Hey Stranger || Jerrie

Chapter 23

“Perrie, are you asleep yet?” Jade asked.

Perrie opened one eye and looked at the computer screen propped up in bed beside her. “I was until my girlfriend asked if I was sleeping.” Despite the words she spoke, a soft smile crossed her face. She opened her other eye and looked at the screen.

Jade was lying in a near mirror image to the way Perrie was. They were both in the same time zone for the first time in a long time and had been Skyping in bed all evening.

“As long as you’re awake then, you should know,” Jade shifted so that she had better visibility of the screen. Perrie knew Jade had already taken her contacts out and that her squinting wasn’t just because she was tired, but because she was blind as a bat without contacts or glasses. “You should know that it’s after midnight.”

Coming from a state of near unconsciousness, Perrie couldn’t really understand what Jade meant by her statement of the obvious. “I know, I was asleep because it’s nearly one in the morning.”

“Perrie,” Jade rolled her eyes and a shiver went down the blonde’s spine the way it did every time she heard Jade say her name. “It’s after midnight, meaning that it’s officially Saturday. Meaning that in exactly one week we’ll be in Paris. Together.”

The words spoken by her girlfriend immediately woke Perrie up. She sat up abruptly, jostling the computer beside her. “One week,” she repeated, her eyes widening. “Holy s**t. It didn’t really seem real until now. Jadey, we’re going to be together again in a week.”

“I know,” Jade laughed, “That’s what I just said.”

“I get to hear you laugh in real life, I get to hug you, I get to kiss you and touch you,” she started listing things she’d be able to do in person.

“Are propositioning me Perrie?” Jade asked with a laugh.

Perrie felt herself blushing and slapped a hand in front of her face in embarrassment. For talking to each other every day, they hadn’t spoken much about what their night in Paris together would be like. They’d spoken about seeing each other, but not about what would happen at night. Though they both knew that they would be taking the next step that night.

“You’re cute when you get embarrassed,” Jade spoke, “But you don’t have to be. I’m excited to hug you, kiss you and touch you too.”

Perrie removed her hand from her face and read the honesty on Jade’s face through the screen. She looked at the girl who had changed her life completely in just a few short months. She'd known it for a while, but hadn’t said it out loud. She was in love with Jade Thirlwall. And seeing her reassuring her through the screen just cemented it. “Jade?” she spoke.

“Yeah?” her girlfriend responded.

“I lo–,” she began to say the words but was quickly interrupted by Jade.

“No! No! No!” the brunette exclaimed as she waved her hands in front of the camera. Perrie looked at her, confused and hurt. “It’s not, it's just…" Jade stumbled over her words and Perrie waited for her to compose herself. “Me too Perrie, but I want to say it to you in person. In one week.”

Perrie focused on the fact that Jade said, ‘Me too’ over the rest of her sentence. “Me too,” she repeated with a smile. “I can wait a week to say that.”

“Me too,” Jade spoke again. “Now go back to sleep.”

“I wasn’t asleep before,” Perrie pouted.

“I know,” Jade smiled as both Perrie and Jade settled back in to their respective beds, heads on pillows as they both fell asleep facing their computers.