Chapter 23: What makes us
Peridot awoke with a start. Quickly sitting up, as if she was ready to fight whatever imaginary demon was there at the moment, she found her head getting dizzy. Her vision rapidly became blurry and fuzzy, the stars that filled her eyes looked like a never ending universe. With a thud she flopped back down onto her hard dorm room bed. The pillow behind her head was the only thing saving her from a concussion in that very moment. Peri let out a sigh of defeat as if she was aware that her day was forced to start over again. As she grabbed her phone from her side table she caught the glimpse of a candle burning in a corner.
"Shit" She hissed out through her teeth. She had forgotten to put the candle flame out from the night before letting the candle burn out. All that was left was a pitiful display of flames. It was as if the flames that were left over were grasping on to anything for dear life. As she gave the last final flames there goodbye she gave a good strong blow to send the flames flying into the abyss. Setting the candle on her desk again she finally had the opportunity to look at the time.
1:00 PM
Peridot winced at the time a little bit. Sure it was her day off and she was no stranger to sleeping in but she was determined to wake up before noon at least everyday this semester. She fumbled with the phone in her still tired state. Numerous times she tried putting in her passcode only to have it fail.
3721
3712
3722
3711
Finally though she got it on the fourth attempt. Opening the phone sent a blast of notifications coming through the phone. Most of the notifications had the pleasure of being text from Pearl checking if she was awake or not yet. The others were from mobile games and apps that truthfully she hadn't opened in a week or so since she downloaded them. She got into a bad habit back in middle school of downloading an app because she was bored only to play it once or twice and letting it rest on her phone eating away at what little data storage she had left. After clearing all the notifications and letting Pearl know the situation she scrolled back to her home page and found Spotify. Scrolling through her playlist she landed on a Road Trip to Tokyo. Peridot had always wanted to go and visit tokyo. She wanted to see the amazing towns like Shibuya and Osaka. But for now she had to by her time and pass college.
Hoping in the shower she couldn't help but jump as the cold water splashed her back. Feeling out the water until it was comfortable enough to relax in was enough exercise for the small teen. The shower went about as routine as you expect it to go. Body wash, Brush out hair, Shampoo, more body wash, brush again, little bit of conditioner and then done. No matter what she did to her hair after her shower she always had the mess of tangled and frizzy hair on top of her head. It had been a while since Peri had gone to get a nice haircut. She was always scared that the barber would mess up her hair with some crazy cut.
After pulling out a random assortment of clothes from her less than organized drawers she ended up with the same combination of clothes that she usually found herself wearing each day. Some form of graphic t-shirt from a show that she liked. This time it was a Camp Pining Hearts special edition tee that she won. An oversized grey sweatshirt that covered the tee anyways. And finally a random pair of jeans that could have been the same pair she wore yesterday.
She stumbled around trying to figure out what to grab to eat for "breakfast". She usually hated grabbing anything to eat right after she woke up. The most breakfast-like food that she buys is some pop tarts that she will snack on every so often. Reaching into the box on the shelf she could only help but feel around. Since she couldn't reach the cabinet she had to touch and feel for all of her food. It could be embarrassing at some points but she has dealt with it for most of her life that it has become a part of who she is by this point. As her fingers felt around inside of the box of poptarts she could make out two packages left. Taking one out she found herself actually looking at the package the manufactured pastries were in. In the reflection of the shiny wrapping she could see her face. Warped with the wrinkles that formed in the package over time. Her face was stretched out to the lengths that you would usually see in a funhouse mirror. The look on her face was stagnant. No smile. No frown. Her eyes didn't seem to show any emotion. Behind the glasses that framed her face well, were those same emerald green eyes that someone had given her. Was it her parents genes combined to give her that deep of a color. She knew her mother had yellow eyes so did that mean that her father had the deepest shade of green known to man hiding in his eyes. The nose she had never questioned looked like a stranger had found a place onto her face. It looked nothing like her mothers, it was small and not very plump, the curve of the nose fit her glasses and her face scarily. Why did everything about Peridot not resemble anything to her mother's features? Peridot's mother was a towering figure, in heels she reached to a height of 6 feet and 2 inches. Yet Peridot herself only 5 feet and 3 inches on a good day, 5 feet 2 inches on every other day.
She grabbed the remainder of her things and headed out the door. Rushing down the dorms stairwell two steps at a time she reached the bottom floor in record speed. Looking down at her smart watch she was counting down the seconds in her mind.
60
59
58
She raced out of the dorm house and ran into the main quad. At that moment she didn't care if people were staring or questioning. She was going to wear the bottoms of her vans out if she kept doing this.
50
49
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47
The seconds ticked by even faster as she ran into the main campus. Ducking and weaving in and out of people trying her best to not run into anyone along the way. Seeing the judgemental eyes from the passing classrooms didn't matter at this moment.
38
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The farther into the school she got the more congested the halls became. Rushing into a side hall she ducked into a side stairwell that she usually took for emergencies only. Skipping multiple stairs at a time she slammed into the door that led outside.
23
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19
She was getting closer. Running past the people relaxing in the courtyard and the trees with freshly growing leaves she reached the edge of the campus. The only part she had to reach now was the sports complexes.
10
9
8
7
She continued to run like the wind was at her back. Slowing down only for a second once her side screamed out in pain. Taking shrill and short breaths she could see her target in sight. The bus stop. Her bus out of the campus was about to leave any second now.
4
3
2
1
She was too slow. Just as she ran up on the bus stop the M-8 rolled off of the stop. Her next bus wouldn't be here for another 20 minutes. She collapsed onto the bus stop's bench with exhaustion. No matter how fast she ran or what shortcuts she took it didn't matter. The bus had gone past thanks to her sleeping in again. She now had to wait for the next bus to roll into the spot. Laying on the bench she rolled over onto her back and looked up in the sky. The sun was peeking through a cloud that had just been covering it a second warm Spring sun was bouncing right off of her pale skin. The comfort of the warm sun was helping slow down the racing heart of Peri's. She couldn't place what made her able to move like that. She was never really athletic in her own right. The only sport she ever played was a little bit of soccer when she was super young. Ever since then she had focused her energy on her robotics. Her mother was too busy to be worrying about athletics. She was never a really fast or spry mother either. If Peri desperately needed too she knew she could out run her mother. That must have been another thing that she had to have gotten from her father.
Peridot doesn't have many memories of men in her life. The only true memory of any man over the age of 30 in her life, that wasn't a teacher, was right before she came to this very college. She was getting ready to pack the rest of her things into boxes when a man she had only seen every so often stopped by. Peridot just found it easier to ignore the many people who came around the house. As she slowly grew older and older the people who stopped by became nothing but shadows to her. In the house one second gone the next. Some might reappear and some might never come around again. Nothing but a subtle memory in Peri's already boring childhood. People come and go everyday she would tell herself. Nothing new in her life, nothing old. She just became accustomed to it. It has almost made her a shell of a human. Little emotion to show. Crying was almost foreign to Peri by this point. Sure a tear might roll down her cheek every so often but that's not her definition of crying. Anyways she was passing her mother's meeting room one on that fateful day. She couldn't hear much but from what she did hear she got pissed.
"Mrs. Yellow. I can't help but notice that you happen to support the petition of the ban on abortion that is being passes around the council. If you continue to support this movement we will have to pull our side of the funds."
Peridot was discussed by what she was hearing. She didn't have any strong opinions on the opinion. She just figures that life happens. But for some reason this set her off to bat. She busted into the room without a care in the world. The man towered over the small teen. Before she knew it she was getting into a yelling fight about something that if you asked her she doesn't care either way about. Yet as much as he raised her voice she raised it right back. Finally Yellow screamed over both of them. This snapped Peri out of her rage. She was mortified inside. She isnt a screamer. She hates screaming and fighting. Yet out of all the times she could have blown her lid. She found herself yelling at a random stranger that she probably wouldn't have seen again the next day.
Peridot was brought out of her memories by the sound of the next bus pulling into the spot. She quickly grabbed all of her things and rushed onto the bus along. Sitting in a window seat near the front of the bus she rested her head on the glass. The only thing she could be happy about now was that he wasn't her father. She didn't know who was. But without a doubt than man was not him.
