Title: 30 Minutes' Difference

Author: Silver Blood

Summary: To her he was just the best friend. To him she was the entire world. When his jealousy becomes too much to handle, she still can't seem to figure it out. Completely AU Trory.

Disclaimer: "Misery" is a delightful song by the beatles. Gilmore Girls and all characters contained within this story unless otherwise specified are property of the WB and ASP.

Chapter One: Misery

I'll remember all the little things we've done
Can't she see she'll always be the only one, only one

Send her back to me
Cos everyone can see
Without her I will be in misery

For as long as he could remember, it had taken a two-minute walk to reach his best friend. It was easy to sneak out of his house in the middle of the night when he was always welcome at the Gilmores' house.

Rory often woke to comfort him if his father had gotten rough with him, which was happening more and more.

Many times Lorelai had joined in the comforting, sometimes allowing Tristan to spend the night with Rory wrapped in his arms.

But most of the time he would collapse on their couch after locating the spare blanket and pillows with ease, knowing he'd wake to coffee and most likely the sound of giggling in the morning.

The giggling had been less frequent in the last month, and yelling had become common. Christopher's alcohol problem finally became too much for the girls to handle when he drunkenly brought his secretary home.

Tristan woke to the sight of a petite blonde pressed between Rory's father and the door-jam leading to the living room, both obviously with more than just alcohol in their systems'.

Before then Tristan had honestly believed he didn't posses his father's temper. He'd also honestly thought he would never be forced to punch Christopher. He discovered he was wrong on both counts.

Three days later Lorelai filed for divorce.

Tristan could understand her need to get away from Chris, but Lorelai was taking Rory so far away that he couldn't help but feel some resentment towards her.

A few years ago Lorelai had been invited to Stars' Hollow to attend dinner at her best friend's house. She immediately fell in love with the town, and the way she told it, a house had been hers within hours. Though the girls had visited several times, Tristan never opted to go with them.

And now Rory would live there, go to school there, and make new friends there.

Yeah, there was definitely some resentment brewing.

Tristan watched with no visible emotion as Rory put her last bag in the back of her mom's jeep. But when she locked her ice-blue eyes on his, his throat constricted tightly.

In a streak of long, waist-length brown hair Rory nearly tackled him. He clutched her tightly against him as if he wasn't going to let go.

He certainly wasn't ready to.

She pulled away and he watched the sun reflect in her scattered hair. He smoothed down a few fly-away's, but the wind stubbornly mussed them up again.

"Everything is gonna change, Mary."

Rory frowned, her eyes searching his deeply for a moment before shifting to the ground. The wind continued to blow strands of brown around her face, making it nearly impossible to see the tears in her eyes.

But Tristan still saw them.

He gently tucked a few clumps of relentlessly wild hair behind her ears, wiping Rory's tears away with his thumbs. Her voice was strained when she finally spoke.

"It won't. It can't. Don't let it. Please Tristan, enough has changed."

Tristan hugged her again but didn't make the promise he knew she wanted to hear.

"Go on, Lorelai's waiting for you."

Rory kissed him on the cheek quickly before walking back to the jeep and climbing in.

He watched her shoulders shake as they pulled away, even as Lorelai took her hand.

It wasn't until he got to his own room that he let the panic set in and a few tears escape.

But he didn't have anyone to take his hand.

A/N: It's 12:01 and yeah... I have almost this entire story written. I actually have... oh five or six or so that I've been working on, but I don't always have my laptop so they're in notebooks. The typing is what takes so long, because I change everything. So yeah if you like this let me know. I'm so freaking tired. Review, mmmkay? I'm sorry if it sucks.