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Post by jason andrew irving on Jul 16, 2009 1:04:55 GMT -5
[/center] ’cause when the sky’s the darkest
YOU CAN SEE THE STARS Sliding a sleeveless, gray hoodie on over the green t-shirt he was wearing, Jason looked in the mirror in his room and sighed, pressing a hand against his head as his curls decided to stick up in the front. It was annoying, whether or not his scar was showing. Scowling, he stepped into the large bathroom and turned on the water, cupping his hands under it and wetting down his hair. Grabbing the blow dryer he hardly ever used unless his hair was being unruly, like it was today, he turned it on high and tried to keep his hair from sticking up to no avail. Rolling his eyes, he gave up and shut off the hair dryer, rolling the cord around it and tossing it under the sink. He’d blame it on his convertible top in his car. Turning on the water and wetting his hair again with little help it would work, he sighed and went back into his bedroom, looking around for his gray converse in his closet. In mid-search, he felt something small and wet brush against his arm and looking over in surprise, he saw his little australian shepherd with her nose pressing into his arm. Smiling, he reached over and stroked her ears, surprised to see the shoes he was looking for right behind her. Laughing, he picked them up and motioned to the closet door with his head. “C‘mon, Dash.”
Walking down his steps with his shoes in hand, a gray blur bolting down in front of him, he couldn’t help but smile. In two days time he’d be on a plane to New York. To some, that didn’t seem like an exciting way to end the summer, but to him, it was the best way to end it. His favorite people from New York - his parents, his little brother and his three best friends - were going to meet his favorite person from Utah now that he and Ana were back together. He knew his parents would have more than a few kind words to say to her and she was going to get along wonderfully with his friends. If she loved him, there was no doubt she’d like his friends. And when they were together, it was always hilarious. It was obvious they had been friends for a while, he just hoped that things hadn’t changed too much while he was gone. Those two years had really flown by, it didn’t really seem like he had been in Salt Lake that long. There had only been two months that really drug on and those were the two months he had spent drinking after he had cheated on his girlfriend. It was like every day felt like a week and there was a time he thought he would never get out of the hole he had dug, but he had run into Ana and she had offered him her hands and pulled him out before he buried himself alive.
He shook his head, laughing as Dash looked up at him, wagging her tail as she seemed to always do and he walked over to his back door, sliding it open and she bolted outside, barking happily at a squirrel that bolted up the nearest tree. Still laughing, he shook his head, wondering if she realized that barking at them announced her presence and there was no way she would catch one like that. Grinning to himself, he stepped into the half-bath by the garage door and grabbed his wrist brace off of the sink, velcroing it in place on his left wrist. Sighing, he couldn’t help but wish he had got it looked at when he first broke it, or at least bought the brace then instead of waiting a month. Now he was sure that to get it fixed, he would either have to have it re-broke, operated on or very possibly, both. None of the options were fantastic, but that was what he got for being stupid.
Hearing a little tap on his glass door, he looked over and saw that Dash was ready to come in and he smiled at the little dog as he let her in, rubbing her back affectionately before he headed towards the garage door. “Bye girl,” he said as he picked up his keys and a pair of sunglasses from the basket by the door. Climbing into his car, he was glad it was in the garage, otherwise it would be like an oven. Jason immediately pressed the little button on the dash board to put the top down and turned on the radio as he backed carefully out of the garage and onto the road, pressing another button to close his garage door as he pulled away, heading to the Salt Lake coffee shop. He wasn’t sure why, but he had had a craving for a nice iced coffee for the last few days and since he had no plans for the day and he hadn’t heard from Ana yet, he figured he’d start off his day by going to settle his craving.
It wasn’t a long ride to the SLRC, just long enough for him to listen to a couple songs if he flipped through his iPod to find something he wanted to listen to. That was one of the many things he loved about his house; it seemed like it wasn’t far from anything. Ten, fifteen minutes top, usually. And luckily for him, the hospital was on the shorter amount of time since he seemed to be there all the time. Of course, in a couple years, he would be there every day, but that would be for work, not from personal injuries that seemed to be caused by the most random things. Laughing to himself, the curly haired young man pulled into the parking lot and put his silver car in park, letting the top slide back into place as he turned down the music.
After he stepped out of the car, the heat of the hot, desert sun hitting his skin, he stretched and popped his back, shutting the door behind him and locking the car as he walked into the coffee shop, the delicious smell of coffee and the cool air hitting him all at once, bringing a small smile to his face. Stepping up to the counter, he pulled out his wallet and smiled at the girl working. She had been in one of his classes this past year and they had always exchanged a few friendly words when time permitted. When another person jumped in the line behind him, they cut their conversation short and he ordered a large, iced caramel coffee, loving the sweet caramel and the bitter coffee together. Smiling as he picked up the large, plastic cup, he thanked his former classmate and slipped over to a table, sitting down and placing the coffee in front of him, picking the straw up and scooping up some of the whipped cream on top, looking like a little kid as he ate all of the whipped cream before he started on the actual drink. The young man looked out the window absent mindedly, his right hand on the cup, left resting on the table as his thoughts once again drifted towards his fast-approaching trip back to his home in New York. How could he not be excited?
TAGS ; mister kipling !WORD COUNT ; 1,233 OUTFIT ; clickDRIVING ; 2009 MercedesLYRIC CREDIT ; jordin sparks ; faith for banner
rascal flatts ; fast cars and freedom for title
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Post by dawson leighton kipling on Jul 29, 2009 23:55:24 GMT -5
The last couple nights Dawson had been up late every night, hanging out with his aunt. It sounded lame, but she reminded him a lot of his mother, and missing home wasn't something that he'd left behind just yet. Not that he'd ever admit to it, of course; it was embarrassing that he missed his parents and his brothers and sisters even though he was a full grown man. Until last night he'd been hanging out with his young aunt until nearly midnight and getting up pretty late for him, ten or eleven o'clock. But last night had been her 'date night' with her husband, which Dawson couldn't help but think was really pretty cute for a couple that had been married for ten years, and he'd been asked to watch his younger cousins. He'd actually ended up falling asleep while watching a kiddie movie about a bunch of robots that he'd never heard of because of how tired he'd been lately, eventually waking up and finding the kids asleep too. Once they were in bed he hauled his form under the covers and actually slept instead of thinking of home.
So when he finally got up the next morning he actually felt sort of chipper as he wandered into the main part of his aunt's house, hearing his five year old cousin Odette squeal his name when he wandered into the living room in jeans and a plain white tee. Flopping down on the sofa he gazed at the tv, turning down the very tempting offer to play with Malibu Barbie with a charming smile. Sitting there quietly for a while he yawned, raising an eyebrow when his aunt said she'd be going out in a bit to take her youngest child, ten month old Marie Helene (his aunt had a love of French names) to the doctor. Sighing he stuck around, watching the news dully as the housewife rounded up her three kids and herded them out the door before deciding he needed to do something with himself. Wandering back to the spare bedroom he was staying in he finished getting dressed, pulling a plain blue flannel shirt on and leaving it unbuttoned before slipping a pair of blue and black vans on.
Walking back into the living room to turn the tv off, still having no idea where exactly he thought he was going, he gazed at the mid-morning interest story on a coffee place that was apparently closer to the city. Remembering the street they mentioned he flicked the tv off and picked the keys to his car up. The ugly Crown Victoria would certainly have never been his pick, but it was a gift and he hadn't really been in a position to turn it down as he had no job and no money to buy something better with. The last month he'd been in the States was finally starting to show as he picked the right side of the car and didn't even react to the outrageous amout of heat the dark interior seemed to produce. He did however still feel for a moment as he backed down the driveway and picked a lane that he'd picked the wrong one, wanting to be on the other side by instinct.
It was a bit of a drive, but thanks to his determination to get to know his way around and a whole lot of boredom he'd figured out the general layout of the city and didn't have too much trouble finding the locally famous coffee place. Turning the Hillsong United CD down a bit he found an easy enough place to park as two spaces had been left and he could easily guide his car parallel to the sidewalk. Parallel parking wasn't something he had mastered just yet, though he could pull out of a space ok. For whatever reason getting in through him for a bit of a loop. His sandy eyebrows raised as he admired the car in front of him, wondering for a moment who on earth was inside the coffee place with that fancy of a car. Shrugging he got out of his, locking it before venturing inside the trendy looking building and gazing around him. He used to love going with friends back home and it sort of brought back memories, though none of the places they had frequented had been half this nice. Though he didn't really know that many people yet he still looked around to see if by some chance he would spot someone out of habit. Shrugging he wandered over to the counter, standing behind a guy a bit shorter than he was, feeling bad when the guy quickly stopped his conversation to place his order. Dawson didn't exactly get that. He wasn't in a hurry and he had only been standing there for maybe three seconds when the guy hastened to get out of his way. Oh well, Americans were a bit uptight, he was just going to have to get used to that.
When the other guy got his coffee and left Dawson stepped up so he was nearer, gazing at the barista without the usual smile most would give, fidgetting with the keys in his pocket. "Uh," he said intelligently before gazing back up at the menu a bit cluelessly. Yes, there had been a few European style coffee shops where he'd lived, but Zimbabwe was still a developing third world country and didn't have half the things they had here. Not to mention he was a bit hung up on the fact they had iced coffee. Who in heck had come up with that one? Finally he laughed a bit at himself, "I'm confused, so just give me what that guy got and a bagel," he said with a shrug, referring to the man that had been in front of him. He had done the same thing a few days ago at a fast food restaurant and it had worked out well so he figured he'd just do it again. Paying the woman he took a step to the side, sliding his wallet back in his back pocket as he waited for his breakfast. He frowned a bit as he picked up the see through cup and realized it was cold. He could deal with the ice in the soft drinks, though he thought it was stupid, even this weird iced tea deal, but iced coffee was just a bit too far. Oh well, so his idea to just order what people in front of him got didn't work out great every time. Wandering over to a table by one of the large windows he sat down and unwrapped his huge bagel, taking a bite without anything on it, smearing the next with cream cheese. Frowning at his drink again he looked up and realized the guy sitting at the table next to his was the same one who had been in front of him, the wrist brace giving him away. "Hey," he said to get his attention, waiting for the guy to look up at him, "You want a free coffee? I know this sounds weird, but I always order what the person in front of me gets, and iced coffee just isn't my thing, so if you want it it's yours." He shrugged a bit, realizing after a moment he sounded like he might be trying to kill him or something and he added, "I haven't touched it," with a tiny smile. He was figuring out smiling was something he needed to learn to do more often, just so he didn't look so strange, but even so it felt weird to be smiling when he wasn't especially happy or amused.
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WORDS /! 1290
OUTFIT /! polyvore is down... so later.
LYRICS /! johnny mayer
NOTES /! i was SO quick to get this post done.
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Post by jason andrew irving on Jul 30, 2009 2:00:25 GMT -5
[/center] ’cause when the sky’s the darkest
YOU CAN SEE THE STARS The young man’s thoughts were clearly elsewhere as he thought about his trip to New York. It had been two long years since he had seen his family and his friends and he couldn’t help but wondered what had changed. He knew his ex girlfriend was seeing one of his best friends; they had been together for the last couple months. It wasn’t that big of a deal to him as long as they were happy. It wasn’t like she had dumped him after their two year relationship and then moved onto his friend a couple weeks later. Once they had started talking again, even though it was mainly through texting or a few phone calls, they had also sent pictures back and forth so he knew what they looked like; he wasn’t expecting any big changes from any of them from the last pictures he saw. Sure, she had changed her hairstyle, which was to be expected after two years, and she had dyed it so it was much darker, but other than that, they all looked the same. His little brother, on the other hand, had been six the last time he had seen him. Sure, his friends still babysat him and they had sent him some pictures, but even from those pictures he knew he couldn’t see the difference in the eight year old just through the pictures. It made him a little homesick, knowing how much of his baby brother’s childhood he was missing.
It had never really crossed his mind before he bought his tickets to fly back home for a week and a half, but afterwards he couldn’t help but wonder what if he missed it so much he wanted to go back? That could cause a problem, tearing him between the girl he was in love with and the family he missed. Of course he wasn’t going to beg Ana to move to New York with him, not when her mom lived in Salt Lake. Taking Ana that far away from her might make Mariana dislike him even more. No, he knew he’d be returning to Salt Lake regardless of how much he missed his friends and family. He’d just have to go visit them more often, that was for sure. Two years was far too long to wait to go see them. And once he and Ana were married, as he still hoped would happen, he knew she’d understand why he’d want to make a trip at least once a year to go back. His family was far from dysfunctional; they had always been rather close. Even if they were that close, he wasn’t going to give up the girl he had come so close to losing just because he missed his family. He knew it wasn’t going to be getting there and seeing how much Dylan had grown in two years that was going to hurt, though it was definitely going to be something to see, it would be leaving again that would tear him apart, especially if it brought Dylan to tears. No, he wasn’t going to give up his life in Salt Lake, he’d just have to go back to New York more often as long as his job would let him.
He hadn’t really realized what he had been doing the whole time he was lost in thought, but looking down at the plastic straw in his clear cup, he realized the tip was rather bent inward from him fidgeting with it the whole time. Not only that, but he had been staring blankly out the window and if someone had been watching him while he did that, they might wonder if he had some sort of mental condition due to the expressionless gaze on his face. Snapping out of it with a little shake of his head, he sighed and took another sip of the cool drink in front of him. Looking up when he heard someone say hey, he saw a man who was probably a little bit taller than he was when he was standing up. Listening to the man’s words, he couldn’t help but raise his bushy eyebrows a little bit, wondering why he’d order something if he didn’t know what it was. With a small smile and a little shake of his head, he turned down the man‘s offer, still slightly perplexed by his behavior. “No thanks, this‘ll be more than enough.” With a little shrug, the smile still lingering on his face, he figured he might as well offer a suggestion; something told him the guy was new to the area and SLRC wasn’t a company like Starbucks that seemed to be everywhere. “Their Colombian brew‘s pretty good. Well, basically everything they have here is good, so you pretty much can‘t go wrong with anything you try. Er, if it‘s hot,” he said with a little chuckle. Everything Jason had tried here was pretty good, and he knew Ana liked some of the things he hadn’t tried, so as far as he knew everything must be good. It wouldn’t sell otherwise.
Glancing at the bagel in the guy’s hand, he couldn’t help but wonder why he didn’t just buy breakfast here instead of just the coffee. He had actually never stopped at the Roasting Company for food, just for the drinks. He knew he’d be hungry in an hour or two and though he could cook, Ana was much better at it than he was. Giving a little mental shrug, he figured he’d just order a pizza for lunch or something unless Annie called to do something. Then he’d just throw a sandwich of some sort together before he left. It was definitely good that he kept food in his house now; after he had hurt Ana he had nothing in the house. Maybe a loaf of bread, but other than that, there had been nothing, though he had spent most of his time filling up on alcohol instead of food. The thought wasn’t a pleasant one, that was for sure, and he sighed a little bit, pushing them away. Wiggling an icy finger into his brace, he sighed, attempting to scratch an itch that seemed to always been there as long as the little black brace was on his hand, still a little bit curious about the other man and why exactly he had taken to ordering what the person in front of him did.
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Post by dawson leighton kipling on Aug 12, 2009 21:58:20 GMT -5
Dawson laughed just slightly when the other man said he had enough to drink, "Well, I figured, but you know." Germaphobia wasn't really something he'd considered nor the possible percieved sketchiness of his offer, at least not at first. He was just thinking of how the drink was going to waste and for that he felt a bit bad. Wasting food was just never something he liked to do, though he now realized his attempt to blend in by ordering what others did would at least occasionally make him do just that. Oh well, he didn't suppose it really was that big of a deal. It was just coffee; no one was going to die because he'd thrown it away. The thought didn't go much further than that because the other guy spoke up and Dawson nodded a bit, unable to keep from laughing when the guy said everything was good, as long as it was hot. He gazed down at the cold cup sitting before him on the table, shaking his head a bit with an amused look. He glanced up, "I'm still kind of miffed they put ice in coffee," he admitted with a little laugh, shrugging as he dropped his eyes to the cup, running a long finger down the side of it.
Picking up the cup and giving it a little shake so the ice thumped against the sides he sighed, his lips pursing as he seemed to think for a moment. He was sort of tempted to try the liquid, just to see if it truly was as bad as he was thinking. He'd had a glass of soda the other day with ice in it and while he hadn't especially liked it it hadn't been as strange as he'd been expecting. Even so, soft drinks weren't supposed to be hot neccessarily. Coffee on the other hand was. Setting the cup back down he put it off again and took a bite of his bagel. Glancing around the café, the young man's eyes fell on a somewhat petite brunette, watching her back for a moment with an almost hopeful look before she turned and he realized it was definitely not his friend Flick. Looking slightly disheartened he set the bagel back down and again picked up the plastic cup. "When in Rome," he mumbled the proverb, his thin lips caught the straw and he took a sip, his nose wrinkling at the coldness, though he liked the actual flavor itself. Perhaps if he set it out on the sidewalk for ten minutes it would warm in the ridiculous Utah sun. It seemed like a theory worth trying he thought to himself with a smirk. Setting the cup back down he couldn't decide if he wanted more or not.
Realizing the other man had been watching him curiously sample the drink he shrugged with a tiny laugh. "I'm not from around here," he said simply, knowing he seemed a bit odd. He hated that, hated being in a place way far from home and everything he knew, where everything made sense. They didn't put ice in drinks, or smile for no apparent reason, or drive on the right hand side of the road, and it was, for Dawson, normal. Running a hand through his short clipped blond curls he glanced over at the wall where they'd painted a map of the world and marked all the regions they got their coffee from, his eyes dropping straight to the southern part of Africa a bit sadly. Dropping his hand and picking up the last of the first half of his bagel he gazed at the mark right over his country, shaking his head a bit. He doubted the map was very recent; things hadn't been so great there politically since well before he'd left. Getting out of the country itself had been difficult, and he was a naturalized citizen.
That thought brought him to his family and he sighed, not really wanting to think about them. He had known the first months would be difficult going into this little adventure, but he'd not really thought it would be this tough. He'd thought at age twenty he was perfectly in control of himself and his emotions, capable of supressing them with simple mantras reminding himself he was indeed a full grown man, but he was fast learning that wasn't really true, that he still wanted him mom and his dad, his brothers and sisters. Daya, his adopted sister, had been especially on his mind lately for whatever reason. He also found himself genuinely missing his best friend, Jabulani. Frowning he simply took another bite of his food and hesitantly washed it down with the foul and yet delightful beverage.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WORDS /! 791 OUTFIT /! dawson hates iced coffee!?NOTES /! well I suck.
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Post by jason andrew irving on Aug 19, 2009 11:46:49 GMT -5
[/center] ’cause when the sky’s the darkest
YOU CAN SEE THE STARS A little laugh slipped from Jason when he heard Dawson muttering about the iced coffee. “I definitely like it when it’s this hot out,” he said, laughing again as he brought up the hot desert sun. It was much warmer here in Salt Lake than what he had ever grown up with. Even if it hit the low twenties it was nothing compared to some of the extreme winters he had experienced growing up. There had been one winter when he had been about six or seven and he had been outside with his dad building a snowman and his mom came out saying it was zero degrees outside and Jason should get his young butt inside. With his luck it was surprising he didn’t end up with frost bite. Maybe that was what had been on his mom’s mind when she told him and his dad to get inside. Ever since the man had been young he had always ended up with random, accidental self inflected injuries.
He was a little surprised to see that he was actually sort of depressed when he thought of his family again, and he realized it was because he hadn’t really thought about how much he missed them until he decided two years had gone by fast enough and it was time to go see them again. Honestly, if Ana hadn’t suggested they try their relationship again, he might consider moving back there again. Mentally scowling at himself, he told himself not to think like that. Ana was the best thing that had happened to him, he knew it wasn’t right for him to even think about something like that. Besides, if they hadn’t bumped into each other during the ‘back-to-school beach party’ he would probably be dead. There would be no way he could even go see his family if his body was buried six feet under.
Not really realizing a slightly sad look had crossed his face when he thought about being with someone else, knowing that he wouldn’t be half as happy as he was with his girlfriend, he was only brought out of his thoughts when he heard the other man near him mumble an old proverb. Without really realizing it, Jason’s head tilted just a bit to the right as it did when he was curious or confused as he watched the blond man take a hesitant sip of his drink. Once again he was brought back to the thought of why he’d be ordering the same thing as the person in front of him if he didn’t like it. Unless he was trying new things that way, but still. If he knew he didn’t like iced coffee, why get it? Shaking his head a bit to himself, Jason reminded himself not to judge. Just because the man sitting by him did things differently didn’t mean he was odd; maybe there was a reason he did that sort of stuff.
Practically answering the next question that popped into Jason’s mind, the man said he wasn’t from Salt Lake and Jason’s dark eye brows rose a bit as he nodded his head. It was eerie how things tended to work like that. With a little smile and a shrug, Jason opened his mouth to speak. “I’m not a Salt Lake native, either. I just, well, found my way out here about two years ago and never went back. I grew up a couple hours away from New York City.” With an almost wistful sigh, Jason smiled again. “So where are you from?”
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Post by dawson leighton kipling on Aug 26, 2009 19:08:28 GMT -5
Dawson's blue eyes turned, glancing out the plate glass window when the other man mentioned the temperature outside. The blond was still not used to the heat here himself, used to a pretty common year long temperature that almost never went above seventy Fahrenheit, and only on the occasional winter day did it heat up into the eighties. He expected winter would be even odder to him. He had seen snow only once, while his family had been in the states for a brief time to raise funds, and he hadn't been especially excited. His sister Madison had wanted to play in it though and he'd relented to going out at his mother's request. He hadn't especially enjoyed the experience though, the feel of the wet icy crystals melting when a snowball was thrown his way had been downright uncomfortable, not fun, and trying to make a snowman had been much harder than it had ever looked on TV. That, however, had been the whole of his snow experience when he was nine and he wasn't particularly excited about the upcoming snowy months of a Utah winter. The temperature in general wasn't especially enthusing either as aside from that time and perhaps one or two others he'd scarcely experienced freezing temperatures. He would miss the tropical climate he was used to, that was for sure.
Nodding his head a little bit Dawson smiled just slightly when the other guy said he wasn't from Salt Lake either. He could have guessed that really; the man didn't talk with the usual Utahn accent. He looked up with interest when he said he'd lived a couple of hours from New York City. With a little fond grin Dawson couldn't help but mention, "That's where my sister lives. Well, in the city, that is." Dawson genuinely adored his sister Brooklyn and anything that reminded him of her brought a smile to his face. He'd never actually been to New York, though he eventually wanted to go to see her. It had always looked cool in the movies; the Statue of Liberty and all that.
"Hmm," the tall man said, jumping out of his thoughts when he realized they guy was asking him a question. Thinking for a minute he connected the word he had heard, from, with the conversation before nodding a bit. His foot began to move a bit, knowing his answer would probably not be what the guy was expecting. A couple of people even claimed he'd made it up, though considering the boy's pale skin that wasn't all too surprising he guessed. "I'm, uh, from Harare... Zimbabwe," he shared hesitantly with a little shrug. "I lived there all my life until this summer, hence the, um, weirdness," he said with a little laugh, putting things as he had with his friend Flick, who too had shared the obvious impression he was an odd bird.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WORDS /! 483 OUTFIT /! dawson hates iced coffee!?NOTES /! reply if you have the muse or lock and archive. I know I didn't give you a lot.
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