Strangers No More || Jerrie

Chapter 3

The next morning, Perrie was more nervous than she’d been in years. She was even more nervous than the time a friend she’d met on the road had convinced her it was perfectly safe to go to the site of an active volcano. It wasn’t.

She changed her outfit four times before she chided herself for being so ridiculous. She wasn’t going on a date. She was just going to meet up with her Jade. No, that wasn’t right. Jade, she was going to meet with Jade. All they were doing was exchanging the letters, letting each other know what they had been doing for nearly five years. That was it.

She knew it was a ridiculous thought, but Perrie wondered if Jade would recognize her. She knew she would, of course, but when Perrie came home after four years abroad her friends and family had all remarked on how different she looked. Of course, when she asked what about her was different, nobody had really been able to put their finger on it.

There was her hair of course. Traveling so often without knowing when she’d be able to shower next, Perrie had opted to cut her hair short. She’d channeled her inner Anne Hathaway and had a friend give her a pixie cut. It had been a little short at first, but once she’d moved back to the States it had grown in just enough that she kept getting compliments on it. She’d also finally admitted to the fact that her eyesight wasn’t the perfect 20-20 vision she’d claimed it was and had gotten glasses. Everyone had liked her glasses, but nobody had mentioned the fact that her glasses were eerily similar to Jade’s, only dark green instead of brown.

But those were the obvious changes. Both Debbie and Jesy had insisted there was something else, but neither could figure it out. Other than the tattoo that Perrie had hidden from sight, she wasn’t sure what they could have been referring to.

After finally settling on an old pair of jeans and a shirt she thought might once have belonged to a second or third cousin back in England, she grabbed the basket in which she’d organized all 656 letters in the order in which she’d written them. There were more than she’d expected. She knew there were weeks that she would write a letter every day, but there were also weeks during which she didn’t write Jade a single letter.

Not wanting to risk the subway with her open-air basket, Perrie decided to walk to the place where she’d be meeting Jade. It had taken them a while to decide on where would make the most sense to meet. Neither had wanted to worry about paparazzi, but the thought of returning to the apartment they had once shared was too much for Perrie.

Jade had been the one to suggest the bookstore. She explained it was a place she’d found by accident several years previously. The store sold mostly second-hand books and other odds and ends. It was always quiet and Jade had rarely ever seen another customer. In fact, she’d joked with the owner that she was keeping the store open herself with the amount of time she spent there. There was a small reading room in the back where they wouldn’t be disturbed.

Having finally gotten used to the layout of the city again over the past few months, it didn’t take long for Perrie to find the place. It was called Mixed Books. Perrie liked the name, she wondered what its origin was.

When she pushed open the door to the small store in SoHo, a bell chimed and she was greeted by an older woman with a kind smile.

“Welcome to Mixed Books,” she greeted her. “I’m Sharon. Let me know if there’s anything I can help you with.”

“Thanks,” Perrie grinned. “I’m just…I’m supposed to be meeting my friend here.”

“She’s back in the reading room,” Sharon gestured behind her to a door.

“Thanks,” Perrie smiled in return. She took a deep breath before walking in the direction Sharon had pointed her towards.

The room was small, but cozy, decorated with comforting colors. Bookshelves lined the walls and large plush chairs cluttered the room. Caddy cornered in the far back corner were two matching green chairs. Jade sat on one of the chairs bouncing a leg nervously. She looked up as soon as Perrie walked in.

Perrie paused and Jade’s leg stopped moving. Her warm brown eyes bore into Perrie, still as striking even behind the girl’s glasses. She wore her hair in a long French braid that wrapped around over her shoulder. Her hair was longer than it was the last time Perrie had seen her. She quickly tried to remember the last time she’d seen Jade on a magazine. She knew it was some time recently, but her brain was short-circuiting. All she could think about was the way Jade’s black leather jacket hinted at the strong arms it encased, the soft smile growing on her pink lips and the crisp, identical envelopes sitting in neat piles on the table in front of her.

Perrie wasn’t sure how much time passed, but she suddenly became aware that she was still standing in the doorway. She took a step forward and took a hand out from under the basket she was holding, she gave Jade a little wave as she said, “Hi.”

Jade’s smile grew and she immediately stood up. Perrie picked up her pace as she crossed the room. She placed her basket down on the table, careful not to disturb the piles Jade had placed her letters in. The two looked at each other awkwardly before Perrie opened her arms.

Tension appeared to leave Jade’s shoulders as she wrapped her arms around Perrie in return. The blonde sighed into the hug. Their embrace lasted just a beat longer than one between friends.

“You look really good,” Jade finally spoke and Perrie nearly died at the sound of her voice. It was just as she’d remembered it.

“So do you,” Perrie responded honestly. “You look the same.” She subconsciously reached and took the end of Jade’s braid between her thumb and forefinger, gently caressing it. Realizing what she was doing, she pulled her hand away and looked back up at Jade. “You look the same in a good way. I mean. I mean you don’t look thirty at all, you still look twenty-five.”

Jade laughed and Perrie began to wonder why it was she’d let herself live so long without hearing the woman’s laugh. The brunette then took her turn to speak. “You don’t look the same,” she laughed.

“I know,” Perrie grinned in return. She gestured to her hair then glasses as she spoke, “It’s the hair and glasses. I have contacts, but I usually only wear them when I’m painting.”

“No,” Jade shook her head. Perrie looked at her in confusion so she clarified, “I mean yes, it’s the hair and glasses, but that’s not why you look different. You hold yourself differently. You’re standing straighter. I don’t know, I’m not sure I’m even making any sense. You just…you look more confident.”

It took all of Perrie’s will to not let her jaw drop open. She had managed to convey in a few words what Debbie and Jesy must have been trying to figure out for months.

Jade offered Perrie a tentative smile than gestured for her to sit. Perrie took her seat.

“So how are we going to do this?” Jade asked.

“Well we could just give each other the letters and read them on our own, then after we’re done we can decide if there’s…if we want to…if we want to keep talking,” Perrie attempted to articulate her thoughts.

“We read our first letters over the phone,” Jade stated. “And I know there are a lot of them. I wrote over six hundred, but I was thinking maybe we can read them to each other.”

Perrie looked into the girl’s brown eyes, noticing how open they were, how there didn’t seem to be any walls up. The sight shocked her slightly.

“Okay,” she nodded. “So, our second letters then. Do you want to start?”

“Sure,” Jade nodded. She reached toward the pile of envelopes closest to her and picked the one off the top. She carefully unsealed the envelope and unfolded the note from within. The brunette cleared her throat and a blush slowly crept up her neck as she began to speak, “Perrie. If you took the plane tickets I sent you, then you’re thousands of feet in the air, halfway across the Atlantic Ocean right now…”