To be Loved

Chapter 1: Breaking News

The soft echoes of Jingle Bell rock could be heard from every shop she walked by as she walked down the London street - the Christmas spirit was well and truly here. Jade felt a certain indifference to Christmas. Maybe it was because her birthday landed on Boxing Day, but she'd never really been bowled over by the season in the same way other people did. Her housemate Perrie, for instance, loved it. Their flat had been decorated since the end of November and Jade didn't have the heart to tell her how much she really didn't care about the holiday. But this year especially she felt less cheery than usual. She should have been excited – she was happy, she had a wonderful boyfriend and although they'd had their fair share of ups and downs, this would be their second Christmas together now and Jade was looking forward to it. Sam was a super kind guy and Jade felt so lucky to have him - he was the first guy she'd dated who really understood her and accepted all her quirks and eccentric ways...she knew there was no one out there who'd understand her like he did.

As she walked back to the flat, her phone buzzed in her pocket and it was, of course Sam, reminding her that he was going out that night for a Christmas party with the boys, so he wouldn't be over. The girls had decided to have a film night, which for them was nowadays some sort of miracle getting the 4 of them in a room together outside of work. Perrie and Zayn were so happy they could barely keep their hands off each other – they were in fact, the fastest way to clear a room. Jade already felt her eyes and ears had suffered months' worth of therapy from all the times she'd walked in the flat and caught the two of them at it. She laughed to herself at the thought.

Jesy of course, found herself in the same position as her that night, as Jordan was also going out with the boys, so the pair of them had been the instigators for this sleepover. Jade shuddered just remembering some of the stories Leigh-Anne had told her from sharing a flat with Jesy – she really did sound worse than Perrie, which sometimes seemed hard to believe.

Leigh-Anne took the least amount of persuasion for the evening. She'd been going out with her boyfriend for not even 6 months and him being a footballer, he was often away with games or training, so she was perfectly happy with the idea of a girl's night.

Jade's phone buzzed again, still in her hand and she smiled to see it was Leigh who'd txt her.

*From Leigh Leigh*

Where are you? Xxxx

She smiled to herself a little and replied quickly.

*From Jade*

On my way hun xxxx

she threw her phone back in her bag and quickened her pace.

Back at the flat Perrie was hunting around for wine in the cupboard. Leigh-Anne had already helped herself and pulled out 3 glasses and Jesy was surfing through the news channels, finally settling on E! to watch in the background.

"Oh, turn that shite off Jess!" exclaimed Perrie her head still in the cupboard "Nothings ever true on there – you know that!"

"Well, you never know...might be a bit of juicy gossip we haven't heard yet" grinned Jesy, her eyes twinkling.

"You love a bit of goss Jess" laughed Leigh "You are the gossip QUEEN"

"That is so NOT true" smirked Jesy "I'm just interested!"

"FOUND IT!" shouted Perrie, thrusting two bottles of wine in the air triumphantly.

"Finally!" joked Jesy, making her way over to the small kitchen island "I was about to die of dehydration"

"Just because you haven't had a glass of wine in the past hour, doesn't mean you're going to die from dehydration," laughed Leigh

"Cheeky bitch, you just wait until..."