Can't Bet With Love

Part Six:

Spectrum was the club a couple blocks away from Yale, one that most college kids attended often because it was easy to get in for those underage and the beer was cheap. It was two floors; the bottom floor had a large stage for band to play, followed by a large dance floor. The bar lined the right side of the club, and several tables lined the outside of the dance floor. The top floor had several booths—like those you'd get your picture taken in at the mall—with cloth covers that you could pull back so no one could see inside the booth.

That was Tristan's spot.

Every weekend—and sometimes during the week—he'd come and have a bit to drink before meeting a random and meet willing girl—sometimes the girls would know him, but he didn't have a clue of who they were—on the dance floor and head to the top floor with her.

Tonight's victim was a petite blonde. Tristan had met her at the bar, charmed her, and then promptly escorted her up the stairs.

Currently, she was sitting on his lap, her mouth open and tongue intertwined with his. He had his hands under her shirt, gently resting on her hipbones. Just as he was about to lift her shirt off, he felt a vibrating in his behind. He tried to ignore it, but when it rung again, he pulled away.

Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out his small, silver flip-phone. Erik's name lit up the screen.

"Can you excuse me for a moment?" Tristan asked.

The girl—whose name he'd long since forgotten—stared at him incredulously, but stepped out of the booth.

Tristan flipped his phone open, pressing it to his ear. "What?" he demanded.

"Where are you at?" Erik asked him.

"Spectrum," Tristan answered.

"Ahh," Erik replied. "I'm guessing there's a girl waiting for you…"

"You guessed correctly," Tristan said shortly.

"I must ask," Erik paused for a moment, "if you're going to keep messing around with other girls, how do you suppose you'll ever get Rory? Great game plan, Trist."

Tristan scowled. "It's only day three of the bet," he replied.

"Three days down, only eighteen left to go…for a girl who's supposedly engaged, that's not a lot of time."

"What do you mean 'supposedly engaged'?" Tristan asked.

Erik ignored him, "Mal told me that Rory's at the library tonight."

"Shouldn't you be keeping this hidden from me?"

"With this girl…you'll need all the help you can get and then some. I know that's a bit difficult for you considering most of the girls you date…or just 'see'…are rather easy."

Tristan scoffed. "What, you don't think I could ever last with a girl?"

"No, I don't," Erik answered honestly. "Mal and I have been together for a year now. The day Tristan Dugray has a relationship that lasts a year…that's the day the world will end."

Tristan was quiet. He didn't know why Erik's words got to him. He liked living the single life. He liked having the freedom of being able to go to Spectrum whenever he wanted and hooking up with random girls. So how come, after hanging up the phone with Erik, the last thing he wanted to do was continue where he left off with the girl who was most likely waiting outside from him?

Tristan slipped out of the booth. "Sorry, but I've got to go."

The blonde looked a little frustrated, but stood on her tip toes, giving him a kiss. Reaching into her purse, she pulled out a piece of scratch paper and quickly wrote on it. Handing him the paper, she flashed him a brilliant smile before he moved on.

Looking down at the paper, he saw that she'd written her name and phone number.

He put it in his pocket as he made his way down the stairs and through the club, making his way out into the cold, October night. He quickened his pace to reach his car—a shiny black sports car—and once inside, he started it and accelerated back towards the school.

He'd make a stop at the library, he decided. The only problem was…Tristan didn't exactly know where the library was.

Pulling out a cell phone, he dialed Michael's number. Michael was the only person he could think of to know where the library was.

Michael answered his phone on the second ring groggily, "Hello?"

"Michael, have you been sleeping?"

"Tristan…whatever you need…this can wait until tomorrow."

Tristan had no doubt that his friend was sleeping. "It's ten…on Saturday night, no less. Get out…party…anything."

"I worked from six to nine…I think I deserve some rest," Michael responded.

There was a big difference between Michael and Tristan, although they were roommates and best friends. Michael was more serious, studious, and although he had dates, they no where neared the amount of Tristan's. Both of them came from rich families, but Michael, though he received money from his parents each month, still worked through the week and during a majority of the weekends.

"So what did you need? I know you didn't call me just because you were wondering if I was sleeping or not."

"Where's the library?"

Michael was silent for moment before he started to laugh. "Is this a joke? Tristan Jalen Dugray can't actually be asking me where the library is."

Tristan rolled his eyes. "Michael, I have no time for games. Where is the library?"

Michael stopped laughing when he realized that his friend was serious. "Swing by the apartment and pick me up. I'll show you from there. I have to see you in a library to actually believe you went."

"Hahaha," Tristan said dryly. "I'll be there in five."

---

"Tell me why we're at the library again?" Michael asked as they walked into Yale's large library.

"Rory's here," Tristan said. "This bet doesn't last long—two weeks and five days from now—so I have to work fast."

"You don't just have to work fast," Michael commented. "You need a miracle."

Tristan scowled. "What I need is a little word of encouragement."

Michael just grinned. Never before had he seen Tristan so weary over a bet.

Tristan looked around the main entrance library. "Holy damn—this place is huge. How are we ever going to find her in here?"

"Oh ye of little faith," Michael drawled. "You'll find her."

"You're not going to help me?" Tristan asked. "What if I get lost?"

Michael laughed. "It's not that big, Trist."

He made his way over to an empty table, setting his book bag on top. It occurred to Tristan suddenly what exactly his friend planned on doing this Saturday night.

"I can't believe I'm friends with such a nerd that would consider studying on a Saturday night. I didn't even have to drag you here…you went willingly." Tristan considered it for a minute. "No, you volunteered to come."

Michael just shook his head. "I'm going to go pull up some material for my English essay; go find your latest target."

Tristan just shook his head before heading on his way. He passed section through section; marveled at how large the library. He considered it to be a waste. Making his way upstairs, he made his way through each section, thinking about giving up, when he spotted her.

Tristan became aware of how pretty she was. She wasn't the normal girl he went after (though it wasn't by choice). She didn't have the suggestive clothes or makeup caked on. Instead, dark, chestnut brown hair was pulled back in a no-nonsense ponytail; wide, blue eyes focused on the paper in front of her; a slim, slender body covered in a light blue cotton sweater and a pair of fitted Levi's.

He approached her.

---

The section in the library Rory was sitting in was empty. Actually, aside from the one worker she'd spotted earlier, the whole library was empty. Everyone else had a better thing to do on a Saturday night than hang around with a stack of books. Rory, however, took advantage of this time to allow her to get started on her current English essay—a thirty-page piece, this time.

It was due next week, though it had been just assigned yesterday, so Rory was busy at work. Plus, when she kept busy, she hardly thought about Dean at all.

Yes, in fact, two minutes had passed since she last thought of Dean.

Rory sighed, trying to focus on her book. She had a piece of paper next to her, a quarter of the page filled with notes. Beside her, several other sheets sat, fully written on.

She also had a stack of information that she'd printed it off the internet earlier in her dorm. She'd already taken the time to sort through the papers, highlighted all the good stuff, and then formulated an outline and separated the info according to that outline, using sticky notes.

She'd been in the library since six o'clock that night and her patience was starting to wear thin. She had begun to wish that she'd taken Mallory up on her offer of going out for the night, as Mallory had claimed that was exactly what the doctor had ordered.

Instead, Rory sat in the library…her phone off incase her mother called. She felt foolish, thinking Dean would propose now, and hated to tell Lorelai the latest on Dean, although she had never let it slip she thought he'd propose. She knew her mother would ask too, as Lorelai had talked to the grandparents to get her out of one of the never-ending Friday night dinners.

Sighing, she took a highlight, different color than before, and begin to highlight key facts in the notes she'd taken. The highlighter didn't seem to work all that well so she pressed down harder.

Sighing, she'd always welcome any sort of break at the moment.

"You're really wearing out the highlighter, huh," a familiar voice remarked.

Rory looked up, a scowl come onto her face as she saw who had spoken.

She took back her previous thought.

---

Author's Note:

I was having a hard time with coming up with this chapter…so I decided to show in a little more detail about Tristan's life. It's choppy and I didn't get a chance to edit it because I'm on the way out…so tell me if you see something and I'll make the changes that need to be made and repost it.

I don't think I've mentioned the date/month before…so I've decided that it's about October. I think when I originally started writing this, it was supposed to be set about the spring of freshman year…but it's going to be sophomore year instead. I'll reread the first couple of chapters soon and edit them as to fit with this.

Oh—and I know nothing about Yale and I was too lazy to see if there was a map of the campus online so details are pretty vague when it comes to Yale's campus. The library is just based on, well, other libraries.

I rewrote chapter one so make sure you go back and check it out. Not too many changes, but edit/add to other chapters so…I'd check it out if I were you.

I hope to get chapter seven up soon, but it's my senior year in high school and I have a job now…so the next review might take a while. Sorry guys…I'll try to update as soon as I can.

Thanks for the reviews: Tristian'jess'logan'luver, Princetongirl (for the two reviews), LoVe23, jalna, nancerz-, emmy, tickle582 (yes, it's a trory. It's slow…but we'll get there eventually.), eternalgorithm, and jen.

--If you read all of this, put a star at the end of the review…just so I can see who actually reads my notes--