Tristan wordlessly took a seat, or stool, next to the shocked Rory and proceeded to get a cup of coffee from Jess, who was too stunned to even mange a sarcastic comment. After the way Tristan had stormed out of the diner yesterday, he hardly believed that the same guy was sitting in the very same diner and probably the same stool.
The pair of acquaintances sat unmoving, except to take a sip of their drinks, for about ten minutes when Tristan had finished the coffee, silently paid, then left. Jess finally opened his mouth and tentatively asked Rory, "What was that all about?"
She stared out the window to where Tristan was slowly backing his car out and quietly responded, "I have no clue."
The next day at school she was anticipating another confrontation with the royalty of the hallowed halls she was walking. Yet nothing happened. Her routine remained the same and during the classes with Tristan the teachers had kept her too busy with work for her to pay any attention to his presence.
Until they once again reached Honors Chemistry, the root of all evil, with a teacher who evidently hated new students. And Rory came about this conclusion in the worst way possible. Having a little trouble conducting a lab since her partner was absent, Tristan's group had already finished and the teacher so kindly suggested that Tristan help her keep up with the pace of the rest of the class.
Again, retaining his silent treatment, he approached her slowly and noticed that she had barely registered his entrance before turning back to her notebook. "Mary, you haven't even lit the burner yet. What exactly are you taking notes on?"
Her arm moved silently and Tristan quietly chuckled when the page appeared to be full of doodles. Taking the matchbook he struck a match and moved to light the burner in front of Rory when she suddenly and unexpectedly jerked away from him. She stared at the flame with wide-eyed curiosity and Tristan almost smacked himself for keeping the flame close to her. "Sorry, I forgot you were scared of fire."
Rory nodded, jilted, and was only grateful that she hadn't screamed out like the last time her and Tristan accidentally lit a Pop-Tart on fire. Tristan spent a little too much time gauging her reaction and let the match burn for too long so that it slightly burned his fingertip and the sharp pain caused him to drop it. Rory immediately noticed this and grabbed his hand, shoving it under the nearby faucet and turning the water on full power.
"Calm down, Mary, it's just a little burn. The water pressure hurts more than the actual burn." The dense teacher hardly noticed their little exchange and only took it to be a small fight over the procedure. He turned the water off and lit the match properly, making Rory turn a page so that she could observe the changes.
Tristan started to walk back to his group when he strained his ears to hear Rory's quiet remark, "Thank you."
After school he again parked his car across the street from Luke's and slowly opened the door, the little bell announcing his arrival. Luke glanced up haphazardly and waited for him to sit down before handing him a cup of coffee. Tristan smiled up appreciatively but confused as to why Luke so willingly gave him coffee. "Guess you beat the bus this time, kid." Before walking away he gave into his sentimental side, "It's good seeing you around again."
He gave a small smile and moved away from the counter and out of obvious sight. Tristan nursed that one cup for about five minutes when a very book-laden Rory walked through the entrance, not even noticing him in a booth near the corner. He watched Jess begrudgingly hand over a large coffee to go and watched her leave, dragging her backpack along behind her. Tristan quickly followed her out, ignoring the odd look that Jess had given him, and cornered her not far from the diner.
He had come up from behind and grabbed the backpack from its desolate place on the cement. Rory turned around in surprise and gave him a grateful smile when he swung the offending bag onto a shoulder. He saw her shyly tuck a piece of hair behind her ear and wondered about their distanced friendship. They had not walked far when Tristan inexplicably lowered the bag onto the sidewalk. The odd movement from the corner of her eye caused Rory to turn around, curious.
Before she could even face him, Tristan grabbed her small form and full-on kissed her, hard. After a moment or two of an unresponsive Rory, the act registered in her mind and to her own surprise she reacted in the strangest way. She slowly began to kiss him back, yet he pulled away a little too quickly for her liking.
Coming to her own senses Rory screamed at him, "What the hell was that all about?"
"You kissed me back," Tristan accused, upset that everything had to backfire on him.
"Me? Well, I wasn't the one who started it." Rory grabbed her backpack and took off running in the direction of her home while Tristan turned on heel and slowly started to walk back to his car. When he got there Jess was sitting on the curb, next to the shiny car and Tristan slumped down to sit next to him.
"Dude, I just kissed Rory," Tristan confessed and wasn't all that worried when Jess pretended to be choking on something.
Jess cleared his throat one last time and roughly questioned, "Why would you do that?"
Tristan had buried his head in his hands but raised it awkwardly to answer, "I don't know. Seemed like the thing to do."
"When would kissing Rory ever be 'the thing to do'?"
"I don't know. I was carrying her books and she was acting funny around me. And I guess I wanted to get a rise out of her."
Jess laughed at the explanation Tristan had just offered, "You two are incredibly cliched."
Tristan stared at him oddly but took the bait and questioned, "How so?"
"Please, you're childhood friends who were tragically separated from each other only to find yourselves back in the same school with conflicting reputations. You, the bad boy, are now falling for her sweet and innocent act while trying to maintain that overelaborated stereotype. All you need now is a song and dance number, which I will have no part in."
Tristan once again buried his face in his hands, "My life is a sappy romantic comedy from the 70's. Thank you for that comparison Jess."
"No problem. Now get your rich ass out of here before Ms. Patty conveniently forgets that she used to change your diaper," Jess said, only half joking, as he got up and brushed off his pants.
Tristan immediately jumped up and sped away in his car, leaving Jess behind as a fading memory while his mind wandered to how Rory would react to him the next day at school.
At the current moment Rory's response was to race inside her house and scream at the top of her lungs without even realizing that Lorelai had come home early and was running down the stairs at the time of Rory's outburst. Hearing the prolonged scream Lorelai tripped down the stairs to land in an ungraceful heap in front of her frustrated daughter.
Getting up she glared at Rory menacingly, "The only time I ever want to hear you scream like that again is if Luke is denying you coffee or you are in a life or death situation. Not to scare the living crap out of your mother who would then possibly trip down the stairs and break her neck."
Rory took a moment to stare at her mother before stomping towards her room and in response Lorelai followed her questioningly. "What? Was it something I said? I was only joking you know!" she yelled at the closed door. "Stupid teenagers and their problems."
Ignoring Rory's plea for privacy Lorelai entered the room anyways and sat on the bed, watching her daughter do her homework in, if it was at all possible, a pissed off way. She stayed on the bed for at least a good ten minutes until Rory begrudgingly muttered, "Tristan kissed me."
At that point Lorelai fell off the bed while yelling, "WHAT!"
