"Excuse me?" Peridot blinked, not sure if her senses were working right.
"Um, do you know what the word 'hang out' means?" Lapis asked again, blankly. "I want to hang out with you, Peridot. You're a cool chick."
They stood in the kitchen as they wrapped up this latest tutoring session, the fourth one so far, and Peridot (thanks to Amethyst's pep talks) had calmed her anxiety enough to hold actual conversations with this actual living goddess of a woman named Lapis. They had moved on from basic Crystallography to Mineral Spectroscopy, which was marred with such terms as glide plane and halide and metasomatism, among others. Peridot could tell it bored the life out of Lapis, but nevertheless she diligently took notes and listened to Peridot's thorough explanations.
Lapis, waiting patiently for Peridot's response, sipped her Fiji water; or rather that was what it said on the label. The bottle's contents gave off a strong scent like medical ether that could be attributed to some sort of liquor, most likely vodka or un-spiced rum judging by the drink's colorless hue. Peridot had noticed this on the second session, but never brought it up out of awkwardness. 'She's been dowing goose juice in the daylight?' was Amethyst's reaction. 'Respect.'
"Uh… uh-I…" Peridot stammered. "…s-sure." She wiped beads of sweat off of her forehead, despite the room being rather chilly.
Capping the drink, Lapis smiled. "Cool. I'm free tomorrow at noon, how 'bout the fry stand on the boardwalk? My treat."
Rather than going through a mumble-fest, Peridot nodded. Lapis pulled the strap of her bag over her shoulder and dug two ten-dollar bills from her pocket, holding them out to her. When Peridot took them, she smiled again. "Alright, I'll see ya."
When the door clicked shut, Peridot looked from the money in her hand to the empty space where Lapis had stood and back again, several times in utter disbelieving silence. She barely noticed Vidalia climbing the stairs carrying Peridot's laundry basket in her arms.
"Was that Lapis leaving?" She asked. Peridot emitted a small squeak of response, staring ahead blankly. Vidalia stopped. "Hun? You okay?"
Another tiny noise from Peridot, but nothing else. Vidalia put down the basket and shook her shoulder gently, bringing her out of her shocked trance. Peridot met her eyes. "Sorry, I must have spaced out for a minute." She swallowed, cramming the money into her hoodie pocket. "I'm fine."
"Good," Vidalia said, patting her. "'Cause you looked like, I don't know, Lapis asked you out a date or something."
Peridot's face burned red and she looked away. Vidalia's eyes widened and she dropped her hand.
"No. No way," She gasped, and Peridot responded by pursing her lips and folding her arms, still avoiding her gaze. Vidalia replaced her hands on Peridot's shoulders and vibrated madly.
"Oh my GOD! Peridot! Your first da-" She squealed, but was interrupted.
"It's not a date!" She denied, beginning to wonder if it was a date. "We're just… hanging out." But Vidalia could see through her and called her on it.
"Dot, kiddo, you're going through the same spiel I did with my mom when I first got asked out. Cut the shit sweetheart, and spill." She deadpanned. Peridot knew there was no avoiding it. Without knowing, she began to smile slightly and finally turned to face her.
"Well…"
True to her word, Peridot arrived on the boardwalk at noon the next day, in front of Beach Citywalk Fries. She was dressed in a light green skirt, forgoing her usual lime jacket for a green tye-dye shirt. After a long battle with her foster mother Peridot allowed her to clip a small green bow into her hair, although she admitted to herself it did look cute. She waited by the Hot-2-Tot stand, glancing at her phone. It was actually a bit before noon, 11:42 AM. Her thoughts were a whirlwind of nervous tangents of what ever could go wrong, and it did not please her one bit. So when she heard her name being called, it had the sort of bowel-freezing effect she had expected it to.
"Yo! Peridot!"
She turned, and was both heavily disappointed and very relieved. Amethyst approached her, laden with a Tupperware container and a manilla folder, smiling like her face was about to crack in half. "What'cha doing, Peri?"
"Hey Amethyst." She replied, happy to be in the presence of someone she wasn't attracted to and therefore could act like a normal human being around. "You look happy today. Like, even happier than normal."
She nodded, and opened the plastic box. Inside was a collection of tasty looking brownies, cut into perfect squares. "Brownie?" She offered. "Connie made them. I'm just on my way back from her house."
Peridot hadn't much of an appetite due to her debilitating anxiety, but couldn't seem to resist the wafting smell of warm chocolate rising from the box. She took one. "Thanks," She said, before taking a bite. They really did taste as good as they smelled. There were definite hints of fudge, and something else she couldn't quite place. "How is Steven?" Peridot asked through a mouth full of chocolate.
"Oh, he's good. Really good…" She answered, eyeing the folder in her hands with something that looked like evil intent. Peridot very quickly picked up on this as she swallowed the last bit of her brownie.
"What's in the folder?" She asked after finishing the treat. Mentioning the folder seemed to perk Amethyst up even more, if that was even possible.
She smiled deviously. "Sorry, P-Dot, but that's classified info. Can't tell you right now…" She looked down at her watch. "Oh, crap!" She jumped, quickly covering the box of brownies. "I gotta run. I'll see you later!" She called, hurrying away. Peridot waved back to her, and went back to waiting for Lapis to arrive.
She watched the people passing on the boardwalk. Mr. Smiley, who owned and operated Funland. Jamie the mailman, walking with another man whom Peridot didn't know exactly, only that he drove a really nice yellow car. Her little brother Onion, whom she waved to as he passed. She wasn't sure how long she amused herself this way until she checked her phone.
12:17 PM, and still no Lapis.
Peridot wondered if maybe the whole thing was for nothing. Maybe Lapis blew her off, realizing she wouldn't be caught dead with her. Or maybe it was a daydream, and she never actually asked her out at all. Or maybe…
"Peridot!"
…she was coming up to her right now. When Peridot moved to face the sound of her voice, she nearly had a heart attack. There Lapis was, in running gear. Fitness shorts, tennis shoes, her hair tied into a ponytail, and a sports bra, leaving her toned body for the whole world to see. It was almost too much to bear- Peridot's eyes were surely going to melt out of their orbits before the rest of her went as well. It was like Baywatch; Lapis seemed to be running in slow motion, her breasts rising and falling with her strides, her long and flawless legs bare, the definition of her lower stomach reaching past the waistband of her shorts...
Peridot managed to remain alive for the twelve-and-a-half seconds it took for Lapis to reach her, though just barely. Lapis didn't seem to notice the look of absolute awe that occupied the green gal's face. "Have you been waiting long?" She inquired.
A fuse had blown in her brain, and yet Peridot felt her mouth form the response, and her vocal chords verbalize it.
"Not at all." It came out so fluidly, as if it were poised on her lips the entire time. "You look nice." Again, it slipped out without much thought.
Lapis smiled. "Easy, now." She seemed much more cheerful now than in their tutoring sessions, and Peridot did not fail to pick up on that. Seeing Lapis smile seemed to relax her quite a bit, and she could feel her anxieties begin to ebb away.
"So," Peridot suggested, gesturing to the fry shop. "Fries, then?" Why was she so worried in the first place? Just talk. Like a person.
They both ordered a medium basket of fries and Lapis slapped two fives onto the counter from some unknown pocket in her tight track shorts. They leaned up by the tot stand and began to eat, Peridot's stomach unshrinking and growling in hunger. Lapis had only finished half of her order when the last fried stick of potato disappeared from Peridot's basket.
"Hungry?" Lapis asked, grinning. She nodded astutely as she tossed the empty tray into a bin and continued to lean back into the stand beside her date. Peridot suddenly found her attention wandering away from the eye-candy next to her and brought her gaze back to the boardwalk. There was just so many people, just doing their thing. The way that made her feel, connected to them, seemed to create a bubbling sensation in her gut that filled her with an ethereal sort of happiness. It was complimented by the subtle scent of lilac somewhere in the air. She turned back to Lapis with a serene smile on her face.
It was hard, to say the least, for Peridot to understand why she had been so nervous around the taller woman before. It was like someone elses memories were implanted inside her gray matter and lingered just beyond her conscious awareness. She didn't stare, but simply drank in the figure before her, lean muscle and flawless golden-brown skin that sat below the face of a goddess. Lapis caught her eye and chuckled, swallowing down the last of her meal.
"Something wrong, Dot?" She asked. Peridot softly shook her head no and looked away into the cerulean horizon. "You seem different today. Happier." She added.
"I feel happier," Peridot replied. Noticing Lapis had finished her fries, she motioned to the wooden boardwalk ahead of them. "Wanna walk?"
Lapis nodded. "Yeah." She said, putting her tray into the trash. They strolled past the shops at their own pace, not saying much for a while. Peridot noted that Lapis had the intoxicating effect of preventing her mind from lingering on any one subject for too long. And the lilac - oh god the lilac - it was coming from her. She had probably just jogged miles in the summer sun and still she smelled like fucking lilac.
"I remember you," Peridot said abruptly. "I think we used to hang out as kids." When she looked to Lapis' face, there was the slightest of red tinged in her cheeks.
"I… didn't think you'd remember that." She admitted after a short silence. They rounded the corner of the boardwalk and continued down the sidewalk of Chestnut Road, towards U-Stor Self Storage. "But I don't think we ever hung out hung out… you were busy with your other friends, I just tagged along."
"I wish we would have," Peridot countered almost instantly. She looked directly at Lapis when she said this, with no sense of awkwardness or hesitance, and that deepened the blush on her face. The bubbling feeling was stronger now, and Peridot could swear she was floating, or walking on air. "I think I was stupid not to."
There was a blaring honk as the two women nearly stepped into an intersection and became projectiles bouncing off of a moving car. Lapis stumbled and fell backward, but Peridot just widened her eyes slightly, barely fazed. The driver gave them a 'motorist's salute' in the form of an outstretched middle finger before continuing out of sight on the interstate.
"That was close!" Peridot put mildly. She reached out a hand to the fallen Lapis, who took it after a moment. Even after she felt solid ground beneath her running shoes, their hands remained clasped for what was unusually too long. The bubbling in Peridot's stomach rapidly approached a rolling boil and charged lightning replaced the blood in her veins. The corner of her mouth twitched, and Peridot, who could, in that moment, see the path of fate as it stretched toward the horizon, gave the hand she held a light squeeze.
I'm sorry about the gap in updates, I'll try to be less sporadic with them.