Hey Stranger || Jerrie

Chapter 8

It was the end of July and exactly ten months before Jake and Jesy’s wedding. As a result, Jesy had decided that that was as good a reason as any to have a girl’s night out with Leigh-Anne and Perrie. Leigh-Anne and Perrie knew better than to argue with Jesy when she got her mind set on something, and as a result they got dressed up for a night out on the town. Luckily though, they’d managed to convince Jesy that going to a club wouldn’t be as much fun as a bar with a dance floor. It was only because of Leigh’s leg that Jesy agreed though.

It didn’t take long for them to get suitably drunk off shots of tequila and they quickly moved from the bar area to the dance floor. Even though Leigh-Anne had trouble really dancing with her brace, she could move her hips like no other and still managed to dance for a while. It was just after Leigh had taken a break to sit down that Perrie felt someone sidling alongside her. At first she thought it was Leigh-Anne coming back, as Jesy was on her other side, but it wasn’t.

“Hi, I’m Selena,” came a voice in her ear. Perrie turned to look at the shorter girl with dark hair. She was cute, Perrie had to admit, and definitely confident which was something Perrie enjoyed.

Perrie couldn’t remember the last time a girl hit on her first. It was a nice change of pace. Even back in college when she was single she was always the one initiating things. “I’m Perrie,” she slurred, “You wanna dance?” The girl nodded in return.

With alcohol coursing through her veins, Perrie felt like she was dancing sexily. Honestly, she’d probably done better in the past, but Selena was clearly just as drunk as she was. It was when Selena started to lean in to kiss her though, that Perrie felt her stomach roll. Something about it felt wrong.

“What’s wrong?” Selena asked with heavy lidded eyes.

“I…I…” Perrie sputtered, trying to figure out why it felt so wrong. “I have a girlfriend.” She finally spat out.

To Selena’s credit, she immediately backed away from Perrie. “Okay, fair enough. She’s a lucky girl.”

Perrie didn’t even bother to deny to herself that it was Jade who was clouding her thoughts, that it was Jade who dominated even her drunkest thoughts. Perrie and Selena then decided to take a break and talk to Leigh-Anne. It turned out that they had a few mutual friends. And when Perrie saw Selena eyeing up an acquaintance from one of her grad school classes, a boy who was oddly wearing a bandana on his head, Perrie pushed her towards him and wished her luck.

Realizing she’d been dancing alone, Jesy sought Leigh-Anne and Perrie out and made them take more shots with her because they had abandoned her.

It was just before two when Jesy called Jake asking to see if he could pick them up. Jake happily agreed, leaving Jonathan behind to play video games by himself. And as soon as the girls hopped in to his car, Leigh-Anne and Perrie teased him about being whipped, but Jake simply agreed and kissed his drunken fiancé.

To Leigh-Anne’s credit, she waited until Jake took a very drunk Jesy in to her room to tuck her in to bed before she began to berate Perrie about telling Selena she had a girlfriend.

“I’d like it if she were my girlfriend,” Perrie sighed, flopping on to the couch. She didn’t even care about the fact that she was acting just as whipped as Jake was. “I’m going to call her.” Her drunken mind didn’t think about the fact that it was past two in the morning. She figured if it were too late though, she would just leave a voicemail. Perrie was pleasantly surprised, however, when Jade answered the phone.

“Perrie?” she answered, “What time is it there?”

“It’s two thurty,” Perrie slurred, “What time is it fer you? Where are you Jeeed?”

“Pezza is drunky poo, isn’t she?” Jade laughed. “I’m in London so it’s already morning here.”

“Did you juss call me Pezza?” Perrie giggled.

“Yes I did. You’re cute when you’re drunk.”

“You can’t even see me.”

“You’re voice is cute,” Jade laughed, “Are you having fun?”

“Not as much fun without you. You come here pwease?” Perrie pouted, “This girl kept hitting on me tonight, Jeed.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

“Noooo,” Perrie drew out the syllable, “She was nice. But it wasn’t a good thing. Because it wasn’t you.” She paused before speaking in third person, “Perrie is drunk. Perrie should not have said that. Perrie is going to hang up now.”

“Wait!” Jade exclaimed, “I wish I was there too. And actually that was something I wanted to talk to you about, but I think it should wait until you’re sober. I’ll call you tomorrow. And Perrie? Make sure you drink a lot of water before you go to bed.”

“Why are you so perfect?”

Jade laughed in to the receiver as she ended the conversation, “Go get some sleep Perrie.” Perrie nodded and hung up the phone, not realizing that Jade couldn’t actually see her. After hanging up, Perrie got up and promptly poured herself and Leigh-Anne a glass of water each while Leigh mouthed, ‘whipped’.

The next afternoon, after finally getting rid of her hangover, Perrie was working on a painting while Leigh-Anne was watching TV from the couch on the other side of the room. Jake and Jesy had gone to meet with a photographer named Lewis. When Jade called Perrie, she put the call on speaker so that she didn’t get it covered in paint.

“Hey babe,” she answered, too involved in what she was painting to realize the pet name she’d just used.

“You sound better than I would have expected after last night,” Jade laughed. “Rid of the hangover already?”

“I am,” Perrie grinned, “I had someone reminding me to drink water before bed so my hangover wasn’t too terrible this morning.”

“Good, I’m glad. Do you remember what we talked about when you called me?” Jade asked.

Perrie blushed to herself when she remembered the conversation. “I remember making a slight fool of myself, but I also remember you calling me Pezza, so I’d say we’re even.”

“I guess we are,” Jade relented, “Do you remember what I said about wanting to see you in person?”

Out of the corner of her eye, Perrie saw Leigh-Anne sit abruptly up on the couch and look at her, listening in intently on the conversation. Perrie nearly took the phone off speaker, but Leigh gestured for her not too.

“I do remember that,” Perrie nodded.

“Well, I’m going to be in DC next weekend for work, and I was wondering if maybe you’d want to go on a real date?” Perrie could hear the hesitation in Jade’s voice.

“Yes,” she responded quickly and enthusiastically, causing Leigh-Anne to fist bump the air and give herself a self-five. “Yes, definitely, Yes.”

Jade giggled in to the phone, “Is that a yes, I couldn’t tell?”

“Oh hush,” Perrie rolled her eyes, all the while still smiling.

“I’m going to try and get tickets to a concert through work, would you be okay with that?” Jade asked, “Maybe an Amelia concert?”

Leigh-Anne had already been sitting up on the couch, not subtly listening in on Perrie and Jade’s conversation, but at the mention of the celebrity, she hopped over the back of the couch, braced leg be damned. She quickly grabbed the phone from the stool where Perrie had sat it.

“Jade, hey, it’s Leigh-Anne. I’m sure Perrie has told you about me. I’m pretty much her better half. Anyway. Well Perrie doesn’t particularly care much about Amelia, but I on the other hand, love her. And I would definitely go on a date with you if it meant seeing Amelia. She’s on my list.”

“Your list?” Jade asked.

“List of celebrities I’d have s*x with, without question.”

“Please ignore my obnoxious roommate,” Perrie interrupted, “I’d love to go to a concert with you. Don’t listen to Leigh-Anne.”

“I mean, if you don’t want to. If you don’t like her, then we can do something else.” Perrie could hear the uncertainty in the woman’s voice.

“I do, I do want to,” Perrie insisted.

“You can tell Leigh-Anne that I can get tickets for her and Jesy as well.”

Leigh-Anne squealed in a very un-Leigh-like manner and Perrie took that as her queue to take the phone call in to her bedroom and left Leigh-Anne behind.

Hours later after eating their fill of chicken Parmesan pizza, Leigh-Anne totally having given up being gluten-free, Perrie was napping on the couch while Leigh-Anne was massaging her damaged leg. Even after two years she’d hoped to regain feeling in it and was cautiously optimistic when it came to her physical therapy, but she’d yet to gain any progress. Frustrated with the lack of feeling the massage was gaining she gave up, just in time to see that Jade had texted Perrie.

She wasn’t snooping, per se, but it was kind of hard for her to ignore the words across Perrie’s screen.

Jade: Just boarded my flight. I land in New York in about seven hours, I promise to text you as soon as I land. xx

Leigh-Anne knew that she should have been thinking about the fact that Jade and Perrie were ridiculously adorable and they weren’t even officially together, but instead all she could think about was the nagging feeling in her gut that something was off. And then it hit her.

Leigh-Anne quickly grabbed her own phone and opened up i********: and her suspicions were quickly found to be correct. Posted two hours earlier was a photo of London posted by Amelia with the caption:

@AmeliaThirlwall: Had the best time playing in here in London! Now off to New York for a hometown show. #ATTour

Leigh-Anne then quickly scrolled through all of Amelia’s recent posts, trying to remember every time Perrie had mentioned where ‘Jade’ was traveling for work. She couldn’t remember them all, but she did remember Perrie mentioning the fact that she’d been in Kentucky the week before and Madison before that. The dates all added up. And that, along with the fact that Perrie had talked endlessly about the fact that ‘Jade’ had sung and played the guitar for her added it all up in Leigh-Anne’s head.

Needless to say, Leigh-Anne was pissed. Privacy be damned, Leigh grabbed Perrie’s phone and pulled up Jade’s contact. She quickly copied the phone number in to her own phone and composed a text message.

Unknown Number: It’s Leigh-Anne. I know who you are. I haven’t told Perrie yet, but only because she’s asleep. So you have until she wakes up to convince me to keep quiet. And I’m just warning you, I’m stubborn and don’t change my mind easily.

It was only minutes later when Leigh-Anne’s phone started to ring, Jade’s name popping up on her screen. Leigh took her phone to her room and shut the door before answering the call.

“You have exactly three minutes,” she spoke, anger seething through her every word.