Our World

Chapter 1

Jade's POV:

"Ms. Thirlwall, here are the files you requested for your meeting this Tuesday," My assistant Lisa says, walking into my office. It's been a long day, a long week even, and it shows on Lisa's face. "Thank you, Lisa, you can go home now. It looks like there's a storm headed our way." I say while locking my phone and putting it to the side.

"Are you sure you don't need anything else from me, miss Thirlwall?"

"I've told you a thousand times, Lisa, call me Jade.", I say with a warm smile, "And yes, I'm sure. Drive safe and see you on Monday." We've been working together for half a year and no matter how friendly I am towards Lisa, her formal demeanour always remains. It's almost as if she is intimidated by me in some way.

"Thank you, Miss ... Jade. Have a nice weekend!" the blonde says, stumbling out of my office to grab her stuff and leave.

I look at my watch and see that it's only 4 p.m., so I decided to go through the files Lisa dropped off. The dark clouds do predict a storm, but I really like to have my work done so I can fully enjoy my weekend without any work-related stress. As much as I love my job, I want to have it separated from my personal life sufficiently. I must say that I'm also a slightly different person at work, so it's good to keep both worlds divided.

After half an hour of staring at the papers, I take my glasses off and go make myself a cup of tea. I have a whole tea collection in the corner of my office. That's how much I love tea. As I'm waiting for the kettle to finish, I jump up as I feel two arms wrap around my waist. "Hey there, beautiful."

"Jesus wept, Perrie! You need to stop scaring me like that. I swear I'm going to have a heart attack one of these days if you keep this up." I hear her giggle behind me, and it's honestly the best sound in the world. I would like to say it calms my raging heartbeat, but that would be a complete lie. As I turn around in her arms, I am met with her breathtaking blue eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to make sure you got home safe in this storm, so I came to pick you up." She smiles warmly, and I swear I feel butterflies every time I see that goddamn smile. Seeing my best friend happy always puts me in a good mood. Some people might not understand, but she has a very special place in my heart.

I met Perrie in secondary school, and we've been best friends ever since. When we were 14 years old, we promised each other we would live together and stay best friends until we were grey and old. Fast forward to now with us living together and still the best friends in the world.

"You are too cute Edwards, thanks for coming to get me." She pulls me closer into her body and kisses my cheek. God, is she trying to kill me with her cuteness? "Were you still working on something? I can wait if you're not ready to go yet," Perrie says as she lets go of me to sit in one of the chairs across from my desk. I whimper slightly at the loss of her warmth against my skin, but I blame it on the heating in my office being turned off.

"I wasn't working on something important. I'll just grab my stuff, and then I'm ready to leave." As I finish grabbing my stuff, I find Perrie looking down at her phone, smiling from ear to ear. "What are you smiling at like that?" I ask, genuinely happy to see her smile but simultaneously a little jealous that I'm not the reason for her smile.

"I'm going out with Leigh tonight and she just made a joke about me getting laid within the first 10 minutes after we arrive," Perrie says while smirking. Well, that doesn't sound promising. I know it's a Friday night, but I really hoped the blonde wouldn't go out tonight.

Lately, she has been partying like crazy. Even when we were in college, she didn't party the way she does now. It only started a few months ago with her getting home so drunk she couldn't even remember her own name or passing out at parties from drinking too much. What makes it even worse is that this new way of partying is accompanied by loads of sex for her. It's not that I judge her for sleeping with a lot of people, she is free to do whatever she wants, but her behaviour does worry me.

Perrie 'gets laid' almost every party. She finds an attractive guy or girl and leaves the party with them. She rarely brings one of her conquests home because she knows I don't like it, but it still bothers me more than I would like to admit.

"You're going out again? It's the third time this week already?" I sound more irritated than I intended, and I know this will start our millionth discussion on the topic. Perrie looks up from her phone with a frown.

"Just because you don't like to party doesn't mean I can't, Jade. If it bothers you so much that I get home late, I'll just stay at Leigh-Anne's. That way, I don't bother you," Perrie says in a harsh tone. This is how it goes every time I try to bring it up, the younger girl gets all defensive and frustrated. No matter how I bring the issue of her partying up, she always gets angry or irritated at me.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. It's just that I'm worried about you," I say with a small voice as I look down at the floor. I hate fighting with her. "It's okay, let's just go home. Come on," Perrie says as she stands up and reaches for my hand. The feeling of her hand in mine calms me down a little, but the fact that she doesn't even look my way counteracts that immediately.

We hold hands until we reach her car, where she opens the door for me. She's such a gentlewoman. I honestly really get why she's a catch. That still doesn't mean I like it.

Our car ride home is silent, but it's not the usual comfortable silence. This time it's a tense silence, and I know Perrie feels like I crossed a line with bringing the partying up again. As she pulls into our driveway, I try to exit the car as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, a hand on my thigh stops me. I turn around to look at Perrie and find that she's already looking back at me.

"I'm sorry, Jade, I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. I know you care, but you really don't need to worry, okay?" Her eyes are soft as she makes circles on my thigh with her fingers. I really can't stay mad at Perrie, especially if she looks at me like that. "Okay."