The Twists and Turns of Life

A/N: Silly me, I made a mistake. In chapter 14, if you can even remember, Jess and Rory got into a little fight and I ended the chapter without them really making up. That's fine really because I had every intention of having them make up in the next chapter (15), but then I got some ideas rolling with Rory's parents and that whole "hanging up" thing, that I forgot to have them make up. So, in order to set things right up to where the story is now, I wrote in a another beginning to the previous chapter that has them do that (which is kind of stupid - them making up then immediately getting into another fight where Rory doesn't even talk to Jess anymore, but please just go with it and try not to beat me over the head with the fact that I messed up). Anyway, sorry about that.

Thank you to all of the people who have read and reviewed. Sorry to those of you who want to see Jess gone. He's here to stay until the 2nd or 3rd to the last chapter. However, there will be some TRORYness in the next couple of chapters.

Disclaimer: Even though I don't even mention her anymore, Maggie is mine.

Chapter 16: Everything's Alright

There was a pause. Nothing. No noise. She held the phone closer to her ear in order to try to hear something on the other end, breathing or any kind of background noise. "…Tristan?" she asked hesitantly. She had forgotten why she called him in the first place. Her heart tugged in anticipation as it began to beat faster.

"Yeah." His voice was soft and gruff; she almost didn't believe it was him.

She cleared her throat for the lack of anything better to do, the sound ridiculously loud among the silence. "So…how are you doing?" She wanted to slap herself. "How are you doing?"? "How are you doing?"?! That was the best you could come up with?! She listened once again to the silence on the other end of the phone.

Tristan sighed as he rubbed his face with his free hand. "Why are you calling, Rory?"

She immediately felt the sadness take over her body and was trying to fight back the unwelcome tears. "I-" she stopped to take a deep breath, "I…just wanted to hear your voice."

He paused once more, hearing the words but not really comprehending them. "Why are you calling?" he repeated one more time.

This time, the tears had started to fall. She shut her eyes and fell back onto the floor, trying to muffle her soft sobs with her other hand. "I miss you, okay?" she whispered softly. There was silence once more as a response for Tristan and she hung up before he had a chance to hurt her even more.

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He sighed to himself for the millionth time that day as he ran a hand through his hair. With one hand in his pocket, he stared up at the window he thought to be hers and replayed the speech he had prepared in his head. He suddenly rolled his eyes, thinking to himself how gone he already was for this girl…his girl…his Lori…

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Rory ran down the stairs as she heard the doorbell chime through the house. Before she had a chance to slam the door back shut, Jess, stepped halfway in, blocking out all attempts made by her to push him out.

"Before you throw me out, just listen to what I have to say. If you don't like what you hear, then I'll leave you alone."

She stared back at him sadly, then nodded in agreement. As he brushed past her, Rory shut her eyes as his scent reached her nose. She had forgotten that he had such a distinguishable smell to him. She would choose to have that smell forever implanted in her memory if she could.

He sat down on the couch and motioned for her to join him. She did hesitantly and made sure to put a good couple of feet between them. He resisted both the urge to roll his eyes and yell at her.

As she shifted uncomfortably, he moved closer to her and took her hand in his. "I'm sorry," he stated bluntly.

She frowned. Isn't an apology supposed to be more than that? She tried to pull her hand away from his, but he held it tighter.

"No, I'm not done." He paused a second and looked at their entwined fingers. "I know that I had no right to say what I did to your mom and I am incredibly sorry." He looked up into her eyes. "Please forgive me?"

She stared back intently, searching for something she couldn't place. As she opened her mouth to say something, the phone rang and Jess let out an aggravated sigh.

She turned and grabbed the phone on the table. "Hello?"

"…Rory?"

She scrunched her eyebrows together. "Mom?"

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Tristan stared blankly at the words in front of him. He found himself doing that a lot lately, dazing off during class and pretending to pay attention. No one noticed, he thanked whatever God that might exist for that, because to them, he was just acting normal. It wasn't until yesterday that Paris had called him on it and in her own special way, told him to start focusing more. He rolled his eyes and sarcastically thanked her, but he was glad that at least one person had been paying attention to him without an ulterior motive to their actions.

After Rory had called two days ago, he couldn't help but think about what she had confessed. "I miss you, okay?" He felt his heart jump, as stupid and insane as it sounds for a guy to feel that, and hadn't been able to concentrate on anything else since.

He missed her. He knew that for sure. No matter what he tried to convince himself to believe or however mad she made him, he knew that he missed her. It was then that he knew what he had to do. He had to go see her.

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Lorelai felt a giggle escape from her mouth before she even had time to think of it. In fact, a regular giggle would have been fine, but she felt her voice raise and wanted to slap herself when it came out high-pitched and squeaky. She cleared her throat for good measure and purposely lowered her voice so she could avoid sounding weird again. "Hey."

Rory made a face and paused for a few seconds. "Why is your voice all weird?"

Damn. She cleared her throat again, sounding normal again. "Nothing. Just a weird…throat…thing," she finished lamely.

"Right," Rory nodded, even though she knew her mom couldn't see her. There was an awkward pause in the conversation and Rory found herself repeatedly tucking hair behind her ear for something to do, all the while knowing that Jess was watching her every move from the couch. "So…" she started, "um…did you need something?"

"No, not really," Lorelai shook her head and sat down on the couch, "I just wanted to call and see how you were doing."

"Oh, well, I'm good. It's good here."

"Good," Lorelai cleared her throat again and hesitantly started to ask her next question. "So, how's Jess doing?"

Rory's eyes immediately raised to Jess' and she smiled slightly when he raised an eyebrow at her. "He's good."

"Really?" Lorelai asked confused.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Well, from out conversation yesterday, he didn't seem all that chipper."

"You talked to him yesterday?" she asked while giving Jess a look.

"Yeah. He apologized to me, in the weird and twisted way that I'm sure only he can, and hung up on me when I didn't accept."

"Huh," escaped from Rory's lips as she tried to envision Jess apologizing to her mom over the phone. "You didn't accept?"

"Nope, not at first, but if that boy has enough guts to tell me off and hang up on me, he can't be that bad."

Rory smiled to herself then looked back up at Jess. He smiled back, almost positive as to why she was happy. "I have to go now, mom. I'll talk to you later?" she asked hopefully.

"You bet."

After saying their 'goodbyes', Rory hung up the phone and turned to Jess. "You apologized to my mom?" she asked with a smile.

He smiled back and brought his arms around her. "Well, you weren't speaking to me so I figured it was something I had to do in order to be able to kiss you again," he teased while giving her a light peck to prove his point.

She feigned shock by gasping. "Is that all I'm good for to you?"

"You know it," he whispered before kissing her again.

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A smile was etched on her face after Jess had left. She leaned against the doorway for an unknown time, letting the happy feeling flow over her. She took in a deep breath and let it out, coming out of her daze as a knock on the door was heard. She took a step back instantly with a shocked expression on her face.

"Do you know how hard it was for me to find this house?" Tristan asked as he leaned against the doorway, smirk ever-present.

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A/N: Okay, I must apologize now, one, for I suck at writing dialogues, especially ones including Lorelai (sorry if it seemed to drag on and on and on…) and second, for the crappy chapter. Yeah, you might as well get used to it. There are probably more to come. Anyway, please review and tell me what you think.