When Taylor Swift released the track list for “The Life of a Showgirl,” many Swifties wondered if track No. 6, “Ruin the Friendship,” was about Blake Lively.
And after listening, it’s safe to say it’s not.
“Ruin the Friendship” talks about her high school self having a crush on a boy who already has a girlfriend — a la “You Belong With Me.”
However, she suggests her love is not reciprocated when she sings, “Your smile, miles wide / And it was not an invitation / Should’ve kissed you anyway.”
Swift, 35, also insinuates that, even if he had a crush on her, there would have been too many bumps along the road.
“And it was not convenient, no / But your girlfriend was away / Should’ve kissed you anyway,” she sings, later adding, “Wilted corsage dangles from my wrist / Over his shoulder I catch a glimpse / And see … you looking at me / and it was not an invitation.”
The songwriter also mentions that she would not have wanted to “ruin the friendship” with the boy’s ex, because “lately we’ve been good.”
“Staying friends is safe / Doesn’t mean you should …,” she reiterates, as if trying to convince herself.
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Theories about “Ruin the Friendship” surfaced when Swift released the track list to her new album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” amid Lively’s ongoing legal drama with her “It Ends With Us” co-star and director, Justin Baldoni, whom she accused of sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and lost wage.
After Baldoni claimed in his countersuit that Lively tried to use her friendship with Swift to get her way with their movie, the singer was subpoenaed by his legal team. Shortly after, the investigation was dropped, but it still ruined Swift and Lively’s friendship.
A source told us in June, “She will forever be furious at how Blake quite clearly was using her for clout and leverage in her dealings with Justin. She really hates that Blake would even think like that.”
“They were baking pals, travel pals, home decor pals… and to be totally honest, billionaire pals. They got along because they each lived their lives with the sort of trappings and access and privilege that tons of money brings,” the source continued.
“It was nice to be with someone else who ‘gets it’ and who absolutely didn’t seem to need a thing from Taylor, since she had her own millions.”
“[Swift] was deeply wounded and, even if that heals, the scar will remain.”
Swift and Lively have yet to make amends, and it’s unclear if the actress reached out to the singer following her engagement to Travis Kelce.
“Ruin the Friendship,” however, could be about Nathan Johnson, a high school sophomore who passed away in 2006 while driving to football practice in his Jeep in Hendersonville, Tenn., where Swift grew up.
In the song, Swift sings about leaving school and being forced to come back to her hometown after the boy she had a crush on dies.
“When I left school I lost track of you / Abigail called me with the bad news / Goodbye … / And we’ll never know why / It was not an invitation / But I flew home anyway / With so much left to say / It was not convenient, no / But I whispered at the grave / ‘Should’ve kissed you anyway.’”
In the song, she mentions the boy “watching the game from your brother’s Jeep.”
Although Johnson and Swift did not attend the same high school, the two could have crossed paths as he played football for her high school’s rival, Beech High School, per the Baptist Press.
Additionally, like Swift, Johnson had a gift for music and was part of the band Through a Glass, which was being scouted by record labels in Nashville, per Baptist News Global.
Although it’s unclear who the subject is, the song is a sweet tribute to a romance that could have been, as she sings, “My advice is always ruin the friendship / Better that than regret it for all time.”
“The Life of a Showgirl” is available for streaming now.
