Chapter 23

Hanging out with Finn, Logan and Colin, and some of the other nicer guys they seemed to know at the pool house had turned out to be a blast. Champagne and scotch had flowed, even if technically she wasn't supposed to be drinking. It was a big difference whether the one pouring her drinks were guys she trusted versus Jordan Chase who'd become the synonym for a creep in the matter of minutes. Rory at least believed her gut feeling accounted for something.

Not only had she gotten to know Logan's top 10 stories of the worst parties he'd ever been stuck in, she also felt like she'd gotten to know Colin and Finn a little better too. They were stoodges, essentially, but the lovable kind, Colin's theoretical love for the rules and knowing just when to break them balancing out Finn's child-like behavior. But they were all funny, and certainly possessed the type of humour sometimes that could've been considered snobby, but by now Rory knew this was more about the darkness of the humour and in part also laughing at their own expence, being very aware who they were - privliged white males, like Doyle had once put it.

Finn saying the term 'boyfriend' out loud earlier still resonated in Rory's ears - she'd liked the sound of that, even though in this crowd Rory needed to not feel too comfortable around Logan. But physically the craving to touch - simple graze of fingers, his hand gently touching the small of the back - anything - was always annoyingly present, yet Logan showed surprising self control at that - definitely not showing himself from the angle that would've proved him to be the king of guy who just got everything he wanted. Marty didn't know what he'd been talking about - Rory found herself convincing herself from time to time.

It was becoming more and more clear to her that Logan had his own constraints that he was tied to. Like staying himself and keeping her out of the main house while his parents were in there. And Rory was more than ever before feeling the same kind of need to separate herself from her grandparents at this thing - still being mad at them for this blatant setup party.

Thankfully, nobody even came looking for them, supposedly throwing around phrases like 'let the kids be kids', carefreely. Little by little Rory's anger dispersed too, replacing with acceptance. It was just who they were. And she couldn't deny she didn't understand that in the end they had meant well. Now it was kind of funny even. Had Logan's parents not been an issue, she couldn've almost pretended to have met Logan there and gotten friendly real fast. She knew the Gilmores would've loved him, she could sense it.

After several hours it was Logan who couldn't really hold back his jokes anymore, clearly being a little intoxicated himself, and as he sat close to Rory, closest he'd been all night.

"Well, Ace… how's the meat market looking? I've got a feeling that your grandparents are expecting you to choose someone tonight?" he suggested, teasingly, only so that some of his closest friends could hear. It pretty much sounded like he was looking for some confirmation he was still her top choice, while he probably could already assume it considering Rory wasn't really spending time with anyone but him.

"Oh well…," Rory pretended to ponder.

"Pick me! I'm exotic," Finn declared, having overheard the question.

"So's the Asian Bird flu, Finn," Logan commented.

"A room full of guys and still extremely slim pickings," Rory commented, pretending to think it over carefully. "Well, I don't know. It's a tough choice. I should probably ask my fake boyfriend to choose," Rory said, and finished off the champagne in her hand, the guilt for that lie surfacing.

"The fake boyfriend or secret boyfriend?" Logan frowned, not quite following.

"Oh, you see… I have both. But hush - the former doesn't know about it," Rory explained, making a hush gesture with her finger, being way more intoxicated than she'd realized.

"Uh?" Logan asked.

"You see there's this guy at my dorm. You saw him in passing that one time too," Rory explained. "He sort of had…. Well has… a crush on me. And I know it is horrible to even use him like this behind his back… And I did something horrible - I told my grandparents I was seeing him and voila - we have this party," she added.

"So, what they hate the guy that much?" Logan asked, curiously.

"Well, they seem to be pretty fixated on setting me up with someone 'respectable' enough and with enough figures on their bank account, apparently. It wouldn't have been the first time though, for them to have something against normal people...," Rory explained, holding out her glass as Finn filled it with some more champagne.

"Hmhm," Logan nodded along, clearly curious to hear this.

"When I had my… my...ex, Dean, over. He's the one that built me a car, you know. They would just go on and on about his grades and future plans… and he's not stupid, he's just a normal guy who can build things, and they just… they were really mean to him, especially my grandfather. Then with Jess… well… Jess just dug his own grave since he showed up with a black eye - not from a fight but he was so stubborn he couldn't just say that at the table could he? But now I can add this event to the list. And that's pretty much the extent of it," Rory explained in a blubber, having lost most of her filter.

This was all news to Logan, the two having not really had the in depth 'exes' conversation beyond knowing Logan hadn't had anyone more serious before.

"A guy built you a car?" Logan reflected in disbelief.

"Yup. Piece by piece," Rory declared rather proudly.

"I better up my game then, Ace," Logan chuckled.

Rory just laughed, assuring it was unnecessary. "My other boyfirend Jess was the one who crashed it actually, rather fitting, don't you think?" she added.

Logan mused, appearing to be enjoying observing and listening to the relaxed and filterless Rory in her drunken state.

"Oh, no, what time is it?" Rory suddenly asked, more loudly than before.

"It's crying time!" Finn declared dissapointedly, and laughed lightly.

"Nine forty five," Colin replied.

"I have a date at 10! In Stars Hollow…," Rory exclaimed, hiccupped suddenly. "But I don't think I can drive," she realized.

"A date?" Logan looked at her from under her brow.

"Yeah, with my mom. We were going to watch the Anchorman together," Rory explained, still sounding pretty urgent. Mother-daughter time was no joke in her world.

"Right," Logan chuckled, looking relieved.

"You're pretty cute when you're jealous, you know that," Rory said, and ran her hand through his hair quite publicly, clearly forgetting herself for a moment before she snapped out of it.

"I have a feeling it's time we got you home then," Logan exhaled, and patted her thigh, as if looking out for her a little.

Logan had a towncar waiting and the three guys and Rory poured into the vehicle with Rory only stopping by briefly by her grandmother, saying she was running late, trying to appear as sober as she could. It wasn't entirely believable, only to perhaps someone as strong willed and blind about her as her grandmother was. Mostly, however, her grandmother just seemed relieved to see her having made such fine, so what if a little rowdy, friends.

The car ride was, however, quickly made a lot more awkward for Finn and Colin as Rory could no longer hold off and spent the better part of the ride home making out with Logan. She was very clearly a horny drunk. Logan really wasn't objecting to making out with her.

"I feel like I'm making out with a princess!" Logan commented in whisper, victoriously.

"A very drunk princess," Rory commented, not being oblivious to her state, and kissed him again, her lips already reddened. It would've very easily taken the next step had Colin not been grumbling at them to get a room.

By the time they got to Stars Hollow, Rory guided Frank, the driver, to steer towards her house, and popped out of the car together with Logan, saying a really proper goodnight in the form of another lengthy kiss, his hands holding in no-way back from pulling her flush up against him like he wanted to melt into her. The carful of guys was definitely loud, whistling and cheering for her as they drove off.

Rory made her way across the grass and up the stairs, staggering a little in her step.

"Hi, mom!" she declared, feeling all giggly and excited inside. "I'm sorry I'm late… I lost track of time," she added.

The face on her mother was not what Lane would get from Mrs. Kim when she did something bad, it wasn't the face of Emily Gilmore when Lorelai did something she didn't approve of either. But it was still a face.

"What's with the face?" Rory asked, feeling too good to feel worrisome.

"Have you looked at yourself in the mirror?" Lorelai said, her eyes wide, and moved her over to the mirror.

"Oh, right… I forgot about those..," Rory said, realizing the heavy diamonds were still on her, feeling her tiara. It was not just that, however, her make up was a little smeared, kissing possibly being the cause for that.

"I'm going to kill my mother," Lorelai muttered not sounding amused at all, looking at her like someone who'd been damaged in the process of the party.

"Mom… there's no point. It started out sucky… but it turned out okay. Logan showed up with his friends and the rest of it wasn't that bad," Rory explained, but wasn't making a very convincing case.

Lorelai clearly didn't care about the fact that she'd been drinking, as such, even though it may have added to her overall image in a significant amount.

"So that was Logan?" Lorelai asked, helping her daughter out of the jewelry, and wrapped them up in a kitchen towel, knowing their value better than Rory did, possibly.

"Um.. yeah," Rory replied, now feeling a little embarrassed, having not realized she'd watched them arrive and make out like that.

Rory could just tell Lorelai had more to say about the matter, but was holding her tongue.

"I'll just go change and we'll watch the movie, okay?" Rory said, already feeling her face turn red at the thought of her mother witnessing that. Sure, her mother had seen her with Dean and Jess... but this... this was way more sexual than either of those had ever been.

Rory was still removing her makeup as she sat down on the couch, and thankfully accepted the tall glass of water her mother handed to her, who was wordlessly telling her to sober up.

Lorelai pressed play on the movie, but just by her quietness Rory could just feel something boiling inside of her mother as they watched the first half of the movie, snacking on some left over Chinese.

"So that's Logan, uh?" Lorelai reflected again.

"Yeah.. and you don't know this yet, but he's actually now my boyfriend. We're boyfriend and girlfriend," Rory declared, proudly, hoping her mother would appreciate that.

"Wow, that is big," Lorelai reacted. "So why didn't you bring him in to meet me? He could've joined us," Lorelai asked.

"It was late, we'd all had a few drinks… just didn't see it as the perfect moment. But you'll meet him, I promise," Rory added, wondering whether there'd be any scenario in which she could drag him over here again tomorrw even as had briefly been the plan on her side. "But I do have a favor to ask," she added, crossing her fingers, hoping this would go over more or less well.

"What?" Lorelai asked.

"Can you not tell grandma and grandpa that we're involved? We just want the time to enjoy this, get to know each other - without them or Logan's parents pressuring us?" Rory said, hesitantly.

"Um, daah…," Lorelai rolled her eyes, like it was obvious.

"Good," Rory replied, assuming the rest of it didn't really involve her mother.

"So… what's he like?" Lorelai inquired.

"He's different… very different from Dean and Jess, for sure.. But I think a lot of people just see his exterior you know, he's different when he is with me," Rory replied, recalling well how he was in bed or when it was just the two of them. He seemed to let his guard down and be more genuine for one. That alone was reason for her to want to hang around with him. She went on to tell her mother little innocent details about him, about how he could write, how he had a sister, even showing a little of his more rebellious youth like how he'd changed schools a lot and gotten his act together the last year of high school. She also told her mother about how he was different when he was alone with her.

"But he's got that whole privileged thing going on for him, doesn't he?" Lorelai asked.

"Well yeah, but you're talking to the girl who came home wearing diamonds so," Rory chuckled, seeing a double standard. She might not have grown up with money, she might now life the life with towncars and mansions, but she did have a platinum credit card in her pocket, some accountant taking care of the bills for her without her even having to think about it. Even if she hadn't used it yet. But she was going to Yale, she had a car, she had a support network most of her old friends could only dream of.

"I just… you may not want to hear this… but I so know the type... Even you should know the Tristan-type," Lorelai said.

"I thought I did, but clearly I was wrong… He can come off like that sometimes. But that doesn't define him," Rory found herself defending him. "You'll get to know him… you'll see, I just need you to give him a chance," she added, suddenly getting a flashback from having a very similar talk with her mother about Jess.

At least there was no more talk about getting her vaccinated.

Oh but wait, she'd thought that thought too soon.

"And you're being safe? You know… when you do things?" Lorelai asked, clearly feeling a little awkward about it.

"Yes, very safe," Rory assured.

"And he's kind to you, he treats you well? Respects you?" Lorelai inquired, focusing on what most mothers worried about.

"Yes!" Rory exclaimed, deciding to go into more detail on the dates they'd had to demonstrate how well he treated her, leaving out the details no parent ever wanted to hear - the jump from a scaffolding and all that sex they'd been having. Her mother may have been the cool mom, but it was obvious to Rory that sex was not a topic she was truly comfortable with hearing about. She knew she had the option to talk to her if she needed to, but right now she just wanted to keep that warm and fuzzy feeling all to herself, knowing she was probably going to be thinking about Logan that evening too, letting her imagination do the work, as she would let her own fingers trail their way down between her legs.

AN: ok, so no big drama this time. Kind of a filler really... but I hope what came across here is that Rory is a lot more brave in her own body for one... she's more aware and also more able to let loose. I put that onto both her making that big jump of hers at spring break but also Logan's influence.

The next few days I am not sure if I'll have time to write, to don't worry if there's silence.