baby just say yes.
Title: Instead of Just Invisible
Summary: They've been best friends for the longest time. And now his hearts broken and she has to fix it, even though she wants nothing more than to love him and have him love her back.
Character/Pairing/Fandom: Taylor Swift & Zac Efron
Author’s Note: I'm actually kind of proud with this one. It's hard to write a fic on something that could never happen lol. The ending seems rushed and annoying to me, but the rest i like and i hope ya'll enjoy too.
His fingers drummed maniacally on the keyboard as he clicked away at the computer game. His pupils had dilated dramatically and his eyes were incredibly bloodshot after hours of staring directly into the white screen. How long had he been sitting here? A day? A week? He couldn’t remember the last time he had eaten something. There was only one thing on his mind: the game. Almost to Level 12…
“Zac! What the hell is going on?”
His head shot up as he heard the familiar voice that had startled him from his activity.
“Fuck Tay, you scared the shit outta me,” He gave her a quick glance in acknowledgment and returned to his game.
She rolled her eyes and dropped her keys and bag on the table, turning to look around. His room, much like the rest of his house at the moment, was a complete mess. It seemed as if a tornado had flown through it, and then got bored and flew through it once more. Clothes were scattered everywhere, empty energy drink cans lie on the floor, pizza boxes with moldy food and random insects residing inside. Not to mention the room itself smelled like someone had used it as a bathroom. It was absolutely disgusting.
She tiptoed over to his bed, careful not to step on any of the debris, and lifted a shirt with stink radiating off of it. After carelessly dropping it on the floor, she sat down where it had previously been. He had noticed none of this, continuing his computer game as if his life depended on it.
“How long is this gonna go on Zac?” she questioned.
He heard her and she knew he did. But he refused to answer.
He was her best friend, had been ever since they had met that fateful day 2 years ago. She felt like she could tell him anything, and he felt the same with her. So it killed her to see him like this.
“You don’t have to shut me out,” she whispered, more to herself then him.
The little figure on his computer screen waddled to the edge of the bridge and fell into the water. The words GAME OVER appeared on his screen, drenched in lime green as if the neon color was attempting to wake him up. He swiveled on his computer chair to face her. “I’m not shutting you out Tay.”
She shook her head and kept her eyes on the floor. “You are. You could care less about me. I flew all the way from fucking Nashville for you and you’re just sitting here with your stupid games.” Her voice quivered and she shut her eyes tight, willing herself not to cry.
He stood up and sat next to her on the bed, taking her hands in his. They didn’t speak for a moment, just sat there in silence as her lips trembled and he played with her fingers.
“I hate that this is what you’ve become,” she finally spoke. “I hate that you just gave up on life all because of her. You’re stronger than that.”
A look of confusion spread across his face as he suddenly stopped holding her hands. “Stronger? Are you kidding me? How the hell am I supposed to be strong when she took my heart out and ripped it into pieces? Huh? You tell me that. Or are you the queen of relationships now?” His bitter voice had now reached yelling standards as he lashed the insult out at her. She felt as if she had been slapped across the face.
But he wasn’t through. He stood up rapidly and began pacing the room. “I fucking loved her, you know? Of course you knew, I told you. I was gonna ask her to marry me. Me! The guy who doesn’t even believe in marriage. She changed that. I had so many plans. I wanted to be with her forever but she didn’t feel the same. There’s literally a hole in my heart Taylor. A fucking hole.” He stopped in front of the wall and slammed his fist against it, startling the meek blonde sitting on the bed, listening to him pour out his emotions.
He continued and she felt as if two hands were taking her heart and squeezing it as tight as possible. How could she sit here and listen to him talk about her that way? When all she really wanted to do was love him. All she wanted to do was stare into his eyes. Those gorgeous, cerulean seas that made her insides melt with just one look. She had every speck of those eyes memorized. And since the first time those eyes looked her way, she was head over heels for him. But he didn’t love her, he would never love her. There was every reason in the universe going against the possibility of them being together. So she became his best friend, and now it was her duty to smile sympathetically and nod as he spoke to her, even though all she really wanted to do was hold him.
“…I just…I wonder what I did wrong.” He was calmer now and his yelling had dwindled down to just above a whisper. He was still faced towards the wall even though he wasn’t hitting it with his fist anymore.
“I wonder what I did wrong too.” she whispered, not intending for him to hear, as she concentrated with all her might at a discarded shoe on the floor, anything to keep her eyes away from his. He turned around slowly to face her. Her body looked so vulnerable and fragile at the moment, as she sat there with her head bent down and her hands pressed tightly in her lap.
And then it occurred to him: she was always there.
She was there when he had gotten in that car accident a few months ago. His girlfriend had been away promoting a movie and he had no one else to run to. She had flown all the way from Nashville to see the premiere of his latest movie, even when his girlfriend and friends had been away on business. He could always count on her if he wanted to talk to someone; she was the one who he often stayed up till 3 AM talking on the phone with.
+++
“You should be asleep,” he told her in an annoying motherly tone of voice.
“Oh shut up,” she giggled. He loved making her laugh.
“What are you doing up this late anyways?” He cradled the receiver with his shoulder as he pulled out a bowl and a box of wheat thins from his top drawer in the kitchen - his favorite late night snack.
“Same thing I always do when I stay up late - write.”
He smiled to himself as he pictured her laying on her bedroom floor, pen and notebook in hand, piecing together one of her great masterpieces.
“What is it about this time?” he inquired.
“An annoying best friend who won’t leave me alone when I’m trying to concentrate.” He could almost hear the smirk in her voice.
“Oh, well fine. If that’s how you feel Miss Taylor, I’ll just hang up and go on my way,” he teased.
“No! I was just kidding,” she giggled, amusing him. There was a short, comfortable silence afterwards, as he shuffled around in his kitchen and she bit her lip thinking what lyric to write next.
“Hey, can you tell me how this sounds?”
“Sure. Go.”
She put her pen down and grabbed her guitar, setting the phone on speaker and putting it nearby so he could hear. Taking a deep breath, she began.
“She can’t see the way your eyes light up when you smile
She’ll never notice how you stop and stare whenever she walks by
And you can’t see me wanting you the way you want her
But you are everything to me.
And I just wanna show you
She don’t even know you
She's never gonna love you like I want to
You just see right through me but if you only knew me
We could be a beautiful miracle unbelievable instead of just invisible.”
He was speechless. “Damn Tay…that was…that was…”
“Horrible, I know,” she finished for him. “I’m trying to smooth it out but it’s frustrating me.”
“Nooo. Tay, that was beautiful. In fact, that’s my new favorite song.”
She smiled on the other end of the line, thankful he wasn’t there to see her blush and to notice how her heart skipped a beat at his words.
+++
How could he have been so stupid? The song was about him.
He approached her slowly and silently, his heart breaking as she continued her tears. As he reached her trembling body, he knelt down in front of her and grabbed her hands.
“We could be a beautiful miracle, unbelievable, instead of just invisible.” he recited her lyrics to her as she looked up at him in awe.
“What-How-”
“You don’t need to do this Tay,” he interrupted. “You don’t need to be vulnerable for me. It’s just me. It’s Zac.”
She bit back more tears and sighed in an irritated matter. “That’s exactly it. It’s you. The guy I’ve been in love with for so long. The guy who only sees me as a friend. All we’ll ever be is best friends.”
He wiped her tears away with his thumb and lifted her chin to face him. “Look Tay. I’m a guy. Guys by definition do stupid things. All this time I was searching for something, someone, that I could call mine forever. I thought I found it. But, life works in funny ways sometimes. How could I have known that what I was looking for was right in front of me the whole time?”
Her heart stopped beating. “What are you trying to say?”
He took a deep breath. “I’m trying to say that maybe you’re right. Maybe we really could be a beautiful miracle. Maybe we could be something amazing. I’m willing to find out if you’ll give me a chance.”
Without saying anything, she flung her arms around his neck and cried into his shoulder. She couldn’t believe what he had just spoken. He stood up from off the ground and wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her tight.
It wouldn’t be easy, she knew. In this business, everyone seemed to be on a mission to ruin anyone’s relationship. But as he held her in his arms and stroked her golden locks gently, she knew they could make it.
This love is difficult, but it’s real.
.