AN: Okay guys, you asked for it, hopefully the final update before Monday.
sophiefreak: thank you so much, I think at first the story may have put people off because it was different, but I'm glad to hear people like it now!
LoVe23: um...I knew the basic plot when I started writing but it snowballed from there. I've been lucky with it because little nuances in th characterisation have allowed me to expand it without ruining it. I knew the basic characters and plot-line. Originally I wasn't going to have a definable murderer, and Tristan and Summer was a new addition. So were Liz and Justin. I'm glad you're liking it! You're one of my best reviewers.
photobooth romance: Tristan didn't report the incident because he had a girl in his room. That was forbidden before but since Liz was killed they've been much more strict on it. Although its sort of one of these things of "if we can't see it we assume you're not doing so just don't let us catch you." If he'd told on Matt, Matt probably would have told on him and Rory.
Disclaimer: I think we can all learn to accept that I don't own GG
Rory and Louise parked the car silently in front of Debalar instead of DuGrey building and walked back. Louise was wrestling with whether or not to say anything to Rory about what Jay had told her. But for some reason alarm bells rang whenever she contemplated it. They were silent until they got back the building. The front door was locked.
"Shit," Rory muttered, hurrying to the ground-floor common room window. Before she even tried it she knew it would be locked She leaned against the bricks. She knew that all this sneaking out would come back to bite her. Pulling out her cell she dialed Paris' number, she answered on the first ring.
"Where the hell have you been?" She demanded.
"Paris can you please just come down to the ground floor common room and open the window?" Rory hung up the phone before Paris could reply. A few minutes later the blonde's stern face appeared on the other side of the window. She wrenched it open and Louise and Rory climbed through.
"You two are so lucky I like you. I had to lie to Mrs. Kennedy when she came around to do the checks!"
The housemothers had gone home for the weekend so Mrs. Kennedy was staying in DuGrey in her place. Rory sighed and massaged the bridge of her nose.
"What did you tell her?"
Paris inspected her nails.
"I told her you were both in the shower! Luckily I'd already realised you were missing so I turned the showers on, the bathroom so fogged she couldn't even see,"
Louise breathed a sighed of relief.
"But that doesn't explain where you were" Paris repeated.
"We were in Hartford okay?" Rory snapped, she was tired and wasn't in the mood.
"Hartford!"
"We went to see Jay"
Paris fell silent before asking softly:
"How is he?"
"He's as good as can be expected," Rory replied, making her way upstairs. She fell into bed but once again, couldn't sleep.
They rehearsed the entire play from beginning to end the next day. They were in the middle of John Proctor's hanging scene when Matt found Rory. She felt him before she saw him.
"What do you want?" She asked coldly, she hadn't forgiven him for what she'd seen the other night.
He looked at her sadly.
"I want to give you another chance" He said quietly, looking at his feet.
She laughed at him.
"Matt I don't want another chance from you!"
"I thought you were different"
"So you said,"
He grabbed her arm and she jumped before turning to face him again,
"Let me go,"
"I'm sorry about the other night"
"So am I"
"Really?" He asked hopefully and Rory sighed.
"Not like that Matt…I'm sorry that you overreacted, I'm sorry you showed your true colours and I'm sorry you hit Tristan"
He dropped her arm and stepped back, shaking his head slightly in disbelief.
"But I like you,"
"Matt, I'm sorry, but I don't like you that way" I don't like you any way! She felt like screaming.
"What about our kiss…at the party?"
"I was drunk, I'm sorry"
"No,"
"Yes," She said firmly.
"You're just like her" He said, his voice full of wonder and realisation.
"Like who?" Rory asked.
"Liz" He whispered, she barely heard him.
Rory paled when she realised what he'd said but Louise appeared at her side then, dragging her onto the stage.
They were free to leave for lunch. Paris approached Rory and Louise gingerly. She wasn't as insensitive as people thought and she was worried that Rory was still pissed about their conversation in class on Thursday.
"D you guys want to go into town?" She asked.
Louise smiled.
"Sounds good to me, Rory?"
Rory nodded absentmindedly and the three set off. Paris drove.
"So Jay's doing okay?" She asked again, Rory nodded.
"Yeah," Rory said quietly as she stared out the window, "I mean…no, he's not, not really. It's just so frightening, and everybody thinking he did it."
"Not everybody thinks he did it" Paris said as she changed down a gear coming into town.
Rory looked over and smiled at her.
"You believe him?" Paris nodded,
"And I think Tristan's having doubts as well"
"What?" Rory and Louise asked at the same time.
Paris shrugged.
"Last night, after you guys left dinner, Tristan told Summer that Jay was only accused. When Summer told him he'd done the accusing he said he hadn't and that it was only the necklace that linked him to it" She swung her car into a narrow car park and began to climb out, leaving a stunned Rory in the passenger seat. Tristan had stood up for Jay, she couldn't understand it. Was he beginning to believe her?
They had lunch in a different café than the one they normally went to.
"Well that was tasteless" Paris concluded when she finished her Mediterranean foccaccia.
Rory shrugged, her cheeseburger hadn't been any worse than any other cheeseburger. Paris checked her watch.
"We'd better go, we've only got half an hour before we're due back.
Throughout the rest of the afternoon she tried to catch Tristan's eye but he was methodically ignoring her. He knew she was watching him, waiting, but he wouldn't give in and meet her glances. At five o'clock Mrs. Kennedy clapped her "man hands" as Louise had dubbed them weeks before.
"All right, that's it for today, go and get changed and remembered to hang up your costumes! For anyone who's interested I'll be hosting a movie night at Debalar in the ground-floor common room after dinner. I'll see you all in the dining hall at six thirty!"
The kids dispersed, chattering on their way to the changing rooms. Summer owned the conversation once they got there, she was telling anyone who would listen – which was every girl but Rory, Paris and Louise – how perfect she was for the role of Abigail.
"Tell me about it," Rory muttered hopping on one foot and trying to dislodge her foot from the horrible black brogues fixed with a huge tin-foil buckle. Paris smiled wryly and finished unpinning her hair from the plaits Mrs. Kennedy had coiled it in.
"Are we going to the movie night?" Louise asked.
"I'm not," Paris said, "too much homework…speaking of, I'd better get going" She hurried off with a brusque wave over her left shoulder. Rory and Louise dawdled.
"I don't want to," Rory said, "I don't want to see Matt"
"Oh?" Louise asked, trying not to sound overly interested, "you don't like him anymore?"
"Try never really did…you're right there's something really N.Q.R about him"
Louise nodded in satisfaction.
"Tell me about it," She mumbled.
Rory saw Tristan leaving the hall.
"Give me a minute, I'll meet you back at the dorm" She told Louise.
Louise nodded and set off.
"Tristan!" she called.
He stopped and turned, waiting for her to catch up with him. He didn't smile, just looked down at her. She winced when he came up close to his black eye, it looked so painful. It was red around the eye itself, which was partially closed. She resisted the urge to reach up and touch it gently.
"Sexy huh?" He asked sardonically and Rory looked away.
"I'm sorry," She said quietly.
"Why?"
"For…for what happened that night"
"Which part?"
She blushed furiously. Why did he have to make this so hard on her? She looked up at him, meeting his gaze and blushing all over again.
"The Matt part," She replied flatly ad he smirked.
"That's not your fault"
"Did you report him?" She asked, Tristan squinted at her.
"No,"
"Why not?"
"Rory he went nuts becase you were in the room, if I reported him they'd know you were there and the entire school would ce down on us like a tonne of bricks"
"Oh...well, thank you"
He laughed.
"Hey Rory...what about the other parts?"
She blushed again, he was doing this on purpose.
"I don't know what you're talking about Tristan…I tend to block traumatic memories out of my mind"
He smirked again.
"Oh my God…" She whispered.
"What?"
"Your neck…" She said quietly, noticing for the first time the vivid bruises at the base of his throat.
He self-consciously tugged up his shirt.
"Somebody bit me" He said sarcastically.
Rory frowned…he was probably telling the truth though. She turned to leave but at the last minute called over her shoulder:
"Thanks for sticking up for Jay" She started to jog off but he caught her arm.
"What are you talking about?" He asked.
"At…at dinner with Summer…Paris told me what you did"
"I just told the truth Rory"
"Yeah…you did…thank you"
He let her go but didn't break his eye contact with her. Memories of Thursday night filled his mind.
She watched his eyes blacken.
"The other night, you said you were a bad person…for what you think you did to Summer."
He cocked his head, "…you're not a bad person Tristan…Summer is. You can't make a person have an abortion, it doesn't matter whether you drive the car or pay for it perform the operation, if she hadn't wanted to do it she wouldn't have. You're just blaming yourself because she made you think it was your fault didn't she? She regretted it later on and she blamed you and you believed her"
He shook his head and laughed.
"You can find a way to excuse anything can't you?" He asked in wonder.
She shook her head.
"No…there's some things I can't excuse. But you're not one of them, like it or not I do know you…or I'm beginning to anyway" She stared up at him defiantly, daring him with her eyes to disagree but instead he sighed with resignation.
"You're probably right Rory Gilmore-Hayden. But that doesn't mean we're friends"
She shrugged,
"See you tomorrow"
"Whatever" He replied sullenly.
She turned and jogged off.
She and Louise had been watching TV for an hour when Louise sighed.
"What are you doing?"
"Multi-tasking," Rory replied, "I'm studying for History, reading a book and watching TV"
Louise sighed again. "What?" Rory asked.
"I think I might go and check out the movie night at Debalar"
"Okay…do you want me to walk you?"
"No mom, it's okay"
Rory threw a cushion at her but Louise dodged.
"I'll be back later"
"I'm sure you will," Rory replied.
A few hours later she rubbed the bridge of her nose tiredly. She had been studying all nigh, she was all studied out and Tristan was clouding her thoughts anyway. She missed their closeness on the road. Had something really changed, or was it because they were back at school? He was so...distant and guarded. She didn't know why, she'd already seen him at his most vulnerable. Her cell phone went off with a text message, it was Louise.
Hey bi-atch, come downstairs and let me in, I totally left my keys there and Mrs. Kennedy's locked the doors until movie nights over. I had to sneak out.
Rory laughed, typical Louise message, she always took the time to type in more information than was required where a simple come let me in I don't have my keys would have sufficed. She straightened the thin cotton top she'd been wearing all night and made her way downstairs, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, she didn't trust and it took ages anyway. DuGrey was silent. There were only a few people over the weekend for Theatre and with the exception of Paris they were all at the movie night. She made her way across the foyer and pulled open the door.
"You idiot…" She laughed until she looked up at who was standing there. "Matt! What are you doing here?" Her scream was muffled as his hand shot out lightning fast and clamped over her mouth.
AN: Mwa ha ha...don't you love cliffhangers? Remember to R&R!
