Chapter 2: "You can never have too much coffee!"

"Hey Paris. Lovely to see you again. Coffee?" Riley greeted Rory's roommate.

It had been a week since they met and between liking all the same things (with the exception of Rory's disdain for Ernest Hemingway) and having all their classes together they had become the best of friends.

"Thanks Riley. Rory, your boyfriend's here!" Paris yelled.

"He's not my boyfriend, Paris. We're just friends. How many times do I have to tell you that? I don't like him like that. No offense, Ry," she states as he hands her the coffee he brought for her.

"None taken. I prefer blondes anyway," he states with a wink towards Paris who just rolls her eyes.

"And besides Paris, after Jess, I kind of want to just take a boy break, you know," Rory says.

"Fine, I'll drop it," Paris told her.

"So, we have some time before class. You want to grab another cup of coffee?
Rory asked Riley.

"Absolutely."

"Seriously," Paris asked, "he just brought you a cup that you haven't even finished yet."

"True, but by the time we get to the coffee cart she'll have finished it, thus requiring a new one." Riley stated.

"That much coffee will kill you, Gilmore. You drink too much of it." Paris said.

"You can never have too much coffee!" Rory and Riley both replied with a laugh.

"Oh geeze, you've known each other only a week and it's like you already share a brain." Paris told them and then walked out of the dorm leaving the two laughing behind her.

"So, coffee?"

"Coffee!"

"So," Riley asked as they walked to their favorite coffee cart, "week one at Yale, what's the consensus. You think you made the right choice or are you wishing you'd gone to Harvard all along?"

"Well, I get to see my mom and my grandparents more than I would have if I'd gone to Harvard, my classes are great, I don't actually mind living with Paris; it's been sort of nice having a familiar face around, and if I had gone to Harvard I never would have met you and that would have really sucked. You've become such a good to me Ry, thank you!" Rory stated.

"Anytime; you know I feel the same way, right? I'm glad we met, too. I've never really been friends with a girl before, at least not without it turning into something. I like it."

"Me, too. I mean, I was friends with Jess for awhile when I was still with Dean, but then it became more and before he left I guess I was sort of friends with Tristan."

"You still think about him?"

"Not really, but after telling you about him last week I have. I asked Paris about him. I wondered if she has talked to him since he left Chilton, but she hasn't. She said no one really has. His family doesn't really talk about him. She said she has gone to parties at his parents' house during the holidays and in the summer and he was never there. It's like he dropped out of Hartford Society completely which is probably a good thing. There are too many strings with the people of the society. That's why mom left with me when I was baby. She wanted away from it all."

"Two please, Nick," Riley told the coffee cart guy as they got to the front of the line, "yeah, Dad did the same thing with me."

"Really?"

"Uh huh, didn't I tell you that I'm originally from Hartford?" Riley asked.

"No. Thanks Nick. You were born in Hartford?" Rory asked as they walked towards their class with fresh coffee in hand.

"Yep, Dad and I lived with my grandparents for awhile, but the pressure of being a Hayden was getting to him so he packed us up and we moved to Boston."

"Wow, that's basically why Mom left, she didn't want to conform to whatever plan her parents wanted for her. Of course the original plan went out the window when she got pregnant at sixteen and chose not to marry my dad. But, she also wanted nothing to do with getting an Ivy League education like my grandparents and all the Gilmore's before. I guess in a way that's sort of one of the reasons I chose Yale. I mean, I'd be happy here regardless, but it's kind of nice following in my grandfather's legacy," Rory told him.

"Yeah, that's what was getting to Dad. For generations the Hayden's had gone to Princeton, studied law, and joined the family firm. Dad wanted nothing to with it. I'm actually supposed to be at Princeton right now," Riley told her.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Ever since I was little my grandfather would take me to visit Princeton if he was meeting with former classmates or for a football game or something. We'd go to Harvard and Yale even whenever they were playing Princeton. He never specifically told me I had to go to there, but just seeing his face light up as he showed me his favorite spots around campus got me excited. I had no interest in being a lawyer. I had always loved the idea of being a journalist, but I did want to go to Princeton."

"So why are you at Yale then?" Rory asked.

"You're going to think I'm crazy, but I had every intention of going to Princeton. I only applied to Yale, Harvard, and a few others because I had to. But, when my acceptance letter from Yale arrived it was like something was pulling me towards it. The moment I read the words: Dear Mr. Hayden, We are pleased to inform you… I had already decided I had to be at Yale. My grandparents weren't exactly thrilled that I had changed my mind, especially without any concrete reason, but they eventually agreed to let me come here; at least for this year. They said if I hadn't found why I wanted to come to Yale, my raison d'être so to speak, by the end of freshman year then I would transfer to Princeton."

"Well, here's hoping you find it so you can stay here with me," Rory stated toasting him with her coffee cup as they sat down for the start of their class.

After class, Rory and Riley decided to grab another coffee before heading to the library to do some research for a paper that had just been assigned in their English class. As they approached their favorite coffee cart, Riley noticed his roommate, Tristan standing in the line and despite Rory's feelings of a "boy break" he figured now was as good as time as any for the two to get reacquainted.

He'd been wracking his brain for the past week of a way to have them meet without simply dragging Tristan to Rory's dorm or just flat out telling them he knew the other. He wanted them to meet again; he knew they still had feelings for each other, but he didn't want to force them together before they were ready or rather before Rory was ready. He knew what she had gone through with Jess had hurt her and she wasn't ready to open her heart up again. They've only known each other a week, but he found himself being very protective her. He definitely didn't want to see her hurt, but he also knew his best friend. Tristan has been pining for this girl for the past two years and Riley knew that if he had to, he'd wait for her forever.

"Oh damn! I think I left my copy of Emma back in the classroom. You go ahead, Ror, I'll just be a minute. I'll meet you in the library." Riley told her.

"Okay. Sure, you want the usual?" Rory asked.

"Please."

When he was sure he had walked far enough that Rory wouldn't turn back and see he hadn't been heading back to their classroom Riley turned back towards the coffee cart, anxious to see what transpired when his two best friends came face to face once again.

Walking towards the coffee cart, Rory hadn't been paying attention to where she was going. She was too busy wondering why Riley had lied about leaving his book in class when he hadn't even brought it in the first place. He forgot his copy and had shared with her. And because she wasn't paying attention she didn't notice the gap in the sidewalk that caused her to trip and she sure didn't notice the smirk on the face of the man who caught her before she hit the ground.

She did, however, notice that his voice was familiar as she looked up into a pair of equally familiar blues eyes as he spoke, "Well, well, I always knew you'd fall for me one day Mary."

"Tristan."