Pretend It's Okay

10 - Caught in the act

A few hours later Jade was in Perrie's bedroom changing the bed because they'd gotten make up all over Perrie's cream pillowcases. She couldn't allow the blonde to have to change the bed herself, that felt like a cruel and unusual punishment given her current state.

Thankfully Perrie's stomach seemed to have settled down after her nap. Jade found a questionably large supply of crackers in one of Perrie's cupboards and the blonde had been able to keep three crackers and some water down. It wasn't much but after that morning Jade couldn't be more thrilled.

After eating her small meal, Jade raiding Perrie's fridge to make herself a sandwich, Perrie had fallen back asleep on the sofa. Watching her favourite blonde sleep, Jade noticed the uncomfortable position she was laying in on the sofa.

Alex had chosen their sofa shortly after they bought the house, and after buying it Perrie had explained to Jade how it wasn't her choice or very soft. Alex had decided it fit better with the colour scheme of their house so made the executive decision for them to buy that sofa.

Jade really wanted to get Perrie into bed. Surely she would be more comfortable in there and Jade laying next to her would have an excuse to cuddle her. It didn't take too long to change Perrie's bed and just after Jade had loaded the bedding in the washing machine and turned it on, her mobile began to ring once again.

"Fuck!" she cursed quietly, running to the front room where her phone was ringing obnoxiously loudly. Perrie stirred a little bit, her eyebrows furrowing, causing Jade to answer the call and shut the ringtone off. "Pissing hell." she muttered to herself whilst walking back to the kitchen. She could hear Zack's voice coming through the phone on her way, informing her as to who was calling.

"What do you want?" Jade asked Zack when she was in the kitchen, shutting the door so her voice wouldn't wake Perrie up.

"Hello to you too." Zack scoffed, making Jade roll her eyes. She wasn't in the mood to tease and joke around with her roommate.

"What is it Zack?" she asked shortly, her firm voice shutting down any friendly banter between the duo.

"Where are you? Kevin said you weren't coming in but you're not home. I rang the house phone multiple times and there was no answer." Zack explained. Jade was grateful that Kevin hadn't told everyone where she was. For some reason unknown to even herself, spending secret private time with Perrie excited her.

"I'm at Perrie's." Jade stated, deciding she didn't want to elaborate on that. Just saying her name caused the older woman to break out in an uncontrollable grin. Jade questioned how she had fallen so quickly and strongly for a woman. It was only a few months ago that kissing a random blonde in a nightclub whilst drunk had been such a monumental action for her.

"Oh." Zack paused. A dozen scenarios ran through his head as to why Jade had skipped work to hang out with one of their friends. She was about to debut and didn't have time to skip work for fun.

"Is she okay? Is her depression getting worse?" he asked, concerned, "Oh God, does she think her performance was terrible? I know she is a perfectionist and overly critical of herself but it really did go excellently." he started to ramble.

"No no, she's fine." Jade quickly reassured him, waiting to hear Zack take a deep breath before continuing. "She's been pretty sick today so I called myself in sick to look after her. I'm not sure what is wrong exactly, it's weird." Jade sighed, thinking over the events of that morning.

"How so?" Zack pressed. They all knew that Jade was highly intelligent so if she thought the situation didn't make sense then something weird had to be going on.

"At first I thought she was hung over, she drank quite a bit when I took her out and you know what she's like with alcohol." Jade began, heading Zack chuckle down the phone at memories of a cranky, hungover Perrie.