Everything
Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the plot and the characters that you don't recognize from the show.
Summary: When Rory Hayden comes back to Chilton, she still sees Tristan Dugrey as her brother's annoying friend that won't seem to leave her alone. But when opinions change, friendships can form, and maybe, it could become something more.
Good to know: Rory went to school in England for a year, then comes back to Chilton for her senior year. She hangs out with her old friends. Lorelai and Christopher are married and they live in Hartford . Dean and Jess don't exist; she's not friends with Paris.
Rating: PG13
Chapter 2
The girls sat on Rory's bed surrounded by shopping bags.
"So, tell me about England!" Amber said excitedly, crossing her legs.
"It was great. The teachers were pretty strict, and it was really hard-"
"Even harder than Chilton?" Kelly asked.
"Even harder than Chilton."
The girls made a face.
"Anyways, I made some really cool friends though." Rory said, looking at her friends, who were expectantly waiting for her to continue.
Rory sighed, "Yes, there were cute guys with accents."
Her four friends still looked at her with expectant expressions, except a smile was added this time.
"Yes, I went out with a few of them." Rory said, rolling her eyes, "Not that any of them worked out."
"Why?" Chelsea asked, frowning.
Rory shrugged, "We didn't really click."
Silence.
"We didn't."
The girls raised their eyebrows.
"They were getting a bit too close for my taste. Plus, I knew I'd be coming back to Hartford the moment I stepped off that plane, granted it took me a year to actually decide to come back, but still, I didn't want to get too... attached."
"So you're saying that you didn't want to commit to a relationship." April said.
Rory nodded.
"Because you knew you'd be coming back to Hartford, so there was no point in getting serious."
Rory nodded again, a bit hesitantly.
"And not because you didn't want them to somehow hurt you if you got too close."
This time she just toyed with a strand of lose thread on her comforter.
Amber sighed, "Ror, you have got to get over what that jerk did to you. He's an idiot, and he is so not worth it."
"I know..."
"Seriously, you have to at least try to make a relationship last." Chelsea said.
"I know..."
"You deserve to be happy." Kelly added.
"I know..."
"Soooo?" April asked.
"Soooo...?"
"You gunna try and make relationships work?"
"I guess..."
"Rory," Kelly said.
"Yea, yea. I'll try to make them work." Rory said, defeated. Four to one, that was so not fair.
'Riiiiiing'
"Hello?" Rory answered, Saved by the bell.
"Rory?" the voice at the other end of the line questioned.
"Yes?"
"It's Tristan."
"Tristan?" she asked, surprised.
This definitely caught the four girls' attention, causing them to press their ears up to the phone. Rory tried to push them away, but they fought back.
"Yea."
"What do you want?"
He hesitated before speaking, "Listen, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for acting like a jerk today. And, well, all the other times before."
"You're up to something, aren't you?" That was the only reasonably explanation Rory could come up with to his more than odd behavior. Tristan Dugrey... apologizing?
He let out a soft chuckle, "No, I'm not. It's just that you were away for a year and now that you're back I thought that maybe we could start fresh, since I'm such good friends with your brother I thought that maybe we could be friends too, like we use to be before I, well," he cleared his throat, deciding it was best to change the direction of the conversation, "You really didn't deserve all the crap I've given you."
The four girls' knowing smiles earned a confused look from Rory.
"Okay, now I know something's wrong. Are you feeling OK?"
"Why Mary, I didn't know you cared."
Tristan knew that he had said the wrong thing as soon as silence followed his remark on the other end.
"Right, sorry. No, I'm feeling fine. But like I said before, since I'm such good friends with Danny it'd be weird having you hate me all the time."
"I don't hate you."
"Could've fooled me." Tristan mumbled away from the phone.
"Excuse me?"
"Nothing. But really, what'd ya say?" Please say yes, please say yes.
Rory thought about it for a moment while looking at her friends, who were all nodding vigorously in unison.
"Ummm, you're serious?"
The four girls rolled their eyes before pressing their ears up to the phone again.
"Yes."
"You promise to be nice?"
"Absolutely."
"Ummm," Rory hesitated, this was certainly a change. A part of her didn't want to be friends with him, knowing how much of a jerk he could be, but a part of her did, like they used to be when they were little. She smiled at a memory of them playing in the sandbox. One of the mean kids had just wrecked her sand castle, and Tristan had offered to help her rebuild it, "Okay then, I guess."
"Really?" Tristan asked, surprised. He would've thought that it'd take a while longer than that for her to decide.
"I don't know how long we'd actually be able to be friendly to each other, but it's worth a shot."
"Great!" he said, a bit too cheerfully.
"Yea, well I gotta go. I guess I'll see you in an hour or so, you know, for pizza and a movie." Rory said.
"You can count on it."
"Umm, bye."
"Bye, Rory."
She hung up and raised her eyebrows questioningly at her friends' wide smiles.
"What?"
"You're friends!" Amber said.
"Yea, so?"
"Well first you're friends, then you'll start liking him, as in really like him, so then you two will start dating, and then you'll get really, really serious, and BOOM! You and him will get married and have kids and live 'til you're a hundred." Kelly said happily.
"Aww," Rory said in mock sympathy, patting Kelly on the shoulder, "Kel, it's okay. Even though you're crazy, we'll still love you."
Kelly glared at her.
"It's about time!" Amber said, plopping down on the kitchen stool.
"You know, they haven't actually seen each other yet since the phone call." Chelsea pointed out.
"I know, let's just hope he doesn't blow it." April said, biting into an apple.
"They should be here soon, I can't wait to talk to Tristan." Kelly said excitedly.
"Why are you excited about talking to Tristan?" Rory asked, entering the kitchen.
"Ooooh, no reason." Kelly said, as the girls lapsed into silence. A suspicious Rory caught on when the four girls smiled at each other.
"Oh no you don't." Rory said, shaking her head.
"Don't what?" Amber asked innocently.
"You're gunna pound Tristan when he walks through that door with who knows what. I told you, he does not like me!"
Her only response was knowing smiles from the girls.
"He doesn't! God, you'd think a guy would be able to be friends with a girl without people thinking he likes her. What are we? First graders?"
Silence.
"Stop that!"
"Stop what?"
"Smiling like that. It's freaky."
'Ding Dong'
"I'll get it!" Amber, Chelsea, April, and Kelly yelled when they heard the doorbell ring.
"Nuh uh!" Rory said as the girls raced to the door.
"Hey guys." Rory panted, opening the front door, shortly followed by the rest of the girls screeching around the corner.
"Uhhh, he sis. I forgot my keys. Why are you panting?" Danny asked as he stepped inside.
She cocked her head to the side and smiled sweetly, "Oooh, no reason. Just wanted to see my brother I guess."
The guys looked at her like she had a pink elephant dancing on her head.
"What?"
He just shook his head, "Sometimes I wonder how we're actually related, let alone be twins." And with that, the teenagers headed towards the wreck room.
"Hello friend." Tristan said, sticking out his hand.
Rory laughed, "Hello friend." she returned, shaking his hand.
"And how are we doing on this fine day?"
"Well, discluding a jerk that I encountered today, I'm doing quite well thank you."
"Look, I said I was sorry."
"Yea, yea. I know, I was just teasing."
Tristan smiled, "Good."
"So, what about you?"
"Well, I'm better now that you're here." he grinned.
"Well aren't you sweet?" Rory said, rolling her eyes.
"What can I say? I'm a charmer."
"There goes the ego."
"Well you didn't expect me to do a complete 180, did you?"
"Actually, I sort of did." she mocked.
"That's merely impossible."
"Nothing's impossible, Tristan." Rory said, entering the wreck room.
'Let's hope not.' he thought as he watched her sit between Amber and Kelly on the couch.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no." Josh said, shaking his head.
"Yes!" the five girls shot back.
"You don't really expect us to watch A Walk to Remember, do you?" Mike asked, looking at the movie as if a giant monster was going to jump out of the box any minute.
"Yes!"
"And you actually like that movie?" Danny asked.
"Yes!"
"Isn't it a chick flick?" Charlie asked.
"Yes!"
"Can we watch you girls have a pillow fight in your underwear?" Tristan asked.
"NO!!!"
"Juuuust checkin'."
"We are all watching A Walk to Remember and that's that." Amber stated with finality.
"Noooo." the guys whined.
"Yeees." the girls mimicked.
"Whatever, I'll probably just fall asleep anyway." Josh said, leaning back and putting his arm around April, who nodded in approval at her boyfriend.
'Ding Dong'
"That's the pizza," Rory said, "I'll get it."
Danny put the movie in the DVD player while the rest of the teenagers settled around the wreck room. April and Josh lay on the floor with some pillows, Mike and Chelsea sprawled out on the couch, Kelly and Charlie sat in lounge chairs, Danny and Amber also settled on the floor, and Tristan sat on another couch with his feet propped up against the coffee table.
Rory came back with the pizza and sat down on the only remaining spot: next to Tristan on the small couch. She ignored the weird feeling she got from their close proximity and concentrated on the movie, or, at least tried to.
It took Tristan all he had not to reach out and pull her to him. That would ruin everything, Tristan told himself. He had just gotten her to be friends with him, he couldn't screw things up.
Rory started getting tired halfway through the movie. She hadn't noticed how Tristan's arm at crept around her. Her eyelids started to droop and she was soon fast asleep with her head resting on Tristan's shoulder.
Tristan was bored out of his mind, he hated movies like this. 'What the...' Tristan thought at the sudden weight on his shoulder. Then he noticed how he had subconsciously put his arm around Rory. When he noticed that she had fallen asleep, and he didn't want to wake her up by moving it, so he just kept it there.
Soon after, he fell asleep as well, his head resting on top of hers.
"Ummm, are you going to be okay?" Josh asked April as she wiped the tears away.
"Mmm hmm." she sniffed.
"That was so sad." Amber said, grabbing another tissue.
"Hmm, I wouldn't know, I fell asleep." Danny yawned, stretching his arms in exaggeration.
"I love that movie." April said.
"Well, Mandy Moore is pretty hot." Mike said, earning a smack from Chelsea, "but not as hot as you." he smiled charmingly.
"Nice save."
"Shhhhh." Kelly whispered, when the others looked at her questioningly, she pointed to Rory and Tristan who were asleep in each others arms on the couch.
"Awww, they look so cute together." Amber whispered.
"I wonder how long it's going to take for them to get together." Chelsea said.
"Not for a while. They just started getting along, it's going to take a while for Rory to actually get comfortable with him and like him--even though she's lookin' pretty damn comfortable now--I just hope he doesn't blow it." April said a-matter-of-factly.
"Yea..."
"Should we wake them up?" Mike asked.
"Naaah, they'll be in for a pleasant surprise tomorrow." Danny smirked.
And with that they all left.
When Danny came home, Tristan and Rory were still in the exact same position. He went over and put a blanket over them.
"You better not break her heart, Dugrey." he said quietly before retreating upstairs to his room.