**Part 13**
Opening night was full of tension and dread, for Rory, the night was particularly edgy… she hadn't seen Tristan since the night before.
"He's not here" Paris found her on the hall
"Who's not here?"
"Tristan" Paris confirmed what Rory had felt when she entered the building, "I've looked everywhere. I called his home, his cell, I called three girls I know he's seeing"
"Paris, calm down" Rory ignored her last comment
"Weren't you listening?" Paris was not calming down, "He's not here. We're on in twenty minutes and we don't have a Romeo. We are going to fail"
"We're not going to fail" we're going to fail… Rory thought
"Do you think Harvard accepts people who fail Shakespeare?" Paris was loosing it, "They don't. I don't have the numbers on it or anything, but I feel pretty secure in saying, you fail Shakespeare, you don't get into Harvard"
"Okay, maybe he's just in one of the bathrooms smoking" Rory needed to get rid of Paris so she could have her own panic attack
"Good idea" Paris took the bait, "you check the east men's rooms, I'll check the west ones"
Rory walked away in hurried steps, she was pretty sure she would not come any closer to finding Tristan than Paris would, but she couldn't stand around not doing anything. She went to look for his car, she knew what it looked like, but it wasn't in the parking lot or anywhere around Ms. Patty's studio. She wanted to call his phone but she didn't have his number, she wanted to call out his name, but that was obviously a ridiculous idea. Resigned to the fact that she was no better at finding him than Paris had been, Rory went back inside. Paris pounced on her almost immediately,
"I knew he was going to do this, but no one wanted to listen to me. It was all, let's make Tristan Romeo, he's hot"
"What about Brad?" Rory asked softly
"Brad transferred schools" Paris brushed off impatiently. She was right about to go into another tirade when Tristan appeared around the bend detached and aloof.
"Where have you been?" Paris attacked, "you have to get dressed, we're on in ten minutes"
"Can't" Tristan blurted out
"What?"
"Actually," Tristan tried, "my dad had me pulled out of school. He…"
Paris, tired, frustrated, and obviously still in need of a Romeo had no time to hear excuses and walked away.
"…and is she unhappy" Tristan noted
"What do you mean he had you pulled out of school?" Rory asked him worried suddenly, "What happened?"
"Nothing. Just ticked the old man off, that's all"
"By doing what?" Rory tried to meet his eyes, "Tristan, come on, tell me"
"I got in some trouble"
"Trouble involving?" Rory furrowed her brow
"Involving Duncan and Bowman, and Bowman's dad's safe" Tristan lowered his voice at the last part.
"Oh no" Rory breathed out
"I mean, Bowman had a key. It was supposed to be no big deal," Tristan shrugged his shoulders, "and the crazy silent alarm kicked in"
"You broke into Bowman's dad's safe?"
"Yes" Tristan said calmly
"Stupid" Rory pouted angrily
"Yes" Tristan repeated
"Well, okay" Rory rationalized, "you can apologize and you can put back the money and you can explain that, I don't know, you were going through something"
"I was," Tristan kept his voice monotone, "I was going through his safe"
"Why would you do this?" She really didn't want him to answer that.
"To give you a shot at completing the dare I guess… I don't know" he answered with a slight air of sarcasm, "I guess that's something I can ponder at military school"
"Military school?"
"The police are letting our parents handle it, and in my case that means military school in North Carolina"
"I don't know what to say" but she did, she had a million things to say, she just couldn't pick where to start.
"Well, I imagine you're overwhelmed with the relief in knowing that soon I will be gone, dare's all but handed to you"
"I'm not; this is not what I wanted" Rory scrambled to find something appropriate to say, "I'm so sorry; I don't want you to go"
"Well, I have to. I'm a big boy. I can handle it"
"There's nothing you can't…" Rory started feeling an anguish she didn't know possible; she wanted to tell him she was sorry. She wanted to take back her dare but at that moment Tristan's father appeared around the bend and called his son. Tristan flinched,
"I gotta go" Tristan said softly. He wasn't so angry with Rory anymore… and he wished he hadn't gone through that stupid dare… but there was no sense in crying over spilt milk. Tristan leaned in closer so that Rory had to look up to see his eyes, her chest stopped moving as she held her breath, "So, I might kiss you goodbye but, uh… your boyfriend's watching. Take care of yourself, Mary"
Tristan turned around then disappearing into the hallway, hands in his pocket, clearly crestfallen. Rory knew Dean was standing behind her, and breathed in deeply willing the tears in her eyes to dry up.
"What are you standing there for?" Paris barged in dressed as Romeo, "Let's go. You better start sucking on an Altoid"
* * END * *