When Saturn Returns | Jerrie

Chapter 6

"Pez," Leigh-Anne yelled from the shower as Jade pulled a t-shirt over her head. "Hurry up, I want to go to the hotel."

Perrie finally looked up from her phone and saw that Jade and Leigh-Anne were almost ready to go. She quickly apologized and got up from the sofa to get changed, deciding to just shower at the hotel. Jade really tried to keep her eyes away from her, but she couldn't help but be drawn to her bandmate. Perrie noticed. "Like what you see?" she smirked and Jade felt her cheeks heat up.

Yes. "What?" was all she could say, before quickly coming up with an excuse. "Oh, sorry. I was just lost in thought."

Perrie's eyes searched hers for a moment and in that moment, Jade was afraid that she'd call her out on her lie, but she let it go with a nod. The tension between them dissipated as Perrie turned around and left the room to get some of her stuff from another room. Jade exhaled shakily. She needed to be better at hiding her feelings. She had a feeling it would only end badly if Perrie ever found out.

"Smooth," Aaron, their hairstylist, whispered in her ear.

Jade jumped. "What are you talking about?"

"Babe," Aaron said sympathetically, "you don't need to hide from me."

Jade didn't respond and just looked at him, waiting for him to continue.

"Okay, fine. Don't talk about it. Just know that if you ever do want to talk about it, your secret is safe with me." With that, he turned back to neatly packing up Perrie's wig.

"Thank you, Azza," Jade said very quietly, not even sure if he could hear her.

Jade opens her eyes to the sun on her face. She looks to her right and sees that Mary is still asleep. She wonders what time it is. It must be early for Mary to still be asleep. Jade struggles to get out of the tight sleeping bag and stretches a bit to get the kinks out of her back. Her whole body aches, both from yesterday's trial and from lying on hard rocks all night. When the pain eases a bit, she tries to start a fire so she can boil some water for tea.

If you'd told her two weeks ago that she'd be starting her own fire right now, she would've called you crazy, but here she is. She's never actually done it before in camp, but she's seen Geoff do it a million times, so she tries to copy his moves. It takes her a little longer than it would've taken him, but she manages to get a fire going and feels pride heating up her chest.

As she stares into the self-made flames, her dream comes back to her. It wasn't a dream, though. It was more like a memory. She remembers that day really well. It was the day she started to come to terms with her feelings for Perrie. She took Aaron up on his offer to talk to him a couple of weeks after that night and it helped to have an outlet. To have someone to whom she could voice her doubts and fears. Aaron kept his word and never told anyone about her feelings, but talking to him about them made them more real for some reason and while it helped her for a while, it also made it harder. She started to avoid being alone in a room with Perrie and Perrie noticed. She noticed sooner than Jade expected. Maybe, if they still had been a four, it would've taken her longer, because it wouldn't have been so obvious. Eventually, the situation became too ridiculous and, after a lot of pestering from Perrie, Jade decided to come clean.

"Jade." Perrie pulled her apart from the dancers after they exited the stage. "Can we talk?"

Jade looked around, trying to find a way to get out of it, but there was nothing that could help her get out of it this time. She nodded, looking at her shoes. She felt Perrie take her hand to lead her to an empty room. Jade hated the shocks that shot up her arm as soon as their hands made contact. She hated that even after she'd been trying everything to forget about her feelings, they were still very much present.