Cole pauses for a moment, looking intensely aggravated. Though, it isn't with Peridot: he's aggravated with himself.

"I'm trying," he simply says, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. "But words don't work for me like they do for you. They're tangled in my thoughts and this is what comes out."

He doesn't mean to be cryptic and awful and not make sense. It just happens sometimes.