a/n: i accidently wrote pearl with anxiety a little???? im rubbing off on her lmao.

~

Pearl fidgeted with the silver phone in her hands, staring at the ten number long strand on its screen. The contact was plain and simple. Mystery Girl. It suited her, because she had refused to give her real name, and insisted that Pearl called her Mystery Girl.

"I think I'm going to call her." Pearl said to no one in particular. Amethyst glanced over from where she was lying on the couch.

"What didya say, Pearl?"

"I think I'm going to call her," she repeated. Amethyst gasped, and rolled off the couch.

"Really? You're not joking like last time, are you? You're actually going to call her?" Pearl felt a blush rise in her face. "Oh my god, you are! Steven! Garnet! C'mon! "

Garnet was there at a moment's notice, and without hearing a single word of what was happening, she was smiling. Pearl wished she could ask her how this would end, but she couldn't seem to move at all. And even if she was able to, Garnet often tell what will happen. It too often leads to bad things happening.

"Steven!" Garnet yelled out of the door, and turned to Pearl. "You'll be fine." For some reason, this didn't calm her down at all. Steven came running in a few moments later, out of breath but excited nonetheless. It only took a second for him to realize what was happening.

"You're gonna call her!"

"Why is it so obvious?" Pearl muttered, and she faintly heard Garnet chuckling.

"You've been avoiding this for like, twenty episodes!"

"What do you mean by "twenty episodes"?"

"Oh, I like to imagine if my life was an animated tv show, every time something interesting happens, it's another episode. It's an inside joke with me and Garnet."

"Oh," Pearl looked down at the phone in her hand, and call button. Hesitantly, she pressed the button, and Amethyst was excitedly hopping from one foot to another.

The phone rang once....twice....She started to hope that she wouldn't pick up at all.

"Hey Pearl." the familiar voice was both a relief and a shock. Everyone was staring at her, waiting for her to say something. She just stared back until Amethyst took the liberty to poke her in the side, and she barely stifled a yelp.

"Oh, yes. Hi, it's Pearl...But you already knew that." Pearl started to trip over her words. All eyes were locked on her, all encouraging, all watching. None were judging, but it all felt like they were. At least Mystery Girl was, waiting on the other side of the line. "Are you still there?" Pearl hoped that she might just hang up, so at least that way she would have an excuse to not talk to her.

"Yeah, I'm still there." Mystery Girl quickly cut in, "Just calm down...Breathe for a second. It's just a phone call. Just me...Just me, Pearl. Just me." Her voice was soft and soothing, and Pearl heard her own sigh in the phone.

"Yeah, I'm breathing."

"Good. That's the first step. Why did you call me?" She made everything seem so easy.

"Why...I called? Um...I called because," Pearl looked around at the faces around her, and they all just stared back. Pearl forgot for a moment that the people around her couldn't hear the conversation that they were having. All they could hear was Pearl's side of the talking, at least. "Because...I worked up the courage to talk to you...I didn't really have any other reason...Actually..." Pearl trailed off.

"That's a good start. Having courage is a good thing. Now. What do you want to talk about?"

"What?"

"Questions, topics, opinions, debates. What do you want to talk about?" She rushed back into the conversation, "It's okay if you have to take your time."

Pearl lowered her phone, and everyone seemed to lean towards her.

"What should I talk about with her?"

"People," Steven said.

"Music," That was Amethyst.

"The future," Garnet said.

All at the same time. Pearl was completely overwhelmed for a moment, and the phone in her hand felt so heavy, and it took so much effort to lift it up to her ear.

"Sorry I took so long."

"It's okay, Pearl. Do you know what you want to talk about?"

"I was thinking...what do you think about...statues..."

"Statues? Like marble ones or stone?"

"Marble."

"They're nice! There's this one artist...shit I can't remember his name right now but his works were completely amazing! Like there's this one statue where the marble is so thin that you can see sunlight through it, and it's suppose to be clothes or something? But, yeah, statues are amazing?"

The phone didn't feel as heavy anymore.