Sugar and Spice: The More Things Change
By Misha

Disclaimer and Notes in Prologue.

Chapter Seven: The Company We Keep

"Hey Rory, what's up?" Christa asked later that night, as she lazed in Colin's bed. He'd gotten up to do something when her phone had rung, since they'd both assumed it was LDB business. Apparently it was her sister and Christa assumed something had to have happened since she'd warned Rory she'd be unavailable this week. Christa knew Rory thought that she was off having lots of sex with Colin, which was partially true, but really it was because she was tied up with LDB stuff and of course she couldn't tell Rory that, so she'd just been vague and let Rory think what she wanted to.

"I'm not… interrupting… anything, am I?" Rory asked hesitantly.

"Are Colin and I having hot monkey sex right this minute?" Christa asked with a laugh that deepened when Rory made a disgusted sound. "No, you're not interrupting anything. He's not even in the room right now. I know you didn't call just to inquire about my sex life, so what's up?"

"What are your plans tomorrow night?" Rory asked desperately.

"I have plans with Colin, why?" Christa asked. Which was true in an abstract way. He was involved in the plans since they involved the LDB, though she wasn't sure she would specifically be with him, at least not the whole evening.

"Paris has decided to throw Asher a wake. Here, in our dorm." Rory said with a sigh. "She shanghaied me into helping her."

Christa started laughing. "She wants to throw him a wake? Didn't his family do that?"

"She says that she wants to give his students a chance to remember him," Rory said patiently, "really, she's the one that needs the chance to grieve. She's hurting, Christa."

Christa sobered. She felt genuinely bad for Paris, it must be terrible to lose your lover, even if he was geriatric. "How is she doing?"

"She's Paris," Rory said dryly.

"Well, our world would be a boring place if she was anyone else," Christa acknowledged. She wouldn't say that she and Paris were friends, but they tolerated each other for Rory's sake. Besides, Christa had to admit, she found Paris wildly entertaining—after all, she wasn't the one that had to live with her.

"So can you stop by and help?" Rory asked hopefully. "Marty said he'd stop by, but you handle Paris better than he does."

"What time?" Christa asked. Logan had asked her to talk to Marty the next day anyway, see if he was free to bartend on short notice. Logan had decided to throw a party to sway some of the undecideds over to their cause. Which meant she and the other girls were running around like crazy trying to get it organized.

"It starts at six," Rory told her.

"I can come by around seven and stay for maybe half an hour and then Colin and I have plans." Christa told her, since she couldn't exactly say "I'm busy planning a take-over over the super-secret society I belong", however, she could take a small break and pop in to support Rory and Paris.

"Thanks," Rory said gratefully, "well, I'll let you get back to… whatever… Have a good night."

"I will." Christa promised and hung up just as Colin back into the room.

"Party stuff?" Colin asked her.

"My sister," Christa corrected, "you remember Paris, right?"

"Who could forget Paris?" Colin asked her with a grin. "Blonde, socially anxious, borderline insane?"

"That's Paris." Christa confirmed, "she and Rory are roommates this year and anyway, she was daring a professor and he died and now she's decided to throw him a wake. Rory wants me to go."

Colin raised an eyebrow. "And your sister says you have weird friends." He said dryly.

"No, my sister says I have irresponsible, obnoxious friends," Christa corrected, "which I do. Logan says she had a run in with him, Robert and Finn today."

"Yeah, Finn mentioned it," Colin told her, "well, he mentioned that he met Rory today and since I know her and I know our friends, I assumed it didn't go well. When is this wake?"

"Tomorrow at six," Christa told him, "I'll pop by around seven and pass on my condolences to Paris and then exit. I told Rory we had plans."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Colin asked her.

Christa shook her head. "No. I have to do damage control with Marty, see if he's free to bartend this party. I don't know if he was offended by the run-in, but Rory was apparently offended on his behalf and well, you…"

"Can come off as an obnoxious ass," Colin commented, "and the bartender and I have a history, so yeah, you probably should go on your own."

"His name is Marty," Christa scolded gently, wrapping her arms around him. She paused and looked up at him, frowning. "You're wearing too many clothes."

"I generally don't like wandering around my apartment naked," Colin told her, "in fact one of the only house rules Finn and I have is the agreement that we will always wears clothes in the public areas."

"That rule is really for Finn isn't it?" Christa teased as she eased Colin's t-shirt over his head.

"God yes," he agreed, stepping out of his boxers. "Because if we didn't have that rule, he'd run around naked all the time and I don't want to see that. You, on the other hand," he said with a leer, "you can run around naked anytime you like."

"Oh can I?" Christa asked with a grin, wrapping her arms around his neck. "I take it you like the view?"

"Oh, yes." Colin said huskily, lowering her to the bed.


"Marty, you came!" Rory said with relief, as her friend made his way through the throng of college kids lingering about. The room was packed with people, most of whom were ignoring the stacks of books Paris had set up, and were instead, focusing on their alcohol intake.

"Interesting crowd," Marty commented, giving the room a once over.

"Yeah, most of the people have no idea that they are a wake," Rory told him, "They all think it's some sort of weird theme party. More and more of them keep showing up and bringing more and more alcohol, so far Paris seems to have no clue though, which is good."

"There are way more people here than I expected," Christa commented as she joined them, "either Professor Fleming had a fan club or no one read the flyer and just assumed flyer = party." She looked at crowd. "I'm going to go with flyer = party."

"Yeah," Rory agreed ruefully. She looked at her sister, noticing something was different about her. "Your hair!" Her sister's hair had been plain brown, just like Rory's but longer, a few days ago, but now it had dark blue streaks. She currently had it braided and the streak looked very eye-catching.

"I needed a change," Christa said with a shrug, "Francine and Emily are going to hate it, but I like it."

"It's very pretty," Rory commented, she couldn't imagine doing that with her hair, but it suited Christa. "And very blue."

"How is Paris doing?" Christa asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

Rory was about to answer when the girl in question came over to them. "Marty! Christa! Thank you both for coming, please help yourself to a book." Her eyes narrowed when she took in Christa's short black dress. "That how you pay your respects, with lots of leg and cleavage?"

"I have a date in an hour," Christa said calmly, Rory figured by now she was used to Paris' insults, "but I wanted to come by and see how you were doing."

Paris deflated. "I appreciate that. I'm very pleased with the turnout. I mean, I knew he was beloved, but this was overwhelming."

"Professor Fleming was a great teacher," Christa said, placing an arm around Paris' shoulder. "He'll be greatly missed by all of Yale, but I'm sure you'll miss him most of all."

"Asher died right at the height of my passion for him," Paris mused, "I kind of wonder what would have happened if he had lived. Would I have stayed in love with him forever? Or would it have burnt out in time? He died before I could find out and now I'll always be in love with him. He's my Mike Todd."

There were tears in Paris' eyes and Christa gave her a squeeze and then Rory gave her a hug.

"It's like soap operas," Christa said softly, "the only couples that ever stay in love are the ones where someone died. Then it's perfect forever. Now with Asher, you'll have that perfect love. Besides, I'm sure your Richard Burton is right around the corner, though hopefully with a little less drinking, fighting and divorce."

Paris smiled gratefully at Christa and was then distracted by the new arrivals.

"How long before she figures out this is a party?" Christa asked after Paris had left them. "I'm surprised there's no keg yet."

Rory shrugged, "she's Paris, so hopefully never."

Christa grinned and then turned to Marty, "I haven't managed to say hello to you yet, Marty. Sorry about that. How was your summer?"

"Weird." He told her. Rory smiled, thinking about what he had told her about his family drama. "And yours?"

"Quiet," Christa commented and Rory looked away, still embarrassed by their fight, though she was glad that they seemed to be have moved past it. "But things are picking up now that I'm back at Yale. Logan says to tell you he's sorry if he offended you yesterday, but he wants to hire you on Saturday night. Double your normal rate plus a bonus if you're free because he knows it really short notice. We're throwing this thing together last minute; its running me a little ragged actually. Logan was going to call and ask you himself, but Rory mentioned you'd be here, so I told him I'd talk to you."

Rory was surprised that Logan had mentioned their run-in to Christa, though maybe he figured that she would and he'd wanted to get his side of the story out there. Personally, Rory thought a second-hand apology was a little lame, but at least it was something. Besides, as he'd pointed out when she'd run into him earlier today and yelled at him for his treatment of Marty, Marty worked because he needed the money and Logan probably paid well.

"Yeah, I'm free." Marty said instantly. "I wasn't taking anything this weekend because it's the first week back, but at double pay, of course I'll take it."

Christa smiled. "Great! I'll have Logan call you in the morning with all the details. It'll be a fairly big party, so lots of tips."

"That crowd usually does tip well," Marty commented and Rory sensed that he was a little embarrassed about the fact that he bartended for Christa and her friends. It had come up when she and Marty had first met, and he had mistaken her for Christa, and Rory sensed it every time her sister and Marty were together. One of the things Rory resented about Logan and his friends was there snobbery and the fact that they had this sense of class barrier, where they felt they were better than Marty because he had to work to afford Yale and they didn't. Rory didn't think Christa felt that way, she'd always been very nice to Marty, but he definitely didn't feel entirely at ease with her and it made Rory a little sad.

"I have to go," Christa said after a moment, giving Rory a quick hug, "Good luck keeping Paris in the dark. Marty, it was nice to see you again, and I'll see you on Saturday." With that she disappeared into the crowd.

"Do you want to bartend this party?" Rory asked Marty after Christa left.

"No," Marty said honestly. "I kind of hate those guys, but I can't afford to turn down double my normal rate and as I said, they are great tippers. Even if they are all jerks." He blushed, realizing what he said. "Not your sister, though. She's not like you, but, Christa's nice. Why does she hang out with that crowd?"

Rory shrugged. She'd been asking herself that question for four year since Christa had met Colin and his friends. If people were judged by the company they kept, what did it say about Christa that she hung around with a bunch of rich, obnoxious jerks?