Questions & Answers

[Jory Addison]

Jory wasn't at all sure what he was looking for, but the question that followed wasn't much better. His eyes dropped and he shook his head. "Not good," he answered softly. "Everything with Lyric messed up," he said, still speaking softly. "But I was okay for a while, but the last couple of weeks haven't been good." Maybe he shouldn't be talking to Markise about this, but who else could he go to?

[Markise Sterling]

Well, if nothing else it sounded like Lyric wasn't playing them both. Of course, that left it open that Quinn might be a rebound. Markise's jaw tensed a moment as he debated whether he should be getting in the middle of things at all. Keeping quiet and just selling some clothes was sounding better and better by the second. "So, like, what messed up?" Markise asked.

[Jory Addison]

Jory shrugged and brought his hands together in front of him to play with his thumb ring. "We hung out on his birthday, and that night....but the next morning he freaked out when I touched him." He shifted his weight onto one foot. "I talked to him, like...a few days later and he told me he had been drunk two of the times we had had sex. He said it was the only way he could let me touch him." His eyes shifted up to Markise, feeling the shock again.

[Markise Sterling]

Markise's brows drew together in confusion. Was this the same Lyric that had tried to convince Quinn to let him show her what sex was? "Is he sure he's gay?" he asked. Jory was cute, he couldn't imagine someone freaking out like that just from being touched unless there was something really wrong. He was rapidly losing his confidence in Lyric being good for Quinn.

[Quinn Ashwinder]

Quinn had been staring at herself in the mirror for a while, not sure that it was really her looking back from the mirror. She fidgeted with the top for a moment, not sure if it was supposed to be this tight, and she was pretty sure some other things were not supposed to be as big as they were, were they?. Quinn poked her head out from behind the dressing room door. "Markise," she asked questioningly, but when she saw that he was talking to someone else she fidgeted a moment, "oh, sorry, I can wait."

[Jory Addison]

Jory's eyes widened and he opened his lips to answer, but as he did the dressing room door opened and another voice entered the room. His eyes flickered to the door before falling to his hands. He closed his lips and didn't answer. Yes Lyric was gay, why would he lie? He didn't want to think that he had been another experiment.

[Markise Sterling]

Markise froze a moment, the tension of everything he was holding back driving him to insanity. When he could move again, he gave Jory an intensely apologetic look. "You can look around if you want, I'll be right back," he promised. He hoped he'd be right back, anyway. He turned back to the dressing room and Quinn, glad that he'd gotten to at least greet Jory before he'd been called. He forced his smile to return. "How are things going?" he asked her.

[Quinn Ashwinder]

Quinn twisted a few strands of her hair between her fingers, "I really like the pants Markise, but I'm not sure about the top." She looked down for a minute, "am I really supposed to look this, full?" She looked at Markise helplessly, she felt absolutely exposed in this top, and she fidgeted with it a bit, trying to pull it up a tiny bit, to cover the rather large looking chest she now had.

[Jory Addison]

Jory nodded and went back to idly looking through one of the displays. His mind wasn't in it, it was far away. Maybe Markise was right, maybe Lyric wasn't gay. Maybe it had been an experiment. No, that didn't make since. Lyric had said he liked him, hadn't he? His issues hadn't been about that, they had been about thinking too much.

[Markise Sterling]

"Yes, it's supposed to do that," Markise assured Quinn. He gave her a moment's warning, then reached over to adjust things a bit further, his eyes moving over the fit of the clothes, making sure everything lay the way it should. "Guys like to see it, and you're just showing off a little. You look hot," he said. "Are you okay wearing it?" That was the part he wondered about. The clothes fit her perfectly, but if she couldn't feel confident in them, it wouldn't work. Confidence was a large part of an outfit like that.

[Quinn Ashwinder]

Quinn's mouth twisted up for a moment, thinking exactly how she felt in this, "I'm not used to me shoulders showing, but the bodice feels, right." She trusted Markise's fashion expertise, but she'd have to get used to her chest...being visible like this. "I think I'm finding that I like challenges lately, and I suppose it feels...liberating. I can't explain it, but," if he wasn't so close, she'd think about twirling in place for a moment, instead a blush spread over her cheeks, with a small smile. "Do you really think Lyric will like it," she said as an afterthought. She'd spent a while in front of the mirror thinking how...modern she looked, how forward with the times, she wasn't used to it, but again, Kiley was pushing her, more so now that she'd remembered that small dream.

[Jory Addison]

Jory couldn't help looking up curiously at the girl when Markise spoke, and had looked away before the girl had even started talking. But the word Lyric stood out easily in his mind. His eyes shot back up to the girl. What was she doing trying to impress Lyric? Was it the same one? It had to be the same one, that wasn't a popular name. It took him a few moments to pull his eyes away again, and when he did he was even less able to think than before.

[Markise Sterling]

Markise winced slightly at Lyric's name being brought into things, but he did his best to recover quickly and give another reassuring smile. "Any guy—" Any straight guy... or bi guy, apparently, "—would like it," he told her. "I could find you some things to go with it if you want. You could stay here for a minute..." And he could go back into the shop to see if Jory had heard.

[Quinn Ashwinder]

Quinn shoved a handful of hair behind an ear, and nodded, "I think, I think yes. I'll stay here for a minute." She bit her lip as she looked herself over for a moment, and before Markise had a chance to turn around, she threw her arms around him for a quick hug, and then stepped back with a blush, "thank you, Markise. It's nice to know that...I miss my sister, but.." how did she say that he felt like a brother for her an eccentric brother, but she was really happy that he talked to her. "Just, thank you," she shot him a beaming grin.

[Jory Addison]

Jory refused to look up until Markise came back. He wanted to run, but he couldn't run without knowing what was going on. Surely Markise would know. But why would he be helping the girl when he knew that Jory liked Lyric? He forced himself to move away from the display he had been not looking at to find another to not look at.