Part 3: Outing As Friends

Rory climbed the steps to the living room where her grandparents were, her grandfather getting drinks while her grandmother was on the couch.

"Rory!" Her grandmother said with a smile.

"Hi grandma."

"You're still in your pajamas." Emily said with a frown.

"Yeah, I went down the beach for a few hours, and then came back here to watch movies."

"Did you have fun at the beach?" Her grandfather asked.

"Yeah, I ran into a friend of mine." Rory admitted.

"Really?" Emily asked in interest. "Who was it?"

"Tristan DuGray."

"Nice boy." Richard said. "His grandfather is a good friend of mine. I didn't know Tristan was back."

"He's staying at a house with his friends for the summer, they're downstairs."

"You were with them in your pajamas? Rory, that's horrible." Her grandmother disapproved.

"They came over. I was already in my pajamas and they came over."

"Well, we won't keep you," Richard said. "Don't keep your friends waiting."

"Thanks, grandpa." Rory said as she turned and walked back down the stairs. She saw the guys cleaning up the cartons of ice cream and spilled chips.

"I'm back."

"Hey," Tristan said straightening. "We were going to get going."

"Oh." Rory said.

"I mean we can stay if you want." Colin said. Rory shook her head.

"No, I don't want to keep you. I bet you all have dates."

"Damn right." Logan said making Rory smile.

"I'll show you out." Rory said as she climbed up the steps, the four boys following her. She led them to the front door and opened them, letting them out before stepping out with them.

"I really appreciate what all of you did today. Definitely a good wallow."

"It was all Finn's idea." Logan said as he walked back to the car.

"He's a jerk, Rory, don't let him get to you." Tristan said talking about Jess, giving her a hug then walking back with Logan.

"What Tristan said..." Colin said with a smile.

"Thanks." Rory laughed as she watched him go back. She turned to Finn. "So I guess all the credit goes to you, huh?"

"I have sisters. I knew you were wallowing. I also know that Emily Gilmore doesn't have the proper wallowing food in her freezer."

"Well, one is never properly prepared to wallow, she just didn't have enough of a warning."

"Of course." Finn laughed.

"Thanks, Finn."

"You're welcome. I was actually wondering…"

"What?"

"Well, if you wanted to take walk out on the beach with me?"

"Finn…"

"Just as friends." He said holding his hands up. "And I know what you're about to say, we just met, how can we be friends. Well, I'll give you the answer."

"You sound like an infomercial guy." Rory laughed.

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"So what's the answer?"

"We walk on the beach, we get to know each other… thus becoming friends." Finn said with a smirk.

Rory bit her lip and gave a small nod. "Okay."

"Really?"

"As friends." Rory said.

"As friends." Finn said with a nod. "I'll pick you up at seven."

"Use the back." Rory said. "Do you know where?"

"Yep, I'll meet you." Finn said with a nod.

"Good, see you at seven." Rory said with a smile as she walked backwards back into the house.

"Seven." Finn repeated as he walked backwards and then turned to go into the car. He got in and watched her close the door to the house before closing the door to the car himself.

"Did you get a date?" Logan asked with a smirk as he shot him a glance through the rearview mirror.

"She's not ready to date, Logan." Finn said looking back at him through the mirror. "She's vulnerable and even I know not to take advantage of that, though we are going out as friends."

"You barely know her." Tristan said as he drove down the street.

"Someone's protective." Colin teased.

"Shut it, Colin." Tristan said shooting him a glare.

"Tristan, you're right. I do barely know her. And I'm hoping a walk on the beach will rectify that situation." Finn smirked. Tristan rolled his eyes as he pulled up to their own summer house.

"Just don't hurt her, Finn, she's not like most girls, she's…"

"Innocent?" Logan asked getting out of the car. Tristan sighed and gave a nod.

"That's a perfect word for her." Tristan agreed getting out as well. Finn sighed to himself as he got out along with Colin.

"I'll be careful with her, I swear." Finn said to Tristan, Colin looked over at him.

"Finn, just do me a favor."

"What?" He asked stopping to face Colin as the other two entered the house.

"If she's just going to be one of the many unknowns, let it go now. I can tell Tristan really cares for her. And I like her too. She's nice."

"Just nice?" Finn asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I like that she's not like all the other girls we know. She's still innocent and naive. I like that she's not a slut. And I think that's what you like about her too."

"Might be one of the things." Finn agreed with a nod.

"Just…" Colin sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Just be careful with her. She just got her heart broken and now with you as a likely prospect… She doesn't need it. She's not the one night stand girl, Finn. She's a boyfriend girl."

"I know."

"Can you be a boyfriend?"

"I don't know."

"Do you want to be a boyfriend?"

"I don't know."

"Well, you better figure it out fast."

"Why?"

"Cause I think she might like you back. She didn't cry on Tristan, now did she?"

"I was closest." Finn argued.

"She just met you, why would she cry on you if she just met you? She's known Tristan longer than you." Finn stayed silent, not knowing how to answer. "All I'm saying, Finn, is that she's not like all the other conquests we brag about on Sunday night poker games with the guys. So you better figure out what you want to do with her before the more than friends possibility comes into play." Colin turned having said what he wanted to say and left Finn in the driveway staring at the place where Colin had just been standing.

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Rory searched through her closet. She didn't know why she was so worked up for one simple outing with someone she had just met a few hours ago. He was a friend, she kept telling herself.

A very handsome friend, with green eyes and brown tousled hair.

"Ugh." Rory groaned as she lay back on her bed amid all the articles of clothing she had thrown there. She couldn't fall for this guy. He was Tristan's friend. Tristan DuGray's friend. Tristan being some womanizing jerk that just settled down… okay, two years ago. She groaned again and covered her face.

She had just started getting over Jess; she couldn't enter a relationship this fast again. She was not going to repeat the mistake of getting into a relationship so soon after breaking up with her boyfriend.

'You got into a relationship with Jess five minutes after breaking up with Dean and look how that turned out,' she thought as she sat up on the bed. Then again Finn probably only wanted to be her friend. It wasn't like he had out and out told her that he wanted this to be a date. He had been the one to put 'as friends' behind the word outing. She had been the one to assume it was a date.

God, she hated boys, with their confusing minds and never being out right with a girl. A girl could have an aneurysm just trying to figure out how a boy's mind worked.

She got off her bed and grabbed a pair of jeans and a green t-shirt with the words Too Cute to Shoot and a little deer on it. She put on a denim jacket and looked at herself in the mirror before pulling her hair into a ponytail.

She needed to get it cut, she decided. She would have to do that before school started. She grabbed her cell phone and keys and walked down the stairs before heading back up when she remembered she didn't have shoes on.

"Just a friend, just a friend." She repeated over and over. She grabbed her black Converse that were sitting on the floor under a pair of jeans. She was putting them on when her cell phone began vibrating in her pocket. She took it out and put it up to her ear as she put on her shoe.

"Hello." She answered, holding the phone between her ear and shoulder

"Have you forgotten about mama?"

"No, I haven't." Rory answered amused as she started with the other shoe.

"Good, just checking." Lorelai laughed.

"Hi mom."

"Hey kid, how are you?"

"I'm good."

"You sound out of breath. Are you exerting yourself in ways that you should not be exerting yourself?"

"If I was having sex, do you really think I'd answer the phone?" Rory asked setting down her foot and smiling.

"Good point." Lorelai agreed. "But you're still out of breath."

"I'm going out; I had gotten half way down the stairs when I realized I didn't have shoes on so I ran back up."

"You weren't wearing shoes?"

"I forgot to put them on."

"Who are you going out with?"

"A friend." Rory said leaving her room once again and closing the door before heading down the stairs.

"What friend?"

"Well, you know how I ran into Tristan earlier?"

"You mean how he fell on you?"

"Yeah."

"Then yes, I remember."

"Well, he introduced me to some of his friends."

"I remember that too."

"And, well, I left them to wallow."

"Over Jess?"

"Yes, and when I was headed downstairs to the basement, I heard this knock. Imagine my surprise when Tristan and his friends show up, each with two grocery bags, filled with junk food. Turns out Finn, a friend of Tristan's, made them make a pit stop and they got me junk food, and, well, when they left, Finn asked me if I wanted to take a walk on the beach, sort of an outing as friends, to get to know each other better. And I agreed."

"So you're going on at date with a guy you just met?"

"It's not a date." Rory said as she went to the living room and saw her grandparents talking. "Just a sec, mom."

"Wait!" She heard on the phone. She rolled her eyes and ignored her.

"Grandma, grandpa, I'm going out."

"Where?" Emily asked.

"I'm just taking a walk on the beach with a friend, I'll be back."

"All right, have fun."

"I will." Rory said as she went through the door to the back. "Sorry."

"So not a date?"

"Just as friends." Rory said trying to convince her mother as well as herself.

"You keep telling yourself that, sweets."

"I've been..." Rory trailed off when she noticed Finn standing near the gate to the backyard, wearing tan shorts and a blue button down shirt, buttoned halfway, showing off the thin, white undershirt that showed off his chest.

"He's there, isn't he?" Lorelai teased.

"Yeah."

"Is it a wow?"

"Yeah."

"Good."

"Yep." She moved the phone as she reached him. "Hey."

"Hey yourself." He answered with a smile, his green eyes shining with the smile and his hair tousled. "Who are you talking to?"

"My mom." Rory said.

"Rory?" She heard on her phone. Rory winced.

"Just a sec, okay, Finn?" He gave a nod as he opened the gate door and let her pass.

"Hey mom, sorry."

"He better be damn cute if you're ignoring me."

"He is." Rory blushed.

"Good, now how do you feel about me going down there?"

"What?" Rory asked.

"Don't sound so panicked."

"I'm not, what do you mean?"

"Well, how about I go pick you up after the three months are over with. I mean, you spend three months with your grandparents, no need to spend an extra two hours with them."

"Really?"

"Really, I'll go pick you up and we'll go shopping. Maybe stop in on your dad and Sherry."

"Well..."

"Or not, I mean it can just be the two of us. A road trip."

"Just as long as we don't stop at the Cheshire Cat... I'm in."

"Good, so two and a half months."

"Two and a half months." Rory repeated with a smile.

"I miss you, kid."

"Miss you too, mom."

"I'll let you go, to be with your date."

"It's not a..."

"Yeah, yeah." Lorelai cut her off. "Bye."

"Bye." Rory said hanging up and stuffing the phone in her pocket. She turned to Finn. "Sorry, she called while I was getting ready."

"Its fine, are you close to your mum?" He asked still smiling.

"Very close." Rory responded. "She's more like my best friend than my mother. It's really rare that she pulls out the mom card with me... what about you and your parents?"

"Yeah, I guess I'm closer to my dad and my sisters."

"How many sisters?"

"Two. One older, one younger."

"You're in the middle?"

Finn nodded. "My older sister is Amelia. Mila for short."

"Pretty."

"She's twenty-four, and my younger sister Shelby, is fourteen."

"Are they both in Australia?"

"Yep."

"That's very cool."

"Any siblings for you, love?"

"No, well..." Rory frowned. "Yeah, a half-sister, Gigi. She's about a year old. She's my dad's."

"Your parents never married, right?"

"Right."

"Are you close to your dad?"

"No, not much anymore, but that's another story."

"I won't push." Finn said with a nod as they continued walking down the beach. "How about we start at the basics."

"All right."

"Full name?"

"Lorelai Leigh Gilmore. The Third if you want to get technical."

Finn laughed. "All right, Eugene Finnegan Rothschild. And I'm the First."

Rory laughed. "How about favorite colors?"

"Green."

"Blue." Rory answered.

"What about movies?"

"The original Willy Wonka, though I enjoyed the remake, solely for Johnny Depp of course"

"Of course."

"There's no beating the original."

"Very true."

"What about your favorite movie?"

"The Godfather."

"One, two or three?"

"All."

"Good. My mom and I watch The Godfather solely for the Sophia's dying scene."

"Yes, the reason I watch it too." Finn smirked. He watched as she laughed tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Shit. He hated when Colin was right. "So are we friends now?" He asked wanting to take his mind off what Colin had said.

"I think so." She said slowly. He could tell she was teasing him. They walked in silence, their forearms occasionally brushing. "I was wondering," she said after a while.

"What?"

"How do you and Tristan know each other?"

"Oh, well, our families are all good friends, we've all known each other for years. They used to stay at my house when we were younger, when their parents visited mine in Australia. We all became best buddies, but then Tristan got sent to North Carolina and we rarely saw him until he came home last summer and we all got dragged to some party and, well, Tristan meet Steph, and we all sort of reunited."

"I sort of assumed it was some childhood thing."

"Well, you assumed right. What about you? How do you know Tristan?"

"I transferred into Chilton midyear and Tristan just happened to be one of the first people I met. He dubbed me Mary."

"You're his Mary!" Finn asked with a smirk.

"I guess."

"Huh, I learn a new thing everyday."

"Apparently." Rory teased. "So do you, Logan and Colin all go to Yale?"

"Yeah, followed in our fathers' footsteps... Logan sort of got forced. He wanted Princeton, but Colin and I had always wanted Yale."

"So I'll see you around campus then?" Rory asked, trying not to get her enthusiasm get the better of her.

"Well, actually, Colin, Logan and I are all taking next year off."

"Really? Why?"

"We are traveling around Fiji on Logan's dad's yacht."

"Sounds fun."

"Very. We were all surprised when our parents agreed to our little adventure. A full year of fun and debauchery."

Rory laughed. "And I thought that was what Vegas was for."

Finn dismissed the comment with a wave of his hand "Pshh, Vegas is for amateurs. Yachts are for the pros."

"And you consider yourself a pro?"

"I do."

"Whatever lets you sleep at night, Finn." Rory laughed. They continued walking down the beach, talking about their lives, never hitting anything too deep, but sticking to the basics.

Finn had grown up in Australia till the age of ten when he moved to Hartford, when his parents split up. He followed his dad while his sisters stayed with his mom. He ended up going to a boarding school in Switzerlandwith Logan and Colin from the age of fourteen to eighteen until he went to Yale. Though his life was hectic, with school and going to Harford to see his dad, he tried to go back every Christmas to spend time with his mother and sisters though he was much closer to his dad. Both his parents had remarried, but divorced once again and stayed single.

She felt a bit sorry for him, though she knew that he was probably used to it. It was sad to think that he and his sisters had been split up.

He got to know more about her as well. Rory had grown up with her mother in the small town of Stars Hollow. Her mother had gotten pregnant at sixteen and had had Rory. When Rory was two, Lorelai had run away to the small town, living in the gardening shed behind an inn and raising Rory there for the first eleven years of her life, before they moved into their house which they had dubbed 'The Crap Shack'. Rory had gotten accepted to Chilton a month after she had started her sophomore year of high school, and had just graduated valedictorian of her class, and was now looking forward to a new year at Yale.

Though their lives differed, hobbies and extracurricular seemed to be alike.

Though Rory loved to read and study and was very school oriented, she spent all her free time with her friends and family, even if it was just an hour, eating dinner with her mom at the local diner before having to study. Finn, though he studied, he didn't like doing it often, instead he liked spending time with Colin and Logan, teasing each other and partying. But he also liked talking to his sisters and spending time with them every chance he got.

"What is it you want to do, love?" Finn asked as they reached the gate to the back of the house.

"I want to be an overseas correspondent."

"Big goal."

"It's been my life's dream."

"Well, at least you have something to look forward to."

"You don't know what you want to do?" She asked.

"Not as of yet. I like history, hate math."

"Then I would suggest you don't become an accountant... or a math magician for that matter."

Finn laughed. "Good advice, love."

"I think so."

"Well, this is where I leave you."

"Thanks, Finn, for taking me out, I appreciate it."

"It was no problem. We should do it again."

"We should." Rory agreed. "I'm going to go inside, my grandparents are probably worried."

"I'll see you later."

"Bye Finn." She smiled as she opened the gate and walked towards the house. Finn watched her walk in before turning back and walking towards the house they were staying at.

He slid open the back door and walked in noticing Colin and Tristan playing video games in the living room, neither one of them looking up at him as he walked past. He thought he had gotten home safe once he reached the second step when Colin spoke.

"So how'd it go?" Colin asked. Finn sighed.

"Fine."

"Just fine?" Tristan asked with a smirk, pausing their game, both of them looking at him.

"Where's Logan?" He asked hoping to distract them.

"Oh a date with some blonde. Now, just fine?" Colin said.

"We talked, that's about the basis of it. We walked, we talked, and I walked her back home, now I'm tired."

"It's nine at night." Tristan said with a look at the clock. Finn rolled his eyes.

"Well, then I'm watching TV."

"In your room, where there is no TV?" Colin asked. Finn glared and stormed off to his room leaving his two laughing friends behind them.

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