Author's Note: Hi! I'm Jay. This chapter is from Lapis' Pov, but it will switch every chapter. Thanks for giving my story a chance. I think it's progressively getting better because I feel like I grow as an author with every chapter. Enjoy and feel free to comment. :)


When Lars called me and told me there was a problem in the store, this is frankly not what I had expected. Lars is a relatively close friend to me, but solely because we met in middle school, shared a similar view of the world, and never had a reason to stop being friends after that. We're not the type of friends who hang out regularly, mostly because he's too busy sleeping with Sadie, and I'm too busy working, but even without constant communication, Lars and I (usually) have each others backs. That's why I rushed over to the Big Donut at 8am when I'd rather be sleeping, painting, swimming, or doing literally anything else. The way he called made it seem like there was a wild animal in the store. "We have a serious problem! You need to get here now! Sadie's busy with her mom and I don't know what to do!" So, naturally I came over to help with my possession of extreme life skills to smooth things over for my horribly disadvantaged friend.

When I get to the store, I take a good look at the "serious problem", and there are three things I notice about her: she's short, she's annoying, and she has the self-justified, authoritative air of a librarian telling someone to be quiet. I tune in to her constant stream of yells. "I want to see the security tapes!" She slams her hand on the counter " Or maybe you just want to fess up now and say that you did it! I know it was you!"

Her tone is crude, and if it was anyone else I would've been completely disgusted, but somehow I feel the need to defend her. She's not trying to be a douche right now, she just feels like she has to. That's how she's trying to gain power and respect in this situation. Her aggressive actions are all bark and no bite. They're probably tactics to compensate for the fact that she looks like a busty preteen. She's obviously failing at gaining the respect she wants, but at least she's trying. She isn't physically intimidating, and her social skills seemed to be lacking. Her way of dress is casual and messy. She seems smart based on her vocabulary, but she lacks almost all social ability. If she was street smart she would probably know better than to pick fights this way. She was leaning over the counter spilling her mind onto an overwhelmed Lars. I decide to interject here. I do so calmly to conceal my own collection of overbearing emotions. Part of me wants to talk to her civilly and see if the way I profiled her matches up with her reality, but the other part of me wants to rip her from the counter and slap her for talking to Lars the way she is. I walk up to her "I'd calm down if I were you," I say placing my hand on her shoulder.

She rips her body away from me and looks me up and down before deciding that I'm somehow a better fit for her to complain to. I look at her face, it feels familiar even though I know we've never met. I've probably seen her in school. She extends her hand to shake, but I decline. "I'm Peridot Peters, and someone," Her eyes cut to Lars "ran over my bike yesterday. It was parked outside of the arcade and Mr. Smiley told me he saw a green jeep hit it, and after a quick bit of research, I found out that Lars Barriga," She spits out his name and does this weird thing where she tries to roll her r's but fails. I have to stop myself from cringing "just so happens to own a green jeep. I don't even want to bring up the fact that three separate witnesses saw him outside of arcade pulling away from the scene of the crime."

"But you just brought it up." Lars states dumbly. I can't help but laugh just a little.

"What?"

"You said you didn't want to bring it up then you immediately brought it-"

"Are you kidding me right now! First you hit my-"

I interject yet again "Hey! Peridot!"

"Yes?" The sternness in her voice makes me want to giggle. Usually I don't have the time nor energy to deal with self righteous pricks like her. Sure, committing a hit and run on someone's bike is a dick move, but so is following them to work to verbally assault them on a random tuesday afternoon. I have zero doubt in my mind that Lars did it, but the real question lies in how doubtful she is.

"Can I ask who these witnesses are?"

"What?" She loses her composition for less than a moment before saying "I don't think that matters."

I try to be the best actress I can be. My role is that of the dramatic and underqualified secret spy. They might be zealous and stupid, but the audience loves them and they always get their happy ending and that's what I intend to do. I decide in the moment that I want to make her as uncomfortable as possible without her shifting her anger on to me. I run my fingers through my hair and lean on the counter beside her. "Surely you understand that those facts could be extremely helpful in this circumstance."

"Fine." She crosses her arms "Mr. Smiley, Mr. Frowny, and Onion."

"For starters, Onion doesn't speak. Mr. Smiley is red-green color blind, so a green jeep just might not be a green jeep. He's also a well known liar. Mr. Frowny on the other hand is an insane pessimistic and unreliable source. He'd agree with anything Smiley said anyway." Her shoulders slump and she lets out a childish groan "But before you restart this whole case, I'll save you some trouble. I ran over your bike. That's why Lars called me." Her eyes go wide and start to bug out of her head. Lars gives me a look too.

Her cheeks redden "That was how I get to school, you clod! You're going to have to pay for that!"

I stop myself from rolling my eyes. "Yeah, I know. I'll pay." I smile lazily at her and put a hand on the side of her face "I'm so sorry for hitting it." She softens a bit after I confess, and that's when I realize that she's responding positively to my touch. I fully expected her to pull away like she did before, but here she is leaning into my hand. She smiles. If she thinks I'm going to get her a new bike then she's terribly mistaken. She coughs and asks for my number and I scribble some digits on the back of a napkin. With a quick wave she storms out of the store. I follow a few steps behind and stay at the window watching her leave. She walks off to the left and turns right at he corner.

"What the fuck was that?" Lars gives me a puzzled look then stage whispers from the other side of the store. "Do you like her?"

"Shit, I just met her."

"Well she likes you. She was full rage when I talked to her. She seemed almost human around you." I saunter over to a table and take a seat in the closest chair. I throw back my head and let out a groan as I realize how early it is. I worked the closing shift last night and didn't get home until almost 3am. "Why do girls always fall for you?"

"Because I'm the embodiment of sin and everyone is tempted by sin." I say flatly.

"Deep." he says with a joking grin. I put my sunglasses on to block out the sun that's streaming in from the windows and flip him off in the process. "If I picked up chicks that easily-"

"I didn't pick her up." I counter.

"I'm just saying." He shrugs.

"She's angry and socially deprived, she'd probably fall for anyone."

"Probably true, but she also has huge tits."

"You're gross." He laughs and makes a grabbing motion in the air pantomiming him grabbing someone's boobs. "It's too early for this."

"Yeah. I hate working mornings," his tone immediate drops, and he starts to half heartedly wipe the counter "You know didn't have to take the fall for the bike thing."

I shrug and sit down "You wanted her off your dick, so I handled it. Don't go all sentimental."

"Yeah, but Sadie's really trying to get me to take responsibility for my actions. I'll give you the money, so that when she calls-"

"She won't call."

He gives me a perplexed look "Why do you say that?"

"I gave her a fake number, duh." He cracks a smile which I reciprocate. "I want a donut. Glazed."

He pulls one out without thinking twice which is probably definitely stealing, but I don't really mind. "I'm thinking of dyeing my hair pink. Whatcha think?" He asks walking the donut over to me.

With just a quick glance at his reddish brown hair I shake my head. "I wouldn't." He shoves me lightly.

I take half the donut into my mouth in one bite and consider chucking the other half of my donut at Lars as he walks back towards the front counter, but that minor act of violence isn't worth the loss of my treat. As a finish my donut Lars finishes wiping down the counter and sits down across from me "I'm borrrrred. I miss Sadie." he moans pulling out his phone and checking the time. I shrug and almost say something before a man walks into the store. Lars quickly gets up to attend to the customer. He leaves his phone on the table and I glance at the picture of him and Sadie that decorates his home screen. Though I haven't given it much thought recently, I think of how nice it would be to actually be in a relationship with someone instead of just making out with people at parties or fingering random girls in bathrooms. I shrug it off, remembering that relationships are invasive and time consuming.

Two more people enter the store, then another, then another. It's probably the 8:30 donut rush that Lars had told me about in the past. I take that as my cue to leave and wave to Lars as I leave the store. I walk right towards my car in the parking lot, but suddenly get the urge to turn around and look left in the direction Peridot walked earlier. I flicker of curiosity passes my mind as I wonder where she went. I shrug it off and replace the thought with an image of the disaster I'll face when I get home. I sigh and walk back to my car.