Strangers No More || Jerrie

Chapter 10

Perrie woke to the sound of her alarm. She groggily turned it off and contemplated going back to bed, until she remembered what day it was. She’d specifically set her alarm so that she would have enough time to get ready and run to the bakery before she had uptown to meet with Jade.

The anticipation of spending the day with her friend spurred Perrie in to quickly getting out of bed and almost knocking one of the puppies off of the bed with her. As she changed into a sundress, seeing that it was supposed to be very warm out, Perrie sent a quick text to Jade.

Perrie: Don't bring any letters today.

It was the only hint she was going to give her friend as to what they would be doing that day.

Once she felt good about what she was wearing and her makeup was totally applied, Perrie ran her fingers through her hair. It had grown out considerably since she’d initially cut it over a year ago, but it was still short enough that running her fingers through it was all that she needed to do to it. She then headed out the door, making sure the dogs both had bowls full of food.

At exactly ten, Perrie found herself at the corner she’d asked Jade to meet her. Jade was already there, wearing dark blue shorts and a white tank top, her eyes hidden behind a large pair of sunglasses, her hair held back in a long braid. She was on the phone and didn’t see Perrie coming up behind her with a bakery box.

“Thank you, Leigh,” Jade spoke into her phone as Perrie approached her. The blonde didn’t want to interrupt the conversation, but it sounded like it was nearly over. “Yes, yes I know. I’m an old fart now. I got it…yes, I know. One of the perks of having you as a best friend it seems.”

Perrie’s heart leaped into her throat as she processed what she was listening to. Jade was on the phone with Leigh-Anne, and she’d referred to Leigh-Anne as her best friend. This development was new information to Perrie.

“Okay, I got it,” Jade continued to speak into the phone. “Alright, I better go. Perrie should be here any minute. Love you too. Bye.”

“Hey!” Perrie greeted the brunette as soon as Jade hung up the phone. She wrapped her arms around her, hugging her like she would any of her friends.

“Perrie, hey!” Jade greeted her while returning her hug.

“I brought you something,” the blonde grinned as she opened the box she’d picked up from the bakery on the way to meet Jade. Inside of it, she revealed a cupcake with a candle sticking out of it. “It’s red velvet,” she explained.

A grin spread across Jade’s face as she took it in. “You remembered?”

“Of course I remembered,” Perrie assured her. “May the fourth be with you, birthday girl.” She laughed as she took out the cupcake and handed it to the birthday girl.

Jade accepted the pastry and unwrapped the liner from around it and took a large bite. “Oh my god, this is fantastic. You have to try it.”

“I mean, if you insist,” Perrie laughed with a shrug. Jade held the cupcake out to her and Perrie took a small bite while Jade kept it in her hand. “Oh my god, it’s fantastic.”

“And it’s mine,” Jade stuck her tongue out at the blonde and took another bite. “So what are we doing here anyway?”

Perrie put her arms on Jade’s shoulders and turned her around to face the building behind them. “Well, do you still love museums?” Jade’s eyes widened as she took in where they were and she nodded enthusiastically. “Good. Because I was thinking we could spend your birthday at the American Museum of Natural History.”

“Thank you Perrie,” Jade smiled, before a frown found its way on to her face. “People will probably recognize me while we’re there.”

“We’re friends, right Jade?” Perrie asked. Jade nodded. “So there’s no reason for us to have to hide our friendship or sneak around. We have to live our lives, regardless. We can’t let other people dictate our happiness.”

Jade grinned, a small piece of icing stuck to her upper lip. She took Perrie’s hand in hers and led her towards the impressive building.

Perrie bought their admission tickets, refusing to let Jade pay. It was Jade’s birthday, after all.

“Can we see the dinosaurs first?” Jade asked after Perrie returned with their tickets. She gave Perrie puppy eyes and pouted like a child, causing the blonde to laugh loudly. She snorted as she laughed and a few people looked over at them, but it didn’t appear that anyone had looked close enough to recognize Jade for who she was.

“You’re like a six-year-old boy you know?” Perrie teased.

“So you’re friends with little boys now Perrie?” Jade quipped back. They quickly got into an easy banter as they walked toward the Fossil Halls.

When they reached their destination, Jade took it all in in awe. She read every placard and admired each fossil, interjecting facts that she knew offhand. Perrie focused more on the birthday girl’s enthusiasm, enjoying the fact that Jade was enjoying herself so much.

After Jade decided that she’d admired the dinosaurs enough, she let Perrie lead her out towards the Human Origins and Cultural Halls.

“You were obsessed with Jurassic Park as a kid, weren’t you?” Perrie asked as soon as they were clear of the fossils.

“I loved it. I watched them all, even if the first one was the only good one. You have no idea how excited how I was when Jurassic World came out,” Jade enthused.

But Perrie did have a good idea of how excited she had been. Even if she didn’t vaguely remember a conversation they’d had about the movie when they’d first started talking on the phone, she could tell by Jade’s mannerisms. She was walking backwards so that she could look at Perrie and her eyes lit up as she spoke with large hand gestures.

“I forced Karl to find me a ticket to the premiere, even though I had nothing to do with the film. She managed to get me one, of course. She can get anything out of anyone. It didn’t live up to the original, of course, but it was better than the other sequels,” she continued to speak with her hand, just barely avoiding backing into a little boy and his mother, earning them a glare. “I died a little when they killed Katie McGrath, because who would ever think it okay to kill that perfect human being?”

After Jade nearly backed into another group of people, Perrie reached out to her and spun her around so that she was facing the right way and looped their arms together.

Not deterred in the slightest, Jade continued to speak. “How cool would a real life Jurassic Park be?”

“Umm, not cool at all,” Perrie laughed. She paused after she realized that Jade was being serious. “Jade? For real? You’ve seen the movies. When have they EVER ended well? Literally the lessons of the movies are that T-Rexes are scary as f**k, making mutant dinosaurs is a bad idea, the dinosaurs ALWAYS get loose. Oh, and that Jimmy Buffet will protect his margaritas at all costs.”

“Whatever,” Jade shrugged, but Perrie could see the smile on her face nevertheless. “A girl can dream.”

They continued to wander through the next hall arm in arm, only separating so that they could look closer at one of the exhibits. They took their time making their way through the museum, spending time with each exhibit. They had no other plans for the day and Perrie wanted to make sure that Jade got her fill of history. The woman loved history museums the way Perrie loved art museums. And that was saying a lot.

On several occasions, Perrie thought she saw a few people do a couple double takes when Jade walked by. Another time she thought she saw someone snapping their picture, but they could have also been taking a picture of the European tapestries battle behind them. Nobody actually came up to them until they took a break to fill their stomachs at one of the cafes.

They were sipping wine and chatting about how the hall of water animals didn’t have nearly enough information on giant squids (according to Jade, anyway), when a man approached their table with two young teenaged girls behind him.

“I am really sorry to interrupt your lunch,” he interjected. “And I normally wouldn’t do this and disturb you, but it’s my daughters’ birthdays and they recognized you earlier in the Fossil Hall. I told them not to disturb you, but they pulled the birthday card on me.” He gestured back to the identical twins who were wearing matching shy smiles.

“Oh, no worries!” Jade waved him off. “How old are you girls?”

“Twelve,” the twin closest to the table responded.

“You know what’s really funny? Today is my birthday, as well,” Jade explained. Perrie had nearly forgotten how much of a natural Jade was around fans. She was always very open and down to earth, the complete opposite of the way she came off to reporters.

“Really?” the second twin asked.

Jade nodded. “Do you want to get a picture together? Just us birthday girls?” The girls looked at their father who gestured for them to approach the superstar. Jade stood from her seat and wrapped an arm around each of the girls, asking them their names, and smiled as their father snapped the photo. “Do you guys have any other fun plans for your birthday?” she asked. “Other than spending it at my favorite museum in the world?”

The girls seemed to be opening up a bit more to Amelia and they seemed excited that their idol also enjoyed spending her birthday at the museum. “We’re going to dinner at a place called Ninja. They have real ninjas who serve you and jump out at you,” one girl answered while the other nodded.

“Really?” Jade asked. “That’s so cool!” She then turned back to Perrie and asked, “Perrie, are you taking me to a place with ninjas for dinner?”

Perrie laughed and shook her head. “No, but I wish I’d thought of that. That sounds pretty cool.”

“Well we’ll let you two get back to your lunch,” the father joined back into the conversation. “Thank you so much for talking to them.”

“Of course!” Jade grinned genuinely in return. “Happy birthday, Anna and Louisa! Hope you guys have a fun time at Ninja!”

Jade sat back down in her seat and promptly returned to her sandwich. Perrie just looked at her, remembering just how much of a generous person Jade was.

They spent the afternoon wandering through the remaining exhibits until they finally found themselves in the planetarium. They admired the presentation and stood quietly side-by-side as they watched the projection of the Big Bang presentation.

Perrie remembered seeing something at one point that theorized that people are drawn to each other because their atoms were near each other when the universe was created and over time the same atoms keep coming back together. Or maybe it was the contents of the atoms, electrons, neutrons or protons. It made her wonder if that could possibly be why dialing a wrong number had drawn her to Jade in the first place, and why she kept coming back to her in the smallest of ways. Maybe it was the universe trying to tell her something.

She didn’t remember grabbing Jade’s hand or Jade intertwining their fingers, but that’s the position they found themselves in as they looked up at the screen above them, simulating a supernova and the travel through space until they found themselves looking up at Earth itself.

“It really puts things in perspective, doesn’t it?” Jade whispered into Perrie’s ear, obviously not wanting to disturb those around them.

“We’re so small in the grand scheme of things,” Perrie responded. “Don’t you feel so lonely and insignificant when you see things like this?”

“Not at all,” Jade responded as she gently squeezed Perrie’s hand. “It makes me realize that the universe is so infinite in its expanse. It seems almost empty at times, and yet here we are. A planet full of life. I don’t know if there is life out there besides us, but it doesn’t really matter because in the universe of infinite possibilities, there’s life here. And it matters.” She paused and Perrie took in what she was saying. “I’m in awe of it all, but I don’t feel lonely or insignificant, I feel grateful for what I have.”

Perrie felt something shift in the air between them and she turned so that she was no longer shoulder to shoulder with Jade, but rather facing her. She looked into her honest brown eyes and saw galaxies full of infinite possibilities behind them. She saw a universe full of choices and decisions. She saw a woman who was finally okay with opening herself up to the possibility that life should be about more than just living.

She didn’t mean to, but Perrie’s eyes instinctively darted down to Jade’s lips and back up to meet her gaze again. Brown eyes mimicked blue. They both took half-steps closer to one another until only inches separated them. Perrie looked back down at Jade’s lips, then back up again, as if to ask permission. Jade nodded imperceptibly, barely visible in the room lit only by a screen.

Perrie tilted her head and moved it slowly closer to Jade’s. Then the lights turned on.

Around them people started filing out and the sudden bright light caused both Jade and Perrie took step away from each other and realize where they were, and that they weren’t alone.

“We should probably get out of here,” Jade suggested. Perrie nodded and let the brunette lead her out of the planetarium.