Strangers No More || Jerrie

Chapter 20

Perrie had offered to drive from the city to James Thirlwall’s home in Westhampton and Jade hadn’t argued with her. She wasn’t the best driver in the world, mostly because she never really had much experience. It had taken her three tries before she’d passed her driver’s test.

It being the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, they were stuck in traffic the entire ride out towards the end of the island. It took them over four hours. Luckily though, they were able to pass the time listening to music and reading aloud letters while Padfoot and Spike entertained each other behind them.

Every once in a while, Jade would lean back to scratch the dogs’ heads and offer them treats, claiming they not-so-secretly preferred her to Perrie. Perrie originally scoffed at the assumption, but after Jade took Padfoot onto her lap at one point, she decided not to argue the point any further.

She knew that Perrie hated the fact that they were hitting traffic the entire drive, but Jade actually enjoyed the long time they had in the car together with the dogs. She’d originally laughed when she’d heard the names, but then decided that she loved them. After all, if she had dogs, she would probably name them after something Buffy or Harry Potter related, as well.

They were finally past the halfway point when it came to the letters. Jade had only about a hundred letters left to read, covering the span of two and a half years. She was almost at the gap. The period of time when she didn’t write to Perrie at all. And after reading out loud about the start of the Hidden Majesty tour, Jade knew that it was time to tell Perrie about what had happened, what had led up to the gap.

She waited until she reached a letter halfway through that summer, when they were still an hour away from Westhampton.

“Dear Perrie,” Jade began to speak, scratching behind Spike’s ear. “Remember how I said that Hidden Majesty was going to be my favorite tour yet? Well I think it still is. It’s been incredible. I can’t believe it’s already September and it’s nearly over. It gets a bit exhausting at times, but it’s definitely worth it. Each show has gone off pretty much without a hitch. Until tonight’s show. I was in the middle of “Stand Alive” when it felt like shards of glass were being shoved down my throat. I finished the show, and I don’t think anyone noticed, but the pain only faded a bit. I’ve been in my dressing room since the show ended, over an hour ago. The panic attack only just subsided. Yours forever, Jade.”

“Did you ever figure out why that happened to your throat?” Perrie asked. “Was it just from over stretching your vocal cords or something?”

Jade was ready to address that matter with Perrie, but that wasn’t what she wanted to talk about first. “I did,” she nodded. “But there’s actually something more important about that letter.”

“What’s that?” she questioned.

“Well, the date on that letter is September 17th, 2019. Ironically, it was your birthday, but there’s a more important anniversary on that date.” Jade paused, but Perrie didn’t interrupt her. “That was the last panic attack. I haven’t had one in nearly two years now.”

“Are you serious?” Perrie exclaimed. “Jade, that’s incredible!” She took her eyes off the road for only a moment to glance at Jade with a smile, one that Jade quickly returned. Perrie then took a hand off the steering wheel and placed it on Jade’s arm, giving it a slight squeeze.

“Yeah,” Jade nodded with a blush. “Prior to then, they were happening less frequently. I think I just finally got control over everything after that.”

“That’s awesome,” Perrie repeated.

Jade leaned down at kissed Spike’s head before turning and placing him in the back of the car with his brother. “I shouldn’t have waited until it got to that point to see a doctor. And I don’t mean about the panic attacks, I mean the thing with my throat. I didn’t really think about it though. I just assumed it was sore because I’d been overworking it.”

“Jade, what’s wrong?” Perrie asked, her voice now serious.

“I explain it in the upcoming letters,” Jade began. “But I’ll just tell you. I did a shitty job of explaining it in the letters.”

“Tell me what?” Jade could hear the growing tone of nervousness in the blonde’s voice.

“In layman’s terms, my vocal folds are scarred and pretty much f****d from years of overusing them and my larynx isn’t doing much better. I had a surgery on them about a year ago. It helped a bit, but they weren’t able to fully fix everything. That’s why I haven’t released an album since Hidden Majesty.”

“Oh Jadey,” Perrie sighed.

“It sucks, but I’ve more or less gotten over it. Or at least, I’ve dealt with it anyway.”

“I had no idea. I can only imagine how hard that was for you.”

“It was,” Jade nodded.

The two sat in silence for a bit and it wasn’t long before they finally reached their destination, Jade providing Perrie with directions to her father’s beach house, the dogs in the back sticking their heads out the open windows as if they sensed they’d nearly reached their destination.

Janet and Carson greeted Perrie and Jade as soon as they pulled down the gravel driveway. While Jade saw Carson fairly often, as her sister was a student at NYU, she hadn’t seen Janet since Christmas as the other girl had just finished her freshman year at UCLA, on the opposite side of the country.

“Did you dye your hair?” Jade asked with a laugh as she played with her youngest sister’s blonde locks.

“Nope,” Janet shook her head. “It must just be the southern California sun.”

“Fine, if you really want to know, I do in fact dye my hair,” Carson interjected teasingly. Jade rolled her eyes and shoved the girl in response. Carson was a natural blonde like Janet, but had been dying her hair brown since she was fifteen. In fact, Jade had never known Carson with her natural hair color.

Remembering that Perrie was behind her, Jade took a step to the side. “You guys remember Perrie, right?” She knew that they would, but felt the need to introduce her anyway.

Perrie offered her former almost-half-sister-in-laws an awkward wave.

“You don’t actually think we’d forget who Perrie is, do you? I mean, we hosted an engagement party for the two of you in our backyard.” Carson teased, earning her another shove from her older sister. Carson was one of the few people who could manage to tease Jade about Perrie and not feel awkward about it.

“And if I remember correctly, both of you got slightly more than tipsy at that party,” Perrie raised her eyebrows at the girls. Janet and Carson exchanged a glance, clearly not knowing that they had ever been found out, before they all burst out laughing.

“Where is everyone else?” Jade asked, once they all managed to control their laughter.

“Mom, Carly, and Alyssa are getting dinner ready. Dad is out on the boat with Gavin, Tucker and Jason,” Janet answered. “Alyssa is Gavin’s wife,” she added for Perrie’s benefit. She had joined their family after Jade and Perrie’s break-up.

“Sure seems like the whole gang is here then,” Perrie laughed. While she’d briefly mentioned it to Perrie, Jade realized that she hadn’t fully explained how much better their blended family had gotten at actually acting like a family. Jade’s step-mother had even come around to liking Jade, especially after learning everything Jade’s biological mother had done to her.

Jade didn’t keep any secrets from her family. Not now that she had a family who actually loved her. Her step-mother had even stepped in in ways that Jade had never anticipated. She had been the one who’d picked Jade up from the hospital and stayed with her the night after her surgery.

On multiple occasions, Jade had accidentally slipped up and called the woman Mom instead of Emma. She never corrected her though.

“Oh my god! Are those puppies!?” Jade was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of her sisters’ squealing.

Perrie let the dogs out of the backseat and they immediately started jumping up and licking the faces of the two girls who had knelt down to pet them.

“You told your dad I was bringing the dogs, right?” Perrie questioned.

Jade nodded. “I asked him to put us in the guest house because while I don’t think anyone is allergic, I thought it would just be easier.”

“About that…” Carson stood up and looked at her older sister, wearing a guilty expression.

“What?” Jade asked.

“Well, a few of my friends are coming as well, and we can’t all fit in my room, so I’m going to be in the guest house with them. We need two of the bedrooms.” Carson acted like she felt bad about what she was seeing, but Carson’s eyes were just as expressive as she knew hers to be, and while Carson was clearly telling the truth, she probably didn’t feel bad about it.

“There are only three bedrooms in the guest house though,” Jade remarked, knowing exactly what Carson was going to say next.

“You and Perrie are going to have to share a room.”

Jade sighed. It wasn’t that she hated the idea of having to share a room with Perrie, but rather that it could potentially get incredibly awkward. They were friends and Jade didn’t want to jeopardize that.

“You have the room with two queens though,” Carson added and Jade breathed in relief. At least they wouldn’t have to deal with the awkwardness that would come with being forced into a bed together.

Janet and Carson offered to help Perrie and Jade to their room, but ended up just taking the dogs’ toys and leading the way, leaving Perrie and Jade with their bags.