In Taylor Swift’s “august,” the narrator’s summer love interest is James.
James is the teenage boy at the center of Folklore’s fictional love triangle. He is already connected to Betty, but he spends part of the summer in an undefined relationship with the narrator of “august.” The narrator develops stronger feelings even though the relationship is temporary and never truly belongs to her.
The story continues across “cardigan” and “betty.” “cardigan” presents Betty’s perspective, while “betty” presents James’s perspective. Together, the songs show the same emotional situation from different points in time and through different memories.
A frequent misunderstanding is treating “August” as the narrator’s name. Swift described the song as being about a fictitious girl or mistress, while James and Betty are the explicitly named characters connected to her story.