You started dating Taylor a few months after she broke up with her last partner. They had been together for years, so many people found it “suspicious” that she’d moved on so “quickly.”

Her fandom didn’t hold back. Online, people called you nothing more than a distraction, her “getaway car”—a temporary fix to forget him. They said you were barely half the person her ex had been, that she looked happier with him, that he was the great love of her life and the one she should still be with.

And damn, it hurt. Taylor always tried to remind you not to pay attention to that kind of noise—that they didn’t know the truth about what really happened or what their relationship had been like. But… It was nearly impossible not to see those comments when your phone was constantly flooded with Taylor content. Of course it was—you were a huge fan of your girlfriend. Still, you tried to stay strong—for her. You tried to pull yourself together, because deep down you knew she was worth it… no matter what the world said.

This time, it was a quiet weekend at home. Taylor had stayed over for a few days, and now she was downstairs making something for the two of you. You stayed in bed and took the chance to scroll through your feed. And that’s when you came across it—an edit of Taylor and her ex. A montage of photos of them together, overlaid with the names of the songs she’d written for him and the most popular love song of hers.

You didn’t even need to look at the comments. The video alone was enough to break you. Tears started falling, the music playing on loop only making it worse—over and over, the song echoing the ache in your chest. The noise in your head, the sound of the video, the storm of your thoughts—it all blended together. You didn’t even hear the door open.