Tristan awoke again groggily but this time recognizing the familiar dark hue of his blue walls. Soon enough his father had entered the room and had started berating him for his laziness and usual tardiness. Once his father had left Tristan jumped up and began preparing himself for school. On the way past his father's study he yelled a quick goodbye then hopped into the nearest car that wasn't his father's.
Arriving at Chilton five minutes after the late bell rang Tristan was awarded with two detention slips and he practically jumped for joy. He took his normal seat behind Rory and smirked happily when Paris turned to give Rory a cold glare for knowing the correct answer. The teacher demanded their assignment from the museum and Tristan none too happily remembered that he hadn't done it.
When Rory was forced to open her binder to grab the report a stray folded paper fell out and gently landed on the floor. He reached out to grab it but Rory beat him to it and gave him a glare for his efforts. The world is at peace again.
When the bell rang Tristan slowly stood up and languidly stretched as he waited for Rory to finish packing up. She disregarded him with her usual coolness and calmly walked off to her locker as two of his acquaintances dragged him off in the general direction of a group of girls. He watched her out of the corner of his eye and was disappointed when he was forced to leave for his next class. He spent the next few periods day wondering what had happened to him since he had evidently missed the last two days of school.
At lunch he saw Rory sitting at her usual table, book in hand and headphones in place. He had thought about confronting her about his disappearance and asking her if she had missed him. It was obvious not from his memories where everyone led a happier life without him around. Tristan sat there reflecting until Brett, the very same Brett who was all over Rory in his memories asked him how he skipped school earlier. When Tristan didn't answer him Brett followed his gaze and shortly after made some crude comment about her "supposed" innocence.
Tristan merely stood, flipped Brett's tray onto him, and left the cafeteria all eyes on him. He reacted to none of the obscenities that Brett yelled in his direction at the feeling of being covered in pizza, applesauce, and chocolate milk. Tristan knew that Rory was regarding him with some strangeness as to his motivation to suddenly cover one of his friends in his own lunch. But she said nothing when compelled to walk past him on her way to the next period. Tristan felt none of the shame that one would normally feel after dropping a lunch on someone's lap.
He entered the class seconds before the bell rang and was forced to endure the entire period from a seat in the front corner. Tristan took notes scarcely and once succumbed to the temptation of just staring out the window as in many of his other periods earlier that the day. He evaluated the events of the day before his "disappearances" and came up with nothing new. Got up, went to school, annoyed Rory, went home, did homework, listened to father and mother arguing, fell asleep. Where in between those normal activities would I have time to disappear into nothingness?
Tristan quickly copied down the assignment on the board then was forced to stay behind and receive the homework he had missed during his absence. After that he went around to his other classes and collected his make up work. On the way out to his car he stopped in the hall where Rory's locker was located.
He watched her struggle with her locker once again and chuckled quietly to himself when it opened with surprising force and books and papers alike flew out. Tristan silently knelt next to her and began to pick up whatever was in his reach. He picked up a paper that he recognized and carefully unfolded it quickly so that Rory would not notice. But she did and he was caught in the act as she snatched the paper from him and glowered.
In her hands lay the opened drawing of her from the day before, the one that she had mistaken the artist. After her odd perception of his nervous demeanor she followed his gaze to the drawing in her hands. She stood slowly and at the same time carefully looked over the paper as if trying to find what he found to be so interesting. Her eyes wandered to the bottom of the drawing and to the large initials that signified the artist.
Rory let out a small gasp when recognition dawned on her. Her eyes were immediately drawn to his which were slightly downcast as if in embarrassment. A hastily scrawled TD. She didn't know why she couldn't see after first getting the drawing . Tristan DuGrey.