**Part 6**

Rory couldn't help it though, she felt guilty. She had already gotten him suspended once, if Tristan actually decided to go through with her dare.

Well he can't be that stupid she thought as she practically ran through the halls the next morning. The library was closed, it was five minutes to the beginning of class and the library was locked. That was not a good sign. She felt a chill travel down her spine and a wave of panic threatened to wash over her.

"Paris?!" Rory called out when she spotted her about to climb the stairs to the second floor, "wha… what happened here?"

Paris narrowed her eyes maliciously at Rory before turning the corner. She had no way of knowing that Tristan's prank had been of Rory's doing, but she very much resented the fact that Rory seemed to be obviously expecting him there. Rory bit back the urge to yell something at Paris, she looked around desperate for someone who could answer her questions, but finding nobody she had to resign herself to her first class and the idea that maybe, he was that stupid…

Tristan's suspension had lasted ten days this time around. Few people wondered what had come up with him, most just waited to see what he would do next. It was bound to get him expelled.

Rory felt horrible, she had tried to call his house when he didn't collect the book from her in days but she never got past the sixth digit before hanging up frustrated with herself. Much as in her dare, with each passing day she felt something building inside her. A pressure that was not exclusively concern, she couldn't identify it, but it was building stronger and stronger inside her. She could almost say it was anxiety, but was embarrassed to do so; she thought of her last two dares and couldn't help but be curious as to what he would ask her to do next.

Okay not just curious, she was dying to know, she needed to know; it was all she thought about. It made her stomach tingle and her ears burn.

So of course when he came back, he let her stew.

He waited a week before he walked up behind her and casually picked up the book from the table where she ate. He waited until her mouth was full before he did so, Rory could only look up as Tristan's sapphire blue eyes focused on hers with warning. Rory could not keep their eye contact together for long and clandestinely looked around the room to see if anybody had noticed their perverse exchange of glances. When she looked back his way she found him still smiling, nonchalantly pocketing the book in his navy blazer.

Tristan let Rory squirm for another week before she got her next dare. Every time he walked by her, Rory's anxiety rose just to be deflated when he'd continue walking past her without as much as a half-assed attempt at picking her up. It would have been easy to assume that the game was over, that he had grown tired of it, of her. Except that his forewarning, hell-sent looks were crystal clear, the game was far from over… he was just taking his time. In the process, he was driving Rory crazy.

Rory was going crazy. The anticipation was exhausting, her next dare was almost the only thing she could think about, and it was having a toll in her life. She was constantly distracted. Her school teachers had noticed, her mother had noticed, worse of all Dean had noticed. She hadn't been responding to him as she had before, she could see it in his face that he was bothered by it and was frustrated that he seemed too dense to figure out what to do about it.

"Do you want it?" Rory felt breathed in her ear one day out of the blue

"Oh!" Rory gasped leaping out of her skin. She had thought the school empty long ago, "You scared me!"

Tristan answered her with a smile that made her breath catch in her throat.

He wouldn't dare her now, there was no one there… where was the excitement in that?!

"I dare you…" Tristan slithered

Shit

"…to kiss me"

"What?!" Rory's eyes shot to his, feeling the color drain from her face.

"Kiss me"

"I… I… I have a Dean" Rory blurted feeling her feet go cold, "remember?"

"and?"

"and… and… he's my boyfriend" Rory tried unconvincingly

"I fail to see the problem" Tristan closed in on Rory. Her chest rose and fell in tiny bursts. Her eyes held fear and trepidation behind them.

"I… can't" Rory felt her heart pounding in her chest.

"You can't?"

"No" She put her palms on his chest pushing him back, "I can't"

Tristan smile faded some as Rory shrank into herself to side-step him. She first took a timid step forward, then another before breaking into a run that took her away from Tristan, away from her doing something she had thought about doing once too many times.

**End of Part 6**

A/N - Ahhhh! LOL. What do you think?