Enigma || jerrie ✔︎

part 48 - beautiful

Just friends. That was what they had agreed on. Perrie thought it over as she fidgeted with her fingers, waiting for the plane to take off. The tour was starting in only a day and she had to pack and break the news to the girls before they went on the road.

She slipped her headphones over her ears and put on Ed Sheeran before staring out of the window. They'd promised to keep in touch and keep each other updated, but Perrie knew that wasn't likely to happen. She needed time to heal the gouges Zayn had made in her heart, even though she'd fallen out of love with him a long time ago.

Being in love with him - it was just an illusion.

When the plane finally touched down at the airport, Perrie was already bursting with anxiety. How would she tell the other girls? How would she tell Jade?

Turned out, the girls - all three of them - were waiting for her at the gates, equally as anxiously. Jade was huddled into Jesy, with dark circles ringing her eyes, not even bothering to put on a smile. Jesy and Leigh were glaring at Perrie with something like accusation in their eyes. Perrie felt her heart lurch in her chest once again as she gripped the handle of her suitcase and walked forward, forcing her feet to move. Step by step.

"Perrie, you're back," Jade said absently, but recognition had lighted up in her eyes when she saw the blonde. Perrie noticed Jesy grip Jade's shoulder tighter, while Leigh bit down on her lip as if she were afraid to speak. "Where have you been?"

"I went to talk things out with Zayn."

"Zayn again. It's always him, isn't he?" Jade smiled sadly and shook her head. "It's always been him." And, completely ignoring Perrie's halfhearted protests, she walked away with Jesy accompanying her, never breaking a stride. Leigh, however, fell back to walk beside Perrie, who was staring at the ground.

"She's just been another version of herself these days. She'll pull herself together before the tour, I'm sure of it."

"I hope so," Perrie choked out and cleared her throat. She really had to explain everything to Jade, and hopefully soon. "I broke things off with Zayn. Officially."

Leigh didn't sound mad, but she did sound doubtful when she turned to Perrie and raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Look, I don't want to judge you, but what you did was fucked up, going behind our backs....did you do that out of guilt? Because I don't want you to make yourself unhappy, no matter how much you messed up."

Perrie swallowed once again and trailed after Leigh-Anne. "No. I'm sure. He wasn't in love with me in the first place." She raised a hand as Leigh took in a sharp breath, probably to rant or yell, and Perrie quickly barrelled on. "He thought he was, and I thought I was in love with him, too. But I just l-liked the feeling of being held in his arms, you know? It was when I realised that I felt more in love with the good memories than the person standing in front of me."

Leigh sighed once again. "You have to work things out with Jade before the tour starts. And I'm serious. Jesy was livid when she found out that you'd gone to America."

Perrie squinted at Jesy and Jade's figures ahead of them, just out of hearing distance. Jesy's stance told her that she was clearly protective of Jade, with an arm wrapped around Jade's thin frame, pulling the younger girl close to her.

"I just didn't realise that it'd affect her that much," Perrie half whispered to herself, then she shook her head in order to clear out her thoughts. "I'll try."

Leigh shook her head again. "No, you can't try. You have to make up with each other, no matter whatever has come between you two."

Perrie could only nod.