PROLOGUE :

Was it the hot June sun beating down that made everything seem so warped or was this a new reality all together? This world was strange, and loud, and had enough spirit to be considered slightly haunted. Bright colors ran past her in flashes and the once familiar streets beneath her feet were now coated with glitter and streamers beyond recognition. As impossible as it was, the young woman was honestly considering a Party City store might have been lifted into the atmosphere and in the process tipped on it's side spilling it's contents onto Beach City beneath it.

Pearl's conspiracy theory was shattered as a bike swerved to the right of her and blasted its' air horn, she couldn't believe she'd taken off work for this. She had never been one for crowds, if it were up to her she'd take the first opportunity to turn tail and flee to lock herself in the most solitary place she could find. Like an abandoned bomb shelter, a bomb shelter would be nice right now. But, it wasn't up to her for she was being dragged through this maze of bright colors and deafening sounds by the arm of her supposed "best friend". Instead of an escape, the introverted college student would just have to nurse her third dixie cup of street vender sangria, said "best friend" had so strongly suggested she purchase, and pray for liquid courage. Hell, forget courage, she'd accept tolerance at this point.

It wasn't fair for her to say her friend was forcing her to do something against her will. Pearl knew that Rose meant well. But Rose was the explorer of the two, and Pearl was the careful planner. It had been that way since sophomore year of high-school. The carefree optimist acted without thinking, from dying her hair pink on a whim, to bringing a girl to homecoming and a guy to prom. But when her boldness failed or got her into trouble, loyal Pearl would come up with a way to make everything right again. In return, Rose would push Pearl out of her comfort zone from time to time and get her to try new things. If it wasn't for the sometimes demanding expectations Rose pressured her with to keep an open mind, Pearl would never have dabbled in journalism. Now she was a part time reporter/blogger for The City Wave, Beach City's' third most read newspaper. It may sound like a unbalanced deal to an outsider, but Pearl cherished that dynamic more than anything. It was exactly that caring and spontaneous nature that had caused Pearl to hopelessly fall for her in the past six years.

Pearl winced and finished off her cup letting it drop to the ground. She normally wouldn't litter, especially not in the company of her friend, the Beach City Environmental Committee President. But, then again, Pearl still had a tinge of jealousy fueled anger towards Rose and perhaps doing a small part in destroying one of her many loves in life was poetic justice in a way. No, she wasn't petty enough to hold a grudge over being dragged to a street fair, in fact ,what she held she'd hardly consider a grudge.

Unrequited love. Pearl wondered how many people in this crowd had been unfortunate enough to feel how she felt deep down. She looked at the faces running past her, all these people of all walks of life celebrating the freedom to have such an unstable and fruitless pain. Celebrating it almost seemed sarcastic. Since coming out as a lesbian last winter she had only witnessed pain and rejection. Rose, of course, had known since the summer of their junior year and didn't mind. She identified as bisexual herself. But, Pearl had waited to come out to her parents for four years previous. She had been so scared to come out because of her family's strong ties to christianity. It took Mr& long enough to be comfortable with the fact their darling Pearl wanted to be a scientist, she was pretty sure she'd be considered the spawn of Satan himself if she ever did admit to being attracted to women as well. She was wrong, she was not labeled the child of a devil, but she was disowned.

That meant Pearl could no longer afford Delmarva University and had to drop out just three semesters away from acquiring a Bachelor's in Liberal Science . Which meant she could no longer live in the dorms with a food plan. In her time of need, Rose and her fiance,Greg,had been kind enough to take her in. Greg was a kind guy, he even had helped her enroll in community college so she could continue her education as well as helped her find a job at a factory clothing outlet store in the mall. Greg was warm, and kind hearted, and very relaxed on when Pearl paid him her percentage of the rent, but it didn't change the fact that she now had to watch Rose shower him with the affection Pearl had always wished would be hers. Pearl couldn't hate Greg, though she would swear up and down Rose could do better, but that didn't mean she wasn't known to occasionally passively insult him. She felt guilty about her resentment for her best friends' happiness, but she knew it would be wrong to purposefully break them up for her own happiness. And so, currently she lived in a house so full of love, but had none herself.

Rose had been very supportive in the transition as well. But, despite her efforts, Pearl's current depression remained hard to shake. Rose still tried to pull her friend out of her funk after the sixth months she'd been staying with them. As far as Pearl was concerned, this street fair was just another attempt. Rose had been bugging her about coming to this "Pride Parade" with her for weeks. Constantly saying that these were her people now, and they would always accept her. She didn't know any of these people, and quite honestly she didn't want to, but for some reason she had reluctantly agreed to come. She'd then easily accepted Roses' offer to buy the first drink, it hadn't mattered to her at the time if the street vender had the right qualifications and passed health inspections, she just knew she needed a drink and the sangria had gone down like water. Somewhere along the way Rose had also bought her a "Born This Way" cape, a rainbow colored fake mohawk which took up close to her entire head, a sparkly superhero mask, a multi colored boa, and a "Closets Are For Clothes" shirt. All of which Pearl had somehow come to now wear somewhere in the past glass. It was all part of what Rose called "Coming Out In Style." She herself had bought and adorn a "Switch Hitter" shirt in pink,blue,and violet.

Pearl felt herself being pulled abruptly through a hole in the crowd and emerged at a metal fence like barrier. In front of her the main event, the parade, was carrying on down Main Street. But, a disheartened Pearl could only grasp the metal bar and look down at the street. This wasn't working for her, Rose could see that and crossed her arms on the bar next to her.

"Hey." She tried to comfort her ill friend. "You can't be this down and look that fabulous."

Pearl scuffed and kicked the barrier gently with her foot. "Got some bad news for you Rose, I'm afraid I can."

Rose groaned "You're impossible you know that? You could have any girl here and you just want to wallow in your self pity. Try to live a little!"

Pearl shook her head. "I can't have any girl here."

Rose laughed . "Well sure you could! You're amazing Pearl!"

Pearl looked up abruptly with a cross look across her tightened lips. "I CAN'T HAVE ANY GIRL HERE!"

Rose wasn't going to take that tone, no matter how drunk Pearl might be right now. "What are you yelling at me for?! I'm just trying to be your friend! And I'm doing a damn good job at it may I admit!"

Pearl gritted her teeth. Friends was exactly the problem. If Rose was this oblivious than she should just stop trying. There was no one like Rose, no one that made her feel the way Rose did. " Fine then! Pick a girl! Any girl! I'll prove I can't get her!"

"FINE!" Rose looked out at the parade and pointed at an old Chevrolet turned into a float with a few people hanging off its' platform seats. "See that one in the silver bow tie! Go Get her!"

Pearls eyes locked in on her target. "I will!" With that Pearl pushed up onto the barrier and climbed over it. Her landing wasn't so smooth as she stumbled upon impact but she recovered.

"Shit! Pearl! I didn't mean it! Get back here!" Rose grabbed her arm but Pearl shook it loose.

"No! I'm gonna go be ...INCOMPETENT!" Oh no, Pearl had used improper grammar and was too intoxicated to realize it. Even worse, she had now started to take off across the Parade to catch up to the Chevrolet. A police officer had taken notice and was gaining on her as she stumbled along side of her target. She nearly tripped over herself when she saw the bow tie girl on the back of the car laughing at her and offering her a hand up. She gripped that offer as if her life depended on it and her new accomplice lifted her up onto the car making the cop stop running. For once in her life, Pearl accepted a ride from a complete stranger, and had been in a police chase. Her heart was pounding, the girl next to her was still laughing.

"Maybe next time buy your own ride if you want in. But I'm totally with you! DOWN WITH THE SYSTEM!" The stranger gave a victorious holler and raised her opposite fist high into the sky. Pearl just stared. The adrenaline still pounding through her head. This girl didn't seem to care at all that she didn't know Pearl, she was just enjoying herself and still holding Pearls' hand holding it up to wave to the citizens who still remained behind the metal barricades.

The Stranger had the silver bow tie around her neck but no collared shirt to hide it's velcro strap. She was wearing party shutter shades which Pearl could have sworn went out of style when she was in seventh grade. She had long, waist length hair that had obviously been striped of all natural color to a grayish white but had been temporarily and sporadically been worked on with multi colored hair chalk and contrasted nicely against her dark tan skin. If Pearl was to guess her ethnicity right now, she'd have to say the girl was closely related to the Taino peoples of the Caribbean. The stranger was wearing a silver and black suit vest over a grey baby-doll t shirt that had the words "Significant Otter" and a picture of the aquatic mammal. Pearl used her free hand to cover a chuckle, she swore puns would be the death of her someday. But she did have to admit, the t-shirt was just tight enough to show off the curves of her follow law obstructor. Her drunken stare followed the curves down to the stranger's hips where the shirt gave way to a pair of tight black jeans laced up on each leg like sneakers with rainbow shoelaces.

Behind her cheap plastic eye protection the stranger noticed Pearl looking her over and had to admit she'd been doing that same to her new guest. "Hey 'Clothes Are For Closets'! First time I'm guessing!"

Pearl quickly snapped out of her curves induced coma and looked up nodding as a slight blush crept across her face for being caught. At the same time the MC of the parade put on a track everyone was all too familiar with and the crowd began to roar off-key.

The stranger tried to start a conversation. "Are you enjoying yourself so far?!"

Pearl was struggling to make out her words over the crowd. "WHAT!?"

"I SAID ARE YOU ENJOYING YOURSELF SO FAR?"

Pearl's not sure if she really heard what she did or if she had just heard what she wanted to hear. She bit her lip and replied with a slur. "I THINK YOU'RE VERY ATTRACTIVE TOO!"

The stranger laughed leaning her head back then centered herself and kissed Pearls' hand chastely. "WHY THANK YOU LADY BUT YOU HAVE PUT FAR TOO MANY DRINKS TO YOUR LIPS THIS EVENING!"

Pearls brazen buzz forgot about the bet for somehow her liquid courage had finally hit her. She smirked. "I'D RATHER PUT SOMETHING ELSE TO MY LIPS THIS EVENING!"

The bow tied stranger grinned. "COME AND GET IT THEN!"

Pearl wasn't one to back away from this challenge and snuck her free hand past the strangers' chin grabbing the back of her neck, her fingers running through the thick flowing mane far different from her own hidden pixie cut. The stranger was taken by surprise and let out a short gasp as Pearl pulled her in close. She smelled wonderful, warm, exotic, Pearl bent her head down and placed a short sensual kiss on the girl's lips. Past Pearl's ability to taste her own alcohol on her lips, this new girl tasted wonderfully fruity. The stranger kissed her back wrapping her free arm around Pearls waist and Pearl nearly climbed into her lap but the crowd's roars of approval caused Pearl to pull away self consciously.

Pearl blushed looking at the stranger's askew but still intact shades as she laughed.

"Wow! Not bad newly out! How about one more for instagram?!"

Pearl nodded, who cared about social media, that was the best thing she'd had in a long time! A little more of the strangers passion couldn't be so bad right? Man, she was not thinking coherently, or straight. The stranger pulled out their phone and wrapped her arm around Pearls waist again pulling her into another kiss as she snapped what was apparently called a "Selfie". Pearl melted into this new girl's free roaming lips and hands determined to stop her if she got too intimate but she didn't. They broke apart briefly and the bow tied kisser prompted Pearl to stand up with her, clenching her hand in a victory pose lifting them above their heads as the crowd cheered at the gay affection. Pearl looked at the happy people below her finally feeling like she could call them her peers. Camera flashes from the crowd and cheers caused her to salute from her sparkly mask out and lean her head back laughing. Truly, genuinely laughing. Then she was pulled off the float.

Rose practically pulled her friend's arm off. The stranger did not let go easy but retracted her hand when the crowd rushed the float as it approached the end of the parade. Rose hooked her arm with Pearls' and walked away with her, Pearl still in a drunken dreamlike haze didn't put up much resistance. The whole way back to the car Rose was lecturing Pearl on her recent behavior.

"What has gotten into you!" She asked her screwy stumbling friend.

"L-O-V-E!" Pearl replied with a giggle.

"That's not love Pearl! That's a stranger! On a parade float! That you boarded illegally! On a dare! While drunk! This isn't you Pearl!"

"Funny." She hiccuped. "I think I know that I'm Pearl."

The car ride back to the apartment was silent and full of passive disapproval from her friend. But Pearl was feeling pretty damn great. She knew she'd probably forget most of the details since she was in no ability to focus on writing a diary entry. But as she showered and collapsed onto her futon at 7pm for the night, she was sure she wouldn't regret that day. How very wrong she was….

Author Note: My famous cliffhangers. So here's what's up with this story. I'm going to explore many different genders and sexualities in this story, maybe even polyamorous relationships. I'm planning on having you guys find out a character is gender non binary pansexual. My chapters are going to be long but infrequent (sorry) but still probably not as long a break between as Eight Drinks ( of course not as good quality as Eight Drinks either). But, it won't all be sunny. There will be abuse, there will be eating disorders, there will be mental illness, there will be casual drug and alcohol use. Lots of plot, very much plot, and some intimacy of course but I'm gonna make you guys wait longer for it this time. Feel like reading more and see if I royally fuck this up, stay tuned.