Hey Stranger || Jerrie

Chapter 7

After a way-too-long car ride with Cher and the Fifth Harmony girls, Jade was more than happy to fall in to her hotel bed. The girls had been surprisingly helpful when it came to Perrie though. After they got over the shock that they’d only come in contact with each other because of a miss-dial, they’d enthusiastically tried to give Jade ideas on how she should tell Perrie about who she really was. They’d been understanding of the fact that she’d kept her celebrity status a secret, but were equally concerned that Jade would be revealed before she had the chance to tell the blonde herself.

Like she always did when she had a lot on her mind that she didn’t know how to process, Jade found herself grabbing her old acoustic and strumming out some chords, trying to attach new lyrics to them.

Realizing that she was quickly on to something, she withdrew a notebook from her suitcase and started to jot down the words that came to her along with the accompanying chords. She was so engrossed in her work, that she almost missed the sound of her phone vibrating on the duvet beside her. She managed to answer it just before it went to voicemail.

“Perrie! Hey!” she answered, seeing that the blonde she’d just moments before been writing about was calling her.

“You sound like you’re in a good mood,” Perrie laughed back. “When we were talking last night you literally sounded like you could fall asleep standing up.”

“I got a good night sleep,” Jade grinned at the sound Perrie’s voice.

“Good, I’m glad,” Perrie returned. Jade remembered the way Perrie had chastised her the night before for not getting enough sleep. She’d sounded like something of a cross between an annoyed mother and concerned girlfriend as she accused Jade’s boss for working her too hard and for too many hours. Perrie had inferred that Karl was her boss and Jade hadn’t corrected her, but for all intents and purposes he was. “So what are you up to?” Perrie asked.

“Just fooling around a bit on my guitar,” Jade returned. It wasn’t a slip of words; she’d specifically mentioned it to Perrie. It had been Ally’s idea to slowly get Perrie accustomed to the fact Jade was a singer before breaking in to the fact that she was THE singer.

“Really?” Jade could hear the excitement in the woman’s voice. “Can I hear you play something?”

Jade paused for a moment. She wasn’t ready to tell Perrie yet, in fact she kind of wanted to tell her in person, but Ally was right. She needed to ease Perrie in to the idea that there was more to her than she’d been upfront about.

“Jadey, you still there?” Perrie asked.

“Can I Skype you and play for you?” Jade asked before she could back down.

“Yeah,” Perrie’s voice was filled with excitement. “Don’t make fun of me, but my username is PrincessPezza.”

“That’s cute,” Jade laughed back, trying to disguise the nerves she felt. “I’ll add you on there and call you, okay?”

“I’ll be waiting,” Perrie returned.

As soon as Jade hung up the phone she quickly got up and looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was loose in its wild curls and her glasses sat on the bridge of her nose. She looked nothing like she did when the world saw her. From a young age her mother had made her wear contacts out in public and made her straighten her hair. As far as the public knew, she had naturally straight hair and perfect vision. She obviously still looked like herself, but out of context she figured Perrie wouldn’t be able to guess that she was Amelia, the celebrity whose hair was always perfectly straight with neat braids scattered throughout it.

Deciding she looked conspicuous enough, Jade grabbed her laptop and opened Skype. She added Perrie as a contact then nervously called her. She positioned her screen so that she was visible in the camera, but not too close up. She was more nervous than she had been in a long time, but the nerves dissipated the moment she saw Perrie’s grinning face on the screen. Perrie was obviously lying on her stomach in bed close to her computer as her entire face filled up the screen.

“So you’re not a creepy old man then,” Perrie greeted.

“What?” Jade laughed.

“Leigh-Anne tried to convince me that you were a creepy old man cat-fishing me.”

“Do I really sound like an old man?”

“You do sorta have a deep voice,” Perrie grinned.

“I do not!” Jade scoffed in return.

“I’m kidding. But if you ask me, deep voices in girls is sexy.”

Jade could feel a blush coming up on her neck as she remembered how she’d told the girls on the bus how sexy she thought Perrie’s voice was. She was glad that she was far enough from the camera that Perrie couldn’t see the reddening of her face. Wanting to move on from the topic though, Jade asked, “So you want me to play for you?” She lifted up her old acoustic guitar, the one with the doodles and stickers, to show it Perrie.

“Yes please,” Perrie nodded enthusiastically. “Are you going to sing for me too?” she bat her eyelashes wildly.

Jade thought for a moment. She obviously wasn’t going to sing one of her own songs. That would give her up way too easily. She also knew that it had been a long time since she had released an acoustic song, so there was a good chance that would help disguise her voice a bit. In the end she decided to play one of her favorite songs. It was both fun to play and a song she enjoyed to sing. It also helped that it was a bit of a love song. It was Ed Sheeran’s ‘Give Me Love’. She started to strum the intro before quickly clearing her throat and singing.

Nearly five minutes later, Jade strummed out the last chords before she sang the last words “Give me love…”

It was once there was no reaction on the other end after she finished that Jade finally looked down at the screen that she had very pointedly not been looking at for the entire duration of the song. She wasn’t sure what she expected when she looked down. Maybe confusion or maybe anger at the realization of who she was, but instead Perrie’s face was full of awe.

The awe quickly fell from the blonde’s face as soon as she registered the terror that had come over Jade. Perrie went from a look of awe to a look of concern herself, before she clarified the meaning behind it all. “I’m literally speechless Jadey,” she explained, “I had no idea you could play guitar like that, let alone sing. You’re incredible.”

“Thanks,” Jade blushed, putting her guitar down beside her as she drew her knees to her chest. It had been a long time since she’d been nervous playing in front of someone before. She knew she was good, but that didn’t change the fact that with Perrie it was different.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this hobby of yours?” the blonde asked. “Because I’m not kidding, you’re literally amazing. Like, incredible.”

What Jade wanted to say was that she hadn’t told Perrie because it wasn’t just a hobby, it was a career, but instead she said, “I don’t know.”

“Thank you for sharing it with me,” Perrie smiled shyly. “I can tell it’s something important to you.”

Perrie was right, of course. What else was new? Music was something Jade cared deeply about. If she didn’t, she would have quit a while ago. She would have quit the moment she was able to fire her mother as manager if she didn’t love it so much. She didn’t love the fame, but it did have perks, and one of those perks was the ability to do what she loved for a living.

“Thanks for sharing your face with me,” Jade grinned in return, causing Perrie to let out a loud laugh that erupted with a snort. Perrie immediately covered her face in shame. “Did you just snort?” Jade asked with a giggle.

“No,” Perrie shook her head, her cheeks visibly reddening.

“You did!” Jade insisted.

“You have no proof,” Perrie shook her head, but despite her blushing cheeks, she was smiling.

“But I have the memory of it, and that’s what matters.”

They fell asleep while Skyping, Jade with her glasses still on. They’d talked for hours, but neither had wanted to be the first to hang up and admit that they were more tired than the other, resulting in them falling asleep, their call connected until their computers ran out of battery.