̊ + ♡ ❰ bonus chapter ❱ ⋆ ✰ + ̊. ༄
̊ + ♡ ❰ PAPER RINGS ❱ ˖⋆࿐໋ ⋆
⋆⋅ ━━━━ ‧ ༻✩༺ ‧ ━━━━ ⋅⋆
— in which paper rings hit
1 million reads and so athena
and the pogues go to
the eras tour !!!
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It was not a shock to anyone who had ever spent more than 3 minutes with Athena Cameron that her favourite person alive was not the pogues or Dorota but in fact Dr Taylor Alison Swift. So when she announced that she was going on the Eras Tour, Athena literally burst out in tears. She had to go, she had loved Taylor Swift since she was a young girl and the woman had been the soundtrack to her life for as long as she could remember, and the idea that she could finally see her live was something she knew would be a core memory.
But Athena had so much stuff going on that she missed the presale and the normal sale for the tickets and when she realised she had missed her chance to go see the woman who had unknowingly acted as her therapist for years, she sobbed so hard that even John B was concerned for her.
The world around her was constantly changing and Athena was having trouble keeping up. Her dad had just died and she was rich once again, her friends having found the gold that had spent so long searching for, it was hard to navigate what to do and how to go on with normal life – whatever normal meant these days.
Everyone could see that Athena was slowly losing it, she was trying to hold it all together but her façade was slipping. She was trying to do so many things at once at it was becoming too much for her to handle. She was trying to turn her charity into a proper association, help JJ renovate the charter boat and redecorate the Bluebell cottage that her and JJ had moved into.
She was getting more and more stressed as the days went on and her friends and family were beginning to worry about her. They had decided to take turns checking on Athena and forcing her to go do things with them that would calm her – making friendship bracelets with Kie, going on bike rides with Sage, reading with Pope and Cleo, gossiping with Sarah, just being an idiot with John B and laying around and being in JJ's presence – but none of it seemed to be working.
And so, the Pogues decided they would do something that would cheer Athena up. It took a while and a whole lot of planning but they had pulled it off and now JJ was trying to get Athena to sit down for just a minute so he could surprise her.
"Attie, baby, sit for just a minute." JJ told her for what felt like the 50th time.
"I will in just a second I have to—" Athena was cut off when JJ wrapped his arm around her waist before she could hurry past him and pulled her into his lap.
"Take a breath." JJ stated.
Athena took a deep breath through her nose, expelling it out of her mouth. "What's up?"
"I have something for you." JJ announced, leaning forward to grab the envelope with her name scrawled across the front from the counter.
Athena shuffled in her seat, moving so she could wrap her arm around his shoulders. She took the envelope from his hands, her eyebrows furrowing. "What did you do?"
"Just open it."
Athena narrowed her eyes at him but did as she was told, slowly opening the envelope and pulling the contents out. Her eyes then widened, her mouth agape as she stared at his present.
"You got me... you got me Eras Tour tickets?" Athena stuttered out, shock taking over. "I'm going to the Eras Tour?"
"We're going to the Eras Tour baby." JJ corrected. "As well as Sarah, Sage and Kie."
"We're going to the Eras Tour!" Athena exclaimed, her eyes watering. "Oh my god, this is the nicest thing you've ever done, I love you so much."
"Wait, don't cry." JJ was suddenly concerned.
"No, no, these are happy tears I've just—" Athena let out a breath. "I've been so stressed lately and this... I love you."
"I love you too." JJ responded. "Forever and always."
"Forever and always." Athena echoed.
✿✼:*:༅。.。༅:*・゚゚・⭑
Athena had spent the last few weeks deciding on everything for the Eras Tour. They were travelling all the way to Minneapolis because that was the only tickets that JJ could get. They decided to turn it into a road trip, JJ having stolen the Twinkie so they could do the 18 hour drive to the hotel they were staying in.
The drive was spent listening to all kinds of pop artists, the girls speaking giddily about what they were about to experience while JJ drove quietly, every few minutes looking over to catch a glimpse of Athena's calm yet excited smile.
When they arrived at the hotel, they only had a few hours to get ready before they had to leave to go to the stadium. They checked into their rooms, Kie and Sage in one while Athena, JJ and Sarah were in a conjoining room.
The girls immediately began to unpack and get ready, Athena moving to sit on the floor in front of the mirror as she played her getting ready playlist – which they others weren't too happy with considering it was made up of the most depressing songs ever but they all wanted to make Athena as happy as possible so they didn't say anything.
Athena curled her hair, staying in her own world while the others got ready. Once she had curled all of her blonde hair, she pinned it up in two half up pigtails with butterfly clips, using a few smaller ones to clip down the pigtails. She moved onto her makeup next, using glitter to draw a heart around her right eye. She then put pink eyeshadow on her left eye, and used a white eyeliner on her waterline. She put pink blush on her cheeks and highlighter on her nose before finishing it off with her mascara.
Sarah took the liberty of writing 13s on everyone's hand, using black eyeline, Vaseline and glitter – pink for Athena obviously. Athena watched her twin with an amused smile as Sarah worked in complete concentration.
The girls then all got dressed. Athena grabbed her dress, she had obviously gone for the Lovers Era and so had a lot of options for her outfit. She had eventually chosen Taylor Swift's Heart dress from the 'Me' music video. The only difference was hers was not turtle neck and instead had a more open neckline.
She paired it with a pair of white knee high heeled boots and put all of her lover friendship bracelets for trading on her wrists. Athena took one look at herself in the mirror, happy with her appearance, before turning to face the rest of her friends, all of them now ready and waiting.
JJ had decided to match Athena's lover era and go as the heartbreak prince, wearing a pair of blue suit trousers and a pink shirt with a sash that said 'heartbreak prince' on it. Sage had gone for reputation wearing a short dress that looked like it was made of newspaper and black ankle boots. Kie had chosen folklore and was wearing a silver sparkly skirt and a mirrorball baby tee paired with her folklore cardigan. And Sarah had spent the last months since they had first decided to try and get tickets, making her own version of the pink 1989 outfit, pairing it with a pair of pink boots that she had glittered.
"Look at us!" Athena exclaimed happily, walking closer to all of them.
"We slayed!" Kie laughed.
"Photos! Photos!"
The five of them took hundreds of selfies, and then JJ took on the role of photographer for the girls, taking photos of them all together and photos of each of them separately until his hand was cramping from holding the phone for so long.
"We have to go otherwise we won't be able to get merch." JJ reminded them all, which quickly pushed the girls into action, all of them rushing to leave.
The stadium wasn't that far from the hotel so they walked there in pretty good time, their excitement growing with each step.
They quickly queued up for merch, spending less time in the queue than they expected. Athena bought a t-shirt, a hoodie, the zip-up and the tote bag, a smile on her face as she did so. Her friends all bought merch too – less than Athena but still enough – before they moved towards the doors that were now open.
JJ watched Athena with a lovesick smile the entire time, watching her be the social butterfly she had grown into. The girl had had a smile on her face the entire day, chatting to other fans and trading hundreds of bracelets and complimenting every person's outfit – she was truly the epitome of the Lover Era.
And the look on her face when she saw the stage from the Lower Bowl where their seats were was something that JJ would never forget. They took their seats waiting for the opening acts to come on – Athena loved Girl in Red but she was most excited for Gracie Abrams.
Athena leaned towards JJ, "I hope you know that not even our wedding day or the birth of our kids will beat this experience."
"I know." JJ nodded.
"Good. Just making sure." Athena laughed lightly, pressing her lips to JJ's for a moment.
When Gracie Abrams finally came on, Athena was one of the few people in her section to stand up and scream along to the girl's songs. JJ was put in charge of recording the show so Athena could enjoy it in the moment but still have video evidence that it actually happened and she was actually there.
Sarah held onto Athena's hand as the clock came on and it finally landed on zero, the notes of 'Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince' echoing throughout the stadium as they cheered loudly. Athena's eyes watered, complete disbelief that Taylor Swift was literally right there, she was in the same stadium as Taylor fucking Swift.
Athena screamed the lyrics to 'Cruel Summer', 'The Man', and 'You need to calm down' before Taylor was handed her guitar and her speech started.
"Welcome to the Eras Tour!" Taylor exclaimed making the whole stadium erupt in screams.
As she began to play 'Lover', JJ wrapped his arms around Athena, pulling her into him. Athena leant back against JJ, entwining their hands as they sung the song together, their heart beats syncing as they swayed together. It was in this moment that Athena realised that, yes nothing else in her life would beat this moment, listening to one of the most pure love songs to have ever been created live, but the reason it would be so memorable was because of the man that she was singing it with.
Athena may love Taylor Swift more than any other woman in the world.
But she loved JJ Maybank more than any person – man or woman – in the universe and in every universe that existed.
The Era changed from Lover to Fearless to Evermore and as the show went on, Athena screamed the songs louder and louder, her smile never leaving her face – well it did a few times, specifically during Marjorie and Tolerate It.
As the night went on, Athena's energy never dipped below 100 percent. She spent the night, singing, screaming and dancing with her two best friends, twin sister and her boyfriend, creating memories that she would never forgot.
As the 1989 era came to an end, the crowd grew eerily quiet, watching Taylor change into her green surprise song dress and grab her guitar. She began her speech about the acoustic set and why she found it so exciting, and how wordy her songs were and how people were requesting this specific song.
Taylor began strumming gently on her guitar. "I wanted to do it tonight because you Minneapolis crowd on a Friday night are fantastic and you have been so nice to us. So, um, people have just been—like you guys have been really supportive of, um, of the lover album recently."
Athena screamed loudly as her and Sarah tried to guess which song she was about to sing.
"It's been so amazing cause like, I just love that album and I was so proud of it and to see it kind of, I don't know, it's like getting, it's getting listened to a lot this summer, it's so nice of you to do that." You could hear the smile in Taylor's words. "So, I thought I'd do a song that you guys have asked me to do a billion times and I love you so much, that I think it's time to play Paper Rings."
The scream that Athena let out at that moment was like nothing JJ had ever heard before. She spun to face him, a wide smile as she exclaimed loudly. "It's our song!"
"Yes it is." JJ laughed as Athena began to sing the song as loudly as she possibly could.
The boy wrapped his arms around the blonde, pulling her into him with a smile, the two of them swaying together as they sung loudly.
Athena looked up at the boy as she placed a hand over the paper ring on her necklace, "I'd marry you with paper rings."
JJ kissed her temple as the song continued and when it ended they screamed the loudest of everyone in the stadium. And Athena's excitement only grew when Taylor began to sing 'if this was a movie', moving over to scream the lyrics with Sarah, a wide smile on her face.
Athena practically cried for the rest of the show and when 'Karma' ended and the lights came back on, she sat back down on her chair, letting out a small sigh.
"Are you okay, Attie?" JJ asked.
"How am I supposed to go on with my life now?" Athena replied, her eyes zoned out.
"How are any of us?" Sarah added also sitting down.
"I don't know." Kie blinked a few times, joining them in the seats.
Sage and JJ shared an amused look, both letting out a small laugh as they stared at the trio in front of them.
"Come on, we have to go." JJ stated, pulling Athena out of her seat.
"Carry me, my feet hurt." Athena complained.
"Anything for you princess." JJ smiled, turning around so she could get on his back as the others followed them.
He carried her all the way down the stairs and back towards the hotel, the girls all continuing to sing Taylor Swift songs as they did so. JJ couldn't help but smile the whole way back as Athena sung quietly in his ear, her happiness meaning more to him than anything else in the world, and more than he could even try to comprehend.
When they got back to the hotel the group all separated into the two rooms. Athena immediately wiped the makeup off of her face and took her hair down before getting in her pyjamas and sliding into bed easily. Sarah was taking the small single bed while JJ and Athena were sharing the double bed.
Athena grabbed her phone, watching the videos she had taken on her phone quietly, giggling when she could hear herself screaming in the background. She posted them on her instagram story, not caring that the people that were following her probably did not care for the videos at all.
Once she had posted everything she wanted to, the girl rolled over to face JJ with a small smile. "Jay, you still up."
"What's up sweetheart?" JJ wondered.
Athena moved closer to him, a smile on her face as she continued to whisper between themselves. "Thank you, for this, for everything."
"You're welcome." JJ smiled. "Anything to see you happy."
"I love you." Athena told him, pressing her lips to his for a few moments.
"I love you more." JJ replied. "For all eternity."
Athena giggled at him using the phrase that her and Sarah used, knowing that if Sarah heard him she'd beat him into next week. She scrunched her nose up before moving so she was leant against his chest and he had his arm wrapped around her tightly.
Athena looked up at the ceiling, a content smile crossing her face as she felt her eyes getting heavy with sleep. It had been the best day she had ever experienced and it was all thanks to the boy she was leant on. JJ had been Athena's saviour since before they had even met formally and she was so lucky to have him in her life.
This was everything she needed.
She hoped it could last forever.
> athenacameron has posted!
tagged : jjmaybank
tagged : sarahcameron, kiaracarrera
tagged : sagehartman
❤️ liked by jjmaybank and 1,948 others
athenacameron i had the time of my life with you 🫶🏻🎀🪩
view all comments
jjmaybank I'd marry you with paper rings
⤷ athenacameron i love you so so so so much
Pope_heyward so so cute
⤷ athenacameron stop I'm blushing 🤭
johnbroutledge so cringe athena
⤷ athenacameron your existence is cringe.
sarahcameron WE ATE
⤷ athenacameron POGUES GIRLS 🔛🔝
kiaracarrera we tolerATE it
⤷ athenacameron SAY IT LOUDER KIKI DEE
Sagehartman photo cred where?!?!?!
⤷ athenacameron photo creds to sage for always being my personal photographer <33
dorota so cute ❤️❤️
( 💌 ) isobels notes
QUICK SIDE NOTE THE KIE
ATHENA AND SARAH WAS MADE
BY ME !!
also i took the light photo (the 10th
photo) that one is mine
i took it on london 4 !!
ALSO OH EM GEE
PAPER RINGS HIT 1 MILLION
READS AND I ACTUALLY CANNOT
BELIEVE IT WHEN I SAW IT
I ACTUALLY THOUGHT I WAS DREAMING
I NEVER IMAGINED I WOULD BE
PUBLISHING THIS I THOUGHT IT
WOULD JUST GO IN MY ONE SHOT
DRAFT BOOK THAT I MIGHT NEVER
PUBLISH BUT NO HERE I AM
THANK YOU ALL FOR READING
AND COMMENTING YOU HAVE MADE
MY LIFE COMPLETE FR I LOVE YOU SO
SO SO SO SO SO MUCH 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻
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