Questions & Answers

[Markise Sterling]

Markise had parted from Quinn with a smile, but that smile was gone now as he began a meandering path through the store toward Jory. He grabbed things as he passed only looking at each long enough to guess the size that would fit, and as he got to Jory, he sent the entire haul floating back to the dressing room; a black-and-white plaid headband with a pink ribbon bow, a pair of ballet flats, and some colorful jewelry that she could have fun arranging herself.

"Are you still into him?" Markise asked softly, approaching to stop at Jory's side. He hadn't known—hadn't known anything—and so he'd just gone with it. He'd been too stunned by everything else Quinn had said to give much thought to what else Lyric might have been doing.

[Jory Addison]

Jory blinkd and looked up at Markise, then nodded. "Yeah," he breathed, looking away again. "I talked to him a couple of days ago, but we didn't talk as much as I wanted." He focused his eyes down on his hands. What was he supposed to ask? He wanted to ask what happened with the girl and Lyric, but it didn't feel like he should just jump into it.

[Markise Sterling]

"I figured you guys weren't talking," Markise said. He glanced back at the dressing room before returning his gaze to Jory. "She said she's been talking to him all year and... something happened. They didn't have sex," he added, dropping his voice further. But they apparently wanted to. "I thought she was a rebound or something." Which showed what a crap friend he was for not pushing further to discourage her.

[Jory Addison]

"That was the first time I'd seen him since before break. He hasn't been in the dorm, and he left after a few minutes," Jory said. Lyric had been completely gone from the beginning of the term. Getting drunk, or so Lyric had said. "I didn't even know he liked girls." It didn't make sense! Lyric had never said anything about liking girls.

[Markise Sterling]

Markise's brows drew together and his hand rose to sweep through his hair. "I don't know what to say," he said, trying to think of anything that might help. He didn't think mentioning that DareandMichael had both been straight once would be comforting, so he kept that to himself, but should he be encouraging Jory to be okay with Lyric any more than he should be encouraging Quinn? "If he'll only be with you when he's drunk, that's all that's ever going to happen," he said at last. That was all Mano had ever been, a friend with more benefits than friendship. And he'd been fine with that and a bit of liquid courage.

[Quinn Ashwinder]

Quinn had gotten all of the accessories that Markise had sent back to her, and put the majority of them on, she especially liked the shoes. She'd never had shoes like that, but they felt natural to walk in, the only part of the outfit, besides the top that she was a bit unsure of was the gaudy jewelry. Quinn walked slowly up to the front, but didn't hear anyone talking, "I don't mean to interrupt anything. I just," she took a deep breath, "wanted to know how I looked."

[Jory Addison]

Jory felt his eyes burning at what Markise said. He couldn't help but think that no one would ever want to be with him. Lyric could only touch him drunk and Eros apparently thought something was wrong with him. He hated it. He glanced over at the girl and then turned so he didn't have to look at her, or give away what he felt listening to Markise.

[Markise Sterling]

Markise wanted to fix whatever was going on, but he didn't know what was going on! Jory apparently hadn't talked to Lyric for almost a month and was still desperate over him, and Quinn had been fine with friends until the minute he'd suggested showing her what sex was. Was the guy a f~ing scenester Adonis or something?

It took real effort to put on a polite smile for Quinn when what Markise wanted to do was scream. "You look great," he said. "Really scene." And Jory was having to listen to this. He shook his head. "Listen, this Lyric guy sounds like a mess. Both of you should just get off it." He looked between Quinn and Jory. "Sorry, not a counselor." He was, however, ready to head for the counter and wait for someone to buy something.

[Quinn Ashwinder]

Quinn's brow furrowed, completely out of the proverbial loop, "what are you talking about Markise?" Quinn looked between the boy in the room and Markise, her fingers smoothing down some of the hair next to her head. She knew that Lyric must be a mess, she was a mess, and he'd seemed to have similar problems to her, not to mention the can't touch people sober thing. She was really hoping that given the chance to further talk to him she could find out exactly what was wrong, but she wouldn't push, couldn't push something like that. Breaking open wounds, reliving nightmares, failure to fulfill some inner desire that you thought was an all consuming justification for your existence after the incident could send someone into a spiral. She'd spent the majority of break in just such a spiral, because she couldn't make friends, and that's what she thought Kiley would want.

[Jory Addison]

Jory's eyes widened and darted between the girl and Markise. He froze, feeling as though he wanted to run, but he couldn't make his feet move. It hadn't felt like so long purely because he hadn't seen Lyric, well...and he had been with Eros, but that was beside the point. Why had Markise said that? Now the girl would know about it!

[Markise Sterling]

Markise rolled his eyes. "I don't even know this guy," he said, "and I'm not an owl. Quinn, he sounds like a jerk, Jory, he sounds like he's moved on. Talk about him with each other, not me. I'll be in the next room if you decide to buy anything. Ariel!" He wanted nothing to do with this. If Ariel was upstairs, he could come downstairs into the workroom long enough to talk. A fifteen minute break sounded amazing.

[Quinn Ashwinder]

Quinn turned to the boy in the room, Markise had said his name was Jory, "what is Markise talking about?" She had absolutely no idea about this situation, had no idea who Markise was talking about, if she had to guess she'd guess Lyric, but she had no idea how this Jory factored into everything. She didn't want this to take to long, but she supposed Markise wanted it over with, since he'd left and told them to figure something out. She sincerely hoped she remembered to ask who Sylvester was too, and she had to do that after she bought the clothes.

[Jory Addison]

Jory stared at Markise, wide-eyed, as tried to figure out why Markise would have done that. This didn't make any sense. He did not want to talk to this girl about the guy he lost his virginity to! He eyed her suspiciously, wary of the possible conversation ahead. Maybe he should just run and refuse to talk about it. Nothing came from his lips just yet.

[Quinn Ashwinder]

Quinn stared at him again, and then looked towards Markise, who had obviously taken leave of the situation. Her head swung back to the boy, "Jory right? What is Markise talking about? Who is he talking about?" She had a sneaking suspicion, given specifically who she'd been talking to Markise about, but she wasn't sure. It did seem like Markise and Jory had been having a separate conversation.

[Jory Addison]

"Lyric," Jory said softly, watching the girl. "What happened between you two?" he asked, his voice not rising above a whisper. No, he didn't want to know that! He couldn't help it, though, he felt like he needed to know. Did the girl, Quinn, even know that Lyric liked guys? Maybe Markise was right, maybe Lyric didn't like guys, anyway.