Rory walked down the hallway of Chilton confidently, with Paris, Maddie and Louise by her side. She was no longer the shy new girl and the bookworm that people pushed around. She was hot and she knew it. All the boys wanted her and all the girls wanted to be her, whether they admitted it or not. Today was the first day of their senior year and the girls were eager to establish their popularity for the rest of the students. They stopped at their lockers, which they'd had moved last year so they were in a row.

In his typical manner, Tristan had some random girl pushed up against his locker, just a few down from Rory's. Conveniently, as soon as she was in earshot he began to turn up the heat causing the girl to moan into his mouth.

"Tris, you should probably let her go, she's gonna be late for class at the rate you're going." The girl shot Rory a look that said she was thinking of anything but going to class right now.

Tristan looked over with a smirk, "I'm sorry, are we bothering you, Mary?" He began to walk towards her completely ignoring the girl.

"I'm perfectly fine, I was just thinking for the sake everyone in the surrounding area it would be better if you stopped before the dry humping began." Tristan looked down at her with the irresistible smirk and was just about to respond when he was interrupted.

Logan, Colin and Finn, Tristan's three best friends, walked up at that exact moment. Over the summer the eight of them had become practically inseparable. Paris and Colin were as good as dating, as much as she hated to admit that she was thinking about anything other than Harvard. Same for Maddie and Logan except Maddie would much rather think about Logan then anything to do with college. Finn and Louise had almost identical personalities, neither of them would ever let themselves be tied down by a single person but when they got bored of the masses they always turned to each other. They kept each other on their toes.

And then there was Rory and Tristan. Everyone knew they were pretty much each other's best friend as much as they bickered. Rory had broken up with Dean at the beginning of the summer, she was done with his possessiveness but Tristan maintained his playboy ways. The two constantly denied having any feeling for each other but they hadn't told the rest of the group about the moment at the end of summer party.

Finn's parents were in Australia for the entire month of August so, naturally, there had been many parties. The last Saturday of the month however, was special. It was the last weekend of the summer and everyone fully intended to send summer out with a big bang. Everyone was there, it was huge, Finn had outdone himself

The party only grew in intensity as it got later. The eight of them were having a blast. Slowly, their numbers started to decrease, they'd all been hanging out together and no one seemed to notice when Paris and Colin discreetly slipped out onto the back porch. A little while later Maddie and Logan made their way upstairs where they always ended up at parties. Soon, Louise and Finn had also gone.

"You think they're with each other or searching the party trying to find the person who would make the other on the most jealous?" joked Rory.

"Who knows, those two will never slow down enough to figure their shit out," Tristan smiled down at her. At that moment the DJ started playing a slow song, very out of character for a party like this.

Tristan smirked," Would you like to dance Mary?"

Rory blushed, "Sure, why not."

"I love that no matter how much you've changed I can still make you do that."

This only deepened her blush, "Yeah, well you embarrass me."

"I don't think that's it, I think that no matter how cool the both of us act we both know that deep down there are feelings there, feelings we're not gonna be able to ignore for that much longer." As he talked Rory noticed how close they were dancing, and how it was definitely affecting her heart beat in a way she wished it wasn't.

"Tristan, I – ".

And suddenly the song was over and Finn was standing next to them blabbering a million words a minute about some beautiful red-head he was going to nail tonight.

At the end of the day the group had made a plan to go to their favorite spot, a secluded spot in the middle of a park in Hartford surrounded by huge trees that blocked the sun.

"Dude, I hate school, it's so stupid we even have to be there, it's not like Senior year really matters," Logan complained.

"It matters if you plan to go to college smart ass," Rory retorted.

"You're right though baby, and why do they need to give us so much homework on our first day back?" Maddie asked Logan.

"Madeline, this year is the whole point of your entire life, the college you go to defines your entire future and – " . But just as the rant was beginning Tristan cut Paris off. "Mare, can you come back to my car with me? I think I forgot something."

The other six exchanged a glance as Rory said, "Sure, Tris let's go."

They walked to his car in complete silence, very unusual for the two of them, they always had something to say to each other. When they finally reached his car Rory asked, "Sooo… what did you forget?"

"This." And before Rory had any idea what had happened he had spun her around so her back was pressed against the car and his lips were on hers, fast and hard. For a few seconds Rory was stunned but then she found herself kissing him back, her brain not even able to comprehend complete thoughts. She gasped for her breath and Tristan seized the moment as his chance to attack her mouth. The kiss was steadily elevating and heating up. He pulled back just a little bit to suck on her bottom lip, causing her to emit a surprised gasp. She could feel him grin against her lips at that. After what could have been minutes or years, Rory couldn't tell, she pulled away.

He smirked at her as she caught her breath, thinking about the kiss. Dean had never kissed her like that, he was always so chaste with his kisses. And the few times she'd hooked up with guys at parties had been gross, wet and reeking of alcohol. The kiss she had just shared with Tristan had been amazing, it was like the whole world just stopped for a time and she thought of nothing else but that. But this couldn't happen, Tristan couldn't kiss her, she couldn't let herself get emotionally attached to him because she knew, better than anyone, that he didn't do relationships, he did random hookups.

"Tris, what the hell was that?"

He stepped toward her, smirking, and put his hand on her hip, "That, Mare, was pretty fucking amazing. Who knew you could kiss?"

"Tristan, stop, that can't happen again, we can't do that. I'm not gonna be that girl. We need to get back, everyone's gonna wonder where we went." And she started walking back towards their spot in the trees.

Tristan stayed behind, slightly shocked, no girl had ever been able to walk away from him after a kiss like that. Well, he thought, I'm just gonna have to turn it up this time. He was definitely up for the challenge.