A/N: Lol, I'm just a tad late...but Merry Christmas! (not edited, whoopsies)
***
"Hurry up, Leigh-Anne!"
Leigh-Anne ignores Jesy's groans and huffs, taking her sweet time strutting down the driveway to meet her friend at her car, shades on and scarf sassily thrown around her neck when it comes loose from the wind.
"I'm fucking aging here, Pinnock."
"These are five-inch heels. I am not eating pavement just for your impatient ass," the fashionista says, carefully sliding into the passenger seat of the car.
"Why are you wearing them? You know we're going to be walking around the mall all day, right?"
"Because it's part of my outfit, now shush and start driving."
Jesy huffs once again as she shifts the gear out of park, getting the vehicle moving. The ride is filled with more sassy remarks and harmless banter, as well as singing as loud as possible to the festive Christmas music playing on the radio.
They make it to the mall about half an hour past seven in the morning, which Jesy isn't happy about, but neither is Leigh-Anne because she didn't even want to be up this early in the first place.
However, their mission requires a full day of searching and shopping, and that's exactly what they're going to do because Jesy Nelson and Leigh-Anne Pinnock are the best fucking friends ever.
"You have the list?" Jesy asks, both of them not having left the car yet.
"Ya," Leigh responds, bending back behind her to grab her purse from the back seat. "It's somewhere in my bag," she continues, starting to dig through the copious amounts of items.
"Oh dear God," Jesy sighs, bringing a hand up to her forehead to try and ease the already growing headache, "this is going to take forever."
"Ah! Ah-ah! I came prepared! Look, it's right on top!"
"Okay, you get a point this time. Now just hurry up and read it."
Leigh-Anne clears her throat as if preparing for a huge speech. "'What I want to have for Christmas when I'm twenty-five'. Dear Lord, you can so tell this is Perrie. She could've worded that so much bett-"
"Just read the list, Leigh."
"Fine," Leigh says, making sure to glare at Jesy before going back to the crumpled piece of paper that's obviously seen some years. They weren't expecting to find it, but after coming up with the idea to clean Perrie's room as her Christmas present, they stumbled upon the list with childish writing. "Number one: A unicorn."
"Fucking hell."
"Number two: a stable of horses."
"A unicorn is a horse, so we just have to technically get-"
"A unicorn is not a horse."
"Do you really want to buy both of these things when we could just-"
"Do you want to make five-year-old Perrie happy?" Jesy slumps in her seat a bit, but gives in and nods. "Then we're getting her a unicorn, and a bunch of horses. We could probably even get her the stable-"
"Next item."
"A walk-in closet."
"Who the fuck did she think she was gonna be when she was twenty-five? A singer in a successful pop band or something? That's expensive as hell."
"Jes, calm down. We all had aspirations when we were little."
"Fine. Just hurry and get to the next one, but if it's a fucking Mercedes or some shit then just skip over it."
"Number four: a private carnival."
"Huh...she actually got that one from, uh, what's-his-face? I still say she should've kept him for the money, but whatever."
"Ignoring that last part, and crossing this one off," Leigh says, grabbing a pen and crossing out number four. She then continues, "A time machine."
"Ugh, don't we all? Sorry baby Perrie, but if there's any damn time machine out there, you sure as hell aren't getting it before me."
"Number six: a spa day."
"Finally, an easy one. How many more are there?"
Leigh takes a moment to count.
"Nineteen more."
Jesy angrily undoes her seatbelt and gets out of the car.
"Hey, you're the one that wanted to do this!" Leigh shouts, only to have a slammed door as her response.
***
"Hey, did you need help with anything?" a soft voice asks, though no matter the volume it would've still caused Perrie to jump, always one to startle easily.
"Oh, no, no, no! I'm good, tha-" She finally calms down enough to turn and face the person speaking to her, and when she does she feels her body jump again without the physical evidence of it. Her heart pumps faster once again, though this time it's not due to fright. "Uh...yeah, uh, thanks," she finishes, much shyer now, ducking her head so the other girl can't see her blush.
"Okay, no problem. And sorry to startle you. That happens a lot, and I hate bothering customers, but we're required to do it, and-"
"Oh, no! It's totally okay. I've done retail before, and I know how stressful that can be, especially since I'm a bit of an introvert sometimes."
"Same here," the girl says, a bright smile growing on her lips and Perrie wishes she wouldn't do that because it makes her palms sweat and makes her lungs forget how to do the thing. "Well, if you do need anything, just let me know, or I also think it's safe to say that anyone wearing a santa hat is a worker...though I don't know how festive some people get, so, actually, don't take my word for it."
The girl giggles, and once again Perrie wishes she would stop, but also never wants her to.
"Thanks, I appreciate it." The girl nods, giving one last final smile before wondering off.
Perrie shakes her head to herself, trying to get herself to calm down and forget that anything just happened, and forget that there is a really, really pretty girl that works here.
She just needs to get a few little presents for Hatchi, and then she can go shopping for Jesy and Leigh-Anne.
***
"So, maybe just a few more blankets and another pillow, and then we get some glitter and throw it on there when she's in it?" Leigh asks, holding up one pillow and a blanket.
"Sounds easy enough," Jesy says, nodding in confirmation and signaling that Leigh should grab the things she stated before. "'Magic fort' done." She crosses off number fourteen.
"Okay, anything else we need from here, or can we just go to the toy store and get the stuffed unicorn and horses?"
"Number twenty-one is a king sized bed."
"Will an air mattress do?"
"Exactly what I was thinking."
***
"You'd think I'd be able to find dog beds since they're so huge, but I'm having trouble."
The girl laughs, flashing that glorious smile once again before walking ahead of Perrie. "No problem, follow me. They're easy to look past, so I can see how you'd have some trouble."
"You're just saying that to make me feel better," Perrie says as she follows the girl, eyes dropping a bit low and she pinches herself to make her eyes stop doing that.
The girl smiles over her shoulder. "Would you feel better if I said you weren't the first person to ask me this?"
"No, I'd just know that there are more idiots like me out there."
The girl easily gets them to Perrie's destination, and it just makes the blonde even more embarrassed because it's practically right out in the open.
"Well, they do say that the best hiding place is in plain sight. So, I don't blame you."
"You don't blame me, but you still think I'm dumb. Remember, I worked in retail, too."
She just shrugs and feigns zipping her mouth shut, stuffing the pretend key in her pocket. She then turns back to the dog beds. "Now, what size were you looking for?"
"I have a pom."
"Aww, cute. So you'll need a smaller one, then?"
"Not really, actually. He thinks he's royalty or some shit, so he'll need a dog bed fit for a king."
"You spoil him that much?"
"Hey, it's not just me! My friend spoils him more than I do."
The girl shakes her head and goes back to explaining which bed she would suggest, but meanwhile, Perrie is only focused on the girl's name tag.
Jade.
***
"Do you, by any chance, have any huge, inflatable penguins?"
The worker just stares at Jesy, wide-eyed and obviously confused.
"Any big stuffed penguins, perhaps?"
The worker continues to say nothing.
"Do you have a hearing-aid?" Leigh asks, now, finally getting the attention of the man as the comment hurt his ego.
"I know and hear what you're asking, but we don't carry anything even remotely close to that."
Leigh and Jesy just groan dramatically and hurry out of the shop so they could run to the next.
***
"My family's got a husky. She's getting pretty old now."
"Oh, no..." Perrie says, sadly. "Gosh, don't you just hate the fact that dogs age? I wish they just stayed alive as long as you did."
"Scientists are wasting all their energy trying to make humans immortal, but they should really be working on dogs first. They deserve it more than we do."
"That's what I always say!"
"Finally I've found someone that doesn't look at me like I'm crazy when I say that."
"No, I'm totally with you. We humans need to go, but dogs deserve to rule the world."
***
"Alright, I think we've got most of it...at least, it feels that way. What's left?"
"There's only one," Leigh says.
"What is it?"
"Number twenty-five: a husband."
"Hah, sorry Pezza, but you turned out gay!" Jesy cheers, closing the trunk and waltzing over to the driver's seat. "So, we don't have to do that one. Mission complete."
She opens the car door and sits herself inside, getting all ready to drive off, but soon pauses once she realizes that Leigh-Anne isn't in the seat next to her.
She sighs, opening her door.
"No."
"But Jes!"
"We are not. We've already gotten everything else. Plus, her romantic life is out of our hands."
"But it's on the list!"
"We can't just buy her a girlfriend at the store, Leigh-Anne."
"But we can find her one."
"We have less than twenty-four hours to get everything back home, snuck into our rooms, and wrapped. Do you really want to waste more time on something that we can't do?"
"We can try."
"But-"
"Jesy, we are Perrie Edwards' best friends. When we found this list, we told ourselves we would get everything on here to the best of our ability. If we give up on this last one without even trying, then that isn't the best of our ability. Are we the world's best friends, or not?"
Jesy's face goes serious, determined and focused on the mission at hand.
"Let's do this."
***
"Alright, your total is one hundred and eighty-nine dollars for your totally not spoiled dog," Jade says, giving Perrie a pointed look at that last sarcastic remark.
Perrie just rolls her eyes good-naturedly and swipes her credit card.
"He's the closest thing I'll get to a significant other, so I'm going to treat him as such," the blonde says, defending herself.
"That is not true," Jade counters, snorting in disbelief.
"I haven't dated anyone in five years. I'd say that's pretty good evidence."
"You've still got plenty of time."
"I'm half way to fifty."
"Tomorrow I'm one year even closer than you."
"Yeah, but you're dating someone."
"Who said?"
"Wait, you're not?"
"Nope. I haven't even been in a serious relationship yet."
"No way. That's impossible."
"It's very possible, thank you very much."
"Well, then I guess we'll at least have comfort in knowing we're not the only forever alone dog ladies out there."
Jade giggles once again, giving Perrie another one of those damn smiles, though this one is different. It's softer, deeper... It lingers for just that bit longer that sends the blonde's mind reeling and her body tingling.
"Thank you for coming in. Have a good day, Perrie."
Perrie feels her body start to deflate at the words that mark the end of their interactions, probably for forever...
"You too, Jade."
Then, she has her bags in hand, and she's walking away from the girl her body is screaming to be near again.
***
"Where do we even start looking?"
"I don't know," Leigh says, scrambling as she and Jesy are running out of time. They've searched for about two hours now, stopping at parks and common hang out spots, but there haven't been any girls that they deemed worthy to be with their Perrie.
"What do you mean?! You're the one that wanted us to go through with this!"
"I've been suggesting everything so far! You try!"
"Well, I don't know either! I would just say a fucking pet store or something since Perrie loves animals."
Leigh-Anne's eyes go wide. "Why the fuck didn't you say that in the first place?!"
"What?"
"THAT'S FUCKING BRILLIANT. LET'S GO!"
***
"You should've gotten her number," Lauren says as she walks past Jade on the sales floor.
Jade rolls her eyes, but nonetheless agrees entirely.
***
"You stupid, stupid Perrie!"
Perrie stands in front of her bathroom mirror, frowning at herself, a.k.a. the idiot she sees staring back at her.
"She was so pretty. She was so smart. You should've gotten her number."
She angrily washes the makeup off her face, hating herself for screwing up an opportunity she'll probably never get again.
***
Jesy and Leigh-Anne storm in, catching the attention of everyone due to their volume and desperation, but at the point, they don't care. They're running out of time, and they still have twenty-four other things to get ready for Perrie.
"Any girl in here gay or bi?!" Leigh-Anne shouts, skipping past the complications and getting straight to the point.
"I am," a girl with dark hair and full eyebrows says, raising her hand proudly. "And so is Jade."
"Who's Jade?" Jesy asks, noticing that this girl is way too young for Perrie.
"That's Jade," the girl answers, moving her arm to point at another girl with a santa hat on, frozen on the spot with a box of merchandise in her arms.
"You're Jade?" Leigh asks, tilting her head curiously.
"I'm Jade," the girl confirms.
"How old are you?" Leigh continues.
"Tomorrow I'm twenty-six," the girl answers, still not sure why she's saying this much to two strangers that just barged into the pet store, not to mention in front of the other shoppers and her coworkers that are witnessing the scene.
"You single?" She nods. "Perfect. Come with us."
"Uh, I'm scheduled until six."
"There's no time. We need you to date our friend for Christmas, and we have to start prepping NOW."
"She can go," an older guy with a santa hat says, popping up out of nowhere. "I'm her manager. I say she can go."
"Bless your soul," Leigh-Anne says, thanking the man while Jesy is busy grabbing Jade and leading her out of the store. "Merry Christmas!"
***
"What the hell are you guys to antsy about?! I get that it's Christmas, but we're grown adults and-OH MY GOSH THERE'S SO MANY PRESENTS!"
The blonde goes running past Jesy and Leigh-Anne and into the living room, taking in the huge amount of boxes, knowing that her presents for the other girls are still hidden up in her room.
"What the hell? Who is this all for?"
"You, silly."
Perrie turns to face her friends with her jaw agape. "Me?!"
The older girls don't answer verbally, they simply just show Perrie the list that they found.
The blonde immediately recognizes it, though she didn't even remember that she still had it.
"You guys really did this? That whole list? There was insane stuff in there."
"We made a few modifications, i.e. that there in the corner," Jesy says, nodding her head over to the rushed fort she and Leigh-Anne made. "We have glitter to make it magical."
"No fucking way... You guys.... You really... Holy shit, are you serious?!"
"You deserve it, Pez. You work so hard and do so much for us, so we figure that we can at least give you this," Leigh says, smiling alongside Jesy as the blonde runs into them to give them a massive hug.
"I love you guys so much. Oh my fucking God, I can't believe you guys did this for me. This means so much."
"We love you, too, Pez."
Perrie lets go of them, her child-like nature taking over and making her anxious to start unwrapping.
"Gosh, I don't even know where to-"
The doorbell rings.
Perrie furrows her brow, knowing that the three of them don't have family over for the holidays, knowing their flat isn't fit for a party.
"What is that?"
"I believe that's number twenty-five," Jesy says, Leigh-Anne grinning like a cheshire cat beside her.
Perrie isn't quite sure what that means, having made that list so long ago that she doesn't remember anything she put on it. But, with Jesy's encouraging nods and Leigh-Anne's little hand gestures for her to open the door, she walks over and does what they want.
"Jade?!" she gasps, surprised to see the girl standing before her, looking just as adorable even without the santa hat.
"Perrie?" Jade asks, same surprised tone as the blonde, though she recovers much faster as her lips start to form that smile once again. "Oh my gosh, what are the odds of this happening?"
"What's even happening?"
"Number twenty-five: a husband," Leigh-Anne recites. "You're gay now, so we got you a girl instead."
"We're dating now," Jade says, answering the silent question as the blonde looks to her for more information, a smirk on her face as she connects all the dots in her own head and thanks the universe for this incredible fate.
"So I can kiss you?"
"Holy shit, they're moving fast," Leigh comments quietly to Jesy beside her.
"Please do."
"Best Christmas present ever," Perrie mutters before launching herself into Jade, getting them the kiss they've both been yearning for.
"Oh wow... We did a good job," Jesy says.
"It was all so fast, so easy," Leigh says. "It's kind of...anti-climactic."
"But hey, mission complete, right?"
"Mission complete."