I've got something up my sleeve that I don't want to show you
Cause every time I bleed I make a fool of me
I've got shaky little fingers, that hold on to your grip
You've got wrapped around my world
So tight that I can't breathe
I'm suffocating
Rory slid her tank top back on, glancing over at Tristan. He was sitting on the bed, already fully dressed, leaning over with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. She tilted her head and walked over to him, standing in between his outstretched knees. Without looking up at her,
Tristan slid his hands under her shirt to grip her hips and pulled her closer, resting his forehead on her flat stomach. Rory ran her fingers through his hair slowly and stood still for a few minutes. "Are you okay?" she whispered.
Tristan looked up, and Rory saw that his eyes were a stormy gray. "I'm fine." he said, knowing that he didn't sound honest.
She nodded, stepping out of his touch, "My parents will be home soon." she looked away.
He stood up, "Rory-" her head snapped around to looked at him. He opened his mouth, but said nothing.
She looked away, fighting back emotion, "Yeah. They'll be home soon."
Tristan shook his head, "Rory, I didn't mean to be like that."
"Like what?"
"I don't know, I just-" he sighed, "It's complicated."
Rory laughed, a gentle, patronizing laugh, "So uncomplicate it."
"I can't."
The corners of her mouth turned up-not in a smile, but in disbelief and obvious anger, "Right. You can leave now."
Tristan swore under his breath and ran his hand through his hair, "Rory, come on-" he grabbed her arm.
She twirled around to face him, "What?"
"Okay, I'm really screwing up right now."
"Yeah."
"Look, I just....." he trailed off, at a loss for words.
Rory rolled her eyes, "Look, Tristan, obviously something's going on with you right now and either you can't tell me about it, or you don't want to."
"I want to explain it to you, Ror, I really do."
Her lips were pursed as she watched him expectantly, "But..." she supplied for him.
Tristan shook his head, "I can't."
"You can't?"
"No."
Rory nodded, leaning against the wall, "Right, look Tristan, I'm not in the mood for this, okay? Please just go home." she looked away.
He let out a long breath, right hand running through his messy blonde hair, "Fine." he kissed her cheek lightly, "I'll call you."
"Bye." she said quietly, without looking at him.
"Bye." he slipped out of her door and onto the balcony.
Rory stayed in that same position, unmoving until she heard her parents come home ten minutes later, and she slipped under the rumpled covers that still smelled of Tristan, and fell asleep.
NEXT MORNING
Rory opened her eyes slowly and turned over to look at the clock. 11:30. They didn't have school for two weeks because of Christmas and New Years. She closed her eyes, turning over and curling into a ball until she heard her phone's shrill ring. She jumped and scrambled to answer it, "Hello?" she laid back down, closing her eyes and resting her arm across her forehead.
"Hey."
She sighed, "Tristan."
"Rory."
"What?"
"I need to see you."
She sat up, "What?"
"I just-" he stopped, taking a deep breath, "-look, I need to talk to you."
She rubbed her eyes wth her fingers impatiently. She was tired of his hot and cold mood swings,
"Tristan, what the hell is wrong with you?"
"I don't know." she could hear the strain in his voice over the phone.
Rory closed her eyes, resting her forehead in the palm of her hand, "Look Tristan, I'm really worried about you, but if I don't know what's wrong with you then I can't help you. So please,
just throw me something here. Anything." there was silcence on the other end. "Tristan?" she whispered.
After another moment he spoke quietly, "I love you, Rory." and then he hung up. She pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at it in disbelief before dropping it and closing he eyes,
turning over and falling asleep.
THAT AFTERNOON
Rory woke up to see someone leaning over her, staring. She opened her eyes slowly, wanting to sink back into the covers and sleep, but couldn't with the way her brother was sitting over her. "Hey." Blake just stared back, disapproving. Rory's head cocked back, "What?"
"Oh nothing. It's just that I don't think visits from your boyfriend in the middle of the night would go over too well with mom and dad."
She rolled over so that her back was to him, "No? I thought they might encourage it."
"Rory, I'm serious."
She rolled back around, "Let it go, Blake. You've gone over to Madeline's in the middle of the night before."
"Yeah, but that's different."
Her eyebrows raised, "Oh?"
"Yeah."
"How so?"
"Well, she's a girl-"
"And just what the hell am I?"
"My sister." he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Imagine that."
"Besides, she's my girlfriend."
"Tristan is my boyfriend-"
"-and you're the little sister. I can't just allow your boyfriend to come in in the middle of the night."
"Yeah, well you can't exactly stop it now either, can you?"
"Rory."
"Blake." she mocked, rolling her eyes.
"I'm serious."
"That makes two of us."
"Rory, look, I'm your brother, and I'm telling you not to do this."
She sat up, "He's one of your best friend!"
"Yeah, which is exactly why I know this is a bad idea!" he yelled.
She threw her hands in the air, "Well too bad, because you don't get a say in it!"
"Rory, please," he pleaded, "You're my twin sister, my little sister. My flesh and blood. I love you more than I love myself most of the time. And I'm telling you that you're making a mistake."
"How can you say that? You always defended Tristan in front of mom!"
He nodded, "Yeah. And I'd do it again in a heart beat. Because he's one of my best friends. And I know that if mom said you could never see him again then you'd just ignore her, but Rory please, you know that I would never get involved in this if I thought you wouldn't get hurt. Please think about what you're doing." he finished at a whisper, staring her squarely in the eyes.
She shook her head, fighting back emotion, "I love him." she whispered.
Blake looked away, "Yeah, I know. And that's what scares me."
"You mean, you don't love Madeline?" she asked in surprise.
Blake shook his head, "It's not that I have no feelings for her, it's just that I'm only sixteen. I can't love her yet. But I know that you're head over heels for Tristan, and that's what scares me. Ror, you're my best friend. I love you to death, and Tristan's like a brother to me, but I can't just sit back and watch you get in too deep. I won't let you."
"It's not your choice."
He nodded, standing up, "I know, and I respect that. Just please, think about it." he whispered,
kissing his sister on the forehead before walking out of her room.
She stared at the door after he'd left, tears filling her eyes. Blake had never done anything like that before. He protected her, but always left her to make her own decisions. He'd never pleaded with her before. He'd never tried to reason with her. Why was everyone so against her and Tristan? She slid out of bed and threw on jeans and a t-shirt with a sweater over it before grabbing her keys and walking to her car simply yelling that she'd 'be back later' before walking out of the front door.
She pulled into the driveway of the Hartford address twenty minutes later, glancing over and sighing in relief that the garage was open, meaning neither of his parents were home. She walked to the front door, rubbing under her bloodshot red eyes, ringing the doorbell once before wrapping her arms tightly around herself to try and ward off the cold.
A hard looking woman answered the door, "Can I help you?" she had a thick French accent.
Rory swallowed the lump in her throat, "Is Tristan here?" she asked, tightening her grip around herself with one arm while the other hand went to play absentmindedly with the chain of the necklace Tristan had given her.
The woman shook her head, "I'm sorry, but you'll have to leave. Mister Tristan requested that he not be bothered with anyone."
"But I really need to see him-"
The woman cut her off, "I'm sorry, but that's not my concern. He said not to let anyone in to see him."
"Look, I understand that he said not to let anyone in, but I promise you that he'd say to let me in if you asked him."
"I'm sorry if you think that, but-" she was cut off by Tristan's voice.
"Who's at the door, Carla?" it sounded like he was coming down the stairs.
"A girl has come to see you. I asked her to leave, but she insists on seeing you. I'm terribly sorry." she said, looking at up the stairs apologetically and then at Rory accusingly.
"Who is it?" Tristan asked, finally coming into view, but he froze when he was her. He just stood there for a moment, taking in her wind whipped cheeks and red eyes. "Rory?" he whipered, as if he wasn't sure that it was her. She smiled weakly, biting her lip. Tristan looked at the maid as if there were something wrong with her, "Let her in!" she sprung from Rory's path inside as if there was a raging lion running at her. He walked to his girlfriend, gathering her in is arms as a new wave of tears started forming.
He held her as she cried, and the maid closed the door behind Rory, muttering apologies. "I'm so sorry, Mister Dugrey. I didn't know that she was to be let in-"
He shook his head, "Don't worry about it." She stopped apologizing, but still obviously felt guilty by the look on her face, and she curtsied before departing from the room. Tristan touched Rory's cheek gently, turning her up to face him, "Hey baby, what's wrong?" he whispered, his face inches from hers. She continued to sob quietly and Tristan placed slow, gentle kisses on her lips until she'd calmed down. He smiled gently once she stopped, "What happened?"
She sniffed, closing her eyes and shaking her head, "Everything has just sucked today." Tristan looked away guiltily, but was thankful when she didn't demand an explination for his late night visit. She looked up at him, "Why is everybody so against this?" she asked.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean your parents, my mom, half the people at school....." she looked away, shaking her head.
"But they don't matter."
Rory looked up at him, "Don't they?" she whispered.
He shook his head, "No. Has it ever seemed like they did?" he asked.
She inhaled a shaky breath, "At times."
Tristan looked away, "Rory, people are going to talk and they're going to make you feel like shit,
but you can't let it get to you. What happened?"
Her head turned down, "Nothing."
He pushed her chin up gently to look at him, "Ror, babe, you don't usually come to my house crying. What the hell happened to make you cry like this?" She sighed, closing her eyes and rested her forehead on his chest. He looked down at her, touching her face, "Okay, let's go somewhere. We need to get out of here." He said, grabbing her hand and pulling her out of the house.
WEDNESDAY (CHRISTMAS)
Rory coughed, tossing Shane one of his wrapped gifts from under the tree while Blake was handed Lorelai one of hers. Every year it was the twins' job to hand out the gifts on Christmas,
and they did it grudgingly because that meant that they had to get up earliest. Rory stood and walked over to one of the large recliners in the living room, the one that was holding Blake's gifts, and dropped it on top of his stack. "This one is for Juanita." Blake told his mother, reading the tag on one box.
Lorelai nodded towards the kitchen table, "Oh yeah, she was traveling to her son's for Christmas and I gave her off yesterday, but forgot to give that to her. Just set it on the table."
They finished passing out gifts and Rory sat on one of the large comfortable chairs that her gifts had been set next to, and grabbed one from Blake that was on the top. He smiled when he saw her grab his first, but didn't look up from his own present. Rory pulled off the wrapping paper to reveal a small cardboard box and she pulled off the top to reveal two tickets. She turned the over and screamed, "Oh my God, Blake!" she ran over to him and jumped, hugging him tightly.
"I take it you like it?" he asked, laughing.
"You-you, Weezer? How did you get these tickets? I thought the show was sold out."
He shrugged, grinning, "Connections, Rory, connections."
THAT NIGHT
"So, the first snow of the season is on Christmas." Tristan said, amused as Rory pulled him out of her house and into the front yard.
She turned around to face him, smiling, "Of course it is." she stepped closer to him through the three inches of powder, "Christmas is magical, as is the first snow of the season. It only makes sense that they come together."
He grinned at her, wrapping his arms around her waist, "It that so?"
She nodded as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "Mm-hm." a wide smile crossed her lip as she stepped out of his arms, turning her face up towards the falling snow, the hair around her face flipping from the bottom of the light blue beanie on her head. Tristan smiled,
watching her. She looked over at him, still smiling lightly. The snow all around her made her hair look darker, her eyes brighter, and her cheeks and lips pinker. The pure white everywhere made every aspect of her so much more vivid. She stepped closer to him, wrapping her arms around his torso under his open jacket, a small smile playing on her lips. She leaned up, kissing him gently. Tristan looked down at her, his expression unreadable. Rory tilted her head, "You okay?" she whispered.
He shook his head, but answered, "Yeah. I'm fine."
She moved away a few inches, taking her arms from around him and took his hands, lacing their fingers together. Tristan looked down at their hands, swallowing the lump in his throat. She looked up at him, opening her mouth, but to stop her from asking any questions, he leaned down quickly and crushed his lips to hers, kissing her thoroughly, and when it was over, she looked at him uncertainly, but he just shook his head, leaning down again.
We come crashing down
Every time we go this far again
We come crashing down
Every time we go this far again
Every time we go
I've got nothing that I'd hide
Except for that's inside
I keep it all locked up, in this prison we call love
I'm suffocating
A/N: This chapter definitely isn't one of my best, I don't know what happened. Anyway, I started on it a few weeks ago, but couldn't think of anywhere to go with it, so sorry about that. But I now what's going on now for sure. So the next chapter should be out a lot sooner.