Pathetic. That's how he felt. Pathetic and ridiculous and, god forbid, he actually hurt.

He tried. He tried so hard to be nice to her, to act like someone else, but his usual self had slipped through and messed things up yet again. He didn't blame her for being pissed. After the words slipped from his mouth he realized how annoying he sounded and didn’t blame her for reacting the way she did. But she hadn’t even given him a chance. He'd tried with the tickets, he'd went through hell to get those.

She'd been wrong, it wasn't his father, or his grandfather or someone else who got them for him. It was him who sat up all night the week before bidding on the pieces of shit. And for what, for her to just turn him down and walk away from him like he was the lowest thing on the earth, like she couldn’t even stand to be in his presence?

But then again, he couldn’t blame her for walking away. He'd been an idiot and still didn’t know what he was thinking to grab her books away from her like that. He realized how pathetic it was a second later and was opening his mouth to apologize but she was already walking away. Already walking to him. Just waiting there like some knight in fucking shining armor.

And leaving him standing there looking like an idiot.

"Fuck that." Tristan muttered angrily, kicking at the ground as he made his way to his car and pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. A habit he'd only taken up recently.

"Hey Dugrey, what happened? Your girlfriend leave you for someone who can actually give her what she wants? And left you carrying her books for her?" Someone taunted and Tristan crushed the cigarette between his fingers as he ground his teeth together.

His first reaction was to defend Rory. Where the hell did that come from? The jab at him hadn't even bothered him but the jab they made at her had. Maybe he was more messed up than he thought. Actually still willing to defend her after everything. He was sick.

He looked up to where Duncan and Bowman stood by gate that surrounded the school, each holding a cigarette of their own, their eyes watching him for a reaction while they smirked tauntingly at him.

Tristan held back biting words and took a calming breath, bringing a smirk to his own lips, and shrugging back at them while he tossed the crushed cigarette and pulled out another. "Not my chick. She's free to do whatever she wants or... whoever."

As soon as the words left his mouth he felt like the scum of the earth but his eyes remained emotionless and he continued to smirk as he drew one long drag after the other from his cigarette.

Duncan and Bowman laughed, smacking their fists together, obviously taking Tristan’s words for something else.

And he let them.

Maybe she was right to keep turning him down. Maybe he was everything she'd ever said he was.

He threw his cigarette down and stepped on it, reaching to grab another but then throwing the pack in his car, disgusted that he had picked up the habit in the first place because of her. Because it helped him calm his nerves which had been in overdrive since she stepped foot in the school.

Rory Gilmore was a bad habit altogether, he figured. She was one of those girls who would play with you till you got your hopes up and then kick you down. He should have learned that by now but then she had those moments when he thought maybe she wasn't so bad. Those moments that he thought maybe he'd have a chance. But all that was blown now. And he felt ridiculous once again.

Fuck if that was going to happen another time. Rory Gilmore was done running his life. He was done.

"Hey," Duncan called and Tristan stopped mid motion from opening his car door and looked up. "We're heading down to the cliffs. Going to grab some beer from Bowman’s brother stash and have some fun. You want to come? The more the merrier."

His first instinct was to say no and go home. He'd never hung out with people like Duncan and Bowman before. They were the bad apples of the society community. The lowest you could get. The rejects of Chilton. Constantly taking shit to the next level just to piss their parents, and people in general, off. And while he enjoyed doing that himself, he never bothered to hang with people who were stupid enough to get caught. And that's what Duncan and Bowman were.

"Unless of course you're going to go back and beg that chick to take you back." Bowman snickered and a wave of rage washed through Tristan.

He was done. With Rory Gilmore, with everything. He wasn't going to be made a fool of any longer.

"Yeah, I’m in." He gritted out, opening his door as a cold, confident smirk made it's way to his face. "I'll meet you guys there."

"Yeah!" Duncan cheered, smacking fists with Bowman. "Party!"

Tristan only heard their hoots and hollers as he got in his car and started it.

He glanced once towards the parking lot and instantly wished he didn't. There she was with him. All over each other.

Fighting back the rush of fresh hurt and humiliation and focusing on his disgust, he put the car in reverse and peeled out of the parking lot, letting his muffler echo louder and louder and smirked when he saw them break apart in his rear view mirror and stare after his car.

He was done with it all.

He was turning over a new leaf. Fuck the world. He was Tristan Dugrey. He didn't have to take shit from no one let alone some prude who thought she was better than everyone else.

He was starting new.

And right now that meant getting wasted with Duncan and Bowman and forgetting about the blue eyed brunette that had unknowingly just ruined his life.