Drunk but Sober (open)

[Cody Branson]

He felt nothing, as numb as a dunking into the iciest lake he could find. His eyes, normally a vibrant electric blue but now a dull blue-grey, gazed at the small ring of silver in his palm, the diamonds winking in the light as his free hand brought up a drink to his lips. The alcohol in the drink barely registered on his tongue, slipping down his throat with ease. He had been drunk the first two weeks of his new single life, but now, it was as if his body had simply accepted his grief and kept him more on the sober side of buzzed.

Who could blame him? The love of his life left him.

He closed his hand around the ring and slipped it back into his pocket, ignoring the brand it burned into his skin as his eyes lifted from the table he sat at and gazed at the people. They were dancing, enjoying themselves, the loud music tuning out even his own thoughts. He could see that several women, scantily clad and gorgeous, were eyeing him with intent, intent that he would not be able to give to them. With his family, it was love at first sight; it had happened with his grandparents, his parents, and now him, and he wouldn’t be able to move on as easily as he had heard Jalen had.

He sighed and finished his drink, signaling the waiter for another. It looked like it was going to be another long night for the cowboy.

[Miranda Suery]

It was settled. Miranda would be having a job come the New Year. Well, shortly after, when she turned twenty one. A club wasn’t her ideal place to work, but it was better than nothing. After the bookstore informed her that they didn’t need any more staff, she didn’t have a whole lot of options left. The manager seemed a little bit, creepy and forward at this joint, but hey, a job was a job and if he tried anything stupid – she would quit. No amount of money was worth sticking around to be harassed.

“You’re underage so you can leave the way you came in, don’t have any drinks on the way out,” and he gave what she assumed he thought was a charming smile. She smiled back, standing from her seat in the backroom and smoothing her dress pants down. Miranda shook his hands briefly, prying it away from his grasp, before going back into the noise, her eyes squinting in the light, her head drowned his bass from whatever song was playing.

She scurried through the crowd, but wasn’t very successful. Bodies collided with hers and she couldn’t simply walk through the dancing people, she would have to walk around. With a sigh, she made her way around, people pulling at her turquoise blouse. “Sorry, I’m not here to dance,” she tried to explain to an obviously intoxicated young woman, who shrugged and tried to nab someone else.

Mira held the spot on her arm where the girl had pinched her, thinking that she would have a bruise in the morning. Walking by the bar now, she noticed a lone blonde, cowboy type at the bar, but it wasn’t him that signalled her over, no, it was the guy behind the counter. She approached with caution. “Hey, heard Edward just hired you,” he said, looking her up and down. She nodded once, looking at the door. “Nice, I’m Daryl, I’ll be training you,” he gave her a wink, placing a drink in front of the blonde man she was standing next to.

She glanced at said man, offering him a small smile.

[Cody Branson]

It didn’t take long for the barman to give him another drink, and Cody knew it was going to be his last of the night, since he still needed to drive home safely. Jackie would probably bark at him…again…and the horses wouldn’t be so kind either, but they didn’t understand his grief, his pain at losing the blonde angel. The horses had each other, and now that Troy and Summer were beginning a budding romance, it only reminded him of the differences between him and the teen he had fallen in love with.

Why did the world hate him?

He glanced over when the bartender spoke to the pretty brunette beside him, and Cody glanced over at her. She was quite pretty, with that chocolate hair and expressive eyes, and Cody offered a small smile back before sipping his beer and feeling the cool liquid freeze his heart a bit more. Maybe it was time that he went out more and socialized. He turned towards the brunette and offered his hand, smiling politely.

“My name’s Cody,” he offered, his voice surprisingly steady, clearly heard over the music. “You’re new here, obviously. Do you go to the college right outside town?” Polite conversation for a man with a broken heart.

[Miranda Suery]

Miranda gave a parting wave to Daryl, not sure how she felt about working for, and apparently with, men who were only interested in one thing. With that in mind, her steel grey eyes looked over at the blonde guy introducing himself. His voice was hard, but he didn’t sound drunk. His eyes said otherwise, they were sad. Mira knew that look, and she immediately sympathized with him – she was such a sucker.

She sat at the bar next to him. Edgar, that was her new boss’s name right, had said not to drink on the way out, and she had no intention of doing so. Surely talking to patrons, who seemed like regulars, would be good for business. That’s what she would argue anyways.

“Miranda,” she said, a small smile on her face. “I’m not new, just haven’t been here for a while,” she said over the loud music, which was irritating her to no end. He didn’t seem interested in the things the other two men she had come into contact with this evening were wanting – which wasn’t a bad thing at all. “I’m at the University yeah, about half an hour away,” she said, her forearm on the bar as she held his gaze. Nothing big, just talking with a complete stranger.

“Yourself?”

[Cody Branson]

Miranda…a pretty name, and it fit her. He looked her over, in a totally non-sexual way, just to get a feel for her. She looked like a brainiac, one who absorbed knowledge like a sponge. She was a nice person, and her voice was soothing. No matter how many things he found right with her, though, he couldn’t help but compare her to Jalen, and he clenched his jaw against the fresh onslaught of pain in his chest.

Damn it, the blonde had such a hold on him still.

“I graduated school not long ago. I run my own ranch,” he told her, speaking over the music as he finished his drink. He signaled for a water as he turned back to Miranda; he needed to get home safely. “It’s called Haven, about five miles out of Pilot Ridge towards the college, you may have seen it.” He shrugged and thanked the bartender as he sipped his water. “I train and board horses.” He looked at her for a moment. “I apologize if this is impolite…but did you go to Hammel Institute? Your eyes are very familiar.” And indeed they were. Steel grey tempered with silver, they were nothing like warm chocolate…

Damn it.

[Miranda Suery]

“Yeah I’ve seen the place,” she said, watching Daryl bring Cody and Miranda a water, sending a wink to the brunette. She smiled and then sighed. Maybe working here wasn’t such a good idea. “The horses are beautiful,” she said, a small smile on her face as she took the glass in hand and began to sip. She wasn’t lying, and she wasn’t trying to impress him, she was just stating the obvious. She had ridden a horse once or twice, but it wasn’t something she did on a regular basis. That particular hobby would require a lot of money, something she didn’t have.

Mira held her smile, still leaning on the bar. “It’s really not that impolite,” she said, glancing around the location they were in, amused that she had found the sole person with decency within it. “I graduated a couple years ago, turning twenty one this January,” she said, her eyes growing wide in surprise, “I’m really not supposed to linger in here.” Cody seemed lost in thought though, and she was crossing her fingers that he hadn’t heard what she just said. To be honest, he seemed rather familiar as well, but he had something else on his mind.

“Are you alright?” She asked as he stared into nothing, looking a little lost. Maybe that wasn’t the best question to ask in a bar.

[Cody Branson]

He smiled when she complimented the horses. Indeed they were beautiful creatures, although a bit troublesome at times; the mares more so, since most of them were pregnant, including Jalen’s horse Summer. The palomino was expecting twins, something he hadn’t yet told the blonde who still owned his heart. “I’ll tell them you said that,” he said with his smile. “I graduated Hammel around the same time you did. We must have been in the same class.”

He took a moment to take a drink of his water, and her question caught him off-guard. How was he to tell a stranger that his life was incomplete, that he had lost his balance in the world and nothing could set it right again? “I fell in love with this girl,” he told her honestly, feeling the need to tell someone. “We’re about four-five years apart, but to me…age didn’t matter. She was like the sun, the oxygen I breathe. She made me laugh and smile and teased me to no end about my boots and my hat and my accent. She was perfect.

“I…I wanted to give her a promise ring, but when I showed it to her, she ran off, and I haven’t seen her since,” he told the brunette, looking up at her. He still had the ring too; he wore it on a chain around his neck, a reminder of what he could have had but lost. “It was just my luck that I found the girl of my dreams and she got scared of me.” He took another swallow of his water, wishing it was alcohol.

[Miranda Suery]

Miranda found it strange that she wouldn’t remember someone from her own class, and her eyes searched his a little more. She was fantastic with names, and she had his name on the tip of her tongue. He said he would tell the horses what she said though, and she let that process a little further until a small light bulb went off. “Oh! Cody! Equine talents, right?” She asked, a happy smile on her face because she had managed to remember. It was hard to forget someone who could speak to horses, and now owned a ranch. It only made sense, and she chided herself for not seeing it sooner.

”I fell in love with this girl,” Cody said, and Mira couldn’t help but regret asking. Here we go... She thought to herself, wondering how many other men (or women) had started telling their problems with this very line in this very bar tonight. He spoke with sincerity though, and the only reason why he was here was to get his mind off said girl, and he wasn’t even being a creep about it. For that, the brunette respected him, and that didn’t happen very often. “I’m sorry that you lost her,” she said, looking at the necklace shimmering a little past his collarbone. There was nothing scary about him, the girl must’ve been younger than him by four or five years. “Any way of getting her back?” She asked, a little more interested in knowing this time. Maybe she could help spur him on back to her.

Then she backed off a little, giving him his space. “You know, maybe I shouldn’t be bringing it up, you’re here to recover not to remember,” she said, an apologetic look in her grey eyes, despite how she had neglected to say the words.