This setting was familiar to Peridot.
The blonde was sitting on Pearl's bed, the taller girl sitting beside her with a cigarette in hand, blowing smoke out of the window. Amethyst sat opposite them, her legs criss crossed on her bed.
The shorter girl was wearing a cropped tank top, black in color. Her bottoms consisted of short shorts, and her legs were covered with black stockings.
Pearl is wearing a black turtleneck along with blue jeans.
Peridot had on her usual green hoodie. She decided that since she was going to wear this until her scratches completely healed. Luckily, the weather had been cold enough for it. For bottoms, she wore pajama pants, dark green in color. All three girls are barefoot.
They were having a casual conversation about the prior week's schoolwork.
"It was all too easy." Peridot said, but rather than boastful, she sounded more disappointed. "I don't understand why my instructors don't just give me harder work to do."
"Baby steps, Peri." Amethyst said, a little annoyed. She would give anything to be as smart as the blonde. Learning about anatomy, health, and psychology.. Amethyst loved it, but damn, it was hard.
"Advanced Engineering with Bessel and Fourier are baby steps. The advanced trigonometry they give me here is like I'm in middle school again."
Pearl chuckled, flicking her cigarette out of the window.
"Peridot, you're such an over-achiever."
"But I need to do harder work! It's the only thing that keeps my mind working so that I don't think about other things.." Peridot trailed off here, getting this sad look in her eye. Pearl was about to say something to try and console the blonde, but Amethyst spoke first.
"How about we just get started with your help session, huh Peri?" The blonde nodded.
Peridot had done well this past week. Though she felt panic rise in her chest on more than one occasion, the tea helped. Of course, just a drink couldn't completely take the thoughts of hurting herself away. That was impossible.
"What are you gonna do this time to help?" Peridot asked, curious. She had already emptied her fridge of the Mountain Dew she owned, save for a few bottles to escape suspicion. Even so, Peridot has been drinking nothing but water and green tea for the past week, and Amethyst was right. It did make her feel good about herself, but.. the pain from her blade still felt better.
"We're gonna have you face your problem." As Amethyst said this, Pearl was digging through the drawer of her nightstand. She pulled out Peridot's razor, having been cleaned from when Amethyst first found her in the act.
The blonde's breath hitched in her throat as Pearl held it out for her to take. "Are you sure?" Peridot asked, eyeing the blade, almost hungrily. Pearl was starting to have second thoughts about this little plan, but Amethyst nodded.
"Yeah. I'm sure you'll do fine." The blonde was surprised that so much trust was being put into her.
Slowly, she reached out and took the blade between her fingers. It felt so cold, so familiar. It was hard to not subconsciously place it against herself, but she somehow managed.
Peridot inspected the blade. It looked sharper than when she last had it.. It was beautiful, really.. in the dark sense of the word. Blades like this brought solace to troubled youths all over the world. A fearful beauty.
"What do you want me to do with this?" Peridot asked.
"You're gonna keep it. You'll put it back where you usually keep it. You'll know it's there, but for the next week, you're not going to use it."
This was Amethyst's plan. If Peridot could resist the temptation of the blade, then that would be another step to her rehabilitation. But if she couldn't, then she and Pearl would go straight to Lapis. Of course, she didn't tell Peridot this part.
"I see." Peridot wasn't very comfortable with her own self control. The past week has been torture without some sort of release..
Though, if she thought about it, it's rather odd. Peridot was perfectly fine up until a week ago, when she watched Lapis dance in the rain. The blonde had seen her crush dance like that before, so why was this any different? Why did that particular night cause Peridot's old habit to return?
"Well, thank you.. for trusting me with this."
"Well you seemed to be doing fine last week, so yeah." That was all Amethyst said.
Pearl nodding in agreement. "I'm sure you'll be just fine, Peri."
The blonde smiled at her friends.. her counselors. She pocketed the razor, making a mental note to put it in her medicine cabinet as quickly as possible. She didn't want Lapis to find it.
The rest of this little session was spent with more casual conversation. They talked about academics, what they were going to do after college, the normal stuff. Amethyst and Pearl planned on moving in together. The smaller girl was going to open her own psychiatric clinic while her girlfriend danced in competitions.
"Do you guys plan on getting married, then?" Peridot asked. Pearl and Amethyst both blushed, the taller of the two averting her eyes while amethyst smiled goofily. Pearl answered.
"We'll um.. have to see." Though by the look of their faces, Peridot had her answer. She wondered if she'd be invited to the wedding? Mrs. Quartz would probably be the one to marry the two.
"What about you?" Amethyst asked the blonde, wanting to change the center of attention away from her and her girlfriend. "Do you have any plans for the future? Maybe someone you wanna settle down with?"
Lapis immediately came to Peridot's mind. Settling down.. with her? Peridot hugged herself at her arms. She felt it.. the panic in her rising. She couldn't think about it. She didn't want to, but.. Amethyst and Pearl had been so good to her. She should tell them. She wanted to tell them.
"Hit me." She said, in barely a whisper.
"What?" The couple asked in unison.
"Hit me!" Peridot shouted now, her body shaking. She couldn't handle this. Image after image of her and Lapis flashed through her mind. It took every ounce of her will power to not tear open her pocket for the razor she was just given. Pearl was the first to get the hint.
The taller girl stood in front of Peridot and pulled back her hand. A loud smack filled the room, and the blonde's head was turned to the side, a large red mark on her cheek.
"Ow, shit!" Pearl was waving her hand back and forth. It must have stung just as much as Peridot's face did now. Amethyst would have laughed if she wasn't so worried for the blonde girl.
"Peri, you okay?" Pearl sat beside Amethyst, massaging her hand as she looked at Peridot with as much as concern as her girlfriend.
It took a few seconds for the pain to register in Peridot's mind. She closed her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she turned her head back to the couple, rubbing her burning cheek.
"Your hand is so bony, Pearl."
The taller girl giggled, finally resting her stinging hand on Amethyst's leg. "I thought it'd help. Amethyst's hands are far too soft. And you're one to talk. My hand hurts, you little bitch."
"What, is my face not as soft as Amethyst's ass?"
The girls laughed together. The tension in the air was gone, and Peridot felt much better.. After the laughter in the room died down, Peridot let out a sigh. It was now or never.
"It's Lapis."
Pearl's face changed from laughing in amusement to one of utter shock and astonishment. Amethyst, on the other hand, was practically beaming.
"I fucking knew it."
Peridot chuckled, hugging herself at the arms again. She felt fine, though. Now that she admitted her feelings to someone, it felt.. easier to talk and think about it. At least, to the couple in front of her.
"Is it that obvious?"
"Peri, every time you see Lapis, your expression changes. I'm a Health major. It's easy to see these things."
"Maybe to you!" Pearl half shouted, laughing in disbelief. "Amethyst told me you were into Lapis, but I couldn't believe it. I always thought you were asexual."
"Am I really that anti-social?" Peridot asked, a mock scowl on her face.
"It's not that you're anti-social." Pearl started, a little embarrassed now that her assumption had been proven wrong. "You're just so.. analytical. You don't seem like the type for romance."
"I can understand that." It was true that Peridot was cold and calculating. Still, she wasn't a machine.
"Well, Peri.." Amethyst started, feeling absolutely giddy. "Have I got something to tell you."
Lapis is sitting in her and Peridot's room. On Peridot's computer, the blue haired girl was checking out the games that her friend was so fond of. So far, none of them interested her, except maybe Undertale. She's heard that the game was rather beautiful, not in graphics, but in the sheer story and music of the game. Maybe Peridot would let her try the game out.
Of course, Lapis wasn't on the computer without permission. When Peridot announced that she was going to hang out with Pearl and Amethyst this morning, the blue haired girl had asked to see what the hoopla was about the internet.
Before Lapis checked Peridot's games, where she is now, she surfed the web. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter.. she didn't make any accounts, of course. She was just checking things out. What surprised Lapis most was that there was so much nudity on the internet. No wonder people loved their computers so much.
Lesbian porn, gay porn, interracial porn, bestiality, incest, fisting.. Lapis was surprised that there were so many ways to have sex, even with animals, no less. She shuddered at the thought. Not that it was disgusting.. as long as the animal isn't hurt in the process, what's the problem? No, what made her feel uncomfortable is the fact that some people actually feel good. A dog penis just didn't look pleasurable at all.
Back to the present, Lapis had just read the description of Town of Salem when Peridot came through the door. Lapis turned, her head resting on her hand with her elbow on the desk as she greeted her friend.
"Hey Peri, have fun?"
Peridot didn't answer. She just walked past Lapis and sat down on her bed. Her face was so.. stoic. Emotionless.
Lapis was starting to get scared. Why was Peridot being so silent?
"Hey.. you okay?"
"Are you in love with anyone?"
Lapis was taken aback. Did she here Peridot right? No, no she's sure she heard right. "Why do you ask?" This was so odd. When has Peridot ever been interested in whether Lapis liked anyone or not? The blonde sighed, turning to look eye to eye with her friend.
"Because I am, and I want to tell you who. But I need you to answer my question first."
So Peridot was in love with someone? Guess that throws Lapis' dreams out the window. She grabbed her arm, averting her eyes with a sad smile.
"Yeah, I do love someone."
"What's this person like?"
Lapis chuckled, feeling the tears form in her eyes. She couldn't let Peridot see her like this. She stood from the chair she was in, turning her back to the blonde, trying to sound nonchalant as she described her best friend.
"She's.. she's very beautiful. She's very smart, at the top of the school, even. She always complained about not having hard enough schoolwork, about not being able to show her full potential." Lapis paused, taking a deep breath before she continued, leaning against the desk.
"I find her adorable, in that aspect. Always the over-achiever. But she's so nice. No matter how much shit she goes through, whether her computer game crashes or if someone insults her for being so smart. She's never mean to anyone. Off putting, yeah, but never mean."
"She sounds wonderful." Peridot commented.
"Oh, she is." Lapis giggled, turning to finally face Peridot, tears running freely down her face. "She's my best frie-"
Lapis was cut off as the blonde wrapped her arms around her. The blue haired girl didn't get to say anything else. Her shoulder was getting warmer, wet from fresh tears. Peridot was shaking as she cried against Lapis. Her voice was weak when she spoke.
"I love you, Lapis."