Pretend It's Okay

5 - Back so soon

Perrie had seen it. Of course Perrie had seen it. Jade didn't know why Perrie seeing it bothered her more than Leigh-Anne, but it did. At first Jade thought the blonde might have somehow missed the interview and all of the articles and social media posts about it.

Leigh-Anne had sent Jade a text within an hour of the interview wrapping up. She was working on other projects today so had unrestricted access to her phone. After a dozen notification alerts Leigh decided to check her Twitter. Nothing was due out and it wasn't award season so her social media being spammed could only be a bad thing.

Hey Jade. I saw that interview and the pics. I'm here if you want to talk x

It was short and sweet, a pretty typical Leigh-Anne message. Jade just sent a red heart emoji back, not sure how to tell her best friends about this unexpected development of her love life.

Perrie on the other hand took almost the entire day to reach out. She wasn't filming anything so Jade wasn't sure what took quite so long, but the younger girl had never been particularly good with social media anyways. Out of the original four members Perrie had always been the least active.

Hey babe. I'm so sorry that interviewer was such a dick. I wish I was there so I could tell him to back off. Seriously, who the fuck does he think he is?! Don't stress yourself out over this, despite what he tried to say you've done nothing wrong. I love you no matter what you do or who you do xxx

Jade couldn't hold back her chuckle when reading Perrie's message. She could picture the blonde sat on the sofa next to her, ranting about what Jade had been put through with no warning. After all Perrie had been in a very similar situation after Zayn cheated on her, called off their engagement, and left her homeless. There had been no escape from the American media at that time and Perrie was having her love life picked apart as tabloid gossip.

Her rock during all of that had been her bandmates. They'd protected her during interviews, held her when she cried about her lost love and the online hate, and done anything to make her laugh. Jade didn't need that level of support as the situation wasn't so terrible but she did need her girls.

Jade had invited them over before she even realised what she was doing. This wasn't a planned get together so it was likely they'd be busy with their boyfriends and children so Jade was surprised when both of them confirmed almost instantly. She had a sneaking suspicion that they'd been texting each other about the situation and how to support Jade behind her back, and Jade really loved them for that.

The day hadn't improved at all for her, having interviews scheduled all day and they all clearly wanted to talk about the pictures. It was guaranteed clicks and advertisement money but Jade and her manager shut them down. Kevin told every interviewer not to ask about the pictures and when several of them did so anyways, Jade just repeated what she had said that morning.

In terms of promoting her actual song the whole situation hadn't done much, but for promoting her first single and her solo debut it had been very successful. Everyone was talking about Jade and when she was debuting, catching the interest of many non Little Mix fans.

It had all been so exhausting that Jade just collapsed on her sofa once she had gotten home. Lazily she kicked her shoes off and across the room but her make up was still on and she was still in her uncomfortable outfit from the day. Jade wasn't going to cook anything for the girls or even tidy as it was just Leigh-Anne and Perrie, but she did have just enough motivation to get up and make herself more presentable.

Leigh was at the door first as per usual, not being as casually dressed as Jade now was in her joggers and baggy top. Casual had never really been Leigh-Anne's style and Jade always admired her older band mate's dedication to her appearance, even when she was hung over or not in the mood.