kisses (are for people who are in love)

Part 3

The conversation with Perrie kept running through her head all day and she was glad to see an excited Leigh-Anne practically bouncing into the apartment in the evening, just when Jade was about to make her own dinner.

"How was your date?" Jade asked happily and poured herself a glass of orange juice to fill the emptiness in her stomach for now. Leigh was already opening the fridge and taking out ingredients for their dinner.

Leigh giggled at the word and hugged her friend. "You were totally right! I need to forget about Perrie and focus on Jesy, who is literally such a sweet heart and totally girlfriend material. She also told me about Perrie and she is like the kind of girl who fucks everyone who isn't on a tree in three, so I guess I should thank you for making me let go of her. Jesy even asked me to go out again, and I think I'm going to ask her to be my girlfriend!"

Relief washed over Jade and she nodded happily. "That's great, I'm so happy for you! You deserve someone who treats you right and like you deserve. I think I should tell you why I actually didn't want you to go after Perrie now that you've found that out." She sighed and rubbed her forehead, causing Leigh to frown.

"When we were at that party, where you met Jesy, I got hit in the forehead by this huge guy and incidentally Perrie came in and we talked and she kind of flirted with me? I don't know. I felt like you deserved better than someone who was hitting on me when she knew that you had a thing for her."

"Wait," Leigh-Anne frowned and put down the frozen chicken nuggets. "Perrie knew I was into her and she didn't say anything? And you knew she didn't like me and didn't tell me?"

"I've only known since this afternoon that she knew... and she also told me that Jesy really likes you and that she doesn't do romance... I think you deserve someone like Jesy, who will treat you like a princess and who will put you before anyone else."

Leigh's face got sourer with every word that Jade spoke and she knew she had fucked up big time now. She should have just kept the whole thing to herself, never spoken to it about anyone and just be buried with this secret in about sixty to seventy years. "You met up with her today?"

"No! Well, not intentionally. I ran into her and Jesy when I left and I told Jesy that I wouldn't stay, so she told Perrie to leave as well so she could be alone with you. And Perrie walked a bit with me and told me those things, and I got angry and walked away. I'm sorry, I should have told you about our talk at the party sooner, but I just didn't know how because it would have hurt you and I wanted you to let go off Perrie on your own. She'd just use you and Jesy really, really likes you." Jade bit her lip and watched as Leigh let all this new information sink it. It's probably really hard for her to swallow all of this now, Jade thought and kept looking at her friend.

"Yeah, okay... okay, it's okay," Leigh smiled. "You were just trying to protect me, right?"

Jade's stomach sunk at those words because she still wasn't sure why she was so against their relationship in the beginning. Yes, now she had a reason, but she'd told Leigh-Anne to get Perrie off her mind before she knew all of this, so when she agreed, she felt like a big, fat liar.

The small smile on the black girl's lips and the hug that followed after it made her feel so guilty that she was actually physically sick. "Dinner's ready soon," Leigh told her, "so if you want you can go shower in the meantime."

***

"I am not predictable," Jade huffed out proudly when she opened the door of her car and walked towards the dorms on the campus of the University of Manchester. Her and Leigh-Anne weren't completely on good terms by now because although she had said she accepted the reasons behind what Jade had done, but she still seemed less talkative than she used to be.