Chapter Text
Pearl wonders if she’ll ever get enough sleep. Or simply be able to, really. It’s just after lunch rush at the shop and there are a few people scattered here and there, on laptops or sipping coffee and quietly chatting. Tonight’s closing night for Ondine and she’s honestly kind of happy about it--maybe once this is all done, she can feel less like...well, less like a mess. A bell rings, and in comes Amethyst and Vidalia.
“Hey, P!” Amethyst exclaims.
“Hello, you two. Are you on break?”
“Yup, we have lunch break an hour later than everyone else because our boss kind of sucks,” Vidalia replies. She carries a heady scent of cigarette smoke and bubblegum. “Anyway, I’m gonna get a bagel and cream cheese.”
Pearl is working on making Vidalia’s bagel and Amethyst’s sandwich, and Vidalia says, while waiting for her order, “I’m coming to your ballet tonight.”
“Oh?” she asks, sliding the plate over to her. She honestly had a hard time seeing the hard-faced, leather-wearing girl going to, or enjoying a ballet.
She cracks a half-smile. “Yeah. Rose wouldn’t stop raving about it.”
“No,” Pearl immediately says, shaking her head.
“Yeah. She was so excited. It was pretty cute, honestly,” she says. “She likes you a lot.”
She can’t really reply with much other than, “Ah.”
“See you tonight.” she sits down with Amethyst. Vidalia is nice enough, if a little hard to connect with. She makes Amethyst really happy, and it’s sweet, even if it makes her feel twinges of jealousness. Seeing them deep in conversation, over their lunch, making each other laugh. It’s...well. It is.
Lapis is pouring over a book. Pear briefly notes, in the back of her mind, that she hasn’t really read anything in months. She glues another fake eyelash on. “How is it we always end up like this?” Lapis asks.
“Huh?”
“Why are we always the only two in here?”
A shrug. “Don’t you have to go on soon?”
“Twenty minutes.”
Silence.
“Can I ask you something?” Lapis asks. Agh. She hates that question. Hates it, hates it, hates it. It makes her stomach knot.
“Well, uh, yes.”
“Are you still mad at me for what I did?”
“What you did? At the beach?”
“Yeah.”
“Er, no. I was never mad at you. I was more mad at myself, to be honest.”
“I was the one who did it, though.”
She’s happy they’re finally talking about this, though she hates the way they are. They’re sort of dancing ( hah) around it, and she wishes Lapis would just come out and say “I kissed you”. “Well, yes, you were. But I sort of freaked out.”
Shrug again. “I…” silence again.
“Why’d you kiss me?”
“God, I...I honestly don’t know. I thought something would come of it.”
“Do you like me?” God! What are they, twelve?
“I mean, yeah, but I’m not quite sure how.”
A nod. “I understand. I think I was just overwhelmed. You know, I’ve never...kissed another girl before.” A blush. Damn.
“Oh.” Oh.
“So it was hard for me, because I wasn’t quite sure and I...and I...I don’t know.”
Lapis seems to notice the distressed tone in her voice. “Hey, Pearl, it’s okay. I honestly just...did something stupid.”
“No. It was nice and all, I just. Couldn’t do it. Maybe I will be able to someday, maybe with you, maybe not with you, but. I couldn’t that day.” She’s so shaky now, and she doesn’t know why.
“It’s okay. I’m sorry.” They finally make eye contact, and the apology is sincere.
“I-I’d like to be your friend, Lapis.” It was probably the lamest thing she could say, but she said it.
“Yeah? Yeah. Me, too.” she laces up her pointes and makes her way to the door. “Good luck tonight, Pearl.”
“Good luck, Lapis.”
Pearl slumps down in a chair, probably messing her hair. She exhales, and things are sort of okay.
Vidalia and Amethyst present her with bouquets once the show is done. Vidalia gives her white roses, and Amethyst gives her an arrangement of peonies. They’re especially beautiful--Pearl finds herself quite touched. “Oh, thank you! You didn’t have to.”
“Shut up, P. Of course we didn’t have to. We’re adults, we don’t have to do anything. We just like you a lot.” Amethyst says. It earns a chuckle.
“Well, we have to pay taxes.” Vidalia chimes in.
“Yes, pay taxes and die, as they say. It’s a grim existence.”
Vidalia pops a pink bubble, glancing down at her phone. “I gotta get going, but you were great.”
“We can drive you.” Amethyst offers.
She shakes her head. “Marty’s here.”
“Aw, come on. Marty? Really?” the shorter woman protests.
“He’s not that bad.”
“Yeah, sure. Whatever.” she grumbles. “See ya, ‘Dalia.”
“Bye Vidalia, thanks for coming.”
“Like I said, you were great. See ya.”
Amethyst looks a little disheartened as they walk to their car. “The flowers really are lovely, Amethyst,” Pearl says in an attempt to lift her spirits. “You picked these out?”
“The peonies, yeah. They just...looked like you.”
“You do know me quite well. I love them.”
There’s a smile. A nice one. “Anytime.”
“So, out of curiosity, who’s Marty?” she asks as they climb into their tiny car. Amethyst cranks the heat up, which she hates, but she keeps quiet about it. For once.
“Vidalia’s boyfriend, sometimes. They’re on and off. He’s fuckin’ awful. He’s Greg’s manager, I guess. He always gave me a weird vibe. Just, a really weird vibe. He’s older, too. Like, not even in a hot way. He’s just crusty. And I mean, I don’t know why I’m surprised, because Vidalia has always done her own thing and gone out with guys that her parents didn’t like and guys that were older, y’know? But I thought she would listen to me on this one. I thought my opinion, at least, would matter.” Amethyst rattles this all off, then lets out a long exhale. “And maybe I really like her, but that doesn’t even matter. Even if I didn’t, I would tell her to stay the hell away from this guy.”
“Amethyst, you have feelings for her?”
She crosses her arms and curls up in the car chair. “Yeah. I mean. Yeah.”
“I never knew!”
“Yeah. Well, she’s straight, so.”
Pearl always knew Amethyst liked girls; she was very open about it in college, which she always found sort of admirable. She couldn’t imagine being so confident about it herself. “Do you know?”
“All the girls I like are.”
Well, that particular woe was one Pearl had experienced more than once herself. “I’m sorry.”
“Eh, it’s alright. I don’t want advice or anything, I just needed to get it all off my chest. You’re a really good listener, y’know that? Do you want to rant about something? Just, like, swear and get upset about something? To make it even?”
She shakes her head, laughing. “No, I’m fine.”
“Well, when you do, I’m your girl.” she turns up the radio to the hip-hop and pop station that she likes and Pearl does not like. But she doesn’t even grumble or complain. They just drive.