Whipped Cream and a Cherry On Top (Jory/Verity)

[Jory Addison]

"It was really boring except for the anniversary party I got to go to at this club for Dare and Michael," Jory said, sitting down. On second thought... "Actually, a lot happened, it just happened at the very beginning and then at the party, other than those times it's been boring," he amended, then took another large bite. "What about you?" It was better to go ahead and ask, even with half a mouth full of ice cream, then start in on his own summer.

[Verity Bromley]

Verity nodded. She knew Dare from the time they had met in the hallway, but she could only assume that Michael was his brother or roommate or something. "I've had a pretty boring summer. I've been working, mostly, but I did go to that Summer Festival thing." Verity said with a sigh. "It was fun, I guess, but there was just too much drama. I didn't go as much as I had intended to." Verity bit her lip. She wanted to go out and go to parties. She used to be fun, what happened?

[Jory Addison]

"I went to the Festival, I met up with my friend, Lyric, there," Jory said. "Found out my boyfriend had been cheating on me, there, too." He rolled his eyes and shrugged. He didn't miss Jamie at all. Okay, maybe he did...then his eyes widened and he looked up at Verity. Verity. How had it not clicked before? How many Verities could there be? "You know Jamie?" Then he looked away, he wasn't supposed to tell anyone!

[Verity Bromley]

Verity let out a disgusted scoff and was about to mutter something nasty under her breath when she realized that she probably wasn't much better than whoever his boyfriend was. She bit down hard on her lip trying to ignore the wave of flashbacks from the Summer Festival. There was one particular image of how Leo's eyes had gotten so dark and scary that stayed with her. His question knocked her out of her thoughts. "Jamie Grey?" She asked, though he was the only Jamie she knew about at Hogwarts. "Yep." She said with a nod. She was about to ask why, when something hit her. She was sure it couldn't be right, though. Not by the way Jamie had acted with her. Verity's eyes narrowed cautiously. "Why?" She asked, afraid to hear what the answer was.

[Jory Addison]

"Oh, nothing," Jory said, shaking his head. He flicked a glance up at Verity before focusing his gaze on his ice cream. "Nothing, I was just...um...friends with him for a little while and saw you mentioned with him in the paper." Why couldn't he keep his mouth shut? There was no way she was going to believe that. He had done so good, he had only told Lyric, and Lyric had already known, not that Jory had known that at the time.

[Verity Bromley]

Verity kept her eyes on him even though he dropped his focus. She was quiet for a few moments. Maybe what she was thinking was crazy and completely off track, but she had a weird feeling about it. Not to mention now she was curious and she knew it would drive her insane not knowing for sure if she was right or not. “Okay.” She said softly, finally. “But if there’s something else, you can tell me. If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s cool too.” She said, biting her lip. If her suspicions were right, it would probably only make her even more confused.

[Jory Addison]

"No...I just...promised him I wouldn't tell," Jory said, though it was kind of pointless now, since just by saying that he had all but screamed the answer. Besides, he hurt you. "But we're not friends anymore, not since the festival." He looked up at Verity, almost hoping she would just flat out ask, because then he could answer and any guilt he would feel that he shouldn't even be feeling wouldn't come.

[Verity Bromley]

Verity raised her eyebrows. It almost felt pointless to ask, but she needed to be sure for the sake of her sanity. "W-was he y-your boyfriend? The one who cheated on you?" Verity's voice was shaky, but she practically answered the question for herself. It made sense, that was why he hadn't seen him since the festival, probably. "Oh god, it is him, isn't it?" All of the color drained from her face even before she gave him a chance to answer.

[Jory Addison]

Jory looked away and nodded, "Yeah." He couldn't believe that this was happening. "I even asked him about you! He said he helped you with the Three Broomsticks." And that stuff happened, but details. "Don't tell him I told you, please, I don't need him pissed off at me or something." He took a large bite of ice cream to shut himself up before he said anything else.

[Verity Bromley]

"Don't worry!" Verity said quickly. "I won't be telling him anything," She said before adding, Except maybe where he should stick his wand, under her breath. She barely let the news sink in, and didn't bother adding anything about what else Jamie helped her with, before that confused and distant look on her face was replaced with a grin. "Whatever, he's a douche. Who needs him, anyways?" Verity said waving her hand, dismissing him altogether. Well, she didn't need him. He hadn't been anything but annoying of late and she had Leo. Well, actually Jamie hadn't been anything lately because it seemed like he disappeared, but Verity would even let herself care about that anymore.

[Jory Addison]

Jory gave an unsure smile and shrug. "Yeah." But he had loved being with Jamie, who was, for all intents and purposes, his dream guy. Well, for the most part. "He was like, all over the place," he said, looking up at Verity. Jamie had been with both of them, and with Lyric, it was ridiculous to think, but he couldn't just ignore it or refuse to believe it.

[Verity Bromley]

Verity dropped her eyes. Her cheeks reddened, why had she been so stupid? Were he and Jamie together that day in the Three Broomsticks? It was so long ago, and it had been a lapse in judgement. "I-I didn't know." Verity said and when she finally looked at him, her eyes were apologetic. "I would never have..." Verity let her words trail off. "Oh god, I'm so sorry." She buried her face in her palm, almost forgetting about her almost-melted ice cream.

[Jory Addison]

"What? You didn't do anything," Jory said, looking up in confusion. "He didn't cheat on me with you, it was with Lyric." He didn't think there was any reason hiding Lyric anymore, not when Lyric had kissed him in the middle of the paintball field for anyone to see. It had been easy to not care about Lyric, forgive wasn't the right word, was it? Lyric hadn't known, and Jory knew how impulsive Lyric was sometimes, he wasn't to blame.

[Verity Bromley]

'Right." Verity said with a sigh. She still felt awful, but something else caught her attention. She crinkled her nose. "Lyric?" She repeated tilting her head to the side. "Is that like a person or something?" It seemed like an odd name, but she didn't imagine it was a ghost that was going around and spilling people's dirty little secrets. Verity eyes her ice cream and ate some more of it before it melted down the side of her cone and all of her hand.

[Jory Addison]

"Yeah," Jory said, nodding. "He's my friend and...we were together during fall term." For a lot of it, at least. He hadn't spent time with Lyric since the party, not that he was really looking forward to talking to him about what had happened. He barely even knew what had happened, though he knew he wouldn't get out of talking about it, most likely.