Coat (Jerrie AU)

Chapter Two

"I can't believe you didn't ask for her number!" Jesy says, expressing exactly what each of the three is thinking.

After Jade met Perrie outside the restaurant, Jade was excited to tell her best friends about what just happened. She rushed inside, and once Leigh-Anne and Jesy heard Perrie's name, they stopped questioning Jade about why she stormed out. Leigh-Anne and Jesy, like Jade, were much more interested in the encounter between Jade and her ex-girlfriend. Soon enough, they pointed out how Jade might have asked Perrie on a date, but she didn't ask for her number.

"We should try Instagram. You can send her a message, tell her what happened and ask for her number," Leigh Anne suggests.

"Wait," Jesy says with a subtle smile. "Perrie has you covered." She puts her finger on the tissue packet which lays on the table. Jade doesn't notice anything at first, but when she gets a bit closer, she can see it - tiny numbers written down, next to the words 'if you ever need someone to talk to:)'

"She's amazing." Jade states in admiration, causing Jesy and Leigh Anne to exchange concerned look. They both know Jade tends to fall too easily, what has caused her to get to get hurt quite frequently. Breaking up with someone you really like is tough, but breaking up with a person whom you love with everything you have is almost impossible, and Jade had to go through that many times.

Jade pulls out her phone from her purse, pretending she doesn't notice her friends' concern. She taps on the Instagram icon, and a moment later is already going through Perrie Edwards' account. Questions are popping in her mind with each picture; why are there so many phots of cakes in here? How come there are no pictures from any of her birthday parties over the years? Everyone has those.

"Jade, are you stalking Perrie?" Jesy asks,  giving her best friend a knowing look.

"No..." Jade replies, failing her attempt to put a poker face on. Leigh smiles, then stretches her arm across the table. She reaches for Jade's phone, playfully snatching it from her hand. Jade acts shocked for a moment, but in reality, she's not bothered. Jesy and Leigh-Anne scroll through the pictures, careful not to double tap anything.

"Why does Perrie have so many photos of pudding?" Leigh asks, frustration clearly present in her voice. It's now Jade and Jesy's turn to exchange looks.

"These are cakes," Jesy corrects the second youngest girl out of the three. Jade and Jesy both laugh, while Leigh rolls her eyes as she wears a smile. She grew up in England, and has moved here, to California, just in time for middle school. Though she had lost most of her British accent long ago, she still uses British words every once in a while. Over the years, Leigh Anne's two best friends have picked up some of these words and phrases; bum, chin wag, and Jade's favorite - nanite.

"That's weird, isn't it?" Jade asks, referring to the many photos of cakes. Leigh keeps searching Perrie's account for anything interesting it might hold until she finds something, eventually. 72 weeks into Perrie's Instagram, she posted the first picutre of a cake with the caption: A dream come true! Grateful to be working in such a sweet place🍰. This picture is also the only one with a location, it was posted from Chocolate & Chocolate Cakery, Long Beach.

"Oh, it makes sense now!" Leigh says as she puts all the pieces together in her mind. Jesy peeks at the phone screen, while Jade, who is sitting across the table, is trying to figure out what is it that Leigh-Anne figured out. Luckily, Leigh-Anne is quick to explain. "She works at a cakery. It's called 'Chocolate and Chocolate,' and it's pretty close, actually." She hands the phone back to Jade.

"I remember how much she loved baking in high school," Jade reminisces with a soft smile. When Jade was about sixteen, she decided to come out to more people other than her closest friends and family. When she told some classmates she confided in that she likes girls too, they thought it wasn't a big deal; each of them told just one friend, and soon everyone knew. It wasn't how Jade planned to come out to her classmates, but she was consoled by how accepting people were. Perrie, who wasn't a good friend of Jade at the time, did the sweetest thing to make Jade comfortable after noticing she was down at school. She baked Jade a cake, which had edible flowers on the top and rainbow layers inside. It was simple, but it definitely touched Jade's heart. A few weeks later, Perrie asked Jade out.