As soon as the school bell rang, Rory went to her locker, got her book bag
and headed to the school gate. Sure enough, Tristan was already waiting,
and he was leaning against the wall casually.
"Hi." Rory said quietly.
Tristan's eyes flickered towards her. He'd been daydreaming, and hadn't noticed her approach.
"Hey Mary." he smiled. It wasn't a cocky smile, it seemed to be a genuine smile.
"So? Are we going?" Rory said, motioning towards the school gate.
"Oh yeah, my car's this way. Let me carry your books." Tristan said, trying to grab her bag.
"No thank you! I still remember last time you got your paws on my books!" Rory retorted.
Tristan laughed but a lump formed in his throat as he remembered how Rory had jumped into Dean's arms and told him she loved him.. and hated Tristan.
Tristan didn't say anything, and Rory didn't notice.
Tristan unlocked his car, and Rory slid into the passenger seat. Leather.
"Nice car," Rory commented.
"Thanks," Tristan replied, putting the key into the ignition. There was another break of silence.
"Did you choose black?" Rory said, trying to make conversation.
"Nah, I would have gone for a very red sports car." Tristan kept his eyes on the road as they turned onto the highway.
They didn't say much for awhile until Tristan suddenly blurted. "Do you hate me?"
Rory blinked and suddenly turned to look at him. She stared at him for a moment, before answering him. "Why do you say that?"
"You told Dean you hated me." Tristan stated, looking quite sad.
Rory noticed his expression. She gulped. Did she hate him? Maybe she disliked the way he acted sometimes, but he probably wasn't that bad. "I wouldn't say I actually hate you."
"Then why did you say it, Rory?" Tristan pressed, the frown still present on his face.
"I dont know. To get Dean back I suppose. I thought I loved Dean, and saying it made him happy."
"It really hurt me." Tristan said quietly.
"I'm sorry." There was an awkward silence.
"So how is Dean?" Tristan said, hiding the bitterness in his voice.
"He's fine, as far as I know."
"As far as you know?" Tristan raised an eyebrow and looked at her.
"We broke up..." Rory said slowly.
"Oh. Sorry." Tristan said, even though he wasn't.
"You said you didn't like me!" Rory said suddenly.
"What?"
"You said you didnt like me! You said 'I dont like your girlfriend' to Dean. I remember now!" Rory practically shouted.
Tristan was gobsmacked. He remembered saying it clearly, but not for one minute had he mean't it. "I...."
He didn't know what to say.
"You know that's not true, Rory."
Rory folded her arms. "Well we're even then, arent we?"
"WATCH OUT FOR THE DEER!" Rory screamed.
"What deer?" Tristan asked shocked.
"Oops."
"What?"
"Roadsign." Rory blushed.
"Do you have a phobia of deers?"
"No, but my car got wrecked by one."
"Do explain."
"Jess was driving my car. There was a deer on the road. He swerved, and we hit a tree. End of story, and end of car." Rory looked down at her hands, remembering how upset Dean had been when he heard about the car.
"I was in a car crash once." Tristan slowly said.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Well, what happened?"
"My sister died."
"Oh Im sorry!" Rory really was. What a tragic thing to happen!
"Do we turn left here?" Tristan changed the subject.
"No, turn right." Rory directed.
"Which house?"
"The big one over there. Yeah this is it." Rory quickly undid her buckle as the car stopped. She opened the door and got out.
She hurried up the path and Tristan slowly followed. Rory put her key in the door. She called back to Tristan.
"Come on, hurry up, we need to start quickly. Mom and I have to have dinner at my grandparents tonight, argh, I forgot."
Tristan didn't want to study. He wanted to tell Rory how much he loved her and how sorry he was for everything he'd done to her. But, ofcourse, he never could, and the only words that would ever come out of his mouth were "You know you want me" or something just as cocky.
"Bleh."
"What was that?" Rory said, putting her things down in the kitchen.
"Nothing. Nice house." Tristan commented, looking around.
Rory shyly replied. "I bet it's nothing compared to yours."
"I like it. My house is so dismal and big. I get lost regularly. I have to call my parents on a cell phone to work out which room they're in."
Rory chuckled. "Coffee?"
"Sure." She poured him a cup. He quickly took a sip and screwed up his face.
"Geez, Mary, are you trying to poison me?"
"Haha, it's just strong coffee. I like my coffee this strong." Rory took a big sip of her own cup.
"I think I'll pass on the coffee. It'll keep my up all night and probably the next night too!"
Rory already finished her first cup and began pouring herself another.
Tristan laughed. "You must be an addict."
"If you think I'm an addict, wait until you meet my Mom. She has 6 cups in the morning, before I've even waken up!" Rory quickly drank her second coffee.
"Okay ready, let the hard-working and no-playing begin." She wiggled her finger at Tristan. "This means you have to be a good boy, and do everything I say."
"Yes, your majesty!" Tristan mocked her.
Rory had forgotten the initial uncomfortableness she'd felt about having Tristan in her home. She'd decided she'd actually missed their playful banter.
"Is this your room?" Tristan said, pushing the door gently.
"Oh... yeah." Rory said shyly.
"I'd like to see more of your room," Tristan said slyly.
Rory flushed. "What did I say about being good?"
"Yeah yeah, sorry." Tristan pulled the door closed again.
Rory sat down in the living room and got out her books.
"Where shall we begin? Hmm.."
................ ................
"What beautiful eyes you have!" Tristan said after about half an hour of working. He couldn't help it, he'd been trying to concentrate, but her eyes had mesmerised him yet again.
"What?"
"Your eyes.." he said slowly.
"What?" Rory said again.
"Nothing." Tristan said quietly.
"Oh okay." Rory dismissed his comment and went back to talking about their assignment.
............... ...............
Rory had to admit that Tristan was pretty smart. He had put forward some really good ideas and he paid alot of attention.
"I think you deserve a sticker!" Rory giggled. "For being such a good boy!"
"A sticker? I could think of much better rewards, Mary..."
Rory narrowed her eyes. "I can take it back."
"I'm only joking. Though I still can think of that better reward. It involves you, me and a bed."
"Stop it!" she said, picking up a cushion and hitting him with it.
"Hey!" Tristan grabbed another cushion and threw it back at Rory.
Rory stood up, grabbed all the cushions off the sofa and started hitting Tristan with them.
"Ah ah I surrender!" Tristan mumbled, as he was being pounded with cushions.
Rory stopped her attack on him, and dropped the cushions. "Promise you'll be good."
Tristan slowly stood up, sneakingly picking up a cushion. "I can't promise anything....."
Then he hit her with the cushion. "Hey no fair!" she said and then a massive cushion fight started.
Then, somehow, they both ended up on the ground, Tristan lying on top of Rory, with a cushion between them. Tristan simply gazed into Rory's eyes. Rory gazed back.
"You've got beautiful blue eyes." Rory was surprised at what she said.
"You have even more beautiful blue eyes." Tristan whispered back, his face moving closer to Rory's.
Rory could almost feel his breath on her face and she raised her head slightly in anticipation of the kiss. Their lips almost met, but they were interrupted when someone rushed into the living room.
"Rory, Rory!" Lorelai shouted, but then stopped when she saw the two teenagers on the floor. "And just WHAT do you think you're doing?"
Rory blinked, staring up at Tristan on top of her. Tristan looked sideways at Lorelai, putting on a lopsided grin, and rolled off Rory.
"Pillow fight, Mom." Rory said.
Lorelai narrowed her eyes at Tristan. "And just what is a boy doing in our living room, on top of you, Rory?"
"Pillow fight, I said." Rory repeated.
"He came to our house to have a pillow fight?" Lorelai raised her eyebrows.
"Yes, no, wait, we came here to study."
"And from what I saw, you were doing a lot of studying when I arrived."
Rory glared at her Mum.
"Okay, okay, I know, you're 17, you're a grown girl. Well who is this fine specimen anyway?" Lorelai flicked her attention to Tristan.
"Mum, this is Tristan." Rory said, grabbing Tristan's arm and pulling him closer to them.
"Tristan.." Lorelai rolled the name on her tongue. "You mean, evil Tristan? Satan? The one from Chilton who gave you a helluva time?" She looked Tristan over. "But he's gorgeous, you never told me that!"
Tristan smirked. "You talk about me? Im honoured!"
Rory went bright red. She remembered what had been about to happen before Lorelai had walked in on them. "Tristan, I think you should go."
"Dont let me interrupt you two. What can I say.. Im glad you're 'getting along now'." Lorelai said, smirking.
"You weren't interrupting anything," Rory tried to assure Lorelai and herself. "What did you want?"
"Just needed to borrow the coffee maker, the one at the Inn broke." Lorelai hurried into the kitchen and unplugged the machine. "Im off, have fun kids.. and dont do anything I wouldnt." She opened the door and ran out, but moments later she returned. "Second thought, do anything I wouldnt." She grinned.
"What did your Mom mean by that?" Tristan raised his eyebrows and looked at Rory.
Rory looked down at her feet. "The whole, getting pregnant at 16 thing."
"Ah. Yeah." Tristan felt awkward. For some reason, going anywhere near the topic of sex around Rory, suddenly frightened him. "So what just happened before?"
"What happened? Nothing happened!!" Rory said, packing up their assignment things.
Tristan watched her in curiosity. "You can't just ignore the fact that we almost kissed back there."
Rory looked up. "Temporary moment of insanity."
Tristan sat next to Rory. "Rory..."
"What?" She said sternly.
"You can't keep avoiding this."
"Avoiding what?" She snorted.
"This..." Tristan said, and he leaned in closer to Rory. Rory looked at his lips, and subconsciously licked her own. Tristan expected her to move away, or do something to stop him, but as he continued to lean into her, he found his lips met her own. Tristan softly, yet very passionately kissed Rory, and she returned the kiss with equal passion. The kiss deepened, and Rory started seeing stars. She slowly wrapped her arms around Tristan's neck and pulled him closer.
Eventually, they were out of air, and pulled apart. Rory gasped.
"You don't know how long I've been waiting for that to happen again, Rory." Tristan said slowly. "I just hope, only this time, that you won't run away crying."
Rory stared at him. Her eyes were wide. She gingerly touched her swollen lips.
She blinked.
"Rory?" Tristan asked her.
Rory simply stared at him. She came closer again, and lightly pressed her lips to his. She pulled away quickly and sat staring at him. She bit her lip.
Tristan reached out to her, and pulled her close.
"Are you okay?" He asked, concerned about her silence.
"I'm just.....shocked." Rory whispered.
Tristan wrapped his arms around her, and held her tightly. She didn't object. "About what?"
"About kissing you. Yet again."
"Why?"
"I dont know why. I mean, Dean's not around, is he? And.. it was a good kiss. A nice kiss."
"That's what you said last time."
"And I mean it more this time. It was a great kiss."
"Yeah?"
"I suppose you could even say better than all of Dean's kisses combined." She whispered, clinging to him.
"Really?" He asked shocked. He tilted his head and propped up her chin. He stared into her eyes for a moment, before leaning in and kissing her gently.
Rory smiled, and kissed him. "You can be a jerk. A big jerk.. But I guess I enjoyed the attention. While you were gone, I even missed our daily locker meetings."
Tristan smiled broadly, for he was truly happy at this moment.
"So I can call you mine then?"
"I'm not a possession!" Rory retorted, grabbing a cushion and playfull hitting him with it.
Tristan grabbed another cushion and hit her back.
"Are you ticklish?" Tristan smirked. He didn't wait for an answer, he simply started tickling her like mad. Rory certainly was ticklish, and she started rolling over in laughter.
Rory laughed so loudly, Babette and all the other neighbours probably heard. ((Is that what the noise was? I thought it was a hyena! -- "Babette"))
"Hi." Rory said quietly.
Tristan's eyes flickered towards her. He'd been daydreaming, and hadn't noticed her approach.
"Hey Mary." he smiled. It wasn't a cocky smile, it seemed to be a genuine smile.
"So? Are we going?" Rory said, motioning towards the school gate.
"Oh yeah, my car's this way. Let me carry your books." Tristan said, trying to grab her bag.
"No thank you! I still remember last time you got your paws on my books!" Rory retorted.
Tristan laughed but a lump formed in his throat as he remembered how Rory had jumped into Dean's arms and told him she loved him.. and hated Tristan.
Tristan didn't say anything, and Rory didn't notice.
Tristan unlocked his car, and Rory slid into the passenger seat. Leather.
"Nice car," Rory commented.
"Thanks," Tristan replied, putting the key into the ignition. There was another break of silence.
"Did you choose black?" Rory said, trying to make conversation.
"Nah, I would have gone for a very red sports car." Tristan kept his eyes on the road as they turned onto the highway.
They didn't say much for awhile until Tristan suddenly blurted. "Do you hate me?"
Rory blinked and suddenly turned to look at him. She stared at him for a moment, before answering him. "Why do you say that?"
"You told Dean you hated me." Tristan stated, looking quite sad.
Rory noticed his expression. She gulped. Did she hate him? Maybe she disliked the way he acted sometimes, but he probably wasn't that bad. "I wouldn't say I actually hate you."
"Then why did you say it, Rory?" Tristan pressed, the frown still present on his face.
"I dont know. To get Dean back I suppose. I thought I loved Dean, and saying it made him happy."
"It really hurt me." Tristan said quietly.
"I'm sorry." There was an awkward silence.
"So how is Dean?" Tristan said, hiding the bitterness in his voice.
"He's fine, as far as I know."
"As far as you know?" Tristan raised an eyebrow and looked at her.
"We broke up..." Rory said slowly.
"Oh. Sorry." Tristan said, even though he wasn't.
"You said you didn't like me!" Rory said suddenly.
"What?"
"You said you didnt like me! You said 'I dont like your girlfriend' to Dean. I remember now!" Rory practically shouted.
Tristan was gobsmacked. He remembered saying it clearly, but not for one minute had he mean't it. "I...."
He didn't know what to say.
"You know that's not true, Rory."
Rory folded her arms. "Well we're even then, arent we?"
"WATCH OUT FOR THE DEER!" Rory screamed.
"What deer?" Tristan asked shocked.
"Oops."
"What?"
"Roadsign." Rory blushed.
"Do you have a phobia of deers?"
"No, but my car got wrecked by one."
"Do explain."
"Jess was driving my car. There was a deer on the road. He swerved, and we hit a tree. End of story, and end of car." Rory looked down at her hands, remembering how upset Dean had been when he heard about the car.
"I was in a car crash once." Tristan slowly said.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Well, what happened?"
"My sister died."
"Oh Im sorry!" Rory really was. What a tragic thing to happen!
"Do we turn left here?" Tristan changed the subject.
"No, turn right." Rory directed.
"Which house?"
"The big one over there. Yeah this is it." Rory quickly undid her buckle as the car stopped. She opened the door and got out.
She hurried up the path and Tristan slowly followed. Rory put her key in the door. She called back to Tristan.
"Come on, hurry up, we need to start quickly. Mom and I have to have dinner at my grandparents tonight, argh, I forgot."
Tristan didn't want to study. He wanted to tell Rory how much he loved her and how sorry he was for everything he'd done to her. But, ofcourse, he never could, and the only words that would ever come out of his mouth were "You know you want me" or something just as cocky.
"Bleh."
"What was that?" Rory said, putting her things down in the kitchen.
"Nothing. Nice house." Tristan commented, looking around.
Rory shyly replied. "I bet it's nothing compared to yours."
"I like it. My house is so dismal and big. I get lost regularly. I have to call my parents on a cell phone to work out which room they're in."
Rory chuckled. "Coffee?"
"Sure." She poured him a cup. He quickly took a sip and screwed up his face.
"Geez, Mary, are you trying to poison me?"
"Haha, it's just strong coffee. I like my coffee this strong." Rory took a big sip of her own cup.
"I think I'll pass on the coffee. It'll keep my up all night and probably the next night too!"
Rory already finished her first cup and began pouring herself another.
Tristan laughed. "You must be an addict."
"If you think I'm an addict, wait until you meet my Mom. She has 6 cups in the morning, before I've even waken up!" Rory quickly drank her second coffee.
"Okay ready, let the hard-working and no-playing begin." She wiggled her finger at Tristan. "This means you have to be a good boy, and do everything I say."
"Yes, your majesty!" Tristan mocked her.
Rory had forgotten the initial uncomfortableness she'd felt about having Tristan in her home. She'd decided she'd actually missed their playful banter.
"Is this your room?" Tristan said, pushing the door gently.
"Oh... yeah." Rory said shyly.
"I'd like to see more of your room," Tristan said slyly.
Rory flushed. "What did I say about being good?"
"Yeah yeah, sorry." Tristan pulled the door closed again.
Rory sat down in the living room and got out her books.
"Where shall we begin? Hmm.."
................ ................
"What beautiful eyes you have!" Tristan said after about half an hour of working. He couldn't help it, he'd been trying to concentrate, but her eyes had mesmerised him yet again.
"What?"
"Your eyes.." he said slowly.
"What?" Rory said again.
"Nothing." Tristan said quietly.
"Oh okay." Rory dismissed his comment and went back to talking about their assignment.
............... ...............
Rory had to admit that Tristan was pretty smart. He had put forward some really good ideas and he paid alot of attention.
"I think you deserve a sticker!" Rory giggled. "For being such a good boy!"
"A sticker? I could think of much better rewards, Mary..."
Rory narrowed her eyes. "I can take it back."
"I'm only joking. Though I still can think of that better reward. It involves you, me and a bed."
"Stop it!" she said, picking up a cushion and hitting him with it.
"Hey!" Tristan grabbed another cushion and threw it back at Rory.
Rory stood up, grabbed all the cushions off the sofa and started hitting Tristan with them.
"Ah ah I surrender!" Tristan mumbled, as he was being pounded with cushions.
Rory stopped her attack on him, and dropped the cushions. "Promise you'll be good."
Tristan slowly stood up, sneakingly picking up a cushion. "I can't promise anything....."
Then he hit her with the cushion. "Hey no fair!" she said and then a massive cushion fight started.
Then, somehow, they both ended up on the ground, Tristan lying on top of Rory, with a cushion between them. Tristan simply gazed into Rory's eyes. Rory gazed back.
"You've got beautiful blue eyes." Rory was surprised at what she said.
"You have even more beautiful blue eyes." Tristan whispered back, his face moving closer to Rory's.
Rory could almost feel his breath on her face and she raised her head slightly in anticipation of the kiss. Their lips almost met, but they were interrupted when someone rushed into the living room.
"Rory, Rory!" Lorelai shouted, but then stopped when she saw the two teenagers on the floor. "And just WHAT do you think you're doing?"
Rory blinked, staring up at Tristan on top of her. Tristan looked sideways at Lorelai, putting on a lopsided grin, and rolled off Rory.
"Pillow fight, Mom." Rory said.
Lorelai narrowed her eyes at Tristan. "And just what is a boy doing in our living room, on top of you, Rory?"
"Pillow fight, I said." Rory repeated.
"He came to our house to have a pillow fight?" Lorelai raised her eyebrows.
"Yes, no, wait, we came here to study."
"And from what I saw, you were doing a lot of studying when I arrived."
Rory glared at her Mum.
"Okay, okay, I know, you're 17, you're a grown girl. Well who is this fine specimen anyway?" Lorelai flicked her attention to Tristan.
"Mum, this is Tristan." Rory said, grabbing Tristan's arm and pulling him closer to them.
"Tristan.." Lorelai rolled the name on her tongue. "You mean, evil Tristan? Satan? The one from Chilton who gave you a helluva time?" She looked Tristan over. "But he's gorgeous, you never told me that!"
Tristan smirked. "You talk about me? Im honoured!"
Rory went bright red. She remembered what had been about to happen before Lorelai had walked in on them. "Tristan, I think you should go."
"Dont let me interrupt you two. What can I say.. Im glad you're 'getting along now'." Lorelai said, smirking.
"You weren't interrupting anything," Rory tried to assure Lorelai and herself. "What did you want?"
"Just needed to borrow the coffee maker, the one at the Inn broke." Lorelai hurried into the kitchen and unplugged the machine. "Im off, have fun kids.. and dont do anything I wouldnt." She opened the door and ran out, but moments later she returned. "Second thought, do anything I wouldnt." She grinned.
"What did your Mom mean by that?" Tristan raised his eyebrows and looked at Rory.
Rory looked down at her feet. "The whole, getting pregnant at 16 thing."
"Ah. Yeah." Tristan felt awkward. For some reason, going anywhere near the topic of sex around Rory, suddenly frightened him. "So what just happened before?"
"What happened? Nothing happened!!" Rory said, packing up their assignment things.
Tristan watched her in curiosity. "You can't just ignore the fact that we almost kissed back there."
Rory looked up. "Temporary moment of insanity."
Tristan sat next to Rory. "Rory..."
"What?" She said sternly.
"You can't keep avoiding this."
"Avoiding what?" She snorted.
"This..." Tristan said, and he leaned in closer to Rory. Rory looked at his lips, and subconsciously licked her own. Tristan expected her to move away, or do something to stop him, but as he continued to lean into her, he found his lips met her own. Tristan softly, yet very passionately kissed Rory, and she returned the kiss with equal passion. The kiss deepened, and Rory started seeing stars. She slowly wrapped her arms around Tristan's neck and pulled him closer.
Eventually, they were out of air, and pulled apart. Rory gasped.
"You don't know how long I've been waiting for that to happen again, Rory." Tristan said slowly. "I just hope, only this time, that you won't run away crying."
Rory stared at him. Her eyes were wide. She gingerly touched her swollen lips.
She blinked.
"Rory?" Tristan asked her.
Rory simply stared at him. She came closer again, and lightly pressed her lips to his. She pulled away quickly and sat staring at him. She bit her lip.
Tristan reached out to her, and pulled her close.
"Are you okay?" He asked, concerned about her silence.
"I'm just.....shocked." Rory whispered.
Tristan wrapped his arms around her, and held her tightly. She didn't object. "About what?"
"About kissing you. Yet again."
"Why?"
"I dont know why. I mean, Dean's not around, is he? And.. it was a good kiss. A nice kiss."
"That's what you said last time."
"And I mean it more this time. It was a great kiss."
"Yeah?"
"I suppose you could even say better than all of Dean's kisses combined." She whispered, clinging to him.
"Really?" He asked shocked. He tilted his head and propped up her chin. He stared into her eyes for a moment, before leaning in and kissing her gently.
Rory smiled, and kissed him. "You can be a jerk. A big jerk.. But I guess I enjoyed the attention. While you were gone, I even missed our daily locker meetings."
Tristan smiled broadly, for he was truly happy at this moment.
"So I can call you mine then?"
"I'm not a possession!" Rory retorted, grabbing a cushion and playfull hitting him with it.
Tristan grabbed another cushion and hit her back.
"Are you ticklish?" Tristan smirked. He didn't wait for an answer, he simply started tickling her like mad. Rory certainly was ticklish, and she started rolling over in laughter.
Rory laughed so loudly, Babette and all the other neighbours probably heard. ((Is that what the noise was? I thought it was a hyena! -- "Babette"))