Imperfection is Beauty

Imperfection is Beauty (Nine)

Perrie stared at Jade with widened eyes, blinking slowly as the girl's words registered into her brain.

"You want me to...What?" 

Jade's smile faded for a split second but was back in full force almost immediately. She dropped a low laugh from her lips and pulled on Perrie's tie again, dragging her further onto the bed.

"You heard me," she murmured softly, in a voice that she thought as sultry. At least it had worked every time before. But now Perrie just looked confused and even slightly put off.

"I...I don't," she stuttered, trying to pull back from Jade. The girl's eyes turned from seductive to almost panicky as Perrie slipped away from her hands and took few steps back from the bed.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." she tried to fix the situation though she had an awful feeling it was already well beyond repair at this point. She saw Perrie's eyes turn steely and a sick feeling twisted her whole being as she scrambled on the bed.

"Is that the reason I'm here?" Perrie asked, her voice laced with anger but also pain, "To satisfy some fetish, to be your plaything?"

"No, of course not..."

"Tired of fucking men in uniforms, why not try a woman for a change?" Perrie spat out, her words emanating from the deepest pits of her inner pain, "Poor little newcomer, why not embarrass her some more?"

"No, please Perrie, please, it's nothing like that," Jade pleaded, now already on her feet and trying to grab Perrie's hands into her own, "please don't do this..." 

Perrie flinched away from her touch, trying to stare the frightened girl down with her icy eyes, "Do you have any idea what I'm risking here?" she asked, now almost shouting at Jade, "Associating with someone like you..."

"With a stripper you mean?" Jade snapped suddenly, her fear vanishing in a bat of an eye, "You can't even say it to my face! Who's the one with the plaything, huh?" 

Perrie was taken aback by Jade's sudden flare of anger that she could barely say anything. 

Jade continued, "Tell me, have you told anyone about me? About us? No, of course! Not only are you ashamed of me, you're ashamed of yourself!"

"How do you think I'd be treated in the force if they knew about this? I'm already ridiculed for just being a woman!"

"Well you can't do much about that so why do you care?" Jade argued, standing at her full height so she could look Perrie straight in the eye, "You think I'm not ridiculed because I'm a stripper? You think I like it? I'd take being ridiculed for dating a woman any day over being groped and ogled at by the same men you work with!"

"Don't you think they do the same to me?" Perrie blurted out, she had never even thought about telling Jade how disgustingly sexist her work could sometimes be. Jade flinched at her words, her anger toning down and being replaced by genuine concern. She could now see that the rage in Perrie's voice wasn't pointed at her, it was for something else entirely.

"They touched you?" she asked, her voice soft and low again but without a hint of sensuality this time. Perrie looked away, her teeth clenching down. Jade tentatively took her hand into hers, sliding her thumb over Perrie's hardened knuckles.

"I...I didn't know. I'm sorry." 

Perrie looked as if she was going to snatch her hand away again but instead she entwined her fingers with Jade's, squeezing her hand tightly.

"Oh baby," Jade sighed and wrapped her other arm around Perrie's neck, pulling her close, "oh baby, I'm so sorry..." Perrie stood immobile before latching her arms around Jade's body and letting her soft words clear her mind. Jade stroked her hair and kept murmuring sweet nothings into her ear until Perrie's steel grip loosened and her heart rate slowed down.