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Post by jason andrew irving on Jun 16, 2009 1:48:56 GMT -5
look at this photograph
EVERYTIME I DO IT MAKES ME LAUGH
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- He shrugged as she said she asked too many questions, glancing sideways at her with a little smile on his face. “Not really, you haven‘t really asked any. Besides, isn‘t that how you get to know someone?” he said mildly. Shrugging again, his gaze dropped to the ground. He figured he might as well explain why he felt like kids were a hopeless case for him. “My ex and I were practically married. I was in a bad wreck. I needed surgery and everything and when they finally let me out of the hospital, I hurt so bad I couldn‘t do anything. I‘m sure you know what it‘s like to get dumped by a horse. Imagine your worst fall times a thousand.” He sighed, remembering how every muscle in his body ached for probably two, three weeks afterwards. “Well, she moved in to take care of me and when I was feeling better, well, I‘ll leave out what we were doing, but afterwards she brought up getting married.” A slight laugh slipped from him. That hadn’t been a very discreet way to say they had been having sex; she‘d probably figure it out. “I talked to her mom and we went and looked at wedding bands that day. It was kind of odd how everything played out to work like that,” shrugging, he went on. “Well, long story short, our relationship ended pretty badly a couple months ago and I really don‘t think I can go through that again,” he shrugged, still looking at the ground. Why had he just thrown all of that on her?
Shrugging again, he pulled out of his memories and forced a smile that slowly became less forced as she talked about the farm. He had never known what it was like to struggle through anything like that; even if something happened to the hospital where his parents both worked, they had enough saved up they could live pretty well until they found another job. He also hadn’t been with his horse the previous year, so he didn’t see the decline in the people competing in the shows or anything. Jason’s dark, bushy eyebrows raised slightly as she mentioned her filly, a wishful smile on his face. That would be fantastic to do, though perhaps for jumping instead of reining. Those eyebrows furrowed when she said she was stuck here and he gave her a funny look, like he was trying to figure out why exactly she was here if she didn’t want to be. Glancing away, he didn’t want to sound stuck up, but he knew he tended to come across that way at times. “How much would it be to get her out here? How long of a ride would it be?” He thought for a moment, trying to figure out if his family still spoke to the one family they had met at one of the many shows he had been to who owned a private plane that they’d fly their horse and their friends to competitions across the country. If they did…well, maybe he could get that black filly out to this deserted wasteland. Maybe she’d be a little happier if she had something to remind her of home.
He chuckled as she mentioned her pony, shaking his head in a humored way as he did. Ponies were the stubborn ones, that was for sure. There was a half-arab he had leased that was sort of like that. If he did one thing wrong that crazy grey didn’t like, he’d end up fighting to stay on. The only time he had really been on beginners horses was, well, when he had started. After that, he moved on to more difficult horses and he really thought that was what made him as good as he had been when he left the city. If he had always rode lazy little school horses, well, he probably wouldn’t have been able to control Casey, much less stay on her.
Shaking his head, he smiled when she said she learned from the horses. “That‘s not dumb, that‘s the best way to learn,” he murmured, studying her. He laughed as she explained what Chance had done; it sounded almost just like Casey. Of course, there weren’t a lot of people who rode her after his parents bought her, but the difference between him, his little brother and his girlfriend at the time was crazy. As soon as he was on her, she’d give him a hard time for the first ten or fifteen minutes before settling down and actually working, but if Dylan was on her back, she wouldn’t bat an eye at anything. His girlfriend would get a little bit of a hard time, maybe a spook here and there, but other than that, Casey was excellent for her.
Listening to her explanation of the pony’s behavior, he nodded his head. It made perfect sense. Non-horsey people didn’t seem to get it, but a horse could read someone just by looking at them. When he had gone up to the barn after having a rough day, Casey always behaved better than when he came up in a perfectly good mood. He laughed with her when she explained her philosophy on horses. “That sounds like it wouldn‘t work, but I completely understand what you‘re saying,” he laughed, grinning when she said people usually didn’t need to be smacked. “Oh, but some of them do,” he joked, his curls bouncing as he shook his head again. No, there were some people who really just needed a good smack to straighten them out. There had been some kids he had gone to school with when he had been in a private school who were so incredibly stuck up, he wanted nothing to do with them. And then they’d make him out to be the bad guy because he’d rather be nice than wave his parents’ money around like it was some sort of popularity device.
“So,” he started, his tone teasing as he gave her a playful look. “What do you think Chance would do with me if I ever got the chance to meet him,” he burst out laughing as he realized he used the pony’s name without really trying to. His laughter faded off and he suddenly realized that he actually felt somewhat happy talking to Macy. That was something he hadn’t really felt in quite some time. Maybe it was because he had pushed away two of the most important people in Salt Lake in his life and one of the others had seen him gulping down shot after shot of liquor at Port O’ Call one night and he just felt so…well, ashamed to put it bluntly. Macy, on the other hand, hadn’t known him during that terrible downward spiral of his life and he actually felt at ease with her, though now that the question was out of his mouth, he didn’t want to know what she was going to say. Personally, after the last two months, he figured Chance would toss him in the dirt the second he was on the pony’s back.
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Post by macy rose marlin on Jun 16, 2009 12:28:23 GMT -5
 PRETTY AS A PICTUREMacy listened without looking at him as he told her about his ex. She couldn't keep a slight shudder from rippling up her spine when he said car crash. She had known a girl in school who had died in a crash. She hadn't known her personally or been friends with her or anything, but in a small town, everyone knew everyone else, and it came as a shock to the whole community. She glanced at him with striking blue eyes, her hand automatically touching his arm and giving it a slight squeeze, as if through physical contact she could give him strength or something. "You could. You could do anything you wanted to do, even if it hurt like hell." she said softly, her voice firm with conviction.
Macy was a firm believer in the whole, "people can do whatever they want" thing. Jason struck her as the strong type who could accomplish something just because he put his mind to it. "You just have to find someone who's worth the risk" she added with a slight nod. She dropped her hand from his arm, realizing she'd left it there. Her hands went back to her jeans pockets, as if they had misbehaved or something and had to be confined.
She stared ahead when he asked how long a ride it would be. "I don't know. We took our time coming up. It took us like, three days. I suppose it would be about the same with a trailer. It's not so much the ride up here. Shes spent nights tied to the trailer at rodeos and stuff. It's more the cost of keeping her somewhere. We can't really afford it. It's way cheaper to keep her at home, where we can kick her out on grass and don't even have to pay for hay." She shrugged, and there was something in her voice that held finality, as if there were no other way around it. She had never really considered the options because she didn't want to get her hopes up and then be disappointed. She would probably have enough on her plate once school started without trying to give Viva time, anyway.
As far as being stuck here, well, Macy did it for her parents. She was the sort of selfless person who put everyone else before herself. It wasn't something she consciously thought about, she just did it. Like this whole college thing in Utah. The idea of saying no hadn't even crossed her mind, even though she wanted nothing more than to go back home. Her parents wanted this, and she would do whatever she could to make them happy. She was the same with anyone, though. If Jason had asked her to help him in some way that would have made her miserable, she would have done it without a second thought. It was the kind of person she was; she did whatever she had to do to make other people happy. It wasn't all as selfless as it sounded, though. It made her feel better to help other people. Some people feel better by helping themselves, by making their way up the ladder. Macy helped herself feel better by helping other people feel better. It was just what she did.
She laughed slightly when he said some people needed to be smacked. "Some of them" she agreed thoughtfully. "You can deliver the smacking, though, because they'd just beat me up" She fell easily into his light teasing, and just as quickly into his solemn mood when he asked how Chance would have responded to him. She took a while to reply, staring thoughtfully at the ground as they walked. "I think" she said finally. "Chance would have been an angel for you." She spoke slowly, as if she were still rolling the words around in her head, considering them from every angle. "But he wouldn't have looked happy doing it, because he thought you could do better." She glanced up at him with piercing blue eyes.
A lot of people were unnerved by Macy's blue eyes. They said it felt as if she could see their soul or something. Of course, that wasn't even the truth but she could see a lot about people that others couldn't. She read deeper than some people did. Some called it a gift. For Macy it was just part of her. Figuring people out came as naturally to her as breathing or blinking, as stalkerish as that sounded. It wasn't in a stalker sort of way at all.
Word Count: 757
Tag: Jason Irving
Notes: None
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Post by jason andrew irving on Jun 16, 2009 21:42:46 GMT -5
look at this photograph
EVERYTIME I DO IT MAKES ME LAUGH
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- He caught the slight shiver as he mentioned the wreck and instantly felt guilty for bringing it up. For all he knew, she could have been in a wreck ten times worse than the one he was in or maybe she was like his neighbor who had three close relatives die in a car crash. He should have known by now not to bring it up. At least he was willing to talk about it, though. Even two months ago the thought of it made him close up and basically push away the few memories he had of it. He had vivid nightmares of the crash night after night and though those hadn’t completely gone away, they were far less frequent now. That’s what had caused the “temporary” break he and Ana were suppose to have and then from there, his stupid mistakes ending their relationship for good.
It surprised him to feel her hand on his arm, but it almost felt good, like someone was actually on his side for the first time since he ruined his last relationship. A small smile crossed his face at her words but all he did was just shrug again. He knew she was right, but he hated hurting enough that he was willing to forget about having a relationship and basically give up on ever having kids. At least he’d work around them, even if they weren’t his own. “You‘re right. I guess it‘s more that I don‘t want to see anyone hurt because of me again,” he mumbled.
Sighing, his gaze remained on the ground when she said you just had to find someone worth hurting for. Ana was. But he had hurt her to the point that wasn’t going to happen again. And after his drunken stupor after the beach party, well, he could only pray he wouldn’t see her at school. Other than the alcohol, what had led him to be stupid enough to kiss her? The liquor, that was it. From what he could remember, it had been just as wonderful as when they were together, but it still didn’t change the fact that he had been making out with his ex. Then again, it was thanks to her, though not so much that night, he wasn’t drinking anymore since she rather bluntly said he had a problem and needed help. And it was thanks to her he had his new, energetic dog. Having some sort of responsibility was definitely helping to keep him sober.
Jason nodded his head when she said it was more of a cost factor than actually getting the mare up here. He had never had that sort of problem before and he knew Casey could be shipped out here in a heartbeat, but he wasn’t going to take her away from Dylan. He was the type of guy who would try to help when he could, especially when money was the issue. He didn’t need it, but if someone else did, he could work something out. Shrugging again, he dropped his gaze to the ground, once again a little nervous that he’d come across as the arrogant type who was just flaunting his parents’ money around. “That‘s not that big of a deal. I could get her up here and pay for board and such,” he offered, completely willing to do it, though assuming she’d turn it down. She came across as the type who wouldn’t accept help. “It seems like she means a lot to you,” he explained, looking over at her and smiling.
He giggled slightly when she said he could be the smack-er and shook his head. “I don‘t think I could do that. I‘d probably smack someone and then apologize a million times. Or get shot after I smacked them,” he laughed, knowing that was the more likely alternative with his luck, especially here in Salt Lake. He swore the city would kill him one day. There was just something about it. Falling down his steps, the car wreck. Sure, he had been hospitalized before, but not for more than a few hours. Once he arrived in Utah, well, he had to stay in the hospital for a week after the wreck and they only released him because he had sucked it up and walked around his room, practically begging them to let him out. Being stuck in one place drove him absolutely crazy. Of course, after he got home, he realized he probably should have stayed at least another day or two. His steps had been hell and that was the only place he had an actual shower, though he hadn’t been able to take a real one until he got his stitches out. He had ended up sleeping in his recliner since laying down flat hurt terribly. Well, any way he sat had hurt, but the recliner was the most comfortable.
He tilted his head and gave her a quizzical look as she told him her opinion of Chance and a small, sad smile crossed his face as he turned his eyes back in front of him. Yeah, well if you had seen what I did two months ago, he would have tossed me off in a heartbeat, he thought bitterly. She was really good at reading people, that was for sure. It was like her brilliant blue eyes could see everything he felt, though for most people that was pretty easy. At least she didn’t know about his stupidity unless she was a mind reader or she listened to what people said. He knew there were rumors flying around about him and his former - or as people around here seemed to think - “former” relationship with Ana and seeing him with alcohol at the beach had just sent even more rumors flying around.
Tilting his head, he brought himself out of his thoughts again, an idea popping into his mind. “Why don‘t see if we can find a stable around here? I could attempt to learn to ride again and you could show me what you do,” he suggested. After he said it, he doubted she’d want to since she was use to her own horses and he shrugged. “I mean, only if you want to.” A small smirk crossed his face and he shot her a teasing look. “If you‘re going to ride with me, you might want to put 911 on speed dial, though.”
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Post by macy rose marlin on Jun 16, 2009 22:08:30 GMT -5
PRETTY AS A PICTURE She nodded a bit when he said he didn't want to hurt anyone again. "We hurt people, love. Unfortunately, it's part of human nature" She shrugged a bit. "We can't help hurting the people we love, but the people who loves us forgive us for hurting them, because they know they hurt us, too" She didn't think about the fact that she had just called him "love." it was another Macy thing. She called people "darling" and "love" and "dear" all the time. It was just what she did.
Someone had told her once that she had a simplistic view of life, and she had retorted that it is simple. Life was the same as working with horses. If you stripped it down to the basics, it wasn't that hard. Of course, there were times it seemed impossible. And then you had to go back to basics. Macy was forever doing that, breaking things down into simpler steps, and as a result, she did have a pretty simplistic view of life, but it was also true.
She did look rather surprised when he offered to pay board for her filly. A smile crossed her face and she shook her head. "I appreciate the offer, really, I do" she said softly. "But for one, my parents would never go for it. They're big on the whole, don't take charity, for some reason. And I don't know if I'd have time for her." She glanced up at the sky as a cloud cast the pair of them into shadow. "Plus I have no idea how this whole school thing is going to go. I think it's a pretty simple schedule, but I'd like to get into the swing of things, see how everything's going to be, before I add another pressure. She's a lot of work. I'd guilt myself about not giving her enough time" she laughed slightly.
There was lots to consider in the offer. It would be a huge change for the filly. The soft, anthropomorphic part of her whined that it would be too much, the climate, the city. It was a lot for a young horse. The rough-and-tumble trainer part of her coldly insisted that "it would be a good training experience." Both of these were true. Still, she could hardly stand the thought of leaving Viva in Mississippi when an offer had just arisen to bring her here. She nibbled her lip. "Give me a couple weeks to think about it?" she asked, glancing at him a little shyly.
“Why don‘t see if we can find a stable around here? I could attempt to learn to ride again and you could show me what you do. I mean, only if you want to. If you‘re going to ride with me, you might want to put 911 on speed dial, though.” She laughed a bit. "I'd love it" The being used to her horses wasn't really an issue. She had always had horses coming and going, either from her parents end or from outside training horses. The Marlin family had had a pretty good system going. Her parents had run the breeding end of things, taking care of the stallions and mares and foals, as well as most of the ground work until the foals were almost two, and then they handed them off to Macy and her brother to get them started under saddle. It had worked really well. The horses were quieter because they had had lots of time put in on them, and as such, they were more valuable. As a result, Macy was on at least 3 different horses a day. Sure, she had her own mare, but she had learned to adjust to different horses. To her, it was part of being a horseman. "I'd love that" she said with sparkling blue eyes. "I had a friend who rode English and she let me try once, on her big old fancy English horse. I'm pretty sure she had a Warmblood. But let me tell you, Western is way easier." she laughed a bit. "I swear, anything is easier than English. I can do more bareback than I can English...Then again, I started all my horses bareback, and did about half of their riding time bareback, so I guess I'm better than most people with the whole going without a saddle thing." She blushed a bit. It felt arrogant to her to say that she was better than most when it came to bareback riding, even if it was the truth. She shook her head, an amused smile still on her face. "And I'm sure you're not that bad. It's like riding a bike; you don't ever forget."
Word Count: 782
Tag: Jason Irving
Notes: None
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Post by jason andrew irving on Jun 16, 2009 23:20:55 GMT -5
look at this photograph
EVERYTIME I DO IT MAKES ME LAUGH
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All he did was nod his head to her comment about hurting people. Anything she said always made perfect sense, it was like she was wise beyond her years. All he knew was that the hurt on Ana’s face was permanently burned into his mind and he knew it would kill him to put anyone else through that. The way he saw it was even if he didn’t get married and have a family like he had always imagined, he’d be around kids every day for his job. Perhaps if he started riding again, that could take up his spare time. He could be happy enough on his own, right? Sure, there would be things he’d miss about being in a relationship; having someone to curl up with at night and wake up next to in the morning, someone to fight and slam doors with and then at the end of the day have his arms wrapped around her, someone to make love with, everything he had experienced in two of his previous relationships that had only made him love her more, that would be missed, but he could do it if he really wanted to.
Shrugging, he smiled at her explanation of why bringing her young mare here wouldn’t work. That he understood. When he had been in pain after the wreck, it had been so hard for him to take help from anyone, even his girlfriend. Sure, it was a different kind of charity, but it was still the same sort of thing. Well, sort of. Needing help putting on a shirt and needing money for something like bringing a horse with him were two different things, but the help you got was still charity. “Nope, I want your decision now,” he said, his face remaining perfectly straight for only a moment before he burst out laughing. “No, that‘s fine. Take your time, it‘s a big decision to make.”
He really was surprised when she jumped on his offer to ride together and a real smile slipped on his face, his dark eyes showing his surprise as well as his joy. He had only made a few friends who rode before, most of them only because they rode at the barn where he boarded Casey. And then there were always those rivals who were all too sweet at the barn and then as soon as you got into the show ring they’d do whatever it took to win. He didn’t like that; if you didn’t have the talent to win the flat classes, you didn’t have the talent. There was no reason to cut someone else off and make their horse freak out. Flat classes were always a drag for him, though. Walk, trot, canter, “hand gallop”, switch directions, repeat. He much preferred jumping. And dressage bored him to death. He had tried it with Casey a few times, taking lessons with a pretty decent trainer and neither one of them was in a very good mood after the lesson. They could do it, but they didn’t enjoy it, so they just stuck to competing over fences and a few dull flat classes.
Jason laughed when she said western was way easier. “I only rode western…twice. Maybe three times. Before I got Casey and my one of the girls who rode at the barn wanted to go on a trail ride. She had a few horses and I used her little paint gelding.” Shrugging, he grinned, remembering the cute little gelding and how laid back he was. “It was fun, but I absolutely love jumping.” The boy laughed again when she said bareback was easier than English. “Bareback is fun,” he agreed. “Until you try jumping bareback and the first two jumps work fine and then the third one your horse decides to fake you out and you‘re the one who lands on the other side of the poles,” he said, his dark eyes sparkling as he remembered the time Casey launched him over that jump. Bareback jumping was hard; the first, oh, three, four times he tried it, he couldn’t stay on when she landed, so he started riding bareback more and more until he could actually do it.
His bushy eyebrows raised when she said it was like riding a bike and he grinned. “Yeah, well I‘m not kidding when I say you‘ll need 911 on speed dial,” he said, his tone almost grim. “I hate re-learning things, it‘s like ‘I already know how to do this, I should be able to without a problem‘ so I‘ll probably push myself too far and fall off a million times, but hey, that‘s half the fun, right?” Still grinning, he sighed. “A helmet‘s a requirement for me,” he rolled his eyes playfully, accidentally brushing his hand against hers. He could be a flirt without even realizing it at times.
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Post by macy rose marlin on Jun 17, 2009 1:22:03 GMT -5
PRETTY AS A PICTURE She glanced at him when he didn't respond. She could have kept going, but she decided to let it drop. Macy wasn't really the sort to push things. She didn't really like conflict or confrontation. She liked going with the flow, and she had the feeling that the subject was closed. She didn't go banging on locked doors. It wasn't her place. Unless there were things behind those doors that would get people hurt. Which there usually wasn't.
She laughed slightly when he talked about jumping bareback. "That's really fun. I had to work on it for forever, though. Seriously, it took me like, three years to figure out how to lope without falling off. I have an extremely independent seat now, though, so it was worth the pains. I don't come off nearly as often now as I did before I started really riding bareback." Macy was a pretty firm believer in the cause, now. Her kids would ride bareback a ton. It made for a much better rider.
She laughed slightly. "Falling is not fun. I had a training colt break my collar bone, once. I came off and landed right. Hurt like crazy" She shrugged a bit. "Of course, I was pretty much on the next day...Well, maybe not, but it took forever to heal, because I couldn't stay down" She laughed a bit. Her parents had been furious, but it had definitely been worth it. She grinned when he said helmets were requirements. "I don't even own a helmet" she said with a laugh. "I wear my cowboy hat....But that was pretty much it" she laughed a bit.
Word Count: 0.o don't even wanna count it.
Tag: Jason Irving
Notes: losing muse. new thread??
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Post by jason andrew irving on Jun 17, 2009 1:24:32 GMT -5
sounds good. i was running out of ideas with what to do here XD where shall it be?
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Post by macy rose marlin on Jun 17, 2009 2:35:43 GMT -5
I honestly don't care. You pick. =P
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