paige guthrie. (![]() ![]() @ 2010-03-08 18:31:00 |
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Entry tags: | jay guthrie, paige guthrie |
log: paige and jay
summary: Paige drops by to visit her brother, and he shows off his entertainment system and she invites herself for dinner. While they make dinner, they talk about Jay's career, his ex-girlfriend and Paige working as a stripper.
"Well, what do you think?" Jay beamed at the set up in his living room. "Jean-Paul and I set it up. Looks pretty good huh? I mean, maybe it might fall apart of you touch it," he joked. "Jean-Paul actually got all the wiring worked out because my eyes were crossing by that time but I got the stand all together." Maybe he didn't read the manual really well for it but it seemed the flat screen was safe for now. "You like the surround sound?" he asked. " I mean, it's pretty swanky once you get it goin' but I can't figure out how toget it to work for regular television. It only seems to work for movies. I think that's Jean-Paul's fault actually." Blame Jean-Paul because it seemed like a better way to get around his shortcomings, even if it was his sister.
"It's a bit better than home isn't it?" he asked. At home, they didn't have much of anything, or hadn't, until Jay got his mother certain things so she could live.
"Not bad," Paige admitted grudgingly, looking around at the set up. She wasn't going to go give her brother airs admiring him too much. "Are you sure the wiring can stand up to that sort of abuse?"
"Sure it can. I mean, here's hopin'," he chuckled and left the living room. "You want something to drink, eat? How long you stayin' for?" Knowing Paige, she'd just want to give him directions and then leave. "Oh, Ric's gonna come and help out with the construction. He asked me to pay him - can you believe that?"
"I thought I might stay for dinner, if you've got the kitchen working at all. Otherwise you can take me out." Never let it be said that Paige didn't take advantage of her brother's generosity. She shrugged at the question about Ric. "Maybe it's the only job he can get."
Jay made a face at her and since she wanted to take advantage of his generosity, he'd let her in the form of a home cooked meal. Take out got a little tiring over the course of the year. "Maybe," he said about Ric. "But it ain't like I'm completely made of money here. I don't want people just comin' around cause they need a quick buck. If I wanted it all done, I wouldn't be doin' it myself. I'd have you bringin' people in to finish it." You'd like that, wouldn't you Paige?
"You're a successful musician who just bought a huge house. Of course they're going to think you're made of money." She smirked at him, heading towards the kitchen. The food isn't going to cook itself, after all.
"Why do I feel like a hasbeen?" Jay asked, pulling out a pot and setting it on the stove top. "Like one of 'em one hit wonders." He had an album that had 8 out of 12 songs that we good, two that had hit the charts, one that was taking its time but none of it he felt good about. "Maybe I ain't cut out for this stuff. I use to like music, now it's just a burden."
"Maybe you just need to stop thinking about it so much," Paige said, heading for the fridge to start getting stuff out. "And besides, it's not like you've really been yourself since you signed that contract."
"What's that suppose to mean?" he snapped and as if on cue, Jay's expression changed and his shoulders slumped. "Sorry, no no, you're right," God, he was being a complete ass. "Easy to climb up with the stars but when you fall, you fall hard huh?"
Paige didn't take the snapping personally, just shrugged and started pulling vegetables out. "It's not that," she replied, looking over to him. "But it's not really... you up on stage, is it? It's The Jay Guthrie, with the wing gimmick and whatever. If you were more yourself when you performed, then maybe you wouldn't need this break." She smirked. "And let's face it, you're not exactly a shallow idiot like most of the musicians out this way."
"If yer on about my wings Paige, don't okay? I signed them over. I can't unsign without getting a herd of lawyers on my ass, so maybe just get off that okay?" He hated it when she brought this up. It wasn't the first time he'd had this talk with Paige, or Sam or anyone in his family for that matter.
"It's not just the wings, Jay," though that certainly did help. "It's the whole..." She waved a hand. "Hollywood thing. You're much more comfortable performing in front of a small group of people you can actually see, not recording albums for the faceless masses." She shrugged. "Live music is more your schtick than anything else. It's what you're good at."
"Yeah, I know," he said quietly and took the pot, filling it up to boil some carrots. "But you can't complain. Playin' for faceless masses pay the bills and put food on the table. I ain't been useful before then, gettin' all tangled up with Julia. This is good for me." Sort of. "I ain't paying much attention to what Julia's doin' anymore. Too distracted, yanno?"
"Good," Paige said dismissively. "She's a bitch anyway." You weren't about to get Paige saying anything nice about Jay's ex-girlfriend. "But it's not like to couldn't do some live performances or something. Small stuff, you know? And something fun. If you treat music like it's just something to pay the bills, then of course you're going to hate it."
"Paige," Jay warned. It was all he said on it though because Julia was a bitch, had been and she got Jay into more trouble than the Guthrie family needed a that time, more than Jay needed. He still didn't like to hear it though, no matter who told him."Yanno, it's easy for you to talk now but you wouldn't say that if we had to listen to mama's moanin' about helpin' her out."
It's alright, Paige wasn't about to start an in depth discussion on the evils of Julia Cabot. She'd just think about them real loudly. "Mama's got two less mouths to feed these days. I don't know what she's complaining about." Paige didn't like to be made to feel guilty about not being at home to help out. She was making something of her life, and it didn't involve being tied down to a farm all her life.
The sad thing was, Jay thought fame would make Julia come around but it had only gave her fuel not to see him at all, instead, ignore his calls and it showed across his expression that he knew she was thinking about it for the way she made herself busy with that food. "Here, chop these up," he said, putting the carrots down on the board. "Make extra cause Jean-Paul, okay?" Guthries were good at making extra for everything. As an after thought, he dumped out the pot of water and fetched a bigger pot, intent to make chilli. At least out of the two of them, Jay could cook and he knew he cooked to Paige's likings. "Well she ain't complainin' much now, except to say 'when you comin' home baby'?"
"Ya mean ya ain't already plannin' on makin' enough for ten?" Paige smirked, letting the home accent slip back in for once. She usually fought tooth and nail to keep it under control and hidden underneath a bland Californian accent, but it was hard, working in the kitchen with her brother and talking about home. "I suppose we should go home sometime," she shrugged, chopping up the carrots. "I haven't been back since I left." Paige was a bad, bad daughter.
"I don't wanna go back just yet. I ain't too well equiped to stay outta fights with the Cabots this time around." Even if they did get his ass kicked. He usually got a few good punches in before their punches out numbered him. "Kinda like here, I still ain't too good with stayin' outta trouble." Again, another quality of Julia Cabot that Jay had picked up over time.
Paige just laughed at that. "You're just a born trouble magnet, Jay Guthrie." She threw a piece of carrot at him. "Just what am I going to do with you?"
Jay caught the carrot but then fumbled it and it dropped on the floor. "I dunno, burn me at the stake?" he joked lamely and crouched down to fetch the fallen vegetable. "What are you gonna do here, just keep going to school while people poke n' prod at your uh... career choice?" At least she didn't have to do that anymore, Jay was more than willing to pay out her full education now, if only it would take her out of the bar.
"Hmmm, maybe." Crispy friend Guthrie. Nice. She just shrugged at the question. "People can give me shit about being a stripper, I don't care. It paid the bills, and it put a roof over my head. Most of the people around here can't say that, so what do I care what they think? One day I'll be the CEO of some Fortune 500 company and they won't matter."
"But you'll have that with you for the rest of your life. Paige, please, you just need to let me pay for it this time around okay?" He pulled out a can of beans and set it down on the counter and moved to the fridge to fish out some ground beef, if there was any at all. "I mean, just let your brother take care of you for once," as if he hadn't before. While Paige was wrangling to get free, responsibility fell to Sam and Jay, although it was more Sam in that instance. "You can even say you made all that money from strippin', I won't say a thing. I'm just getting tired of getting crap for it." Just like he got crap for being Jean-Paul's friend.
"What?" Paige stopped what she was doing and just stared at Jay. "For your information, I have a perfectly good job at a more than respectable nightclub in Los Angeles, thank you very much. It ain't like we're not doing exactly the same thing right now." She glared at him a little. "And it's just about as much your business as Sam's as to what I do to make a living, which means none at all. I'm not ashamed of being a stripper, and I'm not about to let you start making me feel that way."
He almost sighed at that. "Look, I wasn't sayin' you was strippin' right now, but that maybe if you were thinkin' about it again, maybe you'd let me give you some money for your school. Then you could focus on studying and not spending late nights doing..." stuff that he didn't feel like going there with. Not the topic you wanted to cover with your sister.
"Well, maybe if it comes to that, I'll consider it." Except she wouldn't, because Paige had her pride. And she wasn't about to take a hand out from her younger brother. "But I'm not having this conversation anymore, because I'm serious, if you try and give me the same shit I get from everyone else about this, I will strip down to metal and punch you out. I am not even joking."
"Okay, Okay!" Jay held up his hands defensively. Arguement lost here. He wasn't about to battle it out with her anymore, not when she was so stubborn about it. Stupid Guthrie traits. It was like it was bred into them.
It was bad enough that she still got shit from Sam about it, she didn't need it from Jay as well. So she just shot him a dirty look, going back to chopping up the vegetables she was working on. The argument was over, and she'd thank Jay not to bring it up again.