Come Again Later

Chapter 14

Perrie didn't even have time to process anything before she felt a pair of hands shove her bottom half out the window. She crashed ungracefully onto the fire escape balcony, making the entire system shake from the impact. The blonde forced down the urge to yell out as her arm banged the railing.

"Heyyy Jade..." Perrie heard Leigh-Anne greet awkwardly.

"Hey Leigh-Anne!" Jade chirped back. "I found some biscuits that you guys might like, and I made some tea too..." Her voice trailed off. "Where's Perrie?"

Perrie held her breath, she didn't see how her girls could get her out of this one. The blonde had just began rehearsing a hopefully convincing enough lie, when she heard Jesy speak.

"She went back to Leigh-Anne's house," she spoke confidently. "you see, Leigh-Anne's not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer-"

Perrie heard the curly haired girl gasp offendedly. A light smacking sound made the blonde infer that Leigh had slapped Jesy's arm in annoyance, which earned them a small giggle from Jade.

"And," Jesy continued, with a edge of irritation in her voice. Perrie could practically see the glare pointed at the dark skinned teen. "She just so happened to forget something. So we made Perrie go and get it."

The lie sounded convincing, heck it was so convincing that even the blonde would have bought it if she hadn't known the truth.

"Oh..." Jade drawled out (she sounded a bit upset, but that was probably just Perrie's imagination). "When did she leave? I don't want her to come back and be greeted with cold tea."

"She should be here any minute now," Leigh-Anne spoke. There was a long pause before she piped up again.
"Any minute now..." The raven haired teen said with an obvious pointed look.

Oh shit, she probably wants me to come in now! Perrie thought.

The pale girl began picking herself off the cold metal of the fire escape floor, but soon froze as another thought passed through her head.

Maybe I should stay here. She planned. Just to see what Jade thinks of me- nothing creepy. She reassured herself.

So, Perrie flopped back onto the floor like a seal and waited.

An awkward silence filled the room inside, some of the tension was even slipping out into the world outside, making the blonde feel the dreaded silence creep up onto her.

A loud, obnoxious, cough echoed from inside.

"Any minute now..." Leigh-Anne announced even more obviously.

Perrie didn't move. This was the perfect chance to if Jade really liked her or not (platonically, of course...).

The tension inside the room seemed as if it was thick enough to cut with a butter knife. Perrie thanked the lucky stars above her that she wasn't in the house at the time, even if she was the reason why the tension was there in the first place. 

Suddenly, Jade spoke up, "Aw crap!" She groaned. "I forgot the sugar! I'll be back in a minute." The sound of a door opening a closing filled the air, before Jesy threw open the window and glared down at the blue eyed teen who was planked across the floor.

"What the fuck, Pez?!" She exclaimed. "Why didn't you come in? Did you feel how awkward that was? We were dying!"

"Okay, well. First of all," Perrie responded sassily, retracting her head a bit. "I did feel the tension, and it was not very pleasurable."

"At least you weren't in the room," Leigh scoffed.

"As I was saying," Perrie continued. "I didn't come out because, I, uh," the blonde was beginning to have second thoughts about this. "I want to see what Jade thinks of me." A suspected smirk grew steadily on both Leigh-Anne and Jesy's face.

"Ohh," Jesy threw her head back and laughed. "You wanna see if she likes you as much as you like her, huh?"

Perrie narrowed her eyes. "What're you implying?" 

"You're in love with Jade, Perrie!" Leigh-Anne shouted, her echo bouncing off the buildings.

"Fucks sake, Leigh-Anne!" Perrie gasped, using her hands to cover the curly haired girls mouth. "Jade could be right behind that door for all we know! I don't need you shouting it from the rooftops!" The blonde scolded, blushing madly.

With an ever present smirk in her face, Leigh lowered the blonde's hands. "But you don't deny it," the dark skinned teen clarified smugly.

The poor blonde could only blush and gasp, opening a closing her mouth like a fish. 

"Haha, she does!" Jesy cackled. "Our Pezzie's in love!"

Perrie huffed and looked frantically at the door, realizing that Jade could walk in at any moment.

"Okay, whatever!" She gave in. "Just shut up!"

Jesy snickered and turned towards the door, "Whatever you say, babe."

"Don't worry," Leigh-Anne smirked. "We'll lead her on." She winked and shut the window.

Before Perrie could bang on the glass and demand that they not embarrass her any farther, Jade entered the room, forcing the blonde to slide back onto the grated ground and let her friends take it from there.

"I got the sugar," Jade said. "I had to open a new bag since we ran out of the original one." She explained.

"Aw, Jade you shouldn't have!" Leigh cooed.

"Yeah, that was really sweet of you," Jesy added.

"It was the least I could do for my guests," Jade shrugged (or, at least, Perrie guessed that she did). "By the way, is Perrie almost here yet?"

"Ah, I dunno, Jade." Leigh lied. "My rooms a bit of a mess so it could take her a while."

Jade didn't reply, so Perrie could only assume that she nodded.

"Speaking of Perrie..." Jesy started. The blonde in question felt her face flare up.

Please don't be embarrassing, please don't be embarrassing. She prayed.

"What do you think if her?"

A long pause silenced the room.

"What?" Jade broke the silence. "What do I think of Perrie?"

"Yeah," Leigh answered.

"I, uh. I think she's pretty..."

Pretty? Jade thinks I'm pretty?

"-cool."

Oh.

"Cool?" Leigh-Anne asked. "That's it?"

Jade was quick to respond, "No!" She cried out. "I, um." Her voice softened. "I mean, there's plenty of other things I like about Perrie too."

"Like?" Jesy pressed.

Perrie groaned internally. She knew that Jade was probably super uncomfortable with the interrogation her friends were putting her through.

Maybe I should put this to a stop. The blonde debated. The poor girl already goes through enough trouble without us there.

Sighing, Perrie began to push herself off the floor, but stopped when she heard one of the questions her companions had thrown at the tiny brunette.

"Do you like her?"

"Of course I do, she's-"

"No, I mean do you like-like her?"

Only silence filled the room.