Title: Girl Like That

Authors: Mrs. Witter (Jamie) and ChristineCS (Chris, duh)

Disclaimer: Jamie and I, despite the harem we own (we know it creates mass confusion about the ownership thing), do not own Gilmore Girls, their characters, matchbox twenty, their songs or Rob's awesome writing talent so we don't own the lyrics in the chapter title. We also don't own Mark Paul Gosselaar or Emilie De Raven, but you'll have to think about why that is added. We do however claim ownership on our own writing. So consider yourself warned.

Rating: PG – 13

Pairing: Rory/Tristan

Chapter 14: You're the best time I ever, ever had

Reckless was not an adjective people used to describe Rory Gilmore. In fact, she was the exact opposite – responsible, levelheaded and to some, a goody two-shoes. She was okay with that for most of her life. But tonight, away from her home and the people who would be the first to label her with the aforementioned titles, she was feeling just a little out of control.

She laughing all the way as Tristan dragged her across campus, past the gym and then, straight through it's front doors. It was then when she suddenly realized she was with someone who gave the word reckless an entirely different meaning.

"Tristan?" she asked quietly as they groped their way through the darkened hallways. "Where exactly are you taking me?"

Tristan just looked back at her and grinned. That easy-going smile that had charmed many debutantes into losing their heads- and superficial hearts. "Relax, Gilmore. Just a few more moments."

"In a few moments what exactly is going to happen?" She didn't like the tone he was using; that tone usually meant trouble where he was concerned. "You're not planning some petty crime, are you?"

"I'm pretty sure it's only a misdemeanor," Tristan assured her.

"Oh well, in that case, by all means."

Tristan led her into a room, before turning on the lights. "Here we are."

Here, was the Olympic size swimming pool that Yale boasted about in its many brochures. She took in the distinct smell of chlorine and watched the water rippling softly in the empty room. "What are we doing here?"

"Swimming," he replied in a matter of fact tone that went well with his slightly mocking smirk. "What else would you do here?"

She looked down at her clothes and scrunched her nose. "But I don't have a bathing costume."

His smirk changed to a wolfish grin. "You don't need it."

Her eyes narrowed in his direction and she crossed her arms over her chest. "What do you mean I don't need a costume? What exactly are you planning on in that warped mind of yours, Tristan? Because I've seen Cruel Intentions and you're no Ryan Phillippe."

Tristan leaned down and whispered in her ear, "Oh how you wound my ego." He stood up and pulled his shirt over his head. "Well its up to you, what you do Mary."

She ignored the heated sensation in her stomach as he took off his shirt and carelessly threw it away. Did he always have such a great body? Why hadn't she ever noticed? It was safer not to go there so she turned her gaze away. "You're going to go skinny dipping?"

He unbuttoned his jeans, "Well, you're invited to join me."

Do not watch him undress! Look away now, she ordered herself but she couldn't move her gaze away. What in the hell was wrong with her? Being reckless was one thing but actually considering, stripping down naked with a guy in a swimming pool was something else altogether. "Tristan…"

Tristan hooked his thumbs around the top of his pants, but he didn't pull them down yet. "Yes, Rory?"

He was so casual about it; it made her angry. "You're insane."

"You might want to warn my parents then that they're wasting money by sending me to a therapist to prevent that sort of thing," Tristan teased. "Now, you don't want to undress. Even a little?"

She glanced at the water (it looked so inviting) and then back at Tristan (he looked so comfortable standing there half-naked). Of course she wanted too. A little. But she wasn't as wild as she aspired to be when the night started. It was all too much for her, so she made excuses. "The water's probably cold."

He didn't bother to hide his amusement. "It's a heated pool."

"Don't make fun of me, DuGrey," she pouted. "Not everyone is as comfortable being naked as you obviously are."

Tristan averted his gaze from her lips that looked full and kissable when she pouted. No need to go there, not in his current state of near-undress. "You know, you need to practice something a lot before you feel comfortable."

"I so do not need to hear how much practice you've had," she replied, throwing her hands up in the air. "You wanna swim naked? Go right ahead. I'll just watch."

He was probably pushing past the limit, but… "I never thought your tastes would run towards kinky."

"Jesus!" She blushed crimson as her own words replayed in her head and sounded so suggestive. What was about him that always led her to think of something sexual. Fed up, she bunched her fists and plowed into him, sending him over the edge of the pool.

Tristan deserved it, but still, his hand shot out and grabbed her arm, pulling her in along with him as they made a splashing entrance into the pool. He pushed the water soaked hair from his face. "Now don't you wish you had taken off some clothes first?"

"Oh my God!" she yelped and grabbed onto him, in an effort to keep afloat because he completely caught her by surprise. Her clothes clung to her and she looked at him, wild eyed and shocked. "I cannot believe you pulled me in!"

He mimicked her tone and look of shock as he said, "I cannot believe you pushed me in!"

"Are you saying you didn't deserve it?" she asked, smacking his naked, wet chest and realizing that it was a big mistake because for some reason her hand no qualms about staying there.

Tristan looked down at her hand, as he felt the heat radiated from her hand down to…other places. "I am going to have to exercise my right to not answer that." The fact that he could form a coherent sentence was surprising to him.

She realized that it was silly that she was still clinging to him when her feet could touch the floor. Clearing her throat, she disentangled herself from his embrace and focused on her bigger problems. "How are we going to get to our room without catching a cold?"

"You should have thought of that before pushing me into the pool."

"Don't patronize me, DuGrey," she said and without thinking, slapped the surface of the water, sending a wave of it in his face.

Tristan shook the water out of his hair, and wiped it out of his eyes, before grinning and pushing her down under water, before letting her go. She came sputtering up. "You started it," was his automatic defense before she could say a word.

Outraged, she lunged forward, using her body weight to push him backwards, sending him under. Unfortunately, he was quick and he grabbed her legs underwater and pulled her in as well. This time, when they both came up, they were laughing. "Oh, you're going down."

If only… "I believe I just came up from that direction, Gilmore."

"Well, take this." She splashed more water in his face, using both her hands. He took a step back and then flung water back, before grabbing her arm and pulling her to him. She gasped when he bent down and picked her up like she weighed nothing and gave her an evil smile. "Tristan! Put me down!"

"Well…" he pretended to think it over, before lifting her up a little more, and then let her drop.

She went under and almost hit the bottom with her butt before her feet hit the floor. She pushed back up and glared angrily at him, wiping water out of her eyes and slicking back his hair. "No fair! You're stronger than me."

Tristan bit back a grin, "Has anyone ever told you that you're adorable when you're wet and angry?"

She felt her cheeks grow hot and she had to force herself not to giggle. "Don't try to charm me, Tristan. It won't work."

"Oh well," this time he did grin, "shall I be churlish and dunk you again?"

"Oh, we're using SATs words are we?" she asked, raising an eyebrow and taking a cautious step back. "Well, you can. But you're gonna have to catch me first!" With that, she turned and sliced through the water, which was harder than she thought since her clothes were drenched.

Tristan just smirked, watching as she tried to run through the water. He wasn't so foolish, he was having a hard enough time keeping his pants up against the weight of the water. "Have fun."

She turned back, feeling ridiculous and started to pout. "You won't even chase me?"

He shook his head, "Not even a little bit."

"So we're just going to stand here, in the pool? Two wet Ivy League freshman?" She raised an eyebrow, a teasing smile on her lips. "Is this your idea of reckless, Mr. DuGrey? Oh how far we've come from our safe looting days."

"You're the one that wouldn't get naked," Tristan pointed out. "That was my idea of reckless. This is your idea of reckless."

She tried not to blush and instead, threw her wet hair back over her shoulders. "It's about time you realize I'm not one of your groupies, Tristan DuGrey. I won't get naked with just anyone, you know."

He sighed dramatically, "Alas, I know."

Rory waded back to him, amused. His messy hair was now matted to his head except for the part that spiked up because of his habit of running his hands through it and she now had to control the urge to do the same. "So now what, James Dean?"

Tristan had a rather good idea, but whatever he was about to say got stopped on his tongue and he listened. Shit. "We leave."

"What? Why?" Her eyes widened in surprise as he grabbed her hand and they waded quickly through the water, to the side of the pool. That's when she heard the unmistakable sound of a metal door banging shut. "Oh God! Someone's coming!"

"That's why we're leaving," Tristan pulled her over the side of the pool, and onto drier land. "Now we run."

By this time, Rory was already hyperventilating. Dripping wet, she waited for Tristan to gather his discarded jacket and T-shirt and then blindly followed him as he ran for the exit at the back, all the way on the other side. She heard footsteps and mumbled voice and feared pumped through her. "They're gonna find us!"

Tristan rolled his eyes and tugged her through the exit, just as the other door was opening. Free and clear. Well pretty much, then. "See? We're fine."

She slapped a wet hand to his bare chest, shivering in the cool autumn breeze. "Fine? I'm freezing, Tristan! Why in the world did I agree to this?"

"You don't honestly expect an answer to that, do you?" He held out his jacket as an offering to warm her up.

Rory smiled at him gratefully, sliding her wet sleeves into the jacket. He zipped it up for her and flicked her nose with his forefinger. "You should put on that shirt, you'll get pneumonia." And she didn't know how long she could last staring at his naked chest before wanting to touch it again. "In fact, my room not far from here. You should get dried off there. We have towels."

Rory looked too adorable in his too-big-for-her jacket. Actually Tristan rather thought he'd like the look of Rory Gilmore wearing any of his clothes. "We have towels in our room too, we're not complete Neanderthals." He gave her his all-charming smile before pulling his t-shirt over his head. Spending too much time with Rory, especially in small spaces, could prove to be very dangerous for him. Not to mention her.

She stuck out her tongue at him as she grabbed his hand again and pulled him in the direction of her dormitory. "We'll I'm closer."

"But my dry clothes are in my room, so it's more convenient."

Why was he being so difficult? "You can dry yourself off and then go change. It's not like I want to keep you in my room forever, Tristan."

"Rory, it's late," Tristan tugged on the ends of his still soaking-wet hair. "Just let me go back to my room."

"Fine," she said and let go of his arm, feeling extremely silly. "If you get a cold tomorrow, don't say I didn't offer you any warmth. Here take the jacket back."

He shook his head, "No, wear it back to the dorm. No sense in us both catching colds then. Besides, its not like you're not going to see me again real soon."

That thought depressed her so she didn't dwell on it and smiled at him, pushing her wet hair behind her ear. "Okay. Thanks for the coffee. And for pushing me into the pool."

"Any time Gilmore." And with a little wave Tristan walked away, towards his dorm.

She stood there for a second, watching him walk away before she shivered and remembered she was cold. She rushed to her room and upon entering, found that it was empty. Relieved that she wouldn't have to explain herself to Vaughn, she quickly dried off and changed into pajamas. As she was ready to crawl into bed with her copy of Little Women, her roommate returned. "Where have you been?"

Vaughn shrugged as she slipped off her shoes, "I was…out." With Cole, but she wasn't one to admit to spending time with him. "I hope you had a better night than I did."

Rory didn't want to lie but she wasn't comfortable telling Vaughn, who had dated Tristan (albeit shortly) that she was spending time with him. She settled for the half-truth. "Oh, I just grabbed some coffee with a friend. Then decided to call it a night. Not that much fun. Are you okay? I mean…after your mom?"

Rory made it sound like Cecily Claymore was a terminal illness. But Vaughn guessed her mother was almost as bad as one. "I'm fine. I'm all recovered."

"That's good," she mused aloud. "Oh! Cole went looking for you! Tristan thought you might need something to hit. Hopefully, he missed you."

"Oh no, the only reason I'm recovered is because Cole made me more angry than Cecily did," Vaughn sank down into her desk chair. "But that's a rather old and tired story, don't you think?"

Rory sighed. She knew history, especially a bad one, was very hard to get over. Cases in point? Her parents. Her mom and her grandparents. But she wished Cole and Vaughn could work through whatever it was that plagued them so that her only social life in Yale wasn't so divided. It was all just so…old. "You know what I think? I think we're boring."

"Unfortunately this is true," Vaughn agreed, rolling her chair close to where Rory was. "Are you suggesting we do something to fix this? Or are we just acknowledging the obvious?"

"The former, of course. We need more spontaneity in our lives." After all, hadn't tonight been the example of free-as-a-jaybird Rory? "We need change. I lived this life in high school and as fun as growing up with Lorelai Gilmore is, I don't want to go through it all over again. Don't you feel the same? Well, minus the growing up with Lorelai Gilmore part because well, you didn't."

"No, I had a growing up in a convent kind of fun, but I understand what you mean. What are you suggesting?"

"Just something...different."

The only thing Vaughn could think of was… "What about in appearance?"

Rory eyes widened, bemused. "I'm not talking plastic surgery different."

She rolled her eyes. "Neither am I. God, I'm talking about your hair, Rory."

"My hair?" she asked, playing with the ends. "What should I do to my hair?"

"Not that I usually listen to her, but Cecily is always telling me that doing something with my color would make me a much better person, so if I twist it into something logical," Vaughn explained. "I could suggest highlights. Nothing drastic, but still something different."

"Highlights," Rory said aloud, quickly warming up to the idea. Grinning broadly she said, "Tomorrow, I'm gonna get highlights."