Broken Strings

Eleven

Jay

It's easy to be a movie star. The shoes are already there. They just put you in the shoes – Jason Patric

Jay couldn't remember the last time he'd sat at such a fun table. The conversation was easy, the laughs were plentiful, and he'd hardly stopped smiling from the moment that dinner had begun.

He'd been an actor for a long time. Over half of his life had been spent in front of a camera and during that time, Jay had come to know a lot about people. Observing them, studying them, imitating them – anything he could do that would improve his craft. The subtle things were what he liked to pay the most attention to. Small intricate moments like the way someone might run their fingers through their hair when they were stressed or the little touches and sly glances between people who needed no words to communicate.

Yet as Jay talked and laughed with Brock and Bailey and her family, all of that went out the window. Analyzing the people seated around the table didn't even cross his mind. He was too caught up in Bailey's sarcasm and Noah's quiet teasing. In Caroline's carefree laughter and the way that Stephen and Travis poked fun at each other like brothers.

Jay floated through the group as they rose from the table and moved towards the more comfortable sitting area in the living room as the pie Bailey's mother had made warmed in the oven. Plush leather couches and understated furnishings lined the room, most of latter seemed like antiques or the sort of thing that someone might find at a flea market. Photographs were scattered around the room. Family portraits, team sports, horseback riding and rodeo competitions.

The space was so familiar to Jay though he'd never stepped foot in it before. It felt like his childhood home. A place where people were welcome with no questions asked.

Noah, Stephen, and Travis sat near to Jay, asking questions about the places he'd travelled to and what it was like to work in film. In return, they regaled him with stories about their adventures in rodeo and even showed him some of their more memorable scars.

"What's it like being a film star?" Travis asked at one point. "You must have been in some pretty cool places for filming."

"Well, a lot of what I do is filmed on a stage, not on location. Though I always prefer to shoot on location instead of a stage. I find it easier to play off of the environment then but it's a more controlled setting when you've got the stage. I did get to film one movie a few years back on location in Tunisia. That was fun. I even stayed in that Star Wars-themed hotel that formerly served as the filming location for the Lars homestead on Tatooine."

Noah raised his eyebrows. "That would be cool. My little brother was a huge Star Wars fan. I think I must have watched the original trilogy at least a hundred times."

"Are you talking Star Wars?" Caroline called from across the room.

She was sitting with Bailey and Brock near the fireplace, above which a television displaying the L.A. Dodgers game hung. Their heads had been bent close together, discussing music, though Jay had seen Brock shoot a few curious looks during the last half-hour towards Travis as if there was something intriguing about the man. Nothing about the dark-eyed man stood out to Jay but then again, he wasn't paying as close attention as he normally did.

"Yes," Noah replied over his shoulder. His mouth quirked up in a smile but it was sad, as if talking about the movie series was painful in some way.

"God, we haven't watched those in forever. Aaron really was obsessed with them," Caroline told Bailey who cocked her head to the side. "When he was little, his whole room was Star Wars themed. He had the sheets and the comforter and everything."