Authors Note: I know, two chapters in a row, what madness is this? But, I really hope you guys enjoy this chapter. As always let me know what you think.

Her mind was a complete war zone by the time she got back. Wreckage, carnage, chaos and all around confusion. Mostly confusion.

Up until the final bell had rung, and even after, the blonde haired student couldn't shake what Jasper had told her in the weight room. It followed after her, hanging around her like a noose around her neck. Constantly repeating in the forefront of her mind. So prominent, so hyper focused on that conversation, Peridot hadn't even paid attention to anything in her class. Jaspers words just repeated themselves over and over to her.

About Lapis. Things about Lapis that Peridot would never have guessed.

It made her head spin with confusion. Doubt, worry, fear. She wasn't sure what she should feel, what she should believe. Some of what she had been told made perfect sense, while others didn't sound right at all. It was hard to grasp, maybe it was because she just didn't want to believe what Jasper had told her.

She wasn't even sure what got her worse. The fact that Jasper was Lapis' ex and that they had been in a blatantly obvious toxic relationship, or all the things Jasper said Lapis had done while in said relationship.

For the first time, Peridot finally understood the feeling of needing a good hard drink.

Ever grateful that her mother never locked the liquor cabinet, far too sure that Peridot wouldn't dare touch one of her bottles to bother, or just not wanting to deal with the hassle of unlocking it whenever she got home. Peridot felt she could understand her mother just a little bit more for why she would always make a beeline to the heavy drinks whenever she was home. Life was a stressful mess that would drive anyone to drink.

Grabbing a sizable bottle from the cabinet, she closed it and made her way to the couch as she cracked open the bottle. Even now, what Jasper had told her still echoed in her mind, words, statements, accusations, yelling until her head hurt. She took a long swig of the whiskey, coughing a little as the burn ran down her throat.

Stay away from Lapis, for your own safety. She's not as great as she makes you think.

Peridot squeezed her eyes shut as she made herself comfortable on the couch. Drawing her knees up to her chest as she cradled the bottle in her hands.

Lapis is manipulative and controlling, she wants absolute control, and if she doesn't get it, she lashes out.

Honestly? She had never once seen Lapis ever get angry, and it was hard to imagine her as someone who was big on control. But, she had to admit she didn't know Lapis nearly as well as Jasper seemed to. Apparently, some of the scars Jasper had were even from Lapis' 'lash outs', the athlete said she'd thrown a vase at her once and a few plates as well.

She couldn't see Lapis doing that.

Lapis would get suspicious if I didn't tell her where I was, would accuse me of cheating. I'd be locked out of our own home during rainstorms. She'd throw things at me, tear me at my weak points with the right words.

Trust me when I say you don't want to be with her more than you have to.

But Peridot did want to be with her, far too much then she should, and she hated herself for it. She wanted to, but shouldn't and she felt fucking disgusting for this stupid crush and longing she had for her own teacher.

Angrily Peridot tilted her head back and began emptying the whiskey into her mouth, ignoring the burn it left in its wake as it went down her throat.

She's a monster. You can't handle her, I'm the only one who ever was able to take the fits, the verbal and physical attacks.

Even after hearing Jasper's story, it pissed her off. That she'd call Lapis a monster, even after hearing Jasper talk about what Lapis did to her, she felt a swell of anger hearing her insult the blue-haired artist like that. Who was she to judge, anyway? Maybe Peridot could handle what Lapis had to dish out! Maybe she could handle it so well that Lapis wouldn't even do it! Maybe it was all lies, all the things Jasper had said about Lapis, she'd not seen Lapis act remotely like what Jasper said she was like.

She continued angrily drinking the whiskey, pulling back to cough as it went down wrong. How was her mother able to just down these things like water? Shaking that thought off, she went back to drinking. It was supposed to make the confusion go away, make her feel better, right? That's what her mother always implied it did. Maybe if she drank enough, she could stop thinking.

The problem was, though, that Peridot was a first-time drinker. She didn't have a grasp on just how strong whiskey was, nor did she have any idea of her own limits and when she should stop drinking. She just kept drinking, hoping to drink herself numb. Time eventually began to blur for her. The weather had taken a turn for a worse as it started raining, storming even, and by this point, the bottle was empty beside her and she'd cracked open another one. Atop of that, she was very, very drunk.

Unfortunately, her plan of drinking her thoughts away didn't work. The alcohol only seemed to make everything worse.

She still couldn't decide if she wanted to believe Jasper or not on what she had said about Lapis. Peridot had never seen her act violently, had never seen her as a jealous, controlling person. The woman had always shown her with respect, if not teasing her a bit much. She liked when Lapis teased her, even if she wouldn't admit it sober.

Groaning, Peridot began hitting her head with her free hand. "Shuddup," she spat at herself, "Shouldn't be thinking like that. Disgusting, she's your teacher, an't top it off, apparently an abuser too!" she scolded herself, though it was futile. Her words slurred together a bit and she let out a loud, dramatic groan as she threw herself back against the couch. "Sick… I'm sick or something," she muttered as she took a small sip of her new bottle. She wasn't even sure what kind of alcohol she was drinking now. But it didn't taste nearly as strong as the first bottle.

Even after being told by Jasper what Lapis had done, she still liked her. How messed up did she have to be to like her regardless of what she'd done, and might do to her?

"Don't know fer sure if wha Chalke...Chala...donny… fuck it, Jasp. Dunno if Jasps was being honest," she reasoned with herself. But, why would someone lie about being abused by someone? That didn't make sense, right?

Her head hurt just thinking about it. Maybe she could ask Lapis about it.

No, no, no. She shouldn't ask Lapis. Lapis might be pissed off if Peridot asked and it turned out Jasper was lying, because who wants to be accused of hurting their girlfriend… ex-girlfriend. And if it was right, maybe Lapis would lie and say that she didn't.

"Ugh, this is stupid!" Peridot yelled, throwing her hands into the air. Some of the drink sloshed out of the bottle and hit her in the face, making her let out another frustrated cry.

It took her a few minutes to calm down. In those few minutes, her phone began to buzz on the coffee table. She let the texts alerts go for a minute before rolling over on the couch. She grabbed her phone, lazily looking to see the text messages listed. It was a simple 'Answer your phone'. When she saw Yellow Demon as the sender, she felt her heart stop and the bottle almost slipped from her fingers.

Sitting up quickly, she fought back a wave of nausea that washed over her at the sudden motion, and instead focused on her phone. A moment later she had it up against her ear, listening to the message her mother had left her while Peridot had been too drunk to bother answering the phone. She swallowed a hard lump in her throat, her heart beating loudly.

A few seconds passed.

A beep.

"Peridot, you had best have a very good reason to have not answered the phone," her mother sounded very annoyed right off the bat. Not a good sign. Never a good sign. Peridot's hands shook as she listened. "I will be coming home tonight, I expect the house to be spotless when I walk through that door."

The usual order she got whenever her mother announced her arrival ahead of time. Peridot cast a glance around the living room. It wasn't filthy but it wasn't near the high level of expectations her mother had for how clean it should be.

"There are some things that have come to my attention," a pause, a silence, Peridot felt chills run up her spine. Her mother's tone was colder than usual. "You and I are going to have a long talk when I arrive."

The phone beeped. The message ended.

Though it had only been not even thirty seconds, it had still been the most chilling, jarring thirty seconds of her life.

Panic bubbled up in her chest as she listened to the message. Her mother was coming home. Her mother was coming home . Oh God, oh God, she didn't sound happy at all in the message. Peridot did something wrong, she fucked up somehow. Shit, shit, shit. Why now, why today? This was the worse day she could have come on.

She must have gotten a hold of Peridot's grades, noticed how they'd started to slip and was pissed . Maybe she knew Peridot got into her whiskey.

Didn't matter why she was coming home, what mattered was that she was coming home at all. Tonight. She was going to be home tonight. It was only an hour or two of a drive, but who knew how soon she actually would be? Oh God, oh God, oh God. This was happening too fast. First, the drama with Lapis, now her mother of all people was coming home!

Peridot scrambled to get off the couch. Her heart was racing. Terror coursed through her veins as she blinked back tears. She was screwed, just from the tone of Diane Diamante's voice, Peridot knew she was completely and utterly fucked. Her life was over.

Trying to control her breathing, Peridot looked desperately around the living room for an answer to her salvation. She spotted her backpack.

It had to have been the alcohol. There was no way she would have done something like this if she hadn't been as drunk as she was. But panic took over, her fight or flight instincts rearing their heads and she chose flight. She'd grabbed her backpack, raced to her room on wobbling legs and just stuffed a change of clothes into it before practically falling down the stairs on her way back down.

Her mother was going to be even more pissed off when she came home and Peridot wasn't there, but, she didn't want to know what Yellow Diamond would do if she came home and found Peridot drunk. Found that she had gotten into her alcohol.

She'd be skinned if Diane found out.

Putting on the backpack, Peridot grabbed both the empty bottle and the one she'd just opened. She'd have to dispose of them somewhere out of the house. Destroy the evidence.

Taking one last glance at the house, she opened the door and ran out into the pouring rain as fast as her legs would carry her.

Lapis had been a nervous wreck.

Since her altercation with Jasper in the hall, she was certain that the woman was going to tell Peridot about their past relationship. Not just tell Peridot, but exaggerate. Twist what had happened to pain Lapis as a villain. Lie and omit crucial facts so that the blonde would look at her with disgust and hate.

She should have just gone after Peridot instead of retreating after her argument with Jasper. She knew that Jasper wasn't going to admit to all the things she'd done to Lapis, not to Peridot, not if she wanted to keep her and Peridot apart. But, she sure as Hell would tell the blonde everything Lapis had done and ignored that Lapis had been working hard to get better .

The rain was pouring hard as she lingered outside the convenience store. Hands shaking in her pockets as she looked to the sky. She liked the rain, especially when she was stressed and anxious like she was today. Water always helped calm her nerves, and it did soothe her a little. Not nearly enough to cleanse her of her fear of what would happen when she saw Peridot next. But, a little was better than nothing.

She'd gone out in the rain to hit up a convenience store. It was something to do to try and clear her mind, she'd even chosen to walk rather than drive just so that she could have more time out in the rain.

Her mind was still swirling with worst case scenarios, but, she was a bit calmer than she was at home.

Whatever damage Jasper had caused, Lapis just hoped she could make amends and fix it all. She didn't want to lose whatever it was she had with the girl. Peridot was… Peridot was important to her in a way she hadn't expected her to become when she first took an interest in the blonde. She almost wanted to laugh thinking about it. When she first saw Peridot, all she wanted was to tease her, fluster her, maybe her intentions hadn't been the best at first, nor the purest for a teacher. But, now that she actually got to know Peridot, she didn't want to lose her.

Peridot gave her a reason to keep from falling back into that violent, awful pit she climbed out of. Lapis hated to admit it, but, she had a feeling that she would have ended up back in Jasper's arms and back into that awful relationship if she hadn't forged a friendship with Peridot. She wanted to be a good person for the blonde, and she didn't understand why she cared so much, but, she did.

"Just… don't let her hate me," Lapis murmured as she walked along the sidewalk, plastic bag in hand. She could take the avoidance, but she couldn't take Peridot actively hating her after whatever it was that Jasper said to her that day.

Breathing in deeply, Lapis quickened her steps down the path. She wasn't too far from home, but the rain was just coming down harder. The kind of rain that a person could easily get pneumonia in if they stayed out in it too long. The art teacher didn't have any intention of getting sick tonight.

However, as she was passing a park, Lapis found herself coming to a slow stop as she looked over at the playsets and trees. Rather, a figure slumped against one of the trees. Frowning and biting her cheek, Lapis glanced away, back in the direction she'd been walking, and then back at the figure sitting out in the rain, wondering what she should do.

Something might be wrong with them, she thought to herself, it wouldn't hurt to see if they were okay.

With that, Lapis turned and stepped into the park, cringing slightly as she felt her shoes dig into the soaked ground. But she kept walking forward, slow and cautious to the person sitting against the tree. The closer she got the more details she could make out. They were pretty small, legs drawn up against their chest as they rested their head on it, hood over their head to offer protection from the rain. Maybe a kid. It was hard to make out much more details in the dark and the rain both obscuring her vision.

"Hey," Lapis said slowly and softly, crouching down beside them, "Are you oka…" she trailed off as she noticed the messenger bag beside them. The familiar faded colors, though pretty wet from the rain, and the familiar buttons. She looked back up at the person who was now staring at her with just as surprised of an expression at seeing Lapis as she had at seeing her. " Peridot? What, what are you doing out here?"

The blonde blinked, glasses lenses covered in water and probably incredibly blurry at this point. She offered a small, sheepish smile, Lapis could smell alcohol on her breath, "Hey… Lapis. Fancy meeting you here."