give her a place to live, food to eat, and love. Meredith squirms in my arms and manages to escape, running off to who knows where. I continue to the kitchen and check on the cookies that I have baking. They should be done any minute now. While they finish up, I add the finishing touches on the cupcakes that I made.

The doorbell rings and I look up from what I was doing. It’s early so I don’t know who’s here. Opening the door, I see my family standing there. I smile and they walk in.

“You do know you’re early, right?” I ask.

They nod. “We’re just so proud of you, baby girl. It feels like you were releasing your debut album yesterday and now you’re sixth one is coming out,” Mom says. I give her a hug and she hands Dad the bag she was holding. “We got you something. Where should we put it?”

“You didn’t have to, Mom. You already did so much for me.” I still don’t know how to return the favor after they moved us to Tennessee when I was younger. They didn’t have to or anything and I want to repay them somehow.

“I know, but this is a big deal for you,” Dad says. He gives me a kiss on the cheek as well as a hug.

I look at Austin and open my arms. “Come here, Aus.” He walks over, jokingly rolling his eyes. We hug and I realize how much we haven’t been around each other. I knew we started going our separate ways, but I never noticed how much of an impact he had on me until now.

They socialize and catch up since we barely see Austin anymore since he moved out of the house. I take the cookies out of the oven and anxiously wait for them to cool off. I should’ve done this sooner, but I wasn’t thinking about that. I was too busy worrying about the decorations and everything else.

“Do you need help?” Dad asks.

I shake my head. “I got this, Dad. Thanks.”

I put everything on plates and get the rest of the food and drinks out. Everything has to be perfect. For the first time in awhile, my family, all my friends, and my amazing boyfriend will be in the same place at once. This never happened because of our busy schedules. I’m just glad that it's actually going to happen for once.

The doorbell rings and I go answer it, placing the tray with a variety of dips down. Opening the door, most of my friends are standing there, smiling goofily. Selena squeals and wraps me in a hug. “Congrats, Taylor! I have a hunch that reputation will become your well-known album based on the sales of just day one,” she says.

I laugh. “Who knows. Come in, everyone!” I open the door even more and my friends come in.

“Who else is coming?” Karlie asks.

“I asked a small handful of fans to come as well,” I answer.

“A handful?” Karlie knows that my definition of a handful isn't the definition as the rest of the world. I want to celebrste this big release with my fans since they helped me get where I am and deserve this.

“Okay, maybe a hundred?” I question.

Karlie laughs, shaking her head. “Let's get this party started!”

~

I walk around the living room, holding the tray out for anyone who wants food.

“Great party, Tay,” Cara slurs.

“Are you drunk?” I ask.

“No, why are you asking?” she asks. I shake my head, smiling.

“This is why I love you, Cara,” I answer. I continue making my rounds, stopping at a small group of fans. They all start to squeal and talking at once about how they’re proud of me and everything. I stay there to interact with them. I hate that I can’t meet all of my fans even though I want to. I argued for the prices to be lower for everything on my website for the merchandise, but my team refused to listen and said that this would be a good way to make money. The only problem with that is that I don’t care about the money. I just want to make all my fans happy and the pricing isn’t one of them.

“Thank you so much for this, Taylor. I can’t believe this is actually happening,” one of the fans say. I look at her and smile.

“You’re insaneswiftie_13 on Instagram, right?” I ask.

The girl stares at me, mouth open. “You know who I am?” she questions.

“Of course. I like getting to know who my fans are before meeting them, Sweety,” I say.

“I love you, your music, and everything about you. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have met my closest friends or my amazing boyfriend,” she says.

“That’s great! Who is he?” I ask. I may know the fans that are here, but only what they want me to know from the private messages and posts, that’s it. This doesn’t surprise me that some of my fans met because of me, but I do find it to be sweet that being part of an amazing family can bring people together in the least expected ways.

“Tejas, who’s here actually,” she responds.

“Ah, swiftcorvette,” I answer.

“If it isn’t too much to ask, can I have a picture with you?” she asks.

I let out a small laugh. “Of course!” She hands me her phone and I take a couple of pictures with her. “I’ll want a picture with the two of you so when you do get together again, come find me.” I thank the rest of the fans and take pictures with them as well before making my way around even more.

As I’m walking over to Joe, I almost walk straight into two people, who both look up at me with wide eyes and mouths slightly open. They each stare at me and one of them starts to apologize, but I refuse the apology. It’s my fault since I was distracted. I’m the one who should’ve been watching where I was going to prevent this from happening.

“Let me guess, taylorsdelicateheart and trained_to_get_along?” I ask. I seeing them have instagram conversations on each other’s posts where they posted a picture of themselves.

Both girls nod and stare at me even more, surprised. Is it really a surprise that I would take the time to learn the basic information about them like their name and name? It shouldn’t really surprise them because they should know me better than that. I take my phone out and snap a picture of the three of us.

“What are your phone numbers?” I ask. They give it to me and I send the picture to them. “Don’t spread my number because I can barely keep up with the messages that I do have.”

“Thank you!” one of them say, who I as Umme. Yvonne stares at me, shocked, probably still star-struck at the fact that I’m standing right here in front of them.

“Anytime,” I answer. I give them both a hug and make my way over to Joe. He wraps his arms around me and we sway to the music. He pecks my lips and around us, people coo. This is the first public event where Joe and I were together and I can’t ask for anything better. With him here, he’s making this night even better than it already is.

~

I walk over to the speaker and turn the music down. “I’d like to thank all of you for coming here, whether you’re a fan, family, or a friend. All of you helped me get to where I am today, especially my fans, those that are here and those that aren’t. I love every single one of you and you’re the best thing that’s ever happened. I’d like to thank everyone who worked on this album with me and was there for me when I needed someone.” I cast a glance over to Joe, who’s smiling. Why does he have to be so perfect? I finish my speech and get everyone around me to take a group picture.

Selena wraps her arm around my shoulders and I can’t help but think how lucky I am. I have my best friends here, my family, and a handful of fans. There isn’t anymore I can ask for. We take a couple of different group photos, one of them having to be a funny one. It isn’t a photoshoot or anything if there isn’t a funny photo. Those are the best. For that photo, I acted as if I was on the phone and looked annoyed, rolling my eyes. After the photo, my parents come up to me with Austin behind them.

“We had a great time,” Mom says. “Thanks for inviting us and great job on the album.” She gives me another hug and kisses me. Looking at Joe, she nods, approving of my choice.

I say bye to the rest of my family and Austin tells something to Joe, which I don’t question. I know he’s probably telling him to not hurt me or anything, but I’m not a little girl who needs her brother to protect her. That was one thing when we were kids, but we’re not kids anymore.

As I walk my family to the door, someone taps my arm. Turning around, I see it’s Sweety and I assume her boyfriend, Tejas.

“Tejas?” I ask.

He nods, wide-eyed. I smile and take a couple of pictures with them together.

“You two are adorable. Keep me updated on your relationship. I might not answer, but I’ll read it,” I tell them.

“Okay,” Tejas, said. “I still can’t believe this is real. You and your music got me through so much with the help of Sweety.”

“I’m glad you got through what was happening. Everything bad that happens is just a setback from the good, which will make you appreciate the good even more,” I tell them. “Enjoy the rest of the night.”

I make my way through again and walk over to my red-headed friend. I love my friendship with Abigail and how we still have time for each other despite our different schedules. Any relationship can work if there’s enough effort from both people involved. It’s just a question on if they want it to work. A relationship isn’t one sided, which is what I learned from my past relationships.

“Congrats!” Abigail says. Her husband Matt is next to her, socializing with the band 5 Seconds of Summer. We still text, despite what the media said about me blocking him because he annoyed me.

“Thanks. I’m glad you could make it. Both of you,” I tell her.

“I wouldn’t miss my best friend’s release party for anything,” Abigail says. We talk and I realize how perfect of a night this has been. I really couldn’t have asked for a better night to celebrate this album with. Everyone that I care about is here, except for all of my fans which would be crazy to have over a million people in one house, and everything went smoothly. Nothing crazy happened and nothing was broken. At least, not that I know of.

I see a white blur running through the crowd and head into the kitchen. Olivia is standing in front of the cabinet where I keep their food. She stares up at me, her big blue eyes staring into mine. We end up having a staring contest, which she wins because she starts to complain and I give in to my cats easily.

“I hope you’re happy, Olivia,” I comment when I place her food down. She immediately starts eating and I head back to the party, which is slowly starting to end. I call taxis for my fans so that they have a ride back to the hotel where they’re staying.

When everyone left, I can’t help but think how successful this was and how reputation became the fastest selling album I had. I can tell that 2018 will become a successful year and I can’t wait to give my fans more than I ever gave them. I collapse onto the couch and let out a sigh. As much as this party was fun, it was also exhausting to throw and plan. Meredith comes down and jumps onto the couch, curling up next to me. I’m surprised she put her feelings aside and decided to lay down next to me. This is going to take time to clean up and I’m exhausted, so I make a mental note to myself to clean this up tomorrow before I do anything else. Yawning, I head upstairs to change into my pajamas and decide to just curl up and relax by watching Grey's Anatomy for the millionth time.