Part Three

A friend is one who knows all about you and likes you anyway."

--Christi Mary Warner

January

"Finally!" Rory exclaimed throwing a notebook into the air. "Mid terms are over." Tristan laughed at her from the doorway of her room.

"At least your human, Paris is still studying." He laughed walking towards her and plopping into her chair.

"What can she possibly study for now?" Rory asked, glad to have the examinations over with.

"Who knows what occurs in the mind of Paris."

"My mind is currently shutting down right now, I'm out of my mind feel free to leave me a message." She plopped down on her bed, staring at the ceiling. "Now we have a week to do whatever we want."

"Why aren't we going home?" He asked.

"My mom is away at some convention. There's no point. What's you excuse."

"I get to hang out with a stunningly beautiful dork all week."

"I want to go to a movie," she stated, staring out the window.

"I'll go get my coat." He turned to leave.

"I never said I wanted to go with you, but if you want to see a movie at the same time as me, well, I can't stop you." He laughed, grabbing his jacket from the room across the hall.

"If you're coming we should probably ask Paris."

"You do it, I'm not going near that door." Rory knocked on her door.

"What," Paris demanded.

"Do you want to come to a movie with us?"

"I'd rather die." Paris slammed the door in Rory's face and they both cracked up.

"Let's take my car." Tristan grabbed her arm and pulled her down the stairs.

***************

"That movie was really bad, we should've seen something else," she said throwing her empty soda cup into the garbage. ?"

"There's only one movie playing, at least it was mindless entertainment. Besides, that chick was hot."

"Do you think of nothing else?"

"Do you?"

"Tristan, you have to understand, any connection between you're reality and mine is purely coincidental."

"Yeah, yeah. Coffee?"

"You read my mind." He opened the door and followed her into the dimly lit coffee shop. They ordered their drinks and sat down at one of the tiny tables.

"You're hard to keep up with, you know that?"

"Must be the caffeine." She sipped the hot liquid glancing around the tiny café. He looked at her intently, making her cheeks turn red. "What?"

"Nothing, I was wondering, feel free to turn me down, there's this party at one of the frat houses tomorrow night, I was wondering if you'd like to join me." He crossed his fingers.

"A party. At a frat house." She thought for a minute sipping her drink. "I don't know. I'm not one to fit in at those kinds of drinking fests."

"Whatever, I just thought you might like to try something new, I'd stick with you the entire time." She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, right, I'd probably have to drag you out of the closet while some chick tries to maul you."

"Please, I would have more than one." She kicked him under the table and smiled, taking another sip.

"I'll think about it."

***************

"Tell me again why I'm doing this?" She asked the next night on the way to the party.

"Because you love hanging out with me." He replied, smirking.

"Please, Tristan, I still treasure the initial misconceptions I had about you."

"Still, I have yet to figure out what you're problem is, but I bet it's hard to pronounce."

"So you finally come up with something to say, unblonde never the less." She laughed, glancing at him,

"Is unblonde a word?" He asked.

"I thought we were partying tonight. Anything goes." They smiled at one another and headed down the dark path to the frat house.

******************

The music could be heard from one end of the campus to the other. When Rory entered the room, Tristan left to greet one of his friends. She planted herself on the couch and took the drink that a cute boy offered to her. He sides of the red plastic cup were cool; the liquid was deep red. She sniffed it and a warm fruity flavor filled her nose. She took a sniff. It tasted just like cranberry juice. Relieved that it was just cranberry juice, she took another sip. And another, by the time Tristan reached her she'd finished the cup and accepted another. "What are you drinking?" He asked, slightly alarmed.

"Cranberry juice," she replied, taking another sip. He nodded. Leave it up to Rory Gilmore to find juice at a frat party. He pointed to a blond in the corner.

"I'm going to go ask her to dance, I heard she's easy." Rory kicked him good naturally in the leg and he winked, heading over to the blond.

A few minutes later a brown hared guy with glasses plopped down next to her and they started talking. She decided that he was really nice, very polite. He even refilled her drink for her. After her third glass, her head began to pound and her vision became a bit skewed. She felt light headed and happy. So she accepted Robert's offer to go find somewhere quiet where they could talk. He led her to a room in the back and when she started to bring up the long moving debate about Cold Fusion, he handed her another drink, which she knock back instantly, because she was very thirsty. He began to kiss her neck, running his hands up and down her shoulders. She felt heavy, unable to knock him away. He began to grope under her shirt, pushing her back onto the couch, struggling to lift the T-shirt over her head. "Stooop," she tried to push him away, but he held her wrists down with one hand. "Help," she called, but her voice was lost among the murmur of the crowd in the other room. She tried to lift her legs to kick him, but they felt heavy, she couldn't lift them. Finally, she squeezed her eyes shut and waited for it all to be over.

*******************

Tristan glanced over at the couch and was surprised to see that she wasn't there. He looked around the room, but he couldn't see her anywhere. Pushing his way through the crowd, he hurried into the foyer. Something was wrong. He asked around and a few minutes later someone pointed him in the direction of a back bedroom. Blinded by fury, anger, he burst through the door, and saw her. His heart almost broke for her. She was struggling to push a groping guy off of her. Her shirt was off and tears were running down her cheeks. Quickly, he grabbed the dorky guy, who looked quite surprised. Rage filling him, he pushed the guy outside, and gave him a swift uppercut, almost breaking his nose. He held the guy by the front of his shirt, "If you ever go near her again, I swear I'll kill you." He threw the pig to the ground and hurried into the house, where a crying Rory fell into his arms.

*******************

"I've got ya," they staggered along the road. He shook his head at her naive attitude. Her cranberry juice was obviously spiked; the frat boys had probably added a bit of salt, not enough to be noticed, but enough to keep the drinker thirsty. He swore at himself for subjecting her to joining him, for leaving her alone. Apart for Madeleine party, this was probably her first party, with alcohol. She was from Stars Hollow for Christ sake. When she finally fell to the ground he easily picked her small frame up. She tipped her head back and stared up at him, for a few minutes as he plodded along. He could smell alcohol on her breath. He shot her a smile and she smiled back at him.

"You know," she began, "you're eyes are really blue."

Then she passed out.

Can someone review and tell me what an SAA challenge is and where to find one! Thanks