"I'm fine, I just like coming up here on my free time." Lapis replied quietly, then sighing through her nose. There was a small silence between us, and I decided to look up at the stars as well. "What a phenomenal view up here." I commented, leaning forward a bit. "Yeah, heh. Views like these are my favorite. They seem to be the only things that kind of...ease my stresses." Lapis said, shrugging her shoulders. "Reminds me of those getaway shacks you used to have back in college." I chuckled. "Oh yeah, those...there's still a couple out there...but a majority of them are pretty broken down to the point where they're almost too unsafe to actually put any weight on the roof tops." Lapis giggled. 

"That sucks...I liked those shacks." I admitted, looking down at the roof beneath me now. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Lapis staring at me. I felt my face start to heat up, and I turned to look over at her. She immediately looked away and furrowed her eyebrows. "Nothing lasts forever." she stated coldly all of a sudden, and the tone of voice sent a shiver down my spine. "Are...you sure you're okay?" I finally asked, slowly pulling my knees to my chest. "Depends on what you mean by that." Lapis said with a small smile. I arched an eyebrow, wondering why she would smile while saying something like that. 

"I mean...are you okay?" I asked again. Lapis didn't respond for almost an entire minute, and I was about to accept it as her not wanting to respond at all. However, she finally responded by saying "I'd be lying if I said I was completely okay. I'm not. But things could be a lot worse. I mean...I've got a great opportunity career wise right now...I have a friend generous enough to let me live at his place...things could just be a lot worse." she explained. "That is true...but I could see that it could be a lot better...right?" I asked her, turning towards her more. "Yeah...I just don't exactly know where I went wrong. I want to know where I went wrong...so I could possibly try and go back and fix it. I've clearly made a lot of mistakes...but I can't tell which one has made the greatest impact on me." she said in a monotone voice. 

"We all make mistakes, Lapis...especially big ones that end up impacting our lives forever. But you can't fixate on past issues like that...it's not healthy. The past doesn't matter." I tried to reassure her, and she continued looking up at the stars. "I've made several mistakes myself...but I don't fixate on them. I just...learn from them. And do everything I can that won't let those same mistakes happen again." I added, scratching my head. The bluenette then groaned loudly, and buried her face into her knees. "It's easy for you to say. You've probably never made as big mistakes as I have." she said, her voice muffled by her knees. 

"Lapis, I've made huge mistakes too. We all have. Don't think that you've made bigger mistakes than everyone else. You're not the terrible person you see yourself as." I said firmly, furrowing my eyebrows. Lapis then rested her hands by her sides on the roof, and she lifted her head back up. She remained silent, and closed her eyes tightly. "I know." out came a very tiny whisper from her, and I almost missed it. "I just want..." she trailed off in a shaky voice, and slowly opened her eyes back up. Her ocean blue eyes were slightly glazed, and I can tell tears were welling up in them once again. "You just want what...?" I asked, urging her to elaborate. I meant to place my hand down on the roof beside me, but I ended up feeling warm and soft skin instead. 

Lapis' hand was in that same spot, and I quickly looked down at my own. It was planted on Lapis' hand, and my eyes widened. Blood began to rapidly rush into my cheeks, and I quickly glanced back up at Lapis' face. Her eyes were glued to our hands as well, and I felt more tense than ever. I swallowed dryly, and instinctively swiped my hand away from the contact. I cleared my throat loudly, and turned away quickly. Lapis then jerked her head away, and looked back down at her own knees. She lifted her hands and wrapped her arms around herself again, and I felt a pang of regret in my chest. I cursed myself for being so closed off, and I didn't know what to do next. I looked around to find anything to use as a distraction, and I immediately looked over the edge of the roof. 

"U-uhm...h-how exactly do we get down from here?" I asked, genuinely concerned. "O-oh. Like this. Just watch." she said, slowly standing straight up. Lapis then walked back over to the edge of the roof, and slowly lowered herself into a sitting position. Her feet dangled over the edge, and she was aiming directly for the fence that I had climbed up on. "Same way you come up." she stated simply, hopping down onto the skinny surface. She balanced on the fence pretty well, and just hopped off the fence onto the patio with a 'thump' noise. 

I gulped, and peeked over the edge of the roof, nervously staring down at the distance from where I was to the patio. You can do this, Peridot. It shouldn't that hard. In fact, it should be a lot easier to get down then to struggle climbing up here in the first place. I inhaled sharply, and threw my feet over the edge of the roof. I slowly slid off of the roof towards the skinny fence, and my heart started beating much faster. Oh shit, oh shit. I started sliding faster, and I soon couldn't control how I was falling. I clumsily landed on the fence, and immediately slipped off of it. I screeched loudly as I came crashing down onto the patio. "Peridot!" Lapis yelled from the stairs. It appeared as though she ran to catch me, but couldn't get to me before I landed hard on the wood patio beneath me. 

I groaned loudly as I laid flat down, trying to process what just happened. This hard impact knocked the wind out of me, and my most important focus was getting air back into my lungs. "Peridot! Are you okay?!" I heard Lapis yell, quickly running up to me. I spent about thirty seconds breathing in and out, and I quietly coughed. "I'm fine. Just a little head trauma is all, heh." I jokingly said, painfully chuckling. Ow. OW. Lapis knelt down next to me, and furrowed her eyebrows. "Don't say thattt." she whined, checking me for any major injuries. "Well...I made it down." I said, slowly sitting up. "Ugh, let's take you back inside." she said, rolling her eyes. 

She helped me up, and we both carefully headed through the front door of the beach house. The bluenette sat me down on the couch, and my vision wasn't steadying at all - it wasn't helping with the pain. "I think I tore my thingy." I murmured, looking down at my right arm. Sure enough, my blazer had a huge tear in it where I seemed to scrape my arm. "Is that all you care about? Look at that nasty scrape!" Lapis exclaimed, pointing right at the bleeding cut on my skin. I tried to focus in on it, but my vision was still slightly blurred. I hadn't realized it was visibly bleeding so much.

"I do care, but I go to work in this blazer!" I complained, throwing my hands in the air. "We could probably sew it up or something. Do you need to change or anything?" Lapis asked, shrugging her shoulders. "Nooo, I'll just take it off." I groaned, slipping the blazer off and leaving my white undershirt on. I studied it more closely, and the hole appeared bigger than what it seemed like when I had it on. I groaned again, and tangled my fingers into my hair. "You really should ran that under some water, Peridot." Lapis muttered, staring straight at my right arm.

. . . . 

I slumped on the couch, staring down at my poor torn article of clothing as Lapis was bandaging my nasty scrape. "Don't stress so much over that thing, Peri. We'll get it fixed." Lapis huffed probably for the eighth time. I just couldn't help but feel so bummed out about it - these things weren't cheap. "Speaking of, I actually um...wanna show you something." Lazuli said in a quieter tone, scratching the back of her neck. I tilted my head in confusion, and arched an eyebrow. "C'mere." she said before standing up and heading towards her bedroom. I quickly followed behind her, ultimately curious.