Aww, thanks guys. The reviews were great.

Except that one. Please, if you think my writing sucks, offer suggestions. Don't just be a nuisance.

Okay, here goes:

"My girlfriend. I asked her out, asked her to be my girlfriend, and she said yes, that she would be my girlfriend, and therefore, she is my girlfriend." Marty explained. Tristan was floored.

"Wh...When did this happen?" he asked. would Rory do that? She hadn't known anyone for that long, and seemed the type of girl to wait before dating a guy.

"Yesterday," he announced happily, "I met her coming out of a coffeeshop, and, we talked for a while, and things happened." he said, his grin spreading from ear to ear.

"Jeez, Marty, that's uh, great. Look I'll talk to you later." he said, and rushed from the room.

-

"She what?" Logan exclaimed. "Dude, this never happens to you."

"I know...I mean...I never saw it coming." Tristan said again, falling backwards onto his bed. The group had congregated once again in his and Logan's room, now discussing Marty's interference.

"What exactly did he say?" Logan asked again.

"He just beat the record for most times 'girlfriend' had ever been used in a sentance."

"Who cares?" Colin cut in, speaking around a mouthful of chinese take out. "Boyfriends have never goten in your way. Just ignore him." Normally, he would be right. Tristan had never found a problem going around another guy. After all, if the girl went along with it, and she always did, then she never really liked him anyway. Darwin and such. But Marty was another story. Tristan knew Marty. This was probably his first girlfriend, and he wasn't sure he could take that away from his pityfriend.

"How could this happen?" Logan repeated for the umpteenth time. He had been even more shocked than Tristan had, and was still putting his mind around the news.

"He's probably lying anyway, skeezy bastard." Colin said, but Tristan shook his head.

"Guys, this is the guy who tells us when he's run out of ointment." They all winced at the memory.

"Are you still going out with her tonight?" Logan asked.

"I don't know. Yes. No. Maybe. Would you?" Tristan shrugged helplessly, torn between his own selfishness and how far he was willing to go for this guy. Was Marty worth it?

"Dude, just go." Colin finally ordered. "You don't have to do anything if you decide to become a girl and wuss out. Just...Study with her." he said, his words dripping with double meaning. Tristan nodded. He could still stall a while longer.

-

"With Tristan DuGrey? Oh, are you in for it." Madeleine said with a knowing smile.

"What? We're just studying." Rory defended herself, but it was no use. The girls flanking her only laughed.

"You'll see," purred Louise. The pair walked away, leaving Rory with a disgusted Paris.

"You know, they're all like that. Assuming the worst." she shook her head. "If you don't want to do anything with that idiot pervert, you wont. He's not magic or anything." Paris had never approved of Tristan, and made no effort to hide this fact. She never flirted or bantered with him, instead attacking his attempts with biting comments which actually seemed to scare him off. Rory could never admit to her friend that she was harboring a secret, unintentional crush on him. She could never deal with Paris' dissaproving gaze turned on her. She was her only real friend. After all, she was the only one who believed Rory could control herself around Tristan.

"Exactly," Rory agreed, not sure if she believed her own words. Even if she didn't believe in herself, her friend's faith was nice to have. "Hey Paris, have you ever been to Lukes?"

"No...but I'm assuming it's a coffee place. I'm not a big coffee drinker."

"Just wait. You can be my first converted." she said, and led the blond girl to her favorite dive.

"Hey Luke," she greeted the surly owner.

"Hi, Rory, one coffee?"

"Two. I brought a friend," she said, seting her bag down and taking a seat at the bar. Paris ventured a quick smile, one that didn't reach her eyes. She was currently looking around the dingy walls of the place, wondering how many diseases she was in risk of catching.

"A friend..." Luke muttered, then his face brightened. "A friend! Ror, I got in touch with Jess, and he's coming to visit next week, for one week. This is the longest he's ever stayed here."

Rory squealed, and Luke winced.

"Please, my eardrums can only take so much,"

"Who is this guy, anyway?" Paris interjected. Rory tried to explain.

-

7:00, exactly. 7:01. Was he trying to torture her? Rory paced back and forth in her room. She had been waiting longer than she'd like to admit. Her english books were sitting, ready for action. Her hair was brushed, shoes were on. She had applied a small amount of lipgloss before, then gotten angry at herself for putting it on, so she wiped it all off.

There was a knock on the door. Rory jumped, then smoothed her hair once more, took a deep breath, and opened it. Tristan stood at the entrance, leaning against the wall and biting his lip.

"Hey," Rory said in her best uncaring voice. "Where are we doing this?" it was out before she could stop herself, and she grimaced at the expected sexual innuendo. Surprisingly, none came. Instead, Tristan took her hand and led her through the near empty hallway.

"I want to show you my favorite place in this whole school." he said, covering his excitement in a hushed voice. Rory smiled, a small, puzzled smile. This was a completely different Tristan than she was used to dealing with. They walked through the marble halls for what seemed like forever. Rory quickly lost track of where she was, and the crowds around them soon thinned. Eventually they were walking alone, and after what seemed like ages, Tristan stopped.

"Um..." Rory ventured. Was he out of his mind?

"Here is is." he declared, throwing his arms wide.

"Tristan."

"What?" he turned to her with an innocent look on his face.

"This is a janitors closet."

"Ah, it looks like a janitors closet. No one comes to this part of the school anymore. A couple years ago there was an accident becuase of one of these, but when they had all of them closed I covered the sign. It's the only one left."

"Tristan, what are you talking about?" Rory finally lost track of his train of thought. He really had misplaced his sanity.

"Trust me." he grinned. After a moment of pause he took out a key and opened the closet. Upon closer examination Rory saw it wasn't a closet at all, rather a dark stairwell. From the looks of it, it went up for quite a while.

"We're going...up there?" Rory asked with some apprehension. Tristan smirked at her.

"Scared, Mary?" No. She was not going to give him reason to revert back to his normal self, not when she was so interested by this other side of him.

"Never." she said, and started up the stairs. She heard the door close behind her, and soon heard Tristan's steps reach her own. The stairwell was now pitch black, and all she could do was continue onward. She tried to ignore the feel of Tristan's breath on the back of her neck, and the scent of his cologne, wafting up to reach her.

After what seemed like ages, she reached the door. Bumped into it, actually. It was all she could do not to fall backwards, and she reached for the handle.

"It's locked," she said, suddenly panicked. Why had he brought her up here, anyway? How could she be so stupid? She knew he wasn't trustworthy, she just knew it. She felt his hand reach by her side, and almost screamed. Then his had moved past her, and he reached over to unlock the door. Of course, he had a key. Rory was glad the dark hid her bright red blush.

Feeling more than a little silly, she stepped forward and puched the door open. When the latch clicked and she stepped out, she gasped. She was outside. The stars above her shone, and the night breeze tickled her skin.

"We're on the roof?" she said.

"Brilliant deduction there, Watson." he joked. He walked past her, and she followed. The roof was huge, covered with various chimineys and air vents. It looked like a futuristic playground. She kept her childish analogy to herself. He led her to a large brick chiminey, near the edge of the roof. They sat against it, taking in the majestic view. From here you could see for miles.

"It's beautiful," Rory said breathlessly. Tristan nodded next to her.

"Yeah, I used to come up here more often, but I never really have time anymore." he observed sadly. The pair sat in silence, watching the black horizon, and the lights still on in Chilton's little piece of the world.

"So Mary, how is Chilton treating you?" he asked after a while. He turned his head to her, still leaning against the bricks behind him.

"It's okay,"

"That's it? Do you miss anything?" Rory shrugged, not looking at him. When she saw he wasn't going to give up, she avoided the question.

"What are you doing?"

"Making conversation," Tristan ventured, taken aback by the sudden intensity in her voice.

"Do you have to make this one?" she asked. Her baby blue eyes were pleading, and he felt a pull within. He wanted to find out why she was so afraid of the topic, and he wanted to make everything all better.

"Would you rather discuss the insane amount of caffeine you put in your body?"

"Something like that." Rory laughed. Tristan let out a breath and grinned. He leaned his head forward, his nose almost touching that of the girl in front of him. Rory moved hers away slightly.

"Okay, studying. You're reading Julius Caesar right now..."

"No. My class is. I am not." he corrected with aplomb.

"You haven't even started?"

"I read it ages ago, I get it. Blah blah blah, good versus evil, blah blah blah, betrayal of a friend...blah blah blah, Brutus' final mistake, blah blah blah, I get it."

"You don't need help?" Rory asked angrily. He had lied to her.

"Not with English."

"Yeah? Then what do you want?" Tristan floundered. What did he want? He wasn't even sure himself. She seemed so perfect, every single part of her. Every flaw was flawless. He wanted her, but he wasn't sure if he could betray Marty.

"I don't know," he admitted, knowing she wouldn't understand the nature of his dillema. They sat in silence a while, Rory trying to figure out what he meant, figure out why she wasn't put off by him.

"Hey, what was the accident that got the roof entrances closed?" she asked suddenly.

"Someone jumped off." he stated nonchalantly, and she gave him a look. "Okay, so it wasn't so much of an accident. But you seem stable enough, I hope. Why, are you planning to jump off?"

"Not really," she conceded, and they went back to silence. Rory didn't know why she was there. He didn't need help, and she had resolved not to fall underneath his spell. She wasn't going to let herself be used by some guy for a night's pleasure, then cast away. She wasn't going to be a notch in the bedpost. She wondered idly if guys really did that, mark their bedpost. She briefly contemplated asking Tristan, then thought better of it. There was no tellnig where that conversation might end up.

A though came to her. What would her mother say if she knew her daughter was on the roof of a private school with the village payboy? She laughed softly even as her eyes watered at the thought. The air was cleansing, but she found herself reminising of her old life, the life on the beach, when her mother would run around with solid white sunscreen on her nose, asking random passerbyes if they had seen her umbrella, as she had lost it.

Rory blinked back her tears once again, remembering where she was.

"It's no wonder you're so popular with the girls, Tristan, this is the most excitement I've seen in a long time." she put out sarcastically, and he laughed.

"What, not James Bond enough for you?"

"Don't insult James Bond, he changed the world." Rory looked over at him, and saw he was already gazing at her. Suddenly she was trapped once again in his eyes, only it didn't seem like such a bad thing now.

"Okay, Mary, whatever." he leaned forward, and she did the same. Her lips were on his then, softly returning his kiss. Then things got out of control. Rory found herself the victim of an onslought of emotions. Her mom, her life, her new school, her father, it all seemed to add up and hit her like a blow. She pulled away, tears finally escaping her eyes.

"Wh--" Tristan barely managed to get that out before the crying girl grabbed her things and ran away. He stood just in time to see her slam the door to the stairs behind her, and sat alone on the roof again. What was that?

Did she feel that bad about cheating on her boyfriend? That would make her the first. Granted, this hadn't been the most successful date in the world, but he'd never recieved that reaction to a kiss. And why hadn't he been able to act normally around her? No one ever had this effect on him. He went from girl to girl, until they all blended together and their memories became one to him. Why was this any different?

Because she had a boyfriend, who she cared about, he told himself. He was disgusted with his own actions.

He let out a breath, seriously confused, and very guilty.

-

Rory ran through the halls, somehow finding her own room. She needed a place to hide. After a feverish seach of all her pockets, it was discovered that she had forgotten her key. She banged on the door a few times, but no one answered. She remembered Paris had said something about an evening study group for her Latin class. Rory gave up, falling back against the door and sliding down the polished mahogany exterior. She broke down, sobbing against the wall.

A shadow fell in front of her, and she looked up. Paris stood there with an armload of books and thankfully, a key.

"Come on, Gilmore," she said quietly, "we can call room service. You look like you need some serious chocolate mudslide." Rory gratefully followed her friend into the room.

Yayyyy stuff happened!

Angsty, right? Kay then. Please give me thoughts, suggestions, and such things like that.

I lurve them.

The Marty thing will all fall into place, ah, it shall. I'm very excited for it, but I figured you guys needed some actual Trory time, so I went right into the study thing

And Jess! Ah, Jess. He'll get here eventually, I'm not sure how many chapters it will take to cover a week here.

The more reviews I get the faster I'll update.