Peridot shuffled to get ready as the sunlight poured through the window by the living room. She had gotten dressed in a somewhat formal attire, a dress shirt with some light green jeggings. But working in an office where you sit in a cubicle and avoid socializing didn't really affect what she wore everyday, although she couldn't bring herself to wear something casual. The office she worked in was packed with adults who didn't want to be there and were probably the teens in highschool who sat at a deserted table at lunch all the while brooding about something. Which wasn't a far off description of Peridot's social life in highschool, she did have a polar opposite as a friend, quite a jock with a scary figure. But Jasper had football practice at lunch, so Peridot was on her own then.
Jasper was the captain of the girls football team and the strongest girl in the school. Everyone was scared of her, but she was really mushy in the inside. Peridot got to see a few glances of that ever since Jasper decided to sit with her during their breaks, they became good friends after that. Even though they weren't alike at all. Jasper was a tall brute with long and wild hair, she was tanned with many streaks of a lighter colour. She wasn't teased about that though, they wouldn't dare to. Peridot on the other hand was short and clumsy, she couldn't do any sports compared to Jasper and her hair always had to be neat or else she'd freak out. The girl was extremely pale too, thinner and leaner face than Jasper, her height would have to be doubled to reach the wild haired female's towering figure. After graduating Jasper went to continue football, she joined a european female team and still kept in touch with Peridot online.
Which also resulted to Peridot being alone. The people at work weren't friendly, they were like Peridot but more confident about not wanting to socialize with anyone. But she still had to go there.
The blonde pushed her glasses up, making them rest comfortably on her nose as she filled up her satchel with a bunch of necessities. She threw her wallet, notepad, phone and a couple of binge snacks in there and swung the bag over her arm. The female grabbed the coffee that had just finished brewing in the kitchen and took a nice long sip of it to prepare herself from the long day ahead of her.
Flinging the front door open and walking down the hallway of her floor, Peridot groaned, also taking another long sip of her bitter coffee. She always hated putting sweetness in her caffeine, they always made her hyper, she remembered one time in college where she drank too much sweetened coffee that she ended up flipping off one of the teacher advisers and attempted to jump out the first floor window. Never again would she sweeten her coffee. She flushed, remembering the embarrassing thoughts of her college life. Adding sweeteners also made the coffee less like, coffee. It was all rather weird to her, the concept of making something only to add different ingredients that make it less like the something but assuming it is the something. But she didn't want to think about it now, the thought of it gave her a headache. Which she didn't want to have this early in the morning.
Peridot tapped the button for the elevator going down, she watched the lights showing what floor it was on blink a dull red. Soon enough the elevator made a beeping noise and the doors slid open, revealing a small space with another person in it. The person was a tanned female wearing a blue sundress and carrying a big bag that you'd bring to the gym. She had brown shoulder length hair with bangs, although the tips of her locks were a shade of blue. Walking beside the brown haired female, Peridot noticed that the woman was taller than her by a head, she seemed like her age too, just taller. But she didn't pay much attention to her anyway, in fact, they shared the same expression. Bored. The female almost looked tired, as of nothing had interested her lately and she hadn't been sleeping too well. Peridot on the other hand was in fact extremely sleep deprived, her eyes drooped and she had to sip more of the coffee to wake her up.
The blonde also (because she couldn't think of anything else to focus on but the hipster beside her) realized that she hadn't seen this girl before. Even though she didn't really focus on her neighbours much in her apartment building, the least she could do was remember their faces. And this face wasn't recognizable at all. Perhaps she was visiting someone? But it didn't matter then, the elevator was two floors left to reach ground floor, which was what the two females were waiting to reach. Peridot watch the blinking red light hit floor two before the elevator made a screeching noise and shakily stopped descending. Which wasn't good.
Peridot stared at the button panel for a while, processing whether this was supposed to happen or not. The female who had grasped the bar on the wall of the elevator as it screeched was scanning the button panel too, this time just on the search for some kind of help button. There was in fact a call button, the female tapped it a couple times waiting for a response, but all that came out was static. Peridot cursed the old building before taking a shorter sip of coffee, she'd probably be late for work. Not that she was complaining. The brown haired female stopped examining the panel before she turned to Peridot.
"Got a phone?" Her voice was very welcoming almost, although Peridot just hastily rummaged through her bag to find her cellphone, not paying attention to the pitch of the females voice.
"I think we're gonna be here for a while. My names Lapis." The female announced as Peridot held out her phone, not knowing what to do with it.
"Mine is Peridot." She squeaked, honestly, she didn't want to be stuck in an elevator. This was the first time, but Peridot had to refrain panicking infront of the pretty and somehow calm Lapis, at least she wasn't alone. Peridot glanced at the phone and threw a confused glance at Lapis, who just looked at her expectingly.
"You gonna call one of your neighbours? They can call security to get us out of here."
Peridot then panicked, she didn't know any phone numbers other than her parents and Jasper. Her parents were in the countryside while Jasper wasn't even in the country. Who was she supposed to call? And why didn't Lapis have a phone, she's like, the same age as her.
"My phone is dead, besides I don't live here. I only came to...visit." The long pause she made created almost a suspicious atmosphere, but to Peridot it was tense. It was like the female read her mind, although Lapis seemed to do it without knowing. Now that she though of it, Lapis was a really cool name, she guessed Lazuli must've been a somewhat ending to her name, because of the mineral. It was like Peridot's name, a literal gem.
"You gonna call someone?" Lapis asked, slightly impatient and less tired than before. She seemed to kind of wake up from this. Peridot just stared at her for a couple of seconds before staring at her phone.
"Why don't I just call the police or something?" It sounded more like a nervous demand than a suggestion since Peridot quickly started dialing a number. Lapis furrowed her eyebrows and hastily snatched the phone from Peridot's hand, making her almost screech a 'hey!' but deciding to gulp it, she didn't want to start a fight or anything.
"The police will just think it's a waste of their time, we're just stuck in an elevator." Lapis explained, scrolling through Peridot's contacts. Which may I add weren't long, Lapis just looked at her for another minute. The blonde was standing there awkwardly, gulping down anything she might regret saying and biting her lip nervously. Lapis sighed.
"If it makes you feel any better, if the elevator drops it won't be that big of a fall." Peridot let out a big and tired breath, relaxing.
"Thanks, I think I'm feeling fine now." She replied with sarcasm, the brunette just smiled smugly. Those words of reassurance weren't really reassuring, but at least Lapis was trying to crack a joke or make her feel better. Either way. The only problem right now was that the female was scrolling endlessly through Peridots almost empty contact list, still scrolling down in denial that there was only 4 contacts on it. Jasper's phone number, Peridot's mom, her dad and the old phone that was in her office.
"Try banging on the door?" The brunette suggested, giving her phone back to its owner, who didn't look at the screen but threw it in her bag. She moved over to the door with Lapis as they pounded their fists on the door, a voice was heard from the other side.
"Has the elevator gotten stuck again? Are you alright?"
Great. It was Peridot's next door neighbour who always had her cats roaming around the floor. The woman probably owned a whole dozen of felines, Peridot was pretty sure cats weren't even aloud in this place. Those cats also somehow ended up in the blondes apartment, she resisted the urge to march up to Pearls door and just haul the cat all the way to her kitchen. Peridot groaned.
"Yes Pearl, we're fine." She slouched, Lapis looked at her slightly confused. Peridot read her mind this time.
"Next door neighbour, she owns way too many cats." Lapis stifled a laugh in case Pearl might've been listening.
"Peridot? Is that you?" The muffled voice of Pearl was heard anxiously on the other side.
"Yes Pearl it's me, go get security or something." Pearl yelled an okay and quickly scurried off to go to the lobby for some kind of help, leaving Lapis and Peridot to sit there.
Peridot sat beside the door with her short legs stretched, her bag was against the wall and her cup of coffee stood beside her. Lapis sat leaned against the opposite wall, playing with the strings of fabric that were tied around her waist.
"Something tells me you're late for work." The brunette said, still playing with the strings of fabric, swinging them around. Peridot slouched even further.
"Tell me about it. But I'd take any offer to not be in that place." Lapis scoffed, amused.
"Try working at a daycare with kids who don't listen and make huge messes." She looked over at the blonde who now clutched her coffee cup, ready to take a sip.
"Yeah, imagine that but everyone is a grown adult and they're supposed to be tapping on a computer or writing some report." Peridot then took a long sip her coffee, she stretched her arm, offering it to Lapis. She took it and took a long sip from it, she handed it back to her, leaving her blue lipstick on the rim of the cup.
"You have a point there." Lapis answered smugly, watching Peridot groan at the lipstick smudged on her cup. She just spun the lid to a cleaner part of the rim, covering the stain.
"What's the big bag for?" Peridot asked, pointing to the bag that sat right under the button panel. Lapis stiffened.
"For work. You can stuff a kid in there occasionally." Lapis joked, but Peridot wasn't buying it.
"Spill it, Lazuli."
Lapis squinted and furrowed her eyebrows. "How did you know my last names Lazuli?"
"Can't have a Lapis without a Lazuli." She shrugged. "About the bag then."
"Your smugness is supposed to be my facade" Lapis groaned, finally deciding to slouch. She crossed her legs together and leaned forward.
"My ex lives on the floor above you. He cheated on me and I just so happened to have eight cans of shaving cream." Lapis looked at her, this time smug. Peridot kind of stared at her weirdly, she didn't expect her of all people to be a revenge seeking girlfriend. It was hot though.
"You think you can do that to some of my neighbours?" Peridot asked jokingly.
"Well shaving cream ain't cheap sweetie, involves a price." The brunette smugly replied, laughing to herself after. Peridot joined in too, grinning.
"I'll think about it."
They sat there for another minute before a couple knocks were heard on the elevator door.
"Peridot?" Pearl's voice rang from the other side. "The security is gonna pry the door open so stand back." As she explained, Peridot grabbed her things and moved beside the now standing up Lapis. They watched as the door was wrenched open with a crowbar, Pearl along with two other people stood at the door. Although the floor where they were standing on was lower than the elevator. Peridot and Lapis would have to jump down, somehow squeezing through. Lapis shrugged, she squeezed herself out and landed on the tiled floor, her legs had already reached it. Peridot tossed the big bag of shaving cream and her bag down, her coffee was handed to Pearl, who stood there waiting. Peridot slipped through the little space, but her legs didn't reach the floor, Lapis was giggling to herself. The blonde flushed furiously, cursing the odds for making her short. But Lapis walked over and grabbed her waist, pulling her down, if Peridot jumped the fall she'd probably break a leg or two. Her feet landed and Lapis let go of her waist, handing her the coffee mug and her satchel. They walked out of the building, Peridot heading for the bus stop and Lapis heading for the coffee shop just across the street.
"Call me sometime." Lapis said, crossing the street and leaving the blonde to stand at the bus stop confused. She pulled out her phone to check the time, but the screen was still showing her contact list, which coincidentally raised in numbers. A new contact was there, the words 'Lapis Lazuli' beside the picture of her shoes, somehow taken during the five minutes she had Peridot's phone.
The blonde grinned, putting the phone back in her bag and taking another long sip of her coffee, finishing it but still keeping the cup. Maybe she'd call the hipster at work while her coworkers were tapping the keyboards and that one worker beside her cubicle was blasting some kind of dub step.
Who knew elevators were a great way to meet new people.