Chapter Text
Peridot has not showered for seventy-three hours.
Not that she cares, though. Taking time for basic human necessities such as eating, sleeping, and maintaining personal hygiene are luxuries which can only be afforded by those who are not currently working on a mid-semester project due in less than a day. Besides, it’s not like Peridot showers more than once every two days when she’s on her regular schedule, anyway.
Anyway. It’s a little past two am on a Friday morning, and Peridot is working in the school library, because Jasper kicked her out of their dorm around midnight (literally kicked her out, with her stupid foot and everything), complaining about not being able to sleep with Peridot typing frantically and “hmm”-ing obnoxiously on the bed next to her.
No matter. Peridot can focus anywhere. Once she starts coding on her laptop she shuts the rest of the world out.
Although. She has begun to reach the point where she can no longer deny to herself that the sleep deprivation hasn’t gotten to her. She’ll be typing something important, and the next thing she knows she’ll wake twenty-five minutes later with drool on her keyboard and no concept of space or time.
Begrudgingly she concedes defeat to her circadian rhythms. It’s time. She needs coffee.
Grabbing her headphones and sweatshirt, she shoves her earbuds in and zips her hoodie up as far as she can: right now, as most of the time, she is not interested in partaking in any human interactions (yes, including eye contact).
Outside the library and on the street, it’s stupidly fucking cold. Vaguely irritated, Peridot crosses her arms and stuffs her hands into her pockets.
October is half over already, and nature is in that uncomfortable transition phase where the leaves are orange but the grass is still green, the temperature is dropping but not yet at freezing, and the days are warm but once the sun sets, the air turns bitterly cold and Peridot might as well be living in the damn arctic circle.
At least the stars are out tonight, Peridot notes. She can see most of her favorite constellations against the black sky.
The first coffee shop she tries closed at exactly two o’clock. “Assholes,” Peridot mutters as she continues to the next coffee shop, also closed. She truly can’t believe it, fucking university campus with no coffee place open in the morning? Finally, though, she checks the local Starbucks, and, of course, it’s the only place open.
She sighs. This place, with its bright lights and smiling baristas and fake drinks, might as well be her own personal hell.
Unfortunately, at this moment in time, she must set aside her pride and accept whatever the green sea demon has to offer. She slips inside, orders the cheapest, blackest thing on the menu, and slips back out without having to say more than three words.
She’s taken no more than five steps when suddenly, out of nowhere, a large gray blur collides into her at full-force and knocks her right on her ass.
“Oh my God, dude, I’m so sorry,” says the girl now standing above Peridot. “I just...I was...” But before she can finish her thought, she bursts out laughing, and so does the blonde girl who comes up behind her.
“Jesus, Amethyst, what the fuck are you doing?” the new girl asks, also trying (unsuccessfully) to restrain herself from laughing.
“Nothing!” the first girl, presumably Amethyst, says, throwing up her hands. “I swear, I was just trying out a couple moves.”
The blonde one rolls her eyes. “Stupid shit.”
Amethyst shrugs, and finally looks back at Peridot. “Here, lemme help.” Before Peridot can say anything, the girl grabs her hand and pulls her up. “You good, broh? Uh, girl? I, um, can’t really see your face in there.”
Peridot tries not to roll her eyes. She doesn’t really have time for this right now. Briskly she pulls down her hood and adjusts her glasses. “I’m fine. Thanks.”
“Whoa, is there a breeze in here? You are cold as fuck,” Amethyst replies. Now that she’s on her feet, Peridot can really take this girl in: long dark hair with intermittent purple streaks, nose ring and twenty earrings, ripped band t-shirt and dark, bright eyes. Kind of exactly the person Peridot would expect to see out in the morning doing, what is it exactly? Peridot looks down.
Rollerblading. All right. Okay.
“Leave her alone, you just fuckin’ ran her over,” her blonde companion says dryly. Peridot notices, without fondness that she, too, is wearing a large quantity of jewelry, along with a short black dress. “Which, sweetheart, we are so sorry for. Just to be clear.”
“Um. Thanks.”
“Well, catch ya later, hot stuff,” the purple-haired one jokes, as she and her friend start on their way away from Peridot. “Maybe we’ll see each other again soon.”
With that, they’re around the corner and out of sight, rollerblading at ass o’clock in the morning, laughing and shoving each other under the shadows cast by the tall buildings around them, the moon full and bright against the night sky.
And Peridot is left with a funny feeling in her stomach, not bad or good, and probably a few bruises, and maybe a broken arm or rib, and--
Fuck. Her coffee spilled.
Fuck.
Taking a deep breath, she turns to go back into the Starbucks.
.
“Get out of bed, fucker, you’re going out.”
Peridot wakes up late on Friday night to find Jasper hovering over her, shaking Peridot’s shoulders and, Jesus, spitting while she talks.
“Not tonight,” Peridot replies in a monotone, wiping Jasper’s saliva off her face and then rolling over on her pillow.
“No way,” Jasper says, tugging Peridot up by her shoulders. Fuck her, it works; Jasper is twice her size. “You haven’t done shit with us for two weeks because of your project.”
Slapping Jasper’s hands away, Peridot crumples back down. “Fucking stop it, please.”
Jasper sighs dramatically. “We didn’t want to have to do this, but you leave no choice. Lapis?”
Peridot finally sits up. “What? What? Lapis is here? Fucki--”
Indeed, the short-haired girl is in their room already, standing by Peridot’s desk.
“Oh, gee, look at me, precariously holding a glass of water over Peridot’s fancy two-thousand dollar laptop!” Lapis, holding an actual glass of water over Peridot’s actual two-thousand dollar laptop, starts to wobble back and forth. “Oh, goodness, wouldn’t it be just terrible if I spilled all over it?”
Jumping out of bed, Peridot lurches to the other side of the room and snatches her laptop up into the safety of her arms. “How dare you even joke about this.” It’s not a question so much as a flat command. “We’ve been friends for years. You know. You know.”
Lapis shrugs nonchalantly. “It was the only way we could think of to get you out of bed.”
From off to the side, Jasper tosses Peridot some clothes. “Now, shithead, put these on.” Rifling through Peridot’s closet, she grabs a pair of shoes and throws them, too. “And these.”
“Jasper. I’m not wearing this.” Peridot holds up the dress Jasper tossed her, some small green thing designed without any regard for the comfort of the wearer.
Jasper crosses her arms. “I think you are.” She nods at Lapis, who grabs Peridot’s laptop back and once again holds it far too near to a wet liquid than Peridot is comfortable with.
She sighs in exasperation and smiles a little despite herself. Jasper and Lapis aren’t that terrible. Certainly, she has had worse friends.
“All right, fine, fine. Just. Lapis, please, put my computer down. Oh my God.”
.
Later, when they’re actually at the bar, Peridot finds herself sitting off to the side, tugging uncomfortably at her too-tight, too-short dress and cursing Jasper for making her go out tonight. The lights here are too bright, the music is too loud, the crowds are too thick and the people too happy.
Not to mention that Jasper ditched Peridot, like, immediately, to dance with the first cute girl that made eye contact with her. In fact, Peridot can see them now, bodies pressed together in the middle of the dance floor, Jasper smiling that big, toothy smile.
Peridot rolls her eyes but can’t help chuckling just a little. Jasper...well, she’s okay.
Suddenly she feels a tap on her shoulder and looks to see Lapis climbing onto the chair next to her. The blue-eyed girl puts a drink in front of Peridot and turns to look at her. “Peridot. You need to stop sulking.”
“What? I’m not sulking!” Peridot replies, crossing her arms across her chest and narrowing her eyes.
Lapis gives Peridot an exasperated glare and reaches over to uncross the other girl’s arms. “Dude, look at yourself, you’re tense as fuck and sitting by yourself.”
“Well, excuse me for not having fun at these tacky bars that play trash music and appear to be a breeding ground for idiots.”
The other girl looks away from her, and Peridot sighs. “Sorry. That was, um--”
“Are you ever not bitter and mean?”
“What, I’m bitter? You’re the English major who makes us go to poetry slams where she recites melodramatic lines about being a prisoner inside her own body.”
Lapis is unfazed. “At least my bitterness has an outlet. Yours is festering inside of you, twisted and gross, eating you from the inside out.”
“Save the free verse for next Friday.”
Lapis sighs and, for a moment, turns her attention to the dance floor. A few silent moments pass, and Peridot feels the heavy bass reverberating inside her ribcage. She runs a hand through her short, blonde hair and then, again, tugs at her dress.
“Just come out for one dance, Peri,” Lapis finally says, her tone gentle now, no longer accusatory but sympathetic. “Please?”
Peridot lets out a deep breath that she didn’t even realize she’d been holding. Lapis’ eyes are pretty and blue and soft looking into hers, and she feels a little bad for being so short, and she finds that she really can’t say no. “Okay. Fine.”
Grinning, Lapis jumps to her feet. “Hell yeah!” She grabs Peridot’s hands and Peridot, smiling despite herself, allows herself to be pulled out to the dance floor.
“Is that Peridot? Hell yeah!” Jasper calls when she seems them. She pulls them into a hug, one in each arm, and squeezes tight. “God, I love you, Peridot, you stupid fuck.”
Peridot laughs and wriggles out of Jasper’s grip. “You smell like alcohol and piss.”
Jasper grins. “I love it! I love it!”
A new song starts to play, probably something popular considering how wild the crowd on the dance floor gets, and Lapis grabs Peridot’s hands and pulls her into a dance.
.
One hour and several drinks later, Peridot is back off to the side, sitting by herself on a barstool. She’s in a better mood, now, though, and she doesn’t hate everything quite as much.
She’s watching Lapis and Jasper do some ridiculous ass-shaking together when suddenly, she feels a pressure behind her, a hand lightly grazing her back and hot breath on her neck.
Turning around, she finds a girl with dark eyes, purple hair, and a playful smirk looking back at her.
It’s the girl from Starbucks. The same one from this morning.
(Yesterday? Peridot isn’t quite sure at this point.)
“I knew we were going to cross paths again. My heart told me so.”
Peridot, not in quite as bad as a mood as she had been earlier, lets out a short laugh and decides she’ll play along with this banter. For a little while, anyway.
“Yeah? And what’s your heart’s rate of predictive accuracy?”
Amethyst laughs and eases into the chair next to Peridot. “I love when nerds try to flirt.” Her expression turning sour, Peridot looks away. “But,” the other girl continues, sensing Peridot’s dejection. “If I had to guess, probably one hundred percent.”
“Unlikely.” Peridot runs another hand through her hair and takes a drink from her near-empty glass. “I suppose, however, that I appreciate the confidence.”
Amethyst giggles. “You’re weird. I like it, though.” She helps herself to Peridot’s drink. “And I like your dance moves. Yeah, I saw you earlier.”
Assuming she’s being made fun of, Peridot blushes a deep shade of red. “That wasn’t--I don’t--I hate dancing, and my frie--”
The other girl lets out a loud, full laugh, that shakes her whole body and fills the room. “Dude, take a chill pill, I’m not messing with you. Seriously. I thought it was cute. You’re cute.”
Peridot’s blush turns an even deeper shade of red, and for some reason she finds herself stumbling over her words trying to reply. “Um, uh, thanks.”
The purple-haired girl gives Peridot’s shoulder a friendly punch. “Dummy. That was the part where you tell me you think I’m cute, too.”
Rubbing her arm, Peridot looks away. (The impact from the punch actually stings, this girl hits as hard as Jasper.) She tries to come up with some kind of witty retort, or at the very least, to go on the defense and deny that she likes this other girl at all, but the only thing she manages to get out of her mouth is an “oh.”
For some reason, at this point, the girl totally loses it, tilting her head back and laughing for a good thirty seconds. “You’re an absolute riot,” she says, looking at Peridot with those dark eyes that are so, so stupidly alive.
Peridot chuckles and gives the other girl a half-smile. “I guess it’s a good thing we met, when you fucking annihilated me on the street this morning.”
The girl laughs but then sobers up. “Hey, look, I came here with my friends tonight,” she says. She gestures over to a spot a few yards away, and Peridot sees that same blonde girl from earlier smoking a cigarette with a short guy with long, thick brown hair. Both are laughing, and Peridot thinks maybe she was just maybe a little bit too mean this morning.
“But, if you want, I can ditch them to hang out with you.”
Peridot, once again, is at a loss for words.
“Um, I’ll take that as a yes. I bet you don’t go out at night very often, do you?”
“I get out sometimes.” Even Peridot realizes how much of a lie this sounds like as she’s saying it.
Amethyst puts an arm around Peridot’s shoulder and laughs. “No, babe, you don’t.”
(Peridot notices, objectively, of course, that Amethyst’s body is very warm, and that their faces are very, very close, and that Amethyst’s face is actually very pleasing.
She tells herself it’s probably just the drinks and the music getting to her head.)