Time Ahead

chapter forty-six

Perrie's POV:

The smell of pancakes arose from our hotel suite. In order to celebrate our last concert, I invited everyone to my room for breakfast. The kids were gathered at the table laughing over some joke and the guys were watching clips from the game last night on the tv. Us girls were sitting at the barstools at the counter buzzing about tonight. "I'm so excited, but I'm also sad because i've really enjoyed this tour," Leigh says. "Same, but at least we'll have a break for a few months. We also have the whole Asian leg," I say. "You'll get to meet bean during then too," Jesy. "Yeah, I will," I smiled. I noticed Jade was a little quieter than usual. "Hey Jade, you okay?" I asked. She looked up at me. "Yeah, just nervous," she said, her eyes telling me something different. I nodded and continued to eat my breakfast.

The concert started at seven so we all had to be at the arena by three to do soundcheck and then get ready. We decided to get the kids all ready together, so we can just send them with the guys when we have to get ready and warmup. We each pulled out a chair for each kid. I dressed Izzy up in a nice light purple sundress. I put her hair in two french braids. Jaz and Jolie were wearing matching rompers and they each had their hair half-up half-down, letting their curls show through. Kaiden was even in a little button down which was absolutely adorable. Rhea was wearing a green dress and her hair in braids. Jacob was in a navy button down and some black shorts. Sophie was wearing a silver dress and her hair wavy. "You all look so adorable!" Leigh said, taking a picture of all of them.

"I think I'm going to go take a shower before we head down," Jesy says. "That's fine, you can leave Soph here, she looks like she's having fun," I say, motioning to the kids who were coloring in their coloring books together. "Thanks," she said before leaving. "I'm going to go pick up something special," Leigh said which a mysterious smile. "Ohh, what?" I ask. "I'm not saying," she smiles before leaving. I shake my head and laugh at her. "Please don't leave me alone," I beg to Jade. "I'm not leaving don't worry," she says laughing. I jokingly wipe my forehead in relief.

Once the kids decided to go play in Izzy room, I thought I would try to talk to Jade about earlier. "Are you sure you're just nervous for tonight?" I ask. "You're quiet and constantly checking your phone," I said. "Yeah, its just, Jed's coming to the show tonight. It will be the first time he's seen me perform since the divorce," she says. I place my hand on her shoulder. "I'm also nervous because I want everything to go well. I don't want to put the kids through everything all over again," she said. My heart ached for her. I thought it's either now or never to tell her the thing i've been holding back for months now.

"Hey so, I need to tell you something," I say nervously. "What?" she asks concerned. "I need to tell you something Jaz told me a while ago," I said. "Okay," she said, worryness laced in her voice. "A few days after the whole thing with Jed happened and you were staying with me, Jaz asked me if she was ever going to see Jed again because he hurt you. She also added that she never wanted to see him again," I say, looking down at my hands. "Oh my god," she says bringing her hand to her face. "I completely forgot they saw that," she said, her voice breaking at the end. I pulled her into a hug. "Don't cry babe. It's all going to be okay," I said comforting. "That makes so much sense now. When we went and saw him the last time, she wasn't as excited as Jolie was and I was a little confused by that," she said. "Sorry for keeping this from you, I just wanted to make sure you were ready to hear it," I said, feeling a little guilty. "Don't worry about it, thanks for telling me though," she said. "Does that change how you feel about him coming tonight?" I ask. "I don't think so," she says. "I still get that fluttery feeling when I think about him," she says, smiling a little. "That's good," I say, rubbing her back.

When it was time for the show, all of us were franticly running around doing last minute touch ups on our hair and makeup. We had to make sure this performance was extra special because all of our families were in the audience. We were also planning on our kids joining us at the end of the show to say goodbye, so that was always special.

We opened the show and the emotion was real. We each had our share of tears every few songs. Being pregnant made my emotions worse too, so I was choking up in every song. By the time we got to "Little Me" which we closed our show with, we were all in tears. Once the song was over, we announced each kid individually to come onto the stage and do their own dance move. Jacob, being the oldest, was the first to run out, crossing his arms once he got center stage and then running over to Leigh. Jaz and Jolie decided to run on together and did their infamous handshake before running over to Jade. Izzy was the next to run out where she did a turn and than ran over to me. Leigh held Rhea's hand as she walked out. She did a curtsy and ran over to Jacob. Jade ran out with Kaiden and made him wave to the crowd, making everyone "Aw" in the audience. "Now, there's one more kid we haven't brought out yet," I say. The other girls look around pretending to be confused. "I'm pregnant!" I announce into the microphone. The crowd goes wild. We all did a massive group hug and put our arms around each other as the stage brings us down to the back.

"That was amazing!" Leigh shouted as we ran back into the dressing room. "That was brilliant babe," Alex said giving me a hug and than rubbing on my bump. All of a sudden I something a sharp pain. "Woah, I think he just kicked," I said in awe. I rubbed the spot and placed Alex's hand there. Sure enough, he kicked again. "Wow," he said a little speechless. "I love you," he said. "I love you two," I said looking into his eyes.

There was a knock on our dressing room door. We all shouted different variations of "Come in," making us laugh. When the door opened, Jed appeared in the doorway. He was holding a big bouquet of flowers and three teddy bears. Jolie was the first one to see him. "Daddy!" she said, running over to engulf him in a hug. He smiled and handed her one of the teddy bears. Jaz followed Jolie a little slower and gave him a smile. He gave her a big hug and handed her the second teddy bear. Jade walked over shyly to him and gave him a hug. "These are for you," he said, handing her the flowers, making Jade blush. They walked over to Kaiden and he picked him up, letting him see the last teddy bear. "That's kind of sweet," Jesy said quietly to me. "Yeah, it is," I said, smiling at the sight of their family. Maybe he wasn't as bad as I thought all along.
"Okay everyone, gather round!" Leigh says to get everyone's attention. "To our last day of tour!" she said. Someone came in carrying a cake. It had our pictures on it and everything. "Woah Leigh, you did that?" I ask. "Yeah, that's what I was picking up earlier," she said with a big smile. We all dug into the cake. Jesy smeared frosting on my arm. "Oh, it's on," I said getting some frosting and smearing it onto her face. We continued like that until we eventually made our way back to the bus.