Title: The ultimate curve ball

Author: Joy

A/N: Cupid's Bride- you rock. I still don't understand it, but you took the time to look it up so you are awesome in my book. As for those of you who want more Finn or more Logan: Finn will have a final moment of brilliance unless something changes and Logan... Well he is going to have his time coming. It won't be the most uplifting experience. But if you read my other recent GG story Taking a header...you know I like to tie up lose ends. (Insert Lorelai line- Do they make that much string?)

14.Secrets

Tristan walked into the chain bookstore that Rory was browsing in. Everything was turning out splendidly if he did say so himself. It was funny how well he could actually read Rory after all these years. Tristan knew that Logan was a front for taking the big chance on trusting him with her heart. It was funny to see her 'with' the college version of him in high school just because of how obvious it was they never would work...not until Logan made some serious changes.

Logan for his part was probably not that bad a guy, Tristan had to assume since Rory had been 'dating' him...as well as sleeping with him. From what Rory had said, Tristan didn't doubt the man was intelligent and witty. From what Tristan had seen of his attire and manner, Logan appeared to be just as polished and well-spoken as Tristan was required to be with his family. All of these things added up in Tristan's mind but still came up as not too concerning compared to the anxiety Rory was exhibiting toward the idea of serious...

Wherever he was, Tristan desperately wanted to slug the bagboy. Then again he felt certain that there was more to the story of their relationship than he had been told. The bagboy had the chance to 'marry' someone else so for a while he and Rory weren't together. These thoughts were better left to the way side at the moment.

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Rory was looking through the new fiction section for something to read. Tristan came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her middle. "Anything good."

"Not really... I'm thinking I might need to write my own novel."

"Oh yeah...what about?" he asked casually.

She turned in his arms and let her hands rest on his biceps. "How about a girl from the wrong side of the tracks ends up at this prep school where the king of the social class falls desperately in love with her."

Tristan smiled and kissed lips lightly then her brow lovingly, "I like...just don't send the king to military school and let him get over himself quickly... I would love to read what your wish fulfillment would have been for us."

Rory smiled back, "I don't know really. I like right now a lot. I am afraid to wish for much more." Tristan pulled away from her a moment looking deeply in her eyes for something. "What?" she asked.

Tristan took her by the hand and said, "Come with me." Rory nodded and followed him to the top floor at the very back of the store. Tristan positioned them behind a bookcase and kissed her soundly and hungrily.

"What was that for?" she questioned a bit overwhelmed.

"Ask for more...ask for anything."

Rory leaned against him and let her head rest on the inner portion of his neck. "I want it to be real," she whispered.

"Its real. This is real. I can't make you believe me and I can't force you to trust me." Tristan pet her hair repetitively, "I'm not gonna lie, Mare and say it's not a risk. I can only pray that somehow you can read me as well as I am reading you...but reading guys was never your strong suit."

"I wish there was some way that I could just magically trust you," she muttered.

He leaned her back a bit, "It's not magic but it will help."

"What's that?"

Tristan tipped his head, "I tell you something monumentally hard for me to say and you do the same back. We trust the other person with whatever we say."

"You think that will work?" Rory asked.

He shrugged, "That's what Rob, Becky's older brother, did to get me to open up while we were in military school. It helped to know I had something on him...All of my 'friendships' in Hartford had that component to it...it was familiar. It's the only thing I know will work because it worked with me.

"Just jump," she muttered to herself before turning to the blonde next to her. "Okay...but you go first," she stated.

"I guess that is fair," he replied.

Tristan sat himself down cross-legged on the floor of the store leaning against the bookshelves behind him. Rory followed him down. "Okay... I will talk and you won't interrupt or anything."

"Why would I?" she asked.

He tilted his head, "Because the biggest thing I can really share is stuff about you and I don't want you to feel guilty or anything...I just need to say it, okay?"

"Okay?"

"So...You've figured out I was talking about you after my date with Paris?" Rory said nothing. "Oh you can answer just not interrupt."

"Oh...okay...Yes I know," she answered.

"Well, I spent the rest of sophomore year trying to figure out what to do about you. I spied on you at lunch one day when I saw you listening to a PJ Harvey CD. I knew that music and reading were your passion. So I found that there was a concert nearby that I could take you to. I earned the money for the tickets and I was so proud that I found something you would love. But then you said no and I didn't understand. I just assumed that whatever your deal was you would come around. I knew you wanted to see the concert. I have no idea why I told the unholy trio about it. I truly don't have a clue other than my over confidence that you would change your mind. So in the end I stole your books to get you to talk to me... But then he showed up."

Rory watched Tristan relive those moments in his mind. She saw the moment she said she hated him flit across his face as he winced slightly.

"You said you loved him and hated me...and then you kissed him. You never even looked back... No argument with my parents, no break up with a girlfriend, no fight with a friend hurt as much as you saying you hated me." Rory felt her world shifting with regret. "I spent my summer getting wasted and self medicating with everything under the sun. I am ashamed to admit I probably could have given your blondie a run for his money over number of hook up that summer though I still never slept with more than one girl at a time," Tristan tried to justify. "I tried everything to get that day out of my head...But then school started and you noticed me even less than before. I thought if I backed off from you then maybe you would miss me or something. That went over real well, since you completely forgot about me. But then the play happened and..."

He stopped suddenly. Whatever he was about to say next was the secret.

"You said that the kiss meant nothing to you...and I hated you. For the first time I really desperately hated you. I was lower than every other person in the world in your mind because you never even considered that what you were saying might actually hurt me. I wasn't even a person...just a ken doll in the way of your happiness... so I hurt you back. I wanted to hurt you back. I wanted you to feel what I felt. Then I hated you even more for knowing something was wrong. I couldn't understand how you could care and be concerned and at the same time hurt me so badly."

Rory bit her lip for a moment as she felt Tristan's stare on the side of her face...but she wouldn't interrupt him. No matter how desperately she wanted to explain, she promised she wouldn't interrupt him so she didn't. It killed her to think that at one time Tristan had actually hated her, even if it was only for a little while, it still hurt. Then it occurred to her he believed that she hated him for a whole summer and into the next year...all that angst and pain to satisfy a boy that she would have such a disastrous end with. The irony was not lost on her.

Tristan continued his tale, "I remember when my father told me I was being sent away for a minute or two I was glad because then I would be away from you. I would be away from having you so close but never close enough. I would be away from your rejection and your scathing comments... but then I knew you would never know what you had meant to me...you would always think you were a conquest."

He sighed, "I got to the school to tell you goodbye and thought, 'This is it. I'll be able to let her go,' but then you started talking about ways to save me and I just..." He squeezed his eyes shut. "I called you Mary and you smiled and my heart broke into a million pieces. I left and shut down and the Tristan that had been ceased to be. Rob took me under his wing pretty quickly at military school. If he hadn't I don't know what would have happened. I was so depressed I think he was afraid to leave me alone for too long. He was probably right to be worried... He really only did it because I looked like some guy he used to play basketball with on the coast. Kid was younger than us by a few years."

Tristan ran his hand through his hair, "Back to the story...I refused to think about you for the longest time but eventually Rob made me talk. He had heard about my dad, our school, the king crap, the entitlement stuff, and various other lovely things that come from being an heir rather than a child. He knew there was something...someone else. Once I told the tale of my Mary he just took it in like everything else I shared. When I still didn't go after girls Rob started calling you Jenny."

"What?" Rory asked.

"He said I was like Forrest Gump when it came to you. You were my Jenny. Somehow that made it easier to deal with...but somehow not. Anyway, I suppose that's my secret to tell...you were always it for me...take it or leave it, that's the truth. It's funny to think about my player days mainly because my friends can't believe I was ever that way. Becca thinks it's completely appropriate that you were the one to 'take me down'. It reminds her of Dangerous Liaisons.

Rory took in the comparisons each holding different meanings in her heart. Her heart. His heart...that is what Tristan had just shared. She wasn't entirely sure she was going to be able to do that. Little did Rory know that she would have no choice. Sometimes your insecurities bring you to where your heart really is. Sometimes the very fears that bind you are what show your deepest need and desires.

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The world was always on time.

Rory was about to freak, but was with one safe to catch her. Tristan was teetering on the precipice of absolute love or absolute heartache depending on his Mary's whims. Logan was desperately trying not to lose the one thing he didn't cling to. Colin was watching in fascination as the man who always had it together was falling apart. Finn contemplated whether it was a better ending getting the body of a woman or her heart. Paris smirked watching all the boys stare at one another in question while deep down she knew the big man on campus would soon be a thing of the past. Lorelai sat pondering how long it would take for Rory to realize she had a keeper in Tristan. Luke hated the idea that he had helped the rich boy get back in Rory's good graces and hoped she would see through the bribery. Richard wondered when Emily was going to speak to him again. Emily fumed over what would possess Richard to allow the girls off a Friday night no questions asked. And lastly the designer laughed once again at the ripples his curve ball was causing.

TBC...

Next chapter: Rory's freak out

I posted...please feed me. REVIEW.