Narrator POV
"It's beautiful," Perrie blurts out the second Jade opens her eyes.
"What?" she asks, confused as she tries to blink against the brightness of the room and has to take in her surroundings before she is able to process Perrie's words.
"Your poem," Perrie explains tersely and Jade's gaze remains confused.
"I read the last page, your poem. It's beautiful. You've always been such a talented writer," she says and only now Jade's gaze falls on the book Perrie is still clutching tightly, her book.
"Thank you," she says slowly. "But you weren't supposed to read it yet."
"You know me, I couldn't resist," she justifies herself, earning a knowing grin from Jade.
"It's not a poem, though," she explains.
"What is it then?"
"It should be a song, some day apparently," she confesses.
"Really? What's the melody?" Perrie asks with a smile on her lips.
"That's the thing, I don't know, I...I haven't had the right idea yet," Jade says quietly. "But now that you've read it, maybe you can help me out."
"Me?" she pauses, confused. "Songwriting is more yours and Leigh-Anne's specialty, isn't it?"
"She helped me write it," Jade replies. "But I need your input, your musicality on the melody...It's kind of our song."
"We already have a song," Perrie reminds her.
"Well...our relationship isn't based on stolen moments behind the curtains anymore. You can hold me in the streets and kiss me on the dance floor...theoretically, whenever you want to. If I wouldn't be chained here. I think it's time for an update," Jade explains in a heavy voice. "Will you help me?"
"I'd love too," Perrie says, heavily touched.
They didn't see or hear from Sam and in quiet moments it caused an uneasy feeling, a feeling of fear, of worry, of uncertainty. But working on the perfect melody for this particular song distracted them from all that. It made the vibe more positive because music, and especially making music, has always done that. It became the only occupation that kept both of them halfway sane.
It took not one day but a whole week for Sam to contact them via Facetime. Leigh-Anne and Jesy also got in touch then, who also kept a low profile throughout the week.
But then finally the redeeming news came into the group chat. An emergency Zoommeeting of the band with Sam.
"Two weeks," Sam announces fervently as she sees all four faces on her screen. Instead of the expected shouts of excitement, however, she only earns two confused looks.
"The festival is in two weeks," she explains and Jade and Perrie can hardly believe their ears as the other two grin knowingly and proudly.
"It's happening?!" the incredulity bursts out of Perrie.
"How did you guys manage to pull that off?", Jade joins in as well.
"We just haven't slept in the last week and have been working non-stop to make it happen," Leigh says with a wink.
"Guys..." is all Jade says, feeling uncomfortable and guilty for all the effort.
"Just kidding, calm your tits," Jesy clarifies. "The important thing is that it will happen."
"We had to move it to a Wednesday because the O2 Arena was booked up at the weekend," Sam explains further.
"O2? We're actually going to make the festival there!?" Perrie can hardly believe it.
"We'll have to, with the people that are coming," Leigh says as if it's obvious.
"Who's coming?", Jade picks up with widened eyes and it causes a proud grin from the others, who are all in the picture apparently.
"We're quite popular," Leigh explains.
"And it's for a good cause," Sam joins in.
"And most people have time because it's during the week and because it's not really concert season," Jesy explains further.
"And the cause is so big, significant and important that small dates can be postponed," Leigh continues, unperturbed.
"HELLO?!", Perrie stops her impatiently. "Who's going to perform?! You're making a fuss like Beyonce is coming."
"Not quite... But Jesy and I have called the big names on our friends list and Sam and her team have made the rest in a more official way," Leigh says. "Anne-Marie is opening the whole thing."
"No surprise there," Jade says with a proud smile.
"Yeah, she was on fire when I called her. She said she's in London right now and if she has any appointments, they'll have to be rescheduled," Leigh tells them proudly.
"Then I got on the phone with Ed Sheeran's management, Jess Glynne, Stormzy, the Vamps and Charlie. I mean, we've worked with them before. They didn't have to think twice about it either," Sam continues.
"Wow, how cool is that?" Perrie immediately professes her delight.
"Oh, that's not all, not in the slightest" Jesy makes it more exciting. "I've got us Demi Lovato organised and Jessie. She still thinks we're great, by the way, even after all these years."
"Louis and Liam were able to be acquired as well. Lewis Capaldi and the guys from 5 sos are also in."
"Wow, Sam. That's really incredible," Jade can't help but marvel.
"You haven't even heard the best part," Leigh teases.
"It gets even better?", Perrie can't even imagine.
"Oh yeah...Do you guys remember what tour you used to be on?"
"No, you don't say..."
"No, absolutely not, no way."
"You were on One Love for Manchester, she didn't forget," Sam smiles all over her face herself.
"We got Ariana?!" Perrie shouts with euphoria.
"How's that? After the last few drunken dms from Jesy, I didn't think she'd ever want anything to do with us," Jade laughs.
"Hey, don't be so cheeky. We have Taylor with us too, despite your drunken slips," Jesy justifies herself.
"TAYLOR SWIFT?!", Perrie's voice is already rolling over. "Sorry, I got a little too excited there." "But what the fuck, guys. This is huge. This is going to be the biggest festival ever."
"For sure. One last act got confirmed this morning, I haven't had a chance to tell anyone about that one yet," Sam starts and her eyes reveal it's getting even bigger.
"Who can top that? Diana Ross?", Jade mocks.
"Not quite, but I had a go at her too."
"After my faux pas when I actually met her once, I'm sure she changed her number straight after your call," Jade laughs.
"Say it!", Perrie remains impatient.
"Mr. Harry Styles graces us with his presence," Sam then blurts out.
"What now? You can't be serious. So many big stars on stage, it's costing us a fortune," Jade thinks aloud.
"No one wants a single penny," Sam replies proudly. "It's a charity festival of sorts. The money from the tickets goes to the organisation that sets us up and runs all the stalls for stem cell donor registration."
"It's so exciting, I'm speechless," Perrie can't even tell if she's dreaming or if this is really happening.
"There's only one act I'm not so sure how you'll react to..." Sam says cautiously.
"There can't be anything on that list that's bad," Perrie is honestly convinced, but Jade eyes her confusedly, already guessing that her next statement might be taken differently.
"Well good so...um...when I started looking for acts I never expected so many big names to agree. That we would even have a chance, you know? That's why I asked a few smaller artists that we know...and well, you know, I still had the number of the manager of the...well...of the Struts," she finally says.
"The Struts?" Perrie repeats, somewhat perplexed.
"Jed," Jade then just whispers in disbelief. She has given him surprisingly little thought since they broke up, because it hurt too much. They parted on good terms, but she will never forget his face when she honestly revealed to him that there is and, in fact, always has been someone else. That hurt look, that completely understandable anger. She tried to block all that out, not to face it, because it was clear to her that he was in the right with all those emotions. And then came the revival of her and Perrie's relationship and all the cancer drama and with that Jed was completely out of her thoughts.
"Yeah...", Sam continues, a little uncertainly. "Their manager said that he'd spoken to Jed and...well he didn't seem to hesitate for a second and neither did the rest. They really want to be involved and play."
And for whatever reason, she can't quite explain, but Jade is honestly touched by it. She never would have expected this.
"Is that okay with you guys? I can cancel."
"No, don't," Jade surprises herself. "I think it's nice that they want to do it," she says in a heavy voice before looking uncertainly at Perrie, who is obviously having to control herself a lot.
With an effort she swallows the lump in her throat. "The more the merrier, right?"
Everyone can tell she's having a hard time, but no one comments because she's right.
"Then there's just one last catch...money," Sam says slowly. "The label is refusing to pay the entire thing because they think we've violated certain agreements because you haven't finished the album we discussed..."
"They're fucking with us, aren't they?", Leigh speaks from the heart of everyone.
"I'm afraid not..."
"Are there even labels out there that aren't run by human scum?!" Jesy interjects. "Honestly, when we come back, we're going to find another label and we're going to do it straight away. I can't deal with them anymore."
"Amen, sister," Perrie joins in. "Like they haven't made enough money off us to make that happen for once."
Jade, however, keeps her cool. "How much is missing?"
"Pretty much all the rent for the arena and some for the tech and we haven't bothered with a global livestream yet. So extra camera crews are still coming in..."
"Say a number," Jade demands wearily.
"Two million pounds, something like that at least."
"Holy shit," Perrie blurts out.
"What if we don't take the O2?" Jade thinks aloud.
"That would be almost impossible to organise in the short space of time," Sam is honest. "It's the biggest arena in London and brings the most publicity. The only alternative would be a venue outside, but it's not a good time of year for that. If it rains, the whole festival falls through."
"Guys, think about it," Leigh interjects. "Two million is £500,000 each. It's a lot, but it should be doable for all of us, right? We said we'd do it ourselves if we had to."
"Absolutely, that's what we'll do," Jesy doesn't even have to think.
"Hey, stop," Jade finds her voice again after a moment of speechlessness. "That's a lot of money, really, a hefty amount. I mean it's half a million...It could be for nothing."
"Or it could be for everything," Leigh says in all seriousness. "So don't even argue with us. We'll do it."
No one dared to contradict Leigh any further, so it was quickly decided that the four band members would raise the missing sum together, with a simultaneous promise to change the label if all went well.
With that, the call was ended and the other three were not seen or heard from for the next two weeks.
The promo for the big festival started the next day. The official name became Little Mix kicks cancers ass, which is on all the promo pictures, on the posters and on the tickets with an old, previously unpublished picture of band as a fourpiece they did a year ago.
The first post announcing the pre-sale was uploaded on the official Little Mix account and within no time all the artists attending reposted it and did their own promotion.
The next day at 9am sharp the sale started and the website almost crashed. Within the first 30 minutes all tickets were sold.
Sam was intensely busy putting the whole festival together, while Leigh and Jesy had to work harder than they had in a long time. They shot commercials, did promo shoots, shot a promo video for the stem cell donation that was published on social media and even got a spot on national TV. They practiced how to host the festival, while Jade and Perrie were left with nothing much to do but wait full of euphoria and anticipation for the much-awaited event to watch it all on the global livestream. And during this time of waiting they continued to work on the song, their song, and were motivated enough to finish it in time.
And then, just like that, it was time. The eagerly awaited Wednesday had arrived, the preparations and planning had been completed, the performers had arrived and been taken care of, Leigh-Anne and Jesy had rehearsed tirelessly and everything was ready. And with about an hour to go, Jade and Perrie finally finish their song and Perrie records it on her phone so she never forgets the tune.
"My mom's coming over tomorrow," Jade explains casually.
"How nice," Perrie says with a genuine smile. "Is there any particular reason?"
"Just in case things go south...you know, just to be here," she explains without looking at her.
Perrie purses her lips a little, trying not to let that comment get to her, not to get sad right away, but who is she kidding, she's always sad lately. So instead she tries something else.
"Hey, this festival today, it's supposed to be more of a party, right?" she asks.
"Yeah...?", Jade eyes her in confusion.
"I know you don't want me to ignore it and I won't, I promise. Just can we make an exception today, only for today, and maybe not talk about...well about the d-word?"
"The d-word," Jade repeats with a sad grin. "We're banning that completely from our vernacular today."
"Let's dream," Perrie continues, watching the countdown on the laptop. "If it all works out, what would you do?"
"Pez, come on," Jade just shakes her head, not even wanting to go there.
"Please, just today. Let's just be full of hopes and dreams today. We can keep it short, five things."
"Five things?" Jade repeats sceptically.
"Yeah, just tell me five things you would do if you were allowed to walk out of here all healthy tomorrow," Perrie then prompts her.
Jade thinks for a moment and Perrie is almost afraid she has scared her off and she won't answer anything, but she gets surprised. "I'd probably eat whatever the fuck I want."
"I'm rubbing off on you too much," Perrie states with a laugh.
"That you do," Jade agrees. "But I would totally get rid of that disgusting feeding tube and just stuff in whatever I can without me having to worry about the aftermath."
"What do you have in mind?", Perrie wants to know, surreptitiously taking notes.
"A really awesome Sunday roast, or no wait, mince and dumplins, or a really fat, greasy burger and all the biscuits I can find," she enthuses.
"At least you can talk about food now without throwing up," Perrie notes with a shoulder shrug.
"That's definitely a plus."
"How about a huge biscuit platter for breakfast, maybe some extra goodies from Gregs, burgers for lunch, Sunday roast in the evening. Mince and Dumplins needs to be your mums to be right, I know you," Perrie suggests.
"That's right, that's point two."
"What is?"
"South Shields. I really need to pay a visit home, I haven't been there in over a year."
"Neither have I," Perrie notes, startled. "That's the second thing we're doing, with Mince and Dumplins."
"Definitely," Jade quickly agrees. "Then also for, I don't know, a month or so. Like a cure of sorts. I'll have my family around me, I can go to my beach, just sit in the sand, listen to the seagulls. Maybe I won't get shat on for once."
"That sounds really nice," Perrie has to enthuse herself laughing slightly. "We will do that."
"But a real holiday has to be in the books too. And really a good one."
"For example?" asks Perrie with a laugh.
"I don't even know, if it was just up to me...I'm not that picky, I'd sleep in a sheep pen, just to see something different," she admits with a laugh. "That's where you decide, you're way posher and fancier than me and you're into luxury stuff like that. You've more than earned it after all this shit."
"Uh, okay, I like it," she enthuses directly. "Dubai would be great. Or no wait, Maldives. Or maybe Jamaica? Leigh always raves about it, but that's where we'll be anyway when she and Andre get married. Ibiza wouldn't be that far, or something exotic, Fiji or something," she rambles imploringly.
"You still have some time to think about it," Jade stops her with a grin. "My biggest dream, though, is to go back on stage..." she admits with a wistful look at the countdown signalling that it's about to start.
"I know," Perrie replies sadly. "That's where you belong. The stage is your time to shine."
"Well, for of all of us, right? We're ridiculously good performers," Jade corrects.
"Of course we are," Perrie says with a laugh. "But you're a bit extra on stage, extra special and I love it. You're a born performer, it really makes one realise why you love this job so much. No anxiety, no shyness, you're just this different, special version of yourself when you're on stage."
"Not so much in the last shows we had ..." Jade reminds her darkly.
"Well, those were very different conditions," Perrie clarifies. "You show the world, and more importantly yourself, what you're really like on stage next time."
"What can I say, I love the stage and the stage loves me," she compliments herself.
"I'm really glad you applied to X-Factor three times," Perrie recalls with a laugh.
"Oh god, don't remind me," Jade shakes her head laughing and slightly embarrassed.
"That was cute, little sixteen year old Jade with the unbeatable bop."
Jade just groans and buries her face in her hands. "Seriously, what was I thinking? And with that, I was on national TV. My mum should have intervened."
"Your name being spelled wrong was even better."
"Yeah, a real highlight of my career," Jade nods.
"But that performance was so cute," Perrie reminisces.
"Your first performance was cute with that weird hair band," Jade counters.
"Hey, do you want to talk about fashion sins? I can pull out the bow tie if you want."
"Don't you dare," Jade says with a laugh, throwing a pillow at her.
"So, that's four things," Perrie states, giggling. "What's number five?"
"Oh right," Jade then remarks too, thinking for a moment before blurting out completely without thinking, "In a dream world where all this was over, I'd marry you."
Perrie chokes on her own spit in shock.
"You what?"
"Oh god no, that wasn't the plan, wait, wait no no no, that was absolutely not the plan at all. Forget it, I didn't say anything," she rambles, feeling her cheeks turning red.
"No wait," Perrie stops her, "you said you would marry me...how am I supposed to forget that?"
"Just do it," Jade pleads as she hides her face in her hands.
"Hey, look at me," Perrie demands, but nothing happens. "Jade," she remains stubborn and gently pulls her hands away, touching Jade on the chin and forcing her to look at her.
"I don't want to forget," she is honest and before Jade can say anything, Perrie stands up and pulls something out of her bag. Jade's eyes almost fall from her face, her jaw dropping to the floor.
"Pez...what are you doing?" she barely dares to ask.
"I've had this thing here for a while..." she explains carefully. "I was going to ask you on your birthday because I thought the worst was behind us..."
"But the worst was yet to come..." Jade concludes.
"Exactly...the moment never came up after that," she explains sadly.
"How...how were you going to ask me?" Jade stutters, having trouble processing the situation.
"I didn't really have that specific plan," she admits a little uncertainly. "I just thought it would be nice with all your loved ones around."
"That would have been really nice...", Jade gushes about a fantasy that could have been, had her body not failed her yet again. "Much nicer than here."
"That's why I haven't asked yet," Perrie explains. "But now that you've brought it up...well, I just wanted to show you that this is my dream world too. Marrying you, I mean."
"You're not going to propose now, are you?" Jade asks.
"Do you want me to propose now...?" Perrie pokes cautiously.
"No," Jade surprises herself with a surprisingly convincing answer and Perrie is a little taken aback too. "Not here, not like this," she explains further tersely, but it is enough for an understanding nod.
"But we know now, both of us...well, that we both want the same thing and even dream of it," Jade then says smiling in love.
"Exactly...one day...we will be there."
"One day...", Jade repeats and grabs Perrie's hand.
"But do you want to see the ring?" she waves the still locked box around in her hand a little uncertainly.
"No," Jade is firm. "I don't want to spoil the surprise."
And just as Perrie is about to say something else, the countdown suddenly hits zero and the image of the inside of the O2 appears on the laptop.
Here we go. It's showtime.
I think we've all seen the videos of Jade and Leigh-Anne at the club in LA, Leigh's Tik Tok and her wonderful message, the heartwarming hug, the genuine smile from Jade and Perrie posting it all herself...Wow. I definitely didn't expect that after four months away and my heart hasn't been this full in a long time. I just love these girls. Honestly, anyone who still has doubts about the veracity of their friendship and on their return after this just doesn't know them. I'm more sure than ever that Little Mix is forever ❤️
But now to the meat of the matter, here's a new chapter. We are nearing the end...after this one there are only three more chapters and then that's it...amazing how fast time flies.
Anyway, I hope this chapter didn't make you as sad as the last ones did. Keep letting me know what you think! Love you all! 🥰