The Other Half || Jerrie

Chapter Twelve

The week before she was to leave for UCLA, Perrie was searching all over the house for her favorite Yankees sweatshirt, a hand-me-down from her dad, when she found the chip.

It was a bronze, solid coin with the words “To Thine Own Self Be True”. The word recovery was engraved underneath a roman numeral III. Perrie didn’t need an explanation to know that it was some kind of Alcoholics Anonymous coin.

“Perrie, I found it!” Mark exclaimed as he walked into the living room where Perrie stood holding the coin she’d found in a drawer.

“Is this yours?” Perrie asked as Mark approached her. She held up the coin to show him, praying silently that it belonged to her step-father. In the back of her head though, she knew it wasn’t his. Mark wasn’t a big drinker, but he loved a glass of red wine with dinner every Sunday, as well as when he was at work functions. Perrie also remembered the fact that there was no champagne toast at Debbie and Mark’s wedding.

Mark paused at the sight of his step-daughter holding the coin. He wasn’t sure how to respond. It wasn’t his position to tell her the truth about Debbie, the truth that would eventually lead to Perrie finding out about the truth of Alexander’s death. It was a truth that Debbie had told Mark about after they’d been dating two months.

“It’s my mom’s, isn’t it?” Perrie asked, her voice cracked, practically begging Mark to tell her that she was incorrect.

“Your mom is a wonderful person,” Mark finally spoke. “She is a great surgeon, an amazing wife, and a fantastic mother. Sometimes, people have problems that they need to learn how to overcome, and your mom has overcome her worst demon.”

Faced with the truth, Perrie flipped over the coin in her hand several times.

“She was going to tell you eventually, when she felt the time was right,” Mark continued. “I would have liked for her to have been the one who told you, but I don’t want you to jump to any conclusions either. Your mom shouldn’t be defined by her addiction.”

“When did she earn this?” Perrie asked, holding up the coin.

“This past spring,” Mark responded.

Perrie quickly did the math, subtracting three years. That would have made the start of Debbie’s sobriety in the spring of 2008. The same spring her dad died. And suddenly, Perrie understood. She understood why her parents and Harry had all been insistent on the fact that Alexander had been driving, when Debbie always insisted on driving. She understood why Harry had taken her yelling, her insults and why he’d never gotten mad at the fact that she’d broken their friendship.

He did what any best friend would have done. Protected her. Protected her from the truth. The truth that her mom had killed her dad.

Perrie dropped the coin has the realization hit her like a truck.

“Excuse me,” she muttered, before brushing past her step-dad and running up to her room.

Once in her room, she collapsed on to her bed, covered in clothes to be packed, she didn’t care if she messed them up. She wasn’t going to cry. She wasn’t going to let herself cry.

Her eyes started blurring up, her vision cloudy as she reached for her phone. The iPhone 4 she’d gotten for her birthday. She scrolled through it until she found Harry Styles’ contact info.

She clicked on his phone number and her childhood best friend picked up after the first ring.

“Perrie?”

“Harry?” her voice cracked as the first tear fell from her eyes. “I need you.”

Harry arrived at the Duffie-Edwards home the next day. And Perrie had her best friend back.

Perrie had Harry back in her life for two months.

Harry was going to school in the mid-west, but that didn’t stop Perrie from keeping him up to date on everything that happened in the first two months of her freshman year of college. And he returned the favor.

Harry was the first person Perrie told about the boy with the spiked hair and charming smile in her Art History class. Zayn Malik. And Harry listened intently as Perrie fawned all over the boy and eventually started to date him.

On October 13th 2011, Harry Styles boarded a bus headed to the airport, ready to visit his childhood best friend in California over his fall break.

When a tornado seemingly came out of nowhere, killing half the passengers on the bus, including Danielle Peazer.