[open] That calm, carefree feeling.

[Jamie Colburn]

It had been a long day at college, and like most days, Jamie was beginning to wonder why in the world he had even decided to go to college. It felt like a waste of his time, and he wasn't learning anything that he didn't already know. He was one of those guys who was just brilliant. He could spend two minutes studying 30 pages of a textbook and know it all perfectly. Secretly, he was a huge nerd in that way, but no one would ever know it. He didn't come off as a jock though. He was sort of trapped in the middle between nerd and jock... but at the same time, he wasn't just your average guy either. There was something about him that was just unnatural. He could manipulate people with nothing more than that devious smirk of his, yet somehow he still attracted people and was always Mr. Popular.

Anyway, today the classes seemed to drag on longer than usual, and he had barely managed to drag himself from one class to the next. When the day was finally over, he was more than ready for a drink and something to get his mind off how much he hated school... aka a girl to get down and dirty with. After a quick stop at his dorm room to get his fake ID, he was off to the club. It was a college town, and most people there were underage... but no one really cared that much... besides, Jamie could pull off 21 quite easily... just another way he could manipulate people. The details of what went on there are certainly not needed, seeing as just about everyone does the same thing, and Jamie was very predictable in that way.

Just as he was about ready to leave with some hot blonde, his phone rang. He glanced at the caller I.D. which was flashing the name "Chuck." For a moment he almost ignored the call, but as it persisted, he finally picked it up. I'm kind of busy Chuck. He growled into the phone without any sort of greeting, but Chuck didn't seem to care. Jamie, it's mom...

[/s] he said sounding like someone had died, which instantly got Jamie's attention. As much as he pretended he didn't care, he did love his family. What about her? he asked, still deliberately sounding like he didn't care. I think you need to come home Jamie...[/s] He said still sounding just as somber. Of course, this response didn't please Jamie at all, Stop beating around the bush Chuck. What's going on? He asked in a very annoyed tone, clearly displeased with the interruption in his night. She has cancer... inoperable. The doctors give her no more than a year.[/s]

A long silence followed and continued for a minute or two as the news sank in, and he felt like his heart suddenly weighed a million pounds. Jamie are you okay?[/s] Chuck's voice came through the speaker, but Jamie didn't hear it. He was in shock and he felt trapped. She couldn't be dying, she was the only real family he had left. Jamie?[/s] Silence...[/i]

Jamie?[/s] His eyes opened slowly as he came back to reality, an annoyed expression already on his face as the girl beside him shook him slightly in an attempt to wake him. What? he growled in that "I have a god damned hangover woman, leave me alone" tone. Oh I was just afraid you were dead... it's already noon.[/s] She said in an overly chipper tone. No, I was just hoping you were. he responded with a groan as he sat up slowly, running his hand through his hair. The girl just looked at him with a confused expression. Jamie decided against trying to explain, and got up, grabbing clothes and heading for the shower. Apparently he'd had more to drink last night than he thought, since he normally remembered all the activities of the night, but this morning he had absolutely no recollection, though judging from the girl it had been nothing more than what he normally did at night.

When he returned, she was still there, and of course, that bothered him. Why are you still here? he asked, clearly not caring whether or not he hurt her feelings. Well I am your girlfriend...[/s] but was quickly cut off by Jamie You are not my girlfriend. Call yourself a cab or start walking. With that he walked out and headed for the kitchen in search of coffee and aspirin. A few minutes a taxi pulled up outside and he heard the door slam... she was finally gone, thank God. He was tempted to just go back to bed, but decided against it. He had better things to do... well, not really... but he could always pretend, right?

It was around 2:00 in the afternoon before he finally got himself ready for the day and out the door. He was moving a little slower this morning, no doubt a result of last night's activities. He really didn't have anything better to do at this point, considering he was on an "extended vacation" and was working on his own schedule, but he felt like he needed to get out of the house and go do something today. So he loaded the dog into the car, and headed out for the stable just to go waste some time. For Jamie, his pets were the only living things that were ever shown any direct affection, and that too was intentional. He wanted to show more care towards them than the women he was around, because he didn't want any of them coming to the conclusion that they were in a relationship with him. His dog, cat, and horse were the only ones he actually cared about, end of story. Yes, he was a first class jackass, and he wanted it that way.

When he got to the barn, he snapped the leash on the dog's collar and headed down towards the pastures where he knew his horse would be out grazing. Jamie didn't know a thing about horses, and to him, "Jack" was kind of like a big dog that lived at the barn, so he had just told the barn manager that the old horse was to get the best care available, no questions asked, and just send the bill to him at the end of the month. All in all he probably spent a lot more than most people would on an old retired horse that he didn't even ride, but hey, no one at the barn was going to complain about the relatively large check they got at the end of every month.

When he got down to the pastures, he just leaned against the fence and watched the horses out enjoying themselves. Even though he really wasn't a horse person, there was something calming about this place. It was quiet and away from the big mess of the city... sort of reminded him of when he was younger and lived in West Virginia and the only thing he had to worry about was Chuck coming from out of nowhere and tackling him to "practice for football." Being an adult was so much harder than being a kid, and most of the time he really just wanted to go back to that age where nothing mattered, and that was why he almost always acted like he didn't care about anything. He was trying to get that feeling back... problem is, once you're an adult, that feeling never does come back. He was stuck here, no matter how he tried.[/center][/size]

[Arianna Graig]

Skie woke up in what was a reasonably good mood. She officially as of today this moment was no longer employed and she had never felt better. If you had asked her back when she was just a sixteen year old playing out in the middle of the bush with no life long ambitions if she would have ever considered modeling as a career . . well she probably would have laughed you out of town. Her makeup? Fancy clothes that required effort to pick out? It was a laughable thought and even now only sixteen hours after her final job she finds it hard to believe how easily she slipped in the degrading and glamours role. She couldn't imagine ever going back to it nor ever missing the fast paced life she had lived for the past four years.

Walking down the stairs she remembered that for breakfast she could eat whatever the hell she wanted and with that in mind she searched the cupboards for some sugary substance, satisfied with her collection of completely unhealthy food Skie wondered aimlessly leaving a trail of crumbs and chocolate as she went. Never was one to keep things neat and tidy however the limited time she spent at home meant that it didn't get to much of a chance to get dirty. Even so as she was walking from room to room she had to step on and over piles of clothes, fallen books, magazines scattered across the floor.

She stopped in the last room of the house and sat cross legged on the floor in the middle. Her long black hair falling over her shoulders almost reaching the ground. Dark brown eyes tilted around the room searching through all the photos stuck into the wall and the posters that covered the wall. A clean rug covered an old couch that sat in the corner and she had two saddle stands, each holding a well polished western saddle. Saddle pads were thrown up against the wall next to several bridles and halters that were hanging up on the wall. An assortment of other gear and tack was thrown around on the floor. It was her little own made tack room inside her house. The place she spent her precious free moments in, cleaning tack or simple reminiscing on what was.

Skie never stopped she always had to be doing something. Even now as she sat she was aimlessly running a cloth over her first bridle that had seen better years and was hardly ever used anymore. It was made especially for her tiny fat pony when she was young. She remembered how stupid the poor fluff ball would look decked up in a fancy leather bridle with silver trimmings. Since then she has had an obsession with quality fancy leather tack. She couldn't care less about clothes shopping or house shopping or shops in general. But set her loose into a tack store and you would have a hell of a time getting her out.

One hour 14 minutes and seven seconds into her first day with no job to run to, nothing to worry about and already Skie was bored. She could go down to the barn but would only have to go back down again to feed later. She didn't no anyone down there well enough to just sit around and chat. She had promised herself atleast two weeks off but maybe it wouldn't hurt just to look for some new jobs now? Just incase no one was hiring? With a tiny frustrated sigh Skie picked herself up, long slender legs reaching out from under her in a fashion born over years of being the centre of attention, but didn't portray her personality at all.

Picking up a few grooming items and slinging one of the bridles over her shoulder saddle under her arm she decided to go to the stable anyways. It wasn't a long drive and it almost took longer to get all her gear from the car to the stable than it did just to drive there. Then again it may have had something to do with her current clumsiness and the fact she had decided to park as far away as possible today. She liked it here however, most people kept to themselves but they wern't snobbish. Least not from what she had seen. Granted she had seen very few who rode western and this slightly disappointed her, but hey no one was perfect right?

All in all boring facts aside there ride could have gone better. Playwrite her young QH had decided to punish her, nothing serious but it was enough to frustrate Skie into just giving up for the day, she would instead turn the black horse out into the paddocks for the rest of the day. It wasn't often that Skie got frustrated in the saddle, but when she did it was always a best idea to just call it a day before things got a bit exciting. She did however feel guilty for having not been out to work the five year old in a few days. It wasn't fair on the poor horse and she shouldn't have expected anything spectacular from her. She had a mental promise to spend as much time as possible over the next few weeks doing as much work as possible with her mare.

Apparently Play wasn't finished in punishing Skie and was prancing all over the place on the way out to the paddock. Every damn sound sent her flying sideways, loud snorts escaping from a flared nose. Her long black legs were picked up as high as possible in a very undignified way and Skie could only role her eyes and ignore it. She had learnt from experience that reacting only made the situation worse. She searched for a yard that was next to another horse, Play had a habit of escaping if she wasn't within sight of another horse. She found one next to a large stunning grey and walked towards it apparently unfazed by the idiot horse behind her, who only amped up her show of high spirits when she spotted the other horse.

Only when Skie was almost at the gate did she notice that someone was already there, he seemed to be watching the grey horse and she looked him over quickly. He didn't seem the horse type, then again who was she to judge? Nodding her head up a habit she picked up from Australia and has never seemed to have lost she said a short "Hey" as she passed him. Even in that one word her accent was as thick as it had been six years ago when she moved to New York.

Letting her idiot lose into the paddock and closing the gate shut behind her, she finally let her eyes move appreciatively over the males frame. He looked older than her but his age was difficult to guess at and she didn't even try. There was a closed kind of look in his eye as if he didn't care for her or her interruption on his quiet silent time. On noticing that she turned her attention rather quickly back towards her mare fully intending to walk back towards the barn to pick up her gear, when she noticed the QH playing chicken with the fence. Racing at it coming to a bone splintering sliding stop at the very last second. It was something she has done for as long as Skie has known her, but it was a habit she was keen to get rid of and wouldn't mind seeing the end of. Her legs were to damn valuable to be injured. Skie didn't think that the grey gelding would get to revved up he looked like he was well into his aged years and seemed pretty chilled. Even so she turned once again back towards the boy avoiding the look in his eyes and said " Sorry about her"with a sideways nod in the black mares direction. Her accent more obvious than ever as she spoke again a small smile filtering across her face " She will give it up in a second " and sure enough the mare had taken to racing down the field once towards the far end before dropping her muzzle into the lush grass. With a roll of her eyes Skie let a small smile escape her lips as she turned once again back to the boy who probably was well and ready for her to leave now. " You new around these parts then? " She was leaning against the fence posts casually, but her eyes looked up at him from under long thick eyelashes. Her mouth slightly upturned in a way that she had been using to address people since she was young. I don't think she was intentionally flirting with him. It was very subtly done however, her gaze flicked between his own and towards the paddock checking on the horse.

ooc
Words - too many
Notes- i don't often apologize for my posts, however i do feel this is one of my worst ever. It can only get better from here.

[Jamie Colburn]

Jamie stood in silence for quite some time, the direction of his attention towards the horse, but he wasn't really focused on or thinking about the horse. He would show the animal affection, but he wasn't the type of guy to just stand around and think about it all day. Mostly he was just thinking about the way things used to be way back when before life got more complicated and the biggest problem he faced was which crayon to choose. Occasionally he would catch himself and attempt to think of something less... nostalgic, like the script ideas he was working on... but no matter how hard he tried, his thoughts always slowly drifted back to his family before he ruined any chance he had at repairing his relationship with them.

As much as he wanted people to believe that he was just a heartless jerk who didn't care about anything or anyone except himself, there were times when the guilt for not being around the last year of his mom's life and the shame for disrespecting her in not going to her funeral were just too much for him to deal with. It had been six years since she had died, but even time didn't seem able to make this go away. It was all a lie, what people said, about things getting better with time. It had been twenty years since his dad had died, and he still got a horrible sick feeing in the pit of his stomach every time he thought about him and standing there watching him suffocate because of the selfishness of his grandparents whom he had long since disowned as family.

If anyone bothered to research into Jamie's life, they would find an interesting avoidance of all things involving death. In his scripts no one ever died, when he was working as co-director, he talked them into changing the plot line so that one of the main characters wouldn't die. When his last dog got to the point that it needed to be put down he brought it to the humane society. He deliberately went a round about way any time there was a cemetery between him and his destination so that he wouldn't have to drive by it. He would do whatever he had to in order to avoid the subject which might evoke some emotion in him and show people that he wasn't as horrible as they all thought he was. If anyone brought it up, he would just walk away. It wasn't something he wanted to talk about, and no one could force him to.

He snapped suddenly out of his thoughts at the sound of prancing hooves in close proximity to him, and turned to cast a bored and slightly annoyed glance at the intruder. The girl wasn't half bad... well, that was a lie, she was quite attractive, but Jamie wasn't going to say that, it wasn't his style. He completely ignored her brief greeting and turned back towards Jack who was still grazing placidly, paying no attention to the other horse at all. He'd been there and done that and was no longer interested in the antics of young horses. He wasn't much by entertainment anymore, so Jamie's attention being so fixated on him was a bit odd to say the least, but he had his reasons... mostly he wanted it to look like he was just watching his horse so he could zone out and not look like he had.

He was nearly back into his thoughts again, when the girl's voice once again broke his thought process. This time it was an apology for her horse's behavior, and it seemed as if conversation was unavoidable now. He turned slowly, a look of complete disinterest on his face as she continued on saying she would give it up eventually. His overall expression seemed to just scream "does it look like I care about what your horse does or doesn't do?" and any other day he might have said those exact words aloud in an annoyed tone, but not today. He hated the days when he didn't feel like being as rude and not caring as he possibly could be, it made him feel less Jamie-like and more actual human with a heart like, which in his opinion was a very bad thing.

He was about to turn away again, when she continued on, clearly more persistent than he had initially assumed. This time what she said required a response from him. Yes, he could just continue to ignore her, but that was the sort of rude that Jamie wasn't. He might be a jackass, but he still had manners... somtimes. After all, to be as successful as he had become he had to be at least decent and civil towards people occasionally. Of course, this now meant that he actually had to put some effort into coming up with something to say in response. He could just go with "sort of" but that was just so plain and... boring... and Jamie Colburn was anything but plain and boring. Oh the things Jamie put himself through just to be different from the rest of the world.

Define new. he said with that sultry smooth tone of his which made him seem even more devious than he truly was. Ah, the art of deception, Jamie was certainly quite good at it. If need be he could come across as the nicest person on the planet, then turn right around and come off as a total jerk, then switch things up again and come off as a happy-go-lucky idiot without a care in the world. Whatever Jamie needed people to think he was, he could most certainly get them to think just that. Of course, the one thing he would never ever want anyone to see him as was a perfectly normal human being who cared about others. The best way he could avoid confronting his emotions was to pretend he didn't have any, and so far that method had work beautifully for him. Maybe someday someone would see through the mask, but for now, he was just that heartless rich guy, and he intended on keeping it that way.

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[Arianna Graig]

People pissed Skie off, well they didn't really. More often than not she was a happy go lucky kind of person happy to just go with the flow. That and she could honestly understand when people wanted there own space and just left to there own devices. Hell that explained herself pretty well most of the time anyways. Yet a bit of common damn respect never went to far now did it? She could understand if she was a casual hook up or a drunken night, but two strangers saying hello surely even that couldn't be to much to cope with now could it? All this flew quickly through Skies busied mind within seconds and she absently shook it to the side in an attempt to rid herself of these idiotic thoughts that even to herself made no damn sense. Why she had chosen this month to be so damn emotional and touchy was beyond her. Perhaps she was pregnant? Would explain lots actually. She gasped out loud forgetting for the time being she was in the company of another. Of course she wasn't pregnant, inwardly she let out a nervous chuckle and pushed her thoughts in another direction. Seriously pregnant? Perhaps this lack of sleep was finally catching up with her.

Fighting down the thoughts that had no really reasoning behind them or real merit really Skie turned her attention back towards the boy who clearly wasn't interested in there one sided conversation. That reminded her of her previous thought about people annoying her, when they shouldn't be. Well it wasn't as if they shouldn't be annoying her, they were free to do what ever the hell they wanted to, it was more a fact that she shouldn't be getting so annoyed. . . . Look there she is going off and getting lost again in her own mental thoughts. Turning an apologetic face back towards the boy Skie tried to recall what he had just said. '" Sorry what did you say? " she said with her eyebrows turned towards eachother as she tried to recall what it was that he had just said.

It was in that moment that Skie was once again pulled out of her own thoughts my the sound of splintering wood. . Splintering wood? Her head lifted up at once and sought out the black figure of her own mare, who was prancing some paces away from the outskirts of a white wooden fence. She hadn't been watching but the sound of broken wood was still fresh in her mind and she had little doubt about what had happened. Perhaps bored of playing chicken with the fence the mare had probably just tried to get that bit to close. If she hadn't seen it happen before she would have been slightly more surprised. Either way it ment more work for her and possible even more bills to repair that section of the fence. She would have to walk around later and check that it was still all in one piece, that and check her mare was also still in one piece, although it served the black idiot right.

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[Jamie Colburn]

All of his life Jamie had been so easily bored by everything that he was possibly the most difficult person to keep interested in anything at all. If you were in the middle of a conversation with him and the topic of discussion wasn't entertaining him, he would probably just walk away without a word, or else come right out and say as bluntly as possible that he had no further interest in anything you were saying, and then walk away. To him, if a conversation didn't interest him, it wasn't worth his time, and in his mind, his time was extremely valuable. Yes, by societal standards, he was rude and far too straightforward, but by his standards, he was perfect. It didn't matter to him what people thought of him, if he needed them later he could probably manipulate them into doing whatever it was he needed them for.

That was the thing about Jamie, the opinion of the people around him didn't matter at all. He was his own person, and what they thought didn't matter. Of course, it didn't help that he considered himself better than everyone else, but on the other hand, he was extremely honest. If you asked his opinion, he would tell it to you straight up. If it was an answer he knew you wouldn't like, he wouldn't beat around the bush and try to make it sound nice, he would just come right out and say it. Then again, many people held the belief that you should keep your opinions to yourself, especially when they weren't very good ones. As far as he was concerned, there was no point in having an opinion if you weren't going to share it.

His expression clearly stated his boredom as a silence drew out between them after he had spoken, and his skeptical look depicted his thoughts clearly. Right now those thoughts were that this girl clearly must have something wrong with her... or else she really was just that unintelligent, and lack of intelligence was something Jamie simply could not stand. He was half tempted to just go back to mindlessly watching his horse and clear his head, but at the same time he really wanted to know what she was going to say and why in the world she had suddenly seemed to lose her ability to speak or else had forgotten that she was speaking to him previously. He was just slightly fascinated with what was going on in her head, but not quite enough to erase the boredom with the conversation, or lack thereof, written all over his face.

When finally she responded, he couldn't help but roll his eyes. It was seeming more and more like she was simply unintelligent with every passing moment. It was like this girl was the twin sister of the girl he'd brought home last night and kicked out this morning... damn Karma. I was just saying how if you're going to fail miserably at starting a conversation with someone you might want to pay attention long enough to hear what they have to say so they don't have to waste their time repeating themselves. He said, his voice flat, yet dripping with facetiousness. No, that wasn't really what he said, and she probably knew it... but he wasn't going to repeat himself. That was one thing he never did unless he absolutely had to, and right now he definitely did not have to.

This was why he was possibly the one person on the face of the earth who didn't have a single friend to his name. He used to, yes, but the older he got the more he realized he didn't really like the people he had been friends with, and had mostly just been friends with them because it was the cool thing to do. Now the cool thing to do was to be that rich jerk who no one wanted to be around... at least in his mind. He didn't have time for friends and all the problems that came with them. there was work, and there was "play"... the two should never combine, and he had found that whenever he let someone become his friend they suddenly thought it wise to unload all their trouble on him, and then what was fun before became work... and when that happened he would always be out the door faster than you could blink an eye.

When the sound of splintering wood caught the girl's attention Jamie didn't turn away from her. Now that he had said more than a few curt words to her he was actually engaged in this conversation, and though in most ways he was rude and a complete jackass, once he got engaged in something, no matter what it was, that was where he centered his focus and he would be damned if something so trivial as her horse breaking the fence should bother him enough to make his focus shift. As he watched her every move his eyes narrowed just slightly. He had a feeling there was something more to this girl than what was just sitting there on the surface for the world to see, and he was a little intrigued... just enough to keep him from walking away when her attention again drifted from him. His patience was wearing thin already, just one of many character flaws.

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