**Part 7**
Rory felt horrible, she had broken up with Dean. Well, he had broken up with her not more than 24 hours ago and she was trying to accomplish a record setting bounce-back at Madeline's party without much success. She wasn't in her element, and she would have left long ago had Lane not met a nice looking Korean boy there.
"Hey am I sick yet?" Rory asked Lane as she passed by her friend who danced with her Korean boy.
"Not yet." Lane crossed her fingers and toes that Rory wouldn't want to leave just yet, "It actually might just be allergies"
"Keep me posted" Rory read her message and took her leave of the couple bumping into Paris almost right away.
"My watched stopped, what time is it?"
"It's 10:35"
"Yes, bye." Paris shoved her way out leaving Rory whip lashed and once again alone. Rory found a quiet spot in the house and pulled out a bit of reading to pass the time… until the sounds of Tristan's current girlfriend reached her ears,
"No. I'm sick of fighting with you. I'm sick of hearing 20 times a day You're my girlfriend"
"Ok could we possibly do this somewhere were a roomful of people aren't staring at us?" Tristan tried to hush his girlfriend.
"I think we should break up"
Rory's breath caught in her throat. She didn't think it was right to be listening in… but she couldn't help herself.
"Ok," Tristan tried, "I really want to go outside and talk about this.
"Then go, bye."
"Summer come on!" Tristan tried again but became self-conscious that he was being watched. He turned in time to see Rory try to dodge his stare. His face burned with embarrassment and self-hatred, he noticed Rory open her mouth to say something to him but he left the room before she could get a word in.
Rory felt as if she should go after him, she felt something in her stomach that told her to get up and follow, but Lane chose at that moment to find her,
"I have a major problem"
"What?" Rory asked distracted, she tried to listen to her friend and keep an eye out for Tristan.
"Henry, the guy I've been dancing with…?"
**End of Part 7**
A/N - So this was taken right out of the party episode to setup the next chapter. So go on straight to part 8... you know you want to ;-)
