Hey Stranger || Jerrie

Chapter 15

Sunday morning, Jade woke to a face full of blonde hair and a numb arm. It took her a minute to register where she was, but she immediately knew who she was with. After the concert the night before, Perrie had declared that she really had to go home that night. She didn’t have any clothes or anything or even a toothbrush, she needed to go home. She had also invited Jade to come home with her and Jade had agreed to join her.

They’d arrived at Perrie’s apartment, driven there by Gary, to find it empty. Jesy was at Jake’s, but Leigh-Anne was nowhere to be seen. They’d jokingly wondered if she was with Ally, but they honestly had no idea what was going on between the two. After a late night the night before, both women were exhausted when they arrived at the apartment. Unlike the night before though, they were completely sober.

Perrie had invited Jade in to her room where she let her borrow a t-shirt and pajama shorts. They’d sat together on Perrie’s bed for over an hour, talking, until they finally became too tired to talk anymore and Jade had fallen asleep with Perrie in her arms, the same way she woke the next morning.

“Your breath smells,” Perrie laughed, turning around in Jade’s grasp, causing the blood to rush back in to it. “I can feel it on my neck.”

Jade used Perrie’s new position to pull the girl in closer and blow on her face. They may have only been officially together for a day and a half, but they were comfortable with each other already. It came from spending hours on the phone with only the other’s voice to attach themselves to.

“Eww,” Perrie frowned, scrunching her nose in disgust, “That’s so gross. Go brush your teeth.”

“But I’m so comfy right here,” Jade pouted, proving her point by pulling her girlfriend closer in her grasp. Perrie glared at Jade and tried to scoot out of the girl’s grasp. “Okay, fine,” Jade rolled her eyes and hopped out of bed. She quickly brushed her teeth, and returned to the room where Perrie was sitting up in bed. “I used your toothbrush,” Jade smirked.

“Jade that’s gross,” Perrie crossed her arms across her chest.

“You’re fine with me sticking my tongue down your throat, but not with using your toothbrush?” Jade questioned with a scoff, only slightly worried that she’d stepped over a line. She plopped back down on the bed and crawled up it towards her girlfriend, blowing minty-fresh breath in her face.

“You make an excellent point,” Perrie relented. She reached her arms forward and grasped the Georgetown t-shirt that Jade was borrowing from her and pulled her forward.

“You’re lucky that morning breath doesn’t bother me,” Jade teased as she straddled Perrie’s waist and pressed her lips against the other girl’s.

Rather than responding verbally, Perrie pushed her hands up under the back of Jade’s shirt, resting them on the bare skin she found there as their impromptu make-out session became more heated. Unfortunately, said make-out session was cut short by the sound of Perrie’s grumbling stomach.

“Hungry are you?” Jade asked with a laugh after Perrie pulled away and covered her stomach as if that would quell the sound.

Perrie nodded with a laugh, “Yeah. What time is it anyway?”

Without leaving her position on top of Perrie, Jade leaned over to the bedside table and picked up her phone. She ignored the calls and texts from Karl and Gary and looked instead at the time. “It’s eleven thirty,” Jade spoke, surprised by how late they had slept.

“Do you want to brunch?” Perrie asked.

“Did you just use the word brunch as verb?” Jade asked with a scoff, positioning herself so that she was again face-to-face with Perrie.

“I did,” Perrie nodded assuredly. “I know a place, it’s just down the road and if you shower and get your hair back curly, wear your glasses and a baseball cap and don’t break out in to song and dance, nobody will have any idea who you are.” She was clearly very proud of her plan.

Jade thought momentarily about Perrie’s suggestion. It seemed like a good idea. After all, Perrie hadn’t recognized her with curly hair and glasses, and she’d even sung for her. She figured a passerby wouldn’t even make a double glance at her. “Okay,” she agreed, “but I haven’t showered since the concert, so I really do need to shower.”

“Same,” Perrie nodded. “You can take my shower; I’ll go use Jesy’s.” Jade nodded and moved to leave the bed, but Perrie held her steady. She quickly kissed her then pushed her off.

After she showered, Jade let her curls loose around her shoulders instead of straightening them like she usually did. She didn’t bother to put in her contacts, opting instead for her glasses per Perrie’s suggestion. When she finally got dressed and returned to Perrie’s bedroom, she found Perrie having finished showering as well, but still dressed in a towel.

“Sorry!” Jade spun around immediately after taking in Perrie’s lack of clothing.

“It’s okay,” Perrie laughed, “I just need to get changed and then we can go.”

“I’ll go wait in the living room,” Jade responded, quickly leaving the room. She found Jesy and Jake beyond the door, lying on the couch together watching television. “I’m uhh…I’m just waiting for Perrie to get ready.”

“Okay,” Jesy responded with a grin. She opened her mouth to speak again, but Jake quickly covered it with his hand.

“Hi Jade,” Jake spoke, ignoring the fact that his girlfriend was grabbing at his hand, trying to remove it from her mouth and looking very annoying. “My name is Jake, I’m J’s fiancé. And I’m currently preventing Jesy from making a fool of herself. I don’t think she can currently be trusted to talk to you.”

Luckily Jade was saved a moment later as Perrie exited her bedroom. Jade watched as Perrie’s eyes shifted to the couple on the couch and took in Jake’s hand on top of Jesy’s mouth. She then looked back at Jade, grabbed her hand and a set of keys and waved goodbye to the couple, leading Jade out the door.

Jade quickly texted Gary to let him know the address of the diner they were going to before she let Perrie lead her down the road. It was only a ten minute walk, but when they arrived, Gary was already there, sitting with a cup of coffee at a table by himself, looking only slightly out of place. He nodded once at Jade when they arrived, but other than that made no move to give away his connection to Jade.

The couple ended up being seated only a few tables away from the bodyguard and quickly ordered pancakes and an omelet to share between the two of them.

“So I leave tonight,” Jade finally spoke after they placed their order, figuring she might as well rip off the Band-Aid.

“I was just thinking about that,” Perrie responded, taking a sip of her iced coffee. Jade took note of it, realizing that Perrie was a much happier person after she had her morning coffee. “I don’t feel like I need to ask this, but I guess I should just clarify, but we’re doing this long distance thing, right?”

“Definitely,” Jade nodded assuredly. “I know it’s going be hard, but we’ve got the whole Skype thing down pat, right? We already know all the tricks for when the frame freezes.”

“Good point,” Perrie laughed, reaching across the table to take Jade’s hands in hers.

“Do you want to figure out now when the next time we can see each other is?” Jade asked. She didn’t want to let go of Perrie’s hands, but knew figuring out their plans was something that needed to be done. She pulled her hands away and withdrew her phone while Perrie took out hers.

“August is crazy for me,” Perrie sighed, “We’re opening a new wing at the gallery and have a ton of important collectors coming through nearly every day.”

“No problem,” Jade shook her head, “How about September? My tour runs all the way until the last Saturday of the month, the 24th, but I can fly you out to wherever I am when you’re free.”

“I’m not going to mooch off you,” Perrie rolled her eyes.

“Well it’s silly for me not to fly you out since I’m the one with the more complicated schedule,” Jade spoke, confused as to why Perrie wouldn’t accept in the first place. It wasn’t just free tickets she was offering, it was for their relationship.

“The only time I don’t have anything going on either for Jesy’s wedding, I’m her Maid of Honor, or at the gallery is September 19th, but that’s…” Perrie trailed off.

“That’s what?” Jade asked.

“It’s my birthday.”

“Your birthday is next month?” Jade asked with a sly grin. She didn’t like her own birthday very much, but she did love to celebrate other people’s birthdays. It took her a moment to register the hesitancy in Perrie’s voice. “Do you not want to spend your birthday with me?”

“No!” Perrie responded quickly, “I’d love to! I was just thinking about how annoyed Jesy and Leigh-Anne will be that they can’t throw me another surprise party. I hate surprise parties so much, even when I know they’re coming.”

“Noted,” Jade laughed. She looked down at her calendar and saw where she would be on Perrie’s birthday. “Do you think you can get off work that Friday?”

“Hmm,” Perrie tapped her chin, “Probably, why?”

“How do you feel about going to Paris for your birthday? I have a show there Saturday night.” She offered the suggestion with a hopeful smile.

“Paris?” Perrie’s eyes lit up and she clasped her hands over her mouth, “I’ve never even been out of the country! That would be amazing!”

Jade felt herself smiling just because Perrie was happy. She grinned even harder as Perrie reached across the table and pulled her in to a kiss. Neither girl noticed the handful of sets of eyes they’d attracted, nor the fact that more than three people around them had figured out who Jade was, her disguise not good enough, and that they had taken sly pictures of the brunette, mostly cutting Perrie out of the pictures.

After their food arrived, Jade agreed that it was the best brunch she’d ever had. It was while Perrie left to run to the bathroom that the paparazzi arrived. The amount of paparazzi in Washington D.C. was considerably less than the amount in New York and Los Angeles, but after one of the pictures of Jade at the diner was tweeted to the world, those that were in DC quickly sought the celebrity out.

Perrie had just started walking back to her table where Jade was waiting when Gary abruptly stood up, seeing the pair wearing cameras around their necks on the edge of the porch where they had all been enjoying their brunch in the sun.

Gary quickly approached the paparazzi, his large frame blocking the cameras from getting a good view of Jade who stood up along with Gary, but instead of walking towards the cameras, she hustled towards Perrie, grabbed her arm and hurried inside.

“There are paparazzis,” Perrie stated the obvious, her blue eyes wide with shock. “How did they find us?”

“Someone must have recognized me,” Jade responded, trying to make sense of it herself. She looked at Perrie and saw that the girl was more freaked than she’d anticipated. “Perrie? Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Perrie spoke vacantly, but while shaking her head. “I mean no. I don’t know. It’s all just kind of surreal, you know?”

“Yeah,” Jade nodded. But she didn’t, not really. She’d been around cameras her entire life thanks to first her father, then her mother. She’d been born on display.

“I just,” Perrie sputtered, “I just need to go somewhere, alone. I’m sorry Jade, but right now I just need to go.” The blonde kissed Jade’s cheek before hustling out the back door without another word.

Jade’s heart sunk as she wondered if she’d ever even see the blonde again, or if she’d scared her away for good. She didn’t hear from her all afternoon. Instead, Jade tortured herself by staring at the few photos the paparazzi did get. Luckily though, the most any photo showed of Perrie was her arm and shoulder, her head had always somehow been cut off.

As the day started to draw to a close and it became time to hop on a flight, Jade couldn’t help but think about the fact that they were the only pictures she had with her girlfriend. If she still was her girlfriend anyway.