Together at Last

chapter five

*three weeks later

Perrie's POV:

My alarm blares and I slowly start to wake up. I've been starting to sleep a lot better. I'm almost completely over Alex. Even though I wasn't truly in love the last part of us dating, I guess I still had some feelings I didn't know I had. Spending time with Jade hasn't gotten any easier though. Realizing how long i've been sitting in my thoughts, I slowly but surely get up out of bed.

I take a quick shower and change into some sweats. We have a performance tonight for a small venue. We're only singing two songs so it's nothing huge. I tie my damp hair into a bun and grab my bag.

We have sound check at about 12. The performance doesn't actually start until six, so we have a lot of down time in between.
I walk out to my car and climb in. I put on some of my favorite songs of ours that I have in a playlist. It never fails to put me in a good mood for a while. I drive, jamming to our songs and pull up in front of the studio. We all take a car together so it's easier to get to and from the venue.

I walk inside and sit on one the couches by the front. The girls come into the room, carrying donuts. They sit on the couch and Jesy hands me one. "They got us breakfast, and I got you one," she says handing me a few napkins. "Thanks," I beam, starting to eat my donut. "You already ate yours?" I ask Jade, seeing as she didn't have one. "No, I'm not hungry. I'm not really feeling well," she says with a disgusted look on her face. I nod my head and continue eating my donut. Jades been acting kinda weird the past week, so I'm not sure what's going on with her. I thought it was maybe Jed leaving, but she's acting different. She's almost been distant and she's tired all day. He will be back in a few days and he's here the whole break so maybe she'll go back to being herself by then.

Our manager grabbed us and took us to the car. We all got in and I sat in the way back. The drive wasn't very long. The car was pretty silent with the exception of us giggling whenever someone made a funny comment.

The venue was outside. It was surrounded by loads of flower bushes and huge trees. "This looks like a fantasy land," I said. It looked like something out a children book. We went inside and into our dressing room. We only had a few minutes to set our bags down before we had to run through our performance.

Once soundcheck was done, which was pretty quickly, the management gave us about three hours of downtime where we could order lunch and relax before we had to start getting ready. Jade had excused herself right at the end of soundcheck to use the bathroom, but she hadn't come back yet. When we got into our dressing room, she wasn't in there either. I shrugged and sat down on one of the big, comfy chairs. I was scrolling through Instagram when the door opened. Jade walked in, she looked really pale and didn't make eye contact with any of us. Everyone watched her come in but didn't say anything and went back to whatever they were doing. My gaze lasted on her for probably a bit too long.

"You okay?" I asked her when she took a seat on the couch across from me. "Yeah, just not feeling good," she said. "Do you some medicine?" I asked her. "Nah, that won't help," she said shaking her head. Her eyes almost went into saucers when she realized what she said. I nod confusingly and take my concentration off of her and back to my phone.

"Do you girls want lunch?" Jesy asked pulling out her phone. "And don't say Mexican," Jesy said pointing at Leigh who shot her a dirty look. "Fine," she said. "How about Hamburgers from across the street?" I suggested. "Okay," Leigh and Jesy said agreeing. We each put in our order but when it was Jade's turn, she just shook her head. "I don't think I can eat anything right now," she said. "I think I have some crackers in my bag if you want some?" Leigh said, grabbing her purse. Jade nodded and Leigh began to search through her purse.

We ate lunch and hung out for a bit when it was time to do the show. We had all been glammed up and rested. Jade had even started to feel better once she ate the crackers. We walked backstage and I peaked my head out at the crowd. For it being a small performance, there were tons of people here. Many of them had huge signs and were wearing Little Mix shirts. I felt a wave of nervousness come over me and I started to kind of sway in place. Jade noticed and rubbed my back slowly to bring me some comfort which it did. Jesy saw us and gave me a grin. I shake my head slightly at her and look down at my hands.

The host called us on and we got into our opening positions for "Woman Like Me." During the performance, I get like I was nailing everything. By the time we got to our second song "Bounce Back," I was on top of the world.

We all waved goodbye and ran offstage. "That was great!" I shouted with a huge smile. "See there was nothing to be nervous about," Leigh said and smiled at me. I look to see where Jesy had gone, noticing she had disappeared. She then came through the door with four glasses and a big bottle of wine. "What's this for?" I ask. "I just love all of you," she said sweetly. I gave her a hug and she handed a glass full of wine. Leigh followed doing the same. Jade gave her a hug and refused the wine. "Are you sure?" Jesy asked. "Yeah, i'll pass," she said. I gave her kind of a confused look but she just looked down, not making eye contact with me. "To us!" Leigh said, making everyone raise their glasses.