Strangers No More || Jerrie

Chapter 15

Jade had just arrived at Mixed Books the two days later when she received a text from Carson.

Fave Sis: Memorial Day! You’re coming, right?

Jade: That’s the plan, nice getaway for the weekend.

The brunette greeted Sharon and headed to the reading room. She got out her pile of letters and as she thumbed through them, she realized that she would be finishing her first year of letters with Perrie that day. Perrie had finished hers already and Jade knew Perrie was curious about the pacing of Jade’s letters, but Jade hadn’t offered her an explanation. Perrie would find out eventually.

Fave Sis: Are Leigh and Ally coming this year?

Jade: No, they’re going to Jesy and Jake’s so they don’t have to travel as far.

Instead of sitting in the chairs at the opposite side of the room, Jade settled on one of the couches.

Fave Sis: Perfect. So you have no excuse to not invite Perrie.

Jade: She might be busy.

Fave Sis: She might not be.

Jade: I’ll think about it.

Fave Sis: Ask. Her.

Receiving Carson’s last text, Jade turned off her phone just as Perrie entered the room holding drinks for them both. Jade immediately stood and greeted Perrie with a hug. She then graciously accepted the hot tea from Perrie as the blonde sipped on her Frappuccino.

“I don’t know how you can drink that when it’s finally hot out,” Perrie gestured to Jade’s hot drink.

“Well, it’s not hot in here,” Jade shrugged in response. “I just like tea I guess. Kinda like how you like crazy sugary drinks.”

“What can I say? I guess I’m just a child at heart,” Perrie grinned with her straw still in her mouth and Jade’s heart skipped a beat. Not because she felt anything more than friendship for her though. Simply because Perrie was acting adorable. Nothing more. Or at least, that’s what she told herself.

They quickly settled into the couch, sitting side by side, thighs barely brushing. It was a small couch. Perrie went first and began to weave tales about Thanksgiving with an American family she met in Ireland and deciding to head to England next to meet her father’s extended family for the first time.

By the time Jade reached her last letter of that first year, several hours had passed and they had rearranged their positions. Perrie was sitting on one end of the couch with Jade’s head in her lap, her legs thrown over the other end of the couch. The blonde was mindlessly running one hand through brunette curls while her other hand was held in Jade’s as brunette absentmindedly played with her fingers with her hand that wasn’t grasping the letter she was reading.

“…I think I’m going to be okay. Yours forever, Jade.” Jade finished reading the letter and looked up into blue eyes. She stopped playing with Perrie’s fingers, but still held on to them. “So that’s it. My first year of letters. All two hundred twenty-four of them.” Perrie’s first year had consisted of one hundred eighty-three letters.

“I remember when you first played “Paris” for me,” Perrie remarked.

Jade smiled fondly at the memory. “You were drunk and made me sing to you over Skype.”

“Well, it was before I moved to New York and I was lonely.”

“You tried to sing along once you caught on to the chorus.”

“You recorded it so that you could send it to me when I was sober.”

“Well it was pretty funny.”

“It was adorable, don’t even deny it.”

“You’re adorable.” The words slipped out of Jade’s mouth before she even had a chance to process her response. She quickly looked away from the blonde, but not before she caught the hint of a smile on the girl’s face.

As Jade diverted her eyes, her gaze caught the piano sitting in the opposite corner of the room. She smiled to herself and lifted her head up off Perrie’s lap and stood up. She offered Perrie a hand and guided her to the instrument. She sat down on the bench and pats the space beside her. Perrie sat.

Jade stretched her fingers along the ivory keys, brushing the slight layer of dust off them. “I’ve never played “Paris” on the piano, so I’m not sure how it’ll sound.”

“I’m sure it’ll sound great.”

Jade knew she shouldn’t have, but she started to hum and she figured out the chords. She hadn’t played or sung “Paris” in a long time. She couldn’t even remember the last time she had. It could have even been on her Strangers tour, three and a half years earlier.

It came back to her quickly though.

She played the chords several times, making sure she had them down pat before she took one of Perrie’s hands and placed them on the keyboard.

“What are you doing?” the blonde asked.

“Teaching you how to play,” Jade responded, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. She looked to her side and saw that Perrie was looking at her with her bright blue eyes, smile spreading across her face.

Jade placed her hand over Perrie’s and guided her through the chords until the blonde could get through them on her own. Once she had, Jade shifted her own hands further down the piano to play the lower notes.

It took several tries, but they finally got in the rhythm and started to play. Jade sang the lyrics softly in a voice just slightly deeper than the one she had performed with on stage in St. Louis just less than four years earlier, when she’d realized that a year had passed.

The Paris skyline at night

A sight to rival at

Is nothing

Nothing compared to you

And your eyes all alight

Because that night I fell

That night I knew without you

I was nothing

- Paris (2017)