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Chapter 7:

The morning after the marathon saw Lorelai and Rory sitting in Rory's room. Rory was crying her eyes out, and Lorelai was doing her best to comfort her.

The night before had ended- predictably- with Kirk winning the dance marathon. Logan and Rory had come close, and Lorelai and Michele even closer, only two couples remained after Michele had collapsed. While dancing, Logan and Rory simply stared at each other. Periodically, Logan would lean down and brush his lips against hers, but they had yet to have the inevitable talk. Logan didn't do girlfriends. Rory reminded herself fiercely.

If she was going to be completely honest with herself, she was probably more upset about Logan than Dean. Kissing him last night was the single most amazing experience she had ever had. And if she couldn't experience it again, she didn't know if she would ever be truly happy again.

Logan was lying in his bedroom, facing the ceiling. Last night, he had kissed Rory Gilmore. Last night, he had just… done it. He couldn't remember ever feeling like that before. He knew that he had never had a girlfriend before simply because he had never found the right girl. But he had no doubt in his mind that Rory was the right girl. Rory was the only girl. But what if she didn't feel the same way? What if it had just been instinct that had compelled her to kiss him back? What if she didn't want it to happen again? Maybe now that it was out of her system, she would want to go back to being friends.

But Logan knew that after having a glimpse of what his life could be like with Rory, they couldn't go back to being friends.

Sighing, he picked up the phone. It rang a few times, and then it was answered by one of the only three people he could turn to right now.

"Hello?"

"Colin, is Finn with you?"

"Oh, hey Logan. Yeah, he is actually, and Tristan, too," he said, surprised by the panic he heard in Logan's voice.

"Perfect… Uh, could you guys come over?" he said.

"We'll be right there," Colin said without hesitating.

They hung up, and Colin turned to the other two boys sitting on his couch.

"Logan needs us."

Lorelai was desperately trying to help Rory through whatever was happening. Rory hadn't been able to go into any detail except that she and Dean were broken up. Lorelai suspected there was more to it than that. Finally, after she had done all she could think of, Lorelai decided a girl talk was in order.

"Rory? I'm calling Lane, Paris, Steph, Julie and Rose. We need to talk," she said, leaving no room for argument.

Rory Sighed.

"Logan?" Tristan called through the door. "Open up, man."

Logan walked to the door and opened it. His three friends walked past him and into his room, sitting on his bed without being invited.

"Talk," Finn said, his face-very rarely- serious.

That was all it took to set Logan off. He recounted the following night, starting with Rory learning about Dean cheating on her, and ending with the kiss, and how it had felt.

When he was done, the three friends sat shocked. After three full minutes of complete silence, Colin spoke up.

"Well, finally!" he shouted.

"What?" Logan said, snapping out of his thoughts and focusing on his friends.

"You and Rory belong together!" Tristan called out, exasperated by Logan's denseness.

"What are you talking about?" Logan said, trying to grasp what his friend was trying to tell him.

"Go tell her! Go set her straight! Come on, man! Time's a wasting!" Finn said, grabbing Logan by the shoulders and shaking him.

That was all Logan needed to hear. He grabbed his coat and headed out the door.

A knock on the door sent Lorelai catapulting off the couch and to the entrance to the Crap Shack. She pulled open the door to reveal a breathless Lane.

"Hey, Lorelai, I got here as fast as I could," she said, breezing past Lorelai and into the room. She sat by the very distraught looking Rory and put her arms around her.

"Hey, Lane," Rory said, sniffling.

In another twenty minutes, the rest of Rory's friends had arrived.

"What happened, hun?" Juliet said, looking at Rory's distressed appearance.

"Ok, no one interrupt me. If you stop me, I won't be able to start again," Rory said, and she launched into a story of the night before. When she was done recounting the kiss with Logan and everything after that, her friends all sat with her in complete and utter silence. Paris was the first to break it.

"Well, I'm glad the two of you finally got your heads together," Paris said.

"Huh?" Rory said as a way of response.

"Hun, you and Logan belong together, everyone can see it," Lorelai said.

"Mom… what are you talking about?"

"It's true," Stephanie said. "You guys are the same as me and Colin were before we finally got together. Now if you'll excuse me," she said, getting up off of her spot on the floor and pulling out her cell phone.

"Where are you going?" Rory asked.

"I'm calling Colin to see of Logan is on his way over yet," she said in a tone that made it sound like it was supposed to be obvious.

"Ok, everyone clear out!" Paris demanded.

"Yeah, we can't be here when he gets here," Rosemary said. And with that, all of Rory's friends proceeded to get up and march out the door. Lane was the last to leave, and when the door closed behind her, only Rory was left. Even her mom was gone, claiming she had errands to run and she wanted to stop by the inn.

Rory sighed and sat down to wait.

Logan sat in her drive-way, his heart pounding a mile a minute. I can do this… he said to himself. Come on… get out of the car… after talking his way out of the car and up the porch stairs, he hesitated at the door. Here goes nothing, he thought, knocking quietly.

Inside, Rory heard the knock of the door and her pulse sky-rocketed. That was him. Slowly, she got up and walked over to the suddenly threatening front door. She reached her hand out and turned the knob, and there he was. He looked like he had just gotten out of bed, his blond hair more tousled than usual, his normally nice cloths traded in for a pair of sweats and a T-shirt. Realizing she was staring, Rory blushed and opened the door wider, inviting him in.

They both sat on the couch, an uncomfortable space between them.

"So… should we just jump right in?" Logan said after a few minutes of tension-filled silence.

"Sure. Um… you first," Rory said.

"Ok… well, let's start with that kiss," he said, smiling slightly. "Pretty fantastic," he said.

"Well I'm glad were on the same page there," Rory said quickly. The last thing she wanted him thinking was that she had any regrets about last night.

"And… ok, listen, I'm just going to get straight to the point, here, Ace. I know I've never been the type to do commitment, but I think that might be just because I was trying to find the right girl, and at the risk of sounding clichéd and cheesy, I think I've found her," he said, quickly, before he could change his mind.

"Really?" Rory said, disbelieving. She had been preparing for the worst-case scenario. She had assumed Logan would come in here and tell her that the kiss was a mistake. She was not prepared for this at all.

"Yes, really. So, what do you think?" Logan said, looking at her worriedly.

Rory hesitated only a second before closing the space between them and kissing him, hard.

Logan smiled against her lips and kissed her back. Everything was going to be just fine.

Monday morning arrived. Logan had picked her up that morning to take her to school, and he had held her hand the whole ride. She smiled softly to herself. Jess had seen her all gooey-eyed at breakfast that morning, and when she had told him her reason; he had rolled his eyes and responded much like everyone else had.

"It's about time!" He had said to her.

Pulling into the Chilton parking lot, Rory prepared for the onslaught of glares and mean comments that would be coming her way. When she voiced this concern, Logan turned to her and frowned.

"Why are people going to be mad at you?" he asked, confused.

"I just took the must eligible bachelor in all of Hartford- possibly all of Connecticut, off of the market," Rory said, laughing.

"Huh. Never thought about that," he said truthfully.

"Well, it's true. Everyone is going to hate me," she said.

"I don't hate you. And your friends don't hate you. Who cares what everyone else thinks?" he said.

The two walked toward the school, hands grasped firmly together, just as they were about to enter the building, Logan spun Rory around and pressed her against the wall, smiling at her.

"What?" Rory said, laughing at Logan's tactics.

"Hello," he said, leaning down and kissing her.

Every thought going through Rory's head disappeared the moment he pressed his lips to hers. Her hands tangled in his hair as Logan pressed himself against her. They would have continued, if they had not been interrupted by a very amused Finn.

"So, it looks like you two have finally got your act together," he said, smiling.

"Um…" Rory said. She felt her cheeks redden. Logan kept his arms around her.

"Well, now that you two are together, we just have to work on Colin and Steph," Finn said, sighing and shaking his head.

"What do you mean?" Logan said.

"They got into a fight," Finn explained. "I mean, honestly. Am I the only person who knows how to be in a decent relationship? The second I knew I had feelings for Rose; I went out and got her. But Stephanie and Colin liked each other for years before getting together, and now they're fighting. And the two of you should have started dating years ago," when his rant was over, Rory spoke up.

"What happened between Col and Steph?" She asked, worriedly.

"Oh, nothing really, he said he would call, he forgot, called an hour later, Steph wasn't home, Colin was mad she wasn't home, Steph was mad because Colin just expected her to wait around for him. But as far as I know, Stephanie only left home to go over to Julie's house so the two of them could have one of those handy girl talks. Apparently she was pretty upset," Finn said sadly.

"That's terrible! I hate it when people fight over practically nothing," Rory said, already making plans to talk to Stephanie.

"Yeah, but don't worry. Those two are stubborn, but they care too much about each other to let one stupid fight ruin everything," Finn said, his voice reasoning.

Logan was distractedly playing with a strand of Rory's hair as he thought. "Have you talked to him?" he asked Finn, referring to Colin.

"Yeah, but I think the wounds were too recent. He didn't want to really talk yet."

"Ok, Ace, you and the girls tackle Stephanie, and me, Finn and Tristan will go talk to Colin. If my sources are correct, they should be back together by the end of the day," Logan said, radiating confidence.

But lunch time rolled around, and the two were still stubbornly not saying a word to each other.

Rory didn't have any of her morning classes with Logan, so when lunch time rolled around, that meant a full three hours trying to pay attention to droning teachers while her mind could only seem to focus on him and his kisses.

She walked into the lunch room with purpose, and, spotting her boyfriend, rushed over and kissed him. Before Logan could register that she was standing there, she pulled away.

"Hi," she said, smiling.

"Hello. And come back here. I wasn't finished," he said, leaning back down and kissing her again. After several small, chaste kisses, the two walked over to the table where their group was, and sat down together. Logan saw that Stephanie was present at the table, but there was no sign of Colin.

"Tristan, where is he?" he asked to the blonde sitting on his other side.

"Stephanie claims that since she got here first, he has to find somewhere else to sit," Tristan responded, rolling his eyes.

"Huh. More stubborn than I thought," Logan said, frowning slightly.

"Don't worry, we still have plenty of time," Rory said, smiling at him. Logan was once again amazed at how long he had been able to go without leaning down at moments like these and kissing her, which he did now. Rory responded, sighing and kissing him back passionately. They pulled away only when they heard Stephanie let out an exasperated groan.

"Jeez, guys. I'm trying to eat here. You don't have to rub me and Colin's fight in my face," she said, picking up her lunch tray and running off.

Rosemary sighed. "I'll handle this," she said, getting up and following Stephanie out of the room.

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