Don't Forget You're Mine || Jerrie

28

January 20, 2016

"Jade! I've missed you so much, you don't even understand," Leigh-Anne says as she crashes into Jade with a hug. It is their first back at work after having some time off during the holidays, and Jade and Leigh-Anne are the only ones to arrive on time to the the scheduled meeting. While Leigh-Anne is excited to go back to work to point where she will not let the smile leave her face for a second, Jade is feeling anxious and nervous. She has not seen Perrie even since they broke up, and is scared of what it would be like to hug her again, even it is nothing but a brief gesture done out of politeness. Hell, she wonders what it would be like to just be in the same room as Perrie. "And your hair looks so good!" 

"Thanks," Jade replies with a shy smile. After Perrie dyed Jade's hair grey, Jade found out that the dye she had bought was not of the best kind. Just like during her blue hair phase, everything her hair touched turned grey and the furniture in her flat was stained so much that Jade is pretty sure Danielle will never forgive her. The day after Perrie came over, Jade dyed her hair properly at a hair salon, and is not ashamed to admit it looks, and feels, a lot better now. "How was Christmas?" 

"It was so good. I was my dad's, and I got to hang out with my little niece and nephews. Faith sang a couple of songs for me, and I'm not even joking, I think she has a future in the industry. Do you want to see some videos?" Leigh-Anne asks and pulls out her phone. She shows Jade videos of her niece, photos of Christmas dishes her mother had made, of her baby nephew Jacob and of the whole Pinnock family. Jade is trying her best to remain focused, but as Leigh-Anne explains the story behind each image, Jade glances at the door every couple of seconds. She cannot wait for Perrie to come in and take her breath away like she does by simply existing. The room slowly fills up, and more and more people come in, most of them which work for Sony, but Perrie and Jesy are nowhere to be found. 

"Leigh? Do you know where Jes and Pez are? It's not like them to be this late. The meeting was supposed to start ten minutes ago," Jade says when Leigh-Anne is done going through the photos. 

"I have no idea, and you're right. So you call Perrie, and I call Jes," Leigh-Anne tells Jade as she searches for Jesy's contact on her phone. Jade stays still and presses her lips together as she looks up at the ceiling. A pointless phone call about work definitely is not the way she would have wanted to break the silence between Perrie and her. 

"It's better if you call Perrie and I call Jes," Jade says and grabs her phone. She can feel Leigh-Anne's eyes on her as she calls Jesy. 

"Everything okay between you two?" Leigh-Anne asks. 

"Not really," Jade quietly replies. "We broke up." There is a moment of silence in which Leigh-Anne processes what she was just told. Meanwhile, people sit down at the conference table and are preparing to begin the meeting.

"What do you mean you broke up? Like, officially?" Leigh-Anne whispers in disbelief. 

"Yeah. Jed is my boyfriend now," Jade answers with forced smile. She knows that Leigh-Anne can see right through her, but tries to hide her emotions anyway, since she does not want to become overwhelmed right now. 

"What? When did this happen? And… why?" Leigh-Anne asks, still confused with all of the information that was dropped on her. 

"Like a week ago. But I don't feel like getting into it right now," Jade replies as tears form in her eyes. She feels all of the emotions she had tried to push away this past week; the grief and disappointment, everything that would have made Jed suspect that something is off. She pretended all week that everything was fine, but this is getting harder each day, and Jade does not feel like she can continue to do that any more.