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

Dedication: To Gracie for lighting a fire under our lazy asses.

Chapter 16: And it's like the ocean under the moon

Stars Hollow hadn't changed much; in fact, it was in the exact state she had left it in. Luke and Taylor still fought. Miss Patty flirted and taught dance classes. Babette and Morey still lived next door. Sookie and Jackson were still…well, Sookie and Jackson. Everyone had fretted over her highlights and pampered her, making her homecoming complete.

"It's good to be home," Rory told Paris Gellar over the phone. "Even if it's for a little while."

Rory could speak for herself, Paris was already longing for the halls of Harvard. "How's Yale? You've been to Harvard before, how does it compare?"

Rory rolled her eyes and settled back against her pillows. Leave it to Paris to make everything into a competition. "It's college, Paris. They're both equally great."

"What about the people?" Paris watched the maids scurrying to clean the house for the upcoming holiday out of the corner of her eye. "I'm sure you have a million friends already."

"Uh, have you forgotten me already?" she answered, grinning. "The only reason I made friends was because my roommate's cool and she knows the roommate of the only other person I know in Yale and we're this little anti-social group…and I'm probably confusing you."

"So elucidate," Paris sighed. It was a good thing she and her roommate rarely saw each other. If they did, they probably wouldn't get along very well. "Help me through this, I'm sure it's not that complicated."

Rory took in a deep breath. "Tristan DuGrey goes to Yale."

"Oh." Her gaze wandered over to the maids again. "Well, it's expected, after all. Five generations of DuGreys have gone."

"It would have been nice if someone told me that." She laughed lightly. She wasn't sure if Paris still hated Tristan or had gotten past it but knowing the unpredictable blonde it could very well be either. "Well, anyway, his roommate – Cole, and my roommate, Schuyler, know each other from way back. Tristan kinda dated Schuyler and Cole and I went out on a date and now we're all kind of friends."

"How very WB of you all," Paris commented. "Jess came down there, didn't he?"

Immediately, Rory's gaze fell on the picture of her ex, thumb tacked on her corkboard. "Yeah, he did. It was nice. He told me the two of you hung out."

"We didn't really know anyone else in Boston," Paris stumbled over the words slightly, feeling as if she had to explain it, although, she wasn't sure why. "Where is your roommate from?"

The hitch in Paris' voice didn't go unnoticed by Rory but she let it slide, not knowing what to think of it just yet. "The Big Apple, upper West side. Do you know the Claymores?"

"Roger Claymore?" Paris asked. "The Broadway producer?"

"The one and only. Isn't it cool?"

Rory was so easily impressed. "I guess. Brad Langford has a small part in Claymore's musical this spring."

She smiled and waved to her mother who passed by. "Aw, Paris, you're keeping tabs on Brad! I thought you hated him!"

"Actually Madeline spilled it to me the moment I got in. She was dying to tell someone, and Louise isn't coming home until tomorrow."

Lorelai was gesturing wildly and confused, Rory bit her bottom lip. "Par, I think mom's having a nervous breakdown. Wanna catch a movie or something tomorrow?"

"Yeah, sure." Anything to get out of this house.

"Alright, noon at the mall. Bye Paris." Rory hung up and wandered into the kitchen, wondering what was up with her mother. "Mom, why are you going crazy?"

"Miss Patty hired a new cleaning boy for her dance studio," Lorelai explained. "And he's raking Babette's leaves. In a tight tee. I feel slightly pedophilish standing out there, drooling. So go gawk for Mommy."

Normally, Rory would roll her eyes. Today, after coming home from the 'real world' (whatever that was) she felt a surge of comfort that was making her oddly happy. Oh how she missed this. She threw her arms around Lorelai and gave her a smacking kiss on the cheek. "I'll go drool over the cute boy, Mom."

"Would you like a camera? You know, to bring the pictures back so you can make all the other girls jealous that you have a cute leave-raker while they're stuck with…um, Guido the short, fat guy."

She smiled, thinking of Vaughn. Cole was definitely no Guido. "That's okay, Mom. I don't want to go over the top with the staring."

"At this rate, you'll never get your first restraining order before the age of twenty-one," Lorelai looked down with mock sadness. "And that was my goal for you."

The phone rang and Rory pushed Lorelai in its direction. "My goal for you is to answer the phone. Let's see if you can find it without me, as you've been claiming to do for the past month or two."

Lorelai sighed, and dug through the mass of magazines on the coffee-table before coming in contact with the ringing object. "Hello?"

Tristan was thrown off a little, the woman sounded like she was out of breath. "Uh, hi, may I speak to Rory?"

"She's currently admiring the male form," Lorelai answered. "May I take a message?"

Furrowing his brow in confusion, Tristan sighed. "Uh, can you tell her Tristan called?"

"Mom?" Rory yelled from the doorway. "Who is it?"

Lorelai waved off her daughter's question, and spoke into the phone. "Do you still want to talk to her?"

Confused, Tristan answered, "Yes, that would be nice."

"It's for you then," Lorelai directed this at Rory, and handed it over to her.

Rory tucked her hair behind her ear before placing the telephone against it. "Hello?"

"Hey," Tristan greeted back, happy that the confusion that was Lorelai Gilmore had been replaced with the saner one with the same name. "How's your break going so far?"

It's good to hear his voice again, she thought surprising herself and then, immediately disgusted with herself thought, God Rory, clingy much? "Pretty much normal. Or as normal as you can get in Stars Hollow. Yours?"

Cold, distant and suffocating, he thought almost bitterly. Out loud however, he mimicked her response.  "Pretty much normal."

"How's Cole liking Hartford?" Rory stretched on the couch, resting her hand against the pillow and pulling an afghan over her.

Tristan's gaze wandered over to his roommate and houseguest, lounging on the sofa and looking bored as he watched Days Of Our Lives. Thank God his cousin promised to get them into a club tonight, with booze and girls in short skirts. "He's says it's better than the Montgomery mansion but that's not saying much."

"Ain't that the truth?" he muttered from the sofa and then smiled a little. "Is that Rory? Tell her I say hi."

Rory heard him and smiled. "Tell him 'hi' back."

"Why don't I just hand him the phone and you two can be sappy as long as you like?"

She didn't miss the slight tartness in his voice and furrowed her brows. "I, uh, that's okay. Are you okay?"

Tristan sighed and ran a hand through his hair, cursing himself for taking out his frustrations on her. He'd be okay if he could just get out of the freaking mansion. Sunset could not come soon enough. "Sorry about that. I get restless easily."

"So I've noticed." She grinned and snuggled into the couch again. "Well, I'm meeting Paris at the Hartford mall tomorrow. At noon. You guys are welcomed to join us."

He hadn't seen Paris Gellar since his last night in Chilton as she stormed away from, angry as hell. He grinned a little; he always loved seeing her pissed. It was an endless source of amusement. Although, if they went clubbing, there was chance they'd be hung over. But then again, he really wanted to see Rory…"That sounds like a great idea. We'll be there."

She smiled, this time almost giddily at the prospect of seeing him again. "I'll see you then."

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

"Whoa, loosen the death grip Gilmore," Paris gritted out as they pulled apart. Rory's smile was contagious and she found herself beaming back. "Glad to know I was missed."

"Horribly," the brunette teased as they turned into the entrance of the mall. People rushed by and Rory took in the scent of greasy pizza, perfume and brewing coffee. "And just so you know, we're meeting some people."

Paris's eyes narrowed. "What people?"

"Tristan and Cole," she said quickly, biting her lower lip. "You don't mind, do you?"

She rolled her eyes. "Like I have a choice."

"Aw, come on Paris," Rory whined as they sat down on a bench near the fountain. "You and Tristan go way back. And Cole is very nice. It's not like I'm asking you to have hang out with Sadam Hussein."

"What? Where?" a familiar voice joked and Rory looked up to see Cole and Tristan approaching, smiles on their faces. She chuckled as she stood up and hugged Cole. "Hey there Gilmore, what's with the touchy feely business?"

"She's just chock full of holiday cheer," Paris muttered as she reluctantly stood up, facing Tristan. She regarded him coolly and almost snapped at him when she saw the hint of a smirk tug at his lips. "Tristan."

Now he grinned, full-fledged. "Paris. Is that any way to greet an old friend?"

"I'm all hugged out," she returned dryly.

Tristan nodded, still a little amused by her reluctance to let the past go. He'd give her time; it worked with her countless times before. He turned to Rory, who was excitedly blabbing about her holidays to Cole. She then turned to him and their eyes connected. His pulse tripped. Every time, without fail, he thought with a wry laugh. "Hey Rory."

She smiled back, stepping closer to him and he had to stop himself from leaning down and kissing her lips. "Hey Tristan."

Paris cleared he throat as she rolled her eyes at the sickening scene in front of her. It wasn't because she was jealous. She knew that much by now. No, she was disgusted with Tristan because he was right where he started, only this time Rory seemed to be there too. And they were still oblivious about it. Or pretending to be.

"I think the blonde's getting antsy," Cole commented and broke up the chattering non-couple. He then smiled as he extended his hand. "Cole Montgomery." 

"Charmed," she stated formally although she smiled back. There was no need to take out her anger at Tristan on his hot friend. "Paris Gellar."

"Harvard, right? You might have had the misfortune to run into a certain classmate of mine from school. A Jamie DuVille." When Paris made a horrified face, he nodded grimly. "I pity you, I truly do."

"You were friends with that scum?"

"I don't make friends with scum, Paris," he stated as the four of them started walking away from the fountain and into the foray of holiday shoppers.

Paris shuddered and followed Tristan and Rory into the food court. "I'm glad. He hit on me the first day of classes."

"Did you take a bath immediately afterwards?" When she nodded vigorously, he sighed. "Smart girl."

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

"See, we all had fun," Rory said as the four them exited the theatre, later that afternoon.

Cole snorted as he threw his empty soda into a nearby container. "Speak for yourself, Rory. I had no desire to see Hugh Grant."

"But you enjoyed it," Paris countered with a grin. "I saw you smiling. The both of you."

Tristan was glad that she was addressing him now that they'd spent most of the afternoon together. He shrugged, "Keira Knightley's hot."

Rory rolled her eyes and smacked him lightly on the arm. "That's so…you."

"Aw, c'mon Gilmore," he teased, throwing an arm around her shoulder. "You know that's what you adore most about me."

"Yes," she deadpanned as they headed out of the mall, following Cole and Paris towards the parking lot. "I just love it when you drool over other women."

Grinning, he stopped walking and leaned down and brushed his lips close to her ear so he could whisper, "There's no need for jealousy, sweetheart. None of the others even compare."

The blood was rushing to her cheeks and other more interesting parts of her body as his warm breath tickled her ear and she had to repress a delicious shudder. Instead, she adopted a bored expression. "They can have you."

"Ouch," he stated dramatically and brought his fist to his heart. "Your words hurt."

"Hey Joni and Chachi!" Paris barked from where she was leaning against her car, Cole watching them in amusement. "You two done?"

Rory laughed and shielded her eyes with a hand, against the sun behind him. "I better go before she has a heart attack. She's going to drop me off at my grandparents."

"Alright," he replied, pocketing his hands deep in his jeans. That way he could check the urge to pull her to him. "I'll call you tomorrow or something."

She nodded and then on pure impulse, placed her hands on his chest and rose to her tip-toes to give him a quick kiss on the cheek but her aim was off and it landed on the corner of his mouth. When he tensed, she closed her eyes and counted to three before pulling away and managing a bright, unaffected smile. "Bye."