Jerrie Short Stories

Sanctuary

Set shortly after the LM5 tour

When a knock sounded at her flat door at three in the morning Jade was expecting anyone but Perrie. They had been close once, out of everyone they used to have the most in common, but circumstances had changed things over time until they had been little more than distant friends who interacted but spent very little time together.

Once Perrie had gotten engaged and especially since she became pregnant they had almost stopped speaking altogether. Not because there was any animosity between them but because their lives no longer intersected. She gushed regularly to Jesy and Leigh-Anne so Jade heard about some of her life second hand, but that was the extent of it. It wasn't as if she missed her or anything. No, not at all.

When she stumbled off of the sofa after the third or fourth round of insistent knocking, she often fell asleep on the sofa now with the television on, she wasn't even consciously wondering who could be knocking or what they could want, or even what time it was. She just wanted the damn noise to stop. It took her a few tries to unlock the door. Once it was open she propped herself against the frame and peered through sleep-swollen eyes at her visitor. "What do you want?" she slurred tiredly.

"Jade?"

She blinked. It was the last voice she had expected.

"Perrie? What are you... what are you doing here?" she straightened up and made a brief attempt to tame her hair and clothing, finally waking up enough to realise what she probably looked like.

"Sorry to bother you. I just... Leigh and Andre are still in Jamaica and Jesy isn't answering the phone..."

"It's okay. It's fine. Come in." she slouched out of the doorway, vaguely troubled by the way she bustled in as if someone had followed her the whole way to her flat. Instinctively she glanced out into the hallway but there was no one around. She couldn't even hear noise from the surrounding flats. Jade closed the door and, after a moment, locked it.

"Is everything okay?" she asked, still trying to comb her hair into some kind of order with her fingers.

"Um, no. Everything is definitely not okay." she was very close to tears, Jade realised belatedly, standing in her front room. Perrie was standing right in front of her, her purse clutched in one of her hands in spite of the strap over one shoulder, Jade shouldn't be happy about this. "I, um, I really need to use your bathroom. Is that alright?"

"Sure. Of course." Jade agreed, a bit confused. The older woman was even more confused when Perrie suddenly broke out of her stillness and ran into the small bathroom off of her front room, slamming the door behind her. Moments later Jade heard her vomiting.

She sighed, already aware that Perrie had been experiencing terrible morning sickness according to Jesy. Perhaps she had been out and had started to feel ill and just wanted a safe place to be sick in. At three in the morning? Jade frowned; perhaps the best thing was to text Alex and let him know where she was. Even if the man was sleeping he would want to know her location if he woke up and found her gone. Jade grabbed her phone from the coffee table and sent a quick text to the footballer.

Alex didn't answer, not that Jade had really expected him to. She dropped her phone back onto the table top and wandered into the kitchen to find some water and crackers that she always kept in preparation for a hangover. She offered them to a flushed and miserable Perrie when she exited the bathroom. The younger woman nodded and made her unsteady way towards Jade's sofa. She fished a cracker out of the box and began to nibble on it, washing it down with a hesitant sip of water.

"Thanks." she mumbled, burping quietly into her hand as the cracker began to settle her stomach.

"No problem. Are you okay?" Jade asked again.