always feel the same

pearl westbrook. 27. ocean crest apartments. cinema employee.

[pearlwestbrook]

Welcome to Aurora Bay, PEARL WESTBROOK! I couldn’t help but notice you look an awful lot like GRACE VAN PATTEN. You must be the TWENTY-SEVEN year old EMPLOYEE AT THE MOVIE HOUSE THEATER. Word is you’re SAVVY but can also be a bit MALICIOUS and your favorite song is SAME by DEB NEVER. I also heard you’ll be staying in OCEAN CREST APARTMENTS. I’m sure you’ll love it!

STATS.

Full Name: Pearl Odette Westbrook Nickname(s): Rabbit (by anyone who knew her when she was younger) Gender: Cis woman, she/her Sexual Orientation: Bisexual Birthday: October 30, 1995 (27) Religion: None Nationality: American Ethnicity: White Hometown: Palmdale, California Current Residence: Ocean Crest Apartments Length of time in Aurora Bay: 7 years Occupation: Employee at the Movie House Theater Education: Three semesters of community college

Height: 5′6 Tattoos: "Thank you and sweet dreams" in Jeff Buckley's handwriting on her upper left ribcage Piercings: Two in her left lobe, three in her right lobe, right nipple Scars: (tba)

Mother: Helena Westbrook Baker (48) Father: Kristoff Mack (55) Step-Father: George Baker (56) Siblings: Stevie Mack (half-sibling) Pet(s): A mean ass Calico cat called Mrs. Washburn, named after her mean ass seventh grade math teacher

PERSONALITY.

Pos. Traits: Savvy, quick-witted, perceptive, self-sufficient, intelligent Neg. Traits: Reckless, mercurial, sarcastic, pretentious, indecisive, self-indulgent, malicious Likes: Experimental cinema, lacy underwear, fashion, Indian food, weed, cigarettes, making people she doesn't like feel bad about themselves, telling lies for no reason, putting ketchup in her macaroni, Jeff Buckley, sex, dark beers, black metal, calzones, her cat, anything that gets her blood going, talking to strangers Dislikes: Sports, most poetry, modern interior design, minimalism, Star Wars, YouTubers, school, working a regular job, her family, philosophy, organized religion, feeling dependent on other people, standup comedy Fears: Having no direction in life, disappointing people, being abandoned

TL;DR.

Pearl's mother — one of nine kids and whose father had two wives — ran away from home at 17, got knocked up by a man who was part of a cult-like religious organization in Provo, Utah, that she met at the strip club where she worked, and then got ghosted by him. She left Utah, went west, and had Pearl in Palmdale, California. Her mother went back to stripping when she was very young and often left her alone and to fend for herself, and then, when Pearl was in her early teens, married the owner of the strip joint, who also happened to be a drug trafficker. When she was 17 he started trying to get Pearl to strip at his club and that was the last straw. She left home at 18 after graduating high school and ended up in Aurora Bay with a roommate a few years later. She tried community college but hated it and works at the movie house theater now.

CURRENT CONNECTIONS.

unknown half-sibling of @mackstevie

enemies to besties with @helenasoarcs

toxic undefined relo with @ulyflynn

frenemies with benefits of @rominacortez

casual hookup of @jake-hudson

unwilling victim of attempted parenting with @cristian-valdes

fan of and friends with @amayapowers

casual enemies and 2am deep convos with @carterjohnsons

golden retriever/black cat energy with @greengideon

mutually destructive friendship with @xaviermattthews

bad influence on @liamburkes

HEADCANONS.

Finds it hilarious that her initials are POW and calls herself a prisoner of war

She got the nickname rabbit partly bc of her full cheeks but also bc she'll chow down on carrot sticks like a rodent, only people who knew her when she was younger wld know the nickname

Doesn't actually like the taste of cigarettes but is fully addicted

Despises weed culture and will stop listening when someone tries telling her about strains

tba

BIOGRAPHY.

**trigger warnings for parental abuse and neglect, allusion to homelessness, mention of religious extremism, drug trafficking, alcoholism

Helena Foughner's mother was one of Josiah Foughner's two wives, and she herself was just one of his nine children. It was a deeply toxic family and he was a deeply toxic and abusive man, and she ran away from all of it when she was seventeen years old, about four months before she would have failed to graduate high school with the rest of her peers. She didn't get far at first — she stayed in and around the Provo and Salt Lake areas for the next few years, often couch-surfing with friends and staying with boyfriends and frequenting motel rooms.

In her early twenties Helena discovered stripping, and it was through this that she finally started making enough money to get an apartment of her own; it was also how she met Kristoff Mack. He was charming in a way that disturbed and fascinated her, and not long after the second or third time they slept together did Helena find herself knocked up with his child and unable to contact him. Devastated and pregnant and terrified and with more hatred in her heart for Utah than ever before, Helena decided to leave for good. With what little money she'd saved, she traveled west just her and her unborn baby, before finally settling down in Palmdale, California, almost nine months later where Pearl was born.

Helena started stripping again just a couple years later. Pearl was often left with neighbors or cheap babysitters or completely alone, because daycare was too expensive and Helena couldn't keep a steady relationship to save her life.

Until she could, of course. George Baker owned the strip joint, and he took a liking to Helena. George Baker was also a drug trafficker, and not a very nice man. As Pearl got older her mother stopped stripping, married George, and allowed him to take care of them, which meant Pearl suddenly had some man pretending to be her father figure when it came to all the shitty stuff but none of the good stuff. He thought Pearl was an instigative little brat and he was right, and she thought he was an evil son of bitch and she was right. Helena was drinking too much by the time Pearl was a teenager to do anything about the abusive way her husband spoke to her daughter. She was also too drunk to be any help when, just before turning eighteen, George approached Pearl about stripping in his club. So she didn't bother ratting him out to her mom at all — Pearl simply left home the minute she turned eighteen and graduated high school.

Unlike her mother before her, Pearl had saved up just enough money through retail jobs she worked in high school to afford an apartment with a friend, and they ended up in Aurora Bay. There, Pearl tried a few different jobs before settling at the Movie House Theater, which she enjoyed because she'd always loved movies and, if she'd been able to last longer than three semester at a nearby community college, would likely have gone on to study film.

That being said, her rough start to life never instilled in her much confidence and that on top of hating the school setting meant she gave up on that idea quickly. She's not content with what she does but doesn't have the ambition to try for anything better, so a lot of her externalized rage is a product of that deep unhappiness and dissatisfaction with her life and her perceived ability to change it.

She dates on and off, sleeps around a lot more. Despite it never helping, she tries to fill the gaping void in her life with meaningless relationships that only end up making her feel worse in the end, and often leave her with additional trauma to pile on top of the rest.

Recently, she's started looking into her biological father out of some misplaced notion that understanding where she comes from might somehow give her a sense of purpose. Her mother never spoke of her father save for a first name, but through some deep digging she finally managed to get a last name as well and connect it to a man in Provo, Utah, who was part of a cult-like religious organization with a freaky recruiting website. It's not really a surprise to her given who her mother is, but it was still, deep down, just another confirmation that her life is garbage and she comes from shitty stock with bad luck.

WANTED CONNECTIONS.

A current roommate

The roommate she moved to Aurora Bay with seven years ago (could be the same as the current roommate or something could have happened and they or she moved out)

Co-workers at the movie theater or any other little retail job she did before that

A few besties

Weed smoking buddies

Harder drug buddies + a dealer

Someone who tries to parent her (mostly unsuccessfully)

Someone who’s super chaotic with her and encourages all her poor choices

Some exes (would pretty much all have been toxic relos in some way)

Someone she lowkey idolizes

Enemies baybeeeeee

Would love someone she used to be rly close with and they hate each other now

Also would love the opposite, someone that started off on a bad foot with her but now they’re close

Frenemies!!! Friends only when they’re drunk vibe

Fake friends where they pretend to be friends for some reason but both loathe each other actually

Apartment building neighbors that she’s probably annoyed

Maybe one neighbor who kinda sees through her bullshit tho and lowkey is rly helpful like helped her go down to the basement when she blew a fuse or smth

Someone she knows bc she rear ended them when she borrowed her friend's car or smth ygfuhjds could have turned into a friendship or could be enemies now

Someone she Witnessed Something Weird With and now theyre trauma bonded over it

Hookups/fwb/etc

[pearlwestbrook]

location: all-nighter diner for: @imogenarnold

"Shut up, I've got this," Pearl says, aiming a blueberry at the open mouth of a man who'd fallen asleep in his booth across from them. She even almost makes it, but instead it hits his eye and he wakes up suddenly, looking around like he's just a little more confused than he is suspicious. "Fuck. Fine, I have shit aim, happy? My NBA dreams are so fucking crushed."

[xaviermattthews]

x: shut the fuck up and just admit that you like them x: thats what we get for deciding to stick around a beach town. you'd be surprised how many people are cracked out here tho x: i'm gonna need you to rewind all the fucking way back to the dad being a cult leader in utah shit bc what? x: 😂 a lot of its funny. gets a bit weird when they start saying they miss the old me like the old me wasnt doing heroin and nearly killing himself x: ah you know. usual shit. cant finish a song to save my fucking life. got concepts and nothing fully realised x: atticus is working on some shit for the second album with me tho. didnt now if i should mention that to you or not

[pearlwestbrook]

pearl: u could literally never get me to admit that pearl: technically it’s what I get for coming here in the first place and getting myself stuck but yeah u for sure are actively making the decision to be here. any crack heads u wanna introduce me to? i’m so bored pearl: yeah he’s like this crazy religious freak with a recruitment website and everything, they think they’re raising the next Jesus or some shit. so on brand for me pearl: the people love a chaotic junkie I already told u this. let them pine pearl: why wouldn’t u mention it to me, I don’t give a shit who u work with. u guys can write a bunch of songs about being sober together

[heyits-asher]

He can argue that there is nothing here scratching a moral superiority itch, but somehow Asher is sure Pearl won't want to hear it. In one ear, out the other, returned to him with another quip attached. Something about basic decency and respect and more just isn't going to make for a good conversation, especially when they'd already dropped the exchange of 'bitch' and 'psychopath'. Not that any pleasantries would have made this interaction any percentage of amicable…

So, Asher just rolls his eyes and retrieves his dab pen from his pocket to busy himself. He's antsy, wants to bolt, and by his best guess Pearl wants to too. He catches her eyes drifting to the very thing keeping her stuck in this rose garden.

There's a hint of satisfaction at the prospect, and on the exhale of the hit he took he says, "You could probably bowl them over if you're that desperate to leave." Ash shrugs his shoulders lazily, trying for nonchalant but the thing is he is scared about the very thing she points out. Uly being his first friend in this town, an instant click, and someone Asher might have grown too attached too quickly, his opinion matters a lot more to Asher than he should probably let it. That idea there is enough to keep him quiet while he watches from the outside and just hopes for the best.

"Think we're all varying degrees of fucked up, though, so that's a moot point. Just not sure Uly really knows what he's worth, and what he deserves. Call it any shitty dismissive thing you want - clingy or in love or whatever - but he's my best friend. I'll stand in your crosshairs all day and let it be known what I think." @pearlwestbrook

[pearlwestbrook]

Pearl laughs at the appearance of the dab pen, which is just so fucking Asher she almost can't stand it.

He's right, she could absolutely force her way through that crowd, or any crowd for that matter, but she's still buzzing too much from the shrooms earlier and it's kind of funny watching him get so anxious and antsy, and even more than that she doesn't wanna be the one to walk away.

She leans back on the bench, hands out behind her, one leg crossed over the other, and she watches him like a cat, following every little movement, while internally her stomach is still clenched in a knot of angry resentment. In that moment, she despises him. From his stupid dab pen down to his toes, she hates everything about him.

"You're not in my crosshairs, Asher," she says after a stretch of silence. "I don't care what you think, and you know why?" She smiles suddenly, head tilting. "Because he obviously doesn't either. Maybe if you weren't such an energy vampire you and I could have been friends and then you wouldn't have to be standing there shaking in your boots trying to tell me off."

[drvmm]

@aurorabaystarter​

Location: The Marketplace Open!

There was something homely about the whole thing, she supposed. A sort of small town vibe that was hard to recreate in the big cities, not that she had ever wanted too. Skyscrapers and penthouses had suited her just fine for a long time. Siobhan eyed a stand of seashell necklaces and a gruesome little box of hollowed out crab shells, and wished she was anywhere else.

Maine had been different. Maine was where her family had been so the town had never seemed off to her. Now it did. Her rose coloured glasses hadn’t so much as been removed, as they had been taken right of the end of her nose and smashed into pieces. She hated it all, right down to the distant sound of the ocean.

She sighed, tossing her head and patting the ends of the slick red bob back into place. She idled in front of another stall, selling dulce and more naff seashell crafts. Siobhan picked up a crude ring with a conch shell glued to the front and rolled her eyes. 

“How Ugly…” it was half a sneer, she was doing little to hide her contempt of the whole damn place at this point. Beside her, people began to stop so she turned to the nearest and gave them her most polite but pointed of smiles “-tell me something, does this scream ‘this was my first seaside vacation; to you as well?”

[pearlwestbrook]

@byrdys

Pearl has to let out a laugh at the look on the face of the person staffing the stall. In fairness to them, it's obviously a fucking rude thing to say out loud when no one's forcing her to shop here at gunpoint, but in fairness to her, the conch shell ring is literally heinous on top of being poorly made.

"It screams 'I post wine memes on Facebook,'" says Pearl, tilting her head at it and then picking out an equally-hideous necklace and holding it up. "You should get both of these and then you can find a tacky beach-side bachelorette party to crash."

[carterjohnsons]

There it was.

The sound of her laughter and the subsequent jab is enough to crack something open in his chest. Breathing comes a little easier, though a too big inhale has him choking on smoke like some sort of amateur.

He tries his best to hide it behind his own laughter, a breathless tinge to his words as he snides back, "and what? You're normal?"

Granted, he didn't know her that well, but he wasn't completely immune to her orbit. Could feel it even now, pulling and pulling still. He didn't even think she was trying.

His cigarette is pointed in her direction, flicking ash just shy of her stretched out legs, as if in warning. "Hey, I'm not gettin' fuckin' emo about it." Except he absolutely was, and he couldn't deny it without grinning, giving himself away.

Shaking his head, Carter laid flat back against the pavement, one arm crossed behind his head, eyes towards the sky. "Does it matter?" It did, and after a drag, he answered, "she divorced me."

A beat passes. He turns his head towards her, "haven't seen that boy toy of yours 'round here in awhile." It wasn't a question (but it was).

@pearlwestbrook

[pearlwestbrook]

@carterjohnsons

Pearl nods, but she decides not to grill him further about being the divorcee because he actually does look kind of fucking emo about it, and she's definitely not trying to turn this into some therapy session. He's funny, and overall she minds him a lot less than most people she knows around here, but it would take a lot more than that for Pearl to get deep with him about his failed marriage.

At the mention of Uly — and she knows he means Uly, because he's the only one who's ever here consistently enough to be called a boy toy — Pearl raises her eyebrows at him. It's not phrased like a question, but she thinks it is one anyway, which makes her laugh quietly.

"My boy toy," she echoes, pulling her legs into her chest and taking another drag off the cigarette. "He's actually my boyfriend, but nice subtle digging, Sherlock. Clearly you need to up your stalker game, he's been here plenty."

[rinaxchiron]

who: anyone (@aurorabaystarter) where: near the botanical gardens

"When you saw the dead little bird, you started cryin'.. but you know the killer doesn't understand." Hearing the familiar sound of loose change hitting the felt of the opened guitar case, a small smile crossed Rina's lips. The song drew to a close and Rina finished strumming the guitar which rested on her crossed legs. Eyes opened to catch a glimpse at the bystander who'd been watching them sing. "Thanks for that," was all they said as Rina begun moving off the seat, the guitar rested on the bench. It was just about time to head off. Another song and she might get chased out the gardens, even with the street performer's license.

[pearlwestbrook]

@rinaxcicero

"Damn, I'd be biting heads off if someone dropped a couple fucking nickels in my guitar case," says Pearl, giving the man who'd done it a dirty look as he walks away, though he doesn't notice. Lighting up her cigarette, she gestures to the case in question and adds, "Not that this isn't annoyingly California of you to be busking outside a botanical garden in a rich touristy beach town, but." She shrugs. "Do you ever save up enough to buy a gumball?"

[pearlwestbrook]

location: pearl's apartment for: @ulyflynn

"You know, your friends are freaks," says Pearl.

Her roommate is out at her new boyfriend's place so she and Uly had taken over the kitchen in Pearl's apartment, an experimental pasta sauce in the works that consists of both store-bought Prego vodka sauce and marinara plus whatever cheeses and spices and other likely-looking additions they'd been able to find in the cabinets and refrigerator. It's probably going to taste like fucking shit, but the fun of drinking a bottle of wine and smoking a bunch of weed and putting it all together had been well worth whatever the disastrous outcome ends up being. She doesn't really want pasta, anyway.

Back from the bathroom, she hops up on the counter beside the stove where Uly's stirring their Frankenstein concoction and reaches for a nearly-finished bottle of Merlot next to the sink. Their second, she's pretty sure.

"Like, fine, if they just didn't like you being around me, but I swear, they act like I'm some demon spawn from hell here to suck your soul out through your cock." She takes a swig and then hands it over to him. "Forgot to tell you I've seen a few of them lately. Asher called me a raging bitch," she snickers. "I can't wait for this town to finally get together and burn me at the stake, I can feel it coming."

[greengideon]

@pearlwestbrook

"See? Doesn't that feel better?" he grins as he watches her take some deep and centering breaths -- leaving out that those things were also good for anger management.

(She was making some good progress in the moment. Better not to spoil it by pushing his luck.)

He checks the menu on the truck, surveying the options he'd arranged for what would be the best pick for Pearl.

"You like tomato? I'm trying this new thing with the grilled cheeses and the tomato in the middle is really hitting. Otherwise I've got this turkey pesto melt that I've been wanting to force on you for a minute to get your opinion. Ladies choice."

[pearlwestbrook]

@greengideon

He might, Pearl thinks, genuinely be the only person in the world who could have patronized her like this and not only gotten away with it, but made her like him more because of it. He's not actually patronizing about it is the thing, he's just super chill and really fucking cheeky.

She gives him the finger, but it's not without a grin. And of course, the latter sandwich option drives it out of her mind anyway.

"Turkey pesto melt?" she nearly groans. "That sounds soooo fucking good right now, that one for sure. Gonna save the tomato grilled cheese for when I'm stoned out of my mind around midnight."

[lorelailewis]

Pearl's laughter is unbridled. The kind Lorelai thinks she reserves for those closest to her, those worthy of a peak beneath her armour. It's infectious and despite her best efforts, Lorelai's head is thrown backwards as she erupts into laughter alongside Pearl.

"You wouldn't harm a hair on my head and we both know it." Lorelai says, stifling her laugh against the back of her hand in an attempt to regain composure.

"It stains my teeth and makes my tongue feel hairy." Lorelai whines, running her tongue along her teeth instinctively. "Beside, red wine is for middle aged women who like to gossip and fawn over the underage hot gardener." @pearlwestbrook

[pearlwestbrook]

@lorelailewis

Pearl laughs. "That's not not true but red wine is also for people who aren't little babies who can't handle anything but dessert wines yet," she teases Lorelai, reaching over to pinch her cheek.

They come to the small liquor store down the street from her work she so often stops at when her shifts end, and Pearl opens the door so Lorelai can go in ahead of her. The man behind the counter gives them a first cursory glance and then does a double-take, his eyes lingering on them as they make their way towards the back where the wine is.

"Flash him some titty, Lor," Pearl says, nodding back towards the front. "I bet you'd give that man reason to live for another day. And we'd get free wine."

[oakleyxharris]

"Ouch." Oakley placed his hand over his chest like her words had struck him, though a grin soon pulled onto his lips. Admittedly, it wasn't one of his finest moments, but he wouldn't say that to her.

"I am helping my father with his business. I'm supposed to take it over some day. It's, uh.. not as glamorous as it might seem." He breathed, giving her a little shrug before ordering his own drink. "Are you from Aurora Bay?"

@pearlwestbrook

[pearlwestbrook]

@oakleyxharris

"That doesn't seem glamorous to me," Pearl counters, watching him with one of her chronically unreadable expressions that is so often interpreted as condescension. Which, in all fairness, it usually is, but not always. "And no," she says, "I'm not. I grew up in Palmdale. What's your dad's business?"

[xaviermattthews]

x: oh you don't like them now? 🤨 x: nah, you're not friendly at all. and it's one of my favorite things about you. nothing worse than getting trapped in conversation with someone imitating being the sweetest soul around x: what's so shit for you right now? x: honestly, a solid portion of my fans are feral x:

x: case in point x: i know you're not. idk. i'm projecting a little i guess. shits just been weird for me lately

[pearlwestbrook]

pearl: shut up ur so annoying. i can recognize that it’s objectively good song writing without liking them pearl: not to embarrass myself by commiserating w yo u but this town is so full of fake ass sweethearts it makes me physically ill pearl: what's so shit for mr rn let's see. dead end job, broke as fuck, can't hold onto a s/o unless they're even more psychotic than i am and i just found out my bio dad is some cult leader in utah. so yeah. everything is currently shit pearl: no shade to you fr but i would kms if my fans acted like that on twitter pearl: wanna tell me about the weird shit or should i wait for ur next single to drop

[heyits-asher]

It's frustrating, really. Asher can't see what Uly must see, because any and every interaction he's had beats the last in how much a sour taste it leaves on his tongue. And maybe it isn't his place; Uly is an adult, grown enough to make his own decisions and handle those sort of consequences, but Asher will be damned if he sits on the sidelines without saying a word about it. It doesn't matter if it's like beating a dead horse. "Didn't think not liking you was the only prerequisite. Me, the raging psychopath. Who'd have thought? Must mean this town is full of them." A reach, of course, but...

"Oh, fuck off." He's tired and impatient and coming down from the aforementioned overstimulated-induced anxiety, he really does not want to be having this conversation. Especially at a dig that probably isn't intended to be anything more than dismissive, that he shouldn't care as much as he does. Damn that idea, Asher doesn't care however much sex (or if it's even good, for that matter) he is getting out of it when he can see nothing but potential for an impending wreck down the road. And while he isn't necessarily a romantic at heart or believes in that 'happily ever after' fairytale ending, his gut instinct just tells him that in the end... this?

It's not worth it.

"Caring his about your friends and wanting what's best for them shouldn't be a foreign concept. Guess I should expect you to not really get that, but yeah, sure. Whatever. Guess I can respect you reducing the list of good things you bring to… whatever this is… to just that. Getting laid."

[pearlwestbrook]

@heyits-asher

"Doesn't it ever get boring being so fucking self-righteous?" Pearl says. He has, again, unknowingly, said something that's like a tiny knife in her side — nothing she hasn't thought about herself, but that's maybe the point. She's never cared about the stuff she usually gets — being called a heartless bitch doesn't really rattle her cage — but the insinuation that the only meaningful thing she could possibly bring to a relationship is sex touches a deep insecurity inside of her, raw and sensitive and unexplored.

It bothers her that it's Asher, because she doesn't fucking care about Asher. And people she doesn't fucking care about shouldn't be able to get to her at all, on any level, in any way.

Pearl looks over at the roadblock, which is still there, and then back at Asher.

"If you think I'm such a soul-sucking leech maybe you should tell him that," she says, eyebrows lifting. "Or are you afraid he won't care what you have to say? Has it maybe occurred to you that something's gotta be pretty fucked up with him to be so into me?"

[mackstevie-deactivated20230823]

Stevie stops chewing on the end of their straw to look Pearl in the eye, trying to decipher what exactly she's saying -- because it's pretty on the nose and to the point, but the other chooses to be blissfully aloof. "Whoa, small world," they chirp back, brows sliding high to her forehead. "Yeah, from Utah physically but not spiritually. Maybe your dad was a neighbor."

There's a very loud, broken neon sign over Pearl's head. "Or an uncle of mine. So crazy. Super weird and crazy."

[pearlwestbrook]

@mackstevie

Pearl glides her tongue across her teeth, contemplating Stevie, looking for any sign of a lie, although she's not really sure why Stevie would lie about it if they had any idea. Coming from them, any lack of forthrightness feels less malicious than avoidant, but the emotion involved in the whole thing makes it difficult for Pearl to keep a pragmatic mind about it.

After a few seconds of silence, where Pearl gives them an opportunity to say anything else, and gives herself an opportunity to drop it, she finally says, "The super weirdest and craziest thing? His last name is Mack."

[carterjohnsons]

carter: oh shit ur 1 of those cinemaphiles or whatever? carter: extensive movie knowledge and an arm like a cannon...bet ur fun at parties carter: oh wouldn't you like to know? carter: slow that fastball down to 89 mph and i'll let u take a guess

[pearlwestbrook]

pearl: it's cinephile and yeah 1 of those pearl: i'm a riot at parties but it's actually not bc of either of those things pearl: do u have a full set of dentures

[oakleyxharris]

"Is that not what I'm doing?" Oakley grinned as he began walking with her towards the bar. "What do you think? I mean, walking in the direction of the place I invited you to while still talking to me kind of feels like a yes."

[pearlwestbrook]

"I think you should consider yourself lucky I'm bored," she says, shooting him the ghost of a grin that's just enough to leave him uncertain whether she's joking or not.

It's still early enough in the evening that the place isn't super crowded yet when they walk in, Pearl heading right for the bar and ordering a beer.

"So you know I work at the movie theater," she says, turning to him with an expression that says she's still debating whether this is worth it. "What do you do?"

[carterjohnsons]

"Bullrider," he corrects, though to Pearl, he can't imagine it'd make much of a difference. Didn't make much of one to Carter, who felt plenty foolish enough these days, sans a painted face and a red rubber nose to help him look the part.

He'd half expected her to picture it. Waited for the sound of her laughter, for some of that signature quick wit, but all he received aside from her thinly veiled surprise was the weight of her gaze on him. He had half a mind to turn towards it, meet her stare dead on and try to catch a glimpse of what was going on behind those eyes of her…but for a reason he couldn't quite explain, something a little like fear kept him rooted to the spot, watching the water ripple beneath the sheer tarp.

Face to face with and nearly killed by a thousand pound angry bull, and now it's a 5'7 blonde striking fear into his heart.

"S'a little of both." His shoulders lift in a shrug. Or a lot of both, considering he was no longer either one at all. "Was better at one than the other." Just not the one that should've mattered more.

[pearlwestbrook]

It wasn't until he told her he was better at one than the other that Pearl finally burst into laughter. It was just so fucking ridiculous, not just the bullrider shit but the fact that he was comparing it to an apparently failed marriage. One which she was pretty sure she had heard the evidence of once or twice, if the yelling coming from his apartment had been any indication.

"You're so fucking weird," she said, though it wasn't without a smile lingering on her lips. Thing was, she didn't really mean it in a bad way — he was interesting at least, which wasn't something she could say about most people in this boring town. "So obviously you were better at bullriding than being a husband or you wouldn't be getting all emo about it. Did she divorce you or did you divorce her?"