Adopted By Zerrie

Chapter 24

2 weeks later:

~~~~~Arianna's POV:~~~~~

Perrie, Zayn and I are sitting in the kitchen, eating our dinner when there comes a knock at the door. Zayn gets up to answer it. Perrie and I hear voices, then fast-paced footsteps heading towards us.

Louis rushes in and jumps on me. "How are you, Arianna!" He says it in a way that sounds like it isn't a question.

"I'm good thanks Louis!" I reply. "And how are you?"

"Always so polite, always so polite..." he says as the others file in the door.

"You should see my friend Jade! She's so polite, you wouldn't believe it! And-" I stop, horrified.

"What's wrong?" Niall asks. I've found that he's very observant of other people. He must have noticed the horrified look that crossed my face.

"Nothing, nothing." I say. "She was just at the orphanage with me and I really miss her. Hang on, I have a photo somewhere." I run up the stairs and rummage around in my closet, searching for the only photo I own, that is of me and her. I finally find it, proudly sitting in its photo frame, on top of my shoe cupboard, which is now full thanks to Perrie and her shopping. 

When I see the photo, a sharp pang of loneliness hits me. I have Perrie, Zayn and the One Direction boys as company, but there's still a part of me that longs for Jade's company. To hear her annoying yet still funny jokes and to hear her unique laugh. I loved trying to make her laugh, 'cause it wasn't hard to get her into fits of uncontrollable laughter!

I snap out of my thoughts and rush back downstairs with the picture. I pass it round. Perrie and Zayn have already seen it so they let the 4 boys pour over it. Niall looks the most interested, for some strange reason. Then, I decide to explain the setting of the picture.

"We were on a day out with the other orphanage children. We were both 13. This time, Mrs Smith, who is the 'manager' of the orphanage decided to take us to the beach 'cause it was a sunny day. Jade and I had bought special bikinis just for that occasion!" I smile, remembering.

Harry laughs. "Girls!" he mutters. I see Perrie shoot him a death stare.

"Anyway," I continue. "We went to the beach and we were the oldest there..." I feel a wave of loneliness wash over me but I carry on. "So all the little kids were building sandcastles and we were both just trying to get a good tan. We had a competition!" I giggle.

"Who won?" Niall asks. I can't believe he's genuinely interested.

"Jade." I sigh. "She has this knack at getting a tan!" This time Perrie laughs, but with me, not at me.

"Well, we were just tanning ourselves. Then, Mrs Smith came over and took this photo! Shs printed off two and Jade has the other one." The photo gets handed back to me. I look at Jade's smiling face. Then I look at her long mane of shiny dark brown hair. 

"God, do I wish I had her hair or what!" I said. Perrie looked over my shoulder.

"Ha! That's so funny!" she says. I give her a confused look.

"Jade in my band has the most beautiful hair and we all envy her for it!" Perrie explains. I laugh at the coincidence.

"My Jade is completely obsessed with your band." I say. "She would die" -I stressed the word- 'die' "to meet Jade Thirlwall. She always tells me that if she could, she would create a shrine to Jade Thirlwall. But she's not being serious of course." I add quickly, just in case they pictured her as this crazy person who worshipped a celebrity.

Everyone laughs. 

"She was my best friend, always the life of the party." I said, my voice dying away at each word. Suddenly I felt tears springing out of my eyes. Perrie was by my side in an instant and led me away up the stairs.

When I arrived in my bedroom, I collapsed on the bed and cried my heart out. Literally.