A/N: Chapter Seven!
ATTENTION: I need some people to answer some questions for me. I need TWO die-hard Literati (R/J) fans, and TWO die-hard Trory (R/T) fans. I repeat, two of each. The first people to respond to this are the ones that get it. hasapi3@hotmail.com Thanks.
Alright, people. I understand that some of you are very devoted fans of either Literatis or Trorys. But I want to say that I do not appreciate it when you say "this better be a trory" or "this better be a literati." It sounds almost like a threat and I do not like threats. I don't mind if you say that you "really hope this is a literati" or "really hope this is a trory." That's fine. But don't threaten me. I should have been a redhead (no offense; sorry bout the stereotype, but it fits) because I get angry and defensive really fast, and, I'm serious when I say this, I might do the opposite of what you say just to make you mad.
One more thing. Some people have mentioned that they'll stop reading if I don't make the couple they like the 'reigning' couple. I'm getting sick of it. You know, the only way I'd be able to make you all happy is if I either killed both Jess and Tristan, or if I made both of them be with Rory. But the former would cause you to kill me, and the latter would get Rory sent to jail for committing polyandry (the practice of having more than one husband), and, again, all of you to kill me. So, I have come to the conclusion that pleasing everyone is impossible.
Well, now that I'm done venting (and sorry if I offended any of you)…
May I please say that I am very grateful to all of you peoples? This is only my second "Gilmore Girls" fic and you guys are really great with all the reviews. I've got 75!! J Keep 'em comin'!!!
There is more A/N on the bottom. I am going to start thanking all of you, and your names are at the very bottom of this whole thing.
There are 1295 words in this chapter. Only 742 are my own, though. And this A/N? Almost three hundred and fifty words. LOL. I'm hilarious. Well, I'll get going on the story before you all murder me or something…
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: R/T, R/J
Disclaimer: I do not own "Gilmore Girls." That is owned by Amy Sherman-Palladino and the WB. I do, however, own most of this storyline (some was taken from previous episodes), so steal that and I will haunt you for the rest of your life. And, actually, in this chapter, I have excerpts from some of the episodes. So I REALLY don't own those.
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Rory lay in bed, thinking over the past twenty-four hours. After she had left Jess at the bridge, she'd almost run back home, anxious to get back to the warmth of the house. Telling Tricia about her father had been almost too easy. She was excited, to say the least. Rory was still afraid that it would turn out like it had with her mother and father.
They hadn't talked for … what was it now? Seven years? Since Tricia's fifth birthday. He'd been there. He and Sherry were going through a tough time, and he was trying, once again, to get back with Lorelai. But luckily, by this time Lorelai had accepted the fact that Christopher would never stay with her, and she'd told him to back off and stay away. And stay away he had. He still sent birthday and Christmas cards to his daughter and granddaughter, but they hadn't seen him since then.
The movie had gone very well. Tristan and Tricia were getting along wonderfully. And after the movie they had gone back to Luke's, where they'd eaten lunch. Tricia had, of course, inherited her coffee-drinking ability and habit from her mother and grandmother, so together the two Gilmores had finished off almost half a pot of coffee.
Rory sighed. It was eleven o'clock at night and she was in bed. What had happened to her twenties? What had happened to her teens, for that matter? Tristan. Tristan had happened, and because of that, Tricia had happened. She thought back to when she had first met him…
She was walking down the hallway on her first day at Chilton when a guy came up behind her.
"Hey, Mary," he grinned.
"Me?" She replied, confused.
"Yeah, you."
"My name is Rory."
"I'm Tristan."
"Hi."
"So, you new?"
"Yeah, first day," she replied.
"Remmy's class is rough."
"Yeah, it seemed very intense."
"I could loan you my notes, if that would help."
"Really?" She asked, thinking that at least she would have one person could call a friend. "That'd be great."
"Yeah? How great?" He asked, backing her into the wall.
"I don't know. Mr. Remmy said that getting someone's notes would be..."
"I could even help you study. If you want."
"Uh, I kind of view studying as a solitary activity. But thanks."
"Bye Mary," he smiled, walking off.
"It's Rory," she said to his retreating back.
Rory laughed as she thought about the scene. It hadn't been until after they'd been in the Shakespeare play that Tristan had stopped calling her Mary. He'd said at the time that he couldn't think of her as the Virgin Mary when she'd cheated on her boyfriend with him. Rory hadn't talked to him for a week after he'd said that. He'd finally apologized when they'd had to work on a project together. They'd been getting pretty close, even though she was still with Dean, and then Jess had showed up that night when her mother had been out of town … And Dean had come over …
She was trying to get him to go, but he wouldn't budge. She knew that if Dean found him here … She finally just pushed him out the front door, yelling, "Bye!"
"Okay, well, give him my best, would ya?" Jess replied, starting to leave. He saw Dean in the front yard and changed his mind, "Actually, I guess I could do that myself."
"Dean," Rory said, panicking slightly, "Jess just came by to bring me some food."
"From Luke's," Jess added.
"He wanted to make sure I ate."
"Luke did."
"Right," she corrected herself, "Luke did."
"Personally, I could care less if she eats." Jess said.
"Yeah, true, he could care less," she reiterated.
Jess looked at Dean again. He had a package. "I see you brought a little something, too. Is that ice cream? That's so nice. A tiny little ice cream package just big enough for two. Hey, are you guys gonna feed each other 'cause that's just so darn cute. Oops," Jess stopped. Dean had walked over to him and was glaring down at him. "You're doing that towering over me thing. Huh. I tell you, you've really got that down. It helps that you're twelve feet tall, but this Frankenstein scowl really adds to the whole –"
"Jess," Rory pleaded.
"Okay, I'm going. Look, man, I really was just dropping off some food, so don't get all West Side Story on me, okay?"
Jess left.
Rory almost laughed, thinking of that night. But she couldn't, because even with Paris' help…
"It's my fault," Paris said.
"What?" Dean asked, confused.
"It's my fault that Jess was here. I saw him in the diner the day I came to Stars Hollow and I thought he was cute and since I'm not great at the whole 'batting the eyelashes, look at my belly shirt' kind of thing, I asked Rory to help me. I thought if she could maybe get him over here, we'd have a chance to talk and … I don't know, it seems totally stupid now and it obviously didn't work – shock, but that's why he was here." She paused, then added to Rory, "Thanks for trying to cover for me."
Even with Paris' help, she'd realized that Dean didn't trust her, and that hurt. But it wasn't just that it hurt … it was also the fact that she didn't want to be in a relationship where the other person didn't trust her. And maybe she might have entertained a tiny bit of a crush towards Jess, especially because of their mutual love of books, but it wasn't anything that would have warranted Dean getting so upset. So she'd broken up with him the next day, before school. After she'd found out that Luke hadn't sent over the care package. Rory chuckled.
And then, at Chilton, she'd been down. She and Tristan had been working on a project together, and he noticed her glum attitude. He'd asked her what was wrong …
"I broke up with my boyfriend today." She replied, sighing. "He didn't trust me. I have a friend, Jess, and he'd come over with food, and Paris was over, and we all decided to eat. But then my boyfriend, Dean, came over, and I couldn't get Jess out fast enough, and Dean found him, and we had a fight. Paris tried to cover for me, by saying that she'd asked me to invite Jess over because she had a crush on him, but didn't know how to tell him or whatever. And he believed her, but … I couldn't help thinking that he didn't trust me. So I decided to break up with him. And I did. This morning."
"Wow. Tough luck." He replied.
"Yeah," she sighed again.
"Do you want me to drive you to Stars Hollow after school? You know, so you don't have to deal with the bus and everything? We could get a bite at that burger place, Loony's or something."
"It's Luke's," Rory corrected, laughing.
They'd gone to Luke's. He hadn't made any overtures towards her, which had surprised her. Well, he had put his arm on her shoulders, but other than that – nothing. And that had made her happy because it said that he respected her. They'd started going out, agreeing to take it slow, since she'd just gotten out of a long relationship. And they had gone slowly. For God's sake, they'd only had sex once – prom night. But once had been apparently all it took, since, next thing she knew, she was barfing her breakfast up and turning pregnancy tests blue.
Rory rolled over and sighed. It was going to be a long night, since she apparently couldn't fall asleep. She got out of bed and walked downstairs, stopping in the kitchen. She wanted to make coffee, but she knew that if she turned the coffeemaker on, her mother would be downstairs within two minutes, and she just wanted to be alone for a little while. She sighed again and rested her head on the table, knowing that it was going to be a while before she could concentrate on anything.
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A/N: Alright, so I added this because I thought that my A/N at the top was getting WAY too long.
Oh, and (sorry I didn't mention this last time) a note on the review from Phoebe1912: I must say that I am flattered you think so much of my story -- 3,214 words. Well, one word, actually, written about … well, like I said, 3,214 times. It's, like, six and a half pages on Microsoft Word.
I just want to mention that I'm not going to tell you whether a chapter is going to have mostly R/J stuff or mostly R/T stuff. If you truly like this thing, you won't care.
Sorry for the really long author's note, and for the really nasty stuff I said. I'm just a little upset.
Individual thanks go to (and if you wrote more than one, the number of reviews are in the parentheses; this is arranged alphabetically) :
airforcebrat529, alely7 (2), Alex S., Ana Marie, apple-eye
Babydoll21
Carrie (2), Cat, coffeechick87 (4)
Deeta (2), des (3), dodgerluv (4), Dontia (2)
frankie
Genevah (2), gohuskers8604 (2)
Halie, Heidi
Isabelle
Jamie, jess lover, Jess's gurl, JT (2)
klm111a, Krissy
mandie (2), Mary Mary quite contrary, Melissa Larkin (2)
newyorkgurlie
Phoebe1912
Samantha, Sarah V. (5), ShadowGoddess (3), Shay, starbelly (2)
wishinstar
And thanks to the 13 anonymous reviewers.