Summary: Things had always come easy to Rory Gilmore. By 2018 she had her dream job. A reporter for the New York Times, a nice apartment she could barely afford in Manhattan, a circle of friends who went to brunch on Sundays and enjoyed endless mimosa's, and she was never hard up to find a date. Until the call came. The call that told her she had to come back, back to a place she had left behind more than a decade ago along with all of the memories she had tucked away in a box. In 2002, Rory had been a chip, a bartering chip for adult problems and grown up issues. Her grandparents would pay her tuition to Chilton and she would spend her summers in Hyannis Port with them at their summer home. Three whole summers until she was done high school. What was there for her here? Other than rich kids and mansions and fancy parties that were nothing like the home she longed to be at. She doesn't expect to meet him, or to fall in love, or to break his heart. So here she was, reconciling her past with her present and trying not to cause any more heartbreak along the way.
Disclaimer: i do not own Gilmore Girls or the Dashboard Confessional lyrics used for the title.
A/N: Where do I get off...I know. In a perfect world I will one day finish How Long Will I Love You, but my muse is...dead. And this...well, it came to me, and it screamed Rogan, so...please read, review, enjoy. If I haven't answered PM's previously please know things have been really busy for me, and I'm doing my best. This story will be told in 12 chapters, 6 present, 6 past. Thank you to QueenofTheSloths and LoveRocket09 for always keeping me going in whatever fandom I'm dabbling in.
June 2000 - Hyannis Port Ma
She hated this place. Sure, it wasn't as stuffy as Friday night dinner with her grandparents. And maybe she'd only been there for 67 hours (not that she was counting). But what on earth had her mother been thinking? A whole summer at the Vineyard with her grandparents? Sure, there was the whole Chilton thing. The prestigious and very expensive private school she had wanted to attend and had been accepted to for the upcoming fall due to a student relocating to Paris or Monaco or something ridiculous because her father was some sort of foreign dignitary. But why had that meant she had to spend an entire summer with her grandparents?
Correct that.
Not an entire summer.
Her summers until she graduated high school.
Her best friend Lane had been beside herself when Rory had told her, with Rory gone until Labour Day, who was going to mock the endless town festivals and try to keep her company while her mother tried to set her up with appropriate Korean boys. Why did she need to go to the stupid private school anyway? She could get into Harvard all on her own. She didn't need to be at some pretentious prep school full of assholes. Did she know they were assholes? Not yet. But she was sure these kids were going to be a bunch of stuck up, beautiful blonde people who would get everywhere on nepotism and their trust funds and nowhere based on their own abilities.
"Y'know school is over, right?" A voice brought her out of her thoughts and Rory Gilmore tucked a chin length brown hair behind her ear before bringing her hand over her eyes to see if she could see who was disturbing her from down the beach. She had been sitting on the beach chair for less than an hour, her athletic one piece covering her body, a towel folded up behind her head to act as something of a pillow and her pale skin slathered in SPF50 as she tried to Ienjoy the scenery/I as her grandmother had suggested.
"And minding your own business never hurt anyone," Rory grumbled as she closed her book, making sure her bookmark was secure as she tucked it in her lap. Her eyes were covered by dark tortoise shell sunglasses and she kind of wished she had brought the stupid floppy hat that her mother had managed to tuck into one of the suitcases she had brought. She had picked them up with her mother at Target before her grandparents picked her up to head to Massachusetts. Sunglasses, her summer reading, a boatload of sunscreen and a whole new summer wardrobe had come with her. Some of the wardrobe had been chosen by her, and her grandmother had pointedly told her that she had selected some items for specific social events that Rory would be attending through the summer. "I didn't realize the beach had such stringent rules," Rory shot back. A small smile played on her lips. At 15 years old, Rory considered herself well versed in dry humour and sarcasm thanks to her mother so she had no problem firing the comment back as the stranger came into her line of sight. Sandy blonde hair and a lanky body, definitely in shape. Rory thought he looked like the kind of guy who participated in sports like polo and crew, maybe water polo if it wasn't going to mess up his already wild bedhead.
"That book waterproof?" He had a cocky smile and finally settled a few feet away from her. "Logan Huntzberger," he introduced himself. "I've never seen you here before."
Rory bit her tongue as she stood up, dropping the book she was reading (Moby Dick) in the sand beside her. She fought the urge to ask if he was the beach police but instead thought of how pissed off her grandparents would be if this was someone they knew, and lord knows they knew everyone. "Rory Gilmore," she extended her hand and his smirk grew as he gave it a squeeze.
"Oh the Rory Gilmore? I've heard a lot about you from your grandparents. You wanna go to Yale or something?" He raised an eyebrow and Rory found herself struck by the sparkle in his eye.
She tried not to show her annoyance, "Harvard," she corrected him, arms folded across her flat chest. It would hardly be surprising if her grandparents had told people she wanted to go to Yale because that is where they wanted her to go. It was their legacy after all, and Rory wasn't stupid. She knew that since the agreement had been made, she had become their pet project. Her grandparents paid her school tuition, the tuition there was no way that her mother could afford and then Rory was their do-over. Richard and Emily Gilmore (and even her own mother) were going to make sure Rory got into a good school and had the world at her feet, there would be no surprises to keep that from happening. That bad become abundantly clear when her mother had slipped no less than 3 packages of birth control across the table before she left. Rory had recoiled of course. She was only 15, she was not having sex, she wasn't even interested in dating, much less dating some snooty kid who spent their summers in Hyannis Port. Lorelai had told her she knew that, and she trusted her, but it was better to be safe than sorry and she gave her daughter a box of condoms for good measure. Of course, Lorelai had been 15 when she and Chris started fooling around, so she knew all too well how this could go. Rory had been mortified. She had made a point of leaving both items on her dresser for nothing other than proving a point, but Lorelai had put them in her bag before she left, much to her mortification when her grandparents maid had unpacked them and tucked them in her bathroom drawer and told Miss Rory where her things were in the bathroom.
"My parents own the place next door. Not that they're ever here. But I am, and my sister…Honor. All summer. My parents pop in on weekends sometimes. If there's a party to go to."
"So we're both in purgatory together?" Rory couldn't believe she had said it, it was one of those things that she intended to have stay in her head. "Or are there other inmates too?" Think first, speak second she thought to herself. How many times had she told her mother that?
"Purgatory?" Logan chuckled. He didn't bother to comment on the fact that this purgatory this virtual stranger was referring to was an exclusive enclave of America. A playground for the wealthy and influential. Apparently her version of purgatory and his were quite different. He would take running around with his friends, sailing and having fun any day over being stuck at home with his parents, or even worse some of the stifling boarding schools he had attended (and been kicked out of) over the past couple of years. "Speaking of, I should get back to mine," he didn't explain why, just nodded in the direction of the boys she could hear hollering in the direction he came from. "I'll see you around Ace."
