Tristan navigated the Yale campus easily, blending into the crowds of students and yet still managing to stand out to those the female variety with his striking good looks and natural ease.

Funny that Paris had ended up here, Tristan thought, I had thought she was set on Harvard.

Tristan shifted his bag from one hand to another as he tried to remember what building Paris had said she lived in.

He hadn't expected her to suggest that he stay in her dorm room for a few days when he joked about being all by his lonesome in his big ol' mansion. He knew Paris out of anyone would sympathize and understand the feeling of not being home at your home, but it still was an uncharacteristic stroke of generosity.

People change, He reminded himself.

I changed, Tristan thought while he examined the current happenings.

He was staying in his hometown by his own choice so he could help someone else. He was about to see an old friend from high school and he was looking forward to it, not to mention that this friend was a girl and he wasn't even thinking of it as an opportunity he could take advantage of. Tristan was finally learning to stay out of those emotional webs that ended up causing so much trouble.

He knocked on the door and hoped that it was the right one, regretting not writing down anything Paris had told him on the phone.

"Hello?" a guy his age answered the door.

Tristan was about to ask whether Paris Gellar lived here when he heard a somewhat familiar voice call, "Marty who is it?"

Tristan tilted his head trying to see who had just called out. It wasn't Paris' unmistakable voice but it was someone's voice he swore he had heard before. It was incredibly familiar, and yet Tristan couldn't place it. He shrugged and returned his attention to Marty in the doorway who was looking at him curiously.

"I think I've got the wrong room-

"Tristan."

Oh, Tristan thought. That's whose voice it was.

Tristan had planned on seeing Rory Gilmore on his return home but somewhere in settling into the house again, he had begun to lose his resolve. He had decided that it was more of an issue of the past that should be forgotten rather than provoked.

Whatever the case, he had never planned on seeing her unprepared.

And yet there she was standing in front of him, staring at him; in fact Rory seemed and looked as shocked to see him as Tristan felt about seeing her.

Tristan quickly pulled himself together. He remembered why he had wanted to see Rory in the first place, to prove that he was finally over her.

"…Rory Gilmore," Tristan acted like he had just been able to place her and remember her name. He felt a small feeling of pleasure at the way her brow furrowed when he appeared to forgotten her.

"what are you doing here Tristan?" she asked, her tone guarded and most definitely not friendly.

Tristan smiled. If there was something he was good at, it was playing with emotions and carrying of an act.

"Well I was in town and decided to see old friends. Naturally I thought of Paris…" Tristan trailed of and suppressed a smile at the confusion that was clouding Rory's face.

"So I called her and said I wanted to see her and she invited me to come up for a visit," Tristan continued his explanation in a laboriously slow manner as if it wasn't odd at all seeing her there, "funny she didn't mention you were visiting too."

Rory's eyes narrowed and he could the hurt that had developed at his lukewarm reaction to her.

"I am not visiting Paris. I live here and go to school here and this is my room also, as well as Paris' as you know," Rory rambled a bit.

Tristan leaned against the doorway in his trademark stance. This was all getting very interesting.

"Oh it's funny that you two are roommates. I mean I didn't think you were very close at Chilton," Tristan said knowing that Rory knew that he was the reason Paris had despised her for a good bit of high school.

Rory clenched her teeth and said evenly, "well it's funny that you are here. I didn't think you and Paris were very close at Chilton either."

Tristan couldn't have felt more glee at that moment. It was obvious his cavalier attitude was effecting Rory and yet he didn't feel the least bit obliged to stop. He didn't feel the least bit attached to her. After all that time of thinking about her, she was finally in front of him and he was controlling himself.

Marty cleared his throat, breaking the tense pause that had seem to settle in the room.

Rory shifted from where she had been glaring at the floor and focused on Marty as if she was seeing him for the first time since Tristan had gotten here.

"Marty, we should definitely go for our thing. God so sorry to keep you just waiting here," she said with enthusiasm that Tristan sensed was being upped for his entertainment.

Marty shrugged, also trying to make sense of Rory's new demeanor.

"It's no problem, I mean you were just going to look at that paper for lit. class … it can wait," he said affably.

"No Marty, it can't. Because it is extremely important to me, that paper of yours. Although I'm sure it's wonderful because you really are a wonderful writer Marty. Have I told you that lately?" Rory said this all very quickly with widened eyes.

Tristan tried to suppress a smirk.

Marty seemed a bit confused and responded slowly, "thanks Rory."

"Anytime," she grinned warmly at him and then took his hand to lead out of the room.

"Tristan, I'm sure Paris will be back any minute and you can just wait. Or do whatever you want. Marty and I have to leave," Rory said coldly.

Tristan nodded indifferently at her statement and didn't bother responding.

Rory began to march to the door dragging poor Marty in tow. When she got to the door and had to go past Tristan, he couldn't resist catching her eyes for a second.

He could see she was hurt and a little confused at his reaction to her.

And also angry?

Tristan broke the eye contact and told himself, he did not owe Rory Gilmore anything.

They left and Tristan let out a breathe he didn't know he had been holding.

He sat down on one of the armchairs in their common room and instantly began analyzing what had just happened.

She had been surprised to see him. Unhappy about it, perhaps, but maybe not.

She had been hurt when he didn't act happy to see her. That was certain.

She had put on that little show for him with Marty who didn't really seem like a boyfriend type.

So perhaps he wasn't the only one left with emotional ties to their time at Chilton.

Tristan sank down further into the chair and thought some more about Rory.

He kept seeing her hurt expression when she left the room, and turning the notion that he, Tristan Dugrey, had the ability to hurt Rory around in his heard. The idea that he could have an effect on her after all this time, was something Tristan could not get past.

Tristan had never taken well to being ignored as a child, and as his good looks developed it assured him that he wouldn't be ignored often as a teenager.

Rory Gilmore had always managed to ignore him though, Tristan recalled bitterly.

She made him feel so unimportant and inconsequential that it drove him crazy.

Fragments of memories flooded Tristan's mind.

Rory glaring at him at her locker.

Rory leaning in and letting him kiss her at Madeline's party.

Those three words she had said to Dean, about him during the whole concert disaster.

Everyone says it's 'I love you' that means the most, Tristan mused, but anyone can fake an I love you. Hell, Tristan had faked every 'I love you' he had ever said.

I hate him, now those were the words that had crushed Tristan

Tristan took a moment to dwell in his hollow victory, this feeling of satisfaction, for it had seemed that tables had finally turned.