Hey Stranger || Jerrie

Chapter 16

Perrie walked. She walked for what seemed like ages without really thinking. It was what she did whenever she was stressed or when things got to be too much to handle. It started when her dad died, the day of the funeral. The same day she met Jesy.

Everyone had come back to her house after the burial. The aunts, her Dad’s sisters, had organized everything from food to photo decorations of Alex from throughout his life. They’d told Perrie and Debbie not to worry about anything, that they had everything covered. They said that Edwards’ women dealt with pain by not standing still. And they were right. But unlike her aunts, Perrie couldn’t just bustle around the house shoving frozen lasagnas in to the oven and pasting up pictures. She felt the need to get fresh air. So she did. She snuck out the back door and headed out in to the crisp fall air.

She’d wandered around her neighborhood for over an hour before she walked past the group home on the opposite side of her neighborhood. She’d never thought much of the home; it was always just something that existed.

“I’ll f*****g go see my brother whenever I want to!” a voice exclaimed, startling Perrie out of her self-pity. She paused where she was, across the street from the group home as an angry brunette slammed the door of the home, hustling down the front stairs.

“I am your guardian!” another voice returned, revealed to be an older woman who stepped out of the home behind the younger girl. “If you dare leave this property then I WILL get you transferred to another home. One on the opposite side of the state, nowhere near your brother.”

Perrie realized that she wasn’t exactly being conspicuous at the same moment the young girl across the street saw her. The girl strode across the street to her and Perrie backed up slightly.

“Where do you think you’re going?” the older woman demanded.

“Jesus-f*****g-Christ Sharon!” the younger girl huffed, “This is Perrie Edwards, I know her from school.” Perrie narrowed her eyes and looked at the unknown girl who somehow knew who she was. “Her dad just died so give me a break. I’m not leaving.” As soon as the girl made it to Perrie, Perrie opened her mouth to speak. But before she had a chance to actually say anything, the girl whispered, “Just pretend you know me. I’m Jesy.”

Perrie nodded while the older woman disappeared back inside. “So how do you know my name?” Perrie finally asked.

“We go to DC High together,” Jesy shrugged. “I’m the new kid in all the remedial classes and you’re the popular blonde cheerleader everyone is always talking about.”

Perrie blushed, hating to be known simply for her popularity. The only reason she was even a cheerleader was because she’d done gymnastics as a kid, but wasn’t good enough to continue through high school and cheerleading was a good step down from that intensity. It did make sense that she didn’t know Jesy though, she was in all honors and AP classes. She almost asked how Jesy knew about her father’s death, because surely the black dress she was wearing wasn’t a good enough explanation, but then she realized that the entire school must have known. After all, it wasn’t every day that a rocket explodes while taking off into space carrying three astronauts, one of whom was the father of a classmate.

It took Perrie a while, but finally she put the pieces together. Jesy was new. She was living in a group home. And she had a brother. “You’re Jonathan Nelson’s sister,” she responded as statement rather than question.

“Yeah, I am,” Jesy crossed her arms across her chest defensively.

Perrie had heard all about Jesy, but had never actually known her name. About six months earlier, at the end of her sophomore year, Perrie had heard all about the Nelson family. Jonathan had always been mildly popular and even though he was two years older than Perrie, she’d run in to him at parties before. She knew that he was going to Georgetown that fall on a football scholarship.

The way Perrie had heard it happen was that a month before his graduation, Jonathan had come home from school to find his home surrounded by police. Apparently a UPS delivery man had spotted something suspicious through the small window that let light into the home’s basement and called the police. He was in the right too, as it turned out, Jonathan’s mom had been hiding her daughter down there with minimal food and drink for the entire sixteen years of her life. The woman had been psychotic, convinced that the world was out to get her daughter from the moment she was born. She’d even brainwashed and threatened Jonathan into keeping his sister’s existence a secret. He’d always snuck her food though. Upon discovering the nearly emaciated girl, the cops arrested the mother and took Jesy in to protective custody. Being only a week shy of his eighteenth birthday, Jonathan was allowed to remain in the home and wasn’t charged with anything because of the nature of the threats his mother had placed against him.

“Do you want to go get ice cream?” Perrie asked. The girl in front of her was definitely skinny, but had clearly reached a more normal weight in the six months that had passed since her release from the hell she’d been living in for sixteen years.

“I don’t have money,” Perrie shrugged.

“My dad just died,” Perrie imitated the girl’s shrug in response, “My aunts have been giving me cash out of pity each time I pass one of them. I really don’t have anything to spend it on so I think I can spring for two sundaes.”

“Okay,” Perrie responded. Neither girl had been at an emotionally good place at that time, but that’s why they were perfect together. Perrie was Jesy’s first friend; Jesy was Perrie’s first real best friend. And it was because of the Edwards women’s need to keep moving that they met.