Category: Gilmore Girls

Title: A Kiss

Author: carleymarie

Rating: P.G.-13

Pairing: Trory

Disclaimer: None of this is mine, but we all knew that didn't we?

Spoilers: Season one

Setting: Chilton hallway

Author's Note: Feel free to throw stones at my for not updating in many months.

Reviews: Always appreciated.

Thanks to the reviewers from the last chapter: four51, Chubs88, bluedancer, sooty7sweep, smile1, Angel72418, megliz716, Amanda, Psychotic Scribbler, peanutbutterluver1399, and Fallen Heart.

Chapter Four: A Hallway Kiss

Tristin was leaning against his locker talking to Duncan and Bowman when I approached.

"Excuse me, Tristin? Can I talk to you for a second?" I asked.

Tristin turned to the other boys. "I'll meet you guys later, okay?" Duncan and Bowman took off, and Tristin turned back to me: "I'm all yours."

"I need to talk to you about something serious."

"Serious. Huh. I'm intrigued," Tristin said as he opened his locker and took out a couple of books.

"Dean's coming to rehearsal tonight," I told him.

"Wow. Are you sure they can spare him? I mean, what if there's a run on baked beans?"

"Will you just shut up for five seconds? Please?"

Tristin put up his hands, motioning he wouldn't say anything.

"Thanks you. Look, as I said, Dean is coming to rehearsal tonight and I would like you to promise that you won't say anything to him about what happened."

"What happened . . .?"

"At the party . . ."

"At the party . . ."

"Tristin! You and me at Madeline's party?" Tristin scratched his head in seeming confusion. "You had just been kicked to the curb by Summer and I found you sulking on a piano bench and I sat down, we talked, and then . . . We kissed!"

Tristin stared at me for a moment: "Was that you?"

"What?"

"Were you a blond back then 'cause --"

"You know what, forget it." I walked away. Tristin came after me.

"Hey, Rory," he said, tapping my arm. I stopped and turned to face him, frustrated.

"There is no point in talking to you," I said. "I knew that, yet I tried. Won't happen again."

"You don't want me to tell Dean that we kissed," Tristin said sincerely.

"By George, I think he's got it."

"Okay," he sighed. "If that's what you want."

"It is," I replied.

"Although . . .he's going to find out anyway," Tristin said.

"What?"

"Well come on, you know that when we kiss on stage it's gonna be pretty obvious that it's not for the first time. I am a good actor, but I can't deny that kind of passion."

"Look, things are going really going good for me and Dean right now and I don't want anything to mess that up. Especially nothing that meant nothing at all to me and I wished never happened in the first place!"

Tristin looked at me a moment. "So, things are going good for you two, huh?"

"Yeah, they are."

"Good," he said brightly. "That's good." And he turned and started back toward his locker. I suddenly realized what I said might have hurt him so I followed.

"So, what do you think?" I asked as Tristin opened his locker and put his books back in. "You just took those out," I pointed out as he shut the door.

"Well I changed my mind," he said abruptly.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Yeah, I think somehow I'll recover from the news of the great romance between you and the Beav."

"A lot of stuff's been going on with you lately, huh?" I asked.

"Meaning?"

"Just, you know, the car thing, the suspension thing . . .a lot of drama."

"Well, I get bored easily."

"Just doesn't seem like you."

"And now you know me, huh?"

"I know that you don't get suspended for stupid pranks."

"I pulled stuff like that before I knew Duncan and Bowman, all right?"

"Well, if you did, you didn't get caught." Tristin looked away not answering. "You're getting caught a lot lately," I continued.

"Your point being . . ."

"Maybe Duncan and Bowman aren't the best people to be hanging around with. They're not as smart as you, Tristin. They don't have as much going for them as you do. They --"

"You know, I'm going to have to bail before we get to the hugging part." And he walked off as the bell rang signalling the start of class. "And ask your boyfriend to remind me when it's coupon day, okay?" he called back to me.

I decided to ignore the bell and go after Tristin. The look of sadness and confusion on his face spoke volumes to me.

"Tristin, wait up," I called after him.

"You're going to be late for class, Mary," he responded.

"I don't care. You look like you're going to go and do something real unintelligent right now, and I'd prefer that you didn't get kicked out of school before our Romeo and Juliet presentation," I said.

"Wow, pretending to care about me for a grade, thanks for that," Tristin deadpanned.

"I- it's . . ." Rory began, trying to spit out the words.

"Wow, very eloquent, and on that humble note I have to be somewhere," Tristin said.

"Yeah, you do," Rory said strongly, seeming to get her voice back. "You have to come to class with me right now because we are practicing for our play, and tell the teacher that-well you're the pro at making up excuses so make up one for both of us and we'll get to class, and then I'm going to make sure that you go to every other one of your classes today. Sound good? Okay, let's go," Rory finished cheerfully.

"But . ." Tristin started.

"I don't care. We're going," Rory said, turning to walk away.

"Look, I know you're trying to be a good girl scout and trying to get me to class, but it's not like you really care what I do so -"

Tristin was quickly cut off as Rory leaned forward pressing her lips to his. He responded for only a moment before lightly pushing her away.

"What are you doing?" he spat out.

Rory paused for a moment, thinking. "Well, we're practicing for Romeo and Juliet. If you're not going to class then I'm bringing class to you."

"But-" Tristin began.

"I'm doing you a favour," Rory said. "I'm keeping you away from your self-indulgent drama, you're practicing for the play, and well . . ." Rory trailed off.

"Well, what?" Tristin asked.

"I lied before," Rory said.

"About what?"

"About the kiss meaning nothing and never wishing that it happened. I've seen the way that you've been acting lately, and it made me realize that I care about you and what you're doing and maybe that you . . ."

"That I what?"

"That maybe you need me, and that I want for you to need me."

"Would you really like to know what I need right now?" Tristan asked.

Rory looked back at his expression, thinking that he was going to tell her to leave him alone.

She quietly asked, "What do you need?"

Tristin kept staring blankly at Rory.

"I need a repeat performance of that kiss," Tristin finished with a smile. Not a smirk, but an actual, genuine smile.

Rory broke out into a wide grin.

"I think that can be arranged," she replied.

Tristin smiled and this time it was his turn to initiate their kiss in the middle of the deserted hallway, but pulled away when a thought arose in his mind.

"Can we go to class?" Tristin asked.

"You're not serious are you?" Rory asked thinking that Tristin was regretting the decision already.

"I want to tell everyone our excuse for being late was that Rory Gilmore told me that she cares about me and then kissed me in the hallway," he finished grinning.

Rory lightly smacked Tristin, and pulled him forward by his tie so she could whisper in his ear, "We can, or we can continue doing this here, and you can think of an even better excuse for missing a whole class today," she finished.

"I think, Ms. Gilmore that I can arrange that," Tristin said.

Then he pulled her in for another kiss both forgetting about going to class, entirely.

The End of series

Author's Note 2: Thank you for the support in this series, but it has come to an end as I am progressing on writing Rory/Logan fics now. Expect the final chapters of A Little Indulgence to be arriving soon, as I am wrapping up an era of writing trories.