A/N: So this is a long chapter, but I've realised it's also a bit of a nothing chapter. Ah well, any chapter is better than nothing, right? That thing with the bowtie – it basically happened to me. I had to tie my brother's bowtie off a youtube video before his leavers ball, and it took me like 10 minutes – it's bloody hard, my mum couldn't do it after 20 minutes! Anyway, the plot is mine, but nothing else, so enjoy!
The next time Tristan saw her was at the coffee cart after one of his business classes. She was queueing with a gangly brown-haired boy and talking madly. He grinned widely when he noticed her, and noticed that she was the next in line to order, and sauntered to the front of the queue.
"Hey, Mary." He called, coming to a halt next to her.
"Hey, Bible Boy, long time no see." It had only been a day or so, but Tristan was overjoyed at how pleased she was to see him. "What's been keeping you so busy?"
"I haven't been that busy, Mare, you must have just missed me." He laughed, slinging an arm around her shoulders and trying to ignore the glares of the boy with her.
"Logan said you were out everytime I called or saw him." She said. So she'd called? And asked about him? Tristan was practically jiving when he heard this, but stayed outwardly calm. "Hi, I'd like a large cappaccino with an extra espresso shot." She told the guy manning the coffee cup.
"And I'll take a regular black coffee." Tristan said, over her head. "Who's your friend?" He gestured to the gangly guy.
"Oh! Of course! This is Marty. Marty, this is Tristan." She said, glad that Marty could see that at least one of her guy friends wasn't a complete jerk.
They nodded civilly at eachother, but there was an uncomfortable silence until the barista asked, "Together or separate?"
Rory opened her mouth, but was cut off by Tristan, who put down a five dollar bill and said, "Together."
He picked up both cups, handing the larger to Rory as they walked away from the stand.
She frowned. "Tristan, you didn't have to do that."
"Calm down, Mary, it's only a cup of coffee, not a Ferrari." He told her, chuckling. "So, Marty, what are you majoring in?"
*
Marty left them as soon as he could, and Tristan was thoroughly glad.
"I don't think your friend likes me very much." He commented, as they sat on the grass outside Rory's dorm block.
"Oh, come on. He's just shy; not everyone is good at small talk with strangers." She protested. She was onto her third cup of coffee of the hour, and as such was a bit more highly-strung.
"Please. If looks could kill I would have been dead the minute I called your name in the coffee queue." Tristan told her, honestly. He too had had a couple more coffees and was getting to be quite hyper, since he was less experienced at holding his coffee than Rory. "But I don't care, because he was the one that left, not me."
"How does that make a difference?" She asked, curiously.
"Well, it means that I won. I'm the bigger man, the one who was willing to put up with an annoying, shifty kid just because my friend is his friend." He explained. "Your boy Marty wanted you all to himself."
"I hadn't seen Marty in weeks, thanks to Logan, and I'm mad that you chased him away." Rory told him, trying to be stern but finding it impossible when faced with Tristan's sceptical face. "Fine. I'm not that mad. But I'm not happy either! This is gonna take damage control, and I've lost count of the number of people I've had to suck up to since you transferred here!"
"You've been alienating people for me?" He joked, although underneath the idea that she'd been blowing people off just to spend time with him had greatly affected him. "How incredibly flattering!" He put a hand over his heart.
"You should be flattered, Dugray! That evening I spent at your apartment I missed like eight calls from my mom, two from Lane, one from Zach yelling at me for ignoring Lane, one from Luke pleading with me to call my mom, and a drunken call from Logan. He's been pissy with me all week, you know, it's taken me a while to get him back on my good side." She told him, frustratedly.
"Why do you care whether Logan's a bit annoyed or not?" He was worried by her concern, but decided to put it out of his head. "Come to think of it, why the hell did your mom call you eight times?"
"We're close." She defended herself, ignoring his question about Logan.
They changed the subject and bantered peacefully for a few minutes before a disruption at the dorms caught their attention.
"Now, I only tried to get in here once when I was drunk." A familiar Australian voice was saying, calmly.
"Sorry, kid, but I bar drunken visitors permanently." The security guard replied. "I don't care who you and your friend wanna see, you're not getting in."
"This is unbelieveable. Do you know who my family is?" Another familiar voice was getting very angry. "I just want to get in there to see Rory Gilmore – she lives on the first floor."
Rory and Tristan looked at eachother. Tristan hoped that maybe she'd decide to lie low and let Logan and Finn get turned away, but was hardly surprised when she sat up and yelled across the lawn.
"Logan, Finn, no need to keep fighting and bribing – I'm over here." She called. They hurried over, Logan flipping off the security guard as he left.
"What are you doing?" He asked, sitting down beside her.
"Tris and I were cloud watching." She told him, gesturing to the blond boy lying next to her. "And talking, and drinking coffee and stuff."
"Oh." Seeing Tristan had put Logan in a bad mood. He'd wanted to spend some alone time with 'his Ace' but he now had to share her with Tristan as well as Finn, who had insisted on tagging along. "Well. Have you heard about the party your folks are throwing, Ace?"
"My grandparents told me yesterday, yeah." She replied, lying back down. "Ooh, I see one that looks like a puppy."
"I've been invited too, want to be my date?" Logan asked, while Rory pointed out the puppy-shaped cloud to Tristan. "It'd be fun…"
"I was thinking of going alone, actually." She replied, before turning to Tristan. "You been invited, Bible Boy?"
"Course I have." He told her, inwardly dancing at the way she'd cut down Logan in favour of talking to him. "I'm the hot gossip at the moment – formerly disgraced Dugray boy transferring from Harvard. I see one shaped like a donut over there."
"Well then why don't all four – wait, six since Stephanie and Colin will be going – all six of us go as a group?" She suggested.
"Make it seem like we're all doing eachother, you mean, love?" Finn asked. She laughed and punched him awkwardly from her horizontal position. "Or make it seem like 'we defy the antiquated customs of the older generations and will go with whoever the hell we want'?" He made airquotes as he spoke.
"Actually, I was thinking more of the fact that it'd be fun if we all went together." She told him, still giggling.
*
Rory walked over to the boys' penthouse apartment at about six on the day of the party. She and Stephanie had been instructed to come over so that they could all make a 'grand entrance' together. The November air was cold and dry, and Rory tugged her coat tighter around her. She rang the doorbell, and waited to be buzzed up, wondering what this party would be like, and whether her grandparents were going to try to set her up with someone again.
Stephanie hadn't arrived yet, and she found all the guys in a state of undress. Logan was wearing only boxers, Finn wasn't even wearing boxers, Colin was wearing trousers, and Tristan was wearing his boxers and a shirt.
"What is wrong with you guys? It took me like half an hour to get ready! It really isn't that hard." She exclaimed, when she entered, realising that it was going to take all of her organisational skills to get them ready in time.
"Sorry Rory." All four boys chorused monotonously, as if they were reciting their times tables.
"We got into an X-Box tournament while we were getting dressed." Colin explained, shamefaced.
"You guys are idiots." She muttered, beginning to locate bits of clothing on the floor. "Right, whose pants are these?"Logan shuffled forward and grabbed them, pulling them on with a hint of embarassment – something Rory had never seen in Logan before. "And these?" The second pair were claimed by Finn, along with a pair of underpants lying over the sofa. Rory studiously avoided looking anywhere near Finn as she slowly clothed them all.
They were all adding the finishing touches to their penguin suits when Rory found Tristan pacing in front of his laptop, a Youtube video on the screen.
"Hey, Tris, what the hell are you doing?" She asked, hands on hips.
He held up two ties. "Blue or green?" He asked, anxiously.
"Well, I'd say blue because it brings out your eyes," Rory paused and blushed, before regaining her confidence. "But why aren't you going to wear a bowtie?"
He looked at her quizically, "How did you…never mind, I'm not wearing one."
She faked shock, "But how are you going to look all louche and attractively dishevelled at the end of the night if you can't undo your bowtie?" She asked him.
"Louche and attractively dishevelled?" He laughed. "I'd have thought I was louche enough without the bowtie."
"Well, newsflash, buddy, no one is louche enough to go without a bowtie." She told him firmly. "Now come one, we're gonna get a bowtie on you."
"Well." He paused, and then began to confess. "I kind of already tried to put one on." He gestured to his laptop. The Youtube page, she now realised, showed a video labelled 'Bowties, the step by step method to tying and untying them'. "I was having trouble, so I gave up."
Rory merely rolled her eyes and restarted the video. She watched it through, Tristan watching her the whole time, and then turned back to him. "Hand me your bowtie." He obediantly gave her the dark piece of material and turned up his collar.
She played the video through again, following the instructions carefully. In less than two minutes, Tristan's bowtie was perfect. He glanced at his reflection.
"Holy shit, you're good at that." He laughed, giving her a hug. "Thanks for helping me look extra cool."
"Louche." She corrected him. "The word is louche."
"Sorry, sorry. Thanks for making me look extra louche." He said, taking her hand and dragging her into the living room. "Come on, guys, we're gonna be really late!" He yelled, causing his flatmates to hurry out of their various rooms and pull on jackets. "Steph here?"
"Nah, she got the flu," Finn told him. "Or maybe it was period pains. I forget."
*
The four of them drove over to the Gilmore house and rang the doorbell. From the sounds of light piano music and affected laughter, the party was in full swing and Rory knew that she was going be berated by her grandma for being late. The newest maid opened the door and smiled shyly at them all.
"Hello, love, we're here to sweep you off your feet." Finn said, huskily. The maid blushed, and Rory elbowed Finn in the stomach.
"We're here for the party. Just ignore the Australian." The girl smiled gratefully and took their coats. "You guys can go ahead, I need to talk to my grandma." Rory said, as Emily approached her.
Tristan, Logan and Finn entered the crowded parlour and began scanning the crowd for people to avoid.
"Alison Grant, seven o clock." Logan muttered.
"Oh God!" Tristan groaned, "She always talks to me about her blisters! I can't bear another night of…" He trailed off. Rory had just entered the room and he finally saw her without the coat she had been wearing all evening. She was wearing a very uncharacteristic dress. It was cobalt blue and fell to just above her knees. It came up around her neck, but when she turned to talk to her grandmother he saw that it had no back at all, held up at the neck and then when the skirt began. "Oh my God." He breathed.
"What are you on about, mate?" Finn asked, as he and Logan followed the direction of his gaze. "Oh. That. I never realised that Reporter Girl could wear something so…sexy."
Tristan couldn't help but agree. Logan's jaw was practically on the ground, and he had a feeling he looked the same. He became sure of the fact when Rory approached them and gave them a strange look.
"What's up with you guys?" She asked.
"You look totally hot, love." Finn said, bluntly. Logan just nodded mutely.
"Uh, thanks, Finn." Rory said, blushing.
"Really, Mary, you look stunning." Tristan murmured.
"My mom's choice." She told him, shyly.
"Remind me to thank her profusely." He said. "What with me being especially louche tonight and you being especially sexy we're making quite a pair tonight."
"Then lets go shock some society people!" She laughed, looping her arm through his.