Pearl was sitting in Beach City's only diner, easing open a pink sugar packet. Gently tearing it from one end up. Her hands began to quiver halfway and she almost gave up and tugged. But she shimmied to the end and when it was open she flipped it upside down over the small cup of tea on the table. A cup of tea which had gone cold forty minutes ago.

She was sitting alone in the booth, now looking through the window at the parking lot. Humans blowing by the window to their vehicles or towards the diner's front door. Pearl had wanted to say something on the phone, tell her she was feeling sick from bad pancakes, that a sudden appointment had come up. Now she was shaking like a leaf in her seat.

"How's that tea treating ya, Pearl?" Pearl almost jumped. Only after the waitress spoke had she noticed Pearl's cup had been left untouched in the time she'd been here.

"Well…" Pearl looked at it, she was tired. She had a hand shielding her eyes from the light, another propping up her head. "I might get around to drinking it."

"Let me know if I can get you more."

"Sure." Pearl realized she just wasted that sugar as the waitress lifted the cup off the table. "Thank you, Fran."

"You're welcome."

As Fran breezed out, somebody else gusted in and fell onto the seat across from Pearl. A pink wealthy mane fell on her left shoulder, a silver band at the center of her bottom lip. Darkness applied around her eyes. A gentle smile below. "You been waiting long?" Pearl didn't have to be there an hour early she just was.

"Oh no. Not too long." She laughed in that too exaggerated loud way she did when she was nervous.

"Glad you responded to my call."

"I am too." The words came out without Pearl's permission.

Sheena smiled. "That night was fun."

"Yeah, it was. I'm not used to going to... parties." Pearl remembered the music and the blush on her face. It had returned.

"It gives me a break, socialization, my job's isolating." Sheena checked her phone. "I got work at 11, so we got an hour and a half."

Pearl saw her opportunity. "Well, I was going to tell you..." Pearl's face became pained looking at the tall pink-haired girl who went out of her way before work. And she looked comfortable in the seat across from her. Happy. "That I'm... sorry for putting off your calls." Another fake laugh.

"Oh, it's alright." The waitress came over and delivered a cup of tea for Pearl and took Sheena's order. "Hot cocoa." Fran nodded and went back towards the counter.

A moment passed in silence. "Do you mind if I ask why you put the calls off?"

"I've been, uh not feeling well." She rubbed the back of her head. Her hair was messy, and she did look a bit disheveled.

"It wasn't the flu was it?"

"No, uh not physically. It was just my… ex. Sometimes..." Pearl looked through the window. "It still hurts."

"I know." Sheena chuckled.

Pearl was surprised. "Yeah?"

"I broke up like a few years ago but..."

"It doesn't go away."

"You know sometimes I wake up and feel like I can almost smell her. Sorry if that's weird."

"It's not, it's not." Pearl reached out as if Sheena was to slip away and Pearl's hand landed on hers. "I know what's it's like to lose somebody." Pearl's eyes scanned the surface of Sheena's hand. "I find it hard to sleep sometimes."

"I just lay in bed for hours, pretending like I'm going to get to sleep."

Pearl forced herself awake from grief. "Maybe we should talk about more pleasant things?" Pearl suggested like she was suggesting what board games they should play.

It made Sheena chuckle. "Maybe we can continue this later."

"Sure." She made an evasive gesture with her eyes, she didn't want to talk about it at all.

"Who were those two kids with you at the party?"

"Oh, my Steven. Wait, kids?"

"The other kid." Sheena motioned above her head. "The purple-haired one?"

"Oh." Pearl erupted with laughter. "That's Amethyst. She's just short. If she heard you say that she'd hit you." Pearl wiped a tear from her eye.

"She did look like she had a temper."

"Yeah, she lives at the house, helps take care of Steven, she's his friend."

"Well, this Steven of yours, who's he?"

Pearl thought about the question. There were multiple ways to answer it, there was one she knew was true. "He's a smart kid. When he tries to be. He's kind to everybody. He's going to graduate soon. I've been caring for him since he couldn't reach the freezer. "

"You don't look old enough to be a mother."

"It's my ex's kid. She… left him behind. With me."

"That's horrible."

"Yeah? Well, I thought it was horrible at first too, but-" Pearl smiled. "Steven's wonderful."

"I could never have imagined I was going to have a date with a mother."

"Well, like I said I'm not his…" Pearl's words trailed off and her face heated up a deeper blue. "A date?"

"What would you call it?" Sheena caressed Pearl's hand which was still in her tender care.

Pearl chuckled but her face faltered, terrified. Sheena's fingernails were a pink Pearl remembered, so was her hair. It had occurred from the moment she saw it.

"Pearl?"

She was betraying her diamond by even sitting at this table. She felt like she was going back on all those years of dedication and love. She was cheating on Rose.

"Pearl, She's gone now."

Pearl gulped. Sheena couldn't have understood what she just said. Pearl knew meant well.

"But we're still here." She said it slowly to let it sink in. "We are alive."

Pearl smiled at her words and voice and wiped a tear away. Then the cocoa came, it broke the tension and the two laughed together. A secret laugh that's shared between two people or a gem and a person who shared a tender moment.

After a while, Sheena walked around the table, invaded Pearl's side of the table. It made Pearl confused, but Sheena made her purpose clear. She was pulled Pearl's arm over her shoulder, with her big hair brushing against Pearl's side like when lion tried snuggling up against people. Rose never did this.

Sheena did.

The light of a summer afternoon in Beach City began shining in the diner's window and Pearl could feel it.