You Belong with Me: Girl is Obsessed with Next Door Neighbour

Josephine Knight

[DISCALIMER: This is a humorous, satirical creative writing piece, written in the form of a newspaper article, based off the song and music video of “You Belong With Me’ by Taylor Swift.]

Eighteen-year-old Jamie Greggs decides to speak up about his next door neighbour who has been obsessing over him, after an extreme and over-the-top display of obsession at his senior year prom night last week. He reveals that sixteen-year-old Taylor Swallow has been obsessing over him ever since he moved in next to her and that it was “finally time to speak up”.

On the night of Jamie Gregg’s exclusive senior prom, he was shocked and embarrassed to find his next door neighbour, and freshman bleacher’s member Taylor Swallow appear  with a written note with the large letters “I love you” on a piece of paper.  She had allegedly snuck into the venue unseen and taken control of the stage before awards were announced, proclaiming her love for Jamie in front of all the senior students of Greenwood High. For Jamie’s peers, it was a humorous moment that they could all laugh and joke about. For Jamie, it was a push over the edge and a sign that it was finally time to speak up about the girl who was obsessed with him.

Jamie’s confession came the night after his prom, which he posted on Facebook.  He confessed that he was not comfortable with his friends teasing him as they had been posting videos they had filmed of his the sixteen-year-old neighbour, captioning them with joking statements and teasing nicknames. Jamie confessed that he was honestly freaked out by the girl and had been for almost a year. The response to his confession and his experience with his obsessed, nerdy next door neighbour quickly grew and became a trending conversation all over social media, leading to Jamie to also post a YouTube video version of his confession.

Jamie and his family moved in next to the Swallows a year and a half ago. For the first few months, everything was fine, but it soon became apparent to Jamie that there was something a little bit off with the Swallow’s daughter.

“Our rooms were opposite each other on the second floor of our houses. We both had big windows, so we could see each other from our bedrooms.”

Jamie confesses that he first felt strange when she began to write notes on paper as a way of making conversation from across their rooms.

“She was a nice girl, always studying in her room when I saw her, so I didn’t want to be mean.  I replied back to her just to be polite, but in fact, I was really weirded out.”

Taylor had soon started showing up almost everywhere at school. Jamie comments that “it was as if she knew exactly where I’d be, every hour of the school day”.  This started happening only a few months after he’d moved in and started attending school at Greenwood High, where Taylor also attended as a freshman. Almost every day she would sit at the same bench that Jamie walked past on his way out of football practice where he would get picked up by his girlfriend.

“She always asked me to sit down and talk to her and so I would spend fifteen minutes or so stuck there until my girlfriend arrived. And when she finally arrives, Taylor glares at my girlfriend until we drive away.”

Jamie had never thought of speaking up about Taylor despite how much her actions freaked him out. He dismissed her actions lightly as simply being a young teenage girl thing, as she was two years younger than him. He mentioned that Taylor was always there to watch his football games, because she was part of the school band. Once in a while he’d catch her screaming and jumping when he had the ball or kicked a goal. He ignored this too.

The night of the prom, Jamie was pushed into ultimate freak out, as Taylor Swallow snuck into the prom’s venue and got on stage where she proceeded to direct a message to Jamie.

“She’s delusional,” Jamie says, “she says she remembers things that I did that never happened.”

She began to say on the microphone in front of everyone how she remembered Jamie “driving to her house in the middle of the night”.  Jamie claims this has never happened and he has never even thought about going to her house at all. She claimed that “he tells her about his dreams” and then goes on to say, directly to Jamie: “I think I know where you belong, I think you know it’s with me.” a quote that Jamie remembers clearly, the moment that freaked him out the most when she finally pulled a folded up piece of paper out of her pocket that had the written words “I love you” on it.

Shortly after Taylor’s delusional speech, as she was being taken out by the venue’s security, Jamie proceeded to leave prom, with his girlfriend in tow. As they were exiting the venue, Taylor intercepted them. Jamie says that she began to pull him in for a kiss as she murmured: “you belong with me.” But he quickly pulled away and left. This was the moment he couldn’t stand keeping quiet any longer. He’d kept it quiet from everyone, even his girlfriend who only found out the night of the prom. He said in his confession video:

“I knew, after that night, that I had to speak up about it. It’s uncomfortable to talk about, but it needs to be said.  This was not just a young girl’s crush, this was an obsession and she was my stalker.”

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References

Big Machine Records, VEVO. (2009). You Belong With Me. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuNIsY6JdUw.