Sugar, Baby?

loud sobs, soft words, and a supportive mother

(A/N: wow I rly just ghosted y'all huh? Soz huns. I'll explain at the end. Enjoy!✨)

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I'm watching a movie with me Mam on the couch when Jesy texts.

Can I call u?

I expected her to call right before bed, not right after dinner, but of course, I reply with Always anyway.

"Hey," I say, picking up on the first ring and wandering out of the sitting room so that I don't disrupt my mother's movie watching. "Jes?"

"Hey, sorry. Hi," she bumbles, and it's clear from her thick tone that she's been crying.

"Jesy, are you alright? What's going on?" I ask, wishing more than anything I was with her right now.

"I just... Ugh, it's stupid," she says.

"Not if it's got you this upset, it's not. Tell me what's wrong, Baba."

"It's my mom. She... well. We had a huge fight. Again. I've not been back in the country for a day and we're already at each other's throats," she says, and though I can't see her, I know she's shaking her head.

"Do you want to tell me what the fight was about? It might help to talk about it," I suggest gently.

"No. Well, maybe. It- she's disappointed in me. Again," she grumbles, sounding exceptionally close to tears.

"Jesy, you're probably the single most successful twenty-eight year old on the face of the earth. What could she possibly be disappointed about?" I ask, genuinely baffled.

"My many sins," she mocks, though it's clear she's really distressed. "When Jake and I split, she basically told me I got what I deserved for sleeping with him before we were married. She didn't much seem to care that he was sleeping with somebody else, but. When she told me that, I was so- so angry that I told her... I finally told her that I liked girls, too. And she flew off the handle. She called me a lot of terrible names, said a lot of awful things. She kicked me out of her house, didn't speak to me for a month after. And now-" she says, voice breaking. "Now, I'm finally happy again, 'cos I have you, and she- Fuck, Perrie. She doesn't even care. She'd rather I be miserable trying to retain her approval than I be happy w-with you," she spits out, breaking down. "A-and I've tried to ignore it a-all night, b-but you can only be told you're an abomination so many times in one night, you know? And then she st-started talking about how you don't really love me, cause ho-how could you ever really love me? And it's all been so fast, and I th-thought mayb-"

"Jes, you know that's not true, right? And that I love you so, so much? Do you know how much happier you make me? And how proud I am of you, how much respect I have

for you? Jesy-" I say, unable to verbalize the depth of my feelings for her. I feel useless through the phone, needing desperately to touch her, to hold her in my arms. "Jes, where are you right now?"

"I'm out. I just... I couldn't stand to be there anymore. I called a car, and I'm just riding around," she says, blowing out a big breath. I know she's running her hand through her hair, tugging at it like she always does when she's frustrated, or nervous.

"That's good, Jes. It's always good to take a breather," I say, trying to stay as calm and cool as I can, for her sake. Some emotional support assistant I am.

"Are you gonna go back tonight?"

"I don't know," she says, sounding a bit helpless. "When I called Brock for the new team driver number, her offered up the spare room at his for the night, to stay with him and Jodie and the kids, but I don't want to intrude. I could go to my flat, I suppose, but. It's just so quiet, so not me. I've been travelling since I bought it, it's not home yet. Guess now's the time to make it mine, huh?"