You Belong With Me

Alex's P.O.V.

The second I saw Taylor fall off the couch and hit the floor, my heart stopped beating. My lungs were empty of air, yet my body was in adrenaline mode. Eventually, my heart started its rhythm again, but this time, it felt like it was going to explode out of my chest. I could feel the breath hitching in my throat and my blood pressure rising rapidly. Seeing her unconscious made it hard to breathe. My hands trembled as I knelt down and shook her body. No one else seemed to know what to do.

“Taylor, wake up!” I nearly screamed as my face turned red. “Come on, baby, wake up!”

It seemed like an eternity until her eyelashes finally fluttered and she opened those beautiful light blue eyes. She sat up slowly and put her hand on top of her forehead where she had hit it on the ground. I couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief. When she saw all of us standing over her with concerned looks on our faces, she crinkled her eyebrows together in confusion. “What happened?” she asked. “Why am I on the floor and why are you all looking at me like that?”

“Matt just told us that we're touring together with Cobra Starship, Boys Like Girls, and Paramore,” Rian explained. “I guess it was just too much good news for you.”

“Oh no!” she waled, covering her face with her hands. “I fainted? How embarrassing!”

“How are you feeling?” I asked, the concern not leaving my voice. “Can I get you anything?”

She took my hand and rubbed comforting circles on the back of it with her thumb. “Alex, I'm fine,” she said as she looked into my eyes. “Don't worry about me.”

“That's a tall order,” I responded. “You should at least drink some water. You still look kind of pale. Go lay on the couch while I get you some water. Does anything hurt?”

“Really, I'm fine!” she insisted.

“Humor me,” I begged as I pulled her up off the floor by her arm and guided her over to the couch to lay down. “Does your head hurt?”

“A little,” she admitted.

Once she laid down on the couch, I kissed the top of her forehead and went to get her some water while Jack made sure she didn't fall off the couch again. As I filled her cup with water, I chuckled as I heard her tell everyone else to either stop staring at her like she was an animal at the zoo or leave the room. It appeared that Rian, Zack, and Matt failed at this assignment, so she kicked them out, but not before threatening to start a rumor that Rian liked to masturbate to gay porn at night before bed, Zack was on steroids, and Matt only had sex with prostitutes (male or female) if they told anyone else about what had just happened. My girlfriend really had a way with words.

When I came back into the room, Jack was sitting on the swivel chair facing Taylor and they were laughing at the looks on the other guys' faces as they left the room. I could not help but crack a smile myself; Rian looked legitimately scared. I sat down next to the couch and handed her a glass of water and some aspirin and she took it willingly.

We heard a tentative knock and I turned around just as Matt popped his head in the door. Taylor gave him the death stare and he cowered a little bit. “I'm leaving, I'm leaving,” he said. “I just needed to tell Jack and Alex that their breaks are over.”

“Alex stays with me for a few more minutes,” Taylor demanded darkly as her eyes bore into his soul.

He gulped and then quickly said “okay” in a high-pitched voice and his head disappeared as the door shut. Once he was gone, all three of us burst out laughing. Once Jack regained his composure, he gave Taylor a hug, told her to feel better, and left us alone.

“How's your head?” I asked.

“Better now, thanks to you,” she said smiling at me. “I guess I was just so happy that I was too overwhelmed. God, I can't believe we're touring together and with Paramore! They are one of my favorite bands. Hayley Williams is even from Nashville, which is where I was born and she's one of my idols. This is going to be amazing, I can just feel it! I never thought life could get any better, but it just did.” Her whole face was glowing in pure happiness.

“I think it's going to be one of the best times we've ever had,” I agreed. “You have to promise me something though.”

I put my forehead against hers and felt her breath on my face as she asked, “What's that?”

“You have to promise me that you won't faint again. You scared the shit out of me.”

She merely chuckled and said, “I'll try my best.” Her lips closed the space between our faces as they met mine.

A few minutes later, there was another knock on the door and Jack came in to tell me that it was time to get back to work. It appeared he was the only one who had the balls to be in front of Taylor. I made sure that she had everything she needed and would be ok, then I gave her one last kiss and went back to the vocal booth. Matt immediately told me where to start.

Two hours later, the song still wasn't where it needed to be. When Matt stopped the recording for the millionth time, I let out a frustrated sigh. “Fuck! I don't know why I can't get this!”

“I think you need to just take a deep breath and relax,” Matt responded, pressing a button and speaking into the microphone so that I could hear him through my headphones from the other side of the booth. “Think about all the things that inspired that song.”

I tried to do as I was told, but I still could not get out of the mentality that, out of all the songs on the album, this was the one that had to be perfect and I kept fucking it up. I felt like I wanted, no needed, to punch the wall. As I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself down, I nearly jumped as someone touched my shoulder. I turned around to see my girlfriend laughing at me. I took off my headphones so that I could hear her.

“Sorry,” she chuckled. “I didn't mean to scare you. Anyway, I just thought I should remind you that we promised our parents we would join them for dinner at P.F. Chang's tonight and it's already getting pretty late.”

I smacked my hand to my forehead and exclaimed, “Shit I totally forgot! We're not done yet. I keep fucking it up and I don't know why.”

She walked up and took my face in both her hands. “Look at me, Alex,” she demanded and my eyes met hers. “This song is amazing and, once it gets released, everyone else is going to love it too. Just sing it from your heart. It's as simple as that. I know you can do it and I'm going to stay in here with you and keep saying the same thing until you do. Now, sing.” She put the headphones back on my head. I watched her face as the notes began to come out of my mouth and, by the end of the song, I knew that I had finally gotten it right.
________________

Half an hour later, Taylor and I walked into P.F. Chang's careful to not hold hands. Our parents still did not know about our changed relationship and we decided we would tell them together, but we did not want to give anything away too quickly. We were both extremely nervous about how they would react to the news, but we thought we should probably tell them sooner rather than later. As we approached the table, our parents stood up to give us each a hug. When we sat down, we began to talk about normal things such as how our days were and different things that were going on in each of our lives. All the while, Taylor and I squeezed each other's hands under the table and smiled at each other every chance we could.

“So, what do you two have to tell us?” my mom asked us as the waiter served our drinks.

“What?” I asked.

She motioned toward both of us with her hands. “You two keep smiling at each other when you think we're not looking. Clearly, there's something to tell.”

I looked over at Taylor and she just shrugged and nodded. It was now or never. I took a deep breath and began to speak. “Taylor and I were going to wait until a little bit later tonight to tell you this, but... we're together now. We're a couple.”

Silence.

My stomach gurgled and I squeezed Taylor's hand and nervously bit my lip as we both looked at our parents' faces. After about thirty seconds, my dad did the last thing I would have ever expected him to do; he clapped. “Well, it's about time!” he said as he got up and leaned over to give me a hug and clap me on the back. I couldn't find the words to respond, so my mouth just hung open. I looked to my left and saw that Taylor was just as surprised as I was as he moved to hug her.

What floored us even more was that, after my dad had broken the silence, everyone else reacted the same way he did. It seemed Taylor and I had worried for nothing. We never thought in a million years that our parents would be happy that we were together. In fact, happy didn't even begin to describe it. They were acting as if we were practically engaged.

“Don't looked so surprised,” laughed Barbara, Taylor's mom, as she returned to her seat.

“I don't get it,” Taylor responded. “We thought you guys would be upset.”

“Why would we be upset?” asked my mom. “We always thought you guys would end up together. Now that it has finally happened, it's like Christmas! If you guys get married, we'll get to share grandchildren!”

Taylor and I both rolled our eyes as far back in our heads as they would go.

“Now tell us,” my mom said, leaning closer into the table. “How did it all happen?”

“I'll let you take this one,” I said to Taylor. She began to tell the story of how we fell in love with each other. When she finished telling them about prom, they let out a long, collective “aw”.

When she finished the story, David, her father, smiled and said, “We couldn't be happier for you two.”

“Thanks, Daddy,” responded Taylor. “But, there's more.” She turned to me. “We still haven't told them the most recent news yet.”

“Oh right, we haven't,” I said.

“What's the most recent news?” asked my dad.

“We just found out today that we're going on tour together this summer along with Boys Like Girls, Cobra Starship and Paramore!” Taylor explained excitedly. “Isn't that awesome?”

In response, our parents cheered and got up to hug us once more. They knew all of our dreams were coming true and they couldn't be happier for us. Throughout the night, Taylor and I learned not to be surprised by our parents antics. They didn't even mind when I told them I wanted to sleep over at the Swift household, even though Taylor and I were together. Now that's trust. As I fell asleep with her in my arms, the only thing I could think about was how life could not get much better than this.