First to Fall

Not texting her mother back right away was probably the third worst decision Peridot ever made in her life. The second worst was the first time in early middle school, when she tried hacking into the school server system. Back then, she was far less careful and still beginning out. The worst decision she forced out of her mind. She did not want to ever think of it.

“More water for you ma’am?” The waiter in black and white held out the pitcher ready to pour.

Looking up, she acknowledged the man’s presence. “That’d be great, thanks.” Being here was the last place she wanted to be today.

Sitting across from the blonde was none other than her dear mother, Yellow Diamond. Well, not at that moment, since the middle aged woman needed to take a work call and went outside. It was a huge relief, since they only sat down at the tastefully decorated table a couple minutes ago. It was the type of fancy restaurant with a chandelier, leather seats, and contemporary artwork on the walls. The kind of place one could imagine rich people going to, just to throw an obscene amount of money around for the hell of it. For twenty bucks, she could order a small stack of mediocre pancakes with their supposedly famous bacon maple syrup.

Located in the heart of downtown Beach City, the restaurant overlooked the ocean from the twelfth floor of the hotel. Not a cloud in the sky, though the weather outside was starting to cool down somewhat. Peridot let her mind trail back to earlier that morning, a few hours ago.

Waking up next to Lapis was like a dream. It almost made her forget about the drama between Pearl and Amethyst. Things should have cooled down a bit between the two, though tensions would still be high. She would have fallen back asleep if it weren’t for her phone continuously ringing by her side.

Groaning, Peridot turned over to silence it. She could not remember setting an alarm last night. It took her a few seconds looking at the digital screen to realize someone was calling her instead. The contact name read in all caps “The Devil,” and giant picture of her mother’s angry face appeared. Now she fully remembered. Last night she never texted her mother back. Not a wise move. The last time she pulled that, Yellow Diamond yelled at her furiously. Working at Diamond, she also observed how her mother could become royally pissed off in seconds, if her executives or assistants took their time to get back to her. So what was going to happen to her?

She could not let her phone keep ringing, it might wake up Lapis. Slowly she rose off the couch and out of Lapis’ embrace. Tiptoeing across the living room, she opened the sliding glass door to the backyard patio. There was no way Lapis was going to hear this conversation this early in the morning. Closing the door behind her, she looked at her screen once more and gulped. This was the second call, and her phone was still ringing. Shutting her eyes tight, she swiped right to answer and put the phone next to her ear. It was too early for this. It was… 7 o’clock?

The blonde spoke first, as impersonal as she could. “This is Peridot.”

“Hello Peridot.” It was definitely her mother’s voice, but not her usual tone. On the other end, she seemed calm and even confident. Was her mother not upset that she ignored her text?

“I’m glad you decided to answer,” she continued. “After all it’s been such a long time since we’ve last talked. Three years, hasn’t it? Since you have never bothered to check in with your own mother, I decided to take initiative upon myself.”

“How did you find this number?” It was the first thing Peridot thought. Ever since she left home out of the blue, she covered her tracks thoroughly, so no one from Diamond could track her. After backing up all her data and files, she sold her own Diamond phone and computer, before switching to a different carrier and model. From there, Peridot changed all her IP addresses, email addresses, made her number untraceable, along with several other steps. But it was obvious now she had failed to cover some detail. Her mother on the other line was proof of that.

Yellow Diamond just laughed. “I admit, you did pretty well for a while. Setting up several fake phone numbers with your name in our system, and randomizing their locations around the world was not a bad move. In reality, you had cloned another phone to get us off your back, before discarding it and switching to a new number. But it looks like it’s come to a dead end.”

Peridot would not let her mother intimidate her. She had already known Diamond hired offsite programmers, and secretly hackers to do questionably illegal work. So she pretended not to be phased. As long as she was on the other line, her mother could not see her face. “Congratulations.”

“Still sarcastic I see. How very un-classy. Now on to more important matters. I’ve set up reservations for Thatcher’s Kitchen at nine downtown. I would highly recommend you show up. We will discuss everything then,” and just like that, her mother hung up.

Un-classy, huh. Look who’s talking. It only gave her an hour to run back home, dress in some fresh clothes, and another hour in traffic to drive there. If she wanted to make it on time, she needed to leave now.

Quietly walking back through the door before closing it behind her, Lapis spoke. “Who was that?”

She did not expect her girlfriend to wake up. There was no hiding anything from Lapis anymore. “That was my mother.”

The girl’s violet eyes went alert, and she sat up. “Is something wrong? What did she need?” Lapis already knew about Peridot’s shaky relationship with Yellow Diamond, though not all of the details yet. That, like everything else, was just a matter of time.

“She wants to meet me for breakfast at nine downtown. I’m not really sure what she wants,” Peridot felt blank. The blonde had a clue or two about why her mother called in the first place. But she did not want to say anything when she did not know for certain.

Lapis was already getting up off the couch, folding the blanket they slept under. “Well if its downtown, you should probably go back you your place to get whatever you need.”

Whatever I need, Peridot thought. Suddenly an idea crept into her head. “You’re right! I’m sorry for leaving you so early. But I promise to tell you how it went afterwards,” Peridot swooped down to her girlfriend’s level to give her a peck on the lips, as she grabbed her bag. At first, Lapis looked confused, but that changed into a blushing smile.

“Okay, you dork. Don’t drive too fast now.”

“I’m the most careful driver ever, when do I ever drive fast?”

The scene in Peridot’s mind fast forwarded to being stuck in heavy Beach City traffic, and trying to speed around the ocean of cars. If this did not move faster she would be late. Peridot swore in frustration, both hands on the wheel, as she navigated around a car which was moving way too slow. Okay, so maybe Lapis knew her better than she did when it came to driving.

She was brought back to the present, sitting in her chair waiting for Yellow Diamond to come back. The waiter refilled her water, as she looked out the window. What was taking her so long? What was she doing there anyway? Despite all the thoughts steaming in her head, she had no intention of bailing on breakfast. That would be a sure fire way to make Yellow Diamond even more heated. Even if she did leave the restaurant, Peridot was more than sure her mother knew where she lived, now that she had her phone number. If not, she had to be careful to not be followed on the way back.

The ground beneath her chair vibrated due to the all familiar presence approaching. Yellow Diamond was off her phone now, and sitting down at the other side of the two person table. She was wearing some posh, designer dress and a well-fitting blazer that complimented the ensemble. The heels were about three inches high, and wore them confidently despite her tall physique. Peridot remembered having to dress similar to that, and she shuddered. She was perfectly content in her jeans, white tennis shoes, and sage green button down shirt, which all made up a wholly casual outfit. Being at a restaurant as nice as this, Peridot consciously knew it would irritate her.  

Yellow Diamond gave Peridot a critiquing down-up look. “You look classy today.”

At least the blonde was certain where her sarcasm came from.

“It’s comfortable,” she responded weakly. Her comeback game was not the strongest today.

“To look like you just rolled out of bed in the morning? I suppose, for someone your type.”

What did she ever do to deserve this?

“You know, when I was your age… you’re around what, nineteen or twenty?”

“Twenty two.”

“Even before your age, I was pioneering nanotechnology, redefining the concept of the computer and cell phone. While everyone else was dawdling around on their floppy drives, I was leading the fine-tuning of the quantum shard. In a blink of an eye, primeval technology evolved exponentially. It’s not only made electronics faster, lighter, but has benefitted all trades. Medicine, agriculture, and national security are only a few industries that have drastically changed. And still to this day, it keeps on growing. Now let me ask you this; what are you doing with your life Peridot?”

She opened her mouth to speak, but Yellow Diamond interrupted her.

“Don’t waste your time, it was a rhetorical question. I already know. Let it soak in, take some time to think it over. This is one, if not the most important questions you’ll ever ask yourself in your life. ”

The waiter arrived at an impeccable time to take their order. “Oh yes, I will have the omelet with goat cheese, and a cup of earl gray tea.” She crooked her head towards Peridot.

Not knowing what she wanted, Peridot blurted out the first thing she read on her menu. “I’ll take the pancakes with bacon-maple syrup.” Handing the menu to the man serving them, she instinctively took a sip of water as he walked away.

“Now to cut to the chase. Which one of my competitors are you working for?”

“The past few years I’ve freelanced primarily for privately owned clients remotely. I suppose you could consider them competition from a basic standpoint, though none of them compare in any way to Diamond.” It was all thoroughly true. Technically speaking, she had many clients, but none of which Yellow Diamond would consider a major threat.

The business woman pierced the blonde with her light amber eyes. Did she believe her?

“Then why did you do it?”

“Take my rightfully earned pay, which likely includes my small inheritance anyway?”

Putting her fingertips to her forehead, she quietly groaned as if the conversation itself was a pain. “I thought you would have learned by now, after all these years. Nobody screws around with me and gets away with it. I’m talking about certain confidential material you backed up on your computer, and deleted from Diamond’s shard drives.

“I never stole information for any competitors, if that’s what you’re implying.” Before going to college, she only took passwords and pin numbers which granted her access to private files and Diamond’s system. She could not remember the last time she used any of them, apart from if a password changed. Written down in her notebook, Peridot simply liked to have this access of information for the sake of having it. None of it ever went into competitor hands. She once thought about it, but the notion seemed petty, and Peridot was ready to move on.  

“Don’t fuck with me. You were the one who ran away to college with the money, after worming your way into our own profoundly secured network. It’s time to cut the bullshit and own up Peridot.” She took a sip of her tea, which was promptly brought.

“I’m telling you the truth, I never laid a finger on it. If I had anything to do with it, your lousy security team would have already found some connection leading to me.”

Yellow Diamond breathed slowly. She was thinking, or, more like conniving something. “You know what, I’m going to make a little business deal with you. If you can present to me the missing material by the time you graduate, you get to keep your head and I won’t press charges. In other words, you are off the hook.”

“How can I, when I don’t know what it is, and it’s not in my possession?”

“I don’t think it got through the first time. Do you know what happens to people who steal the amount of money you took, and hack into a server like ours? They go to prison, for a very, very long time. But wait there’s more. Nobody in your field would ever want to hire you again. It would simply ruin your integrity and trustworthiness. However, I’m going to offer you something generous. If you do put the classified research in my own to hands, you can keep the money and continue going to college.”

She knew Yellow Diamond was being completely serious. There was no wavering in the CEO’s powerful, yet collected voice. If she was not before, Peridot was between a rock and a hard place. She had no idea what “sensitive information” her mother was talking about. Did it relate to some hushed about project, or was it entirely personal? How could she start looking for something, if she did not know what it was? A brewing thought was that Yellow Diamond knew she did not have it, that this was her way of cruel revenge.

“And if I don’t want to accept to this business proposition?”

“You would only do that if you were a fool. There would be no mercy. The police would be informed and have you arrested. I am graciously giving you this chance to prove yourself, under a few conditions.”

Peridot fell silent. She had to make a decision, right now. If she did not at breakfast, it would be interpreted to Yellow Diamond as declining the offer. Sighing in frustration, she said a single word. “Deal.”

“Good to hear. From now until your graduation, you will report to me, once you do decide to be accountable for your actions. Are we clear?”

“Yeah,” Peridot nodded. “Okay.”

“If I need to reach you, I will contact you directly from the number I called you will. You will answer your phone, whatever time it may be. And do not even think of calling unless you have the material,” she gave her daughter a suspicious glare, before chiseling a small bite off of her plate. Peridot did not even notice that the server already delivered their food.

But Peridot had no appetite. Her stomach churned with uneasiness.

Yellow Diamond suddenly flagged the waiter down, raising her hand in an official manner, “Hello, may I have the check and a box to go please?” Peridot hated when she put on polite and formal front with strangers.

Shortly after, he brought the box Yellow Diamond requested, and went to process the check with her credit card. “I must be going now, I have a flight to New York in the next hour and a half. I’m glad we had this talk, Peridot.”

The blonde girl said nothing. She could not bring herself to say the same.

As soon as she scribbled her signature on the receipt, she stood up from the table. “Remember, I’m only giving you until graduation. You better place the information in my hands by then.” Without saying even a goodbye, she briskly walked away. Peridot did not look back.

Instead of getting up, Peridot still sat there at the table, processing the whole conversation while staring at her stack of pancakes. The waiter who served their table came over and asked, “Would you like a box as well miss?”

“That would be great, thanks,” her voice monotone.

Scooping her plate from the table, he gracefully put her food in a white origami style to-go box. He placed it in a branded paper bag, handed back to her, and thanked her for coming in for breakfast.

Yellow Diamond did not care a smidgen about her. While she denied that fact growing up, Peridot learned the hard truth when she grew and matured. In the past she so badly wanted make her mother proud. Pushing herself as hard as imaginable, she never gained any acknowledgement for her high accomplishments. But it only prompted the blonde to do better. Maybe that was why she requested to work for the monolithic company in the first place. During that long season at Diamond Co., she learned to accept how uncaring the CEO was. If she had not worked at Diamond, it may have taken her longer to realize and acquiesce it. Rather than brooding it over, she forcing herself to move on. It was much easier said than done, but she did it.

Yellow Diamond invading her life once more, prohibited her from moving on. Her mother would not allow her own daughter to pursue her own life. What kind of mother would threaten to imprison their child? Laughing in her head, Peridot knew well enough what the real message of this meeting was. The CEO was trying to force Peridot to work for Diamond again, and resume working for the company. While she hated to admit it, the intimidation worked.

Did she truly think she could just take her rightfully earned pay from Diamond, and skip off into the sunset leaving no trace? Though she had an unblemished, clean cut record before, it did not mean anything to the CEO. Peridot knew the amount she took was comparable to only stealing a dollar, based on the company’s worth. But now she was being accused of tampering with files for an allegedly secret project, which her mother actually gave a shit about. The short girl could only imagine how much spending Diamond was putting into it. A feeling of doubt washed over her. Could she have accidently taken information with her from Diamond, which she did not recognize to be sensitive? Pressing back into the recesses of her mind, she could not recall deleting anything, accidentally or intentionally.

While riding down the sleek glass elevator, Peridot supposed the silver lining to this so called breakfast was the vast view of the ocean. The sun leaking in gave her pale face a soft glow and Peridot smiled.

Sliding a hand in her shirt pocket, she clicked a button.