&yourefrozen

[&sarahGREY]

"Sarah, darling, you're not thinking straight!"

Her mother's voice rang trough the entire house, and for a second, it seemed as if every object made of glass or crystal was simply going to pop. Not because Sophie Klein had such a high-pitched voice, but because she said what she said with an extra sharp edge. Threatening, almost, but still trying to sound as if she were the 'mommy' in this conversation. The whole 'I just want what's best for you, dear!' idea, only that was a lie. She'd never wanted what had been best for Sarah. She'd always wanted what was best for her own reputation, her image, or maybe Katherine's. Never had she cared about any other daughter of hers, including Sarah. So, after all the years Sophie had had nothing to say to her daughter, she was now all of a sudden supposed to listen to her advice? No way. No, fricken way.

Sarah grabbed a few stuff from her room, and on her way trough the hallway, she bumped into Lisa. She looked shocked, but she couldn't blame her. After all, Lisa was her elder sister, her most favorite one. The closest one. They were more best friends, then actual sisters. "I'm leaving", Sarah whispered, before she ran down the hallway and down the stairs. "Wait, Sarah!" But she was too late. She passed a heavily adorned christmas tree on her way out, which only made her feel worse. Why was she doing this to her family, and just after christmas, too? But she ignored the feelings of guilt and had already opened the door. She glanced around a bit, knowing she wouldn't get very far around Beverly Hills without being snapped by Paparazzi and whatnot. But she didn't care. She followed the path trough the small front garden and onto the streets, where she held still for a moment. Just.. to think. This whole thing seemed to move in slow motion. She was actually leaving her home.

It was stupid, when you thought about it like this. Her home provided everything she had ever needed, and probably would ever need in her life. Her mother was Sophie Kein, for god sakes. She could get her into acting, or modelling, or singing, or whatever she wanted to be in the entertainment industries, within the snap of her finger. She was wealthy, and powerful, and everything Sarah was tired of her being. She had four wonderful sisters who loved her more then anything in the world, but at thesame time, didn't know what was best for her. But ever since Noah left, and everything else that had happened, Sarah hadn't been thesame. Her family hadn't been thesame. And now it turned out that everything, everything, had been Sophie's fault all along. She'd hid the letters. She watched Sarah cry to sleep for days, months even! An entire year, and she hadn't said anything. Not anything! In Sarah's eyes, that was nothing a mother could stand. And therefor, Sohpie must not be her mother. She didn't feel like one. Her mother didn't feel like a mother anymore, nor did her sisters feel like sisters. They felt like, like complete strangers. And what was the use of living in a house full of strangers? Nothing. There was no use.

As Sarah started to walk down the street, off to the city of Los Angeles that lay just before her, she could hear her mother's footsteps speeding after her, and her voice, trying to convince Sarah to do 'what was best for her'. "Sarah, please. What are you doing? What are you going to do in downtown Los Angeles?" Sarah turned around, and looked at her mother furiously. "I am going to start my own life, mother." She replied, placing the emphasis on the word 'mother', and saying it as if it rolled out of her mouth in absolute disgust. "You ruined my life! Do you know that? You ruined me!" She yelled, and with those last words, she turned around, and started to run. A tear slid slowly down her cheek as she heard her mother yell the last words Sarah would hear from her for a long time. "You are so ungrateful! Yo'll come back here, you'll see. You can't take care of yourself, Sarah! You need us!"

She tried not to listen to her mother's voice as she stepped into her car, and at the very same moment, remembered this was the car her mother had actually gotten her for her twentyfirst birthday. It was shiny red open-roofed cadillac. But she had no other way of getting out of here, and walking wouldn't get her very far. So she shut the door behind her and she started the car, and drove off into the night.

It was roughly fifteen minutes later that she actually entered the city itself. She parked the car somewhere random, locked it, and decided to take a walk in the war, just to clear her head. She probably couldn't get an place to stay the night on such a short notice anyway, seeing as it must have probably been 2 AM when she'd left. She walked into the beautiful park, and it calmed her down to see how quiet and peaceful it looked at night. For no specific reason, she lay down in the grass, and watched the stars shimmer above her. She was such an idiot.

Well, at least she'd already arranged an apartment to live in somewhere around here, and a job at some sort of bar to pay for the rest of her studies. She knew Sophie wouldn't be there to finance her any longer, so she'd secretly taken care of everything in the past few months. Sarah wiped one last year from her eyes, and as she watched the stars, she realized her life was never going to be thesame. Ever.

Was it strange that the thought scared her, if even slightly?

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[orls02]

The night air was chilly, and it caused the blood from his fingers to shy away and center around his core. To remedy the lack of warmth in his fingers, Jake Perry reached up and tucked them in against his neck. That chilled his neck a bit, but at least his fingers were warm. He hated cold hands. Always had. Without any real reason.... he just couldn't stand them.

So, why the heck was he out here? What had compelled him to wander around in Angel Park so late at night? Simply put, boredom. He was bored, and he wanted to get away from the bright lights of the city. They say New York never slept? Clearly L.A. doesn't get much sleep either.

As his breath rose in soft clouds, highlighted by the moonlight, Jake felt at ease. Being a country boy, living in the city was a bit of a challenge. But, he was slowly adapting. Still, every so often, he just needed to get away and try and feel like he was back in the country. And, this park was perfect for it.

Well, hello. What's this? Another body out in the frigid night air? Not exactly what he'd expected. Should he just walk on by? Or should he stop and say hello? Maybe there was something wrong? But then again, they could be just like him, trying to find a breath of peace. For now.... he'd keep quiet as he walked on by.

[&sarahGREY]

God, no. It was turning cold. And that may have been one of the biggest understatements in the history of ridiculously big understatements. It was now, that Sarah relized, lying down in the grass in the middle of the night, in december, might not have been such a great idea. She could feel the chill coming from the ground pull into her legs, arms and hands, and shivered. With merely a pair of jeans on, a simple long sleeved t-shirt and a jacket, instead of a coat, it was no wonder she was freezing. But she didn't have any other clothes with her. She'd call one of her sisters later, so she could pick them up when her mom wasn't around. Because really, she didn't want to speak with Sophie right now. She would rather freeze to death on the park ground, then talk to her mother. And the way I see it, that means a lot.

She blew out some hear in a heavy sigh and could see the little cloud of air right before her, the way they always appear when you breathe into the cold night. As a child, she'd always enjoyed the little clouds of smoke, she didn't really know why. But as she'd grown older, and learned what it was exactly what was causing them to form, it wasn't fun anymore. It was just.. warm breathe against cold air. Nothing fun about it. In a certain way, the physics, and the science, and the medicine she'd studied had taken away a lot of the little miracles in life, and made them into cold, hard facts. And as Sarah saw it, the only purpose her long studies now had, was to make her mother see she could make it on her own. She was going to be succesful, no matter what, and she had a point to prove. She could do it without Sophie's help.

It would, however, become quite difficult to prove her mother she could survive on her own, if she would freeze to death the first night she wasn't at home. So she slowly stood up off the ground, and pulled her jacket around her a little tighter. She glanced around, but all she saw was darkness, and a few dots of light where the street lights were shining. It suddenly occured to her that she actually had nowhere to go. She had no place to stay, but the Hilton, but she doubted she had brought enough money to stay the night there. But sleepig in the park would be stupid. The chance she'd freeze to death actually wasn't all that little. So she wandered aorund the park aimlessly, hopelessly, until she heard footsteps behind her. She turned around, but saw no one, only darkness.

"Hello?"

She managed to breath out, and she took a step forward towards the place she thought the sounds were coming from. Was it simply another park-wanderer? She doubted it. What kind of person would take a stroll in the park in the middle of the night, besides people who were stupid enough to run away from home in the middle of the winter? It was not really a miracle that she started to wonder what harm this person could do. It could be a killer, or a rapist, or some sort of thief or mugger, or a bank robber, or a serial killer, or a terrorist, or..

Okay. Sarah was getting carried away. The point is, she had no idea who it might be. So she took a step back, and simply.. waited for a reply to her raspy, funny-accented greeting from a few seconds ago..

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[orls02]

Okay, don't think he's a wimp or anything, but he jumped at the sound of her voice. He couldn't help it. The last thing he had expected was for the other shadowy figure in the park to be a girl. Well, that and he sort of expected that whoever it was would rather avoid contact with someone they didn't know and would simply ignore him.

He turned, and felt instant sympathy. The girl that stood before him looked half-frozen, in a simple jacket. There was no way she could be warm enough, it was December, after all. Besides the chill factor, she seemed a bit nervous as well, not that he could blame her. She had, after all, just about scared the shit out of him. Not that he'd ever admit to being afraid.

"Hey, you okay?"
he said simply, taking a single step towards her. Having grown up in a small town, it was second nature for him to help someone out without thinking. It was a very close-knit town, where everyone knew one another by their first names and no one knocked before entering someone else's house.

[&sarahGREY]

She was surprised to get a reply, being quite honest with you. She'd suspected one of two things. Either, the person would ignore her and just walk away, or he/she would attack her in some sort of way. But a reply.. that didn't fit into her plan. So she was caught pretty off-guard when the stranger before her asked her whether she was okay. Well, was she? No, of course not. She was freezing half to death somewhere in a park in the middle of Los Angeles. She'd just had the biggest fight ever with her mother, forcing her to leave her four beloved sisters and their beautiful Beverly Hills home, and trade that all in for some lousy park bench. She was nervous, cold, scared, and annoyed, and nowhere else to go but here, or back into the battle zone that was, supposedly, her home.

But it seems strange to say that to a stranger.

So she kept silent for a little while, for no specific reason. And when she tried to reply, her breath seemed to be stuck in her throat. Her voice sounded raspy, and.. just generally like her insides were freezing and falling apart. But yet, she talked, as if it were the most normal thing in the world to meet someone at 2 AM in Angel Park and explain to them whether you are okay.

"Uhm.. yea."

She said, and the noticed that the reply sounded pretty stupid. Besides the fact that it sounded pathetic, it was a lie, too. She wasn't okay. But neither was she going to burden some poor guy with her silly little family issues. And house issues, and money issues, and.. life issues. God, she only wished she'd had a bottle of tequila, or somthing similar, to calm her down right now. That would work. Sarah really didn't care about the fact she started to look, sound, and become like some sort of alcoholic. It worked for her. But she would have to stop dirnking if her job started. Can't cut people's insides open when you're not thinking clearly, of course.

"I think.. are you?"

She decided to throw that one in, just to be a nice and friendly strange midnight parkwanderer.

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[orls02]

"Yeah, I'm fine,"
Jake replied easily. The response came easily because it was the truth. He felt totally at ease, probably a stupid thing, but what did you expect from a country boy?

But, she didn't exactly seem fine. She looked as if she were about to topple over, frozen solid. She didn't seem like she'd planned on being out here. Which, begged the question, what the hell was she doing out here?

Without asking that, since it would be just a little bit rude, Jake took off his coat. He then stepped towards her and draped it around her shoulders. It was a warm coat, lined suede, and he instantly felt the chill from taking it off. But, she looked like she needed it more than he did.

[&sarahGREY]

"home is behind, the world ahead. and there are many paths to tread.
trough shadows, trough the edge of night. until the stars are all alight.
mist and shadow, cloud and shade. all shall fade,

all shall fade."


Aaaand.. another surprise. She would have never guessed to be the midnight parkwanderers of Los Angeles to be so kind and friendly. But then again, had she ever really met them? All she'd really seen of the city was Beverly Hills, after she'd moved here at the age of seventeen. And never had she liked her new residence. She'd always looked back to London, wanting to be there with Noah, instead of here, with Derek. But it was all in the past, she supposed. There really was nothing left to say right now. Only that.. she'd made a gigantic mistake. The hugest mistake of her life, and she had to pay for it with a lot of guilt, a lonely life without her family or her husband, and a pretty big scar. Besides that.. she had an empty slate. A fresh start. 'Tabula Rasa', to quote 'John Locke'.

But then, why didn't she feel any better?

When the stranger draped his coat around her, she simply smiled a faint smile, and looked up at him, as he was quite a lot taller then she was. Or maybe she was just a lot shorter then he was. The point was, she didn't know what to say to him. Should she give some sort of explanation why she was standing alone in the park in the middle of the night in the freezing cold? Or should she just keep silent, and look grateful for the warmth of this man's coat? So she smiled up at him, and gave him the sort of look that, she hoped, would not obligate her to have to explain everything. But as she was about to decide to open her mouth, she felt something small, and wet, land upon her delicate face. And right after this, another one. She looked up and saw the tiniest little snowflakes dropping from the black night sky.

Oh, fuck.

You have got to be kidding me. Snow? It never snowed in Los Angeles! Ever! Not to say that it was pouring down or something, but it seemed as if God didn't want Sarah to beat her mother in this stupid silent competition. She wanted to live by herself, and the very evening she leaves, it is freezing cold, and it starts to fricken snow. Sarah just looked up desperately, and looked back at the stranger.

"Unbelievable." She said, as she took the coat off of her. "Thank you so much. But snow?"

She held it out to him, so he would take it back. She'd find something. A hotel, or an empty building, she wasn't going to stay in the park. He could just as well have his coat back, or he would freeze his fingers off. And besides, it was her own fault. She should have brought something more then a lousy jacket, of course. But when in a huge fight, I guess you don't exactly care about the details, like bringing a toothbrush. Though a coat maybe was less of a detail then Sarah tried to tell herself. She turned to the man again, and handed him the coat.

"You're not going to freeze to death because you decided to help me. Not worth it."

She said this with a little wink, just to let him know not to take her seriously. But at thesame time, she was quite serious, actually. It wasn't worth for him to give his coat away to someone who came to the park in the cold for no good reason, and entirely based on her own decision. It was stupid.

"I'm Sarah, by the way."

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[orls02]

"I'm Jake, nice to meet you,"
he replied, flipping his coat around her shoulders yet again.

He couldn't help but flash her a quick grin. It was, after all, his way to make the people around him as comfortable as possible. Besides, she seemed surprised that it was snowing, to the point that it might not bode well for her if it continued. And, he had his car and his room at the Hilton. It was ridiculously overpriced, but he needed somewhere to stay until he got an apartment. Thank god for savings accounts.

“Don’t worry about me getting cold, I’ve got my car and a place to go later,”
he said, giving her a look that showed he wouldn’t take no for an answer. She definitely needed the coat more than he did.
“What about you? Do you have a place for the night? Because if not, I’m sorry, but you’ll be coming with me. I’m not about to leave you alone in the park in the snow. That’s just ridiculous.”

[&sarahGREY]

Sarah couldn't possibly deny the friendly man's coat any longer. He may be right, selfish as it sounded to her. He had a house. And a car. And she had.. a jacket. And snow. But still a little hesitant, she put on the coat, and inmediately felt it's warmth surround her. It just seemed so strange to accept this, when you don't even know the person who is offering it, and the person doesn't know you. It seemed selfish to Sarah. But still, if the guy wanted her to wear it, she'd wear it. She wouldn't just deny his friendliness or anything. She just didn't feel like she deserved it.

But then again, she always felt like that nowerdays.

She brushed some brown hair from her face, and smiled once again. When he talked about her coming with him, she looked up, pretty startled. She had never, in her life, met someone in or around the city of Los Angeles with the kindness that this Jake had. Ever. She could tell, just by looking at him, even in the darkness, he didn't belong here. Well, neither did she. So they fitted together pretty well, I guess. But what to reply, now? Should she accept his generous offer again? Could she, without feeling guilty for it? Or should she lie, and just say she felt like taking a short midnight stroll, and was heading home. Really, it felt like too much to accept this, but she glanced aorund the park, and realized she had nowhere to go. And though Sarah was pretty anti-rich and stuck up people, becoming the kind of girl who lived on the streets and begged for money or food was not what she wanted. Though that's what going with Jake made her feel like. Like some poor, homeless little girl who was so desperate and sad that she would sleep on a park bench in the snow. She wasn't that kind of person, not at all, even. But after a little pondering, she decided to just stick with the truth. It'd gotten her a coat, after all.

"I ran away from home."

She said, half-smiling, but still with that hidden, troubled look in her deep brown eyes. Somehow, it was always there. But yet, no one could see it. Her smile covered it up most of the time.

"In the middle of the night. Which was incredibly clever, I know.."

She sort of laughed, in a way that made Jake see that she realized she'd been an idiot when she decided to rush out the door. And then, all of a sudden, she could kick herself in the head for being such an idiot. She had a car. Not a very warm one, but one with heating. The only problem was.. that it had an open roof. So it probably still wouldn't heat her trough the night.

"But I do have a car.."

She said in an innocent way. As if to say, 'well, I might not have a place to sleep, but at least I have something!' She looked up at him, awaiting his reply. She was curiuous as to whether he'd been serious about taking her home. And at thesame time, she was pondering whether to accept that offer..

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[orls02]

Jake couldn't help but grin. Despite the fact that she was accepting charity from a total stranger in the middle of a park, at like 2 in the morning, she still had that defiance about her. It was almost endearing. But, the fact that she was out here at this hour, in this weather, was ridiculous. There was no way he was letting her stay out here.

"Really? You have a car. That's nice,"
he said,
"We can come back and pick it up in the morning. I assume you locked it before walking throgh the park? Or, should we go do that before going to the hotel?"

Again, he looked as if he wasn't abou to take no for an answer. There was just simply no way that he could in good conscience, leave her out here to fend for herself all night, car or not.

[&sarahGREY]

"if i lay here,
if i just lay here,
would you lie with me and just forget the world?"

Sarah shivered, and looked up, only to have the tiny little snowflakes fall into her face. She blinked, so they wouldn't end up in her eyes, and for some reason, it made her smile. Not that she liked snow, especially in the middle of the night, in the park. but standing here, on her own, with no one around her but Jake, with a stranger's coat aorund her shoulders, in the dark, watching the snowflakes come tumbling down, was probably the most random thing she had ever witnessed. In her entire life. She'd lived so secure, and safe, and.. boring, that even something like this came as a surprise to her. As something exciting, even if it was somehting that could have happened to anyone, anytime. She wiped the snow from her face and her hair, and turned to Jake once again, to reply. Oh, so he was staying at a hotel. Well, this was silly. She shouldn't let him pay for her hotel room when her mother was fricken rich herself, that was just stupid. And besides that, Sarah wasn't really the type of girl to gladly accept this kind of charity. And even when it wasn't, she wouldn't take an offer like this without any feelings of guilt, or whatever the hell it was that she felt.

"This is silly, really."

She said, eventually, looking at Jake, who was still standing next to her.

"I can go home if I want to. I have a place to stay, only, I choose not to stay there. I have a car, and a boatload of cash at home. I'm not gonna get you go trough all this trouble just because I can't put aside my stupid pride."

She finally decided to explain, if even roughly, why she was here. But what she said was true. The only reason she was here, is because she felt too proud and ashamed to go crawling back to her mother in the middle of the night, because it turned out she couldn't take care of herself. And even though Jake had a determined look in his eye, that said she really couldn't say no right now, that same look was firmly set in Sarah's eyes. So it wa sjust a matter of who would give into who, first.

Or something like that.

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[{ destiny brooke. }]

JAKE;

WATCH YOUR
POSTING LENGTHS

[orls02]

Ah..... the snow. He actually kind of liked it. There was something about the glistening white blanket that covered the ground the morning after a snowfall. The way that all the little flakes interlocked, weaving a chilly coat for the earth. And, watching them fall onto a coat sleeve, of a glove, and seeing for yourself that there really are no two alike.

As the icy flakes fell gently onto his skin, they stayed for a moment before melting. Then, he returned his gaze to her face. And, he couldn't help but smile at her defiant look. It was the sort of look that reminded Jake of himself. He simply crossed his arms over his chest and stood with his left leg relaxed. He could wait all night if he had to.

"So, why let your stupid pride make you freeze? You can keep your pride and stay away from home, since that seems to be what you really want. But, there's no way I could, as a gentleman, let you stay out here all night,"
he said,
"That's just ridiculous. So, if you stay here all night, so will I."

Then, like a little kid who just got his way, he shot her a smug look. It wasn't truly arrogant or disrespectful, it was just a teasing sort of look that said either which way, he was going to make sure she was alright. And it was true. He would feel inexorably guilty if he left her here on her own, car or not.

[&sarahGREY]

"when i'm losing my control, the city spins around. you're the only one who knows,
you slow it down."

When Jake said what he said, she looked up with some sort of confused look on her face. Not exactly confused, but more.. like she didn't believe a word he said. Kind of sarcastic. But then again, Sarah was quite the sarcastic person. But would he really stay out here all night? Weird as Sarah was, she actually wondered whether he would keep standing right next to her if she would refuse to come with him. For a split second, the thought of making a bet out of it flew trough her head, but she then realized that would be the most stupid thing she could ever do in this situation. With a sigh, she turned to Jake, his coat still around her, and a look upon her face that basically told him she was ready to throw in the towel.

"Okay, you win."

She said, with a smile. A grateful smile, because for some reason, she still felt guilty for using his generousity just because she was too stubborn a person. Because that was really the person for all of this, she was just terribly stubborn. It'd done her good before, but now, it was always in the way.

"I surrender. Where are you staying?"

She said, jokingly, as if she were ready to go wherever Jake had spend he night. She just looked at him, expectingly, as if she was waiting for him to lead the way, so she could follow. She had no other choice, really. He'd said he would wait out here all night, and he'd sounded dead serious. And she would probably feel more guilty having this man freeze to death because of her, then accepting an offer like this.

Probably..

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