Rory began to notice a gradual shift in the workings of her life at Chilton. Tim no longer hesitated before nodding to her in the hallways. A sophomore in her advanced math class had tried to strike up a conversation with her, while blushing furiously. It wasn't like a tide of boys were knocking at her locker, she hadn't expected that, but through these little things she could tell Tristan had followed through on her request. Not that she could thank him or anything, if she wanted to that is, for Rory hadn't seen Tristan all week besides in her English class where he sat at the opposite side of the room anyway. He had appeared to have moved his favorite make out spot far away from her locker, not that she spent time scouting out his whereabouts or anything. Something she tried to express to Lane one afternoon.
"It's just weird, I mean I hated the way he bothered me, but he just disappeared. I didn't think people do that. A simple request doesn't necessitate the total absence of someone in a person's life. I mean who does that anyway? But he's Tristan and he's probably just trying to bother me…not that he is bothering me. I'm not bothered. It's just weird."
Lane looked at her before speaking, "Rory, didn't you ask him to disappear?"
Rory sat up and emphatically exclaimed, "No, I did not. And besides he's never listened to me before. Why did he suddenly disappear now? And I never told him to just never talk to me again all I did was tell him that he had to relinquish control over my life at Chilton and he obviously couldn't handle that. Male ego infested," she searched for the perfect descriptor, "jerk."
"But by telling him you wanted to date other guys wasn't it, in so many words, saying you wanted him to get lost?"
"NO, god Lane. Tristan and I were never dating; we weren't even friends. I mean, it's not like I walked up to dean and told him I wanted him to set me up with his best friend. That would be a not so subtle hint. This was completely different, Tristan and I aren't…weren't anything."
"Obviously you were in his mind," Lane responded pertly.
Rory crossed her arms and said stubbornly, "that is so ridiculous I'm not even going to respond."
Lane, chuckling at how stubborn her best friend could be, responded, "okay okay. Maybe you are right. I mean, I'm certainly not the expert, the guy I spend time with the most goes by the name of Jesus, but I really do think, and this Is just my humble non-guy-knowing opinion, that Tristan really liked you. And he could never convince you of that because you were so caught up with Dean and then," Lane sighed dramatically as if she were laying out the twisted and harrowing plot of a soap opera, "he gets his chance. You tell him you have broken up with dean, possibly signaling a want to start something he has made very clear to you he wants to start--"
"but I didn't want to signal anything, he just asked about dean and I told him," Rory protested.
Lane hushed her and continued clearly soaking up the role of interpreter, "sssh, that's beside the point. Okay so here's Tristan thinking things are finally going his way and one day you fight with his girlfriend--"
"she wasn't his girlfriend," Rory interjected but silenced herself when Lane gave her a death look reminiscent of Mrs. Kim.
"You let yourself be taken into an empty classroom, you flirt," Lane said ignoring Rory's look of indignation, "and then you drop the bomb. You don't want to date him, you want him to make it possible for you to date every guy at Chilton besides him. Then you, not content to leave the poor boy merely wounded but out for a kill, tell him there's no chance, ever, of anything happening between the two of you. WHAM! Talk about crushing hope. He offers himself to you, he acknowledges what has been going on between the two of you, something you have remained stubbornly oblivious to even though it's so obvious I sense the tension all the way back in Stars Hollow, and you leave him alone in the classroom. To me, and again only my humble opinion, that sends a pretty clear message of get out."
Rory looked slightly dumbfounded as Lane winded down from her grand conclusion and couldn't exactly think of what to say in return.
The next day, waiting at the bus stop to go home from school, Rory still hadn't formulated a response to Lane's interpretation of events, not that it mattered, Tristan still made no appearance anywhere. Chester Manning, however, was towering above her. She shielded her eyes from the sun and squinted up at him, making out his words.
"Hey Mary."
Rory groaned inwardly. It was bad enough when Tristan called her that but to have other guys simply pick it up and think they could too really annoyed her.
"It's Rory," She responded gruffly.
Chester sat down next to her on the bench, much too close for her own comfort.
"I know," He grinned at her, "I was just kidding. Man, it must have been annoying to have Dugrey call you that all the time."
Rory responded to his comment with a lackluster, "mhm," and attempted to put a little more room between her and him by sidling a bit to the right.
"Dugrey can be a real asshole," and at this point Chester looked right into Rory's eyes, "he's not sensitive."
Rory rolled her eyes at how thick he was laying it on.
"Oh and I bet you are?"
Chester nodded affirmatively, the sarcasm in her statement obviously escaping him.
He seemed to take Rory's lack of response as an agreement of how sensitive a person he was and he slung his arm around her shoulder.
"Plus I bet you aren't really that virginal. I see a real bad girl in you," he leered.
Rory removed his arm and said, "oh you do, do you? That's real clever of you to catch on like that."
Chester was undeterred by her obvious disdain and lack of interest and so he forged on.
"Yeah you just need the right guy"
"and I suppose you are him?" Rory said incredulously.
Chester seemed to take this as an invitation and he leaned in and gave Rory one of the most awful kisses of her life.
She stood up immediately, "what the hell do you think you are doing? Other that mauling my face of course."
Chester grinned cockily at her, strange how some boys could pull that off but Chester was not one of them, and said, "oh c'mon, you know you wanted it."
Rory turned to walk away but before she left, she said contemptuously, "you're deluded."
Chester's face clouded with anger and he grabbed her wrist preventing her from leaving.
"Let go," Rory said.
Chester stood up, still gripping her wrist in his meaty hands, and smiled sinisterly down at her, "hey I'm just getting to know you."
Rory glared at him, "I'm not interested ,thanks."
Rory's wrist was beginning to chafe under Chester's strong grip; he noticed this and said pointedly, "you know this could be fun. I bet Dugrey had a lot of fun with you. You don't have to be so unfriendly."
"You jackass," Rory tried to pound him with her other hand, "let go of me."
Chester grabbed that hand too and now kept them both behind her back, his arms encircling her waist.
"Now that's not very nice," he growled and began to lean in despite Rory struggling desperately to break his grasp.
She looked around frantically for anyone but sadly the parking lot was deserted as most of the kid had already driven home but just then she saw him striding powerfully to his black Mercedes.
"TRISTAN," She screamed as loud as she could before Chester tightened his grip on her, causing her to lose focus because of the shooting pain.
"You shut the hell up or I'm going to make this a lot worse for you," he whispered in her ear.
Tristan had paused in his walk and flicked a glance over at them. Rory was so glad to see him, she was sure he would come and help her. Wildly her mind realized he was not coming and she imagined what this might look like from across the parking lot. Her in the arms of some boy.
Chester, determined to flee the scene, began to yank her farther away from the school.
"Tristan, please," Rory screamed and she realized desperately there was no way Tristan could mistake her need. He just hated her that much that he wasn't going to do anything.
And just when she felt tears pricking her eyes, she saw a figure running extremely fast until he cut them off from the road out of the school's campus.
Rory breathed heavily in relief as she saw Tristan Dugrey standing in front of them.
"Manning, you dick, let go of her," he said quietly. But Rory could see how his words scared the hulk who had yet to relinquish her.
Chester looked down at her disdainfully and roughly dropped her arms, "whatever Dugrey. You can have her," he said this lightheartedly as if Rory and him had been engaging in a friendly tickling match, "she practically threw herself at him anyway and tell you what, I'm done with her now. So go ahead from me to you," and with that he began to stride to his car and got in a drove off.
Rory stood in shock for a second, staring down at her bruised wrists. Lilac circled her thin wrists where his fingers had been.
Tristan walked to her.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
Feeling the warmth exude from his body, Rory launched herself at him, crying heavily.
Tristan held her while she pulled herself together.
Rory stepped back and wiped her streaming face. She took a deep breathe and started, "what he said. That wasn't true. I was just sitting there waiting and he came up. I had never even talked to him before--"
Tristan cut her off, motioning with his hand, as if knocking her words out of the air, "that's none of my business Rory."
Rory's heart sank when she realized he was still angry with her.
"Tristan, please believe me," she said feeling that it was so incredibly important for him to believe her.
He looked at her coldly, no longer the gallant figure who rescued her but rather a hard and distant man, and said, "why Rory? It doesn't matter whether I believe you or not. You've made it painfully obvious to everyone that you don't owe me anything."
Rory felt the tears coming again but she blinked them back. She would not let him make her cry. She attempted to straighten her mussed blazer and said evenly, "fine, if that's the way you feel."
Tristan didn't say anything and then, "you missed your bus. Do you need a ride home?"
"I don't want to trouble you. You can leave," Rory answered coldly.
Tristan laughed hollowly, "what and have you hate me for that too?"
"I don't hate you," she responded slowly.
Tristan shook his head, refusing to acknowledge her statement, and motioned to his car.
He started walking and then turned around and said calmly, "you coming or not?"
Rory felt her stubborn streak reel against the idea of letting him do her a favor with the way he was acting but she also really didn't want to be left alone in the darkening parking lot.
She didn't answer but instead began walking swiftly behind him.
The ride was spent in silence, she didn't offer directions and he didn't ask. Pulling up to her house Rory reached for the door but stalled herself when she heard Tristan's voice.
"I do owe you an apology," he began, "the thing with Manning back there. It probably had a lot more to do with me than you. I have a reputation around that school and all the guys know you were the one I couldn't get," he said with a grimace on his face, "so when I essentially told them I was done with you, I think it became a sort of game with them. Those guys are real asses who would like nothing better than to get the girl I couldn't. So sorry," he finished hastily.
Rory looked at him carefully avoiding her eyes.
She could tell that he was telling her this because of his conscience yet he clearly didn't want to talk about what had happened between the two of them.
Apparently he really meant what he said about being done with her.
Rory felt one tear slip down her face as she sat and looked at his hardened face. She would probably never hold a conversation with him again and even if he did manage to forget his promise and talk to her for a second some time it would never be the same.
She swallowed audibly and said quickly, "thank you for bringing me home."
She opened her door and hesitated, feeling like this was her last chance to get through to him.
"Tristan, I… I'm sorry about what happened between us. And I want to tell you, not that you would feel the same, but I think I really care--"
And at that exact moment Lorelai bounded out of the house, her face showing her obvious worry and relief at seeing her daughter who was coming home two hours later than usual, and shouted, "Rory, babe, what happened?"
The moment in the car was broken and Tristan said quietly, "you were saying?"
Rory shifted uncomfortably and sighed, seemingly convincing herself that nothing she could do would get Tristan to forgive her and replied, "nothing."
She slid out of the car quickly and ran to her mom, hugging her tightly, while Tristan watched before driving away.