Disclaimer: I do NOT own Gilmore Girls or anything...

[2005] Author's Note: This is my first FanFiction ever. The idea just had to get out of my head...Perhaps more stories will folow...we'll see.I hope you like it and- I'm sorry if I make any spelling or grammer mistakes- I'm from Germany,so.
Ah- and: please review- no matter if positive or negative...just let me hear your opinion about it...

[2015] Athour's Note: Wow, 10 years. I've always wanted to finish this and now I finally will. But first this whole thing needs a revision ;)

Summary: "I gotta go. So, I might kiss you goodbye but, uh, your boyfriend's watching. Take care of yourself, Mary." What if Dean hadn't been watching? My first Fanfiction. TRORY. R&R, please!

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Note: Everything of "Run away, little boy" happened until the cut to the hallway.
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Paris was about to explode. Her was voice getting higher and higher with every word she roistered:" I knew he was going to do this, but no one wanted to listen to me. I knew it but it was all 'let's make Tristin Romeo, he's hot.' And now? Where the hell is hottie?"
She waved her hands about completely overcome with full-grown hysteria.
It would've been kind of funny, really, hadn't they been in such a dilemma.

Rory stared to the floor. She was fairly sure Tristin would show up in time. It just didn't fit to his ego to miss an opportunity for showing off just how utterly great he was...
Nah, he'd come. He was just late to drive them nuts. That damn jerk would walk in last minute like a puffed up peacock - and she'd wipe his friggin smirk off his face.
This wasn't funny. Why did he always have to be such a jerk? Even from Tristin she hadn't expected to stress them out like this on opening night.

"RORY! Hello?Earth to Rory? Are you deaf?" Paris was directing her anger at her now. "We've got to find an new Romeo! FAST!"

Rory frantically tried to keep her cool. This play counted for more than half their grade. Not to mention all the hard work they'd put into it.
The show literally had to go on. "Calm down. We've still got Brad. What about him?"
"Transferred schools." Paris murmured and Rory's eyes grew wide.
"What? But - when?" Was it posibble she hadn't even noticed? She glanced up to the big clock in the hallway. 10 minutes to go. OK, maybe now it was really time to get nervous.
Rory scanned the hall once more, when she finally saw him. Idiot. She knew it! She just knew it! There he was!

Tristin walked up to them and although his trademark smirk was plastered onto his face, Rory immediately knew that something was off. His hands were stuffed deeply into the pockets of his parka and his steps missed their confident stride.
Paris, controlled by her anger didn't notice anything, though, and immediately jumped at him.
"What do you think you stupid idiot! Where have you been? You have to get dressed, we're on in ten minutes."

Tristin looked away, his smirk disappearing:"Can't."

Paris couldn't believe what she had just heared, "What?"

Tristin ran his fingers through his hair, trying to explain:" Actually, my dad wants to pull me out of school. He…" That was enough for Paris. With a furious whip of her ponytail she whirled around and stomped off. The only thing missing was the steam puffing from her ears.
Rory watched her helplessly. She turned to Tristin, who seemed to be just as helpless. She could tell he was sorry."… and is she unhappy," he muttered bleakly.

Rory just nodded. She understandood Paris' feelings, but ignored her own anger for the moment., as she was already in the mode to fix this mess. "What do you mean he wants to pull you out of school? What happened?"

Tristin gave out a bitter laugh."Nothing. Just ticked the old man off, that's all." Rory looked at him sceptically. "By doing what? Tristin, come on, tell me."
"I got in some trouble."
"Trouble involving?"
Tristin sighed, "Involving Duncan and Bowman, and-" he paused for a second." Bowman's dad's safe."

Rory's face fell. She'd already expected something very bad, but this seemed to get worse and worse. "Oh no."

She stared at Tristin not knowing what to think. This was way beyond the stupidity of their usual pranks.
It was no secret that Duncan and Boweman weren't the brightest pair of lightbulbs, but for Tristin this was just uncharacteristically dumb.
Why'd he do such a thing?
She'd always considered him a jerk, but at least a smart one.
As if her thoghts had shown on her face, Tristin continued his explanation: "I mean, Bowman had a key. It was supposed to be no big deal. And the crazy silent alarm kicked in."

"You broke into Bowman's dad's safe?"

Tristin nodded. "Yes."

"Stupid."

He bit his lip, visibly ashamed. "Yes."

Rory still couldn't believe it.
He'd finally found something idiotic enough to get kicked out of school. He'd leave her, them, on opening night, for something THAT idiotic.
That couldn't be it. They needed him. She needed him.
She had to fix this. She, damn it. Why couldn't her heart just slow down for a minute so she could find a way to solve this mess? "Well, okay, you can apologize and you can put back the money and you can explain that, I don't know-" Rory waved her hands while thinking of something to say."like...like you were going through something."

As Tristin watched her ramble on he couldn't help but forget the seriousness of his situation for a moment. "I was, I was going through his safe." He joked, unable to hold bak a grin.

With his smirk reappearing on Tristin's face Rory realized how she was acting and immeadiately stopped. Exasperated she asked the one question she couldn't wrap her head around: "Why would you do this?"

Tristin just shook his head." I don't know. I guess that's something I can ponder at military school."

"Military school?" The heavyness of his words made Rory's face fall.

Again he nodded. "The police are letting our parents handle it, and in my case that means military school in North Carolina."

Rory froze."I don't know what to say."

Tristin watched her carefully. Her facial expression took him by surprise. Normally she easily to read, since her emotions were showing openly on her face. He knew he could provoke her anger, her annoyance and - to a certain level- her amusement. Though the latter was usually accompanied by a roll of her eyes.
But this expression he'd seldom witnessed and never achieved to evoke deliberately. He'd seen it at Madeleine's party and recently, when she'd approached him in the hallway to warn him of Duncan and Bowman and his own stupidity.
After she'd told him more than clearly that she hated him, he had told himself he was wrong, but - no.

She cared.

About him.

Really? Could it be the case that she actually cared?

He'd been fairly sure he'd done everything to make her despise him with the way he had acted in front of her boyfriend for the last few days. Well, Yeah...there was still bagboy, he reminded himself.
No, it was impossible that she cared about him and it was his very own fault that she didn't.

Unwillingly his mood changed to self defense and his words were bitter when he leaned in and hissed into her face.
"I imagine you're overwhelmed with the relief in knowing that soon I will be gone." The moment he had spoken, he regretted it.

Rory was taken aback. It hadn't been her intention to make him feel like she really hated him. She may have told herself often enough that she did, but to be honest she had regretted the whole "I hate him"-part of the whole schoolyard debacle. She'd been desperate to get Dean back at the time and she had only realised later that she might have hurt Tristin in the process.
It was slowly becoming clear to her to what extend she may have hurt him.
Maybe it wasn't entirely his fault that they couldn't get along for all their worth.

"I'm so sorry," she finally said with sincerity as she looked into his eyes.
Tristin shrugged, "Well, I'm a big boy. I can handle it."

The stared into each other's eyes and suddenly Rory felt like she was sitting on that piano bench again.
Without noticing, she tool a step towards Tristin.
"There's nothing you can… " she started, but she was interrupted by Mr. DuGray's call.
"Tristin, come on."

Tristin broke eye contact. He glanced over his shoulder to his dad, pleading for another moment. But he could see there was no use to it. Damn it, just when he finally had the feeling they could set things right...
"I gotta go, ..." Silence filled the air for a second. Tristin didn't want to say goodbye and he also wasn't good at it, so he did what came naturally to him and teased her.
"...I might kiss you goodbye but, uh, your boyfriend... Take care of yourself, Mary"

Rory couldn't help the smile playing around her lips.

Tristin turned around to leave.

And then it just hit her with the full force of knowing that she was too late.

"Tristin, he isn't watching," she heard her voice before she could catch up with her thoughts. Maybe thoughts weren't particularly helpful at the moment anyway.
Tristin stopped immediately.
He turned to her, the suprise written over his face.
"What did you say?"
"I, I,..." Rory muttered. "I...He,..I, I...I mean - Dean, he isn't watching."
Tristin was speechless.
"You're aware of what you're saying?" he wanted to ask her, but as she looked at him with her eyes wide open, he wasn't in need of words anymore. He reached for Rory's hand to pull her closer. With his other hand he caressed her cheek as he bent down to touch his lips to hers.
Tristin felt like he was under electricity. This whole thing was surreal.
He'd wanted this for so long and just when he finally could show Rory how he felt for her beneath his bravado, his dad's voice hollered through the hall with finality.

He let her go. "You have know idea, what you've just done to me," he wispered. "Why do you have to make it so hard for me, Mary?" Was the last thing he said when he left Rory behind - close to tears, although this kiss also hadn't been crying material at all...