[open] Escape

[Justin Novak]

He goes back home to a battle field
and starts to drink as some kind of a shield
For the anger instilled in him
and their looks are killing him now.

[/font]

Drop your weapon![/s] came the dreaded command from the policemen who stood behind the 17-year-old Justin. He was trapped, cornered, there was no escape. When the shout came, Justin stood frozen for a moment. There was no weapon in his hand, and he was entirely unsure what to do. Being only 17, he wasn't nearly so streetwise as most people like him, and he was about to make the biggest mistake of his "career" as a criminal. He reached down to the gun as he turned around, only trying to do as the policeman had ordered and drop his weapon. Unfortunately, his intentions were mistaken, and the three cops who stood there thought he was going to fire at them with the gun, and opened fire on him.

As the gun fell from his hand he heard the three gunshots almost simultaneously, and time, for an instant, slowed drastically. It was almost like he could see everything that was happening as the bullets sped towards him. Time continued it's painfully slow pace as the bullets pierced into his chest. Crushing pain ripped through his body growing more and more intense as each bullet struck him. He couldn't breathe, his vision blurred, and he lost all control of his body. Next thing he knew, he was falling back as if pushed by some invisible force that was throwing him to the ground. He didn't feel it when he hit the ground, it was just the sensation of infinite falling as darkness closed in on him. Before he knew it, he could see nothing at all, he could only feel the pain, and hear the muffled voices of the policemen.

For a moment the darkness lifted, and there kneeling next to him, hands pressed to the most deadly of the wounds was the man for whom Dustin held the most disdain: Chase O'Hara, the police chief. He could hear him saying something to him, but he couldn't comprehend a single word of it. Then the darkness closed in on him again as the sound of sirens seered into his mind in an unforgiving shriek. He was unaware of the fact that he was moved onto a stretcher and into the ambulance, all he knew was that not too long after the darkness closed in on him again, the pain stopped, and for a moment in time, Justin Thomas Novak was no more.

I would like to say for the soul purpose of the excitement involved in this that there was a bright light that surrounded him and he saw his brother standing there waiting for him. I would like to say that when Justin got to him Jacob told him that it wasn't his time, that there was more waiting for him, that the happiness he needed so desperately was awaiting him just around the corner, and with that being told, Justin returned to this world. But this was not the case. I cannot conjecture to say what it was that went on in that time when the heart monitor went flat since I myself have not experienced such an instance. All that I can say of this time is that Justin did not come back of his own accord. With a sudden jolt it was as if the pain returned, and the darkness continued. The jolt, of course, was caused by the electricity pumped into him by the doctors restarting his heart.

Then with a wave of relief the pain dulled down to a manageable throb as drugs were injected into his body. Next thing he knew, the sound of a steady beep filled the sterile air around him, and slowly his eyes drifted open. The last thing he could remember was eight before the incident that had put him in the hospital, and he was so severely confused that it almost terrified him. He didn't know why he was cuffed to the bed, he didn't know why he was even in the bed. He didn't know why there was a horrible dull pain originating beneath the bandages that covered his chest. That was when he heard the voice of Chief O'Hara, and he froze. He had been out for nearly a week, and the week before that seemed to have been cleared out of his memory.

Justin's borderline fear only intensified as the police started asking him questions that he couldn't answer. The way in which they were asked didn't help. Justin knew he should know the answer to each of them, but he didn't. The fear started turning into frustration as the questions continued and he still had no answer to any of them. Finally when it got to the point that Justin looked like he was about to find a scalpel and kill himself they stopped asking as they realized that he really couldn't answer the questions. The doctors then informed the police that when Justin's heart had stopped, it was likely that the cessation of oxygen flow to the brain had caused memory loss, just how much they couldn't tell at that point, but he obviously didn't remember the night he'd been shot.[/i]

After that day, life only got harder for Justin. Although he had only been 17 at the time, he was only a few months from 18, and as such as tried as an adult... and convicted as an adult. He couldn't say anything in his defense, since he couldn't remember what had happened, He was sentenced to five years in prison on a $50,000 bail, but had four of those years taken off his sentence by giving the police the names of the other guys who he'd been in the gang with before the incident. When that year had passed, life was still hard for him. Everywhere he went he was haunted by the things he'd done in his past. Being shot by the police had been rather eye opening for him, and he wanted to change. Unfortunately, being shot by the cops had been heart hardening towards him from everyone else, and no one would give him a chance to change.

After a while he got disheartened and gave up on becoming more than "just a Novak" and turned to street fighting as a means for survival. Sure, it was illegal, but whenever he tried to do things right, people just turned up their noses. So why should he try to do things that were difficult for him when no one cared? After a year or so, Justin had literally beat out all the street fighting competition in the area and it took too long waiting for someone else to move in and challenge him, so he moved out. He needed another big city where he could take all his frustrations out on the people who decided that fighting him would be a good idea. Too bad for them that they didn't know the half of what he'd been through. He was fighting because he was angry... because he could never do anything right except when he was fighting... because when he fought he was Inmate 1326... and all the pain of being Justin Novak slipped away into oblivion for the time being. He took it all out on them because they literally asked for it. He would never hurt someone who wasn't intending to hurt him or someone he cared about.

Chicago seemed like a good place to stop, it was far enough away that the guys who had slunk into the shadows after being beaten by him in a fight wouldn't be there, and he could start fresh with the crowd. True to expectations, there was quite a crowd there... and also true to expectations, his reputations preceded him... but in a good way. Everyone knew that Justin Novak was the guy to beat back in New York and that so far no one had managed it. Because of that, it took Justin hardly a week to establish himself there as a high profile fighter. He might not have ha much money to his name, but on the streets, your money wasn't worth a thing... all that mattered was winning the fight, and earning a reputation. I suppose in a way you could say they were respectful of each other. None of them would ever fight one another outside of the ring. It was a sport... a lifestyle... and it was their way of keeping is sacred.

They would often be as close to "friends" as you could be on the streets, face each other in a fight one night, and still be "friends" the next day. They were almost like their own separate community of people. When someone became a high profile fighter, the other fighters would treat them well. The sort of looked out for each other. Most of them weren't bad guys... most of them were just like Justin... misunderstood. They understood where they were coming from... they accepted the flaws of everyone around them because they had just as many as everyone else. Oh sure there were people that they looked down on. People who abused children, people who killed other humans, people who raped unsuspecting girls... those sorts of people would find themselves on enemy territory if they happened to wander into the street fighters' corner of town... but even so, none of them were perfect, and they were all okay with that.

Today, Justin needed to get away from it all though. There was a bit of a turf war going on between a few rival gangs in Justin's area, and he was tired of it. So he headed out for the more peaceful end of town. It wasn't long before he found himself alongside the river, lost in his thoughts. He liked Chicago a lot more than New York. In New York everything was man made and you could never get away from the roar of the city. Here though there were places like this that were quiet and open, where he could think about things other than watching his back. He stopped, and stood beside the river, just staring out at the water blankly, not really looking at anything, just thinking. It was a miracle he had lived this long, but he'd always thought killing yourself was a cheap cop out... and he never just gave up on life like that. Yes, he had given up on a better life because he believed he could never have one... but that was different. As far as he was concerned, he was either going to die old and miserable, be killed by some disease, or killed by some other human. Either way, he wasn't going to kill himself. Not yet anyway.[/center]

Words: 1826
Appearance: here
Notes: open to anyone.[/size]

[Ember Candi Blaine]

Saying Ember had it easy throughout her life would be easy. It would be very easy, but it would also be a lie between your teeth. She was pretty. She was happy. She was smart. Ok, saying she was smart was like saying Michael Jackson had been well known or George Washington was liked by the people in the time period. Ember was brilliant. School had never really been a problem for her, she learned things after only learning or seeing how once and, according to only her IQ score, she was more intelligent than 99% of the population, which she easily believed. Anyway, that was beyond the point. Just looking at her, many would assume she had it easy, but they couldn’t be more wrong. She had parents that cared for her, but she also had to live through their divorce while taking care of her little sister. She then had to watch both parents get remarried. Not like she didn’t like her step-parents or step-siblings, but it was hard to think of what her parents were doing with… someone that wasn’t her other parent.

After that, her intelligence just made things difficult for her. So much was expected out of her. Her grades all had to be A’s, not as if that was really a problem, but she did have to make sure because otherwise she would lose her scholarship. To add to that pressure she had to work her way through high school and now college. Neither of her parents had even finished high school, and her step-parents didn’t go to college so the money they made certainly didn’t cover having a daughter out on her own at the age of thirteen, even though she had nearly a full ride at the expensive, exclusive boarding school she was attending and then again in college, though her college wasn’t exactly expensive or exclusive. And, at the beginning of her high school career, she wasn’t all that pretty, she hadn’t grown into her arms and legs yet, and the insults of the older girls in her classes really got to her, which is when she picked up the whole smoking idea, in order to lose weight. She would also drink to make friends, and sure, it worked and over time her self esteem ended up going through the roof, simply because she realized that she was “better” than the girls and her looks finally came to her. Granted, that new found self confidence also led her to some, uh, alternative ways of making money.

Now, she would never do something illegal. Ok, that was a lie, she’s been dancing since the age of fifteen, which was most defiantly illegal, but you get the idea. She really didn’t hate her job, as most people seemed to think she did as she was in fact a virgin as well as a stripper. Sure, the only reason she was doing this was for the money and minimum wage didn’t give her enough to keep up with her lavish habits, but she didn’t dread it completely. She liked showing off the fact that she did have a nice body and, well the guys could get incredibly annoying and she refused to let them start to paw at her but that’s what the bouncers were for. Life was getting better though. She would graduate soon and she was hoping to get some type of internship while working on her master’s degree so she could stop the dancing and start to do something more… respectable before she was seen at the club by a someone she may work for at one point. That wouldn’t be good, especially since she would most likely be working for the government with her current major.

Today though, Ember didn’t have classes, she didn’t have work, well she did but she didn’t have it the night before and she didn’t have to study because she never studied. Her friends were busy, though she found she had few good friends a while ago. Ember was easy to hate. She loved herself, thought of herself as the best thing to walk the earth since Abraham Lincoln and that meant getting along with her wasn’t the easiest thing in the world. You had to have a high self esteem yourself and just let her think of herself as she wanted to because you could never change her mind. Anyway, Ember took the bus, she didn’t own a car because she didn’t have anywhere near the money, to Caramel Rivers and then walked to the River’s edge, the best beach you would get in the area. She was in flats, one of the rare times she was, and was walking fairly slowly in her jeans and fitted jacket with her hands shoved into the pockets of the jacket. It was a chilly day, but it was never especially warm in Chicago either.

When Ember found her way to the beach area she was quite surprised to see a man stand there. He was about her age, a bit roughed up, very out of it apparently, but not half bad looking either. Ember looked at him at a moment and then around the area. She was quite surprised that someone would be out alone on such a day. Well, besides her she supposed, but she was special, she could be alone if she wanted to be. Either way, neither one of them were alone now. Mia was happy to walk up to him, meet someone new. She loved people. She loved talking. She loved making conversation and if the other person didn’t like it, well, their problem she supposed. Finally she walked over to the man and stood beside him. For a moment she looked out in the direction he was looking in, a slightly confused look on her face, blonde hair sweeping out of place and landing where it may. “What are we looking at?” she finally asked, leaning her weight on her left leg so she moved to be a little closer to him. She honestly couldn’t care less about what he thought of her so she figured she may as well start up conversation however she may. Of course she knew he wasn’t looking at anything, there was nothing to see, but it may get him talking, right? May as well try.

[Justin Novak]

Justin certainly wasn't your average person, and he certainly didn't look like he was either. He was definitely far from any girl's perfect man. Though he certainly had some aspects of the "tall dark and handsome" going on, there was much about him that was just wrong as far as a dream man went. For the most part, he looked like he was constantly scowling as if he hated the world, and if he didn't look like he hated the world, then he looked like he wanted to kill himself. It was certainly not an inviting look. His whole overall appearance was just not appealing. Attractive, certainly, as far as physical features went... but as far as demeanor and his outlook on life... he was certainly anything but beautiful. He had all sorts of scars and other such flaws that he inflicted on himself by the lifestyle he had chosen, and he definitely had the look of a hardened criminal... of the ex-con he was.

As he stood there in silence starting out at the water, the sound of rustling grass and sand to the tune of walking feet approached him. It was quiet, a light step... definitely a woman... or a rather small man... approaching... not quickly but definitely not hesitantly. Whoever it was definitely wasn't someone he knew, but they weren't shy and certainly not daunted by approaching a stranger, even one as daunting and unfriendly as himself. He didn't turn to look though, he wasn't all that interested in the person. Besides, for all he knew, it was just someone coming to the beach and had no interest whatsoever in him. Unlikely, considering the directness of the line they were making towards him, but he didn't want to make assumptions based on someone's footsteps. It just wouldn't make a whole heck of a lot of sense to do so.

He remained where he was and said nothing as she approached him. He cast a glance at her when she stopped beside him though, but didn't instigate conversation. He never instigated any sort of conversation. He was more of the strong silent type who preferred to listen to what people had to say rather than to make them listen to him. He didn't want people to know him and the best way he knew to prevent people from knowing him was to simply not do any of the talking. Of course, he would talk when he had to, like when someone asked him a question or some sort of response was needed on his part to avoid the long awkward silences that no one... no matter how anti-social... liked to experience. Even a guy like Justin hated the awkward silences caused by someone's lack of response, so he always felt inclined to answer even when he didn't want to.

If he hadn't been as anti-social as he was, he might have said something when she simply stopped and stared out in the same direction as he had been, almost as if she was mocking his silent staring. She was definitely an attractive girl, there was no doubt on that part. She looked like she was probably about the same age as he was, give or take maybe a year or two. She was about a foot shorter than he was, but that was a normal thing for him. He was used to being taller than most girls, considering being 6'1" made him generally taller than the average female. She was also thin, maybe a bit overly so, but he wasn't one to judge. There was the faintest hint of the aroma of smoke about her... he would recognize it anywhere. He was a smoker himself... not overly so, but he lived a rough life, it was a good way to make himself relax. It didn't take away from her at all though, in his opinion anyway.

Finally after a bit of time had passed, she finally spoke, asking a question which he was certain she already knew the answer to. What could he possibly be looking at out there in the gray and completely uninteresting water and backdrop to the river? Of course, if he looked closely, he was sure he could find something to occupy his interest, but right now he was more interested in his own thoughts than anything that might be floating around on the horizon. You don't really want me to answer that do you? He asked, knowing most people didn't like to have a question answered with a question, but what else was he supposed to say? "Nothing, just thinking."? Hell no... that was much too sophisticated an answer for Justin. He wasn't a sophisticated person, so it made no sense for him to answer with something like that.

Her closeness after shifting more towards him didn't make him at all uncomfortable. He didn't necessarily like the closeness, but that was just because he sort of combined not liking letting people get close to him by knowing him and being in close physically... but he had gotten used to it. From being in prison to being amongst the crowds at the street fight, he had forced himself to adapt to being in close proximity to other people. It was certainly not his favorite thing in the whole world... but he had chosen this as his life, he could make a sacrifice or two in order to continue living this lifestyle.

[Ember Candi Blaine]

Ember was also far from normal, but she didn’t strive to be viewed as such. Well, not normally. She made sure everyone around her knew she was smarter than they were and she made sure they all knew that she thought highly of herself and nothing they could say or do would change that. She had, however, been in a couple relationships but none of them worked out. She found it hard to find a guy she felt was good enough for her, but that really didn’t matter. She was perfectly happy alone, in that sense. Yeah, she did want friends, humans were social beings, but she was happy being without any sort of lover, at least for now. She was a strong woman and could take care of herself and she knew this. Though her life hadn’t been easy, nothing ever was. She just felt that she handled her bad luck better than most. Instead of giving up and being idiots she held her head high and found the best thing to do in the situation. Life would never be a walk in the park and she honestly felt that when many people realized that they threw in the towel of trying to live a good life and completely stopped trying. This is what made her different from others, and she felt it was also a good application for intelligence, if she may say so herself.

When looking at this man Ember had to admit she was not nearly as intimidated as most would be by his appearance. He wasn’t someone she would like to meet in a dark alley in the middle of the night but she also didn’t strike her as the type who would injure a woman so there was no reason to fear. However, she could completely be wrong. Reading people wasn’t in her resume, she just took what her first impression was and went with it because she had figured, over her life, that the best thing to do was to follow your instinct. It usually worked best. Ember did notice that he started to look at her, but didn’t think much of it. Anyone would take a look at the person who just came up beside them for no reason. She also wasn’t really expecting him to say anything to her. She also started conversations; it was just a part of her. She was a little confused when someone else would start talking first; just not something she was used to. Then again, she did not think other were anti-social. She actually couldn’t stand it when people would call themselves anti-social. It wasn’t a personality trait, it was a disorder, and not the type of disorder most people thought it was. And then there was the fact that, as said before, humans are social beings. There were only a few people who didn’t want any human contact, and those were the people out living in the forest and off the land. Talking to new people may not be their cup of tea, but all the people she ever met wanted some type of human contact to be a common thing in their life.

While he looked at her she wasn’t sure if she would exactly call it checking her out, but he wasn’t avoiding looking at her either. She did pride herself on her appearance; anyone who saw her would know that. Make-up covered her face when she walked out the door, she only wore the best clothes, that she could afford, and simply the way she held herself showed her confidence. She would tell any girl that the trick of getting a guy to notice and want you was to simply hold yourself high. It was something she had to go through with new girls at the club all the time. Even if they felt they looked horrible, confidence was the key to making lots of money that night. She honestly felt that it was all you really needed, and the make-up and clothes thing just helped you feel the confidence.

After the man answered her question with a question Ember didn’t even bother to roll her eyes. He could do what he wanted, but little did he know he would have a conversation with her before she left even if it was fairly one sided. She would talk to herself if she had to. She was just an open person who didn’t really like to be alone, or maybe she just liked people. She really wasn’t sure. She let her blue eyes move to him and looked at him for a moment. Not bad looking, quite a bit taller, which made her want her heels back so she could force him to look her in the eye and… mysterious. Was that the right word? She couldn’t figure it out. He was muscle bound and went overboard to look cold in her opinion. She didn’t understand that, not at all. There was no point in trying to avoid conversation altogether and trying to keep people away from you wasn’t normal and all it did was show a person’s actual want to talk to someone, but not knowing exactly how to converse with another human being.

“Well, only if you actually are looking at something,” she answered, pushing hair away from her face only to have it blow back in front of her eyes mere seconds later. The wind didn’t do too much for her hair, but she didn’t care. Pull a brush through it before work and she was good to go. Or she could leave it as is and go with a biker chick feel that night, but she didn’t like that look herself so would probably change it. “And if you are I must be blind ‘cause there’s nothing to interesting out there," she once again admitted, shifting her weight onto her other leg and then moving so she was facing the man, looking at him through slightly closed eyes, a bit of a seductive look across her face, just for the sake of it. Hell, he was good looking! What could she say? She liked flirting, she was good at it and the man before her needed a little attention. He just looked down, and that wasn’t right, was it?

“Which actually brings up another question,” she continued, a little out of the blue, but still looking at him with the same face. “If you’re not looking at something, you’re thinking about something,” she said, turning and walking towards the river slightly, listening to the cold water rush down the creek bed. “And if you came all the way out here to think about it, it has to be somewhat important… or thought provoking,” she continued, think through what she said before she said it. She turned to look over her should. “So what is it? What were you thinking about?” yup, she just dove right in there. The best way to get people to talk was to make them feel a little uncomfortable when you were the one leading the conversation. Something else she had figured out over her relatively few years.

((sorry for the delay, very busy week. Hope this works for you.))

[Justin Novak]

Justin certainly wasn't going to deny that this girl certainly was attractive. She looked like the sort of person who was quite fully aware of her appeal to men, and would certainly use that to her advantage. He was guessing by that appearance that she probably had some sort of job where she could utilize that and make a pretty penny doing so. He would in no way judge her for that... hell, people who could use their appearance to make money were definitely the smart ones. Minimal work was required for them, but they still got good pay. Of course, personality played a part in that too... a really shy girl probably wouldn't make a very good stripper or dancer or anything like that, even if she was attractive. This girl certainly was attractive, and certainly wasn't shy... sh he could definitely see her doing something of that sort.

He looked down at her, and shifted his position just slightly so he was facing her a bit more. He couldn't for the life of him figure why she was so interested in what he was thinking about. Most people just ignored him and left him along, and he was quite used to it by this point. So much so that he was more comfortable when people did ignore him. Then again, she was right... there was no one who was completely anti-social... but Justin had been along for so long, that he had convinced himself that he was anti-social and that he liked being alone and without human contact better. Of course, the exception to was when he was fighting... but that didn't really count as that sort of human contact. That was where he was just taking out all his frustrations on some fool who decided that they would like to step into the ring against him. Now, Justin wouldn't be a very good match against a professional fighter, since they were completely different from everything he was used to, but as far as street fighting went, Justin was on the top of the ladder.

For a moment or two he didn't say anything in response. He was just trying to figure out what interest she had in him. There had to be a reason she was here talking to him, because no one ever came and talked to him just because... or at least, no one ever had. Justin had been living in this lifestyle for so long now that it was sort of becoming a real part of him instead of just a mask. He definitely had a bit of a darker side to him that had become more prominent in recent years. He couldn't really be blamed for it though... after all, he had been trapped in this life and no one had offered to help him get out. They all would just look at him and shake their heads, making statements like "everyone has a choice how their life is lived." But they don't know the half of it. He was 3 years old when the abuse started... he didn't know any better than to just take it, and by the time he was old enough to maybe runaway and survive on his own, he didn't know anything but the pain and abuse.

At that point he started rebelling, and people just assumed he was a bad kid. Truthfully though, he just wanted someone to notice. His friends, teachers, neighbors... they all saw him on a regular basis, and they all saw the cuts and bruises, but never once did anyone ever offer him help. So he just slipped further and further away until he got to where he was now, and the way society was treating him, he was probably going to just keep right on slipping. With the death of his brother, and his hatred for his parents, Justin had nothing left to grab onto to keep himself from going right over the edge, and if something didn't change soon, he would be gone before you knew it... worst part was... no one would notice or bother to care. He was just a criminal... just street trash... just a Novak.
Honestly that was basically what he was thinking about before she had come up there. But there was no way in hell he was actually going to say that. No, Justin wasn’t the sort of person to be honest at all about the things he thought about. Most people thought guys like him were unintelligent and whatever they thought about it couldn’t be all that personal… but it was just a stereotype. I mean obviously a guy who was strong and violent couldn’t possibly be smart, right? Mostly the guys like Justin were all just pushed around by society and so shunned them, and were therefore considered unintelligent. Many of them were ex-convicts which didn’t help the appearance of what they were capable of. He really didn’t her to know what he was thinking about because if he told her then she would know something of his past, and as far as he could help it, no one was ever going to know anything about him.

Currently I’m trying to figure out why you’re so interested in what I’m doing and thinking. he responded, clearly with no intention of telling her what he really was thinking about. It just wouldn’t be Justin-like to do something like that… of course, it made it pretty obvious that he had something to hide, but who didn’t? Everyone had their secrets, and Justin’s involved particularly heinous acts that were just better left unsaid in his opinion. People would only have a worse impression of him if they all knew everything he’d done, so he wasn’t saying anything.

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((Sorry so long... and it sucks... but I wanted to finally get it done))

[Ember Candi Blaine]

If anyone would ever call her job easy Ember would nearly scream. Her job was hell and all of her friends knew it. She spent her night in a cold bar, nearly naked, dancing all night and constantly reminding the drunken men to keep their hands off her if they didn’t want her to call the bouncers over. She worked horrible hours and her feet didn’t agree with her by the end of the night due to walking around in four inch heels for hours at a time. Long story short, the whole “minimal effort” way of making money was a lie and anyone who worked with her or heard her talk about work would know that as well, especially for those who knew she was a virgin. Most people assumed she wasn’t, which didn’t bother her, it only bothered her when people didn’t believe her. The only reason she worked in the sec industry at all was simply the fact that she needed the money and a minimum wage job wouldn’t give her all she needed. And, well, she did have the looks for the job so even if it wasn’t easy it could be fun when there was a decent guy in the bar.

Ember felt that everyone could be blamed for exactly what they may do or say, no matter how their life had started. She was the child of teenage parents who never went to college and went through a messy divorce at a young age. They didn’t even have the money to get her a bicycle and all of her clothes were from Good Will. She could have easily turned to stealing when she was teased for not having the best clothes. Could have become a bitch in order to fit into the popular crowd, but she didn’t. Sure, she did start stripping to make a little money and she did start smoking because she heard someone say she was fat but she took complete responsibility for those decisions and ones like that. The people who didn’t take the responsibility and thought they couldn’t be blamed for how their life turned out were just stupid in her mind, and with a genius IQ, she may just be right when she compared people to herself. You always had a choice; it just depended on if you were going to make the tough decision or if you were going to take the easy way out. Most people did the latter.

Ember would be the first to admit that her judgments of people weren’t always fair, but that was because everyone judged intelligence based on their own marks in such a score and her scored were shockingly high. However, that and people’s self esteem were generally the only thing she judged people on. She thought everyone could be gorgeous if they would hold themselves high and let the world know that they didn’t care what you thought of them. The thing was, it was only the smart people who figured that much out. Of course some people were naturally more attractive than others, but that didn’t mean anything. You had to be comfortable with yourself and with everything you had done in the past and most people simply weren’t, which was where she noticed both their intelligence and their self worth to start waning. She wasn’t saying to live with no regrets because she felt that was impossible. Everyone would make mistakes and it was impossible to avoid regretting it, she just wished more people would use the mistakes as a tool to learning. But that would mean they had to have something resembling brains and, once again, with her judgments, she didn’t always think that was possible with most people.

“Well, honestly,” Ember started after he had finally answered her. It certainly took him long enough, she had to admit, but she supposed she couldn’t complain since he finally did start talking to her again. She would be very disappointed if he decided to just not talk to her at all. Then again, she would probably just keep talking to him and follow him if he started to leave. He didn’t hit her as the type that would hurt her, so she wasn’t too worried, but either way she would make sure she was never alone with him while being out of shouting distance from someone else. Never trust someone completely too soon, another little tidbit she had picked up over her years as a dancer. “It doesn’t really matter what you were thinking,” she gave a shrug of her slim shoulders and pushed hair that had been sticking to her lip gloss behind her ear. “I was curious is all, but the real reason for asking was to simply start up a conversation. If you can’t tell, I love to talk. Especially to strangers, people are so interesting and when the stranger isn’t so hard on the eyes it’s even better,” she giggled as she decided that this standing thing was stupid. Right where she was she sat on the ground, crossing her legs under her and resting her hands behind her so she could lean on them.

“So, I think the real question is, why wouldn’t I be interested? Curiosity is human nature; most people just don’t voice it because they’re too scared to look stupid. The thing is, I know I’m not stupid so I might as well ask. However, if you don’t want to tell me, fine. Even though that alone does give me a few hints on what exactly you were thinking about. You would have told me if it wasn’t personal or embarrassing after all,” she spoke fairly quickly, but after she was done she leaned over so her weight was resting against his legs. Yeah, she didn’t care what he thought and she was paying attention so if he moved she would be able to control her body without falling on her face, but she may as well see what she could get away with. He was hot after all, may as well get close. Most of the guys at the club were twice her age, drunk and ugly, she needed to milk this for all she was worth.