Authors Note: Thank you for all the reviews, and the week long wait for this chapter. I know it's a bit short, but hey, the point is I'm updating – because, in all honesty, I'm probably the worst updater the fanfiction world will ever see. I'm horrible at updating periodically. But here is the next chapter!

Chapter Four: Members With Minds of Their Own

"Luke couldn't make it, huh?" Rory asked, using her nail to slice open the duct tape that taped one of her boxes open.

Lorelai bit her lip, and shook her head, placing a few of Rory's books on the highest shelf, before reaching back down to place more books on the shelving unit, "Uh, no," she said, straightening 'A Fable', before looking to Rory, "He was, uh, busy."

"Busy?"

"Yeah," Lorelai nodded, trying her best to smile brightly, "diner deliveries and the like." Rory nodded, seeming to like this answer better then the he was busy one.

"I'm hungry," Rory declared a few moments later, after effectively putting her mattress pad and sheets onto her twin bed, "but I don't know what I'm hungry for."

"You're hungry for some lovin'!" Lorelai laughed, grabbing her purse off of the end of Rory's bed, "C'mon. Let's go to the good coffee stand by the Library. I've missed Yale coffee."

Rory smiled, grabbing her bag, and swinging it over her shoulder, making sure to slip her cell phone in her jeans pocket. "I thought you'd forgotten about the good Yale coffee."

"Me?" she asked, aghast at such a suggestion, "Forget about any type of coffee? I'm appalled, Ror. I'm wounded. My heart is breaking. You made my heart bleed!"

"I'm pretty sure hearts bleed naturally."

---&---

"Mmm," Lorelai chanted as soon as she took a long, savoring sip of her coffee, while she grasped it in both hands. "Three months without this coffee has been to long."

Rory nodded, putting her wallet back into her bag, before taking a sip from her own. "I miss Luke's coffee."

Lorelai tensed slightly, and nodded mutely.

The two girls walked through the Yale courtyards, participating in mindless banter, and girl talk. It was an hour after the girls where fresh out of coffee that there was a unanimous need to return to the dorm suite where the girls still needed to greet Rory's roommate.

It was decided amongst the mother and daughter duo that Rory's roommate needed to be fun, and pretty. Witty and have a good appetite. Good taste in music, and clothes, has an undying coffee addiction to match their own.

But, indeed, what they received for Rory's new roommate was someone they went way back with: Paris Gellar. Paris needed no embellishments: Paris was Paris.

---&---

"Hey, Rory!" Paris called one morning in the middle of November, "On your way home can you pick up some groceries? We're in dire need of asparagus."

"Asparagus?" Paris nodded, tapping her fingers against her doorframe, "Doyle wants vegetables?"

"Who says Doyle's here?"

"When have you ever eaten asparagus, Paris?"

"When I was in Spain with Nanny."

"And when exactly were you in Spain with nanny, Paris?"

"When I was twelve."

"How old are you know?"

"Twenty."

"Exactly," Rory said, grabbing her car keys, and placing her hand over the doorknob, "But since Doyle is the love of your life, I will pick up asparagus on my way home." Smiling slightly, she opened the door, "Bye Paris. Bye Doyle!"

"Bye!"

"Idiot," Rory mumbled to herself after closing the door to her dorm room.

---&---

"I'm getting sick of not seeing you everyday," Tristan declared after he had opened his dorm room door to see Rory standing there, a smirk intact on her face, and her head tilted to the side. "But what I'm curious about," he started, taking her by the elbow, and pulling her inside, before kicking his door closed, "Is why you drove all the way here. I would have driven to Yale."

Rory shrugged, "Paris is my roommate, Tristan." She laughed, and plopped down onto the common room sofa. "Where's your roommate?"

Tristan shrugged, "Flavor of the week: her place, and her treat."

Rory laughed again, and picked a stray thread on his sofa, "Hmn, so how are the girls handling you being off the market? And especially by a Yalie?"

"I don't think they know yet," he replied, sitting down, and laying his head in her lap.

Rory rose an eyebrow, and looked down at him, placing her palm at the crown of his head, "What?"

"I said I don't think they know."

"Know that you have a girlfriend? Or they know that you're still messing around with tramps?"

"Rory let's not do this."

"No, I think we should do this. What don't they know, Tristan? We've been dating exclusively for two and a half months, Tristan! Since September third!"

"Rory – c'mon. Calm down!"

"What don't they know, Tristan?"

Sitting up, he looked at her, letting out a long drawn out sigh, "Rory do we seriously need to talk about this? I love you, okay? You're honestly the only one that means anything to me."

"You're sleeping with other girls?" Rory yelled, standing up, and staring down at him, shaking her head. "I can't believe you!"

"Jesus, Rory," Tristan snapped, rubbing his temples, "We don't go to the same school!"

"And that automatically puts a sticker on our relationship? 'Oh, I can sleep with that blonde over there, and Rory will never find out because she doesn't go to Princeton. She goes to Yale! Well tsk, tsk, to Rory, because Rory is soooo stupid to actually think I can keep it in my pants!' God, Tristan. What is your problem?"

"I'm a man, I have needs!"

"Ha!" Rory scoffed, crossing her arms roughly across her chest, "If you were a man, as you so proclaim, I do believe the little man in your pants could have told you, you have a girlfriend back towards your home that loved you."

"You loved me?"

"Past tense. I don't love cheating bastards."

Tristan groaned, standing and walking in front of her, holding her shoulders in his hands. "Rory."

"No."

"Rory, come on."

"I don't want to hear you're bullshit, Tristan." She snapped, moving away from him, clutching her car keys in her hand, shaking her head. "Don't call me. Don't come to Yale. Don't go to my house. Don't talk to my mother, or my grandparents. Don't tell your parents, or your grandfather. As far as I'm concerned, you're nothing of importance."

"Rory, don't do this."

"No – Tristan. It's over. I'm done. I'm out. I don't want this."

"Rory – why are you doing this?"

"No, why did you sleep with other girls Tristan? Why did you do this?"

Tristan stood there, staring at her, furrowing his brow, hoping for a quick, logical explanation. "I don't know…" he came up with after a few moments delay, "I just… I can't explain what I did. There's nothing right about it."

"You're right, Tristan, there was nothing right about it. I can't be a part of this anymore."

"Do you really need to be so drastic, Ror?" he asked, walking towards her, holding her elbow in his hand slightly, looking her directly in the eye, "I'm sorry… I wish I could take back what I did, but I can't."

Moving away from him again, Rory shook her head, "I can't… do it anymore… This was over before it even began, Tristan."