Some time passed, and no letter arrived. I knew he was busy, and I was guessing that he had not finished it, or maybe Dez had lied to me to make me feel better about missing out on a great weekend. I figured my letter to him had gone in a pile with others from fans around the world, and was now forgotten. I was hurt of course, but I knew my place. He was famous, and a young, good-looking guy who could have anyone he wanted. I was crazy to think he would even write the words, “thanks for your support” or something else just as cookie-cutter back to me. I went on with my life, forgot about the fool I made of myself by putting my admiration into words he probably read, yet loved him from afar in my own world. I couldn’t help that. I knew it would be nothing more, and I was learning to make peace with that; until I got a phone call…

“Hello?”

“Hi, is Liz there?”

“Yeah it’s me. What’s up? Who is this?”

“This is one of the craziest things I’ve ever done…”

“Again, who is this?” Who calls someone and doesn’t tell you who they are when you ask? That’s always been a pet peeve of mine; phone manners, or lack thereof.

“Um… this is Taylor. You wrote to me and left your number at the end of the note. I read a letter that this girl I met gave to me awhile back at a show. I’m sorry, I thought I would get back to you, it was so nice of you to take the time to write, but things have been so busy on the road.”

“Is this a joke?”

“No, of course it’s not a joke. I got your letter awhile ago, and I was trying to write something back to you. To be honest, I couldn’t find the right words to say to even begin to write back. I didn’t want to be rude and just leave you with no answer after you took the time to write not just to me, but all three of us, and your friend made the delivery and everything. I had some time so I thought I would call and say thanks. Thanks a lot. We all really appreciate it.”

“Uh… you’re welcome. I’m so sorry but I have no idea what to say.”

“What do you mean?”

“As much as I see you guys as normal and talented people, I never actually thought about what I might say to you, any of you, if I got the chance to talk to you at all.”

“You could say anything you want to say. I liked your letter. I like that you understand us and what we go through to do all this for our love of music, and for our fans.”

“No problem…so…Taylor…” I trailed off. I was an idiot. I’m usually more wordy and clever, and for this major encounter, I couldn’t form words. What made it worse, this all started with words, my own, because I had to write a letter to a famous kid I had a crush on, and now I’m sitting silently, being a total moron, having nothing to talk about with him while time was passing me by.

“Liz, it’s really okay. I wanted to call. I wanted to talk for a little bit.” He said quietly, almost sounding shy like the Taylor I remembered seeing on TV. It was weird he understood the vibe he got from me about being nervous to talk, and I seemed to know how shy he was feeling, and we didn’t even know each other.

“Oh, but aren’t you busy with touring and a lot of other music stuff right now? I don’t want to keep you from anything important.”

“It’s alright. I swear, I can talk, and I really want to.” It was almost like I could feel him smile through the receiver. We continued our conversation, a little awkwardly at first, but after awhile we were jumping from topic to topic and wound up learning so much about each other, and also spending several hours on the phone. Eventually, he had to go, but asked if he could call again. Without fail, I said of course, and we hung up. I didn’t get to hear from him right away, but he did call… several times over the course of days, weeks, and months. We talked all the time. I forgot about his fame, and how successful he was, not that I really ever thought of him that way to begin with, but he was just Taylor, he was always that way from the first interview I saw on television. He had those bright eyes, that shy smile, and that laid back attitude that I thought was so cool. Our phone calls only supported all of what I had already known.

A few months after we started talking, the guys went back home to Tulsa, Oklahoma and were allowed to take a break from the fame. It was good for them. Taylor had been so tired when I talked to him lately. He loved it, he always talked about how much his music meant to him, but he also talked about that chunk of time when they just needed a break to relax from the screaming, and sleeping in a bunk that felt like a coffin, and working long hours every day, and instead, just be normal guys. As much as he loved it, I secretly ached for him. He was 14 years old, and wasn’t getting any time to be a carefree teenager, not that he would change what he had for anything in the entire world, but he deserved some time to himself to be a kid. Once he got home, I always reprimanded him to sleep in, go see a movie, rollerblade, and catch up with his friends. I loved that we stayed so close once he got back home because I got to hear from him more and more. That, and the fact that Taylor started sounding more upbeat, more rested. It soothed me to know he was feeling better and getting the break he wanted and needed. It seems he was listening to my advice, which made me feel special since I knew he was listening to me when I told him to be normal. One day when he called as usual, I was in for a complete surprise.

“Hey, what’s up, how are you?” I asked, so glad to hear from him as always.

“Not much, the same old stuff, getting a little bit of work done, but enjoying the time off. How are you?” he asked sweetly, the great guy I had gotten to know so well over these last few months was rapidly becoming my best friend.

“Good. Same old here too. Can’t complain.” We both laughed and continued more of our normal chatter and banter.

“Hey so what are you doing next week?” He asked out of the blue.

“Not much Taylor, it’s August. I don’t have school or anything. Why?”

“I thought I would visit for awhile, we need to actually meet.” He said with a slight chuckle. I was utterly surprised, both at the fact that he wanted to visit me, and at the fact we spent so much time talking on the phone, and learning so much about each other, that I completely forgot we hadn’t met yet. I told him all of this, embarrassed to say the least, and he laughed again.

“Thanks Liz. I’m so glad we spent so much time talking and you forgot I exist as a real, living, breathing, person that you can hang out and talk to face to face.” He said pretending to be offended.

“I’m sorry Taylor, you know what I mean.” I replied as I tried and failed to defend myself.

“Yeah.. I do know what you mean actually…..” I believed him too. Sometimes he seemed to know me better than I knew myself. It was weird, in a really good way.

“If you can get the time without it interfering with anything really important, come on over.” Now I was excited, and yet a little nervous at the same time. My stomach was doing flips to say the least.

“Great. I’ll figure out the details, let you know, and then I’ll see you soon!”

“This has all been so crazy Taylor.”

“It’s okay. I need some crazy in my life. I want to meet you.” He was grinning through the phone again. We talked some more, and he asked about the things we could do when he visited, and I told him all about New Jersey, even though I had told him about it many times before, “This will be fun..” he continued.

“Yeah, it will be, I just hope I’m a good hostess.”

“You’ll be perfect. I should get going and get some plans settled.”

“Ok Tay. Cya”

“Bye Liz. I’ll talk to you soon.” We hung up. This was by far the craziest thing I had done (well, aside from my short lived hobby of writing letters to teen rock stars). I couldn’t wait to meet him, and wait a second; did he say I would be perfect?

As the days passed, Taylor’s plans were finalized. He would be flying in and we were finally going to meet. I was a bundle of nerves. This wasn’t phone calls, this was face to face action. This was something that thousands of girls dreamed of, and I was about to live it out. If I said anything stupid, he would catch me blushing, or smacking my forehead like I did a few times when we first started talking. I couldn’t cover up mistakes with him right in front of me. I had no phone barrier to protect me. I just prayed I didn’t screw up too much while he was here. I didn’t want him to stop calling. We had become such good friends and I didn’t want to do anything to cause him to run away.

Chapter 2 | Guestbook