constellations - jerrie thirlwards

four

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                                          four.

10:45 am.

The clock in the classroom seemed to get louder inside of Perrie's head as she drowned out the sound of her history professor talk about something that happened in the 30s. She even began to count how many times she heard the clock tick, tock, tick, tock'd.

A tap on her shoulder ceased her counting, though, and looking for the culprit, she finds a grinning Jesy sat beside her. "Excuse me, I'm trying to learn," Perrie jokingly whispered as she shook her head at Jesy.

Jesy huffed, "Fuck off." She let out a small, stifled laugh before getting serious again. "So, you took her home last night."

Perrie instantly rolled her eyes, although her heart was still fluttering from last night. Brightest star. She could never forget drunken Jade saying she's the reason her world goes around. But then her heart broke once more as she remembered — best friend only. "Can you guys stop with this? It won't happen."

The ginger-dyed girl shook her head and face palmed herself. "Not with that attitude it won't," she snapped, quietly. "You've got to actually be obvious, Perrie, not just staring at her. I know that it'll happen."

"What do you mean? I'm so obvious with her she just doesn't—"

"It seems that Ms. Edwards and Ms. Nelson have a discussion that is more important than what I'm teaching," their loud professor boomed across the classroom, shutting them both up. "Could we please pay more attention to your studies than your social lives, please?"

Perrie and Jesy straightened up and nodded their heads, the professor quickly going back to his lecture. Jesy glanced over at Perrie and gave her the look of 'do it', which made Perrie flip her off.

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10:45 pm.

The sky was the clearest it's ever been, making it perfect for the stargazing duo to look out at the stars tonight. They stood next to each other on the porch as Jade pointed out each constellation she found, a clueless Perrie following along and listening to each word that she said. Once in a while Jade would place her head on the blonde's shoulder 'to keep warm', making Perrie feel content inside.

"There's the brightest star," Jade exclaimed as she pointed at a bright star besides dimmer ones, a big smile on her face. "That's Canis Major, then. The one you don't know." She basically mocked Perrie but they both laughed.

Perrie played along with Jade's lesson of Canis Major once again. She watched the girl speak, how her mouth moved, how her full lips seemed to be soft. Jade was beautiful and somehow it still amazed Perrie.

"Hey, Perrie," Jade suddenly said, forcing Perrie to stop staring at her lips. "I didn't say anything stupid last night when I was drunk right? I don't remember a damn thing."

Perrie stopped breathing as she remembered Jade's sappy speech that ended in Perrie's hopeful heart stop beating, but took a deep breath as she decided to lie. "No, you didn't even really talk, just went to sleep real quick when I brought you home."

Jade raised her eyebrows, "Huh, that's so different of me. I guess that's good."

The blonde nodded maybe a bit too fast and looked back up at the stars. It got silent for a while, just the sound of crickets and the muffled sound of the television in the living room. She looked back at the brunette who was already looking at her, taking her breath away. Their faces were oddly close and Perrie didn't know how to react to this.

"I actually have something I need to tell you," Perrie said, the sudden boost of confidence taking over her because of all of this hope that has been building from these few days. Almost every person in this house has told her that this is a good idea — Louis, Leigh, Jesy. They gave her this hope bubbling inside of her stomach that transformed into confidence and she couldn't not trust their instincts.

Jade nodded her head and smiled at her sweetly. "You can tell me anything, Perrie."

Flashbacks of the night before and how the hope she had before hearing those words were so high before being torn down came in pictures as she looked at Jade's face. Her confidence was deflating and she wanted to keep the last bit she had in her before she could say psych and possibly ruin a chance, so instead of speaking, she stared at the brunette's lips and then her eyes.

Right as Perrie began to lean in, the gate door flung open and a sober Harry carrying a drunk Louis came walking into the front lawn. Harry looked at the two of them now far apart and stopped in his tracks, assuming he broke up a moment, but went back to the task at hand — keeping Louis from throwing up on him and taking him to bed. The couple walked passed the duo, saying a quiet sorry.

Perrie cleared her throat as she thought back to what she was about to do, her heart beating a mile a minute. There was definitely no more confidence left to do that again.

"So, what did you have to tell me before we were rudely interrupted?" Jade asked, clearly not knowing the obvious hints that Perrie was about to kiss her a few minutes ago.

Perrie then sighed and shook her head. "I actually don't think it's that important," she mumbled before slowly stepping away to go inside. "I'm going to head off to bed. I've got an 8 am class tomorrow."

Jade opened her mouth to question her but Perrie was already walking inside of the front door, leaving the brunette clueless to what just happened.