Hey Stranger || Jerrie

Chapter 2

[1 Month Later]

Perrie: First kiss?

Jade: His name was Connor. I was thirteen, he was sixteen. He was my mom’s colleague’s son and we met at a dinner mom hosted. We were both drunk on wine and snuck in to the coat closet. It was messy and awkward, but it was a first kiss so what do you expect? It pretty much sucked.

Perrie: Wait, you were drinking at thirteen? When I was thirteen I was still playing with Barbies.

Jade: Yeah.

“Perrie! Are you even listening to me?” Jesy’s voice jolted Perrie out of the trance she’d been in while texting Jade. It had been a month since Perrie had accidentally dialed her number instead of Jesy’s, and they’d yet to go a day without speaking.

“Are you still texting that stranger girl?” Leigh-Anne asked, looking up from her magazine.

“Maybe,” Perrie responded with a shrug. She seriously regretted telling her roommates and best friends about Jade. All they did was tease her about it. “And she’s not really a stranger anymore. We’ve been talking for a month. And I told you, her name is Jade”

“Texting,” Leigh clarified, “You’ve been texting for a month.”

Perrie: That came off a lot harsher than intended. I wasn’t judging you, I swear.

Jade: I believe you Perrie. Texting doesn’t exactly convey intent well all the time.

“Perrie, either ask that girl out on a date or stop talking to her, you’re missing out on gossip hour,” Jesy spoke as she gestured to the magazine that Leigh-Anne was holding.

Perrie sighed and put down her phone for the moment and sat down on the couch with her friends. “Alright, what are we gossiping about?” she asked.

Jesy squealed and grabbed the magazine from Leigh-Anne, as she was sitting in the middle. She closed the magazine to show Perrie the cover. “We’re talking about Amelia and how totally badass she is and how it’s not fair that she’s sexy as hell as well as a talented singer, songwriter and guitar player.”

Perrie looked down at the magazine, and even she had to admit that the star on the cover of Rolling Stone was sexy. The brunette’s hair was done up in braids that only a rock star could pull off. She wore leather pants and a wife beater with a leather jacket thrown over one shoulder while she balanced a Fender with her other hand. She wore laced up black heeled boots that elongated her already mile-long toned legs.

“I bet this is crazy photoshopped,” Perrie spoke, hampering the mood in the room. “I doubt she’s that toned and perfect looking in real life.”

“Ugh, you’re such a hater,” Leigh-Anne rolled her eyes.

“And even if she was, I bet she’s like crazy full of herself. One of those divas that asks for only green M&Ms or ginger ale with the bubbles stirred out of it in her dressing room,” Perrie continued. “You can’t be that famous and not have it all go to your head.”

“Ahem,” Jesy cleared her throat while she flipped the pages of the magazine and read from the article on Amelia. “Sitting down to talk to Amelia Thirlwall is like talking to a well-seasoned professional. She is courteous and well-spoken and comes across as very serious about her music.”

“So she’s a soulless robot then,” Perrie interrupted.

Jesy pressed a hand to the blonde’s face as she continued to read from the article. “When asked about her upcoming tour, Amelia admitted, ‘I love traveling, which is why it’s so exciting to go on tour again. It’s been two years since my last tour, and this one is even bigger than the last. It’s 85 shows, and ten different countries so I really will be going all over the world for it. Even though the tour dates are all very close together, I try and take at least a day in every country or area of the country to explore a bit. It’s one thing to put on a show, but I also enjoy traveling for the sake of traveling.’”

“So she’s using her tour to get free tourism?”

“Seriously Perrie, shut up.”

“During our conversation, Amelia also spent a lot of time talking about her two opening acts, Fifth Harmony and Cher Lloyd. Fifth Harmony is a group of five girls who’ve been friends since middle school and Cher is an up and coming female artist known for her hit-single Want U Back. She was very enthusiastic about both acts, saying, ‘Fifth Harmony and Cher are all amazing girls. As we’ve been prepping for the tour I’ve gotten to know them a lot better and honestly I’m so glad that I’ll be on tour with them. We have a group chat going on and Camila from Fifth Harmony is keeping us up to date with a countdown to the kick-off show and Normani sends us daily reminders of the fact that she loves prank wars. I think that those girls are a big part of why the AT tour is going to be so great. These girls are amazing and talented and I can’t wait to show the world why they are so great.’”

“She’s big on the whole girl power thing,” Leigh-Anne added as a side comment.

“After I reminded Amelia about how popular Danielle came after she opened for her on her last tour, however, she became tight lipped. ‘I am glad that Danielle’s talent has been well received.’ When I brought up her former relationship with Danielle, Amelia became even more reticent to speak. ‘As I said before, Danielle deserves the success she’s found, as she is incredibly talented, but I do not see how our former relationship has anything to do with my upcoming tour.’”

“Wow,” Perrie interrupted, yet again, “Talk about a drama queen.”

“Seriously?” Jesy snapped the magazine shut and glared at Perrie, “Stop being such a brat. Go talk to your girlfriend and leave us alone to enjoy our gossiping.”

Perrie glared back and grabbed her phone off the table as she left the living room. She entered her bedroom and shut the door behind her. She wasn’t mad at Leigh-Anne and Jesy, but she had no interest in talking about some singer who yeah, was hella attractive and talented, but that she had no interest in personally.

Putting the interaction with Leigh and Jesy behind her, Perrie unlocked her phone and returned to her conversation with Jade. Perrie had yet to respond to Jade’s message about how texting didn’t convey emotions well. Perrie took a deep breath and clicked on Jade’s contact information. She held the phone to her ear and listened to it ring.

Jade picked up after the second ring, “Hello?”

“I was eighteen and it was my first night of college. I didn’t really drink in high school, so I got drunk pretty quickly that night. We met at a pre-game on our hall and by the time we reached the gross frat house basement we were practically on top of each other. I can still remember what song we made out to; it was one of Amelia’s first hits, Wings. Even though we lived on the same hall, I think we only talked maybe twice after that. I didn’t even tell her she was my first kiss, her name was Katherine.” Perrie delved right in to the story without preamble.

“Hello to you too,” Jade chuckled and Perrie’s stomach flipped at the sound. She’d forgotten what Jade had sounded like, as they’d only actually heard each others’ voices that first night. “So is it bad that the biggest thing I got out of that story is the fact that you’re not as straight as I assumed you were?”

Perrie couldn't help but grin in to the phone. They hadn’t spoken about relationships before.

“That’s not a problem, is it?” Perrie asked, the grin quickly falling on her face as she realized it might be. She knew that she had no room in her life for homophobia, but she really didn’t want to give up whatever it was she had with Jade.

“No, definitely not,” came the voice on the other end of the line. “That would be very hypocritical of me if it was a problem.”

“Wait, you’re gay?” Perrie asked in shock. She wasn’t sure why, but she had just assumed that the girl on the other side of phone was straight.

“Yes I am Perrie. Is that really so surprising?”

“I guess not, but I hadn’t really thought about it,” Perrie responded. That wasn’t entirely true though; there had been several occasions in which Jade had said something that had caused Perrie to secretly wish that Jade wasn’t straight. “Well, not much anyway.”

“So you did think about it then?”

“Well when you talk to someone almost constantly for a month, you grow attached, and maybe have a few hopes,” Perrie admitted.

“So why is it that we haven’t actually spoken on the phone since that first night?” Jade responded. “Though your voice sounds exactly the same. I’ve been imagining your voice with every text you send, and I’m glad it hasn’t changed.”

“What do you look like?” Perrie sputtered, the words leaving like word vomit. “I’d love to have a face to put to all your wit and charm.”

“Are you flirting with me Perrie Edwards?” Jade asked in a mock-serious tone. Perrie smiled as she realized that Jade remembered the off-hand remark she’d made several weeks earlier about identifying as male most of the time because of the irony of her name.

“I am definitely flirting with you Jade.”

“Hold on.”

Perrie waited on the silence and after her phone buzzed, she saw that she had a text from Jade. It was a photo message. Perrie opened it and saw that it was a picture of someone who must have been Jade, sticking her tongue out at her. It was fairly close up, cut off just at her eyebrows and chin, but Perrie could see a curl of brown hair around the girl’s ear. Her brown eyes were stunning. There was something about her that seemed familiar, but Perrie didn’t dwell on it. She quickly took her hair out of the messy ponytail it was in and sent back a picture of herself sticking her tongue out.

“That’s a really attractive picture of you,” Perrie laughed into the phone.

“I totally guessed you’d be blonde,” Jade spoke in return.

“Really?”

“What can I say? I’m a sucker for blondes.”

“You’re such a dork,” Perrie laughed.

“Says the art history nerd.”

“Whatever, loser.