Chapter Fourteen

The bus ride was full of impossible to ignore thoughts of Tristan. She had known that going back to Chilton would cause that so she was unsure why she felt surprised when her thoughts had led to him. She had managed to push him out of her thoughts for most of the break. She only allowed herself to think of him in the privacy of her own room late at night when she was sure her thoughts and emotions would remain private. Christmas had been particularly difficult for her. She had learned from a Friday Night Dinner that the Dugrey's were going to Aspen for the holidays but that Tristan had decided to stay in boarding school, claiming to be madly in love with Switzerland and didn't want to leave. The look of disbelief on her face had been noticed but never mentioned by her mother, but she knew that Lorelai had been worried. Knowing that he was alone in North Carolina spending Christmas alone and probably miserable had made if hard for her to spend her own holidays happily. She had smiled and played happy for all the appropriate people. She remembered the forced smile she wore when Dean had given her a copy of Stiff: The Life of Human Cadavers, claiming he remembered she had said it looked interesting. He never noticed her eyes dart straight past the title and to the author Mary Roach. Her thoughts immediately went to Tristan. Ten minutes later she excused herself and walked outside. Once sure she was alone and wouldn't be interrupted she sat and cried. Cried for Tristan, cried for herself, and cried for something that had never really began but had certainly ended far too soon. She was unsure after she went back in if anyone noticed that she had been off for the rest of the evening.

Thinking of Dean caused her to sigh. She had been trying to shove Tristan out of her mind by spending excessive amounts of time with Dean. On days when he had to work she often showed up at Doose's to entertain him and they spent every night either at the movies or in her living room watching movies and eating junk food. She was doing a good job at hiding how miserable she was but ever since her breakdown on Christmas it had become more difficult.

New Years passed and she was certain that Tristan had probably loved this holiday, being the delinquent that he was. When the ball dropped she whispered a soft Happy New Years Tristan before she went to sleep, abstaining from all the town's holiday antics claiming a head ache.

The bus stopped and acting on auto pilot she got off and approached Chilton. Nothing had physically changed about the school but she couldn't help but smile when a hush didn't fill the courtyard as she stepped on it.

xxxxxx

Paris had watched Rory the majority of the day. She has watched as Rory drifted in and out of classes never really paying attention to what was going on around her. She noticed Rory's eyes water slightly when she passed Tristan's old locker, but she also noticed how fast she had shoved the watery tears back down, never letting them fall. She felt a slight feeling of proudness, knowing that Rory was now at least taking control of her emotions and not crying at the drop of a hat anymore. The bell had rang releasing the last class of the day and Paris stood in the hallway watching as Rory lingered in front of Tristan's locker after most of Chilton had left the building.

Rory's hand reached up and she slowly traced the number with her index finger. Rory's shoulders slump in sadness and defeat and suddenly as if she knew she was being watched turned around locking eyes with Paris.

Paris walked over to her and sighed. "I'm pretty sure that standing in front of the lockers locked away in nostalgia has caused you to miss your bus." she said abrasively but in what could be construed as a soft tone when being used by Paris

Rory looked down at her watch and then back up at Paris. "There'll be another one in about an hour."

Paris nodded. "Do you want a ride?" she asked unsure why she was being nice

Rory looked at her closely. "Are you feeling ok?" she joked

Paris rolled her eyes. "If you don't want a ride then fine, you can sit here and wait for an hour and then sit on the bus for the next two while it makes a million stops between here and country bumpkinville." she snapped before turning and walking away

Rory sighed and looked back at Tristan's locker. She reached out and touched it one last time before turning around and running after Paris into the parking lot. "Paris wait!" she called out smiling slightly as Paris stopped and turned around in front of her car

"What?" she snapped

Rory sighed. "I don't want to talk about..."

"I'm not going to ask you why you just tracing the numbers on Tristan's old locker. Now get in the car." Paris said testily

Rory breathed a sigh of relief and got in. Paris had barely pulled out of Chilton when Rory started talking. "You told me before Christmas that you just wanted to know he was ok..."

"And you gave me a cryptic answer. Tristan's is my oldest childhood friend. I don't want to hound you about him, mainly because I don't want to be like Summer and also because I have a modicum of respect for you and I'm tired of watching you cry in the bathroom. I just want to know that he's ok."

Rory sighed. "I don't know why he only told me what was going on..."

"Yes you do." Paris interrupted looking at her like she was insane. "Don't play coy Gilmore. You know he cares about you."

Rory nodded. "But he obviously didn't want anyone else knowing, especially now that there is this big huge DuGrey family cover up..."

"So that's a no to the Suisse boarding school then?"

"Unless he lied to me, yes."

Paris shook her head. "He didn't lie to you. I don't know what he said but I'm sure he didn't lie to you."

Rory sighed and there was a long silence that lasted for about five minutes before she finally spoke again. "I'm sure that he's ok. I mean he's Tristan, he can handle just about anything right?"

Paris stopped at the red light and looked at Rory closely. She could see the need to believe that he could in fact handle anything the elder DuGrey's threw at him in her eyes. She nodded. "Yeah. He can take care of himself. He's never needed them for anything."

Rory sighed. "Good." The rest of the car ride was silent.

AN: Just a small filler since I hadn't added a chapter in forever...