"Hi. It's Rory, isn't it?" said Kate, offering her a hot dog.

"Yeah. Thanks. And you are?"

"Kate. Tristan used to talk about you all the time."

* Used to? *

"He did?" Rory asked.

"Mmhmm. Why don't you join us by the bonfire?"

"Oh no, I wouldn't want to intrude," said Rory backing away.

"Intrude? Please! I'm spending the night with him, and I don't want to get sick of him BEFORE then," she joked. Kate meant spending the night on the spare mattress beside his bed, but Rory imagined different.

"Oh, okay." Rory bit back the jealous feelings flooding her.

* He was never yours. *

They took a seat on either side of Tristan, who was concentrating on roasting marshmallows.

"Hey, I haven't seen you in a while," Tristan said to Rory.

"Yeah. I meant to congratulate you after your match but I had to say goodbye to Dean."

"He couldn't stay the night?"

"He had school tomorrow." Rory again thought of Tristan and Kate spending the night together and felt extremely sad.

Tristan took a look at the sad expression on her face and mistook it. He thought she was missing Dean.

"Marshmellow?" he said, offering her a stick.

She pulled off the marshmellow and shoved it in her mouth.

"Thanksh," she said through it.

"How's Paris?"

"She's back in the cabin. The nurse sedated her."

Tristan laughed.

"I kinda feel sorry for your debate team," he said. "She's really gonna lay into them once she's back to normal."

"There's always next year," Rory said.

"Yeah, next year."

"Will I see you before then?" Rory tried to hide the hopeful tone in her voice.

"I've got to attend my grandparent's ruby wedding anniversary in late February. Maybe I'll pop down to Stars Hollow and pay you a visit."

Kate strained to hear what he was saying without looking obvious.

"That'd be great," said Rory. "I'll try to email you, or something, if that's alright?"

"I'd like that," he leaned into her. "I have a feeling Paris won't be sending any emails to me anymore."

Rory gave him a weak smile.

"Tristan! You're spilling ketchup down your shirt!" Kate pointed out. She pulled out a linen handkerchief and started dabbing at his shirt.

Tristan and Rory's eyes met over Kates head as she furiously tried to remove the stain.

"I'm not feeling too well," Rory said, breaking eye contact. Her voice shook. "I'm going to head off to bed."

"I'll walk with you," Tristan offered.

"No, that's okay," said Rory, not being able to bear looking at him any longer. "I'll just see you tomorrow."

"Actually, we're leaving before breakfast," Tristan said. "We've got a long bus ride ahead of us."

"Oh," said Rory. "I guess this is goodbye then."

"I guess so." He stood up and impulsively gave her a hug.

As she was pulling away from him she wiped the tears quickly away so he wouldn't see her crying over him.

"Sorry, I'm really not feeling well," she feebly apologised. "it was really good to meet you, Kate."

"Yeah, same. I hope you feel better," said Kate.

"I'm sure I just need to sleep it off," Rory assured her. "Bye."

"Bye," Kate answered.

"Bye Tristan."

"Bye Rory."