The next morning, Ruby and Garnet and I join Pearl, Amy, Rose, and Greg at the kitchen table. Out of the corner of my good eye, I can see Pearl cooking breakfast despite the smell making her a bit nauseous. Amy, meanwhile, seems to have recovered a bit from the hangover she was experiencing a while ago. As for Rose and Greg, well, they just stare at each other lovingly and don't seem to care that Pearl is behind them.
"Wow!" Ruby exclaims. "I sure am hungry. What's Pearl making for us?"
"Just the usual eggs and bacon," Amy replies matter-of-factly. "Pearl doesn't really care for the smell or taste of them, but she still likes making them for us."
"She's such a picky eater, huh?"
"You got that right."
"Any idea when they'll be ready?" I ask Amy.
"They should be ready in a few," Amy assures me.
"That's right!" Pearl pipes up. "Now I just need everyone to come up here with their plates, and I'll be done."
"Aw yeah!" Amy exclaims.
She's the first one to grab her plate and jump up from her seat. I can tell how antsy she is about getting her breakfast. Pearl just smiles and puts some eggs and bacon onto Amy's plate.
"Alright, who's next?" Pearl calls out after Amy has gone back to the table.
Just a few hours later, Rose, Greg, Ruby, and I have come back (along with little Garnet) from a sort of double date at the pizza place. Once we're inside, we notice Pearl twisting the towel over and over, seeming to try desperately to scrub off as much hard water and other residue as possible. We only had breakfast five hours ago, but Pearl seems determines to take on the burden of cleaning the dishes and utensils.
"Hey... Pearl," Greg starts to say uncertainly. "How are you?"
"I'm fine," Pearl said, her voice taking on a monotone.
"Are... are you sure?"
"Oh yes, I'm sure. I've got everything under control. My relationship, my life— it's all just perfect!" Her voice changes from the monotone and apprehensively coils up as she sets a plate down on the rack.
Pearl then moves on to drying a knife.
Now it's Rose's turn to speak out. "Uh, babe, how about you leave the knives to me? In fact, why don't you go take a break?"
"What— you think I can't handle this? You think I don't have this under control? Well, I'm telling you, everything is perfectly fine!"
Rose is taken aback by this. "Whoa, whoa— I didn't say that at all!"
"Well, you might as well have. In fact, why don't you all just get out of here?!"
Just as Pearl says this, she accidentally knocks over the plate from the rack, and it shatters upon hitting the floor. Ruby and I take this as a cue that we should leave. So do Rose and Greg. And so all four of us leave the beach house to try to give Pearl some space.
"Uh, maybe we should just stop by and see how Peri is doing," Ruby suggests.
"Wait, who's Peri?" Greg asks her.
"Dude, Peri is our friend who's, like, really into filmmaking. She's an amateur at this stuff, but she's been getting better."
"Oh, cool. I'd like to meet her."
"Well, c'mon, man! Let's go!"
Ruby grabs Greg by the arm and proceeds to drag him the whole way over to Peri's condo. Rose and I follow them as we leave the beach behind and make our way up to higher ground. Some time passes before we finally make it to Peri's condo.
"Well, here we are!" Ruby announces once we've made it to Peri's front door. "And now to make ourselves known..."
Ruby loudly knocks on the door, not so much as a sign of anger but as more of a reminder that she can't really do anything quietly. We wait a few moments before Peri opens the door.
"Can I help you?" Peri asks while sounding annoyed. "And just who is this long-haired man with you?"
"Oh, you didn't hear?" Greg replies with another question. "I'm Greg Universe, and I'm going to be a rock star. Prepare to have your world rocked!"
Peri doesn't seem all that impressed. "That's nice. Did you guys just come here to visit me?"
"Yeah," I reply. "Why do you ask?"
"Oh, no particular reason," Peri replies back. "I guess I just wasn't expecting visitors today."
"Well, can we come in?" Rose asks. "Our friend is going through a tough time right now. We want to make sure to give her space."
Peri just shrugs. "Sure, I don't see why not."
"Awesome," Ruby says.
Peri lets the five of us in, and it's there that we spend most of the afternoon.
