Thank you all for reading, even if you aren't reviewing. I just hope you are all enjoying the story.

This chapter is a bit odd and people might say it is ooc but this is my story not an episode of the Gilmore Girls so things are a little different. It was meant to be two chapters but rather than make you all wait I put it into one, hope it's not too long for you. Enjoy!

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Chapter 7

The woman that had shown Rory to her seat tapped her on the shoulder. "Excuse me Miss, is there a problem?

"What? Oh… um no, no problem thanks." Turning to jess she said "So Mr Mariano, how does this story compare with your previous work, are the writing styles different at all?"

Jess couldn't believe his ears, was she just going to pretend that she didn't know him? Shaking his head as if trying to regain some composure he decided to play along.

Rory spent the entire interview looking at her notebook and trying to avoid making eye contact with Jess in the hopes that she could forget it was him sitting in front of her. Soon the interview was over and it was time to move onto the next author, she hadn't asked nearly enough questions to be able to write a decent piece on his story but that didn't seem to bother him as he sat back in his seat with a smug grin on his face. As she stood Jess mirrored her actions. "Well Miss Gilmore" her name rolled of his tongue and she felt her heart skip, "It was very nice almost chatting with you" he smiled and put his hand out waiting for Rory to do the same.

"Yes, you too. Good luck with your story Je… Mr. Mariano" she shook his hand but pulled away quickly as if it had scolded her. Why after all this time could his touch still do that to her? Jess looked at her and was about to say something when Rory turned away taking her seat in front of the next author as her seat was immediately filled by a short excited looking balding man.

As she sat in the seat she could feel his eyes still on her but refused to meet them, instead she tried to look busy by fidgeting with her bag and her notes and it seemed to be working until she dropped the bag spilling it's contents. "Damn it!" she cursed herself as she bent down to gather her belongings. Jess who had seen what happened stood up and began to make his way round the table to help her, but was beaten to it by the friendly member of staff that had greeted Rory on her arrival.

"Let me help you with that" Jess looked on hopelessly and made his way back to his seat. "Boy you sure can fit a lot of stuff in that bag" he said as he crouched down beside Rory helping her collect her things.

"I don't know how I manage it, I always end up doing something stupid at big events, I'm so stupid." She blushed as she spoke.

"Don't worry about it, he tends to have that effect on everybody, you should have seen the reporter from The Herald, he managed to spill a glass of champagne right down his front" he laughed at the memory.

"Who did?" she asked worried that he had seen the tension between her and Jess. She took a quick look at Jess who was watching them closely as the bald man was trying to ask him questions about his story.

"Lloyd Costigan, your next interviewee."

Rory who had almost forgotten about him, looked up at him he too was watching her but with a look of impatience. "Oh yeah, right. Well I better get back to…" and she pointed at the table. "Thanks for helping me with my things, its Kris isn't it?"

"Yeah, you need anything else tonight just give me a shout." He helped her to her feet and held her chair out for her.

"Y'know I might just have to hold you to that" she smiled as she took her seat to begin her interview.

"I'm terribly sorry about that Mr Costigan." He nodded accepting her apology and urging her to continue. The interview was quick and Lloyd hadn't said much, Rory knew she hadn't made a good impression.

The next interview with Midge Bannerman wasn't much better, she kept losing her questions and was unable to keep any real thread of conversation going with him. The 5 minutes has seemed to last forever. When it was over she collected her notes and was putting them in her bag when she saw Jess making his way towards her out of the corner of her eye. "no, no, no just close you stupid bag! She said under her breath wishing it would magically obey her.

"Yo Jess, the band are still being assholes, I know the singer is a friend of yours but I think you're going to have to have a word." Rory silently thanked the unnamed employee as he and Jess walked off in the other direction. Making her way back down the stairs to the main area of the shop she grabbed a glass and headed for the bookshelves to get an idea of the kind of books the store would be stocking.

She had been browsing for about 20 minutes and was lost in thought when a voice behind her brought her back to reality with a jolt. "So are you just going to avoid me all night and pretend we don't even know each other?" He wasn't smirking this time, he stood in front of her hands in his pocket and stared her straight in the eye as if he could see right through her.

"Well what do you expect Jess?" Her voice had sounded more callous than she had intended. "It's not like we have the greatest track record, what with you breaking my heart every time we bump into each other." The last part had just slipped out in her anger, she hadn't meant to say it.

"You do a pretty good job at it yourself if I remember our last meeting rightly." He spat back at her, friendly banter aside.

"That's not fair and…" but Rory was interrupted by a voice over the PA system.

"Ladies, Gentlemen and fellow bookworms, thank you all for coming out to support us this evening. Please put your hands together for author and store manager Jess Mariano!" Everyone clapped as Jess spun round to see Kris leaving the stage.

"I uh… I gotta go, you sticking around?" he looked almost hopeful when he said it. Rory simply nodded in reply. "Good cause there's some stuff I gotta say to you." With a quick nod of the head to reassure himself he turned and walked towards the stage. Rage was still pumping inside Rory as she watched him walking away from her again, it was like nothing had changed. Here he was blaming her and walking away not caring what she had to say about it.

"Thank you Kris and thank you to everyone else for being here on such a special night for us all. I'd like to start by welcoming you all the Truncheon Too, or as we like to call it T2." Rory picked up on the reference to one of Jess' favourite films. "It's great to see so many new faces in the crowd, along with all the old ones" his eyes rested on Rory for a second and she shifted uncomfortably in his gaze, "some older than others huh Mr Drayton. Nah I'm jus kidding but I would like to do a reading from our newest book New York by New York, which by the way you can all buy advance copies of this evening from the people in the purple shirts." They all laughed at his shameless plug. "Then afterwards we can get the really party started as our house band Drowning Inferno take the stage." A few people whooped at the mention of the band, and Jess began reading.

Remember the way Jess used to read to her Rory found herself hanging on his every word and jumped when someone grabbed her from behind. Turning she saw Lucy and Olivia grinning at her mischievously.

"Gee Rory, what's up with you tonight? Lucy asked.

"Yeah you better still be up for our girl's night out, I managed to snag VIP passes to that new club Sound Central." Olivia flashed the little red passes at Rory.

"Oh yeah, but I can't stay late. I really have to start writing this…" Rory didn't get a chance to finish her sentence as Lucy and Olivia had grabbed an arm each and were marching her towards the door. She looked back at the stage as Jess paused to see what the commotion was. There eyes met and Jess could see that behind the piercing blue pools there was a loathing that he had not seen before. He suddenly realised that he was on stage and people were beginning to wonder why he had stopped. He looked back towards Rory and realised there was nothing that he could to do stop her.

------------ At the Club ------------

The club was busy by the time they arrive, it was lively and the music was good. Rory had felt a bit of Lucy and Olivia's excitement rub off on her in the cab. She had decided not to think about Jess or work, just to let her hair down and enjoy herself for once.

"Who's up for shots?" Olivia asked.

"Oooh shots, I'll have one, bring me something blue." Rory answered.

"Something blue? What kind is that?" Lucy looked at Rory confused by the odd request.

"I don't know, I don't really care I just want something coloured blue, hey why don't we just get a whole rainbow, you know one shot for each colour. I'll go to the bar." She walked away thinking how proud her mum would be with her choice, as Lucy and Olivia looked on surprised by the sudden change in Rory.

"Excuse me bartender, I would like some shots please, one for each colour of the rainbow. Oh and can you make it 3 rounds please."

The bartender looked at her for a second and considered her request. "Ok how does this sound, for red we have Cherry Vodka Shooters" He placed the bottle on the bar in front of Rory. "Yellow, hmmm." He paused before producing another bottle "Vanilla Schnapps Liqueur, Raspberry Sambuca for pink, Xante for orange, has to be Absinthe for your green, then our secret recipe Purple Haze and to finish it off BOLS – Blue. What do you think?"

Rory looked at the 7 bottles lined up in front of her "perfect!"

The bartender poured out 3 of each of them, and after she paid for them she made her way with the tray back to the table. When she got there she realised that Lucy and Olivia had been joined by 3 guys. She popped the drinks on the table and looked round at the new arrivals. She had to do a double take when she got to the last face.

"Rory?"

"Oh my god Phil, what are you doing here?" She walked round the table and hugged him.

"My friend is the manager here, so he hooked us up. I found out I have to go away for a bit for work, and we thought we'd have a boy's night out before I go."

Rory looked round at the other two guys that were now deep in conversation with Lucy and Olivia "Yeah and we were supposed to be having a girl's night out." They both laughed at their friends whose minds were clearly elsewhere. "Oh listen before I forget, I didn't get the chance to thank you for all the great things you said to Roddy for me. I really appreciate it. It means so much to me to be writing, especially about something I love so much. I got to review a new book and publishing house, the opening was tonight."

"Don't be silly, he didn't need me to talk you up to him. You're a very talented writer Rory, even if you don't recognise that in yourself. So how was the opening?"

"Oh you know what these things are like. Shot?" She held the tray up and offered him a drink.

"Umm, what's with all the shots and all the colours?"

"Oh I was feeling adventurous, so I ordered rainbow shots. We start with red you in?"

"Rainbow shots, why not?" and he too grabbed a red shot. "On three 1, 2, 3!" and with that they both swallowed the shots in one. Rory had noticed Lucy and Olivia had disappeared onto the dance floor with Phil's friends.

"Oh well more for us, yellow next 1, 2, 3." She swallowed the next one. Soon they had made there way through the rest of the shots and had moved onto other weird and wonderful concoctions.

"I wanna dance, let's dance." Rory grabbed Phil's arm and started to pull him towards the dance floor, but Phil stopped.

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea Rory. We've both had way too much to drink and well…"

"What's wrong?!" Rory swayed as stood in front of him.

"Nothing, honestly it'd just…"

"Have I done something wrong?" Rory was slurring her words as she spoke.

"God no Rory, you're amazing, perfect. I love being around you spending time with you and I've never been able to talk to another girl the way I can talk to you." He was stepping closer to Rory with each statement, and Rory in her drunken state could not see what was coming next. "That's the problem Rory, I think you are so… beautiful." He leaned closer, eyes closed parting his lips and placed them on Rory's. She hesitated for a second before returning the gesture.

She didn't know how it had happened but when they parted she was in a cab, Phil obviously unwilling to end the embrace leaned back in for more. The next time they parted she looked around, she was in an unfamiliar apartment and Phil was grasping at her blouse trying to undo the buttons, again he leaned in and Rory forgot her worries until they were suddenly lying on the bed in just their underwear. Deciding that she didn't want to think about what she was doing, what had happened that night or what the people at work would say Rory cleared the thoughts from her head, lay back and gave into the lust that was taking over her body.

When Rory woke in the ruffled covers for a second she had no idea where she was. She sat up and noticed that she was naked, clutching a sheet and wrapping round her tightly as someone behind her stirred in their sleep. She turned to see Phil sprawled across the bed, she jumped up way to fast and felt her head spin. She looked round the room for a clock but couldn't see one, she could tell from the light outside that it must have been really late or really early as it was just beginning to get light outside.

Picking up her clothes Rory made her way to the door, having not paid any attention on the way in she wasn't sure what she would find on the other side, she didn't even know if Phil had roommates. Opening it carefully she peered around the door, everything seemed still and to Rory's relief there was no side of anyone else around. Walking into the hallway she found her way to the bathroom, once inside she locked the door and looked in the mirror above the sink. She stared at her reflection as if it where that of a stranger she had never seen before. Turning on the tap she let the cold water collect in the sink before plunging her face into the surface, it stung like hell but she held it there as long as he breath would hold. Looking in the mirror again she could feel the alcohol leaving her body as the memories of the evening came flooding back to her. The black mascara running down her skin made it look deathly pale as her wet hair framed the image staring back at her. She thought to herself Rory Gilmore doesn't go to clubs, get uncontrollably drunk and go home with guys she hardly knows. Who was this person staring back at her?

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Well there it was hope you liked it. I have chapter 8 written I just he to type it up so it shouldn't take too long for the next update.

All reviews welcome and appreciated.

PGx

ps – Sorry for any spelling / grammar mistakes with this one.