Jerrie Oneshot Book

Love Came Out of Nowhere pt 2

Perrie

Perrie is trying to concentrate on what Jade's saying as they walk side by side along the riverfront. Trying being the operative word. She is trying, but the voice of reason that resides in her temporal lobe is screaming that this is a terrible idea.

She has no clue what she's doing.

Once they'd left the station, she'd suggested to Jade that they grab a coffee from a great little café called The Bean. "The best coffee in all of London," she promises. It had better be. Lord knows she needs something to fall back on if she's exposed for the liar she is.

Perhaps she could just fling herself into the Thames and be done with it? It can't be any worse than Jade's reaction when this all inevitably goes wrong and the brunette finds out she's a date usurper. Or is it date opportunist? Either way, it's bad.

She had intended to set the record straight at the station but when Jade had looked at her with those wide brown eyes, Perrie resolutely discarded her morals. How does the old proverb go? The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Something about Jade intrigues her. It's as if Jade has some gravitational pull that she's powerless to resist. Maybe she can use that excuse in her apology later. You were so attractive I pretended to be your date. She wonders if it will sound as bad out loud as it does in her head.

"Are you alright, Lily?" Jade asks, placing a hand gently on her elbow. "Because you look a little nervous."

Oh, that's right. She's Lily, not Perrie. She must remember that.

She looks down at the hand delicately resting on her arm and forces a smile onto her face when she meets Jade's concerned gaze.

"Do I?" Perrie breathes out. "No, I'm fine, honestly. It's just that I-"

She hesitates. Contemplates coming clean and ending this ludicrous charade.

Of all the stupid things she's done in her life, this one is by far the stupidest. It even trounces that time she and Leigh-Anne raided her parent's liquor cabinet when they were sixteen and made 'blackout punch'. They blacked out all right. Straight after they'd spewed up said punch all over Perrie's bedroom. Anyway, this is infinitely worse.

Luckily or unluckily, depending on how you look at it, Perrie's phone rings in that moment and disturbs her inner turmoil.

"Sorry, this is embarrassing" Perrie mutters as she scrambles to pull the phone from her pocket. "I should have put it on silent."

She looks down at the screen. It's Leigh-Anne.

Fuck.

Leigh-Anne's probably wondering why she hasn't turned up at her parent's house yet to help with the anniversary party preparations. She thinks of the speech lying unfinished in her bag and feels a pang of guilt. She ignores the call and it's only the second worst thing she's done today.

They're both unlucky, it seems, because just as Perrie begins to apologize, Jade's phone rings as well. Jade whines as she looks at the caller I.D. and Perrie thinks it's adorable.

"I know it's a first date faux pas, but I'd better take this call," Jade says apologetically. "It's Andre. I promised I'd text him when we met up and I forgot."

Perrie surmises that Andre must be the one who set up this blind date. This is the guy she's supposed to know. Where has she heard that name recently?

Jade accepts the call. "Hi Andre...yeah, I'm here...I'm with Lily. Yeah...do you want to speak to her?"

Perrie's stomach lurches violently. This is it. The jig is well and truly up.