Hardened Heartby

Ch.1: He Could Feel It

by Stopped at a Traffic Light

Rory is a senior at Yale, instead of a serious relationship she's just casually dated. Then the one person she never thought she'd see again returns. But he's not the same as he used to be. His deep blue eyes have hardened, the eyes of someone who has lost his faith and trust in the world. TRORY.

"I'm coming!!" Rory Gilmore ran down the stairs of her apartment, while trying to jab her last earring in her ear, and opened the door, not bothering to check who it was.

"Gilmore! You're late!" The familiar voice of one of her best friends rang. Rory finally got the earring in, and grabbed her purse and jacket in one hand, and her shoes in the other. She tossed her keys to Paris.

"Lock my door, and grab the coffee beside you will ya?" With that her and her old friend ran out to catch the elevator. Rory stumbled along, slipping her shoes on, on the way.

"I'm glad I told you the wrong time." Paris said perfectly calm when the two entered the empty elevator.

"What?" Rory managed to say with her purse handle between her teeth and she slid her jacket on.

"Oh, the class doesn't start for over an hour," she replied, once again in that calm voice.

"What?!"

"I told you the wrong time so I knew you'd be ready for the real time."

"You lied to me?!"

"Hey it worked." Paris said as the elevator opened. "Now come on. I know you're gonna need another cup of coffee before class and since I lied you have time for one."

This perked Rory up and she slung an arm around her best friend. "I knew their was a reason I liked you."

Paris shook her head and the two entered a nearby coffee shop to get a large mug of Rory's drug.
Rory stood up and gathered her books as class ended and made her way back to her apartment. She could take the tram or get a ride back with Paris, but decided to walk. It was only about a thirty minute walk and she decided she could use the fresh air- and a cup of coffee.

About thirty minutes later she walked into the same shop from that morning and walked up to the counter. After she got her order she got one of the cardboard things so she wouldn't burn herself, and a napkin. She turned around to leave but bumped right around and into someone.

"Aww!!!!!!!!!" Rory yelped as scolding black coffee spilled all down the front of her. She tried to pull her shirt from her skin and wipe some off. "Oww!"

She looked at the person she had ran right into. He had blonde hair and amazing blue eyes. Wait, she knew those blue eyes. She looked him over.

"I am so sorry!! Let me help you." The familiar boy handed him some napkins and bent down to pick up her backpack she had dropped.

"Tristan?!!" He stopped what he was doing and stayed hunched on the floor. Rory could see his whole body tense up.

"Rory Gilmore." He stated quietly.

"What are you doing here?" For a moment he didn't say anything, but he slowly stood up and finally met her eyes.

"I-uh go to school here."

"What?!"

"Yeah I just transferred." He said quietly. He grabbed his coffee and muttered "Sorry about hitting you."

He turned on his heel and quickly walked out of the door. Rory had no idea what came over her. She grabbed her bag and coffee and ran after him. She had absolutely no idea what she was going to say.

"Tristan!" He stopped abruptly fifty yards in front of her. His whole body was stiff, and his shoulders were stiff. She ran ahead to him.

"Why'd you run?" She asked him, smiling and joking.

"Why'd you?" He said seriously.

"Huh?" She was confused.

"Why'd you follow me?" Tristan repeated looking into her eyes under his baseball cap.

"I-I don't know. I mean- I haven't seen you in forever, then you just spilled scolding coffee down me and ran."

"I didn't mean to."

"As you said. But why are you acting like we're sworn enemies?"

"Well Mar," he said using his old pet name for her, "we weren't exactly the best of friends in high school. I was a jack ass and I prefer not to remember those happy times."

"Well somebody's not as cocky as he used to be." She said, mostly for the lack of something else to say.

"I'm sorry." He looked down at his feet.

"For what?" Her face scrunched up in confusion. "You already apologized for the coffee it's ok."

"No...." He trailed off for a moment." For everything... For high school, and.... the way I was.
Just sorry ok?"

With that he walked away, leaving Rory to stare at his quickly fading figure. This time Rory didn't follow him. She had only talked to him for less than five minutes and she could tell something had happened since she had known him. He had made her life a living hell at Chilton, but after a while they had kind of become friends, until he got sent away to military school. His parents had been embarrassed in front of their friends that they couldn't control him. So they sent him to a strict military school that was supposed to change him. Rory hadn't thought of him in forever, and now she realized that the school really had changed him.

As far as appearance goes he looked almost the same. He had grown a couple more inches. He was more filled out a muscular looking. His hair was cut shorter, like a slightly grown out buzz cut, Rory guessed it was from years at military school. His eyes though, they were the same. They were still vibrant pools of blue that Rory could loose herself in, but their was also something she couldn't place in them. They had a hint of darkness in them, they were hardened over, not so clear anymore, but the eyes of someone who has lost his faith and trust in the world. He had hardened his heart since she had known him... that much was for sure.
Tristan had walked away as fast as he could without appearing to be running. It took all his strength too, but he knew he had too. It was for his own good. He couldn't let himself remember her. The way she made him feel. If he stood there and let himself carry a friendly conversation with her, he knew that he'd loose himself again, completely. He had worked so hard to forget her.

The guys in Harding knew just as much about her as he did. When he was sent away she was all he could think about. He had too. He couldn't think of how much it hurt to be sent away from his family. To be sent away from everything he knew. He couldn't think about how much he hated being there at Harding. If he thought about her, he could make it through.

Although Harding was the farthest thing from war, and he felt guilty for comparing the two, he felt like he could relate a small bit to how soldiers felt. He knew that he didn't have to face real ammunition or the fact that he could die, and he didn't have to worry about even a small portion of what they did, but he understood the longing.

If you had loved ones to remember the fight was easier. Tristan certainly didn't love his parents, they had never been anything to him but the financial backing of his life, and even now the only thing they paid for was school tuition, he payed for rent, clothes, food, books, and whatever else he needed, if he could pay his tuition he would. He had never been close to any of his family, except his grandfather, who had died the year before. His friends were assholes who would betray you in a heartbeat. They were a matter of convenience. But Rory....

She was real. He knew she hated him. Hell, she had practically told him so on the last day of sophomore year, or rather she told her boyfriend, who proceeded to stick his tongue down her throat. When she had kissed bag boy, it had ripped his heart out. And the worst part of it was she had no idea. She hadn't the slightest inkling that she was the reason he made it through.

Tristan knew he couldn't venture down the road of Rory again. Mary, he thought silently. Why do you have to do this to me? He threw his coffee cup in the nearest trash can, but stopped in his tracks. He turned around.

There she was. She was still standing there, staring at him. She had been standing them watching his retreating figure for over ten minutes.

He could feel it.
He was losing.
He was losing the battle.
He was losing the war with himself.

He was losing, and he knew it. But couldn't stop it.

Hey everyone hope you like the story. Reviewing really encourages me to turn the chapters out faster. I really hate long breaks between chapters so expect the next chapter this week.