Curtain in 5, 4 . . .

Chapter 16

Peridot's posture was rigid, cautious in the way that a cat was curious as her mind properly registered the name to pour from Lapis' mouth. It's Jasper.

"As in. . . Jasper-Jasper? The Jasper?" The blonde nervously asked, hands finding each other and locking discreetly together as she studied Lapis. The lithe girl was still huddled in on oneself, contours void of any discernible disposition. Finally she turned to Peridot. "Who else could it be?"

Peridot threw her hands up in abdication. No matter what she thought, how close she believed she really was to Lapis now, she was still stuck on the outside looking in when it boiled down to Jasper. The only times she was mentioned were instances where the two had been folded into heartfelt discussion.

"Sorry, I'm-" Peridot shook her head to clear her jumbled thoughts. "What are you going to do?"

Lapis eyebrows drew close. The helplessness in her tone damn near broke Peridot. "I don't know. But I can't let her see me- I- I can't see her."

Peridot pinched lips together, her slipshod mentality frazzling at the edges as she weighed their options. Really they only had one option - return to the room. But expanding her horizons with other implausible possibilities made her feel like she had more control of the situation. "Let's just go back to the room then," she offered, closing in the distance between them and standing by Lapis' shoulder. Her hands outstretched gently to coil around Lapis' wrist, but the heartbeat skin met skin, Lapis flinched away.

Hurt flushed, cool and rapid, through Peridot's blood like ice water. But then she inspected Lapis and determined that she wasn't fully conscious, not emotionally. "Come on, we can go talk to Steven!" Peridot chirruped, starting with two steps away from Lapis and stealing a glimpse behind her to see fit that Lapis followed. She did, albeit only after five seconds of steadfast hesitance.

Even when they walked side-by-side to the black box room, Peridot never let Lapis out of her sight. It was like in the blink of an eye Lapis had transformed from an endearingly chancy and stubbornly passionate girl into. . . this: distant, abstracted, and something else Peridot couldn't quite pinpoint. They allowed themselves into the room after turning down the correct white corridor, met instantly with looks of confusion from those who knew of their whereabouts.

"Peridot? Lapis?" Pearl inquired, brows shooting skyward as she turned away from Steven, who shared a similar sentiment. "What are you doing back? Was their show cut short due to technical miscommunication?" Her tone was wickedly hopeful.

"No," Peridot told her co-director, eyes soaring over the taller woman's shoulder to watch Lapis as she automatonically drifted to the wall she and Peridot had waited before. Their stuff was still strewn over the crunchy carpet floor. "But we did have to leave."

Pearl combed a thin hand through her pink-cropped hair, exasperated. "Why? It's frowned upon to interrupt a performance by entering or exiting while it's in session!" She squawked.

Peridot squirmed beneath the other's solicited gaze; as her director she had have some degree of authority over her, regardless of how Peridot was adamant she was this figure at the top of the OAP hierarchy, untouched by the meddling of stage hands. Still, she couldn't just leave without an excuse. "I'm not at liberty to say." She didn't say it had to be a good excuse.

Pearl wasn't buying it. "What could possibly have made you two leave while Homeworld's show was-"

"Stick your nose in someone else's business, Pearl!" The amputee snapped up at her, innately confounded by her lack of patience. Something in her right now was raw and hurting, an ache that orbited around the core of her being and put her on edge.