You Belong With Me

Alex's P.O.V.

It was very fitting that today was Valentine's Day. To me, Valentine's Day wasn't just about love, it was about celebrating a relationship that has been through a lot of obstacles. Saying that Taylor and I had been through a lot this past year was like saying the sky was blue. Today marked the one year anniversary of when I first got my heart broken and everything went downhill from there. However, I knew that this time was going to be different. So far, today was better than anything I could have imagined, so who's to say that the rest of the year won't be the same? I felt like, if I lived through the past year, then I could live through almost anything.

Aside from those few months that we didn't talk to each other, Taylor has been one of the only constants in my life. As odd as it sounds, I am almost glad that we didn't talk to each other for a little while. That time when I didn't have her made me realize what I was missing and it taught me not to take her for granted. My life wasn't complete without her. If she was going to make my dreams come true, then I was going to make damn sure that hers did too.

When we finished the song in the park, she looked at me with this amazed look. After all these years, she still seemed surprised that other people thought her voice was beautiful just like I did. There was something so endearing about that look that I just had to have her close to me at that moment, so I put my arm around her and held her close. The smell of honey from her shampoo invaded my nostrils and I took all of her in.

“Are you ready now?” I asked a few minutes later once all the people started to walk away. I looked at my watch and realized that we would have just enough time to get there if we left now.

“As ready as I'll ever be,” she responded with a warm smile that lit up her bright blue eyes.

That's when it happened. All of a sudden, my body acted on its own accord. Without thinking, I reached out and slipped my hand into hers as we got up and started to walk to the studio. When our hands connected, I felt an unexplainable electric current surge through my body. It was unlike anything I had ever felt before. Taylor and I slept in the same bed together all of our lives, but holding hands held a certain intimacy that we had never experienced together before. To my surprise, I liked the way it felt; now, we were connected both mentally and physically.

We made our way out of the park and onto the busy street. It became harder and harder to hold onto her hand because people were coming from every possible direction and jostling us, but we still stayed connected. I led her toward the studio as quickly as I could.

“Where is this place?” she screamed through all the street noise.

“It's about three blocks from here. We should be there in about five minutes.”

“Oh geez, ok,” she responded taking a deep breath. I could feel that her nerves were starting to get the best of her again, so I gave her hand another squeeze as I rushed her along.

“Even if for some reason, you don't get it this time, I know that you will get it soon. I can feel it. This is all going to work out, you'll see,” I said turning to look at her.

“I really hope you're right.”

“Of course I'm right!”

A few seconds later, my head collided with something very large and very hard.

“Ouch! Fuck!” I screamed, bringing my free hand to my forehead where I had bumped it and I looked in front of me. Since I wasn't watching where I was going, I had walked straight into a “No Loitering” sign.

“Are you o-ok?” Taylor asked, cupping her hand to her mouth trying to hide her laughter.

“No! It hurts,” I pouted. She could not control it anymore, so she burst out laughing hysterically. “Stop laughing at me!” I said, trying but failing to pretend to be offended. I couldn't help but laugh at myself.

“Aw does wittle Alex need me to kiss it and make it better for him?” she teased with laughter in her eyes.

“Since you offered, yes, that's exactly what wittle Alex needs,” I said calling her bluff.

She stood on her tiptoes, placed her free hand behind my neck, and pulled my head forward so that she could kiss it. When her lips met my forehead, I felt that unexplainable surge of electricity go through my body again. Ironically, it actually did make my head feel a lot better.

“There,” she said after she was done. “All better now.”

“Thanks,” I said giving her my best crooked smile and we continued to walk.

A few minutes later, we finally arrived at the front door to the studio.

“Oh God, I can't do this,” she said as she began to pace. Before she got too far, I caught her and put a hand on each of her shoulders and stared her straight in the eyes as if to bore my belief into her.

“Listen to me,” I said. “Even if this doesn't work out for some reason, it's not the end of the world. I promise you that I will make damn sure your dreams come true just like you did with mine. If you don't think you can do this for yourself, do it for me and Kara and Jack and Rian and Zack. They all want you to succeed more than anything. Just like me, they know you can do this. Remember what Kara said about how we would be depriving people of good music if we didn't try our best?” She nodded. “Well, the same goes for you. I know you're going to knock 'em dead. Now are you ready to go in and rock the house?” She hesitated and then nodded again, so I took her hand and led her inside.

We were right on time. When we came inside, we found that they were waiting for us in a room next to the studio. We entered the room and two men and one woman dressed professionally stood up to shake our hands. There was a chair with a guitar next to it in the center of the room in front of all the other chairs.

“You must be Taylor,” said the first man smiling warmly at the blond girl and shaking her hand. She nodded and smiled back shyly. “We have heard your demo and I must say that I was very impressed. I'm Jeff Gold, the head of Big Machine Records.” He motioned to the two people behind him. “And these are my managers, Susan Layman and Jim Castle.”

“Very nice to meet all of you,” Taylor responded shaking all of their hands and finally finding her voice. “This is my friend Alex. He was the one that sent you my demo.”

“Nice to meet you, Alex,” Jeff said, reaching out and shaking my hand.

“Likewise.”

“Now, I hate to rush, but I have a meeting in about half an hour, so, Taylor, are you ready for us?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Great. We left you a guitar, so it's all yours. Alex, make yourself at home.”

“Thanks,” I said. I pulled a chair over to the corner so that Taylor could still see me and I wasn't right in her face.

She picked up the guitar and slowly sat down and faced everyone. “This song is called 'A Place In This World'. I just wrote it pretty recently and it's very personal to me, so I hope you enjoy it.” She started to play the first few chords of the song and then her beautiful voice filled the room with sound.

I don't know what I want, so don't ask me
Cause I'm still trying to figure it out
Don't know what's down this road, I'm just walking
Trying to see through the rain coming down
Even though I'm not the only one
Who feels the way I do

[Chorus:]

I'm alone, on my own, and that's all I know
I'll be strong, I'll be wrong, oh but life goes on
I'm just a girl, trying to find a place in
This world

Got the radio on, my old blue jeans
And I'm wearing my heart on my sleeve
Feeling lucky today, got the sunshine
Could you tell me what more do I need
And tomorrow's just a mystery, oh yeah
But that's ok

[Repeat Chorus]

Maybe I'm just a girl on a mission
But I'm ready to fly

[Repeat Chorus]

I watched her as she sang her heart out and I honestly don't think I have seen anything more beautiful. Watching her play was like physically seeing the beauty of poetry with my own eyes. Her face showed such passion and emotion and she never sounded better. She did not look up at anyone while she was singing; it was as if it was just her with her guitar and that's the way she preferred it. The performance was just so intimate and peaceful that I felt like I was invading her thoughts by listening to this song.

I looked around and noticed that everyone else was staring at her in awe. They must have been almost as blown away by her as I was. She finished the song and waited expectantly.

“Well,” Jeff said letting out a long breath. “That was wonderful Taylor, really well done.”

“Thank you,” she said smiling at him.

“Let me just confer with my colleagues and we will get back to you in about five minutes.”

“Ok.”

The three executives left the room and, when the door shut, Taylor immediately came over to me. “How did I do?” she asked excitedly.

“You were amazing,” I said simply.

“But, then why do they need to talk about it?”

“It's just a formality at this point. The manager just needs to make sure that it's ok if he signs you. I saw the way they watched you when you were performing. They had these amazed looks on their faces. There's no way that they are going to let you slip through their fingers, trust me.”

“You really think so?”

She turned around at the sound of the door opening and all three executives filed back into the room.

“So what's the verdict?” she asked nervously.

“Your performance was mind blowing and we can't wait to see more of that coming from you. We are very pleased to offer you a contract with Big Machine Records because we want you on our team. Your voice and your music is too good to go unnoticed,” smiled Jeff.

Taylor had a dumbfounded look on her face. “Uhm, c-can you say that again?” she asked slowly.

“What I said was welcome to Big Machine Records!” exclaimed Jeff. “You did it!”

“Oh my God,” she responded breathlessly. “Oh my God...” It seemed that she was trying her hardest to hold back tears.

“So what do you say?” asked Jeff. “Will you accept our deal?”

“Yes, yes, a million times yes!” Once she got over the initial shock, her face became exuberant. “Thank you so much!”

“We're glad to have you with us,” responded Jeff holding out his hand to Taylor to seal the deal. She shook it immediately.

Susan handed Taylor a of paper and a pen and said, “As soon as you sign this, you will officially be a part of Big Machine Records.” Taylor quickly looked it over and scrawled her name at the bottom of the contract. “Congratulations and welcome to the label,” said Susan once Taylor had finished. “Hopefully we can get you in to lay down some tracks very soon. We are looking forward to working with you.”

“Likewise.”

“Ok, well it's time for my meeting,” said Jeff. “Taylor, it was very nice meeting you and I'm looking forward to seeing you back here again and hearing some more of your wonderful music. We'll see you soon.”

“Thank you so much. I honestly can't thank you enough.”

“No, thank you for choosing us. You're going to do very well. But, if you really want to thank someone, you should thank your best friend over there. We wouldn't have heard you without him.”

“Oh, trust me, I will definitely be thanking him plenty later.”

“Please do. Feel free to look around the studio. As I have said, it was nice meeting you both and we will talk again. Goodbye for now.”

We each said goodbye and watched as the three of them left the room again. As soon as the door closed, Taylor ran and jumped into my arms. Holding her there felt so right; she fit.

“You did it!” I screamed happily with one hand holding her up and the other on the back of her head. “I knew you could do it!”

“I-I can't believe this,” she said. Tears began to well up in her eyes. “A-Alex, thank you so much for everything. I mean it.”

I shrugged even though she was still in my arms. “I figured that I kind of owed you a favor anyway, considering you did the same thing for me. And, again, I wasn't going to go on tour without you, so that would have been a pretty big problem if you didn't have a deal too.”

“You're the best, you know that?” She smiled tenderly at me.

“Nah, I'm nothing without you, babe.”

Her smile grew even wider if that was possible and I found myself closing my eyes and leaning my head toward hers. She began to do the same thing, but then she seemed to realize what was happening and pulled away. I slowly and unwillingly opened my eyes again.

“Uhm, we should actually probably get back to everyone else,” she said turning a tender moment into an awkward situation for both of us. “We have been gone for awhile and they are probably wondering where we are.”

“Yeah, I guess you're right,” I said putting her down. She grabbed her stuff and we walked out of the building.

Once we were on the street again, I took out my cell phone and saw that I had three texts and a missed call all from Jack. I guess I forgot to tell them where we were headed. I called him back and he immediately began yelling at me and saying how he thought Taylor and I had been kidnapped or murdered. Once all the yelling was done, he told us to meet everyone in Rockefeller Center for some sunset ice skating.

When I told Taylor the plans, she rolled her eyes. “Oh great,” she said. “I suck at ice skating. You're going to have to hold me up so that I don't fall.”

I chuckled. “I have absolutely no problem doing that. You are in good hands.”

“Ok, I'll take your word for it. Don't let me down.”

“I'll try my best not to.”

A few minutes later, we arrived at the skating rink to find that everyone was already there. The rink was crowded with people skating. It was extremely cold out, so everyone was bundled up in thick coats and scarves, gloves, and hats. There were mostly families, but I definitely saw a lot of couples skating and holding hands and found myself wishing Taylor and I would do that too as soon as possible.

“Thank God,” Kara breathed. “Where the hell did you guys go? We were so worried?”

I turned to Taylor and said, “I think I'll let you tell this one.”

“Ok well we went to Central Park like we told you. While we were walking around, Alex told me that he had scored me an audition with Big Machine Records, but the catch was that the audition was today. Naturally, I freaked out a little bit, but then he calmed me down and we sang a duet together in the middle of the park which was really fun. After that, we went to the audition and now we're here.”

“Tay, you left out the most important part!” scolded Jack. “How did you do at the audition?”

“She got the deal, of course,” I answered for her.

Everyone cheered and Jack did this weird little jump in the air.

“You know what this means, don't you?” he asked.

“That I can tour with you and we can all become famous together?” asked Taylor.

“Well, yeah, that too, but it means that this calls for a celebration.”

“Hell yeah it does,” agreed Rian.

“And with a celebration must come lots and lots of booze,” said Jack excitedly. You could almost see the wheels turning in his head when he was coming up with ideas.

“But, Jack, we can't. We all have school tomorrow,” responded Taylor.

“Fuck school. We can all just get so drunk that we have hangovers tomorrow. That way, we can stay home and we won't even have to fake being sick because we really will be.”

“Uhm, no thanks,” said Kara disgustedly. “I would rather not purposely make myself sick. That would definitely ruin the celebration for me.”

Jack's face fell. “But, then how are we going to celebrate?” he whined.

“Believe it or not, Barakuda, there are ways to celebrate without getting drunk,” said Taylor.

'Yeah, but that's no fun.”

“Why don't we just throw a big party next weekend? Rian, didn't you say your parents are going to be away that weekend anyway?”

“Yeah we can do it at my house just as long as it doesn't get too big. That sounds good. Is that cool with everyone else?”

There was a unanimous yes. Since everyone was here, we made our way over to the rink and rented skates. When we stepped out onto the ice, Taylor immediately started to slip, so she grabbed onto my shoulder. I laughed and put my hand on her side to hold her up.

“Stop laughing at me!” she said. “I haven't done this since like sixth grade.”

“That's pretty obvious,” I teased.

'Hey! Shut up! You're mean,” she pouted.

“I'm sorry, but I can't help it. It's just too easy to make fun of you.”

“Whatever,” she said, rolling her eyes.

I spent the next few minutes trying to teach her how to skate, but she kept on slipping.

“Ok, ok I think I got it now. You can let me go now,” she said after the millionth try.

“Are you sure?” I asked skeptically.

“Yeah. You go over there and I'll skate to you.” She pointed to where she wanted me to go, so I went. She came skating at me in the speed of light and I swear I saw my life flash before my eyes, but then she stopped short, splattering ice all over me. She took a second to look at the damage she had caused and then she burst out laughing. My mouth dropped open.

“You little brat!” I exclaimed spitting some ice out of my mouth. “You did that on purpose!” When I said that, she just laughed harder, which meant that I was right. “Oh it's on now. You better watch out. I'm going to get you back for that,” I said getting ready to do the same thing to her.

“No!” she screamed and she skated away from me as fast as she could and I chased her for about ten minutes, both of us laughing the whole time. At one point, she even tried to use Jack to hide behind, but that didn't work because Jack kept falling. When I finally caught up to her, I wrapped my arms around her waist and started tickling her. I told her I wouldn't stop until she apologized.

“Ok, ok!” she laughed breathlessly after she had been tickled for awhile. “I'm sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” I asked still tickling her.

“I'm s-sorry for throwing ice a-at you,” she laughed.

“You better be,” I said. I kept to my word and let her go, even though I didn't want to.

“Ah I can breath again!” she cheered.

“That's what you get for playing a trick on me.”

“I'll have to be better at it next time.”

“Who said there's going to be a next time?”

“There's always a next time.”

“Now who's the one that's being mean?”

“Ok, I'm sorry. I promise not to play a trick on you for the rest of the night. How does that sound?”

I pretended to think about it. “I think I can live with that.”

“Good,” she said smiling and grabbing my hand as we skated. I could definitely get used to this.