Not On the List of Broken Hearts

Part 2

Perrie sat on her couch, eating take away and watching the telly. There was nothing interesting on at the moment, so she had resorted to switching channels every couple minutes in the hopes that something would catch her eye. After about twenty minutes of searching, something did catch her eye, and it was a picture of Jade. Perrie sighed heavily when she realized it was Jade because at this point, Perrie wished the paps would just stop and leave Jade alone.

The thing was, Jade wasn’t just a good-girl-gone-bad anymore. She really had spiraled out of control. A couple of weeks after Jade had come over to Perrie’s, Jade was seen walking down the streets of some city slurring her words and stumbling all over the place. From what Perrie could tell, this was the first time Jade had been publically wasted, because the paps freaked out more than they ever had at the incident.

Then, a week or so later, a source close to Jade had said that Jade’s wild night out actually showed something Jade had taken to lately: heavy drinking. The source said when Jade wasn’t out partying and drinking, she was doing it in her home or hotel room.

And then sure enough, a couple days after that, authorities reported an extremely trashed hotel room, one that Jade was staying in. Apparently people in the neighboring rooms heard a woman yelling out random song lyrics and smashing bottles the whole night of the incident.

Perrie really wished it had stopped there, but after that, Jade was getting papped more and more outside of clubs when she was obviously extremely drunk. The press and the tabloids loved it. It actually made Perrie sick how the media flocked to cases like Jade. They wouldn’t leave her alone. They followed her around even more than before hoping to catch glimpses of Jade spiraling out of control. They didn’t care that Jade needed help, they just cared about being the first at the next big headline.

And that is why Perrie basically cringed when Jade’s picture popped up on the telly. Perrie knew it could only mean one thing: more bad news. And sure enough, when the reporter on the television started talking, Perrie felt her stomach churn.

“Popstar Jade Thirlwall, who is now more known for her wild escapades rather than her bubbly and energetic music, is in the spotlight once again. This time Thirlwall performed at a gig while extremely intoxicated. People at the venue confirmed that Thirlwall stumbled around on stage last night while slurring the words and was off key the majority of the performance. Sources close to Thirlwall admit that Thirlwall has a drinking problem, yet they say Thirlwall is currently resisting all the help being offered to her.”

Perrie actually felt extremely bad for Jade at this point. Sure, she had loathed Jade before, but at this point, Perrie wanted Jade to get help as well. She hated seeing Jade’s life a mess. Perrie knew something had to be up with Jade though, because in the very short time she had known Jade personally, she could just tell that Jade would never let herself go this far just for the media. Jade had even told her that she wanted to change for the better. Maybe the demons Jade had created really got the best of her, but Perrie had been so sure that Jade would have pulled through and lost her bad girl image.

Perrie realized that she was really hungry. She sighed, turned off the television, and made her way to her kitchen. As she walked past the fridge and to her snack cupboard, she couldn’t help but glance at the scrap of paper attached to her fridge. Perrie stared at the paper every time she came into the kitchen actually. On the piece of paper was Jade’s number that she had given Perrie that day. Every time Perrie saw it, some part of her wanted so badly to call Jade and just try to get her to stop doing what she was doing. But Perrie knew that was probably extremely pointless because if Jade even picked up, she would probably just slur drunkenly into the phone and swear at her.

——

Perrie was out with her old friends, celebrating her one friend Leigh-Anne’s birthday. Sure, her and Leigh haven’t talked as much since they both went off to uni, but they always reconnected whenever Leigh came back to South Shields, and Leigh was the ultimate party thrower. Perrie was having a really good time, which hadn’t really happened for her for a while now, and she was just so happy to let go.