Tristan's eyes widened and he answered in a timid voice. "What?"
Rory faced him with large desperate eyes, "please kiss me. Like you mean it."
Surprise settled all over his face but Tristan got over it instantly. He had had odder requests and seeing the panic staining Rory's eyes he didn't want to be the one to say, 'no'.
He pulled her flush against his body and brought his mouth to hers. He kissed her slowly and Rory probably frozen in stress didn't respond. Tristan pulled away from her, his eyes full of confusion.
However, Rory didn't meet his eyes. She was staring gravely at the feet of a boy who in turn was looking at him with a baffled expression on his face.
"Hi," he said.
Tristan nodded, not really understanding the situation at all.
"You a friend of Rory's?" The boy asked. There was a certain air to his voice, something pompous and challenging, that made Tristan bristle. He took his time responding, taking in Rory's hunched shoulder and flitting eyes and also the attractive girl whose hand the boy clasped. Tristan treated the boy to one of his trademark smirks and casually rested his arm on Rory's shoulders.
"Something like that."
"Logan Hunztberger," The boy said sticking out his hand.
"Tristan Dugrey," he answered and returned the boy's firm grasp.
Tristan moved his hand from Rory's shoulders to playing with the ends of her hair. He noticed how Logan's brow furrowed at that and Rory seemed to hearten herself at his obvious displeasure.
"How do you know Rory?" Logan asked, his voice laden with territorialness,
Tristan took pleasure in drawling slowly, "Oh we go way back. Mary and I used to go to high school together."
The blonde girl next to Logan took this opportunity to join the conversation.
"Were you sweethearts," She bubbled. Rory noted through her silence that this Kate was much more inclined to be friendly with Tristan than her. Not that it surprised her, she was used to watching Tristan's charm at work.
Tristan smiled at the girl and said intimately, "I wouldn't really call us sweethearts," he flicked his glance towards Logan, "what we had was more physical. You know those hot n' heavy teen romances"
The girl giggled and said, "do I" before shooting Rory an envious look.
Logan cleared his throat with displeasure and said, "well…are you visiting?"
"Actually I just transferred. I just arrived and came here hoping to find Rory and surprise her. Circumstances tore us apart back then and well," smiling a sappy grin Tristan said, "It's good to see her again."
"That's so romantic," Kate sighed much to Logan's annoyance.
Tristan turned and faced Rory and asked, "you were surprised right?"
Rory noting Logan's sour face nodded sweetly and said, "of course. I couldn't have been happier."
"Good," Tristan said and with a wicked gleam in his eye, he leaned in and caught her mouth in a bruising kiss. Rory, completely taken of guard, responded out of instinct and kissed him in return. It quickly became openmouthed with their tongues dueling passionately. Tristan placed his hands on the small of her back and pulled her closer to him. Rory locked her arms around her neck and raked her hands through his thick hair. He began sucking at her neck, teeth scraping skin, and without thinking Rory lolled her head back and sighed in pleasure.
Tristan remembering where they were reluctantly released her from his grasp. Rory looked at him with eyes cloudy from drink and, to his absolute delight, lust.
"whaat?" She said quietly.
"They've left," Tristan answered softly.
Rory looked confused for a moment and then as if suddenly remembering the last few minutes said, "oh" with widened eyes.
"Yeah, your boyfriend dragged of his date in a hissy fit." Tristan said.
Rory frowned at his snide tone and Tristan in turn frowned as she didn't make any move to deny her and Logan's relationship.
"Walk me to my dorm," Rory said with an air of surrender, "I think I'm going to pass out."
The two walked silently for a few moments before Tristan asked, "Who was that guy?"
"Logan," Rory answered back weakly.
Tristan made a derisive noise and said, "I meant in relation to you."
"I know you did. I'm not sure…it's complicated."
"why was he with another girl?"
"Because," She answered not wanting to talk about.
Tristan came to an abrupt halt and looked in her eyes, "you let him cheat on you?"
Rory shook her head in protest. "He's not cheating…we have a deal"
She felt her cheeks flush in defiance as Tristan raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"It's not cheating. We just spend time together…no strings."
Tristan guffawed rudely. "Mary, everything with you has strings."
She glared at him.
"It was my idea."
"A horrible idea."
"Oh what would you know?" She spat back.
Tristan shook his head ruefully and said, "I know that you were always anti casual anything at Chilton. You were practically married to bagboy. I know that I run into you tonight with tears in your eyes and half-drunk. I know you freaked out when you saw him…yeah it really sounds like no strings are working for you."
"Well they are," She almost shouted at him despite their closeness.
Tristan took a step closer to her and said nastily, "oh yeah?"
Rory, frustrated beyond belief, punched him in the stomach.
"what the hell?" He let out as he doubled over a bit in surprise.
"You…you…just come here and you don't know. And don't you tower over me like you know," She started furiously, not caring that she was being completely incoherent, "and then you kiss me and you just assume you know everything about me."
"Hey," Tristan, upright again, said jabbing a finger in the air, "you asked me to kiss you. You wanted to piss of whatever his face was right?"
"I asked for the first time…the second was ..was," she sputtered.
Tristan smirked at her.
"You didn't seem to mind at all," he said in all his arrogant glory.
Rory took a deep breathe and her shoulder hunched in surrender. She was exhausted and could not combat Tristan' s ego tonight.
Noting her forfeit, Tristan smoothly moved on, as if they hadn't been screaming at each other seconds later, "why no strings? All I meant is that you seemed like the type who enjoyed the strings"
Rory opened her mouth planning on a quick retort but instead she felt her voice choke. She hated herself for how pathetic she knew she was going to sound. "He wouldn't have me with the strings. This was how I could get his attention. Or at least share it."
Silence settled between them as Rory looked plaintively as the ground.
Tristan cleared his throat and said in a gentle tone, "let me walk you to your room."