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When Pearl told her that she was going to the Halloween party as a cleaning lady, Gem did not understand why. She doesn’t think she ever will, actually. Pearl has always had such wonderful and creative costumes and this year she decides to go as a cleaning lady. Of course, this leads to them discussing it the entire ride to Grian’s house. She pretty sure Lizzie’s regretting offering to drive the two of them at this point. But, like, why.
So yes, Gem doesn’t understand Pearl sometimes. But that’s okay, because she still loves her and would do anything for her. Plus, Pearl still made the costume look nice somehow because it’s Pearl, of course she did.
Gem actually laughs when she sees Grian’s costume when they get there. It escalates into an entire laughing fit when she sees Joel and Jimmy wearing the same. Look, she’s heard of the ‘bad boy” shenanigans they had done when they were younger, but seeing it is something else. She has half the mind to take a photo of the three but decides against it. She’ll remember it forever anyway.
Pearl runs off not too long later in search of the ‘chicken costume’, which is fine. She does it every time, so it doesn’t matter. It’s kind of tradition! Gem doesn’t mind her girlfriend leaving her to hunt for some fucking costume like that. She wouldn’t want to ruin her fun.
While her love is occupied, though, she goes to help set up the drink table with Lizzie. Just as the two of them get deep into a conversation that Gem is enjoying, Jimmy interrupts to drag Lizzie away with some muttered excuse. It’s fine, though. Gem just smiles and waves them off.
Joel then walks up to her, asking her to help him with the playlist for the night. She grins, happy to help. They work on setting up the music and preparing the songs for a while and it’s fun, it makes her happy.
When Scott arrives, they exchange finger guns. It makes Gem happy to see their matching costumes, and the mood only improves seeing Impulse with the same. She goes to talk to Etho when he walks in but he doesn’t seem to notice her as he walks past her. She doesn’t see who he goes to, but it doesn’t matter. She doesn’t mind.
Gem ends up getting to have a chat with Etho about five minutes later anyway.
“So yeah, anyway, I still don’t really understand why Pearl decided that being a cleaning lady of all things is a great choice but, well, that’s Pearl, I guess.”
Etho hums. “Where is she, actually?”
“I… don’t know, actually.” It’s fine, though. It’s not like she was hoping to hang out with her girlfriend tonight or anything—
“Huh. Well, I’m sure she’s around somewhere. By the way, your costume looks great.”
She grins. “Well, thank you! I swear, I spent an hour just for the makeup itself, it was a pain. It was worth it, though.”
“Oh, for sure. I—” Etho gets cut off by Pearl running up to them.
“Gem, come help me look for it. Please.”
“Pearl, I will do no such thing. You are obsessed.” She crosses her arms, smiling. It’s a joke, obviously—because she wouldn’t want to ruin Pearl’s fun, she’s not like that—and she hopes it translates that way.
Pearl’s expression drops into a pout and the walks away. Oh. Gem was hoping she’d continue that exchange. But that’s okay. It’s great, actually.
“What was that about?” Etho asks.
Gem sends one last glance in the direction where Pearl went before turning back to Etho. “Don’t worry about it.”
She grimaces when Etho points out Ren and Martyn’s usual shenanigans, but can’t help but laugh when Etho questions their friends’ sanities. Sounds about right.
When Etho is dragged off somewhere by Bdubs, Gem kind of just… stands there, for a while. Eventually, though, she goes to Scott and Cleo and joins their conversation. When Grian hooks up the karaoke machine, she and Scott immediately go grab Impulse to make sure the three of them would get to sing first. It was part of their costumes, after all.
Although they sing terribly, it’s fun and it makes Gem happy. She briefly sees Etho turning the corner, walking out of her sight. It doesn’t hurt that he didn’t stay for the entire song, she convinces herself. It’s fine. She’s fine.
And then she sees Pearl walking away before they even finish the song and something in Gem… breaks. But no, she’s fine. It’s fine, it has to be, because she the put together person in the friend group. She’s the happy one. She can’t cry, she can’t get angry. Plus, it must’ve been her fault for being so boring that they didn’t stay. And she can’t blame Pearl for not talking to her all evening because she’s just having her fun. It’s fine.
So, when the song finishes, she walks away because she’s okay. Gem decides to talk to Pearl, because maybe it was here fault they haven’t talked all night. She begins telling Pearl about things that have happened to her tonight, what she’s heard and seen. And then Pearl seems to zone out and stop listening before beginning to talk about that damn chicken costume again. And Gem snaps.
“Pearl! Do you even know what I was talking about?”
Her girlfriend stops talking, looking taken aback. “Well, of course, I—”
“It’s constantly about that damn obsession of yours! What if I want to spend time with you, for once? I’m so sick and tired of it.”
“I gave you the option to join me!”
“I don’t want to spend an hour looking for a costume your brother may have hidden somewhere!”
“I’ve been around here, you’ve just been talking to others,” Pearl argues.
“Well, maybe you could just make an effort to be a good girlfriend for once!” Gem exclaims before stopping. Oh no.
Pearl looks hurt. “Oh, well, I didn’t know you felt that way.”
“No, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that—” she tries, but it’s too late. Pearl walks away, leaving Gem to stand alone. She swallows, looking around before seeing Joel at the drink table.
“Hy, c’mon, you’re doing shots with me,” she tells him. She’s a bit surprised at how quickly he agrees but brushes it off as Joel being overconfident about his abilities to handle alcohol. Plus, right now she really just wants to get drunk and she doesn’t want to do it alone.
Things get blurry quite quickly after that. It doesn’t help that Gem had been drinking before that as well. She registers someone taking her away from the drinks at some point, and then crying…? She doesn’t know, really, but all she knows is that everything inside her hurts. She doesn’t tend to argue with Pearl, especially not like this, so she doesn’t really know what to do.
Gem wakes up in a bed. She recognises the room as the guest bedroom at Grian’s place. And then the headache starts. Looking at the nightstand, she finds a glass of water and a tablet. She takes it, drinking all of the water before laying back for a moment. Everything from the previous night is a bit fuzzy, but she still remembers the argument. Guilt stabs in her heart.
A moment later, the door opens a bit and Pearl looks in. Upon seeing Gem awake, she walks inside.
“Hey.”
“Hi,” Gem replies. “So, uh, last night...“
“I’m sorry.” Wait, what?
“What do you mean? I’m the one who should be apologising—”
“I was being stupid and I didn’t talk to you all night, and that was really shitty of me. I shouldn’t have neglected you because of some stupid joke Grian and I have.”
“I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have said what I said yesterday. It was ridiculous, I know you try.”
Pearl looks at Gem and they know they’ve both forgiven each other. Gem opens her arms and Pearl lays down next to her, curling up to her.
“Wanna know how many shots you had with Joel last night?”
Gem groans in embarrassment at the reminder. “Oh god, how many?”
“Seven.”
“What? What was I thinking?!”
Pearl just laughs at her. Gem grumbles but pulls her closer.
“I hate you, actually.” I love you so, so much.
“Feeling’s mutual.” I love you too.
They stay there until Grian bursts in to force them to join them at breakfast.