Chapter 5
"What?" Rory asked him, glaring.
Tristan knew he obviously hit a nerve. Her face had darkened and her tone was biting. Her eyes were narrowed into a fiery glare. He took a breath, letting it out slowly, and folded his arms on the table, leaning forward slightly.
"Look, I'm just saying we need to get to know each other. There's obviously something going on with you and your mom. Tell me about it."
Rory looked down at her hands. She wanted to be angry with him. But somehow… somehow she was having trouble summoning that anger. She wanted to open up… tell him her side of things. No one seemed to listen to her side anymore. Still, she was silent.
Tristan leaned over and took her hands and put his own over them, caressing them softly. "Come on, Mary, maybe I can help."
The second she heard her old nickname her head shot up and she met his gaze. "My name is Rory. After all this time, I still can't believe you don't remember it." She hissed, trying to pull her hands away.
He held onto her hands, not letting her take them away. He wasn't holding them so tight that he was hurting her; he just wasn't letting her run away. "I just want to know what happened to ruin your relationship with your mother. That's all. I won't judge you; I promise." He swore, speaking softly.
While he generally wasn't one for long heart to hearts and in depth analysis of things, he knew this was something huge going on in Rory's life. He also knew that there would be no loop holes found in the contracts; she would become his wife. Since he was going to be married to her, he figured he should at least help her out with this. He had a feeling that not only would it do her a world of good, but it would also make his life much easier.
Rory glared at him. "You're right, you won't judge me! You know nothing about me. It is none of your damn business."
He let go of her hands. "Rory," He said slowly, holding onto his temper. Lord, how this one girl was always able to try his patience faster than anyone he ever knew. "This is my business. We're getting married, whether we like it or not. I'm not much more thrilled than you are to be in this situation, but I do think we should at least be honest with each other."
Rory snorted in frustration. "Like you're one to talk. You never got along with your parents, anyway."
Tristan took a deep breath, and then let it out. He counted backwards from ten silently before leaning across the table yet again. "Listen, you say I know nothing about you; well, that's true. But don't think for a second you know anything about me, sweetheart, because you've got another thought coming."
"No, that's not true. I know you got sent away to military school, if your relationship with your parents was so great, then why in the hell were you sent away?" She shot back at him, her eyes never wavering from his.
"Get this strait Mary. I was a 16 year old punk. I thought the only thing in life was girls. I got into some trouble because I was stupid and didn't listen to anyone. At least, no one worth listening to. My father was right in sending me to military school. It did a world of good. So don't think you know anything about me, either."
Rory sat back, dumbfounded. She had grown used to her wall she put up around others. Sure, her family members and some of her friends would yell at her about her choices, but no one actually affected her the way his words just did.
She sat back, an unsure expression on her face as she contemplated his words. He had changed. Really, truly, completely changed. He had his life in order, and here she was, the same age Tristan was, and a mess. She suddenly felt like everything was out of her control.
She knew she had screwed up. She had no one to blame but herself. Somehow she had managed to alienate most of her friends and her entire family. She couldn't remember the last time she had been to Stars Hollow, much less to her mom's house.
When Rory realized Tristan was waiting for a response of some sort, she shook her head, willing the tears to stay away. "Sorry. I'm so… sorry." Was all she could choke out. She looked back down at her hands, ashamed to meet his gaze. How was it possible she had been so very, very wrong about everything?
Mistakes she had made over the past year hit her with realizations. The end of last summer was the beginning of her downfall, she now knew. Her affair with Dean… then the no-strings thing… the yacht… the fights with her mom… it was too much. She needed to get out of there, away from Tristan. She didn't know how much longer she could keep her tears from falling. She had already embarrassed herself enough in front of Tristan.
Tristan looked over at her, his concern obvious. "Rory, whatever it is, I can help you, I underst-"
"I need to go." She cried, half panicking, as she jumped up, grabbing her purse. She needed to go, get away from him; to get away from the awful, awful way he made her feel. He made her see who she had become, and she didn't like it. Not one bit. She was who he used to be.
"Stay, please." He told her, standing up with her, grabbing her arm gently.
She shook her head, once again willing the tears to stay back. This time she couldn't stop a few stray tears from escaping. "Just let me go, I want to go." She cried, shaking slightly.
He nodded, realizing she was on the verge ofbreaking down, and not wanting her to do it in public. He knew she would hate that. "We'll go."
She nodded in response, at this point desperate to have some privacy for the tears no longer under her control. She knew he had a million questions, and she knew he wouldn't think twice about asking them, but for now, she didn't care. She just wanted to go.
AN: Thanks for all the reviews, I really appreciate them! Ok, ok, I know, you hate me. I didn't really get into the whole Lorelai/ Rory deal in this chapter. I wrote most of this chapter witha huge argument/ confrontation with Rory & Tristan, but then deleted it. I thought it would be good to have Rory realize her mistakes on her own... with a little gentle prodding from Tristan. I have a longer AN at my blog, answering a couple of things that have been mentioned in various reviews. Please let me know what you think!
