Changed
A/N: Thanks to all the people that reviewed, means a lot to me!
Disclaimer: Don't own anything!
Chapter 4: So Close…
Rory involuntarily stepped away from Tristan as Dean made his way towards the porch.
Dean eyed the two suspiciously before speaking. "Hey, Rory. I left my jacket here last night. Can I go get it?" Dean only looked at Rory, not even acknowledging Tristan's presence.
"Yeah, go ahead."
Dean opened the door and disappeared into the house. Rory stepped closer to the house the shut the door. When she turned to Tristan, she saw that he had already begun to walk away from her.
"Tristan!"
He turned around slowly, not wanting to meet her gaze. "What?" His response came out more coldly than he wanted it to.
"It's not what you think." Her eyes showed that they were beginning to fear that he was suspecting the worst.
"What do I think?" His face was expressionless - just blank and staring at her.
Before she could explain, Dean re-emerged from the house, thanking Rory. She turned her attention over to Dean again, but that's when she heard the start of an engine and tires driving away. She felt her heart clench tighter as Tristan's car disappeared from sight.
"Rory?" She turned around to face Dean, who kind of had a satisfied look on his face.
"Oh, shut up." She pushed past Dean and slammed the door.
* * *
"Mom?" Rory looked up from her History book as she heard the front door open then close. Soon enough, her mother appeared, displaying a tiring expression, which was no doubt from the long hours of the day she had worked at the inn.
Lorelai made her way to her daughter then sat down next to her on the couch. "Hey, babe, how was school today?" Lorelai asked, I hopes that they could push away the fight they had the night before into the farthest corner of their minds.
"Interesting," was all that Rory could manage to say.
"What do you mean by interesting?" Lorelai was now pulled into the conversation and positioned herself so that she was facing Rory.
"Well, an unfortunate incident that involved me, Tristan, and the English teacher, which I'll tell you about later, then after I missed my bus, Tristan drove me home."
"Uh huh…go on," Lorelai said wide-eyed and intrigued.
"Then he walked me up to the porch-"
"Oh! What a gentleman!" Lorelai cut Rory in a girlish voice.
"Do you want to hear this or not, mom?" Lorelai nodded. "Ok. He said that he wanted to tell me something earlier today, but I kind of forgot until then, so I asked him what it was. Then I started babbling or something like that and he brought his hand up to face and almost kissed me." Rory was smiling now; she couldn't help but to while replaying the events in her head.
"What do you mean 'almost kissed'?"
"Well, Dean came and interrupted us."
Lorelai gasped. "Oh, no! That boy has the worst timing ever!"
Rory frowned at how Tristan left. "Yeah. But then Tristan left, so I couldn't explain to him why Dean was here last night."
Both girls were quiet for a while.
"Did you want Tristan to kiss you?" Lorelai inquired, already knowing the answer because of her daughter's huge smile when she just thought of said guy.
Rory smiled more, trying to imagine what it would be like to kiss him. "Yeah…I think I did." Rory sat for a few more moments, before gathering up her things and heading towards her room. She turned around when she reached the kitchen and looked at her mother. "Thanks, mom. And I'm sorry about last night."
Lorelai smiled at her daughter and said, "It's already forgotten."
* * *
Rory had already been at school for a half an hour and there was no sign of Tristan. Usually by now, she would be talking to him by now, and she kind of missed that. She walked through the long hall until she found herself in the library. She walked towards the back and found Tristan sitting in the corner at a table. She smiled to herself before making her way towards him.
"Hey." Tristan looked up at her briefly, not saying anything, before returning his attention to the book in his hands. "I wanted to explain yesterday to you. It's not-"
"What I think?" Tristan finished her sentence.
She looked at him sadly. "No, it isn't."
He stood up and shoved his book in his backpack before starting to walk away. "I can't believe I forgot that you were with Bag Boy - I'm such an idiot!"
Rory reached out to grab his arm, forcing him to turn around and look at her. "You're not an idiot." she said seriously. "And I'm not with Dean. We actually broke up a couple months ago. And as for why he left his jacket, I was helping him study for this test that he has later this week. I wanted to tell you that yesterday, but you left before I could," she finished while looking at the floor.
Tristan smiled inwardly, then mentally slapped himself for making such a big deal of it. "Oh," was all that he could say.
Rory let go of Tristan's arm and said, "Yeah." She took in a couple of deep breaths before speaking again. "So, I should go - have to get to class." She started to walk past him, fighting the urge to just turn around and hug him.
"Wait." Tristan softly grabbed her arm and stepped towards her. "I'm sorry," he whispered into her hair.
She couldn't help but feel happy when he was that close to her. "I'm the one who should be sorry…and I am." She stood still, waiting for his response.
"Don't be." She turned around and hugged him. He smiled as he pulled her closer to him.
* * *
She smiled through her classes, relieved and happy that she was once again friends with Tristan.
When lunch came, she went about her usual routine - getting her food on the tray which she never ate, then finding an empty table she could sit at to listen to her music and read.
After about five minutes, someone sat down by her, but she was so into her book that she didn't notice.
"Rory…? Rory…?" the voice said in a sing-songy voice. When she didn't turn her attention away from the book, a pair of hands waved themselves in front of her face.
She slightly jumped, then looked to her right. Tristan. She smiled slightly, then turned her attention back to her book. "What do you want?" she asked while still trying to read her book.
Tristan laughed then grabbed the book away from her, placing it behind him after he turned so that one leg was on each side of the seat.
"Give it back," she said in a stern voice, but her smile gave away that she was just playing around.
"Nope," Tristan shook his head. "If you want it, you'll have to get it yourself." Tristan smirked at her, wondering if she would actually take action.
She looked at him for a couple seconds then got up. "You're impossible." She walked away, eventually finding herself in a stranded hallway. She made her way to her locker to put her Discman back in before Tristan finally caught up with her.
"Rory, here." He placed the book in her hand then took a step back.
She eyed him suspiciously then said 'thanks'. After placing the book and Discman in her locker, she shut it, then leaned up against it, facing Tristan. "You still haven't told me what you wanted to tell me yesterday." She smirked, remembering the moment that they had.
"I thought what I wanted to say was pretty obvious." he whispered, barely enough for her to hear him.
She didn't know what to say. She just stood there, watching him take in breaths.
"Are you going to say something?" he asked, mimicking her position against the lockers.
"I want to, but I don't know what to say." she replied bashfully, now looking down the hallway behind him.
He took a step towards her. "Just say whatever comes to mind."
A few moments of silence passed before she answered. "I wonder what would have happened if Dean didn't interrupt us yesterday." She slowly looked up into his eyes.
He smiled genuinely and took another step towards her until they were just inches apart. "Me, too."
She tilted her head up and slowly made her way closer to his lips.
"Excuse me." They broke apart to find that Paris was standing beside them. "I need to get to my locker." She sounded unbelievably angry, seemingly at what she just saw. Tristan and Rory moved aside, cursing people who just loved to interrupt their 'moments'.
Tristan and Rory looked up at each other before Paris abruptly slammed her locker shut and grabbed Rory by the arm, dragging her down the hall away from Tristan.
Paris pushed Rory into an empty classroom and shut the door. "What the hell was that!!"
Rory was honestly a little frightened by Paris' actions and didn't answer.
"What the hell are you doing kissing Tristan?!"
Rory started to stutter, not able to put together a sentence, nonetheless, a word. "Wha..I..it…" Paris groaned angrily and stormed out of the room. Rory stood there, open-mouthed, totally confused about what just happened.
"Rory? Are you okay?" Tristan walked into the room, quickly making his way to where Rory was standing.
Rory looked up at Tristan. "I think she's mad."
