"Ooh, this place looks good," Stephanie said excitedly, pulling the girls into a little boutique on 5th Avenue.
"Steph, it's getting late, don't you think it's time to go back to the hotel? Or at least stop for some dinner?" Rory asked. The Finn-coction had been a life saver in terms of helping with the hangover but it wasn't helping with the 5 hours of restless sleep, not to mention that she was feeling pretty sore from the previous night's activities.
"Nope, not until we've found you the perfect outfit for tonight. We're going to the hottest club in New York City, Rory. I've heard that Paris Hilton parties here. You can't show up just wearing any old thing."
Rory stopped walking and put her hands to her hips. "Are you telling me that my clothes suck?"
"Of course not, hun. It's just that they're a bit…conservative."
"So I have to dress like Paris Hilton to go to a Paris Hilton hang out?" she asked, following Stephanie, Rosemary and Juliet into the store anyway.
Steph shook her head as she poured through the racks. "I wouldn't go that far, we don't need you getting arrested for indecent exposure…Oh, here Rose, try this on," she pulled a kelly green, silk, halter top off the rack and handed it to the redhead.
"Pretty," Rose declared with a smile.
Steph continued to look through the clothing, seemingly noticing nothing else. She stopped suddenly and slowly turned around to face Rory. "OK, now I need you to keep an open mind."
"Oh no."
"I know it's a little short but…"
"Stephanie."
"Just try it on Rory. You have awesome legs." She turned to the other two. "Doesn't she have awesome legs?"
"I've been starving myself for years and don't have legs half as good as yours," Juliet agreed.
Rory rolled her eyes and refrained from reminding Juliet that starving herself was probably the reason her legs weren't what she wanted them to be. "Let me see," Rory relented.
"Nope, you have to promise to try it on before I show it to you."
"Fine, I will try it on but I make no promises beyond that."
"Yay! Here," Steph pulled out a black skirt with a black lace overlay and handed it to Rory who held it up to her waist, trying to figure out if it would cover her butt at all.
"Well, you weren't lying when you said it was short."
"You're going to try it on," Steph insisted.
"I said I would, didn't I?"
"Good." The girls all turned their attention back to the clothing and continued combing through the inventory. After they had been browsing for a while, they all had their arms loaded with clothing to try on; they were almost ready to head to the fitting room but Steph insisted they find the perfect top to go with the skirt she'd picked out for Rory.
"How about this?" Juliet suggested, pulling something off a rack and holding it up.
"No!" Rory immediately declined.
Steph ignored her protests. "It's incredible, Rory."
"It's practically lingerie." The top was a sky blue, satin, corset top with a line of black lace up the center where the clasps were.
"Look, the lace on the shirt is the same as the lace on the skirt, it's perfect," Rosemary gave her input.
"Guys, the skirt is bad enough, I can't wear that too."
"You can do anything you set your mind to." Rory rolled her eyes at Steph's cheesy remark.
"If I try it on, will that shut you guys up." The three other girls shrugged their shoulders and agreed; they knew it was probably the best offer they'd get from Rory. Juliet handed her friend the skirt and they headed off to the dressing room.
Rory looked at herself up and down in the mirror of the dressing room. Maybe the girls were right, maybe she did have good legs and she never knew she could have so much cleavage. She was still fairly uncomfortable in the outfit but if she was completely honest with herself, she knew she looked good.
"Are you coming out of there some time today?" Steph called.
Rory sighed. "I'm coming, I'm coming." She pulled the curtain aside and stepped out in front of her friends.
"Wow! You look so hot I want to have sex with you," Steph replied.
"Stephanie!" Rory rolled her eyes at her friend.
"What? I'm secure enough in my sexuality to admit that and I doubt Colin would be offended."
"You do not want to have sex with me, Steph."
"Fine," the blonde girl relented. "Maybe I don't want to have sex with you but if I was a straight guy and not your best friend, I totally would."
"Yeah, and maybe even if you were my best friend," Rory mumbled under her breath.
"What was that?" Steph asked, hearing Rory say something but not completely catching what it was.
"Nothing."
Steph looked at her strangely. That hadn't been a 'nothing' kind of mumble. "You're sure?" she asked. "I could have sworn I heard you say something."
"Nope."
"Is there something you're not telling me?"
"I didn't say anything Steph, just drop it," Rory said defensively.
Steph was sure now that it had been something and Stephanie Vanderbilt was not a girl who liked not knowing what was going on; she was still mad at Colin for not telling her what had him so upset all morning. She knew that Rory would only continue to get more defensive if she pried, however, so Steph let it drop, figuring she would give Rory a chance to forget about it and she would pick up with some more subtle prying later. "Fine, now about this outfit—I'm going to need you to spin for me."
Rory did as she was instructed. "Well, what do you guys think?"
"You look hot, Ror." Rosemary told her.
"You think?" she asked skeptically.
"All the boys are going to want you, hun," Steph insisted.
Rory bit her lip thoughtfully. All the boys would want her, huh? It had felt good to be wanted. She suddenly remembered the exact moment in the taxi when she had realized she was turning Logan on. She had felt almost…powerful. She had the power to affect him—his body and his mind. And if it didn't feel good enough to know he wanted her—when he finally had her…Maybe there was something behind this casual sex thing after all—all the good feelings without the heart break at the end; she didn't think she could take the heart break anymore. She looked at herself in the three way mirror in front of her and smiled; all the discomfort associated with wearing such a revealing outfit was gone. All the boys were going to want her.
"Well then, who am I to deny them the pleasure of checking me out? Maybe I'll even grant a few of them a dance." She smiled wickedly.
The girls looked at her in shock…Had Rory seriously just said that? It was such an un-Rory like thing to say.
Stephanie smiled at Rory proudly. "I think all those years spent trying to corrupt you, have finally paid off."
Rory, Logan, Colin and Stephanie stepped out of the cab they had shared. Colin had subtly insisted that Logan take the front seat and the other three had crammed into the back for the ride to the club.
As they stepped onto the sidewalk, Rory took in the long line outside the bar and sighed. "Wow, look at that line, it's going to take us forever to get in."
Logan chuckled at her naivety. Rory may have come from two very rich and influential families but her parents had chosen to raise her in a small town where people didn't care about her last name. Because of this, she often forgot just how powerful that name could be. "I wouldn't worry about it, Ace," he told her, placing his hand on the small of her back and guiding her directly to the front of the line. Colin took note of the gesture and coughed, then sent a pointed glare at Logan. Logan saw the disapproving look on Colin's face and took his hand back.
The entire group approached the bouncer and told him their names. He looked at the clip board in his hand, checking off their names as he found them. He unclasped the velvet rope and let them in.
"We were on the list? That's so cool. I thought only famous people and friend's of somebodies got to be on the list," Rory said excitedly, unbuttoning her knee length coat to give to the people at the coat check.
As the coat slid off her shoulders revealing the outfit beneath, Logan's jaw dropped. If he had thought the dress she'd had on last night had been revealing—it was nothing compared to this. The dress had been reasonable, something he could at least understand her getting coerced into but this outfit was nothing like anything Rory would normally dream of wearing. Sure, she looked good—amazing in fact, but then again, that was the problem—on more than one level.
"Come on Steph, let's go to the bar and get a drink," Rory suggested. Logan was stunned again; drinking wasn't something Rory did often and after last night he was sure it would be quite some time before she dared to get drunk again, yet here she was, in the club for barely two minutes and already headed for the bar. "You boys coming?"
"Yes," Logan started to say. He wasn't keen to let Rory out of his sight; he was sure the second he did the guys in the club would be all over her.
"No," Colin spoke over him. "Logan and I are gonna go find a table first." He grabbed Logan's arm and pulled him in a direction opposite that of the girl's.
"What the hell, Colin?" Logan asked incredulously. Didn't he see what she was wearing? They had to follow her before the gaggle of horny guys all around started pawing at her.
"It's for your own good, Logan. I saw the way you looked at her just then, and there is no way in hell you are going there again." Colin wasn't about to let his friend screw things up even more than he already had.
"It's not like that Colin, I told you it was nothing, just a mistake. There was no look. The only look was the 'what the hell were you thinking when you put on that 'come and rape me' outfit' look,' Logan argued.
"Don't even go there. As far as I'm concerned you lost the right to the over-protective big-brother attitude the second your lips touched hers—and don't even get me started on all the rights you lost when other parts of your anatomy came in contact." Logan couldn't fool him; he could see the real reason he was freaking out about Rory's outfit.
"So you're OK with what she's wearing?"
"No, but there's nothing we can do about it now. I will keep an eye out for her and make sure she's all right."
"I'm her sponsor; it's my job to look after her this weekend."
"Yeah," Colin scoffed. "Because you did such and excellent job of looking after her last night. I don't care of you're her sponsor, I don't care if you're her goddamn guardian angel—until you can get your libido in check, just maintain as much distance as possible."
"Damn it Colin, how many times do I have to tell you that I don't want her like that. Last night was just some weird fluke or something…some really, really bad, weird fluke that is never, ever, EVER going to happen again."
"You can lie to yourself all you want Logan; you can lie to her too—it's probably best she doesn't know the truth—but you can't lie to me. I'm not stupid, Logan. You're looking at her differently; you're thinking about her differently. You may think I hate you right now but you're still my friend and I'm looking out for your well being here as well as hers. If you let something happen again and throw things even farther off kilter then if there ever was any hope of getting things back to the way there were, it'll be gone."
"I'm not lying, I'm—"
"I don't want to hear it. Just sit here and save the table," Colin ordered, pushing Logan towards an empty booth. "I'm going to get us some drinks."
Logan sat down at the table, sulking silently as Colin walked off. Everything was so screwed up.
He sat at the table alone for a few minutes until Stephanie appeared, sliding into the booth next to him. "Hey Logan, why the pouty face? I figured you'd be eating up the NYC night life. Lots of scantily clad women around to suck face with and all."
Logan looked up at her with a scowl. He wasn't in the mood for her peppy attitude and speaking of scantily clad women…"Where's Rory?"
"Oh she's chatting up some hottie at the bar," Steph told him with a smirk.
"What?!" He started sliding out of the booth. He didn't care what Colin said, he had to go find her before Steph's so called 'hottie' decided to engage in some inappropriate touching with his best friend.
"Will you calm down Logan. Seriously, they're just talking; it's not like they're getting it on in the bathroom," Steph rolled her eyes at her friend.
"Yeah well, I've had some experience 'getting it on in the bathroom' and I gotta tell you, every one of those incidents has started with 'just talking.'" Logan pushed himself the rest of the way out of the booth and stood up.
"Where are you going?" Colin asked, approaching the table with a couple of glasses of scotch.
"Did you see Rory at the bar?" Logan asked, instead of answering Colin.
"No, why?"
"Oh, that's just great. I feel so much better knowing that you've usurped my role as her sponsor and taken on the responsibility of looking after her," Logan spat at him. Just great; Colin didn't know where she was and according to Stephanie, where she was, was with some random guy who probably had all sorts of disgusting ideas about what he wanted to do to her.
"Yeah, because you did a much better job of it."
"Wow, down boys," Steph remarked, watching the interaction between the two guys. "First of all, why is Colin taking over the sponsor role?"
"Because Logan sucks at it," Colin answered petulantly.
"I screwed up, OK. I know that, but it's not gonna happen again. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of her."
"OK, sit, both of you," Steph commanded. Logan and Colin sent each other glares then shifted their gaze to Stephanie, who wasn't looking too happy. They both did as they were instructed. "Good. Now listen up. Something is clearly going on here, anyone want to tell me what it is?"
There was silence from the boys.
"Fine, I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually, Colin can only go so long with out sex. In the mean time, you two better figure this out because I am not about to put up with these attitudes tomorrow when we're all stuck in a car with you. And I'm not really sure how Rory fits into this but I will tell you this—she doesn't need you to 'take care of her.' It's the sponsor's job to hold her hair back if she gets so drunk she starts puking; it's the sponsor's job to make sure she doesn't mix her liquors; it's the sponsor's job to make sure she makes it back to the hotel alright…" Steph noticed Colin turn to glare at Logan when this statement was made.
"OK, that…that right there…" Steph said. "What was that all about?"
"Nothing," Logan insisted.
"Oh well, Logan just conveniently happened to forget that we were staying at the Waldorf this year instead of the Plaza."
"Colin!" Logan yelled.
Stephanie looked from one boy to the other, suspiciously. "So that's what this is about? They went to the wrong hotel? Whatever, they both made it back to their rooms eventually; I saw them both this morning. She's alive, she didn't end up in jail, she wasn't mugged or raped; she's fine. Get over it Colin. I know you both have this crazy, protective thing going on with Rory, like she's your pseudo little sister or something…only she's not little. She's twenty years old. Being a bit protective is all good and well but you guys are going totally overboard. She doesn't need a baby sitter. Seriously, Colin, you're picking a fight with your best friend because you're not satisfied with the way he took care of her?"
"Oh no, he took care of her alright," Colin said sarcastically. "He took care of her just fine."
"I'm too fed up to even ask what the hell that's supposed to mean," Stephanie sighed. "Logan," she turned her attention to the blond. "She's just talking to a guy. Just because talking leads to screwing for you, doesn't mean it's true for Rory too. You can't shield her from every guy on the face of the planet, that's taking this protective thing too far."
"Protective/possessive, potato/patato," Colin muttered.
"Seriously Colin, what is with the cryptic tonight? Why the hell would Logan be possess…" Stephanie trailed off, looking from Logan towards the bar where she knew Rory was, even though she couldn't see her. They went to the wrong hotel, Logan was acting 'possessive' not 'protective' and Colin was waaaaay too mad at Logan for something as innocent as a wrong destination. Not to mention Rory's strange comment at the store earlier and her 'new' attitude. "Oh my god, they had sex."
Logan's face went completely white. "How the hell does she do that?" he asked Colin.
"I have no clue, it's kind of creepy."
Stephanie looked at Logan and Colin in awe. One second they were completely at each other's throats, and the next they were having a completely normal exchange as though nothing was wrong. Boys were weird.
"Focus," Steph instructed them. They turned to look at her. "You had sex with Rory?" she asked for confirmation.
"I swear, Steph, I don't know how it happened," Logan pleaded with her.
"I don't care about that," she dismissed him.
"You don't?"
"Well no, of course I do, but I'll find that out from her later. Right now there are more pressing issues. What happened after?"
"Steph…I don't…" Logan stuttered.
"Not immediately after," she rolled her eyes. "This morning. Did you two talk about it?"
"No, we just decided to mime to each other all day," Logan replied sarcastically. "Of course we talked."
"And what did you decide?"
"We decided that it was mistake. That it didn't mean anything and that we wouldn't let it come between us."
"Oh boy."
"'Oh boy' what?"
"Tell me you didn't. Tell me you didn't say that. Tell me you didn't say it was meaningless."
"Well, I made sure that she knew that she wasn't meaningless," he defended himself.
"Great, and here I thought I'd finally rubbed off on her. Turns out this is all your fault."
"What's all my fault?"
"I have to go do some damage control, try not to cause any more trouble while I'm gone." Steph stood up from the table and disappeared into the crowd.
After a few minutes she found Rory on the dance floor with the guy from the bar. She watched her friend's uncharacteristically seductive moves for a moment before sighing; this was bad. "Rory, can I talk to you for a minute?"
"Hi Steph!" she greeted her friend with a smile. "This is Joe," she pointed to her dance partner. "Joe, this is Steph."
"Hi," Joe smirked at Stephanie.
"OK, that image that just flashed through your head…the one that involved both of us naked in your bed…you can just erase that from your thoughts right now because neither one of us is going home with you tonight, let alone both of us," Steph told him bluntly. "Now if you don't mind, I need to steal your dance partner away."
"And if I do mind?"
"Well that's just too fucking bad. Come on Rory." She grabbed her friend's arm and pulled her off towards the bathroom.
"Bye!" Rory waved at Joe as Steph dragged her away. "It's been fun."
They reached the bathroom and Stephanie pushed Rory through the swinging door. "How the hell could you not tell me you had sex with Logan?" Steph cut straight to the chase the second the door shut behind them, drowning out the pulsating beats of the music beyond.
Rory's jaw dropped in shock. "How…" she began to ask but she realized that she knew how. "Colin had no right to tell you that."
"Oh give it a break, Colin didn't tell me. I put it all together myself. He and Logan were fighting and then Colin called him possessive, plus all three of you have been weird all day and there was the comment you made when we were shopping about sex and your best friend. Plus the new attitude and the wardrobe change…It doesn't take a genius Rory."
"You picked this outfit out for me," Rory exclaimed. Was she serious? Stephanie was always the one pushing her to dress sexier and be flirtier and now she was throwing it back in her face?
"I wanted you to wear it because I wanted you to feel confident enough in yourself to show a little skin; I wanted you to talk to that guy because I wanted you to open up and stop being so shy. I didn't want you throwing yourself at guys just to prove a point," Steph explained.
"And what point would that be?" Rory asked, crossing her arms over her chest defensively.
"That you're capable of meaningless sex."
"I don't have to prove that point Steph; I proved it last night with Logan. And you know what? It felt good. For the first time in a long time I was able to forget about Dean. I was able to forget that I wasn't good enough for him because I was finally good enough for someone, even if it was just for one night. And OK, maybe Logan wasn't the best choice of bed mate but that doesn't matter now because what's done is done and I'm moving on. Oh and by the way, from now on you can refrain from telling guys whether or not I'll be accompanying them home; it's none of your business." Rory moved to circumvent Stephanie and walk out of the bathroom but the blonde girl stopped her.
This was worse that she thought. She knew Rory had been hurt when Dean had left her but she never thought she would let it affect her like this.
"Let me go," Rory demanded.
"You're not going anywhere until you hear what I have to say."
"I'm not in the mood for a lecture, Stephanie."
"That's just too damn bad because you're going to get one…You're an idiot Rory."
"Hey!" she protested.
Steph ignored her. "You're an idiot if you think some stupid, unworthy guy's opinion of you determines whether or not you're good enough. Since when are you the kind of person who determines her self worth by whether or not guys want to have sex with her? Because here's a tip Rory…most straight guys want to have sex with anything that walks on two legs and has a vagina—all you have to do it put the signs out there…"
"Well then, if you'll excuse me, I have some signs to go put out." Rory made another attempt for the door.
Steph stopped her again. "Just because you walk out that door, doesn't mean this is over; I know where you live. You can go out there and take part in all the shallow, pointless dancing and flirting you want but don't even think of leaving this club with some random guy. You're going back to the hotel with us tonight…your friends…the people who actually care about you and not how long your legs are or how big your boobs are."
"I can decide for myself when and with whom I leave here tonight."
"I swear to god, Rory. I have Lorelai's number programmed into my phone."
"You wouldn't."
"Oh I would. How do you think she'll take it when she finds out her baby girl has disappeared with some strange guy in the Big Apple? Because I wouldn't put it passed her to drive down here and knock on every door in New York until she finds you. She will then drag your sorry ass home and proceed to lecture you way more than I ever could."
"Fine," Rory harrumphed with a roll of her eye. Damn Stephanie for knowing her so well. She knew how much Rory hated to disappoint her mother. Rory never felt as low as she did when she had to hear a lecture from Lorelai. Lorelai had always wanted to go to college, to get a job, and then to leave Hartford and make it on her own, free from the confines of high society and all the expectations, but when she got pregnant, she gave up on her dreams to make sure that her daughter would have the options and the life that she never had. Rory respected her mother more than any other person in the world and Stephanie knew that Rory would never personally do anything to let her down.
"Good. Now you can go for now but don't even think this is over."
Rory glared dangerously at her friend before leaving the bathroom without another word.
So I know, not much in the way of actual Rogan interaction in this chapter. There was supposed to be but the chapter was getting ridiculously long and I wasn't even close to finishing so I decided to cut it off here and just make what was originally supposed to be one chapter into two. So I hope you enjoyed it anyhow, please leave a review :)