No One Lives Forever (Lyric/Jory)

[Trent Frey]

Lyric hardly needed empty classrooms anymore. He knew the back corridors that no one used, knew where the stairs liked to change and how to find an empty alcove or a shield behind uncaring suits of armor. He mostly came into the school for something different to do, something besides the dirty streets of London.

He preferred not to sell during the day, anyhow. In the dark, there wasn't much of him to see and none of his regulars really knew what he looked like. They knew where to find him, though. They knew what parties they could find him at and how late he stood in a certain spot before he left for those parties. Only those first couple weeks had been tough, it was second nature now.

Last week he'd hit a free party that was the jackpot. Working this week was an option, but he'd do it anyway. There wasn't a moment's guilt for his personal purchases, one of which was hanging from between his lips as he made his way down yet another blissfully lonely corridor. It was just a cigarette, albeit an expensive and pleasant-smelling one, but it didn't need to be more. More was already running through his veins.

He hummed as he went along, a song he'd heard last night during something he probably should have regretted. Regret was a f~ing waste of time. Party every day, live forever, he thought with a smirk.

[Jory Addison]

Jory had found back corridors, too, ways to get around the roving bands of guys that would just as soon send a curse at his feet as look at him. It was hit and miss on whether or not he would actually make it from point A to point B without meeting up with someone, but he managed well enough that it was worth the extra couple of minutes' travel it was. But when he turned a corner and saw Lyric heading toward his end of the corridor, he stopped in his tracks.

Lyric was the last person he had expected to see, though he knew he had to talk to him eventually. What should he say? What was going to happen? What if Lyric was on drugs right now and none of it made any difference? His eyes moved over Lyric before settling on his face, and only then did a faint wave of shock wash over him. For now, he felt no urge to make things right past friendship. Maybe it was seeing Quinn with that marble that changed it, he wasn't sure.

Really though, now that he thought about it, he would much rather be with someone big and strong whose arms he could curl up into and forget the jerks in the school. Jory tried to push those thoughts out of his mind, thoughts that had rushed through in mere seconds, before he noticed the cigarette between Lyric's lips. He took a breath and started walking again.

[Trent Frey]

Lyric tended not to make eye contact unless it was a necessity, a force of habit with the way he was living. He didn't need anyone taking offense and picking a fight, calling the cops, or sending the school nurse after him. Of course, no one at school knew or cared, anyway. It had been long enough that even the guy at the Shrieking Shack had been forgotten. It would be stupid to worry about someone who was more likely to give him money than turn him in.

Still, even with his mind wandering aimlessly, there was part of him that kept an eye out, and that part caught his full attention the moment Jory became more than part of the setting around him. Jory. His eyes focused, and though he gave no sign of any thought beyond that immediate shock of recognition, his chest constricted painfully. In that endless moment of recognition and those tense moments after, shock gave way to pain, which melted into something even the drugs couldn't fully ease.

He didn't say anything, but dragged his gaze away and pushed at the hurt with another drag of clove-flavored smoke. Jory was one of the biggest failures of his life, and one he still hadn't let go of.

[Jory Addison]

"Hey," Jory said as he came a few steps closer to Lyric. What was he supposed to say? "It's been a while since I saw you in the dorm." Practically a month ago had been their last meeting. What a strange one that had been, with Lyric singing and flying around a little carved dragon. So it definitely wasn't the best conversation starter ever, but at least it was something.

[Trent Frey]

Lyric's heart stopped a moment at the sound of Jory's voice. Maybe part of him had thought he was seeing things, but the apparitions he saw flitting across halls in front of him never stopped to talk. The voices he heard now and then didn't try to start conversations.

He stopped, looking warily at Jory, but he'd never been able to just ignore him. "I don't sleep in the dorm," he said simply, his cigarette bouncing slightly with the words. He couldn't imagine his presence was actually missed. He didn't remember his ultimatum, didn't remember Jory calling him fake, but he remembered walking out of the dorm before spending a good two weeks in London. What do you want? he wanted to ask.

[Jory Addison]

"I know," Jory said, bringing his hands in front of him to play with his rings. It was impossible not to notice the empty bed beside him every night. "It's weird having the empty bed in the dorm." As far as he knew the guys didn't care in the least, but he still felt Lyric's absence. His eyes hovered on the bouncing stick between Lyric's lips as he spoke.

[Trent Frey]

"It's been empty since break," Lyric said. It had been what, a month and a half or something? Two or three months? He wasn't sure, but it wasn't like it mattered. So why had Jory stopped him to bring it up? Something niggled in the back of his mind, and though he was aware of it, he didn't know what it was so he dismissed it. Jory had always been completely unaware of what was going on in his mind, so he didn't bother turning away, but watched him back. "Do you want one?" he asked, tipping his chin up a bit in reference to the cigarette.

[Jory Addison]

Jory wrinkled his nose and shook his head. "No, thank you." He had always hated the smell of cigarette smoke, it had always made him cough. The smoke from the one in Lyric's lips wasn't as bad though, it almost smelled good. "Why doesn't that one smell really bad?" he asked, though he still had no desire to try one.

[Trent Frey]

"It's clove," Lyric said. He took a drag and the cigarette crackled pleasantly for him. "Your loss," he added, the words rising from his lips in a trail of sweet-smelling smoke. That was all the help he felt like giving Jory. He'd have been fine walking past and pretending Jory was a hallucination, and he didn't see a reason to inject reality with a fight, however cathartic a fight might be.

[Jory Addison]

Jory's eyes followed the smoke as it left Lyric's lips. "How have you been?" he asked, instead of pursuing the topic of the cigarette any further. Maybe he could go back to that if he was desperate for a way to bring up the topic of the drugs, but for now he was just fine bringing up something else to keep Lyric talking so that maybe they both could loosen up.

[Trent Frey]

Lyric's lips twisted into a grin that didn't reach his darkly-lined eyes, and his cigarette threatened to fall in the moment before he caught it with his fingers. "Life's never been better," he said, his tone light, but empty. He'd just tell Jory what he wanted to hear and maybe they could have a decent conversation. Maybe he could walk away with the will to live another day or two. "I'm going to a concert soon, so that'll be fun." He let his grin fade to take another drag of his cigarette. "How have you been?" he returned.

[Jory Addison]

Jory shrugged, pulling his eyes from Lyric's fading grin to find his eyes. "I've been better." He didn't want to think about what had been going on with him lately, he was hoping that maybe this would give him something else to focus on. "Who are you going to see?" Maybe he could keep Lyric talking and start getting back to where they had been, even if it didn't end in anything like it had before.

[Trent Frey]

Lyric's eyes narrowed slightly and he remembered how oblivious Jory could be. "Breaking Benjamin," he said. "It's going to be epic." He'd never been to a concert, but he knew it would be a night to remember and a morning to regret. He looked forward to both. Do you really care? he wanted to ask. He hadn't played this game in forever, though. See how long he could keep up the act before he got sick of it. He took another drag off his cigarette.

[Jory Addison]

Jory blinked at the name and nodded. "It'll be cool, they're awesome." He wasn't as big a fan of them as he was of some other bands, but they were still really good. "When are you going?" He wasn't going to, like, stalk Lyric out at it or anything, but it was something to ask to keep the conversation going, at least for another answer.

[Trent Frey]

"I don't know, next week or something," Lyric said. He knew he'd held a ticket in his hand at one point, but he didn't have it now. Quinn was probably holding it hostage or something. She wasn't getting a discount for giving it to him. It was beyond him just then to think that Quinn wouldn't need a discount, considering the Galleons her shop raked in. Lyric finished off his cigarette and flicked it onto the floor. "Jealous?" he asked with a puff of smoke. Maybe he was teasing, maybe he wasn't.