Chapter 13 - Hard To Get

One week after his surgery, Tristan was being signed out of the hospital. It felt so good to be out of a bed, and standing, even if he was still being helped by a walker and crutches. "Alright, Tristan." Delia said as she handed him some papers over the counter. He was leaning on a walker, standing next to his grandfather, his parents were still in the Bahamas. You would think your child breaking his hip would be reason enough to come home, but their thinking was, he had his grandfather there to care for him, plus the trip is all expenses paid. Not that it mattered, the DuGrey's had more money than God.

Tristan shook his head free of thoughts of his parents and glanced at his grandfather. They weren't really that close, but looking back, his grandfather was always there for him. When he broke his leg, graduated middle school, his athletic awards nights. He was the only relative to call and wish Tristan a "happy birthday" on his birthday, aside from the others who only sent checks in the mail. Janlan DuGrey was a soft-spoken man. He never told Tristan he came to his football games, he just showed up. He wouldn't even come up to him afterward to say a "good game." It was almost as if it were a secret, between the two, never spoken of, but known to both. Tristan never noticed him until about two years ago. He wondered if he came to many more before then. When he saw him sitting in the stands on that late day in October, Tristan didn't even realize it was him. He would never have guessed that his grandfather would take time to step away from his office to go, sit for two hours, and leave without even being acknowledged. But that was how they were, they didn't need to tell eachother that they cared, they both just kind of knew.

"We just need you to sign this, and then you can be on your way." Delia said, handing over a paper and pen.

Janlan reached out to scribble his signature, while Tristan looked around, eyes wide, obviously looking for her. He'd seen since their last encounter, and even talked, but it was still awkward. She thought she'd be making it easy for him, putting herself in the friend position, but in reality, she was just making it harder, for the both of them. She wasn't coming around as much anymore. He knew she must've sensed it too. It was just different now, the conversation didn't flow easily as it once did. Now it just felt forced, similar to the kind when you're parents introduce you to some distant cousin that you've never met before and didn't really care to get to know. Tristan knew the nurses knew too. They stopped making jokes about the two of them, and asking when they were going to get together.

"Ok, thanks," Delia said with a smile. "Take it easy Tristan."

"You got it." he said with a grin. He was sad to say goodbye to Delia. They had grown close over the weeks that he'd been there. He knew he didn't have to pretend with her. They had a mother/son, love/hate relationship. When he was pissed off and fought with her, he knew it was ok because they both knew where they stood. He knew that it was only a matter of time before she came back in the room with his dinner and pills, their most-recent fight already forgotten. They didn't hide it when the other made them mad, they laid it all out on the table, and he liked it that way. She was the mother he never had.

"I'll see you around." he said, smiling at her.

"Alright," she said as she leaned over the counter, "and don't wait too long." she whispered as she saw Janlan turning his back and heading for the door.

It took a minute for Tristan to realize what Delia was talking about. It took him by surprise, they hadn't talked about her in a while.

"To tell her." Delia she finished and then turned back to her computer.

Tristan nodded, "Right," he murmured to himself, walking out of the hospital, the automatic doors closing behind him.

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Exactly ten minutes after Tristan had left, Rory came out to the front desk.

"So, where have you been hiding?" Chloe exchanged glances with Delia before turning to Rory.

"H-hiding? I wasn't hiding."

"Bull. Now spill, what the hell has been going on this last past week?" Delia said.

"Yeah," Chloe chimed in, "before his surgery I find you leaving hours past your shift. He comes out and now suddenly you're trying to leave early and avoiding his room."

Rory looked down. She could feel Chloe and Delia's stares burning through her.

"Huh? You gonna talk?" Delia elbowed her.

Rory looked back up, turning to them, "Fine. He just... I just...things just got weird is all. Okay?" she replied, then turning to walk away. Delia grabbed her elbow, "Oh, no. No, no, no. I'm not buying that. Now you're gonna sit down and tell us why you just dumped by far, the hottest patient to ever walk into this hospital."

Rory shook her head, "I didn't dump him. We were never going out. We were just friends."

"Just friends, just friends. That's all I ever hear from you. Don't you ever date anyone? Or are you just too afraid?"

Rory stood there quiet.

"Rory, come on. We both know you, you're not normally like this. Now just tell us what's bothering you so we can help and you two can go back to being kissy face." Chloe replied, laying a hand on her shoulder.

"Well, fine," Rory sighed, "so after that night when I stayed after talking to him, I just started thinking. I didn't want things to get weird between us or anything, so I told him that we could just be friends. And I don't know why, but then he just got real quiet and things did start to get weird. So the one thing that I was trying to avoid wound up coming back and biting me in the butt." Rory began to get frustrated, "Why did I have to be so stupid. I just wanted to make things better so we could get closer, you know, but all that went to shit because now we're barely talking, and-"

"Rory-" Delia laid a hand on her back, "It's alright. If you really want to, you'll work it out. He's just a guy, don't get so worked up."

"But... it's not like I even said anything bad, you know. I mean if I told him that I never wanted to talk to him again, then I can understand why he'd stop talking so much. But I just told him he could be friends, and if that's the kind of stuff that he's gonna get all weird about, then I'm not sure I want to get to know him."

Chloe sat in her wheely chair and inched over, "Well, you just need to ask yourself one question and then go from there."

"What's that?" Rory sniffed.

"Do you like him?"

"Like, like him-like him?"

"Like, like him-like him." Chloe said with a smile.

Rory sniffed again and looked down, her cheeks beginning to burn.

"Well, then," Delia said with a smile, "you're gonna have to talk to him sometime if you like him."

"But I wouldn't even know what to say. Things just felt so awkward before."

"I don't think you need to have it all planned out, babe. Just go, and do what feels right." Delia said, a soft smile mounted on her face.

"But- he just..."

"He just what?" Chloe asked, brushing the hair off of Rory's face.

"After I told him, it was like he just shut me out. He didn't want to give me, give us, a chance anymore."

Chloe started to rise out of he chair, "Ror, sometimes when they push you away, it's when they need you the most," she said before walking away and getting back to work.

Rory sniffed, staring striaght ahead.

"Just talk to him. You like him, and if you like him this much, then its just not worth it not to give it a chance." Delia said before patting Rory on the shoulder and getting up out of her chair.

"But D," Rory turned to say.

Delia shook her head, "Don't deny it Ror, it only complicates things," she said before going back to her own desk, leaving Rory alone to think for herself.

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CHILTON

Rory sat in her desk in room 203 listening to Paris scold the whole newspaper staff. As Paris's words soon started to mesh into one, she found herself getting sidetracked. It wasn't long before her thoughts turned to Tristan. He would be coming back to school in a few weeks and she still had not figured out a plan to sort out the little funk they found themselves in. She knew she had to go talk to him. She even wanted to go talk to him. She wanted to go ask him if Trevor had been acting weird around him too. She wanted to know if he needed any help with his schoolwork. She wanted to know what his plans were for Christmas. But yet, she just couldn't get herself to do it.

"So what do you think Gilmore?" Paris's voice tore her from her thoughts.

"About what?" she asked, shaking her head.

Paris sighed, "About our club hosting the winter carnival this year."

Rory groaned, "We have to host the carnival this year? What about Student Counsel, isn't it their job?"

"No! A different club has been hosting the carnvial for years and now it's finally out turn. I thought you would all be excited, but I guess NOT!" she said as she glanced around the room. There were kids staring out the window, sleeping with their heads down, and the chosen few who actually stayed awake while she explained.

"Paris, we're all excited. I just thought that it was someone else's turn this year. Can't we just do it next year?"

"RORY!" Paris carried on, "We're seniors! There is no next year. Now do you all want to do this or not?" she yelled, waking up the nappers in the back. Heads started to bob up and down as half-asleep kids tried to nod their heads yes.

Paris slammed a book full of decorations ideas on the table, waking up the last few kids who were exceptionally deep sleepers.

"Fine. But I better not be the one who's left making all the arrangements and making all the phone calls."

Rory sighed, "You won't. Now what is that?" she asked, pointing to the book.

"We have to choose decorations and order them before it's too late."

As Paris was about to start on another rant when a kid with a buzzcut and loose tie in the back raised his hand, "What Jake?" she said to him. Rory recognized him from the football team, he was one of Trevor and Tristan's friends.

"Paris, my dear," he said with a grin as he earned a few chuckles from adoring freshman girls, "When is this carnival that we are supposedly going to plan for."

"It's on December 20th to the 24th. And we are not supposedly planning for it. We are planning for it."

"Ok, next question, do you, the lovely Paris Gellar, happen to have a date?" he asked with a smirk in an overly-sarcastic tone.

"Go to hell." Paris said before turning around and flipping through the decorations book.

"I'll take that as a yes then." he yelled to her back as the other freshman girls turned back to the front, cursing themselves that Paris Gellar managed to get a date with one of the hottest guys in school.

Just as Paris turned back around, to yell some more instructions, the bell rang signaling the end of their "free period." A period often reserved for clubs and making up work. "You guys better be ready next week with some flyers and posters!" she shouted at the passing students as they left the classroom.

"So Paris, sounds like you already have a date." Rory said with a smirk.

"Point, Gilmore?"

Rory laughed, "So, do you like Jake?"

Paris looked up at her as she looked around the desks for her books, "No, he's an arrogant asshole just like the rest of them."

"Well didn't he just ask you to go to the carnvial?"

Paris shook her head with narrowed eyes, "No, boys like that don't ask girls like me. They also don't ask three weeks in advance."

"What makes you say that?" Rory asked, not getting her point.

"Hello, look around. Do you see any of the top ten percent of our class hanging around with football players like Jake and Tristan." Paris's tone dripping with sarcasm. She started to walk around the classroom a bit. After a few seconds she started to get fed up, "WHERE THE HELL ARE MY BOOKS!" she said in her normal angry tone.

Rory let out a laugh as he glanced out the door, "Umm, Paris?"

"What?" she looked at Rory with narrowed, angry eyes.

"I think he was serious."

"Who was serious? What the hell are you talking about?" Paris asked. She was starting to get mad, she couldn't find her books anywhere and Rory was being as thickheaded as ever.

"Jake, I think he was serious when he asked you."

"Rory," Paris said, talking with her hands now, "we went over this already. He was joking. He was being an asshole and messing with my mind. Now will you please help me find my damn books before I'm late for class!"

Rory laughed again.

"WHAT THE HELL IS SO FUNNY!" Paris screamed as she stormed around the room.

"Uhh, Paris?"

"WHAT?"

"Jake is at the door," Rory took a breath, "holding your books."

Paris looked at the door, daggers shooting from her eyes. "Hey babe." Jake said once Paris was heading towards him. "I thought, since we're together now, that I'd take your books to class for you."

Paris ripped her books from his embrace, "We are not together!" she shouted as she quickly made her way to her next class, trying to beat the late bell that was due to ring in a few seconds.

Rory had followed Paris out of the classroom and was standing next to Jake, watching her storm off. Rory let out a slight laugh as she began to make her way to class.

"You think it'll take all three weeks to convince her that I was serious?" Jake asked Rory with a half-smile.

"Yep, and then some." Rory said with a grin as she turned down the hallway, late to her next class.

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Trevor watched as Rory walked into the cafeteria and made her way to her usual table. He watched as she sat down and laughed as she said something to Paris. He watched her run her fingers through her hair, getting it out of her face.

"Trev,"

Trevor couldn't seem to get Rory out of his head lately. They were just friends, always had been, but lately he'd been feeling a little more for her. He started worrying about what he looked like when she was around, and whether what he was saying was stupid or perverted. He started noticing her, and the littler things she did.

"Trev,"

He started noticing the way she twirled her hair on her finger when she was really interested in what you were saying. He noticed that she played with her necklace when she was nervous, and that she-

"TREVOR!" Jake yelled into Trevor's ear, tearing him from his thoughts of Rory.

"What man?" he said, turning to him.

Jake noticed where he was just looking and nudged him, "You diggin' Gellar too?" he said with raised eyebrows.

Trevor looked to him with no expression and when he realized what he had just said he jumped out of his skin, "WHAT? Hell, no!"

"What? Dude, she's so hot."

"Physcotic is more like it."

"Well, I think it's hot." Jake replied as she took a bite of his sandwich. "Get this," he said with a smirk, his sandwich still half-chewed inside his mouth, "I asked her to the winter carnival today, and she totally skitzed. She thought I was kidding and flipped out on me." he said, taking another bite of his sandwich.

"Oh yeah?" Trevor said with a laugh.

"Yeah, she told me to go to hell."

Trevor laughed as she gulped down some of his water. "So she thinks you're kidding with her?"

"Yeah," Jake smiled as he looked over at Paris.

"And are you?"

Jake tore his gaze from Paris and looked at his friend, "Well I was at first," he said truthfully, "but now, I kinda want her."

"You kind of want her?" Trevor repeated him, trying to make sense of it all.

"Yeah, I mean she's hot, and smart. I think if she stops thinking of me as just an asshole, then we'd have fun together."
Trevor nodded, "You're screwed up man." he said with a smirk.

"Just wait, when I'm through, she'll be begging me to go to the carnival." he said, taking the last bite of his sandwich.

"Oh, I'm sure." Trevor said as he took a bite of his own sandwich.

"Besides, who else am I gonna go with? Everyone else is just sleezy. Call me crazy,-"

"Or gay," Trevor threw in before Jake could notice.

"-but I want a girl who's not gonna bow down to me. She's gonna give me shit until I prove to her that I'm not an total ass."

"And you want that?"

Jake looked over at Paris again, "Yeah," he shook his head, "I do."

Trevor laughed, "Whatever man."

Jake looked back at Trevor, "Oh yeah, who're you gonna take then? Ol' trusty Rory?"

Trevor's face got serious, "I don't know dude."

"Cause you know, Tristan will be back by then," he said, giving Trevor a warning look.

"Yeah I know." Trevor shrugged.

"So what're you gonna do?"

"I don't know." Trevor shook his head as he looked back at Rory, "I don't know."