She couldn't believe he was actually leaving! How could he just leave her? Why did it mean everything to her that he was leaving?

She watched him walk down the hall. She was frozen in place. She wanted to run after him. She wanted to tell him she loved him and always had. There was so much Rory Gilmore wanted to tell him, but now she never would.

He stood still. He just turned around to gaze at her. Rory wondered why he was looking at her like that. It was almost as if he Were trying to memorize everything about her so he would never forget her. But then she realized that was impossible because he would never forget her. She was imprinted on his heart just like he was.

She stared back as he stared. She gazed longingly into his eyes. He was challenging her as usual. When was he ever not? But this time he was challenging her to tell him goodbye, no show him goodbye. It was now or never.

Rory looked at him. He nodded his head since he knew what she had decided. He began to just walk out of Chilton, the life he had always known.

She wished she could go after him. He wished so much that she could tell him that she loved him. She wished for so much, so much that couldn't happened.

She felt the tears try to come down her face. No she wasn't going to cry. She, Rory Gilmore refused to cry. When the rest of the world was crying she held her head high for the world to see they would never get her down.

She walked to class knowing she might never see him again. She walked to class knowing her life would never be the same.

**********

Rory walk off the bus. Today had been the longest day of her life. She didn't even know where to begin. It just seemed to her that everything had gone wrong. Why hadn't she just kissed him goodbye? Who cared if it were against the unwritten rules of the game they always played.

She had always hated Tristan without really hating him. But at that moment in time she really hated him. She hated him for leaving, she hated him for being real with her at the last time, and she hated him for falling in love with her. But what was more was that she hated herself for caring about him and loving him.

Yes, she was in love with Tristan. But only now, it was too late. It was too late to stop arguing with him and to tell him how she felt for him. It was too much for her.

********

Rory had plastered a smile on her face. She hadn't even told her Mom what was wrong or what had happened. She couldn't, so instead she put herself through her Mother's jokes.

But now, she was in the safety of her bedroom. She was where she could let out her emotion. Here, she could also cry. She really could.

And that is exactly what she did. She sobbed.

THE END