The show must go on

Chapter 28 - a very good day

Jade POV

After a few days I was finally discharged from the hospital. Pumped up with all the meds they have to offer I was also feeling relatively fine. That means at the samte time that chemo would start again, something I'm not looking forward to...not at all.

Perrie has not left my side for a second these past days and weeks and even though I wish she would take care of herself a bit more, I have been very grateful. I hate hospitals and she knows it. Lying here for so long, I probably wouldn't have lasted at all without her.

Today, however, the day has finally come and I am allowed to leave this awful place. Sitting in a wheelchair, I am taken to the back door to attract less attention. Perrie takes both my hands, helps me onto my still somewhat weak legs and puts her arm around my waist. We both put on our sunglasses, pull our caps into our faces and, for the first time since my collapse, dare to step out in public.

Hundreds of cameras immediately gather around us and I can barely see through all the flashlights. They shout in our direction, all of them at the same time, and I don't understand any of them. I feel so overwhelmed by the situation that I look a bit helpless at Perrie, who surely didn't expect this onslaught either. At least that's what her face says for her. Sensing my insecurity, she tightens her grip on me once more and, sealed off by the security guards, leads me to the already waiting car and I sit down as quickly as possible.

"What the hell," I curse loudly as the car doors are closed. "What's going on?"

"You're more famous than ever," Perrie declares, all out of breath, and squeezes me tighter again. "Are you okay?" she then asks immediately and I merely nod, still a little shocked by the masses of people waiting for us outside the doors.

We knew we'd been getting more attention than usual lately. Sam told us about it when she had visited. Due to the dates we had originally planned in America, we were already at a peak in our career anyway. With me and Perrie coming out and on top winning the Brit Award, the interest grew even more. But the clincher was apparently my breakdown on stage, which brought worldwide attention.

"I'll do anything for the band, you know that," I said laughing.

Since the livestream at the latest, the whole world seems to be talking about us and even the last tickets for the acoustic tour were sold in no time. Our follower numbers on various social media channels also grew rapidly and I could hardly believe that my illness really had such a positive effect on our success.

But still, I could never have expected such crowds and it didn't look any better outside my flat. The security men shielded us as best they could, but it's still a lot for me to process and when we finally close the door behind us, I'm exhausted and have to lie down for a while.

My brother is long back home after I made it clear to him for the umpteenth time that he has a wife and children who need him too. My mum wasn't so easily persuaded, but eventually she realised that Perrie and I are only here for a few days anyway before we continue the tour.

So we were finally alone again and we enjoyed it. She spoiled me and I let her, knowing she has helper syndrome and I knew she needed that to deal with the situation. We bathed together, she cooked for me, even fed me at times, she let me sit on the couch or in bed and saw to it that I didn't have to move for most of the day to thoroughly recover from the incident. And it worked. I felt better, in fact I didn't feel so good in a long time.