Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls, duh. Opinions and values represented are mine only etc etc.
"I'll have 3 cokes, fries and 3 boxes of cookies, thanks. Oh-sorry- make that two." Mikey quickly stopped the waitress before she'd walked away. "Dammit," he cursed under this breath, "That's the 2nd time that's happened this week!" He looked across the table at TJ who was sitting silently, staring absently out the window. "It's a bit of a change without Lori, isn't it T?" he asked softly
TJ just shrugged, "I guess so."
Silence lapsed between the two boys for a moment. "Hey- so, buddy- you never told me about how your new school is!" Mikey said, anxious to break the silence.
"Well, it's OK." He said, seemingly not too interested in conversation, "The playgrounds way huge but they don't have a sand-pit..."
"And uh..." Mikey began, unsure of how to approach the subject, "Are you OK without Lori?"
Again, TJ just shrugged and silence lapsed between them.
Suddenly, TJ exclaimed "Oh! I almost forgetted!"
"Forgot," Mikey corrected lightly, "What did you forget?"
"I still gotta write Lori a letter for today!" TJ quickly flipped over the paper placemat in front of him and proceeded to draw curved lines across the page.
"Uhh... What exactly does that say, T?" Mikey asked, happy to see his nephew back to his usual bouncy self
"I thought you said you could read, Uncle Mikey!" he accused, raising his eyebrows
Mikey chuckled, "Oh, I can, T. I just want you to read it to me."
TJ looked at his uncle sceptically, but cleared his throat oh-so-dramatically and began to read. "Dear Lori..."
"Today at school we did papier Mache. It was tricky, but not too tricky for me..." Tristan said out loud, the memories of 'writing' the letter flooding back so quickly.
Sighing deeply, he put the letter back down on the stack and lent back against the headboard of his bed.
He'd returned home from the play ages ago, but sleep had evaded him. Somehow, he'd managed to avoid one-on-one time with Rory for the rest of the night, but now he couldn't get her out of his mind. A few hours ago he'd remembered the box of letters he'd written to Lori stuffed away in the back of his closet, and had been reading his way through them since.
He couldn't believe how many letters there were there. Sure, he knew he'd written a fair few but he'd never actually thought about how many exactly.
He'd managed to divide them in his mind into three categories- the seemingly endless pages of nothing but curved lines, that he'd 'written' her almost every day after he'd left for goodness-knows how long. The occasional letter or card that he'd written her throughout his elementary school years- and finally, the Chilton letters. Of these, there were few but they always seemed to strike a chord with Tristan the most.
Tristan sat up and picked up the nearest one to him and skimmed over it again.
Hey, how've you been?
I feel like you're near me... Yeah, I know that was a corny thing to say but really, I do... Do you even remember me?... bet you're somewhere great right now, where everyone loves you. They always did, didn't they… Anyway, you've probably got better things to do than read a letter from me- I'll let you go...
See you soon
Love, TJ
And that's how he'd signed off every letter- see you soon. 15 years with no word from her and yet every single letter was signed with see you soon.
Oh, if only he could've known how right he was...
Again, he leaned back on the headboard. What was he supposed to do now?
What if Rory had known all along and didn't want to bring up the past again? What if she was completely oblivious, and when he told her she freaked out and didn't want to see him ever again? What if she didn't even remember TJ?
But then again... what if she did? What if she was just as clueless as he had been? What if she'd been waiting to see him again all these years too?
Tristan suddenly had a wave of inspiration- he wasn't going to lose her again, and he was going to do everything in his power to make sure of it.
Rory awoke groggily, hearing a car pull out of her driveway. What time was it?
Rolling over, she looked at her alarm clock- 6:25- Five minutes before her alarm would have gone off. Slowly, she lifted herself out of bed, the effects of the amount of sleep (or lack thereof) she'd had last night making themselves very present. Rubbing her eyes and slipping on her slippers, she walked out the front of the house to get the paper.
Walking back to the door after having retrieved the paper, something caught Rory's eye. She walked over to the chair at the end of the porch to examine it more closely. Sitting there was an old black shoebox. An old black shoebox with an envelope signed Lori on top of it.
That woke her up like a bucket of cold water. Quickly, Rory seated herself next to the box and took the envelope from the top of it, almost ripping it open.
A small, simple piece of lined paper floated out from the envelope, landing neatly in her lap. She picked it up to read it,
"Hey," She read aloud, "This might sound crazy but if you understand, call me. -T"
Intrigued and slightly panicked, Rory opened the box. Inside, was what looked like hundreds of pieces of old paper. She picked up the one from the top and read it.
Dear Lori,
Happy 7th Birthday! Have a great day!
I miss you- You should come visit me at my new house! That would be so cool.
See you soon
TJ -xoxo-
Rory looked over all the other papers- sure enough; they were all letters to her- from TJ. Well, Tristan.
Suddenly, all the same feelings of confusion and panic from the previous night began to return. She didn't know what to think. How long had Tristan known for? How was she supposed to react to this situation?
Picking up another few letters, Rory spent about a quarter of an hour reading them. Tristan had evidently missed her after he'd left… Heck, there were even letters there that he'd written last semester…
Rory put her head in her hands. What was she supposed to do? She couldn't exactly just not call Tristan… he'd made the effort to try and re-establish the bond with her- calling him was the least she could do.
Slowly, she made her way back into the house, box in arm. Setting it down on the table, Rory picked up the phone, which was surprisingly where it should have been, dialled the number for the local directory and shortly found herself waiting, listening to the ring of Tristan's cell phone.
"Hello?" That oh-so-familiar voice sounded from the other end of the line.
Instantly regretting calling, Rory said nothing.
"Hello? Is anyone there?" He asked, slightly confused
Rory held her breath, not wanting to be heard but at the same time, for some bizarre reason- not wanting to hang up.
"Mary? Is that you?" He asked, his voice hopeful, but again Rory stayed silent.
"Maarryyy." He teased, chuckling.
That was too much for Rory, and she cracked. "Its Rory." she said, exasperated.
She could practically feel him smirk over the phone, "And at last our mystery caller has a name. How do you do, Ror?"
Rory smiled and felt herself relax completely. Only Tristan could take a situation as bizarre as this and make it seem normal. "I'm well, thankyou, and yourself?"
"Good, good. I'm fine. Hey look- I was wondering- what are you doing this afternoon?"
"Don't we have school?" She asked, puzzled
"Nope." He said happily, "Remember? All this week we have rehearsals in the morning but the afternoons off to 'rest up' for the evening's performance"
"Oh yeah. Well, uh- I don't know… why?"
"I was just thinking- we should get to know each other." He proposed, as though it was the most normal response in the world.
"I already know you, Tristan." She said, almost patronizingly.
"No, Ror." He began, his joking voice showing that he had ignored the way she spoke to him, "I mean really get to know each other. I want to know what you've been doing for the past 15 odd years."
And finally- the subject she'd been waiting for came up.
Rory said nothing, her earlier nervousness returning.
"C'mon… Lori- what d'you say?" he encouraged playfully, "I've got some place to show you." He added, with just a hint of innuendo.
"Tristan!" She cried, "I do not want to see your bedroom!"
Tristan laughed, "Playing hard to get, are we? No, I'm only joking- I actually had no intention of taking you anywhere near my house but hey, maybe some other time?"
Rory blushed, embarrassed by her outburst
"Okay then," She semi-reluctantly agreed, "But no bedrooms!"
Tristan chuckled, "I'll see you then."
"Well," Rory began, walking out of the drama centre after their morning rehearsal, "That wasn't too bad."
"Not terrible," Tristan agreed, "But it's good to finally be out of there."
This reminded Rory of their earlier conversation that day, "So where exactly are we going, Tristan?" she asked
"You'll see." He answered enigmatically, walking towards and unlocking his car.
Rory didn't ask more, knowing better than to even attempt to get a secret out of Tristan, and instead just followed him to his car and got in the passenger seat.
They drove in comfortable silence, neither really feeling the need to say anything. Suddenly, Tristan said, "Okay, you have to close your eyes!"
"I'm not closing my eyes, Tristan!" She protested
"C'mon, it'll be better this way."
"Fine." she agreed reluctantly.
They continued driving for around another minute until the car came to a stop. "Okay, you can open your eyes now."
Rory opened her eyes and looked out the windshield. "A tree? You took me to a tr-" Suddenly Rory stopped short of what she was going to say. "Oh my goodness, Tristan, are we where I think we are?"
Tristan nodded, grinning.
Still slightly stunned, Rory got out of the car. Standing in front of her, in all its glory was her and TJ's old tree house. Well, actually right now, in it's dilapidated state it didn't look much like a tree house at all but in Rory's mind it was still exactly as it had been all those years ago.
"Voila," he presented, "Our treehouse!"
Intrigued, Rory walked over to its old trunk, feeling the rough bark. Picking off a tiny piece of it, she moved away from the tree and sat down on the grass underneath.
Silence lapsed between the two of them for a while. Finally, Rory broke the silence, "I haven't been here since… well, since you left." She told him honestly
Tristan came and sat next to her on the grass. "I haven't come here in ages either," he admitted, "I just figured it'd not be a bad place for us to come hang out today."
Rory nodded slowly, "Good thinking." Then smiling, she added softly, "For once."
Tristan chuckled, glad that the previous mood had been broken, "Feel like playing a game?" he suggested
"Isn't that all we ever do?" Rory retorted
"No," he argued, "I mean, one of those lame getting-to-know-you games we always play on the first day of school. After all, the whole point of this is to get to know each other." He pointed out. "How about 20 Questions?"
Rory shook her head, "How boring. 10 Answers?"
"Answers? How does that work?" He asked
"Well, the person who usually asks the question says any word and the person who usually answers has to come up with a question that that word would have been the answer to if it were asked to them."
Tristan grinned, "Okay then, sounds simple enough. You start."
Rory shrugged, "Okay then… Right."
"What are you always?" he replied quickly.
"Tristan! This is supposed to be about getting to know one another." Rory argued, but smiled all the same.
"Fine then. Which side of the bed would you prefer I stick to tonight?"
Rory opened her mouth, shocked, "Tristan! You know that's not what I mean by getting to know you!"
"Chill, Ror. You know I'm only kidding." He laughed, "But serious about the right-side of the bed thing."
Despite herself, Rory laughed too, "Alright Casanova, your turn."
"Hmmm," Tristan pretended to think, "Brunette."
"What is Rory?" she answered, simply.
"Excuse me," he began indignantly, "Little Miss Getting-to-Know each other; I don't accept that as an answer."
"Okay then," she said, smiling slightly mischievously, "Blondes or Brunettes?"
"Ouch." He replied, putting his hand to heart, "But there you go, Mar, another preference in our partners we have in common." He added, winking.
Rory rolled her eyes. "My turn… Yes."
Tristan raised his hands in defence, "Now c'mon, Mar, that's a direct provocation for an answer you don't want to hear."
Again, Rory rolled her eyes, "That could have been the answer to anything, Tristan! Fine, Nine."
"How many times have you broken a bone in your body?"
Rory gaped in surprise, "You've broken nine bones?"
Tristan laughed, "I went through a BMX phase as a kid." He explained
Rory smiled at the mental image of Tristan falling off a bike.
"Okay, so my turn," Tristan snapped Rory out of her funniest-home-videos style daydream, "Never…"
"Hey, thanks for driving me home." Rory said politely, getting out of the car
"Always a pleasure, Mar." He replied, with the usual charm. "So I'll see you at the performance tonight?"
Rory nodded.
"Hey, today was fun. Why don't we do the same tomorrow?" He suggested
Rory nodded, smiling, "Um, yeah, okay."
"Great," Tristan smiled.
"Only this time, I get to choose the spot." Rory added.
Tristan grinned, "You've got yourself a deal, Princess."
Please review and tell me what you thought. Any suggestions would be so so so welcome.
Peace.