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The apartment felt hot and sticky in the midsummer night air, one such specific evening that prolonged the effects of the recent humid day in the form a heavy cloud that weighed down onto its inhabitants; despite the ocean being so close to the city’s borderlines, it did nothing to soothe the uncomfortable heat that seeped into every home and office building in a barrage of overdue seasonal warmth, forcing the population dwelling within the collection of steel buildings and complexes to gaze bitterly at the coursing waves in envy. Not everyone was effected by the summer atmosphere, however, as it failed to hinder one such individual from sitting at a table in a shoddy kitchen, nursing a lukewarm beer in hand, and her unfocused gaze centered on the chipped ceiling. To her, everything about the night swam in a nauseating wave before her eyes.
The beige colored wallpaper appeared far too dark, and the flickering light bulb above the solid surface she rested at far too bright. It disgruntled her, the seemingly never ending undulation of the harsh artificial light above her, but in reality, nothing was moving around her motionless form; the mask of inebriation clouded her judgement and played tricks with her bleary eyed vision. Breaking her gaze from the broken ceiling, she dropped her sleep-deprived lime green eyes to the brown bottle in hand, half depleted of its alcoholic contents, and brought it upwards to her chapped lips. The flaxen haired technician tipped her head back, eyebrows knitting together in disgust as the liquid burned down the back of her throat. It tasted like acid and singed her mouth like hell, but in the moment, she could care less about the pain that scorched the sensitive nerves on her tongue. Peridot was far too lost in the haze of a drunken stupor to take much consideration into what unhindered consciousness she had left.
Pulling her hand out of the fabric of her dark hoodie, she propped her head onto her splayed detached digits, drawing the other appendage up to set the glass bottle onto the rickety table with a shaky movement. With her unoccupied hand, the green skinned gem proceeded to scratch at the round surface beneath her arms. It was easy to tear out the splinters that stuck up from the kitchen table’s grainy exterior, and before she realized what she was committing, she had already etched a representation of her namesake into its wooden confines. Peridot allowed a lazy, half-hearted smirk to break the edges of her passive mask when she pulled away to observe her deliberate work, and a chuckle, one that itched in the back of her throat, threatened to break free.
“See how you like that, Jasper, you idiotic brute of a clod,” she sniggered in the quiet atmosphere of the kitchen, goaded on by a sudden rush of pride. The cantankerous gem had never cared for the warrior, but as required of their positions and current assignments within the Authority, the two were forced to work together in close quarters; even if it meant residing within the same cramped and uncomfortably hot apartment complex. Due to their dislike for each other, what had turned into a bout of arguing had turned into a game, and currently thrived in the small shenanigans and damages they pulled on each other and on their own possessions. The table she sat at, as well as the entire apartment, so happened to belong to the white haired gem. Peridot could damage whatever she pleased and not be held accountable; she didn’t have to pay rent.
It left her in a good mood despite the haziness of her inebriation, and she grabbed at an unopened bottle as if remembering the cause of her sudden splurge in alcohol. It would be her fifth decanter, but before she could take a drink of the warm liquid, the sound of a door quietly opening tore her from her drunken reverie. The green skinned gem lifted her hooded gaze, bleary lime green eyes straining to spy the figure that slipped out into the narrow hall and gently closed the squeaking bedroom door behind them. She caught a flash of blue and immediately recalled what she had been trying to forget all night long; Lapis Lazuli.
Peridot clenched her jaw to keep the spark of irritation and disdain from penetrating her crumbling, inebriated mask, and instead buried herself further into the rickety chair beneath her in an attempt to quell the anger that boiled inside. She didn’t have to lift her head to know that the water gem slowly approached, but she ignored her presence by taking a swig of the burning alcohol. It was a tense few moments of suffering through the summer’s heat before the flaxen haired technician allowed herself to set the bottle onto the rough table and catch a glimpse the blue haired beauty standing on the other side of the room. She regarded her coldly.
“Have fun with that brute, Lapis?” Her tone was sharp and reprimanding, the epitome of intoxicated and pissed off as she fixed the gem in question with a heavy, scalding stare; the response she garnered didn’t aid in soothing her irritation.
“Oh, are you jealous now, Peridot?” The cobalt haired gem cooed, and it almost made Peridot sick to her alcohol infested stomach. Lapis hesitantly closed the distance between them, her steps quiet against the alternating color of black and white tile when she stepped into the shoddy kitchen and assessed the scene in front of her with dismay. It didn’t matter to Peridot, however, about what she thought; her mood had altered from light-hearted to on-edge and incredibly foul tempered, and despite the wavering of her vision, she could still see well enough to know that Lapis was frowning at her behavior. It might have been the four-and-a-half bottles of beer talking, but she could have sworn her scowls never had appeared so beautiful in the harsh glow of the light above.
“Jealous? Do not be so simple as to believe that I am jealous of you and Jasper. In fact,” she splayed her detached digits towards the cluster of empty bottles resting on the far side of the table, “I am completely fine!” Her hollow words failed to convince the blue skinned gem, but in truth, it was more to persuade herself. To persuade herself that she didn’t feel jealous towards the events that had transpired in the bedroom; to persuade herself that she didn’t see the black swatches that were love bites riddling the flesh of Lapis’ neck and that she wasn’t unconsciously snarling in disgust. Her hands clenched into fists at her sides in anger at the pathetic truth.
It made matters worse to see her standing there in too little clothing, clad in a loose white tank top and short denim shorts that left little to imagine. Her bright green eyes trailed up her thin form, noting all the particular spots of exposed skin that bore a claw mark there and a blooming swatch of dark skin here. Her gaze didn’t stop until it reached her throat, the aforementioned point of her hazy-eyed focus, where she officially drew the line; hickeys and bruises aplenty, the flaxen haired technician could easily imagine the shape of a clawed hand caressing Lapis’ cheek, and a pair of sharp fangs bearing down onto her unblemished throat. It made her sick to her stomach and entirely grateful that she was ripped out of her nauseating reverie.
“Peridot, honestly, do you think I’m naïve?” The cerulean eyed gem asked, her bare arms crossed over her chest as she stared at the cantankerous technician with a form of unease. As the words left her black lips, however, something in Peridot’s inebriated mind snapped. The chair clattered noisily to the ground as she abruptly stood in a drunken rage.
“Naïve? Oh, I don’t think that is the correct word for you, Lapis! And for a fact, yes, I do think you are naïve!” One of the green skinned gem’s cylindrical digits splayed outwards to point accusingly at Lapis’ thin, delicate frame. “If you weren’t, you probably would have noticed something was wrong by now, you clod!” Her fangs were bared in the beginnings of a snarl, and a growl, low and deep, rumbled from within her chest. It was an action the gem before her did not take kindly.
“Something wrong? I can tell you what’s wrong,” she hissed, her translucent cerulean orbs flashing darkly in the kitchen light, “all of this!” Lapis pointed at the cluster of brown bottles on the table. “You shouldn’t be drinking, Peridot! Look at you, you’re drunk.” The technician’s lime green eyes were ablaze with anger, and she crossed the last remaining bit of distance between them to grab at her slender shoulders. Digits wrapping around her arms, Peridot pulled her in close.
“Listen to me; you think I wanted this? To sit here and lose any more respect? It helps me forget, Lapis!” Her cold, alcohol-scented breath fanned across Lapis’ round face at the proximity of their closeness. “Forget many things, but more importantly to forget that I even care about you! That’s what makes me so riled up about seeing you with that brute, Jasper!” The confession was out, and she couldn’t take it back; there was nothing she could do now to pretend that she wasn’t hideously and pathetically enamored with the ocean gem in front of her. The heavy words hung in the hot air for a long while, forcing the two to gaze vehemently at each other in a clash of cerulean blue and lime green concealed behind a pair of reflective spectacles. It was an awkward, angry silence that befell the pair until Lapis shattered it with a four-word response.
“What do you mean?” Peridot glowered at her soft tone.
“Dammit, Lapis, isn’t it obvious? I’m in love with you!” She bit down on her tongue before she even realized what had just escaped her lips and instead stared horrified into the cobalt haired gem’s widening orbs.
Dammit, dammit, dammit! What have I done; what have I done?
Her thoughts were an incoherent mess of curses and reprimanding words as she immediately tore herself away from Lapis and distanced herself, her hands shoved back into the pockets of her hoodie with forceful, jerky motions; the flaxen haired gem lowered her head in dismay, clenching her jaw in the formation of a grimace to fight back a shuddering yell of unnecessary air. Peridot’s phantasmal heart pounded in her chest as the room had never felt so suffocating and hot before.
“Wait, Peridot. Do you… actually like me?” She never wanted to fall so far as to openly admitting such a confession of emotions and affection, and hearing Lapis ask of it like it was a question only goaded her on further into backtracking her answer. The technician shook her head and waved her off like it meant nothing.
“Ah, n-no, uh, what I mean is that I’m just… intoxicated! Yeah, intoxicated. So, honestly, Lapis, you shouldn’t believe what I’m saying; Jasper always says I tend to be a pretty convincing deceiver when I’m not quite sober…” Her response was rushed and her tone unstable, but if her lie failed to convince the ocean gem, she did not show it. Lapis only allowed the faintest of smiles to lift the corners of her lips upwards in an almost amused smirk.
Any attempts to further communicate with the disgruntled and humiliated flaxen haired gem, however, were all in vain, and when an agitated Lapis finally made her leave, Peridot did not argue. Instead, she pulled up the overturned chair and collapsed into it, bitterly sipping at the once forgotten beer as she listened to the sound of the apartment’s front door opening and clicking shut. In truth, the murky cloud of inebriation had almost worn off due to her abrupt rage, but she still felt like she was uncontrollably intoxicated. Alone and bitter at the world for dealing her bad cards in life, she toasted morosely to the hot, midsummer night.
The beer still tasted like nauseating acid, but not enough to make her forget.