AN: Hey everyone thanks for the feedback! I got a comment asking if Rory was with Finn. In response, I think in order to understand this story you would have had to have read Three Cheers for the Teenage Years because this a sequel that will reference back to characters and events that happened in that story. Other than that thanks for the feedback. I only got 8 reviews so I feel like my original fan base has greatly diminished but thank you to everyone who stuck around!

These first couple chapters may seem slow and repetitive but it's all for the sake of where I'm going with the story. Mind you think will be a Brigade Fic which will surely bring up some interesting plot points and encounters. Stay tuned folks! I'll keep writing if you keep reading & reviewing!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters. Except I did make up Lexy, Matt, and Austin.

Rory woke up with a pounding headache, a dry mouth, and an arm wrapped around her waist. "Crap," she mumbled to herself. Silently and carefully she lifted up the blanket covering her body to see that she had been stripped down into her underwear and a white T-shirt smelling familiar; she breathed a sigh of relief.

The last thing she remembered from the night before was that she had run into Finn at a bar, although the haze of the memory could mean one of two things: she was intoxicated, or it was a dream. It had to have been a dream. What would Finn be doing in Boston?

As her eyes adjusted to the all too bright room, she recognized her location as Tristan's room. She turned her body to face the owner of the arm that was currently holding her protectively and immediately recognized the face of her best friend and roommate Tristan Dugrey.

He stirred but didn't wake up. In his angelic state of sleep she couldn't help but drop her defenses a little. For the past two years things between her and Tristan had changed. As a matter of fact, things between her and everyone in her life had changed ever since she had made her decision that had altered her whole life: her decision to ask for a 'break' from her relationship with Logan.

In any other relationship, a 'break' would have been much better than a break-up, but not in this one, not in one where a whole life was built around it. When she distanced herself from Logan, she distanced herself from a piece of herself, and with that keystone out of place several others followed. And then he had made his mistake, and things just went downhill.

As much as Matt, Austin, and most of all Tristan, had tried to pick her back up from that slump, nothing had changed. She was incomplete, she wasn't Rory anymore. She pushed them away, unknowingly separating her from any attachments she had with anyone. She did the same with Finn, Colin, Stephanie, her parents; just about anyone who had some kind of value in her life. She couldn't explain the reasoning behind her actions, but she just knew that pushing them away hurt a lot less than having to tell her story of heartbreak several times, and she knew that if she heard, "Things will be okay," that it would just remind her of how much things weren't.

She was alone, and she was subsisting in her loneliness. But thriving certainly wasn't living.

So, with Tristan's face perfectly rested, Rory couldn't help but bring a hand up to stroke his cheek, a smile unconsciously gracing her face as she did so. He had been trying so hard to get in her head, to be there for her and she continued to push him away but she loved him nonetheless. He proved to be her rock, even now in her junior year of college.

Tristan felt Rory turn to face him and felt her hand reach up to touch his face but he didn't even consider reacting. It was these moments that he cherished the most. The moments when Rory would think no one was watching and she let her mask fall just a little. Times when she stopped thinking and her eyes would show the sadness in her eyes, only to be masked quickly as soon as something brought her out of her daze. The times when she would just be herself and Tristan felt like he had a chance to fix her back to who she used to be.

Slowly, and cautiously he lifted his hand currently placed on Rory's back and placed it atop hers on his face, trapping it there. He opened his eyes in time to see a gentle smile wipe from her face only to be replaced with an indifferent gaze. He frowned inwardly.

"Hey," he said his voice still heavy with sleep.

"Hi," Rory replied in monotone, her fingers squirming to get out of his grip. That was close. Rory thought.

Tristan quickly became frustrated and let her hand free, and it quickly went to her side, leaving his cheek feeling cold. "I love you okay Pinky?" he reached, trying to grasp hold onto a strand of Rory's vulnerability that might have been left.

"I need coffee," Rory simply stated getting out of bed and rushing out to the kitchen. "Want some?" she asked Tristan ignoring the pains from the sun she was feeling.

Tristan didn't answer as he shook his head angrily. So close.

Rory heard Tristan follow her into the dining room/ living room area as she sipped on her coffee with her head in one of her hands. Tristan purposely slammed his bedroom door with a vindictive smirk making Rory groan.

"What time you get home last night Rory?" he asked as he walked to the coffee pot in just his boxers. Rory didn't fail to let her eyes breeze over his well toned body, though she would never admit that to him.

"Uhh…" Rory groaned.

"Oh that's right you wouldn't know because you were carried in passed out by someone you met at the bar that you gave your key to, never mind sorry for the stupid question," Tristan shot back angrily with a glare sent towards her as he leaned forward on the counter opposite her.

"Tris…"Rory started trying to come up with a plausible excuse.

"Don't even try Rory. That's one of the fucking most ignorant, bimbo things you've done thus far. Your record's getting worse," Tristan spat his eyebrows knotting together in anger.

"Oh cut me some…" Rory attempted once more

"Slack?" Tristan finished her sentence angrily, "Oh yeah let me just let me best friend get raped and mugged… my bad! How could big bad Tristan be so mean?!"

"Oy mate what's the yelling about," Finn asked coming out Rory's room. So it wasn't a dream thought Rory, unable to hide the surprise that crossed her face.

"Hello love," he added collapsing onto the nearest couch, shielding his eyes from the sun. "Is it just me or is the sun brighter in Boston?" he complained.

"You should thank Finn for saving your ass last night Rory, if it wasn't for him you might not be writing the news, you would be in it. I'm going to Austin and Matt's," he said before quickly going into his room to throw on sweats and shirt before storming out of the apartment. Rory just watched him guiltily and winced as he slammed the door behind him.

"What's got his panties in a twist?" Finn asked looking up at Rory through shielded eyes. Rory simply started at him blankly. She hadn't seen Finn since New Year's Eve in freshman year of college, but he just seemed so much the same. "Oy love, why are you staring at me like I'm a ghost? You were more than eager to see me last night," he said wiggling his eyebrows.

A pause. "I'm dreaming. I have to be," Rory said softly to herself rubbing her eyes.

"No love, although I know I make many appearances in your dreams, this is not one of them. This is Real Finny live, all finny all the time."

"Finn… how… why… what are you doing here?" Rory stuttered.

"I came to see you doll, I was tired of this game of tag we've been playing. Finny missed you," he said with a goofy grin.

"You could've called," Rory replied blankly, her mask coming back up quickly.

"You could have too doll," Finn rebutted.

"How long are you here for?"

"Two more days love," Finn replied with a smile. "Won't it be fun?!"

"Oh yeah…" Rory lied. "Tons."

"She's fucking nuts, that's the conclusion I have," Tristan spewed motioning to the apartment above Austin and Matt's.

"So wait she's up there with Finn right now?" Austin asked trying to keep up with this unusual turn of events.

Tristan just nodded. "She was herself this morning for a second when she was lying in bed with me, but as soon as she realized I was awake it was back to pretending nothing mattered," he said more to himself than to anyone else.

Austin couldn't help the look of jealousy that crossed his features, and although Tristan was too engrossed in his own thoughts to notice it, Matt did.

Matt shook his head and made his way to the kitchen. He was getting tired of his two best guy friends and the games they played. Both of them were hiding something, but in the most obvious way. He knew that this would turn into something much worse but for the moment he didn't want to get into it. He didn't know what was running through either of their minds, and whether their jealousies were out of habit, or if there was a deeper meaning behind them and frankly he didn't want to know.

"Do you guys want anything to eat?" he called from the fridge, attempting to cut the tension that only he might have been aware of.

"Eggs benedict would be great," Austin replied snapping out of jealous daze.

"All your lazy ass is getting a microwave bacon," Matt replied cause Tristan to actually chuckle.

"Someone's not getting any," Tristan commented.

"Says the man whose condoms expired junior year of high school," Austin shot back with a smirk.

Tristan glared at him, "Sorry Austin I guess I can't compete with the action you get from your hand," Tristan shot back.

"Funny," Austin replied rolling his eyes before getting up and walking towards his room.

"Uh oh watch out guys Austin's about to get some!" Tristan yelled in a not so joking tone.

"Shut the fuck up Dugrey," Austin spat before slamming his bedroom door behind him causing Matt to wince at the awkward exchange that had just happened.

"Tristan what the hell was that?" Matt asked shaking his head.

"What?!" he yelled back.

"That 'my dick is bigger than yours' argument that just happened!" Matt replied.

Tristan let out a sound of frustration. "I don't fucking know. I fucking hate Rory for doing this to me. It's like I can't do shit without stressing out about her and wanting to know what she's thinking."

Matt replied with silence. He had no idea what to say to something like, so he lied. "Things will be fine Dugrey, she'll be back soon."

"Hmm, does this look a little draggish?" Steph asked Lexy scrunching her nose up at the smell of nail polish white wiggling her toes carefully to inspect her hot pink coat.

Lexy came to sit next to her pressing play on the chick flick they had decided to watch, tilting her head to the side as if the change of angle would help her decide.

"No, but may I remind you it's January… therefore no one will be seeing your toes," Lexy reasoned.

"Right," Stephanie said biting her lip. "January"

"How many months does that make it?" Lexy asked becoming serious.

"Uh…" Stephanie thought tugging at the bottom of her shirt, "Last time I talked to her was October."

"Oh," Lexy replied.

"Yeah." Stephanie said staring off into space.

After a moment of silence Lexy spoke. "Are things ever going to be… happy again? With everyone I mean? Not just when Logan's not around?"

Stephanie looked back at her friend with a sad smile. "It's hard you know? When you're missing half of your group? It's hard when things start changing."

Lexy sighed. As much as she was all for Rory coming around and making the group complete again, so that people could be happy and get along again, she couldn't understand why she was so important to the group. "Stephanie, if there's one thing I learned it's that you have to be friends with a person now."

"What do you mean?" Stephanie asked.

"I mean…" Lexy started not wanting this to come out wrong, "What I mean is that you can't be friends with Rory two years ago. If you want Rory in your life, you have to be friends with the Rory now. You can't expect a person to change to who they used to be because who are you to say that what the person's become isn't the person their supposed to be? I mean, what if this is Rory now and this is how Rory will be forever?"

Stephanie shook her head at Lexy, "Lexy, this isn't Rory; it never used to be and it isn't now. I don't know how to explain it… it's just, I know she's still in there. Her heart's still there," Stephanie said he voice cracking unintentionally.

Lexy nodded, not wanting to start an argument. As Stephanie cried, Lexy just took her into her arms. "Things will be fine, she'll be back soon."

"Dude, where's Finn?" Colin finally asked after sitting at the bar at the pub for half an hour now.

Logan simply shrugged as a potential flavor of the week hopped onto the bar stool next to him, eagerly weaving her arm around his waist and kissing his neck as her greeting. Logan smirked and threw and arm around her shoulder giving her a kiss on the lips. Colin looked on disgusted.

"He's been gone since last night, and he's not answering his phone," Colin replied ignoring the fact that Logan's attention was otherwise claimed.

"You know him, he'll show up," he said further entwining himself with.

"Or we could find out he's dead a ditch and all you did to help was stick your tongue down your weekly slut's throat," Colin spat becoming angry at Logan's lack of concern over their friend.

Colin's anger caused the girl to pull away from Logan and glare, yet still remained rooted to her spot by Logan's arm. Logan clenched his jaw. "He's a big boy Colin, he'll be fine. He'll be back soon."

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