All I Want

Foregone Conclusion

Rory stood in front of her full length, bedroom mirror looking at her reflection. She'd had a hard day as Dean had followed her into all her classes, English being the worse with him and Tristan once again in each other's faces, and she'd really just wanted to come home and relax.

Unfortunately, tonight was dinner at the grandparents with Tristan. Tristan, who she was not very happy with right now. She knew his behavior around Dean had been all about being defensive and trying to keep his jealousy in check...still the remarks about the dance and a girl who'd been into threesomes had stung. She'd wanted so much to confront him about his behavior, but with Dean at her side for the remainder of her school day it had been impossible.

She couldn't help wondering where Tristan's mind was at right now. Her looming thought that maybe he really was over her and this whole challenging situation that was happening with them.

Standing in his own bathroom, a surprisingly nervous, Tristan ran his fingers deliberately through his hair messing it up, he preferred the wilder, less restrained look when he was outside of school. It fit the rebel image he had worked most of his life to perfect. He was unsure about how seeing Rory tonight was going to go, he'd been kind of an ass to her at school and he knew from Lane that she was not very happy with him at the moment.

'Screw it' Tristan thought, she'd been playing both sides of the fence today and it had been such a crappy feeling to have to watch her with Dean that his patience had snapped, if she couldn't understand that then they had bigger problems than just Dean or Kennedy.

Shit, he'd forgotten all about Kennedy . He really hoped his threesome remark didn't get back to her. Previously she had planned on being out of town the night of the dance but, those plans had fallen through so he was pretty sure she was expecting him to take her to the dance and honestly it was the easier way to go rather then ruffle Rory's feathers by taking one of the Chilton Easy Bakes. The Easy Bakes were a group of six girls who all had the reputation of being easy if you got them baked and it usually only took two to three cheap pot brownies to do it.

And if he wanted to upset Rory with his date choice, well,  an Easy Bake would definitely do the trick. It was a Sophie's choice. Two bad options in his opinion,  bringing Kennedy, as his date to the dance, would upset Rory, but he believed she would at least understand, bringing an Easy Bake however  might ensure she never talked to him again. Tristan really just wanted a third option - attending the  dance with Rory, no drama, no extra guys, but at the moment that was a pipe dream, not his reality.

Finishing up in his bathroom, Tristan heard a knock on his bedroom door and went to open it.

"Oh, you look so handsome sweetie," his mother said as she took in his appearance. He'd dressed in a nice  casual suit, knowing anything else would be considered too inappropriate for a dinner at Rory's grandparent's house. The Gilmores were considered upper crust society, just like the DuGrays.

"Thanks mom," Tristan said a little self consciously. He wasn't used to compliments from his mother. She spent so much of her time in a daze around the house because of his dad's continual emotional war with her. He really relished the times when his normal, happy mom came through.

Sensing the sweet moment between them was about to end, Beverly, gave her son an unexpected hug.

"What was that for?" Tristan couldn't help himself from asking.

"For courage," Beverly replied.

"I don't understand, courage for what?" Tristan asked.