Steven vs. Stephen

Goodbye, Best Friend

Stephen let out a mighty yawn, having just awoken from a good night's sleep. It was a brand new day, a perfect day to pretend to be Steven. Upon getting out of bed, Stephen noticed that there was a new, shiny TV in replacement of his old box one. Pearl thought the TV would hurt Stephen's eyes being so close to his bed, so she had it moved into the living room. It was twice as large and a flat screen, at that. He wondered why the gems would do this for him; it felt so random.

"Oh, Steven! You're awake." Pearl clasped her hands together, beaming at him. "Do you like your new television set?" She gestured to the flat screen beside his bed. "Yeah, it's cool, I guess. I don't see what was wrong with the old one, though."

Beads of sweat formulated on Pearl's forehead. She didn't have an excuse at the ready as to why she suddenly brought home a new TV, and a pricy one at that. "Um, well, it was because.." She trailed off slightly, looking around the room for an alibi. Her eyes locked onto the broken items that had never been cleaned up from the previous night. This gave her an idea. "Ah yes, well, it was Peridot's idea, actually." She gestured to where Peridot had remained the entire night, which happened to be in a corner by the couch, a smug grin on Pearl's face. In case if Stephen were to get angry again, he would get mad at Peridot instead of Pearl.

"I did what, exactly?" Peridot sounded confused, standing up and glaring at Pearl. "Yes, Peridot, you wanted to get Steven a new TV for his birthday, don't you remember?" Before she could ask what a 'Tee-vee' or a 'birth-day' was, Pearl glared down at her, gesturing for her to play along. "Uh, what?" Clearly, Peridot didn't get what she meant. "Just play along, unless you want to end up in a bubble again," Pearl hissed to her quiet enough to where Stephen couldn't hear. Hastily nodding in response, Peridot understood what she meant this time.

"Uh, yes, I did, Steven!" She immediately raised her tone a little too loudly, sounding overly enthusiastic with several cracks in her voice to try to appear casual. "I had decided that it would be best to get you a new, uh," She nervously looked at Pearl, who mouthed the word 'TV' to her, "a new TV! Yeah, that's what it was!" A false smile was plastered on her face.

Stephen squinted down at her due to both morning grogginess and bewilderment. "My birthday?" Peridot immediately froze, having not expected him to question her back. "Uh, yes?"

"Man, you're stupid! It's not even my birthday." he mocked her, letting out a nasally laugh. "But, whatever. Thanks for the TV, I guess." He hopped down from the bed, Peridot running behind the couch again and Pearl sweating nervously. Stretching, Stephen heard a knock at the door. "Oh, that's right! I texted Connie so we could hang out together today. She must be here." Finally relieved that Stephen was acting normal again, Pearl let out a massive sigh. Maybe the events from yesterday were just a phase he was going through.

"Hey, Steven!" Connie waved as he opened the door, a large smile on her face. "Are you ready to hang out today?"

"Sure am! But hey, Connie you wanna see something funny first?" A malicious grin crept up his chubby cheeks. "Sure, what is it?"

He called loudly into his house, "Hey, Peridot! Do you know what baseball is?" "No." she responded flatly. "Well, c'mon out here, and I'll show you. It's really neat!"

Fed up with Stephen and his incessant torment, she refused to move from her position. "I don't want to."