Chapter Seven- The Second Best Coffee

"Coffee, right? Or, would you like tea? I think I remember you as a coffee person, but I could be wrong," Tristan babbled as they entered his apartment. Rory sniffled pathetically.

"Coffee," she said firmly.

"'Kay, I have a pot from this morning left-over, should be fine if we warm it up, or do you want me to make some more?" Tristan asked. Rory realized that this wasn't the same Tristan she had known. The old Tristan would have been making fun of her. This was definately something she could live with.

"No, that's okay," Rory sniffled.

"Okay, so, milk or sugar or anything?"

"Black," Rory said in the most firm voice she had used all day.

"Okay, um. Here you go," Tristan said. Rory gave him a curious look, and then decided to voice her musings.

"You've changed. You know, from old pain-in-the-neck Tristan that I know. Knew." Rory added smiling a little as he sat down beside her on her sofa. It was a nice sofa, she realized. He was a nice guy.

"I'm still me when there's no crying involved," he said with a little bit of a grin. Rory blushed a little, but didn't know what to say. She drank the coffee he had given her, and realized with a small bit of shock that the coffee, even if slightly aged, was really very good. Almost as good as Luke's. 'Almost.' she added with a smile to herself.

"You want to tell me what that was all about?" Tristan asked after a while in comfortable silence.

"I... can't. I need to get to my Mom's, ugh, I just wanna go home and take a shower. We'll hook up later, okay? Thanks for the coffee, you probably saved my life." Rory said. Tristan chuckled, but stopped when he saw Rory was completely serious.

"Hold on, I'll drive you home." Tristan offered.. Rory hesitated, not feeling great about making him go out of his way for her, but she really didn't feel like walking the whole way.

"Yes, please." she finally decided. It was a quick drive, after all.

"Okay, hold on just a second." Tristan told her. Rory, for once, was glad to have someone tell her what to do. Tristan grabbed his keys and pushed him and Rory out the door, down the stairs and into his car.

"Nice," Rory commented, impressed that, unlike her car, there weren't McDonald's drive-through bags left all over the floor in the passenger side. And all in the back seat,

"It was a present, for getting into college." Tristan said carefully. Rory wondered if the reason he sounded so hesitant was that he had heard about her dropping out of Yale.

She didn't feel like addresing it at the moment. Maybe later.

"Turn left here," Rory reminded him.

"Yeah, I know the way," Tristan said with a little annoyance. Apparently, Rory added for later usage, Tristan didn't like people helping him drive.

"You do?" Rory realized with a mild bit of shock. Why would he know where it is? Tristan looked embarassed.

"Well, yes, when I first moved here, I tried to look you up and all, everyone pointed me in this direction, but there wasn't anyone home."Tristan explained.

"Why are you here, anyway?" Rory asked, realizing for the first time that Tristan was living in her town.

"I'll explain later, we're here now." Tristan told her. They both got out and walked to the door.

"Thanks so, so much, Tristan," Rory said when they got to the door. "I'd invite you in for coffee, but I don't know what sort of condition my Mom's left the place in, y'know, clothes ecerywhere, I don't know whether or not my Mom would be mad, so,"

"It's fine," Tristan assured her. The grinned at eachother for a moment before Rory gave Tristan a hug a said sincerely, "I'm glad you're here. I missed you."

"I missed you too," Tristan whispered too quietly for her to hear as she leapt with a wave into Lorelai's house.

Chapter Seven - Kiss the Enemy, Why Don't You?

"Alright, now tht we've finished chapter one, pair up into partners, and discuss what emotions you associated with certain parts of the text," the teacher instructed. Terrance tapped Sarah's shoulder and raised his eyebrows in a silent question. Sarah pushed her chair closer to his desk and sat down, book in hand.

"So, do you have any idea what this guy's talking about?" Terrance asked her, referring to the book.

"Nope."

"Good, then we're in agreement." Terrance said importantly. Sarah laughed.

"This is boring. I hope the bell rings soon." Sarah said.

"Way to boost my confidence," Terrance said dryly. Sarah shook her head.

"You know that's not what I meant." She said seriously.

"I know." Terrance said with a small grin. Sarah put her head down on Terrance's desk.

"I hope you didn't get too used to me getting all pretty today, 'cause that's the last time I wake up early and think anything but 'ugh, too early, more sleep.'" Sarah said with a yawn. To her suprise, she actually felt herself drifting off for a few seconds. Terrance smiled sweetly at her.

"You sleep cute," he said without thinking. Sarah opened her eyes and laughed a little.

"How long do I have to nap before the bell rings?" Sarah asked with another yawn.

"About three minutes." Terrance said, still a little embarrassed about what he had said a few moments ago. Sarah sighed.

"Not enough time to go to sleep." She said sadly. She sat up straight and stretched. She grabbed her pencil and started drawing random curlicues on the desk. Sarah did this from time to time.

"Don't mess up my desk," Terrance told her with annoyance, already trying to smudge the pencil marks off with his sleeve.

"Oh, fine." Sarah huffed. She grabbed her pen and Terrance's hand and started drawing on it instead. Terrance rolled her eyes at her child-like behavior. Sarah suddenly had a wonderful idea. An awful idea. It was a wonderfully awful idea. With an evil glint in her eye, Sarah quickly scribbled something on Terrance's hand just as the bell rang. She grinned, laughed, and ran away before he could look at what she had written. He glanced at his hand, rolled his eyes, and with determination, set off after her. He found her, still grinning at her littl eprank. It really wasn't even that clever. But it had been fun. She closed her locker and turned around, and there was Terrance, looking bemused and yet compelled. Sarah had a sneaking suspicion that this look was her fault. It was, in a way, empowering. It was also, in a way, terrifying. But before she had too much time to analyze, Terrance had her up against her lockers and was kissing her. She vaguely recalled dreaming about this a few weeks ago, and here it was.

"Sarah! What the hell are you doing?" screeched a seriously freaked out Leslie.

"Oh, jeeze." Sarah said with annoyance, pulling back from Terrance in time to see Leslie furiously narrow her eyes, turn around and walk away. The scenario in which Leslie hated her for loving Terrance had played out endlessly in Sarah's mind already, so she wasn't exactly shocked. "I should probably,"

"Leave it," Terrance cut her off. He stared at her intensely. Sarah glanced at his hand, where she had scribbled "I love Sarah", with a heart instead of love, and seeing that he hadn't bothered to remove it, Sarah was forced to obey. She gave him a small, worried smile and nodded her head, and they were kissing again, and all thoughts about the ex-best-friend were lost.