You Belong With Me

Taylor's P.O.V.

The whole weekend was filled with nothing but recording and I was exhausted to say the least. I had no time for anything but schoolwork and music. Part of that really sucked because I was practically dying to see Alex again. I wanted to know if things would be any different between us since the kiss, but neither of us had any time to hang out. I no longer had our car rides to rely on since we had to go back to the studio every day after school. The only time I would be able to see him was at lunch time with Jack.

When I came home the night of our kiss, I tried to fall asleep, but I couldn't, so I picked up the phone. I couldn't talk to Alex about my feelings, so I decided on the next best person: Jack. As soon as he picked up the phone, I started talking and couldn't stop. I told him everything, and I mean absolutely everything. I told him about the kiss, about how I felt bad Alex didn't have a date, and finally about how I still had strong feelings for him after all this time. For some reason, I heard Jack's breath hitch in his throat as if he had choked on something and, after I was done, he hastily got off the phone. I couldn't help but wonder what made him so upset. I had a feeling there was something he wasn't telling me, but I decided to shrug it off because there was nothing I could do about it now. Eventually, I finally fell asleep.

Monday morning, I woke up and got ready for school as usual. It just so happened that Alex and I were getting into our cars at the same time, but we had no time to talk, so we just waved to each other. I practically had to speed to get to school on time and, when I finally got there, I went straight to homeroom. My classes went on like normal and soon it was time for lunch.

I was running a little late (it seemed to be a common theme today), so I just met them both in the cafeteria. I decided to pack lunch today so that I wouldn't have to wait in the long lunch line.

“Hey, guys,” I said as I walked up to the table and sat down. “What's up?”
“Nothing much,” they both said looking over at me quickly and then going back to eating their lunch.

“How was recording?”

“It could have been a lot better,” responded Alex. For some reason, he gave Jack a dark look, but then he continued talking. “But, we did get a lot done though.”

“At least you got a lot done, but what happened that made it bad?”

“We're not allowed to say,” Jack said before Alex could respond. “Matt's orders.”

I nodded. Even I knew that Matt was the boss, which meant that he was not to be crossed.

“How was recording for you?” Alex asked.

“Hectic,” I said. “But we got a lot done too. If all goes well, I'll be done next week and then all that's left is editing.”

“That's awesome,” he said smiling at me. I couldn't help but smile back.

Jack cleared his throat, so I turned to him. “Hey, Taylor, what limo company do you want to use for prom?”

“It doesn't really matter to me as long as it's not too expensive.”

“Ok and what color do you want your corsage to be?”

“I haven't really thought about it, but I guess an off-white or pink. What about you?”

“I think I'll stick with plain white since I will be in a tuxedo.”

“Hey Taylor?” Alex asked.

“Yes, Alex?” I turned back toward him.

“Can you please ask Jack to pass the ketchup?”

“Taylor, please tell Alex that he can get it for himself.”

“Tell Jack that it's not that big a deal; it's only fucking ketchup, now can he please just pass it to me?”

“You want the ketchup? Fine, here's the fucking ketchup.” Jack angrily picked up the bottle and was about to chuck it at Alex's head when I put my hand up to stop him.

“First of all, I'm not going to be the messenger girl for either of you, especially since you are both sitting right here. Second of all, someone had better tell me what the hell is going on with you two right now.” They both just stared at me and neither one seemed to know what to say. I couldn't stand knowing that something had happened between them and they refused to tell me, so I gathered my stuff and got up. “You know what? Fine. You two can keep acting like immature idiots, but don't even think about talking to me until you get your shit together. I'm out of here.” With that, I stormed out of the cafeteria and ate my lunch on a bench outside.

As soon as I sat down, I took out my phone and texted Rian. Hey, do you know why Jack and Alex are mad at each other? It's driving me insane!

A few minutes later, I got a response. It's a long story and it's not really my place to tell you. I will talk to them about it and tell them to grow a pair.

Haha thanks! I responded and then flipped my phone shut and rolled my eyes. Guys were so confusing sometimes.

It was times like these that I really wished Kara had the same lunch period as me. I needed some girl talk. Don't get me wrong, I knew a lot of other girls whether it was through class or through Alex and the band, but none of those girls were really my friends. Sometimes, it was nice to have another girl there to talk to about my problems. I decided to entertain myself for the rest of the lunch period by texting her about my problems. She always had great advice. I took my phone out again quickly started typing away my thoughts.

I went through the motions with the rest of my day. I went to class immediately after lunch. Once school was done, I got in my car and drove to the studio.

As soon as I got there, I went through the usual ritual of warming up my voice with my voice coach and then I went right into the studio to start.

Today, I would be recording a song that I had written a few months back when Alex and I had first gotten our record contracts.

“Hey, Taylor!” my producer, Nathan, greeted me as soon as I walked in. He was sitting behind the desk working on some tracks.

“Hi, Nate!” I responded. “We're recording 'Fearless' today, right?”

He gave me the thumbs up sign and motioned me to come closer to him. Before I started recording, we went over the tracking for it and talked about how we wanted the song to sound. That's the thing I really loved about Nate; he went out of his way to make sure I liked how every song was going to sound and he always made sure I agreed with what he was doing. To him, I was the most crucial person in the project and, if I didn't like it, then there must have been a problem. Once we were done hashing everything out, I went into the other room, walked over to the microphone and put my headphones on so that I could hear the track.

“Are you ready?” Nate's voice came over the intercom. I nodded, so he counted down from three on his fingers and pointed at me to start. I opened my mouth and began to sing with all the energy I could muster.

There's somethin' 'bout the way
The street looks when it's just rained
There's a glow off the pavement
Walk me to the car
And you know I wanna ask you to dance right there
In the middle of the parking lot
Yeah
Oh yeah

We're drivin' down the road
I wonder if you know
I'm tryin' so hard not to get caught up now
But you're just so cool
Run your hands through your hair
Absent mindedly makin' me want you

And I don't know how it gets better than this
You take my hand and drag me head first
Fearless
And I don't know why but with you I'd dance in a storm in my best dress
Fearless

So baby drive slow
'til we run out of road in this one horse town
I wanna stay right here in this passenger's seat
You put your eyes on me
In this moment now capture it, remember it

Cause I don't know how it gets better than this
You take my hand and drag me head first
Fearless
And I don't know why but with you I'd dance in a storm in my best dress
Fearless

Well you stood there with me in the doorway
My hands shake
I'm not usually this way but
You pull me in and I'm a little more brave
It's the first kiss,
It's flawless,
Really something,
It's fearless.

Oh yeah
And I don't know how it gets better than this
You take my hand and drag me head first
Fearless
And I don't know why but with you I'd dance in a storm in my best dress
Fearless

Yeah
I don't know how
Oh yeah yeah

While I was singing, I couldn't help but think about the day that inspired this song.

*FLASHBACK*

My mind reminded back to February 15th, the day after Valentine's Day. It was right after Alex and I had gotten back from New York and we were still exhausted from the trip. Getting up the next day was hard to do, but somehow we managed. When the school day started, it was sunny. By the time it ended, it was rainy and overcast and neither Alex nor I had an umbrella. He met me by my locker as usual so that we could walk to the car together.

“Well this is going to be fun without an umbrella, huh?” I said as we walked out the doors of Dulaney Valley High.

“A little rain never hurt anybody.”

Then, as if right on cue, the rain started pelting down upon us in sheets.

“You were saying?” I asked laughing a little bit in spite of everything.

“You know what I used to do when I was little?” he asked. “Whenever it rained, I used to make sure I stepped right into all the puddles. After awhile, I made a little game out of it. I wanted to see how many puddles I could step in each time. I used to get screamed at a lot, but it was really fun. It was kind of like playing hopscotch because I would try to only step in water if I could.”

“What was your record?”

“It was pretty high up there. Somewhere in the 100's, I think.”

“Really?” I asked and he nodded. “I bet you I can beat it,” I challenged him.

“I bet you can't,” he counteracted.

“We'll just see about that.”

“Whoever steps in the most puddles on the way to the car wins. Deal?”

“You're on.”

With that, we both took off jumping and splashing in every puddle we could find like the five year olds that we were. I couldn't stop laughing the whole way, even though we were both getting completely soaked in the rain. As I jumped from one puddle to another, I landed on my foot wrong and nearly fell to the ground but then a hand swooped around my waist and caught me just in time. I looked up to see who my savior was and was not surprised in the least to find that it was Alex. I could do nothing but stare into those beautiful chocolate brown eyes as his wet hair dripped onto my face. I wanted nothing more than to kiss him, but then he spoke.

“You ok?” he asked studying my face for any sign of pain. He pulled me back up until I was standing up straight again.

“Yeah,” I said honestly. “I'm perfect. Thanks for catching me. I would be flat on the ground right now.”

“No problem. I'm glad you are ok.”

“If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were Edward Cullen with those reflexes,” I joked.

He just shrugged. “Remember, my brother was a soccer player. He had to have those good reflexes, so he made sure I had them too.”

“Thank God for Eric then,” I said as we finally made it to the car. He opened the door for me like a gentleman and then walked around to the other side and climbed into the driver's seat.

“So what was your number?” he asked me when we were on the road.

“I don't know,” I answered honestly. “I kind of forgot it after I almost fell.” The sight of his face when he caught me wiped everything else clean from my mind.

“Looks like we'll just have to have a rematch then,” he said as he turned his head away from the road for a split second to smile at me. That's when I could feel my heart melting in my chest. I watched as he reached up to run a hand through his wet and shaggy hair and then my eyes wondered down and immediately noticed how his damp clothes clung to his lean body. Even though I was freezing from the rain, I could feel my face heating up; I could barely control myself and I prayed that he wouldn't notice.

I rubbed my hands together to keep them warm. He must have noticed this because he reached out to grab my hand. Even though we had only just started holding hands yesterday, it now felt as comfortable to me as breathing. I couldn't help but smile when I looked down at our connected hands.

“Your hands are freezing,” he commented.

“Yeah well it was pretty cold outside and we did get really wet,” I responded.

“We'll just have to warm you up, that's all.” He began to run the back of my hand with his thumb. When he first started doing this, my breath slightly hitched in my chest, but I ultimately relaxed.

When we made it home., he decided to walk me to my door.

“Alex, you really don't have to do this,” I said as we walked.

“What's an extra two feet? I'm already wet. Besides, I want to make sure you don't topple to your death.”

“Ha ha, very funny,” I said sarcastically. “I think I can make it to the next door without tripping.”

“Let's not test out that theory,” he joked, but then his face turned serious. “We probably shouldn't have played that puddle game.”

“Why do you say that?”

“You were wearing boots and you almost fell. I should have realized those weren't good shoes for you to be doing that kind of thing in.”

“Alex, come on. Do you really think you could have stopped me? Besides, the worst that would have happened would have been that I fell and scraped me knee or something. Not a very big deal. I've done that a million times before. Remember. I'm 18, which means I have experience with that sort of thing.”

He smiled and let out a soft chuckle. “You're right. I guess I'm just being an overprotective best friend.”

“That's why you're my best friend,” I responded. “No one else looks out for me like you do.”

He just shrugged. “Someone has to have your back. I figured it might as well be me since you have mine too.”

“That's pretty good logic. Anyway, I should probably go inside. I have a lot of work to do. Do you want to come in and we can do homework together?”

He scratched the back of his neck with one hand as he began to speak. “Actually, I probably shouldn't. I have this huge project due tomorrow that I didn't even start yet, so I can't really let myself get distracted, not even by you.”

“Oh, ok. Text me if you finish early and then maybe we can hang out.”

“Yeah, I'd like that,” he said. Then, he pulled me into a goodbye hug and I could feel my lunch swooshing around in my stomach. After that, I waved goodbye and ran up to my bedroom as quick as I could. I immediately ran to my desk and got out a pen and paper and began to write about what it would have been like if I had kissed him in the rain.

I was brought back to the present reality when I heard applause coming from the other room. I looked over at Nate and he gave me two thumbs up, so I took off my headset and walked into the other room.

“That was brilliant!” he said. He looked like he wanted to run up and hug me.

“Thanks! What else do we need to do with it. Do we need to record any parts over again?”

“I think it's absolutely perfect just the way it is. We shouldn't do anything else to it.”

“Really? Wow, that's a first.”

“Yes it is. And you know what that means?”

“What?” I looked at him quizzically.

“It means that you get to go home early today.”

My face broke into a smile yet again as I gave him and hug and he laughed. “Thank you so much, Nate! I'll see you again tomorrow after school!”

I nearly ran out of the studio and back to my car. The whole ride home I couldn't stop glowing. Days like these didn't come that often anymore, so I was going to do everything I could to make the most of my free time. When I got home, I was surprised to see that Alex's car was in his driveway. I guess they must have had another day off today. I decided that I would go drop some stuff off at my house and then go over to hang out with him and see if things had changed between him and Jack since lunch. When I got in the house, I ran up to my room quickly to drop my stuff off and reapply my makeup. I'll admit it; I wanted to look good for him.

Ironically, as soon as I ran down the stairs and was about to go out the front door, I heard a knock. When I opened it, I was surprised to find Jack standing there awkwardly.

“Hi, Taylor,” he said as he anxiously itched the back of his neck. “Can I come in? I need to talk to you about something.”

“Yeah, sure, of course,” I said as I stepped back to let him through. We sat down next to each other on the couches in the living room. “What's up?” I asked once we were settled.

“I need to tell you something.”

“What is it?”

“I-I don't know how to say it,” he hesitated.

“Whatever it is, you'll feel better once you get it off your chest, so just say it.”

“Ok, fine, I'll say it. I think I'm in love with you.”