Collapsing on her bed, Peridot grabbed one of her pillows and quickly smothered her face in it, letting out a low and long groan.
When she got home, she had intended to tell her mother about what had happened, pick up her phone and call her, call her so that her mother could hear from her right away that she wound up in an art contest. It would have been better that way, after all, compared to her finding out through the teachers and then throwing passive aggressive shade Peridot's way for not telling her.
So, yeah, she tried to call and tell her, she really did. But, when she picked up her phone and prepared to dial the number, she just froze. Even without hitting the call button, Peridot could hear that disappointed voice telling her what a waste of time it was that she was part of such a 'trivial' contest. There was no doubt in her mind that the Diamond was going to be unhappy with this no matter what, there was nothing Peridot could say or do that would make her think better of this, and she'd be hearing those micro-aggressive remarks for a good while as she told her how disappointed she was in Peridot without out right saying "You disappoint me".
It was stressful and to keep things short, Peridot just chickened out and refrained from calling her.
It was stupid, beyond stupid, really, and Peridot was disappointed in herself for not being able to steady her nerves enough to let her own mother know she was entering a contest, even if it wasn't necessarily a contest she willingly signed up for. But, the Diamond didn't need to know the full reasons for why she signed up. God, this was stupid.
She let out another long groan when knocking echoed on her door. Slowly, she removed her pillow to look tiredly in it's direction.
"Peridot, you better be doing your homework in there," Marigold said in that annoying high and mighty tone of hers from the other side, "I want you to bring me all your assignments when you're done tonight so I can look them over."
She rolled her eyes and then rolled over in bed, "I'm working on them," she called back, well, she would get to them soon enough so it wasn't a complete lie. She waited and heard a satisfied noise from her babysitter and then the familiar clicking of designer heels as Marigold left back to another room and left Peridot in peace. The student shook her head and then looked back at her phone. It was starting to get kind of late, a good few hours since she'd last seen her, and she wondered what Lapis was up to right now.
Lapis tapped her fingers against the steering wheel impatiently and glanced up at the parking lot. Her heart was beating loudly in her chest as she swallowed a nervous lump in her throat. She couldn't believe she was doing this, actually doing this. This was stupid, she should have ignored her phone, ignored Aqua and just gone back to her own life. But, no, she just had to come out here in the dark of night to meet up with her.
Her eyes glanced behind her to where Malachite snoozed in the back seat. She'd brought her dog with her as a precaution, in case things got bad and she needed some protection. Who knew what was going to happen when Aquamarine was involved.
She could have been home in Beach City, but no, she was here at the Ocean Town airport.
Aquamarine had needed a place to stay while she was in town looking for work, and since Lapis lived here, she'd asked if she could crash with her until she got her own place and job. When Lapis had tried to sneakily decline, pointing out she didn't live in Ocean Town anymore, but had moved to Beach City for work, of course the gremlin had said that it was fine, that Beach City was where she was planning to find a job anyways. Lapis, as much as she wanted to, couldn't bring herself to outright say no to her. She'd agreed to pick Aqua up at the airport and let her stay with her.
Heaving a sigh, she slowly rested her head against the wheel. Maybe she should just go back home, Aqua was late after all, she could go home and say she assumed that Aquamarine found a different ride and didn't tell her, tell her that she waited and waited, but Aquamarine never showed up so she left, then it wouldn't be her in the wrong.
But before she could do any of that, there was tapping on the window and she gave a jump. Slowly turning she watched with tired eyes as the very same woman she hadn't been too eager to see in the first place waved at her for her to unlock the door. Lapis sent a silent prayer that she'd survive this encounter and the doors lock gave a click, a moment later it opened and Aqua slid into the passenger seat and tossed her bags into the back, narrowly missing Malachite who quickly woke up at the sudden commotion
"Thanks for picking me up," Aquamarine said with a tight smile, she still had that British accent of hers despite however many years she'd lived in the States, "it's good to see you again."
Lapis gave a small shrug, "It's no problem," she lied.
As the passenger settled into her seat, Lapis gave her a once over, taking in her appearance and how much it had changed since she'd last seen her. "Did you get that tattoo while in prison?" she asked, only half joking and motioning to the teardrop on Aquamarines cheek. She couldn't help but feel a bit of irritation that the smaller woman had copied Lapis' own tattoo design for herself, Lapis had the teardrop on her back long before Aquamarine had inked up her face. Hell, it wasn't even the tattoo that had been stolen from her style, she'd even dyed her hair blue as well and cut it short. Thank God her hairstyle was in a short bob and not the same cut that Lapis had, there was a blue ribbon in her hair, which gave her hair its own look as well.
Still, it was creepy how much of Lapis the smaller woman had seemingly copied.
"Oh, you wish. Actually I got it shortly after they let me out," Aqua said as the car started up, she was saying it so casually she might as well been talking about the weather of hte day, "A couple of friends of mine from prison, the Topaz sisters, they got out two months before me, inked me up when I got out."
She still couldn't believe that Aquamarine was out at all, a part of Lapis wished she was still behind bars so as to never bother her again for as long as they both lived. Then again, drug peddling itself didn't get you decades of time in the cell, if Lapis remembered right, Aquamarine only got five years of prison after her little drug dealing got caught. Lapis assumed she must have been let out a few months ago for parole, it could have been a year if Aqua had been behaving well, not that she believed Aquamarine would ever 'behave good'.
"So how have things been? You must have been dreadfully bored while I was away, after all I was the one who brought you all the fun" Aqua said as she leaned back in the seat, a cocky little smirk on her face that Lapis wanted to smack off her. She glanced into the back seat and reached over to pet Malachite, "Oh, hey there pooch. How's things with Jasper? You two finally tie the not yet or what?"
Lapis tightened her grip on the wheel as they reached a stoplight, "We broke up a while back, actually."
"That'd explain why you're not in Ocean Town anymore," she mused as though it weren't that big a deal, "But, it's kind of a shame, you two were just perfect for each other, an envious couple for sure. Hope whatever you've got going between you can be worked out."
The car started moving again.
Great together? Yeah, right. Aquamarine had only ever been there for the good moments, when the two could act like everything was fine and they were happy and healthy. She was never around for the screaming matches or when they started swinging fists at each other. She was never there to see the two ruining each other every way possible. Aquamarine had only seen the good, and half the time the good was just an act.
"Maybe we were, but we're not going to be getting back together, ever" Lapis said as the car pulled out onto the highway, putting them on route back to Beach City.
A silence fell over them as they drove and after a few minutes Aquamarine reached over to turn on the stereo. Lapis rolled her eyes a little as she turned up the volume on some horrible "new generation" type of music that was all about angst and drugs.
Every so often Lapis would find herself glancing over to Aqua as they drove, make sure she wasn't up to anything, make sure she was still there. She watched as Aquamarine rolled down the window on her side and pulled out a cigarette from her pocket. The smaller blue haired woman began patting down her pockets and made a face when she couldn't find what she was looking for.
"Hey, Lapis, you have a light?"
She shook her head, "Sorry, no," Lapis answered, and then she added, "I don't smoke anymore."
Aquamarine grumbled some kind of complaint under her breath as she stuck the unlit cigarette back in its pack and into her pocket again. The window was rolled back up, though, Aquamarine kept staring out it as they drove back to Beach City, their conversation having died between them.
Soon enough they were pulling into town and Lapis put them on a familiar road back to her house. Aquamarine was watching with intent as they drove through the small little town, going past the high school and through the business district. For a moment, Lapis was expecting her to be asked to be dropped off at a bar, but the request never came. Her cousin remained quiet the drive through town towards Lapis' home.
They reached her house a few minutes later and she turned her car off and got out, opening the back door and letting Malachite out of the car next. Aquamarine slipped out and closed the door behind her, looking at the house and giving a low and long whistle in surprise, clearly impressed.
"Isn't this Grams old house?" she asked, though no confirmation was needed, "I'm surprised you got the house."
Fishing out her keys from her pockets, Lapis gave a shrug, "I needed a place to live after moving out of Jaspers place, Grandma offered to give me the house since she was moving to Florida." Aquamarine gave a nod, understanding the situation as Lapis opened the door and turned on the lights. "There's a guest room you can use down the hall to the right."
"Right on, I think I'll take this as a chance to get some sleep. It's late and it was a long flight over here." She was already going down the hall and following the directions given.
Lapis waited until she heard the door shut before she sank down on the couch with her head in her hands.
What was she doing? Why was she letting Aquamarine back in her life? This was just as bad as letting Jasper back in her life. Even if this was just for a few days, who knew what Aqua would do here, and anything she did here would reflect on Lapis.
Malachite padded over and rested her chin on her lap. Lapis looked at her and offered her a small ear scratch.
"I know, family is important and all," she mumbled under her breath as though to keep her cousin from hearing her, "but I just can't… this was a made idea, Mala."
The dog whined and Lapis offered her a small smile, she let her climb on the couch and curl up next to her as Lapis drew out her phone and flipped through her contacts. For a brief moment she considered asking Peridot on advice, the girl had more than her share of crappy family members after all. She hesitated over the call button and ultimately put her phone away.
No reason to drag Peridot into her family mess. The girl was too sweet of a person, if she knew what kind of things she did with Aquamarine, Peridot probably wouldn't look at her the same. Even more, Lapis quickly realized, she was going to have to be even more careful now. Her home wasn't private anymore, she was going to have to figure out how to be with Peridot without Aquamarine catching on.
Why couldn't things be simple?