DISCLAIMER:
This story is pure FICTION and unhinged imagination. I mean come on, just the title makes it pretty clear.
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Tay
>
Text Message
07/25/17 1:24 PM
SELENA I NEED YOUR HELP ROOM 68 ILL EXPLAIN THERE
I'm not sure about a lot of things in general, but I'm sure this is a serious situation. Had Taylor texted me from her home in L.A. I could brush it off as her usual frivolity or a prank, but this time the distressed call is coming from her suite in Manhattan, in the hotel that serves her as headquarters whenever she spends time in the city. She has all the help at hand there, an army of servants she knows by name and calls on a whim, whether day or night. She's not calling me to change her ink cartridge. Things are dire.
Lucky for her I was in New York myself when I got her text, and lucky for her I was just
out
of my lunch with Woody Allen, otherwise...
I mean: Amazon Studios for Pete's sake!
I throw myself on a cab and call her, and I don't get much out of her except her voice is shaking and she's scared to explain herself on the phone because she's scared of the NSA.
"Told you that's what happens when you vote Republican, Taylor."
Oops. Blunder. I hope the driver didn't hear that one.
Her new pet hobby sure is getting to me: paranoia. I don't entirely blame her though. Boy have the 10's been crazy so far: the election, the nude leaks, Snowden, that Ed Sheeran song... I hope the 20's will give us some break.
"I'm waiting in my room. When you get there knock my new single so I know it's you."
"Alright."
"I'm sorry I'm putting you through this."
"Don't worry 'bout it. I'm on my way."
As I hang up I see the guy throwing glances at me in the rearview mirror. He heard the anxiety in my voice. I have to smile:
"Show business emergency! All my master tapes caught on fire and I have to go record my new album all over again."
There. That's a good rumor. When he drops me in front of the hotel he has promised me he'd buy a copy to each of his daughters. God bless you Nasir.
The doorman greets me by name of course. Doesn't ease the paranoia. I blush like I'm here to cheat on my husband. Everyone knows me here, they have to, it's their job, and mine in a way. As I'll casually stroll through the lobby, some will nod, some will stay silent, all will look without looking, and you'll see, just as I'll step in the elevator, one of the receptionists, the only one staring down busy, he will have his face suddenly lit by the white glow of his screen: it's my personal profile turning up, to check what brand of orange juice I like or if I'm allergic to peanuts.
I feel like a spy in East-Berlin when I walk up the corridor to Taylor's suite.
She opens the moment I start a pretty good rendition of
Look What You Made Me Do
with my fists. She grabs and pulls me inside.
I don't get to see the entryway is bigger than my condo in Greenwich, I only see, as we go sit in the main room without a word, that Taylor is walking funny. And sitting funny.
"Coffee?" She hands me a cup. None for her.
"You don't have one?"
"It's really not the time. Sorry."
"Alright, so I'm here, what's up?"
Her sweatpants and oversized t-shirt make me feel awkward in my thin summer dress. Loungewear always looks grim on her, like the tinsel is off. And it means my suspicions were right. Her eyes are all puffy from recent tears.
At least I'm wearing underwear today (because Woody Allen) but I hesitate kicking my heels off like I'd naturally do among friends.
"Tay, you're making me nervous, just tell me what's wrong."
She struggles with her breathing, gathering her words. She's not eyeballing the pot of coffee but the bottles of liquor sitting unopened behind.
"Taylor!"
"First I want you to promise you won't freak out and you won't tell me to go to a hospital."
As a rule when people say this it means they do need to go to a hospital, but I remain silent, listening. I gulp down the brown water they dare to call cawfee.
She begins, with a trembling voice and reddening cheeks:
"You... um... K fuck dis, you know those horror stories of people going to the emergency room cause they have an object stuck inside their butt—"
"
Oh my gosh you have to go to a hospital!!
" I shout.
"
Shhhh!
" She flaps her hands at me and looks around with bulging eyes, so convincingly that I whisper as I reiterate: "You have to go to a hospital!"
"I know!" she hisses back. "But I can't. I'm Taylor Swift."
"How did this happen?
When
did this happen?"
"Just now. This morning. I texted you as soon as I was sure I was really fucked."
"Call your gynecologist!"
"No!"
"She can't tell anyone, there's like the doctor oath or something!"
"I don't trust doctors, they talk to each other, I know it! Richard Gere?!
Hellooo?!
"
"What does he have to do with anything?"
"You don't know? ... Anyway... I... Will you help me please?"
"What the hell do you want me to do?"
"Help me get it out. I couldn't do it myself. Please, Selena."
"But I..."
"Please. You're the only one—"
"What about Karlie?"
"She's in London."
"Can't you just wait for it to just...you know...get out and stuff?"
"No, it's really stuck."
"Does it hurt?"
Her crimsonness, which never left her face, deepens with a vengeance. "No, it's... No, it's fine."
"What is it exactly? You sat on the remote?"
"It's a dildo. Like...just a dildo."
We take a break from all the hissing, rubbing our temples like two NASA engineers in the control room.
In this moment of silence I notice a noise that I had so far mistaken for the AC. A soft buzzing coming from nowhere in particular. Or maybe it comes from the floor. Or maybe the table. No, it's in the chairs.
Taylor's chair.