AN: recap - we left off at Logan coming back to see Rory but she'd spent the night sleeping in Marty's room because she'd been locked out.
Chapter 34
Later that same evening, after hanging out at Logan's until Rory finally regained access to her dorm suite, Rory had dug deep into her studying while doing a couple of loads of laundry. The shortage of clean underwear called for desperate measures, and while Logan had groaned and begged, not in a bad way but in a way a normal college-age guy would at his cute but studious girlfriend at her will to focus on academics instead of the physical, he'd agreed to pick things later that evening when they were doing to dinner with the group.
Logan seemed to have understood by now that a Rory who was not on the verge of panic because she was behind in her schoolwork was a lot more fun to be around, than one that was anyways and it was not like getting locked out was really her fault.
Rory was just putting on her earrings - nothing exceptional - just a simple pair of dangly Topaz earrings, when a knock on the door alerted Logan's arrival. She'd worn just her dark jeans and a cute red cropped sweater over a henley blouse. This was just them and the group, so not exactly something she felt like she needed to dress up for as much as she would for an actual date.
"Hey, Ace," Logan said, as she opened the door. "Looking good there," he added casually, and pulled her in for a kiss.
"Let me just grab my jacket," Rory replied, and headed back towards her room, while the door remained open in the meanwhile.
Rory was just returning, as she witnessed a somewhat frightening sight - Logan shaking hands with Marty on her doorway. Logan looked handsome as ever in his dark sweater and leather jacket - even the way his body was oozed of confidence, and Marty - oh, poor Marty - he looked like he was about to liquify.
"Marty, hey," Rory said, as she approached.
"I was just telling Marty how grateful I was for letting you crash last night," Logan explained, a broad smirk on his face, patting Marty's shoulder.
"Yeah, it was very nice of him. I was so grateful," Rory replied, chuckling nervously.
"You know I actually think Marty worked at one of the events I threw a while back, I thought I recognized a familiar face," Logan began, but there was something in the way he was explaining this that caught Rory's attention. After all - she knew he knew him, and Marty clearly knew Logan, so why was he pointing it out in this way.
"A couple of times, actually," Marty pointed out like he wasn't at all surprised Logan couldn't recall all of those times.
"Hey, how about I treat you for dinner as a token of my gratitude. We're with a group anyway - the more the merrier," Logan suggested, catching Rory completely off guard. What was he doing? "Clearly if you're friends with Ace like this, it's time I get to know you without your waiter's uniform on," he added.
Could it be that he was jealous? Rory pondered, feeling utterly flummoxed.
She hadn't gone too much into explaining the details about what her interaction with Marty had been about but he did know the gist - that he'd had a crush on her and she'd turned him down. But she didn't want him to rub salt in Marty's wounds either.
"Um… I don't know…," Marty hesitated.
"You don't have to, I'm sure you're busy…," Rory said.
"Come on, let's go. Car's waiting outside, we've pre-order far too much food anyway so you'd be saving us from an evening of overeating," Logan insisted.
"Well, alright. I guess I could come - it's cool," Marty replied, half-heartedly, and for the life of her Rory couldn't figure out why in the world would he agree to this. Rory could guess that he'd been on his way to the dining hall anyway for dinner, and she also recalled from last night how he'd mentioned being pretty broke.
"Great!" Logan only encouraged along and wrapped his arm around Rory's shoulders as they headed out.
The food was amazing, and there was loads of it. The dinner table conversations, however, were not the kind that would fly at Emily Gilmore's dinner table - most stories summing up a 'you wouldn't believe how drunk I was' event or reminiscing about the guy's boarding school days. Besides one lonely comment about how living in a boarding school must've sucked - a question which had gotten a burst of laughter - Marty had barely said a word. Rory kept checking up on him, while for the first time ever, she was perhaps even a little too aware by the way Logan's arm rested on the back of her chair and played with her hair almost the entire time. There was cute jealous and then there was… this. Was he seriously threatened by Marty? The competition was so unfair that to Rory it almost looked like kicking a man that was already down.
It didn't help that Logan kept pointing out occasions he'd partied with Rory or how crazy their time in the City had been the last time.
What was worse - Logan kept topping off Marty's beer, which definitely felt weird - almost emphasizing how he was there on his generosity. Rory was certain Logan had more tact than that, so all she could think was that it must've been intentional. This was a new side of Logan she was seeing, for sure.
"Okay, the night's young. Where are we going next?" Logan asked, after they'd finished their meal.
"I don't think I can move," Rory groaned, unapologetically.
"You're full?" Juliet asked, having just half an hour ago explained how her body was unable to consume food while clearly her mouth had watered the whole time.
"I'm full," Rory confirmed.
"Is it fabulous?" Juliet inquired, envious curiosity in her toe. She was a piece of work, alright.
"Juliet, it doesn't suck," Rory replied, trying to keep a straight face.
"Let's hit The Alligator Lounge. They're having an open mic night," Finn declared.
"Yes! Perfect! You'll love this place," Logan said to Rory and Marty.
"We'll I'm…," Marty began to say, but Logan didn't allow him to finish,
"You up for a little Cajun craziness?" Logan suggested as if he was supposed to know what that meant.
"Okay. I got it. 75 bucks each," Colin said, having gotten the check.
"Pony up, please, so we can get the hell out of here," Finn commented.
"Seventy-five?" Marty hesitated.
"I got you, I invited and said I'd treat you," Logan said, clearly making Marty even more uncomfortable.
"You okay?" Rory asked Marty.
"Um…," Marty hesitated.
"Hey, don't sweat it...," Logan added, rubbing in the fact that he was paying even more, and landed 300 dollars on the table for the three of them without even blinking.
"Okay, thanks for the meal. But I've got to go," Marty said, raising from the table as if he was fleeing the crime scene or something.
Colin made a few rude remarks after he'd left but Rory hadn't expected much more from him, truthfully. At least Logan didn't seem to be too happy about the comments either, even though he'd been the one to cause the whole situation.
"I'll be right back," Rory found herself saying, and raised, and rushed after Marty. At the very least she wanted to apologize.
The look on Logan's face as she left was not happy though. But frankly, Rory believed it served him right.
Rory caught up with Marty on the street, not even a block from there.
"Marty, wait," Rory called out.
"Rory - what do you want?" Marty asked, barely bothering to turn around to face her.
"I'm really sorry about tonight… those guys…," Rory apologized.
"There's no need to… you were nice as ever. I let myself get pulled into it," Marty admitted, and rubbed the back of his head.
"Still… I don't know why he did that," Rory added, meaning the part about Logan insisting - applying his power like he'd done.
"Rory, you can't be that naïve. Obviously he was jealous. Marking his territory - whatever you want to call it - like that wasn't already abundantly clear," Marty commented, disappointedly.
"Marty," Rory chimed, hating that he sounded right.
"I'll see you around, Rory," Marty said, and turned to leave, his hands tucked into his jacket pocket, and his head down. While she had no intention of getting together with Marty - she did feel bad for him.
Rory returned inside, catching Logan and the guys just as they were getting their coats. Logan held her coat up for her and she put it on.
"Everything alright?" Logan asked, as they stayed behind the rest who already poured out onto the street.
"Hm.. yeah," Rory began, thinking what to do. "I don't know, I'm not sure I'm up for open mic night," Rory added.
"You feeling okay?" Logan asked with concern, clearly pretty oblivious to her real reasons.
"Um.. no… I just hate that you did that," Rory said, for the first time showing her upset.
"Do what? I was being polite…," Logan explained, innocently.
"Ugh.. I just don't feel like discussing it right now. I think I'll just take a cab home," Rory replied, shaking her head. She didn't want to fight, yet she sensed a fight was coming. All she'd wanted was a nice evening with her boyfriend whom she hadn't seen in almost a week and now this...
"You want me to come with you?" Logan asked, disappointedly.
"No, I'm fine," Rory said.
"Rory..," Logan replied, pleadingly, clearly not reading her quite that well.
Rory already managed to haul a cab and gave Logan a half-hearted peck as goodbye before slipping into the night.