He'd be a Fool Not To

Chapter Ten Recap:

Tristin gently pulled Rory forward and opened the door behind her. After she was seated he closed the door and jogged to the other side, sliding in and starting the car.

"Tristin?" Rory asked, not meeting his eyes as she set her backpack down by her feet.

"Yeah?" he replied, backing the car out of the driveway and starting on his way to Chilton.

Rory grinned, "Don't think that I'm gonna let you do this every morning," she warned him, her earlier thoughts about not wanting him going out of his way for her coming back to her.

Tristin smirked, "I wouldn't dream of it, Mare," he told her, smiling just for her and reached over, enveloping her hand in his own.

Rory smiled, watching his profile as he concentrated on the road before them. She couldn't help but think back to the other night when she'd decided that falling asleep in his arms had been the perfect moment. Suddenly this morning felt like the perfect moment and she knew, without a doubt, that their relationship would be full of them. And the thought alone made her giddy.

Chapter Eleven:

Rory frowned as she tried her hardest to concentrate on the book in front of her. She'd never had any problems reading before but her mind kept wondering off the text. She was just about to try her hardest to concentrate again when the library doors opened and two giggling girls walked in, taking seats at a table behind her.

With a sigh Rory closed her book and packed all of her notebooks back into her bag, knowing that studying was obviously not going to happen that day. She walked out of the library and to her locker, packing away her bag because she had another thirty minutes for lunch and didn't want to carry it around with her.

Leaning back against the cold, hard metal of her locker she tried to think of something she could do to occupy herself. Usually her and Tristin would either sit in the cafeteria together or outside in the quad. Today though, he'd been dragged off by his friends who'd claimed he spent too much time with Rory and they were in need of a guys' day.

Rory smiled at their antics, having been around them a lot in the past month she'd been with Tristin. At first she'd been more than nervous around them but slowly she'd come undone and realized that they really were okay guys who definitely loved to tease Tristin. She couldn't count how many stories she'd been told throughout the last month about the things he'd done in the past.

She was about to go and sit outside, knowing that it was a great day out when she felt someone's eyes on her. Rory turned around and looked down the hall but it was completely deserted. She shrugged off the feeling and kicked away from her locker, walking towards the front door.

She stepped out into the sunny quad, pulling the sleeves of her sweater down around her hands, still feeling a little cool in the February air. She sat down on an unoccupied bench in front of the school and set her elbow on the back of it, resting the side of her head in her palm. With the mid-afternoon sun beating down on her and nice breeze brushing along her legs, Rory found herself relaxing completely. Even to the point where she felt her eyelids drooping closed and she welcomed the feeling of repose.

She stayed there with her eyes closed for a minute before she felt the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end. Squirming around on the bench, Rory opened her eyes and casually looked around. There were many people sitting around in the quad but Rory couldn't see any that were looking directly at her.

"Mary!" Tristin's voice suddenly called out.

Rory eagerly turned her head towards where she'd heard him and saw him walking straight towards her, his friends following behind him and tossing a football between them. She felt her lips stretch into a smile and immediately forgot about the feeling she'd just had.

"Hey you," she greeted and smiled as he sat down beside her and kissed her quickly, laying his arm on her shoulders. "I thought this was supposed to be a guys' day?" she asked him her eyes sparkling knowingly.

Tristin shrugged and pulled her closer to him, looking over to the guys as they finally stopped in front of them. "Well it was but then we all realized how incredibly dull our lives are without female companionship."

Rory rolled her eyes and kissed his cheek affectionately. "Aren't you all a sad bunch," she teased and some of the guys glared playfully.

"Hey…I'm not sad," one of them, Deryk, spoke up, poking his thumb at his own chest. He was about to say something else when a smirk suddenly grew on his face. "Definitely not sad when I've got a girl like that," he boasted.

Rory frowned for a second before looking behind her and seeing Paris, Madeleine and Louise coming towards them. Paris was arguing about something with Louise as Rory watched her hands gesture around wildly every couple of seconds, while Madeleine was simply walking beside them, a faint smile adorning her face.

"Hey Rory," Louise greeted as the three of them stopped around the bench Rory and Tristin were sitting on.

"You're not saying hello to me, Louise?" Deryk asked and spread his arms open wide. "You know you want to…unless you're thinking something a little more private!" he exclaimed and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Louise smirked and scratched at her nails. "Save your breath, Deryk," she advised. "You'll need it to blow up your date tonight."

Rory laughed along with the others as Deryk simply held up his right hand, all fingers down except the middle one. She leaned closer into Tristin, her earlier tiredness hitting her again and she yawned.

"Tired?" he questioned and Rory nodded. "Told you studying until the wee hours of the morning isn't good for you," he said and brought his hand up to her hair, combing it through gently, in a soothing motion.

"Hey, I stopped studying at eleven thirty last night," Rory defended herself, missing the way the others rolled their eyes at that, all of them knowing about her almost obsessive compulsive studying habits. "I was going to study more in the library but some girls came in and they were all giggly and loud so…"

"The Stevenson twins?" Louise asked but Rory only shrugged her shoulders. "Probably was them. They're in my second period class and all they could do the whole period was talk about how 'Gloria totally hooked up with like Jacob underneath the bleachers at the game last night!'" she imitated them and everyone laughed.

Paris frowned. "Seriously how do girls like that get into Chilton?" she asked, although no one went to answer her. "If Gloria was any stupider, she'd have to be watered twice a week."

Rory shook her head at Paris's bitter outlook on life. She was going to say something to her when all of a sudden she felt her skin start to prickle again and an uneasy feeling fall through her. Rory squirmed around uncomfortable and Tristin met her eyes.

"You okay?" he asked and wrapped his arm tighter around her.

Rory smiled reassuringly, trying to shake off that annoying feeling in her gut that someone was watching her again. Unlike the last two times, it wouldn't go away and Rory tried to look around her but with everyone crowding around the bench she couldn't see much.

Then the bell rang, signalling the start of next period and Rory jerked a little. She laughed at herself and let Tristin pull her up from the bench. While everyone else was groaning and moaning about having to go back inside, Rory felt relieved that she wouldn't have to sit out in the open anymore, hoping that feeling would go away now that she was in class.

"You have to go to your locker?" Rory asked Tristin as they walked into the school.

"Yeah, Miss. Cegal will kill me if I 'forget' my textbook again," he said, using air quotes and everything.

Rory laughed. "You did actually do the homework this time right?" she asked and when Tristin smiled innocently Rory frowned and smacked her hand on his chest. "Tristin!" she chastised.

"What? It was boring!" he defended himself and pouted down at her as they stopped at Rory's locker. "Anyway Mary, I'll meet you in class," he said and bent down, brushing his lips over hers in the gentlest kiss they'd shared before hurrying off down the hall.

Rory muttered under her breath as she opened her own locker and pulled her bag out, setting it on her shoulder. She had just picked her book off of the bottom of her locker and shut the door when she saw something out of the corner of her eye.

Frowning Rory looked to her side, down the hall and felt confusion ebb into her veins. She could have sworn she saw a flash of a brown jacket and matching floppy hair but she had to have imagined it. Rory shook her head and walked away from her locker and into her next class, sitting at the front beside Paris.

Rory tried to concentrate on what Paris was saying to her but her mind kept wandering back to what she'd saw. Her rational thought told her it couldn't possibly be him. Why would he be at Chilton in the first place? They had broken up, plus they hadn't really talked in the past month unless you count random, awkward conversations.

Rory didn't even notice as Tristin came into the class and dropped into the seat behind her. She was so caught up in her thoughts she jumped slightly when she heard the teacher suddenly start calling attendance.

"Rory," Tristin whispered behind her and with one look to Miss. Cegal Rory turned her head to look at him. "You sure you're okay?" he asked concern in his blue eyes.

Rory smiled at that and nodded, forcing her thoughts of Dean being in the school out of her mind completely. She turned back around to the front of the class and strained to pay attention to the teacher but her eyes kept drifting towards the open classroom door.

- - -

Rory was sitting once again outside on the same bench as she sat on during her lunch. She'd been let out of her last class fifteen minutes early. Any other day Rory would have caught the earlier bus and already been on her way home, but Tristin was driving her home and they were going to hang out that night.

She was taking out her book to start reading while she waited for Tristin when a shadow fell over her. Rory looked up slowly and her eyes widened in shock at the figure standing in front of her. His six foot tall frame towered over her and the odd glint in his eyes made Rory fidget nervously before him.

"What are you doing here?" she asked anxiously, looking over her shoulder but there were only a few people outside and none were really close to her.

"I think we should talk, Rory," Dean told her and stuffed his hands in his pockets before he took a seat beside her on the bench.

Rory frowned and allowed herself to move away from him a little, still feeling slightly uncomfortable around him. "Dean couldn't this wait until later tonight. You didn't have to come all the way out here."

He shook his head and brought a hand over, laying it down on her knee and Rory felt her entire body tense at the action. "Actually I just really wanted you to hear this first," he announced and Rory felt curiosity filter through her system, making her momentarily forget about his hand. "I know we broke up and that you're with…him now but…"

"Dean?"

He ran his free hand through his hair and sighed. "We used to be good friends and I know we haven't talked much since that night and it's my fault because I've just been feeling really awkward around you. I didn't know how to talk to you after…I didn't know if I could talk to you."

"You can always talk to me, Dean," she assured him, feeling herself relax. "I know things are hard now because we aren't together anymore but like you said, we were good friends, and I wouldn't want that to just go away."

Dean smiled and nodded along but then his eyes narrowed. "I guess I should probably tell you this now then. My dad got his old job back," he said.

Rory stared at him for a minute, her mind running a mile a minute trying to figure out why that would be something bad. Then it came to her… "You're moving back to Chicago?" she asked.

He nodded, "Yeah, it's kind of last minute to. We're leaving this weekend."

"Wow," she exclaimed, not knowing what else to say. She couldn't explain how she felt hearing Dean was moving away. Even though they weren't dating anymore and hadn't even had a real conversation in a month, sadness ate away at her. Dean had been a huge part of her life for a long time; it hurt to see him leave. To know that he wouldn't be in the market next time she went in, that she wouldn't see him at the bus stop or randomly around town.

But then Rory smiled, realizing that she was sad to see him go in a strictly platonic sense. Her heart ached to lose a friend but not anything more. And it felt good to know that even if he wasn't there, it wasn't the end of the world. Because she was happy now, happier than she'd ever been before. Because she had Tristin…

"Rory!"

The girl in question felt her eyes widen in surprise at hearing his voice. She looked over at Dean guiltily, shoving his hand away from where it had been innocently resting on her knee and jumping up from the bench.

"Hey you," she echoed her earlier greeting and smiled at him. She watched in apprehension as he walked closer to her, seemingly not noticing Dean as dropped his bag to the ground and wrapped an arm around her waist.

"You get out early?" he asked, his eyes staring into hers and his other hand twirling the ends of her hair around.

"Yeah," she said and nodded, not being able to stop her gaze from going towards Dean who had now stood from the bench and was looking away from them with an odd look on his face. "Uh… Tristin?" she asked nervously and petted his chest with her hand. "There's kinda something you should know."

"About what?" he asked, still not moving his attention away from her, only making Rory more anxious.

She frowned and worried her bottom lip between her teeth. "Dean's here," she finally told him and quickly averted her gaze.

She felt the change in him immediately. The way his arm tightened around her waist, the way his body tensed all the way through. When he didn't say anything she looked up at him, taking in his locked jaw and confused eyes. She laughed uncertainly and nodded to behind him and watched as he turned to look at Dean.

"Why?" he directed the question to Rory but his gaze never left Dean.

Rory stammered for a moment, searching her brain for what to say, not knowing how Tristin was reacting to Dean's presence. She could tell by looking at him that he was on edge, frustrated but something else was staring her straight in the face. Something she couldn't pinpoint for the life of her.

"I came to talk to Rory," Dean suddenly intervened and Rory sent a worried glance toward Tristin.

Tristin seemed to change all at once. His body relaxed, shoulders falling down and hands clasped before him. His lips lengthened into a smirk and he stepped closer to Dean. "Talk?" he repeated and Rory cringed at the teasing lilt in his voice.

She immediately stepped between the two of them. "Dean was just telling me that he's moving," she supplied and smiled when she saw the way Tristin let his guard down a little. She wanted to make sure that he didn't think anything of Dean coming to see her, needed to make him understand that she hadn't asked Dean to come.

"Moving where?" he asked, looking over Rory's shoulder and meeting his gaze with Dean.

"Chicago."

"Great, have fun then," he told him but the flippant way he uttered the words had Rory frowning and squirming uncomfortable in this situation. "Mary?"

She looked up at him and noticed he was holding his hand out to her, asking her silently to leave with him. She couldn't help but think it was a defining moment in her life right then. It would mean once and for all turning her back on her previous years, letting go of Dean and surrendering herself to Tristin. He was asking her to take that plunge, to trust him enough with her future and Rory smiled shyly.

She gave him her hand, noticing the way his blue eyes lit up at the gesture. As he tugged her away with him she paused and looked over her shoulder. "Bye Dean," she whispered and he nodded, a stoic expression adorning his face.

Rory sidled up closer to Tristin, letting him wrap his arm around her waist. She let her gaze wander up to his face, his features once again calm and his eyes no longer stormy. She couldn't be more thankful that this hadn't turned into a huge debacle. Things with her and Tristin were once again perfect and she couldn't be happier.

But as Rory slid into the passenger seat of Tristin's convertible she caught sight of something that stopped her heart in her chest. Standing opposite her, leaning back against his own car, was one of the guys that hung out with Tristin but from what Rory knew they didn't get along. Gary, she was pretty sure his name was.

He was staring straight at her, his detached grey eyes making her blood run cold. And Rory suddenly knew who'd been watching her all day…

- - -

Author's Note: I know this story is so completely over due…Totally my fault. I kept thinking about it and staring at a blank page on my computer. Worst case of writers block ever! But I finally came up with an idea! There actually shouldn't be many chapters left…maybe three.

I want to thank everyone who reviewed this story and kept at it! You guys are so amazing and I made this chapter extra long just for you…at least I hope you still remember it! One special review that inspired me with this chapter was KarahBella who asked for Dean to be put in it. Thanks so much for the suggestion!

Hugs and Kisses,
- Ella