Two teenagers lay on the floor of a dim lighted room with their playlist blaring through a small speaker in the middle of the space they shared. Outside of the room a girl lay bleeding in the hallway but the acquaintances only paid attention to the music. The melody, the lyrics. One cried, another tried to keep the crying one quiet. Soon they would share this story with the world. But first, they have to figure out each other.

Months prior the teenagers were only strangers. In early June of that year Paxton Peters, the rebellious teenager of the small town in northern Washington, had gotten into a brawl with an older middle aged man over the price of bread at a grocery store. Obviously Paxton had some major anger issues but he was prepared to fight, he beat the guy 20 years older than him to a pulp. The scans would later come back to the police station showing the man’s broken nose. As Paxton walked into the police station he recognized the faces behind desks and even the old women sitting in one of the chairs. She was a concerned civilian always going about reporting on the unsafety of the town with buildings and facilities that were just as old as her. Today she was complaining about a tilted parking meter. “Officer, forgive my raised voice but I was just walking down to the coffee shop when I walked right past this meter practically falling out of the ground. It could have fallen on me. I would have been dead right away, I’m fragile.” Peter thinks why some people act like this. He comes up with 3 words: old, bored, and lonely. 

That summer Charity’s parents were going through a divorce. They cared so much to send Charity up to her godmother’s house in a city about 3 hours east of where she and her parents lived. The city was surrounded by forest you could practically get lost in. The nice thing was her godmother was a police officer at the local station. Charity had always wanted to work in a police station, or at least that’s what she told people. Being as smart as she is, she was always asked the question “What do you want to do in the future?” and of course she would explain she wanted to work as an office or a detective.  She tried to remember that as she sorted through paperwork and edited documents at the front desk of the station. Mostly her duties involved checking people in for appointments and writing reports on criminals based on the information officers screamed at her as they walked through the door. She had people’s futures in her hands as she added to their criminal files. 

That Thursday started the same way any others did; she walked in to work, fired up the computer which hadn’t been replaced in probably 10 years, and edited some files. Around noon time Officer Peria, one of her godmother’s best friends at work, walked into the office with a teenage boy. “6 foot 1, 17 year old boy by the name of Paxton Peters caught beating up the grocery clerk by the name of Gary Thomas. Waiting on x-rays from the hospital to see of any broken facial features. This boy had got quite the fists and-”

“Excuse me office, I feel bad for interrupting but I have never seen a file that looks like this before. His file says he has no current residence or living guardians. Who do I call?” Charity asks in a confused tone.

“Oh Peters it must be your first time here this summer, our new summer intern doesn’t recognize your file.” Peria rolled her eyes and gestured to the boy to sit down then came around to my desk to talk to me. “ Basically he’s in between foster homes. No one will really take him. Foster parents most likely look at his file and just don’t want someone around who’s that bad. He’s about in line to go to juvenile detention.”

“Who should I call?” Charity asks again.

“The number for his case worker should be on file. You can call her. Gosh he had to have worked pretty damn hard to escape the agency where he’s been staying while he’s in between homes.”  

Charity dials the number and speaks with a woman with a bored voice. She could almost hear the sound of the case worker rolling her eyes through the phone. Peria walks Paxton over to the chairs and tells me to keep an eye on him while she goes to talk with another officer. She takes Paxton’s earbuds and phone with her as she goes. “Oh c’mon Peria, I just bought those headphones last week. I better be getting those back when I get out of here,” he continues to shout at her as she walks away, “Hey be careful with my phone it’s pretty much all I got left.” The blonde rebel gazes at the brunette sitting behind the desk in front of him. “You got a name, Sweet Cheeks?”

“Excuse me?” Charity looked over surprised she was even being addressed as most of the days she came in the only people who talked to her were those who had to. 

“I said, ‘do you got a name’?”

“Nope don’t have one guess my parents just forgot,” Charity sarcastically replied. Peria walked back over with Paxton’s file. Charity looked as though she was looking at the Great Tower of Pisa. His file seemed to just keep going on and on and on. “Woah you’ve been through a lot, huh?” Charity said looking over at Paxton.

  “6 foster homes in 5 years, yeah Charity that’s a lot here,” Officer Peria chimes in, “Alright Mr.Tough Stuff, let’s get you back here and find out what we’re going to do with you.” 

“Hey can I at least get my earbuds back, I was listening to Hozier bro c’mon.” Paxon’s voice fades as he walks away. Charity smirks, she’s always listened to Hozier ever since she started high school. His voice is calming when things get difficult. She quickly gets back to filing and pulling out paperwork to check.

By August of that year Charity’s parents explain to her that they will be splitting and her mom will be going to live with her grandmother while she will stay in her home town with her father. Charity is fine with this, she’s always looked up to and been closer to her father. She still has to go visit her mother once a month but she's okay with that. Really Charity is indifferent about the whole thing. So she helps her mother pack and by the start of the school year it was just her and her dad. She’s worried about him though, he’s a lover. 

In September Charity is back at school, on top of the social hierarchy within Parkview High School. By week two she’s already been asked to homecoming twice and been to three parties all while keeping her grades up and starting volleyball practices. This is life for her. Day after day. A constant repeat. But, since the first day of school one part of her day has made her question aspects of her life; 6th period Algebra 2. This was the only class in which she didn’t have many friends because many of them were in a different hour than hers.  At first She sits alone but quickly people begin to file in and someone sits across from her, someone she had never met before. With how popular Charity is, it is unusual for her to not know someone in her small high school of nearly 400 people. She notices the pale girl with long ginger hair. She had earbuds in and seemed quite interested in whatever she was listening to as she copied down the syllabus. She’s wearing loose jeans, a black turtleneck, and a knit sweater with 4 buttons down the middle. The sweater has red stars on the sleeve and Charity recognized it. It’s a part of Taylor Swift’s Red collection. Oh how she loved Taylor Swift. From then on, Charity hoped the girls would be friends. “Okay class time to take roll call,” the teacher announced. 

Charity listened for her name and promptly answered with, “Here.” when called on. A minute goes passed and near the end of the alphabet she hears a name that sounds like a perfect melody.

“Aspen Walters?” 

“Here,” says the girl with long ginger hair.

sat next to a new girl. From across her desk, Charity glances at her and for some reason she can’t stop. Again this class eventually becomes repetitive. Day after day. Each quick glance she has at her for no more than forty five seconds feels as though time is slowed down. Week 3 of school and Charity decides to go for it.

“Hey Aspen, what did you get for problem 7?” no response, “Aspen?” Charity taps on her shoulder. 

“What?” Aspen exclaimed as she removed her earbud from her ear.

“What did you get for problem 7?” Charity asks again.

“Oh I got fifty seven.”

“Okay cool me too,” Charity thinks for a moment about a way to carry on the conversation, “What music are you listening to?”

“It’s a mix really. Some Taylor Swift, some Phoebe Bridgers, Girl in red, and Lorde”

“Tell me why you literally just named 3 of my favorite artists.” And front here the two were inseparable. They shared their thoughts on music and became close within the first 3 months of knowing each other. Aspen tells Charity how she had just moved from a small town in the midwest and how she likes living on the west coast but misses her friends. Most of their nights are them laying in Aspen’s bed listening to their favorite artists' latest music or just shuffling the shard playlist they made. One night stood out to Aspen in particular.

Aspen had always been great in school and great in volleyball until she moved to Parkview, California. Though it seems a carefree town on the coast of California, the high school was competitive and Aspen was not used to it. So since she moved she’s felt out of place, not good enough. This anxiety is crippling as some days she just freezes in the middle of school as her thoughts consume her brain. What if she didn’t do well enough to get into college? Or get a good supportive job? Charity made the anxiety more bearable as the two girls worried about similar things mostly, their futures. But that particular night in Aspen’s room, it was different. 

Charity had driven the two of them to get dinner and iced coffee- the necessities for any night they hangout. Once they arrived at Aspen’s house they quickly rushed to her room and turned on the TV, “Charity! I finally made an ultra playlist of all the music we like, you’re gonna love it.” 

“Really am I?” Charity responded sarcastically.

“Yeah, you are.” Aspen shuffled the playlist and there they laid. Due to Charity’s popularity everyone knew the two girls were best friends. But they didn’t know about this, no one ever would. 

The music started and for just that moment, all was calm. Aspen stopped worrying about the constant pressure of not being good enough. Charity stopped thinking about her family and how messed up it is. The girls had each other. “Wow this playlist is really good.” Charity exclaimed as the song Betty by Taylor Swift played in the background. The girls listened together. Lying next to each other in the bed, Aspen reached for Charity’s hand. Charity’s small pink latched to Aspen’s. The girls fell asleep there, together. Both would think of this same event whenever or wherever they hear the song forever. Or at least until they died. 

After countless nights of the same thing, the music, the hand holding, the girls were each other’s most valuable confidant. They did everything together but Charity grew worried. She had always liked guys she knew she did. She had even dated a few in her first years of high school. But she had never had a friend as close as Aspen. It scared her. Why did she feel so safe around her? Why do these feelings of friendship feel different? Aspen on the other hand was sure of what she was feeling. She was bisexual she knew that. She also thought Charity was straight so for a long time she suppressed her feelings for Charity. But both the girls said nothing about it. They hung out, held hands sometimes, and went on normally with their lives not saying a word about their feelings.

One weekend Charity and Aspen both needed service hours for the volunteer club they were in. Luckily, Charity’s mom’s school that she worked at was having a charity event. The event was a food drive in which the girls would help sort donations into bins. The girls were ecstatic as they got to spend the whole weekend together, for the 3rd time this month. When they arrived at Charity’s mom’s house, Charity brought Aspen to her room which she had never seen. It had a plain white queen sized bed with light blue pillows and against the wall a dresser with a vanity. The room was large and tidy. Charity turned some music on the TV. Charity got out her art kit and began to paint. Aspen knew she loved to paint and she knew she was good at it. The watercolor set Charity was using was one Aspen had recently gotten for her. Aspen got out some of her history homework to work on. The serene mood in the room gave the girls great comfort. 

The next morning Charity’s mom awoke the girls with Starbucks. Ever since the divorce, Charity’s mom had really been trying to make Charity happy by spoiling her. This annoyed Charity as she thought that if her mom wanted what was best for her she would’ve fixed her marriage. Nevertheless, the girls got in the car and drove to the school. Looking back on it Aspen would wish she had done something different that morning or maybe just appreciated it a bit more.

When they walked into the school, Charity’s jaw practically dropped to the floor. In the line of volunteers checking in stood a tall blonde shaggy haired boy. “Bro, just give me my name tag, my parole officer signed me up for this as community service. I need to get this done.” he explained in an annoyed tone to the woman sitting at the desk in front of him.

“Charity, what's wrong?’ Aspen questioned. 

“I know that guy,” Charity responded.

“Oh, how?”

“Remember how I told you about my summer internship at the station?” Aspen nodded, “He came in one day.”

“Oh you mean like to get someone or file a report or something, right?”

“Of course not, he beat someone up then went to juvie.”

“Oh, what a memorable guy,” Aspen said sarcastically. 

“Yeah, people say that a lot,” Paxton interrupted.

“You must be a juvenile guy,” Aspen assumed.

“Paxton Peters.”

“Aspen Walters.” The two shook hands firmly as Charity watched. This made her nervous. She knew Paxton was a flirt and she also knew how dumb she acted around guys. Aspen became slightly jealous as Charity went up to him and began to instantly flirt. Charity was a flirt but the thing about guys is they always flirt back with her. Aspen hated this but again, the feelings stayed inside. As they started filtering through cans and sorting, Aspen’s jealousy only got worse. Charity began to talk about school and asking what Paxton’s interests are and all that. You could practically hear Aspen’s eyes rolling throughout the entire conversation. But nevertheless she was calm because she was in Charity’s presence. 

That’s one thing Aspen did notice. No matter how she felt about Charity romantically and as much as she knew Charity would never reciprocate it as much as it feels as though she does, Aspen feels calm around her. Her whole life Aspen had been stressed especially recently with the move. She was in a constant battle with herself. Always worrying she’s not good enough at anything to succeed. But for once when her and Charity became close, she had a great confidant. They relied on each other and made each other better. It was the only comfort Aspen had other than her music of course.

Then time came to split up into groups for more of the work they had to do. Of course, Aspen got split up from Paxton and Charity. Charity and Paxton went into one room and Aspen went into one down the hall. Now Aspen was anxious. Anything could happen while they were apart. Aspen would remember that view of Charity walking into the small classroom for the rest of her life. Usually when Aspen and Charity are away from each other it’s fine because Aspen knows Charity is safe at her house. But that boy, something was not right about him to Aspen. “He is bad, he had to have done something bad to get him into juvie. He could hurt her,” Aspen thought. As much as Aspen tried to focus on her task of packing food in bins, she couldn’t. So she tried listening to music. She turned on the song Vienna by Billy Joel and hummed the beat. This worked for a while. About 3 songs later, Betty by Taylor Swift started blasting and now she was thinking about Charity again. 

Aspen told the leader of her group she had to use the bathroom but of course she walked down the long quiet hallway and pulled Charity out of her room to talk. “Aspen let go of me, what's your problem?” Charity said surprised by the force that Aspen used to pull her out of the room. 

“He’s my problem” Aspen responded in an angry and jealous tone.

“He’s fine, all he did was beat a couple guys up and steal some things. Look I know that sounds bad but he’s actually kind of charming.”

“Charity, why are you such a flirt? You attract every person in your presence and you try to lead them on. It's terrible. “

“Okay so we’re pointing fingers now, maybe you're just jealous of me because I actually have a group of friends unlike you.” 

“While maybe you're jealous because I’m actually at peace with my sexuality unlike you who can’t bear to let herself actually feel what you want to!”

“Aspen c’mon what are you talking about?”

“Don’t think I didn’t notice the first time you saw me in class, that wasn’t a friendly stare,” Aspen continued, at this point she was practically on fire with rage, “And the hand holding. WHat would you like to call that? That’s not something friends just do. So tell me Chair, what do you think about that, huh? How can you flirt with me for months and still be unaware of what I want?!” Charity’s mouth was wide open, again. She practically was just exposed by her best friend. 

“Look, I wanted to talk to you about it, I did. But my parents, they would kill me. And they already have so much going on.”

“So you think that flirting with a juvenile delinquent is gonna make them absolutely thrilled?” Aspen asked in a sarcastic tone. 

“Okay I like you, is that what you wanted me to say? I have a big crush on you Aspen. I think I just flirt with guys because I don’t want people to know who I really am. But yes, I like being with you and listening to music with you and holding your hand. Now can we please finish these hours and then we can talk about it?”

“Yes, yes we can. Thank you, and I like you too.” Finally Aspen was at peace knowing that Charity felt the same. Though she wouldn’t be like that for long. As Aspen walked down the dark and quiet hallway back to her room she felt like someone else was there. She wished she had asked Charity to walk her back but it was too late now. She was already back in her room and Aspen wasn’t gonna bother her again after a fight like that. But she wished she would have ran back and stayed with Charity, hugged her. 

After the volunteering had finished, Aspen went into Paxton and Charity’s room. There she apologized for being rude to him. For a little while the three talked about music together. Their favorite artists, times when music had helped them, lyrics that could help them through their worst times; they felt connected. The moment passed and Charity went to go check and see if her mom was ready to go. Bang! The sound of screams was heard by Paxton and Aspen over the loud music they had playing in the room. Aspen peaked out the window of the classroom and from it she could see a pool of red blood spilling out of Charity’s body. 

Aspen had never felt more alone in her life. She screamed and cried as Paxton rushed to close the door, turn off the lights, and calm Aspen down. In the background, the song Betty by Taylor Swift came on and Aspen cried even harder. The song will always remind her of Charity. Paxton for a long while tried to calm Aspen down and eventually it worked. But, the two laid there numb after what they had just witnessed, they were too young to see things like that. The two teenagers had already both been through their own battle but now they shared one. Hoping they could heal together, the two stuck together for years to come. Music helped them of course and every time they heard Betty by Taylor Swift, they wouldn’t sing along. They would glance at each other and shed a small tear for the friend they had lost.