A/N: It's been two months, wow, I'm sorry! This isn't very long but I felt I had to put it up. Gilmore Girls and One Tree Hill are back on, yay! If Tristan seems overly nice in this, it's Lucas Scott's fault for being so damn sweet ha ha.
"Hey. I just wanted to thank you again for helping me out last night." Tristan's clear voice softly whispered in Tara's ear as she got her books from her locker the next morning.
She let out an involuntary shiver as she felt his warm breath on her neck. Closing her locker, she gave the boy a nod and started to walk off.
"Not even a hello, today?" Tristan pushed off the locker and walked alongside her. "Or even a smile?" he let out a whistle.
"You obviously don't care enough to listen to what I have to say, I don't see why I should waste my words on you." She curtly responded, not even sparing him a glance.
"What are you talking about?" he frowned. "I listen to you."
"I was starting to think I was being too harsh about my judgment on you. After all, you didn't seem too bad. You were even starting to grow on me. Classically bullshitted. The way I was thinking in itself should have tipped me off right away but somehow it didn't." Tara shook her head, keeping her gaze ahead of her.
"Could you stop for a moment and explain what you're bitching about now?" Tristan sighed in exasperation, standing in her way so she would have to stop.
"Don't be stupid, I said. I care about what happens to you, please take care of yourself, I said. Did all that just feed your ego and then go out your ears?" she finally looked at him, but it wasn't a friendly look. The words pissed and dagger-filled glare about summed it up.
"Is that what you're upset about, babe?" he laughed. "Come on."
"You come on. Does drunkenly walking in the middle of the street 45 minutes away from your intended destination sound like you were trying not to be stupid?" she shook her head.
"Compared to other shit I was going to do, yeah that was actually smart." He answered. Her stony disposition caused him to reach out and take her arm in an attempt to get her full attention. She quickly looked down at his hand clenched around her arm and the way she tensed up caused the blonde to instantly reconsider his action. He didn't move his hand, however, because now she seemed to be acutely aware of him and was no longer making an attempt to ignore him.
"Look, I do listen to you, and I do care about what you think of me. I don't know why you're taking this so personally, but if it'd make you feel better I did almost drive home, and before that some other stuff I'm sure you'd rather not hear about, but I stopped because your words did register." He told her. "You know, you are really sensitive about what I do and what I take from you for someone who acts like they don't give a shit about me."
"If getting drunk and nearly run over is your idea of a smart option, I don't want to know what you normally do." Tara answered in disgust. "Now get your hung over hands off of me before I hurt you."
"So, you're seriously starting to grow a bit fond of me, aren't you?" Tristan grinned, keeping one hand around her wrist and one stroking her cheek. In a swift moment, she had her hand tightly around the hand he had been stroking her with and swung it behind him. She used her free arm to elbow and push him out of her way and neatly fixed the sleeve his hold had rumpled.
"I said. Don't. Touch. Me." Tara clenched her jaw and walked off.
"Really touché." Tristan muttered, rubbing his arm. He easily caught up with her and pointed out, "I don't get it, you weren't mad at me when you dropped me off last night."
"I was worried about you then, now I realize you're not worth it." Tara sighed. "Maybe it would have done you more good if I had let some car hit you. You need a wake-up call."
Tristan's eyes instantly clouded over. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me." She evenly, though a bit defensively, replied. "You've never had to deal with consequences, never had to see how stupid these things you're doing are. You don't live in the real world, the world where you can have too much to drink and the alcohol burns up your liver, or you decide to drive, or you get run over."
"You don't know anything about me, Tara. So stop assuming." His voice was quiet but it was simmering with anger.
"I know that you have a reputation to uphold. That you're pretty much the signature party boy. You're wild. Oh, look, aren't I just fainting with adoration?" she raised her eyebrows.
"I don't need a wake-up call, and I don't need some girl who barely knows me making snap judgments on me, pretending that they know anything at all about me." He clenched his teeth.
"You are such a tortured rich kid, aren't you?" her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"And you're just the girl who's never had a break, right? Shunned by all, poor little Tara always loses out to those richer than her." Tristan mocked.
"Tristan. I keep thinking there's something else, there's something that's making you turn to beer, something that you're trying to get away from. That this is just the cover. I want to know. I tried to help." She ran a hand through her hair uncertainly.
"Well, you were wrong. There are no deeper layers, this is who I am. Judge me, brush me off, I guess I'm just a shallow party boy." He crossly stated.
"I guess you are." She said softly.
"Maybe I just like the taste of beer, maybe it's just my nature to go to parties. Just because I don't measure up to who you are, doesn't mean this isn't real. Stop looking for the real me, you're staring at him." Tristan bit out.
"Then the real you is a typecasted cliché." Tara retorted, equal parts angry honesty and gentleness in her tone. "I guess I just didn't want to think of you like that. Glad to see I was wrong. You really are just like the rest of them." And this time when she walked off, he didn't follow her. Because in his mind, he thought, so are you.
When English came, it wasn't a work class so Tristan didn't have to speak to Tara at all for the rest of the morning, choosing to spin his words on the other members of the class. He saw her in the halls but the two never made eye contact. Him with his group of four or more girls and a handful of guys, her gripping her latest book with her headphones over her ears, the two walked by each other as if they didn't know each other.
When one of Tristan's friends let out a demeaning catcall as the girl bent down to pick up her books that she had dropped, he didn't say a word. He watched as Paris and Madeline kicked one of her books further away and smirked. He kept his mouth shut when Paris was being Paris, apparently Tara had been catching up in class and Paris was starting to feel threatened. And Tara didn't look over at Tristan with a plea in her eyes as he expected her to. Instead, she cast the group a standard withering look, picked up her books, snarled subtly at Paris, and squirmed around the group.
Which made it that much more surprising when Tristan had gathered his books in his bag after basketball practice had ended a good twenty minutes before, and was beginning to drive out of the parking lot, to find Tara sprinting towards him, a look of urgent panic in her eyes. She practically skidded in front of the car, forcing him to stop.
"Tristan!" so much relief was seeped into that one word… "Please, please- can you give me a ride?" She was out of breath. Tristan frowned but slightly inclined his head and reached over and opened the door. She slid in and quickly fastened her seat belt as she tried to catch her breath. "I know we're fighting and you're mad at me and I'm mad at you but could you please just drive?" Again Tristan nodded and moved out of the lot, not failing to notice how the girl was trying to bend over in an attempt to remain unseen from something outside. He let it drop.
"…So, home?" he asked.
"No, I can't." she hastily shook her head. "Could you drop me off at my friend's house? It's in your town. 77 Hilcrest road." The look of panic was subsiding, but every now and then she would look over her shoulder.
"Tara, is something…?" Tristan faltered.
"Could I please borrow your cell phone?" she questioned suddenly.
"Okay." He handed it to her.
"It's me. It's about…yeah… Right now. Be careful… I just wanted to make sure you knew…. No I'm fine, I'm getting a ride from a friend… I'm going to be at Matt and Dylan's'… Okay…. I will. Bye." Her voice was carefully low and he noticed how her hands shook just a bit when she gave his phone back.
The first part of the ride was in silence, Tristan deciding that this was not the time to be angry at her, but after ten minutes, he cautiously asked, "Uh, would you mind if-?" he gestured to his CD player. She quickly shook her head and motioned for him to turn it on.
A blast of rock exploded onto the stereo, and the blonde quickly turned it down, his mouth quirking a bit, "Sorry."
"No, that's fine. I like this." She quietly murmured, staring out her window.
"Look, I don't want to be a nosy bastard and pry… but what the hell happened?" he asked.
"Nothing." She smiled. "Just forgot that I had to get to my friends house today and totally missed my bus. They would have killed me if I had been late." At the look on his face, Tara's smile faltered just a bit.
"So, are we friends or what?" he asked.
"Or what." She shrugged.
"I'm not just a typecast." He cleared his throat.
"I know." She said.
"I'm not just a cliché." He continued.
"I never believed you were." She answered.
"And you're not just some girl who hates all the rich kids." He said.
"No, I'm not." She looked down but whipped her head up again when she realized she had just shown a sign of awkwardness.
"And that doesn't matter, does it? You still won't let down your barriers and let me in to see who you are." Tristan said.
"And neither will you." She met his eyes finally.
"I can't tell you all my secrets." He said quietly.
"I'm not asking you to." Tara simply answered.
"Hell, what secrets are there to tell?" Tristan let out a shrug.
"Nothing you could possibly tell a girl you barely know." She smiled.
"It isn't like that." He said.
"Thanks for doing this." The girl said. " I get that we're fighting. That you don't like me and we're at each other's throats. So it means a lot to me that you did this for me and didn't leave me there alone at the school. Um, because my friend's would've been so mad."
He smiled and laughed just a bit at that but again let it drop. The smile still half-lingering, he said, "This wasn't a problem. Don't hesitate to ask me for help, because despite what you think of me, I'd never be the guy who would leave you at the school. And you must not know very many decent people out there if this means a lot to you and if you're surprised by this."
"Bye, Dugrey." She said, the car pulling up to the curb. "And this doesn't mean we're friends."
"No, of course not." He laughed. That was feeble and untrue, and they both knew it, but they both went with it. "I'll see you in class."
As she got out and was closing the door, Tristan smiled genuinely, "And Tara? I always liked you."