Teenage Love Triangle

**teenage love triangle** is a collection of three folklore songs: betty, august and cardigan.

The teenage love triangle explores the story of three teenagers: James, Betty and Augustina. Betty is from James' perspective, august from Augustina's and cardigan from Betty's perspective, years later. Taylor was inspired to create characters after watching a lot of movies during quarantaine.

Taylor said the following about the different perspectives:

> "It was very strange how it happened, but it kind of pieced together one song at a time, starting with 'August,' where I wanted to explore the element of, 'This is from the perspective of a girl who was having her first brush with love.' And then all of a sudden she's treated like she's the other girl, because there was another situation that had already been in place, but 'August' girl thought she was really falling in love. It kind of explores the idea of the undefined relationship. As humans, we're all encouraged to just be cool and just let it happen, and don't ask what the relationship is — 'Are we exclusive?'But if you are chill about it... you learn the very hard lesson that if you don't define something, oftentimes they can gaslight you into thinking it was nothing at all, and that it never happened And how do you mourn the loss of something once it ends, if you're being made to believe that it never happened at all?"
>
> - Taylor about Augustina's perspective

> "That was huge for me. And I think it came from the fact that my co-writer, William Bowery, is male — and he was the one who originally thought of the chorus melody. And hearing him sing it, I thought, "That sounds really cool." Obviously, I don't have a male voice, but I thought, "I could have a male perspective." Patty Griffin wrote this song, 'Top of the World.' It's one of my favourite songs of all time, and it's from the perspective of this older man who has lived a life full of regret, and he's kind of taking stock of that regret. So, I thought, 'This is something that people I am a huge fan of have done. This would be fun to kind of take this for a spin.'"
>
> - Taylor about writing from James' perspective

## Storyline

James and Betty are a couple in high school; James is 17 years old. They live in a town near a coast. During a school dance, Betty's favorite song was playing and she wanted to dance to it. James left because he hates crowds, leaving Betty alone. He then saw Betty dance with another guy and stormed out.

When James was walking home, Augustina pulled up next to him and invited him for a drive. During Summer, he cheated on Betty with Augustina. Augustina knew he's dating Betty and he's not hers to lose. They'd meet up in secret behind a mall. She possibly lost her virginity to James, as august's first verse says: *Whispers of "Are you sure?" / "Never have I ever before"*. Augustina enjoyed their time together, even cancelling her plans in case he'd call. She believed that he also liked her and asked him to still call when he goes back to school. However, he was still dreaming of Betty when being with Augustina and went back to her.

Betty's classmate Inez told Betty about James cheating on her. Inez usually isn't a honest person, but this was the truth. After this, Betty broke up with James and switched her homeroom. James regrets what he did and misses her. He rode his skateboard past her house and was reminded of his mistakes. He considered it the worst thing he ever did, but also put blame on Betty because she danced with another guy. He also said it was just a Summer thing. He showed up at Betty's party to apologize, hoping Betty would take him back.

Betty knew James would eventually miss her and show up at her front porch, coming back to her. They started dating again, and years later Betty reflects back on their relationship. James made her feel special.

## Trivia

* The names Betty, James and Inez are named after Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds daughters.

## References

1. ↑ Taylor Swift is one of EW's 2020 Entertainers of the Year | EW.com - https://ew.com/music/taylor-swift-entertainers-of-the-year-2020/
2. ↑ Taylor Swift is one of EW's 2020 Entertainers of the Year | EW.com - https://ew.com/music/taylor-swift-entertainers-of-the-year-2020/