All I Want

Magic Number

Surrounded by non moving cars, on the two - lane road, Tristan, began to wonder if offering to take Rory to the hospital had been such a good idea. With her sitting just a few inches away from him he was starting to feel that effect she always brought out in him. She smelled so good, and the scent of her vanilla perfume wafting over towards him was starting to scramble his insides a bit. He'd never had such strong emotional chemistry with any girl before - lust yes, but actual emotions, well that was a new thing to him. He needed a distraction from his thoughts, but both he and Rory either had nothing to say to each other or both were afraid to be the first to speak up. He decided it was the latter, so he caved first, unfortunately with a less than stellar opener.

"Traffic is really bad right now...super slow," he said wanting desperately to kick himself for such a lame topic. He was freaking Tristan DuGray. He could charm the pants off just about any girl and if pressed he could legit recite several pick up lines that had scored him a victory in his past pursuits. Where the hell was his mind at now...it was filled with only two options a big bowl of nothing to say or a side order of more traffic news.

Rory, could see that Tristan was struggling with what to say and she felt a little sorry for him, but not too much considering he had asked her to leave him alone, called them a joke and then stupidly offered to be there for her. It all made zero sense to her. Still one of them needed to do something to quell the awkwardness between them so she decided to be the bigger person.

"I'm sorry. I know this probably isn't how you planned to spend the rest of your day."

"It's cool. I am after all responsible for the condition you find yourself in," He said.

Oh how true that was Rory thought. The condition of her ankle and her heart, not to mention, all the nights she'd cried herself to sleep over him.

"So what were your plans before I derailed them," Rory found herself unexpectedly asking.

Tristan smiled and then a look of realization and guilt crossed his face.

"Oh s***! I was supposed to pick Kennedy up after school. Crap, she's probably waiting outside for me to show right now.

Rory, did her best to suppress the evil grin she was feeling at the thought of Kennedy cooling her heels outside the school for a ride that would never come.

Tristan, in the meantime had taken out his cell phone and was dialing. After two rings Kennedy picked up.

"Where are you?" She asked an annoyed tone in her voice.

Tristan looked over at Rory before answering. "I'm with uh...I'm with my friend Rory."

Rory felt her heart take a ding at the word friend coming from Tristan's lips.

"Nurse Drake said she needed to go to the hospital and have her ankle looked at. So I'm taking her there to meet her grandmother."

What he'd told Kennedy was mostly true, he'd just left out the part about his volunteering to do this and Rory wondered why.

"And what am I supposed to do now Tristan you were my only way home," Kennedy said all her earlier sympathy for Rory's plight gone.

"I know, I'm sorry. I'll call our driver Gerad to come get you."

"You would do that for me?" She said, the sweet Kennedy back now.

"Sure, not a problem at all, just sit tight and he'll be there in twenty minutes or so."

"Twenty minutes? You can't make him get here any faster?" Kennedy asked a poor me tone back in her voice.

"Yeah, no, that's not really anything I can change. I live twenty minutes away from school, so that's the best I can do," Tristan said annoyed by the entitled behavior Kennedy was displaying.