Strangers No More || Jerrie

Chapter 9

Over the following few days, Perrie continued to work on the mural at Danielle and Demi’s. She finished the outlining the first day and began picking out colors and painting as the week flew by. Jade popped in and out of the home, having still to attend meetings nearly every day and make media appearances. Perrie didn’t ask what they were for and Jade never provided anything more than “a meeting with my label” or “meeting with a producer for a potential new movie”.

It was only when Perrie realized that it had been over two years since the release of Hidden Majesty, Amelia’s latest album. While she had released a single about two months earlier, Perrie knew that Amelia had never gone more than two years without releasing an album. She’d always kept to the two-year release schedule. She wondered if there was a reason one hadn’t been released that spring.

She asked her puppies what they thought about the situation, but they didn’t respond. And after spending a few hours with Jade reading letters and asking for her opinion on the colors of the mural so far, Perrie was exhausted. Each night she’d come home tired, and that was her excuse for not reaching out to Leigh-Anne. Even though it was something she thought about each night before going to bed.

Sitting in bed, Perrie had her phone in her hand, writing and rewriting a text to send to Leigh. She didn’t want to assault her with a phone call out of nowhere. She was about to give up when she received several text messages in a row from Jade.

Jade: I realized something this afternoon, when we were talking about colors for the baby’s room.

Jade: I realized that we never really got to be friends.

Jade: Before.

Perrie opened the messages from Jade and furrowed her brow in confusion as she read them. She thought they’d been friends and was confused by what Jade meant by her texts.

Perrie: What do you mean?

It took only seconds for Jade to respond. Perrie wondered if she’d been staring at her screen, waiting for Perrie’s response.

Jade: well at first we were strangers. Just talking on the phone.

Jade: Even if we knew there was the potential for more.

Jade: Then we met in person and we were girlfriends

Perrie: And we never really got to be friends. Not really anyway.

Perrie: Is that what you mean?

Perrie waited several minutes for Jade to respond and wondered what had prompted Jade to bring the matter up in the first place. As the minutes passed, she wondered if Jade was fretting over her next text, writing and rewriting it as Perrie had been doing for Leigh-Anne’s, or if she was simply distracted.

Jade: We’re friends now. Right?

Perrie grinned to herself at the innocent question. She thought about the past week. They’d spent nearly every day together to some extent. Sure, they’d been sharing letters detailing their lives, letters that were written from a place of love, but it hadn’t just been about the letters. She remembered the way Jade teased her about singing along to music the first day at Danielle’s, and the way she held her hand as she spoke about losing Leigh-Anne.

Perrie didn’t know what would happen between them when they finished reading the letters, but she knew that Jade was now back in her life for good. She didn’t know in what capacity Jade would be in her life, but Perrie knew one thing for sure. She knew that Jade was her friend now. And she was hers.

Perrie: Yes Jade, we’re most definitely friends.

Jade: Good :)

Perrie took a look at the date on her phone and smiled to herself. She had nearly forgotten the day, having lost track of them in the past week, but was glad she had checked.

Perrie: Change of plans, I need to let the room dry a bit before I start adding in more of the details, so we’re not meeting at Danielle’s tomorrow.

Jade: Meet at SoHo then?

Perrie: Nope. Meet me at the corner of Central Park West and 79th at 10am

Jade: ?

Jade: Why there?

Perrie: Just you wait and see my friend ;)

Perrie was growing giddy with excitement, ready for the next day to arrive so she could enact her plan and spend the day with her friend. She looked back at the draft of the message she was to send to Leigh-Anne. She deleted it and went to bed.