Hurt: "To cause or feel pain." –New Webster's Dictionary-
Rory took a deep breath inhaling the wonderful aroma of coffee that surrounded her. She was in heaven, well a Gilmore girl heaven anyways. She was sitting on a big plush armchair, with her feet curled under her, in a quaint little coffee shop Marty had brought her to one day. He had taken her there upon discovering Rory's love for coffee and she had instantly fallen in love with it. Whenever she needed a break from the hustle and bustle of her busy Yale life, she always brought one of her favorite books here, and with an extra large coffee would get settled in her comfy armchair of choice and get lost in her own world.
Today was no exception, with the holiday break coming up, the workload from her classes had hit an all time high and with the added work from the paper, Rory just felt worn out and needed a place to take a small time out for herself and relax.
She was engrossed in her book, when she heard a familiar voice ordering a coffee to go. Rory looked up to see Marty standing by the counter. She watched as he picked up the coffee thanked the server and starting heading back towards the door. "MARTY." Rory called out to him.
Startled, Marty stopped and looked around until he spotted Rory in her usual chair. Somewhat hesitantly he walked over to her.
"Hey Marty. Have a seat." She said smiling, patting the empty chair beside her.
"I can't stay I have a huge paper I'm working on due on Monday, I should really get back to the library." He replied, remaining standing.
"Oh okay." Rory answered disappointed. "But can you sit for a minute? I haven't talked to you since Lane's thing and I've tried calling you, but haven't been able to get a hold of you. Did you get the messages I left?"
Sitting down on the edge of the chair he replied, "Oh um, yeah. I've just been really busy. You know school and stuff."
"Oh right."
"Yep."
"Do you want to hang out later this week? Rent a movie, eat bad take out. Oh! With Paris off her fast, she might even go for a pizza eating competition! That's if she'll let us have any of it." Rory said excitedly, trying to entice a smile from him.
But Marty remained stoic and replied, "Sorry I don't think I can. I've got a lot going on with school and work."
Rory feeling the awkwardness of the situation, brought up the subject in which she thought the tension stemmed, "so you left in a hurry the other night, you didn't even say bye."
Marty shrugged, "Yeah, well you seemed busy and I was getting tired so I just hitched a ride home."
"I would have left with you if you had told me."
"I didn't want to ruin your night."
"Marty is everything okay?" Rory asked, searching Marty's face for some answers.
But he looked away and said quietly, "Sure everything's fine."
"Everything's fine between us?"
"Sure."
"I'm sorry about the other night, with Logan, Colin and Finn. I really didn't know they were going to come."
"Yeah well, what can you do?" Marty said, shrugging again. "You know I should really get back to working on my paper." He added as he stood up.
"Oh okay."
"So I'll see you around Rory."
"Okay sure." Rory replied softly, not wanting Marty to leave, with things obviously not right between them.
Marty turned to walk away, but stopped, turning back towards Rory he said, "Oh and Rory?"
"Yeah Marty?" Rory asked hopefully.
"If you and Huntzberger get involved. Just be careful okay?" He said, as he turned and walked away.
Rory sat dumbfounded, watching the door close behind Marty. She suddenly felt deflated. She had known that something was wrong with Marty when he had left on Saturday without telling her; Logan, Colin and Finn hadn't exactly been on their best behaviour but she had thought he had just wanted to get away from the three of them. But now she realized that something seemed to have changed between her and Marty's relationship as well.
That notion didn't sit well with her. Marty was one of Rory's first real friends she had met at Yale and she loved hanging out with him. He was always there for her whether it was to talk, to hangout or study and now she hoped that their relationship hadn't be altered beyond repair.
Feeling dejected, Rory attempted to assume her prior activity. Picking up her book, she started to read. However, after a moment of reading the same sentence over and over again, she realized it was no use. Her cozy coffee heaven, now felt stuffy and she just didn't have the concentration level to read. Sighing she threw her book down onto her lap in frustration.
"Having some difficulty with the book huh? No worries it happens to the best of us." Another familiar voice said interrupting her thoughts.
Looking up, she found Logan standing there grinning at her and immediately for some unknown reason she felt a tug of irritation.
Noting the pained expression on her face, Logan asked lightheartedly, "what no witty comeback?"
"Nope." Rory simply replied.
Logan stood observing Rory's indifferent behaviour and felt slightly unsettled by it. The last time he had seen her, he could have sworn things had started to head in a different direction.
Taking off his jacket he sat in the seat Marty recently vacated and said in an attempt to rile her up, "I'm disappointed Ace, I know you're debating skills are lacking as evident in our first meeting but still, I expect more from you."
Rory let out a tired sigh, "Do you think you could leave me alone? I'm not up for our usual meaningless banter."
Logan felt a sting from her blunt words; his smile faltered slightly, "Having a bad day?"
"Nothing you leaving won't solve." Rory replied. She heard the words leave her mouth and wasn't exactly sure where they were coming from. All she knew was after her previous encounter with Marty, Logan's current presence was just adding to her earlier frustrations.
"What's going on Ace?" Logan asked seriously. Leaning forward to search for some answers.
"Nothing's going on Logan." She replied mechanically, looking down at her book, turning the pages absentmindedly.
"Did something happen?"
"No nothing happened. Although I did come to the realization that you and your two sidekicks shouldn't have come out last Saturday."
Startled, Logan wondered where this newsflash came from, "What so we crashed your party? What's the big deal? We had fun didn't we?"
Rory's head shot up, making eye contact with Logan, asked, "all you care about is having fun isn't it? You don't care about how your fun hurts other people's feelings do you?"
Logan attempting to grasp the situation at hand asked, "Ace where is this coming from? Did I do something to hurt your feelings?"
"Does it really matter to you?" She asked in slight disbelief.
"Sure it does, I don't like to see a friend hurt."
Rory shook her head and replied: "We're not friends Logan."
Logan was taken back by her response, and even more shocked by her sudden change in behaviour. Granted Rory Gilmore was always in some shape or form annoyed with him, but he never felt the type of animosity he was feeling now from her, "What are you talking about?"
"Just because I'm currently, for some unknown reason, someone who amuses you, doesn't make us friends."
"And did you come to this conclusion all on your own?" Logan asked sarcastically, as he began getting annoyed at Rory's behaviour and her unfounded accusations.
Logan's tone seemed only to egg Rory on, "What? Can't handle the truth Logan? You rather we just continue trading quips until you get tired of me and find someone else to toy with?"
"Your assumptions are absurd."
"No they aren't. You and your games are absurd. You came into my life and turned everything upside down. Marty's mad at me…"
Logan's expression darkened further as he demanded, "What does Marty have to do with this?"
Rory's eyes widened, "Nothing… argh… everything." She stammered, putting away her book in frustration, as words began tumbling out of her mouth: "Logan, you and I are very different people. You think everything's a joke, a game. You don't take things seriously and you use your parent's wealth and connections to your own advantage, belittle-ling those you aren't are fortunate as yourself. You're just a spoiled kid who needs to grow up."
Logan's eyes narrowed into a glare, "Well Rory, maybe not everyone's as perfect as you or takes everything as seriously as you do. You live in your own world, with your own expectations of everyone in it and while you're doing that you're letting the real world pass you by. You can call me a spoiled kid all you like, but at least I'm willing to live life, something I doubt you can say for yourself. Cause from what I've seen, you're just a scared kid who hides behind her mother afraid to take any real chances in life."
As he said those words, he knew he had hurt her, but he couldn't help it, she had hurt him and all he wanted was to do the same to her. She stood up and stared at him for a moment, then simply said: "Goodbye Logan." as she walked away.
Logan remained frozen in place as he watched her leave, feelings of anger, frustration, guilt and confusion ran through his head. Earlier, when he had walked into the coffee shop he had been pleasantly surprised to spot Rory there, not having seen her since the concert he had hoped to run into her. But if anyone had told him that ten minutes after that moment he would be sitting contemplating the end of his pseudo friendship with Rory, he would have simply scoffed.
But now as he replayed her words in his head, he scowled. Perhaps it was his wounded ego talking but at that moment the only thought in his head was if Rory Gilmore didn't want to be his friend, than he would be just fine with that.
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