Don't get her wrong. Peridot wanted to be absolutely beaming that Lapis was back, and she was on the inside. A little. But she also really didn't want to be. It's hard to just be okay and act like nothing ever happened between them.

It's hard to transition between two songs when one ends on a bad note and the second one begins with a whistling tune that tries to put a spring in your miserable step.

"Hey, I think the party is inside!"

"Shit." Peridot whispered to herself when a voice yelled out from the deck.

Peridot tried to ignore the girl, she tried her best to push her away. Unfortunately, she didn't have a lot of places to hide from the brunette, unless she wanted to drown in the ocean, which didn't seem like such a bad option at this point.

"Yeah, I know." Peridot called to the girl, still facing the sea. Lapis' shoes could be heard thumping down the stairs into Steven's house.

"Hey." Lapis sat down next to Peridot.

"Hey." Peridot echoed.

"Are you okay?" Lapis asked.

"I'm as okay as I'll ever be." Peridot sighed, she really hoped that this wouldn't turn into some mushy, 'let's-confess-all-our-feelings-and-go-from-friends-something-more' trope. She knows that wouldn't happen, those tropes don't go over fast and Peridot didn't want her entire life to be a slowburn.

"Look, I'm sorry Peridot. I really am. I didn't have a choice though, my mom had to move and I can't live by myself I was legally a child. I didn't want to leave you guys I just-" Lapis started, she obviously knew why Peri was upset but she was cut off.

"You didn't even bother to call me!" Peridot yelled in a burst of anger. She shrunk into a ball, her face glowing red with mixed emotions, mostly embarresment and anger. "You didn't bother to call me or text me, I thought you hated me." Peridot sniffed, she tried to blink the tears away, before Lapis noticed.

"Peridot, I could never hate you! I'm sorry, I didn't know you thought that I did." Lapis spoke to Peridot, she attempted to wrap her arms around the shorter girl, but Peridot shrugged her arms away. She wanted an answer.

"Why didn't you call me?" Peridot turned to face Lapis, her voice quiet and hurting.

"I, um, shit. I just didn't. I wanted to. My, um, depression probably played a part in it." Lapis spoke quickly, pushing all her thoughts out in a jumbled mess. "To be fair you never got in contact with me either. I thought you hated me..for..for leaving."

'Great, now I'm an asshole.' Peridot thought, she expected Lapis to answer with something that would give Peridot a reason to yell more. 'Selfish as usual.'

"I don't know if this will help but how about we just yell. Get all our anger out y'know? So we can go back to normal and not be like...this...anymore." Lapis stood up and waved her arms down to Peridot.

"You just gestured to all of me and you." Peridot replied, taking Lapis' offered hand. "Exactly, we stop being  all of us, so we can be friends." Lapis explained.

"That makes no sense." Peridot brushed her eyes with her sweater sleeve.

"Okay, well what I just said didn't but the yelling thing could work. My therapist says that releasing your emotions into a positive output can help to ease your mind." Lapis scratched behind her ear.

Peridot scoffed, "And yelling at a large body of water is a positive output?"

"Well, it's not a negative one." Lapis shrugged.

"Yeah, okay, I guess. Let's go ahead and shout to the ocean or whatever." Peridot looked up at Lapis. "But when this is over we're not friends. Not, just like that."

"You can just say you want to talk more, Peri." Lapis smiled half-heartedly at her "not-friend." She reached for Peridot's hand, who embraced it but not without hesitance.

"So, on three then?" Peridot asked.

Lapis answered by starting the count down (but more accurately the count up).

"One....two....three!"

***

A

fter yelling various profanities, swears, curses, and cusses at the sea for a little to long, Lapis and Peridot made their way back the house.

Lapis creaked the door open and was greeted with a request.

"Ah, Peridot, Lapis, could you run over to the Big Donut and grab some ice?" Garnet asked from the couch, without bothering to look at neither Lapis nor Peridot.

"Uh, yeah no prob, Bob."

"It's Garnet." The tall, only slightly incredibly intimidating woman took a sip from her cup, unmoving.

Lapis and Peridot went on their awkward-merry way and arrived at the Big Donut. The girls walked over to the counter.

"Can we get two bags of ice." Lapis looked at the employee. He was tall and lanky, his head shaved at the sides, and ginger hair fell onto his forehead. Lars. Dickwad of the century. He is not highlight on coming  back to Beach City.

He let out a sigh, "That'll be six dollars." Peridot reached into her pocket, pulled out her wallet and paid him. He lead them outside swinging some keys around his finger. He flipped through the chain looking for the one that unlocks the cooler when they got there. He pulled out two bags and handed them to Lapis.

"Thank you, Scars." Peridot iced venom onto his the nickname.

"You're welcome, Perithot." He responded.

Lapis looked at Peri with a cocked eyebrow. "Perithot?"

"We're friends."

Lapis 'hmphed' in response and lead the way back.

Peridot glanced over at Lapis' face, "I know what you're thinking." She spoke.

"Do you now?"

Peri couldn't help but be slightly annoyed at the tone of Lapis' response. "Yes."

"What am I thinking then?"

"Why me and Lars are friends."

"Lars and I." Lapis corrected.

"Fuck off." Peridot growled at Lapis. She didn't mean it though. Actually, maybe a little. "We were basically the biggest assholes in the GSA. We kind of bonded over it?"

"Why is Lars involved in GSA? I feel like if anyone hates the gays it's him."

"It's because he's fucking tr-" Peridot caught herself and tried not to out Lars. "tr-ying to be a supportive person. He's a dick but he's not evil."

"Well, he's definitely not Christian." Lapis commented, oblivious to Peridot's autocorrect.

"Is anyone Christian?"

"Well, you know, only half the world."

Peridot let her lips tug up into a small smile.

The two made it to house and walked up the stairs, inviting themselves back in.

The actual party started and many fun games ensued. Twister, truth or dare, karaoke, spin the bottle (which was basically just truth or dare again), and Mario Kart. There were probably more games but Peridot spent a lot of time sleeping on the couch, only waking up to eat, use the bathroom, or because the next game was actually interesting.

The hours passed and it started to become too late for anyone under 17 stay up.

Sitting under the deck of the beach house was everyone except for Steven, Connie, and Onion.

It was nice sitting in the group. Other than the drunken laughing and hiccuping. Pearl left some time in between Jasper reminiscing on almost killing someone and Amethyst choking down three hot dogs. Then Garnet left, then Amethyst, then Jasper.

Only Peridot and Lapis were left. They talked, not a lot but they did. Peri still fiercely defended herself and said that they weren't friends yet but she eventually accepted the fact that the issue didn't matter as much as it seemed.

Lapis kept nearly falling asleep on Peridot's shoulder, and her unrequited love began to almost begrudgingly relight. Peridot suggesting going back inside after Lapis started drooling.

She helped her tired and tipsy friend into the house. Peri put her sleeping bag on the floor and let Lapis use it, she slept on the couch under the window. Since it was small and incredibly uncombfortable to lay on, Peridot had issues falling asleep. She did though, after a while. She fell asleep and she dreamt

And she dreamt about eyes deeper than the ocean.

***

A/N
Still not dead, babies. The last time this chapter was updated was two years ago. Let's hope it's better this time.