Rory prayed that when she reached the bottom step she would find Logan's cocky ass standing there smirking. It would make things so much easier for her. Instead though she found that as soon as her foot hit the bottom step she was blindfolded by who she presumed was Finn because of the smell of Foster's in the air. She felt her chest tighten. This wasn't funny. If Logan was standing there then he would see Dean before she got a chance to explain that she hadn't invited him. "Finn is Logan here?" she whispered quietly just to make sure if Dean were anywhere near her that he would not be able to hear.

"No he's not here yet. He's meeting us at the party." Finn explained and then laughed in his usual drunk manner. There were few things you could count on in life. For Rory it was that Stephanie would always have mango passion lip gloss in her purse, Colin would always pay the check, and that Finn would be halfway drunk by 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Some would call these things dysfunctional, Rory called them comfort.

Rory let out a breath of relief. She'd find him at the party. Surely it wouldn't be that hard. "Okay I have five questions: Who else is here besides Finny, Dean, and me? How long do I have to wear this blindfold because it reeks of one of Finn's one night stands? Is this blindfold off of a one night stand? Where are we going? Why do I have to wear a blindfold?"

"Yes!" Stephanie exclaimed. "Ha give me my fifty bucks suckers I told you five questions. I don't know how you could go with ten Finn. Colin are you actually so naïve that you would think we would get off answering only one?"

"I didn't want to bust." Colin explained. Rory recognized the rustling of a fifty being shoved into Stephanie's hand.

"Is anyone going to answer my questions!" Rory demanded. She should have known that would do something like bet on her. It was such a trademark LDB move.

"We'll answer two of them but ONLY two. Make them good ones Ace." Stephanie compromised. If she had it her way they would leave Rory completely clueless struggling with the thought of whether or not this blindfold had been on one of Finn's "dates". That is if you actually thought of them as a date. Sure there was dinner. Maybe they even shared a glass of one. Still there was never dessert of the sweet and edible persuasion. Of course the one exception would be the time he dated the girl who wear edible panties. The mere thought of that girl made Stephanie want to yak.

Rory sat there quietly contemplating her choice. Would it be better to ask where she was going or were the underwear off of a one night stand? "Okay fine I have got to know about this damn blindfold is this from one of Finn's little adventures? Two if they are from an adventure a) why am I wearing it and b) for how long?"

Stephanie laughed. She knew Rory would go with the blindfold questions. Even though where they were going was a better choice. She knew that they would never give her a straight answer. "No the blindfold is not off of one of Finn's "adventures" and sneaky Rory I love how you are busting out a two part question you will wear it till we get into the limo and then after we get to the destination you will put it back on until we take it off of you."

Before Rory could even respond she found that she was being lead out the door. This time she thought it was Dean who was probably thinking of some snide comment that he would later say about her friends because he didn't have the balls to say it now. Suddenly though the darkness turned it to extreme brightness as she found that she was in the tackiest limo…ever. "What did you steal this from a 70s porn star?"

"No but it probably would have been cheaper if we had." Colin joked.

Rory laughed at the site of him and Finn. Both of them were in tuxedos which reminded her of a bad 80s prom picture. "So Finn you flying solo this evening?"

She laughed when she saw him shoot Stephanie a dirty look before returning his attention back to the conversation. "Yes because Stephanie proclaimed your birthday extravaganza a quote unquote ho free zone."

"Then how will Madeline and Louise get in?" Colin asked in a feigned innocent tone.

Stephanie sighed. "Leave them be Colin."

Dean who had been quiet for the entire conversation suddenly spoke. "Who are Madeline and Louise?"

"Madeline is my cousin whose bed has more visitors a year than the Grand Canyon. Louise is Stephanie's cousin who if you can believe it can actually make Paris Hilton look like a nun." Colin explained his voice filled with nothing but disgust.

The mood would have been tense if not for the sudden outburst by Finn. "Why haven't I gotten to make my acquaintance with either one of these fine ladies?"

Everyone but Dean laughed obviously missing the humorous moment. Sometimes Rory thought that his childhood must have mostly occurred underneath a rock. That or he was dropped on his head daily for five years and then released into the real world. Of course afterwards she would feel like a superficial snob but that didn't help stop the feelings from happening.

"Miss Lancaster we are about a minute from the party." A voice said over the intercom.

Once again Rory was attacked and blindfolded. Soon after she felt the limo stop and then the door opened. Finally she was going to get a chance to celebrate her birthday. Once again she said a small prayer that basically went please don't let this be some stuffy boring affair. When she walked into the venue she noticed two things that it was dead silent and hot. She wondered where she could be. She was lead up a few stairs and then pushed into a soft plushy chair. Very abruptly her mask was removed and she realized that even though the place was quiet it wasn't empty. She looked into the crowd of over two hundred people and smiled.

Stephanie smiled even brighter when she realized that she had driven Rory to be completely speechless. "Well everybody thank you for coming! Welcome to the Lava Lounge if you haven't been here before! Now let's and I'm only going to say this once and after getting super plastered won't even remember uttering the words but here it goes LET'S GET DOWN WITH OUR BAD SELVES! LET'S GET JIGGY WITH IT!" Suddenly music poured from the loudspeakers and the room went from quiet to booming in seconds.

It wasn't until Rory saw his familiar messy blonde hair that she remembered her task. She hopped up from her seat just as the beginning to "Welcome to the Jungle" began to fill the room. She looked over to where she had seen a stage and realized that this wasn't just a bar…it was karaoke bar and her mother and father were about to sing Guns. She decided then that this would be an interesting evening. She reached him after a bit of sidestepping and tapped his shoulder.

Logan turned around a beer in his right hand and a smile plastered on his face. He was very happy to be back in familiar surroundings. It had taken him long at all to remember why he loved Hartford so much. "Well if it isn't the birthday girl herself. To what do I owe this honor? Let me guess my charm."

She scoffed. "No more like I had something to tell you."

"Rory I know what you're going to say." Logan said with a smile.

Rory who was already getting dumber by the second just being in his presence thought he was being serious. "Who told you? Stephanie? Colin? Finn?"

"No really it was the goofy grin on your face when you laid your eyes on my sexy physique that said that you wanted to profess your love for me."

Rory rolled her eyes. She should have known. "No really I have something to tell you."

"What is it?" Logan suddenly became aware that she wasn't joking around anymore. She really seemed desperate to say something.

"I just wanted to say…" Rory started but before she could get the whole statement out she felt a firm and rough hand on her shoulder and turned her head slightly to see that it was Dean standing there behind her. She closed her eyes and willed him away telepathically. She opened only to find he was still there. She looked at Logan whose face had suddenly gone from bright and chipper to solemn.

"You must be Dean." He replied in a gruff formal tone. "I've heard a lot about you."

"And you are?" Dean questioned. His tone was protective. He was so intent on not letting this other guy out talk him that he hadn't noticed Rory trying to get out from under his hand.

Rory piped up at this point not sure what Logan would say out of anger. He was known to shove his foot in his mouth. "This is one of my really good friends Logan Huntzberger."

"Oh the one who left you for college" Dean suddenly realized that he was face to face with the one guy Rory had ever loved. At that moment he wondered if she cared for him in the way that she had cared for Logan.

Logan didn't like Dean's tone. Logan didn't like Dean's protective manner. Most of all Logan didn't like the fact that Dean had his hands all over Rory. "I prefer to call myself Rory's first love."

"Too bad you left well at least for you. I sort of lucked out because of it." Dean shot back.

Logan opened his mouth to speak. Then he looked down at Rory. He could see that she was torn. He could see that was in pain. Instead of responding he walked away replying over his shoulder "I'll see you later on Rory…"

Rory looked over at Dean and then asked angrily "What was that all about?"

"What do you mean?" Dean asked pretending like he usually did to not realize that he was in the wrong.

"I mean that damn tough guy act. You didn't have to be rude to him." Rory seethed.

Dean looked at her in awe. Why was she saying these things? She knew better than anyone that these people were all snobs. He had to be defensive to survive. He had to cut them before they could cut him. "Well Rory I just had to make it clear that you were mine now."

"Yours?"

"Yeah mine. You're my girlfriend. He needs to know to back the hell away from you. Your taken." Dean said his tone icy cold.

"I'm not your damn property. If I thought that he was hitting on me I would have told him to stop it. Logan isn't that kind of guy. We're just friends now." Rory's voice was filled with anger at this point.

Dean grabbed her arm. "You didn't look like just friends. You looked like you were about to make out with him or something. You liked like someone about to give into temptation. I was just telling that temptation to not even count on you giving in."

"Where the hell are you getting that from?"

Dean rolled his eyes as if she was the one not making sense. "I know all about you rich girls. You get everything you want. The things you want most are the ones you can't have."

"Get out of my party!" Rory said in an angry whisper.

Dean looked at her shocked. "What?"

"I said get out! Get out right now!"

"You don't mean that Rory." He said his tone firm.

Rory clenched her teeth. "Get out or else I'm going to have the men's lacrosse team from Chilton kick you out!"

"You wouldn't."

Rory laughed. "You want to make a bet."

Dean let go of her wrist and then looked at her for a second before stalking off. She saw the door to the place open and close and then he was gone. She looked down at her wrist and saw that it was red from where he had held her.

Logan had seen the whole scene from where he was sitting with Finn and Madeline. He'd have to find out later how Finn knew to scope out Madeline as a possible date for the evening. Right then he was more occupied with Rory. He got up from the table and went to where she was. "Are you okay?"

Rory looked at him. She looked into his eyes. She saw then what she had seen before and smiled. He was back. Here Logan was back. "I am now…."

I will update as soon as I can. Thanks for reading. Tell me what you think.