Friends
The Outsider
After they had finished their breakfast Paris said she had to go, she mumbled something about her mother and stupid traditions that had nothing to do with the times at all.
When she left Rory looked down at herself and realized she had spent the past hour having breakfast with Tristan in her pajamas, blushing a deep red she got up saying she had to change, and that when she did she would take Tristan on a tour of Stars-Hallow.
When she was out of the room Tristan pulled up his chair sitting next to Lorelei, nudging her gently with his elbow. And said,
"So you not joining me and Rory on our tour of Stars-Hallow has nothing to do with your fight with Luke?"
"No in fact I was just going to mail you a letter telling you that we sort of made up."
"That's good to hear…you know I heard both your and Rory's narration of what that night."
"So what do you think?"
Tristan just shrugged casually, stood up and went about clearing the dishes.
"I think he has a thing for Rory…and I think he's a less classy version of me before military school."
Tristan said in a serious manner his voice showed no signs of joking.
Lorelei looked at the back of the young man standing in her kitchen at thought that maybe he was right, but there was one thing that she felt she had to say,
"I don't think you were anything like Jess, you I think were more like Christopher, a rich kid with a wild side and did something stupid, that whole teenage rebellion thing screw up enough maybe someone will finally notice, hey come to think of it that's what I did."
Lorelei smiled at him, Tristan turned around whipping off his hands, also smiling.
"Hey what are you two hens clucking about?"
Rory asked as she came into the kitchen.
"The usual life…Hartford…the best deals on coffee…nothing special."
Tristan said with a causal shrug of his shoulders, not wanting to tell Rory that they both had been talking about Jess, he knew that lying was probably not he best thing for his friendship with Rory, but on the other hand he also new it wouldn't help the already strained relationship between Lorelei and Rory, if Rory knew that Lorelei was talking about Jess and in a negative light.
Tristan didn't know what to think of Jess he had yet to meet him to form his own opinion but he had enough opinions to understand the kind of person Jess was, he was leaving his own thoughts for when he meet him.
Tristan didn't look to long at Rory firstly because he didn't want to be caught in a lie and secondly he didn't want to embarrass himself by saying something stupid.
'How is it she can make blue jeans and a red t-shirt look good? God she's beautiful. Ohhh…wonderful next thing I know I'm going to waxing poetics.'
"Kay Tristan are you ready?"
"Yeah…I'll see you around Lorelei."
"Only if you're cooking."
With that both teens were out the door. When they were standing on the front porch Rory saw something she had missed the first time she had gone to get her mail, the silver Mustang that parked on their drive-way.
"You know all of Stars-Hallow will be wondering who that belongs to? And probably came up with the most outrageous possibilities."
Tristan just shrugged and said,
"They probably won't be that far off, but I think it would be the content inside the car that would have them buzzing, more than the car and where it's parked."
Rory gave him a curious look and went over to the car looking through the window she was able to see a bunch of CD's the musical style ranging from the golden oldies to the present day billboard chart topping hits. On the dash board was an open book the title of the book had worn off, obviously from constant use. In the back seat was a teddy bear, and a Winnie the Pooh blanket.
"I didn't know you were a kid a heart Twistan."
Rory said in her best little kid voice.
"Can I bowwow your Pooh bear blanket?"
Rory tried to say with out busting out laughing.
"Ha…ha…but seriously no! I'm onenough people'sshit listwithout being add toTessa's. She maybe four but she is scary."
Rory looked at Tristan a frown marring her brow, during the months they had been writing to each other, there was still she didn't know about him and it seemed Tessa was one of the many things she didn't know about him.
Tristan just shook his head at Rory's confused expression.
"Come on show me around your quaint little town and I'll tell you about Tessa."
They started walking together, as they past Babette house they heard someone call Rory's name.
"Rory!...Rory!...honey how are you? And who is your friend?"
They stopped and turned around giving the small, plump woman enough time to catch up with them.
Tristan whispered in Rory's ear.
"So it begins. The charms of a small town, and going out with the towns' princess."
Rory giggled at the comment and waited to see how Tristan would handle the gold fish in a bowl effect that was Stars-Hallow.
"I'm fine thanks Babette, this is…"
"Tristan DuGray at your service madam."
Tristan said cutting Rory off and extending his hand out to the older woman. Babette gave him her hand. Which Tristan turned over and kissed her knuckles.
This caused a school girl giggle to come out of the older woman.
"You're not from around here are you?"
Tristan let out a long suffering sigh.
"Unfortunately I don't…not that I wouldn't love to, to have such lovely neighbors such as you and Rory near by. But I must live with my family in Hartford. But at least I get a little of this Stars-Hallow air at Chilton."
Rory was having a heard time trying not to laugh, she couldn't believe the stuff that was coming out of Tristan mouth, charm was one thing but this was defiantly board-line brown-nosier.
At the same time she had to give him credit kiss ass or not he had Babette hanging on his every word like so many of the bimbos at school, he also had answered all the questions Babette could have had with all his hot air.
Standing back and watching Tristan and Babette interact she could easily seeall the years of Pre-schools being put to use, she also saw something she never would have been able to do and that was to captivate a person she didn't even know, Tristan may have been a lot of things, and may still be a lot of things she didn't know about but one thing was for sure he'd always be a magnet. He practically oozed charisma, charm, confidence, and even thought she tried to ignore it sexuality.
And what made matters worse as far as Rory was concerned was not only was he all the above and mentioned her was also witty, funny, and smart. During their letter writing faze she had learnt he had read the same books she had, and then some. When she learnt that she understood why Tristan's father had been so angry when he was about to blow his future, with all the stupid stuff he pulled.
Shaking her head from the path they were going she started to pay attention to the conversation that was going on between Babette and Tristan.
"It's so nice to finally meet one of Rory's friends from Chilton we were starting get worried that she hadn't any friends besides that scary girl that comes here sometimes."
Tristan laughed at Babette's wording, and description of Paris.
"Paris is rather scary trust me I should know the when we were in kindergarten together I borrowed her blue crayon and I forgot to give it back, believe me when I say I never forgot after that. But she's okay point in fact is that she has forgiven my transgressions and we're friends again."
"I don't understand why Rory said that there were no nice boys at Chilton, you seem very nice, sure there was one boy that kept on calling her Mary then when he was meant to play the part of Romeo he ditched and that lead to her having to kiss that Paris girl."
Rory was now biting her lip to keep from laughing wanting to hear how Tristan would explain that he was said above mentioned boy.
"Well Babette I'm afraid that I'm that boy."
The look on Babette's face was priceless.
"But...but…but you seem so nice."
This sent both teens into a laughing fit. When Rory finally got over her laughing fit she turned to Babette and said,
"He is when youget past I'm the king worship me ego he's got himself, in fact I believe that if you put Tristan and Narcissus in a room it would be impossible to figure out who loved himself more."
"Ah…Mary you wound me and here I had always been described as an Adonis."
"Yeah…yeah whatever like your ego needs anymore stroking it's already big enough as it is."
As soon as the comment was out she wished she could take it back, especially when she got in return was a raised eye-brow and a smirk, she turned to Babette hoping that it was just Tristan who had interpreted her words the way he had, but when she was meet with a small smile she knew it had been understood the same way as he did, she felt her cheeks burn.
'Okay that's the third time I've blushed in a two hour period and Tristan was the reason behind all three, friends don't blush around each other do they? Yes they do and so what if you notice the fact that his eyes turn a brighter blue when he's joking around, or the fact that his gray t-shirt is clinging to his well formed and defined muscles, or the fact that the buzz cut is nothing to write how about, it still doesn't take away from him, friends notice these things about each other it's normal.'
Tristan's smirk turned into an out and out smile at the blush that was quickly spreading across Rory's face deciding that she had suffered enough embarrassment for the mean time he quickly addressed Babette.
"Listen Babette it's been a pleasure to meet you and hopefully I'll be able to change your opinion of me as I have done with Rory here but I believe I was promised a tour of Stars-Hallow and I think I would be best if got going."
"Don't worry about it sugar, we all make mistakes."
Rory could see that Babette had been swept away by Tristan's charm and good looks, in fact it was something to see the older, plump woman completely taken with him just like so many of the girls back in Chilton.
Tristan gave Babette a winning smile and a small wave he then grabbed hold of Rory's elbow and started pulling down the way they had been going before they had been stopped by Babette.
"Come on Mary show me around your town and remember I'm on a deadline I've got to be all pretty for my date with Paris, can't present her to society without beatifying myself. Plus I want to meet Lane."
"Okay Cinderella I'll make sure your nice Mustang doesn't turn into a pumpkin."
They kept on walking the silence between was comfortable, what went unnoticed by both teens was that though Tristan's hand was no longer holding Rory by her elbow his hand had easily slid down and they were both holding hands, their fingers intertwined.
They didn't notice until a boy on his skateboard miscalculated and end up ramming between them. Forcing them to let go of each other's hand.
Tristan cursed under his breath due to the lack of contact with Rory, helping her get her footing, he knew by looking into her blue eyes he needed to come up with something to defuse the slowly growing moment.
Ignoring the fact that all he wanted to do at that very moment was kiss her, like he had done that night on the piano bench at Madelyn's party, but he had a feeling that the result of the kiss he was thinking about and the one he wanted to give her at this very moment end result wouldn't be that different, he removing his hands from around her waist he said,
"Well so much for small town charms, you okay?"
"I fine thanks for stopping a very nasty experience with gravity…but it does make you wonder what has happened to the young people these days."
"I say it's Barney."
"And here I thought it was violent video games and too much exposure to sex."
"Please violent video games and sex every where you go is a way of life. Where would we be without Playboy? And let's not forget Sex in the city. Trust me when I say it's the purple dinosaur and those happy kids that's just unnatural."
"Awe….is Twistan afwaid of Barney."
"Please that stuff could be used as a torture device. Trust me it is."
They both kept on walking; knowing that the sooner they got into town the quicker the upcoming inquires would be over. Both doing their best to ignore the thoughts they had been having about each other.
It didn't take long for them to be in the town square.
"Okay Tristan this is the town square over there have Doose's which is owned by Taylor try to stay away from him as much as possible."
"I know I meet the man once, reminds me of my Uncle Robert not good, and let's not forget who happens to work there."
Rory knew that Tristan didn't like Dean, and a part of her believed it was because at the winter formal, at the time she didn't mind Dean doing what he did she like the idea ofTristan being putin his place, but now the more she thought about it and the more she knew about Tristan she knew that Dean had no right, Tristan was in his place, she may have not liked him for it but he was without any choice of his own the resident king of Chilton. How he acted was a direct result of the idol worship he received.
"So how do you want to play this the fancy car parked in your drive-way the curious citizens of Stars-Hallow would be were discussing possible theories where exactly?"
"Most likely Luke's."
"Well then that's what's known as two birds with one stone. Shall we?"
Tristan said offering Rory his arm.
"We shall."
Excepting his arm they made their way over to Luke's.
To be continued…..