Chapter One

She never thought the day would come. She never thought the most important moment of her young life would pass her by so quickly, merely brushing past her existence and flying away to grace some other lucky girl's life. Then again, the most important thing, to her, was being in love and we all know that these things don't exactly last an eternity…

Rory Gilmore was crying, and these weren't any ordinary tears, but the kind that came in great swells and rained down your cheeks until they burned a crisp red. She had been crying for an hour already after finding her "one true love" in bed with another man. And not just any other man but her boyfriend's pool boy. How's that one for the stereotype! Needless to say she was absolutely devastated and had no reason to go on living—or at least that's the way she saw it. She lifted another tissue from the box and blew her nose loudly before tossing it onto the already large pile beside her bed.

The sound of Justin Timberlake's Lovestoned echoed from her purse by the door but she continued to ignore it as she grabbed yet another tissue, discarding it again on the mucus pile beside her. As the song started it's fourth repeat of the chorus she pushed herself off of the bed and answered with a nasally "Hello?"

"Rory darling I've been trying to get a hold of you all week. Where have you been? Rory, what's wrong, are you ill?" the voice of her grandmother rang over the line.

She rolled her eyes. "Nothing grandma, just a little cold." A little cold, shriveled, run over and stepped on heart.

"Oh well fine, dear, fine. Just take some medication and drink some water. You'll feel fine tomorrow." She normally enjoyed conversations with her grandmother, but when you just experienced the most devastating thing imaginable—well one wasn't in the mood for her dear old mother.

"Is there something you needed grandma?" she pinched the bridge of her nose to release some of the tension before swiping a hand through her chocolate coloured hair.

"Oh I wanted to know if you would like to come to dinner this weekend at the club with your grandfather and I. He's being honoured for his donations to the golf course. They even named a hole after him. Isn't that just divine?! Oh and you can bring that boyfriend of yours, Steven was it?"

"Umm...," tears began to well up in her eyes and she had to choke them back in order to hide her state from her oblivious grandmother. "I c-can't mom…Steven and I are going to the theatre for a show. We've had tickets for quite a while now and it's closing night…" Lying to her grandmother was easy with her eyes closed. Well, even when they were open it wasn't so hard, but face to face she had this little twitch of her nose that always gave her away.

"Oh that's dreadfully disappointing. Send him my love, won't you dear? Kiss kiss," she hung up the phone and left Rory with the dial tone.

"Bugger," she cursed followed by a few of her own choice words and then set herself back onto her tear stained bed. Staring at the ceiling she thought about the times she spent with Steven and wondered if there were any signs. None immediately came to mind. They had been together for nearly two years and were perfectly happy right until last week when she found Steven with Billy in her bed of all places. She kicked him out of their apartment immediately and without a doubt knew he just shacked up with Billy the pool boy right then and there. The only shame was that they were in the same program at Yale—both English majors trying to be journalists.

She would see him every day for at least the next two years—it couldn't be helped with them being into exactly the same classes. They'd made freshman year during Frosh week. Her blue eyes met his big green ones and it was love at first sight…or so she thought. Scratch that, there was a second shame. Steven was the most beautiful man she had ever seen with dark brown hair and piercing green eyes. He had toned arms and a sculpted chest and abdomen that screamed male-model. Yet he was modest and smart and looked at her like she was the only woman for him. Apparently that was truer than she understood.

Another round of Lovestoned echoed from her purse and without thinking she picked it up. "Grandma, I told you we're going to the theatre so you'll--" she was cut off.

"Rory, it's me, Steven," she nearly dropped the phone as her hand flew up to her mouth in shock.

"Steven?" she said softly before coming to her right mind, "What the fuck do you think you're doing calling me up like this? Have you no decency?!"

"Whoa, Ror," he cooed, her nickname that she loved so much before but hated it now, "Ror I get that you're upset but we need to talk about this. There are some things we need to discuss…" she could sense the urgency in his voice.

"Discuss this asshole!" She clicked the end button and turned off her phone immediately.

Sighing she stood up from her bed and trampled through the snot rags at her feet. Quickly she walked to the bathroom and turned the shower on to scalding so that she could wash away the filth she'd gathered over the past few days in bed. The water streamed down her body like a blanket of forgetfulness, washing away the two, happy years she'd spent with Steven, washing away the pain he had caused her, washing away the loss of her best friend. In fact, she had few friends to turn to these days as she had ostracized herself from everyone in order to spend every waking moment with Steven. Wait, this shower was supposed to help her forget about Him. From now on, she wouldn't even mention his name, nor think about it, nor write it down. In fact, He was officially erased. Officially.

As she left the shower, she stared at the steamed mirror, her body wrapped in a cozy white towel, her hair hanging in loosely on her shoulders. She drew a heart into the mirror and walked out ready to find something to wear and maybe attempt to leave her apartment.

She stared at the clothes in her closet and realized His still hung next to hers as he hadn't taken everything with him when he had scurried out just last week. In fact, his razor and shaving cream still sat in the cupboard, and his favourite mug sat at the sink. Sighing she chose some clothes and threw them on her bed. The sound of the doorbell and she stopped her motions, curious as to who could be here at five in evening. She hadn't spoken to anyone in a few days, nor invited anyone over, so she decided it would be best to just answer the door.

Still clad in only her soft, white towel, she yelled "Coming," and opened the heavy black door with a smile, albeit a small one, but a smile none the less. There stood a devilishly handsome young man with a bewildered look caressing his face, holding two Venti sized Starbuck's cups. "Why hello there," she said smoothly and smiled gracefully at the young man.

"Rory, how are you? And what the hell are you doing in a towel?" the young man asked handing over the cup, trying to avoid imagining her naked beneath the soft, billowy fabric.

"I feel like shit, and I just got out of the shower…Ahh Dark Roast, my favourite!" She took the lid of to breathe in the intoxicating liquid and took a big sip before setting it down on the kitchen counter top.

"That explains it all. So, am I the first person you've made contact with in the past week?" he asked, taking off his dark leather jacket and setting it on a chair casually.

"Well aside from avoiding calls from my mother and filling tissues with mucus, I've been in my bed crying, so yeah I would say you are the first person I have made contact with." He laughed at her quietly before drinking some of his own latte. "So what do I owe to this unexpected visit?" she said, her spirits finally feeling lifted.

"I came to check on you, seeing as how you've also avoided my calls all week and to take you out to dinner."

Let's pause here so you can understand the amazing guy standing in front of Rory at this moment. Landon Deaker, Aquarius, twenty-one year old Yale Commerce student. He's in the top ten percent of his class, captain of the swim team and has the most incredible brown eyes imaginable. Not to mention he's been a friend of Rory's since the third grade when she traded him her snack pack for a container of carrots. Basically friends at first snack time. Play.

"Well you have impeccable timing because I haven't eaten, in like, a week and I'm just realizing it now. But alas, I am still in a towel. So give me five minutes and I'm all yours." She smiled brightly at him, incredibly sincere for a girl who just got her heart broken, and rushed into the next room to step into a pair of skinny jeans and a long sweater. She pulled her hair back and put on a little mascara and lip gloss and stepped back into the room.

"Wow. You are the only girl I know who stays true to her word with the whole five minute thing." Landon grabbed his jacket and drink, also grabbing Rory's while she put on her coat. "Shall we m'lady?" he offered her his arm and she took it carefully.

"We shall." They left the spacious apartment and headed down towards the elevator, heads bowed in laughter as they told each other silly inside jokes. The beep sounded the arrival of the lift and as they looked up, the smile dropped from Rory's face.

"Steven, what are you doing here?"

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Hope you all enjoyed. I know it's short, but I wanted to see your own thoughts and reactions first before I continued. Chapters will generally get longer as I go. So review please and let me know how you like it.

3 Beautymarked