Learning the Laws of attraction

nineteen

The next morning as Rory and Colin walked into the dining room hand and hand they were greeted by raucous applause, causing them both to halt in place.

"Whoot woot, Mr McCrae I didn't know you had it in you!" Finn exclaimed loudly as soon as he saw them. Rory turned bright red instantly.

"Looks like the rooms aren't as sound proof as we would have liked," Colin whispered to Rory as she buried her embarrassed face in his chest.

"So did you two sleep okay after you kept the rest of the ship awake?" Logan asked with a smirk.

"Okay, okay, enough teasing, you are all just jealous," Colin stated, trying to get a handle on the mocking before it reached intolerable levels.

"You got one thing right, we are all just jealous," Tristan stated, "Mare, I'm not even sure I can continue to call you that anymore. You might finally get your wish for me to switch to Rory."

Rory playfully smacked Tristan on the back of the head, as her and Colin walked past him to take the two final empty seats.

"Why do you call Rory Mare anyway?" Stephanie asked Tristan, looking down the table at the pair.

"Should you explain, or will I?" Tristan asked Rory.

"You go for it," Rory answered as she accepted a cup of coffee from Colin, with a kiss on the cheek.

"Mare, here, switched to Chilton sophomore year. I may have already had quite the reputation by this point-"

Rory openly scoffed.

"Okay I definitely had a reputation by this point, I was the king of the school."

"Self crowned," Rory interjected.

"Which one of us is telling this story?" Tristan asked.

"Oh it's all you." Rory stated, while raising her hands in defeat, while really she knew which of them came off badly in this story.

"Well anyway, on the first day of school I see Rory, the new girl, looking very much the picture of innocence. She used to blush when she saw people making out in the halls-"

"In my defense, you normally had someone pushed up against my locker every morning when I arrived, so it wasn't like I could avoid it, I usually had to try and get your attention to get you to move so I could get my stuff."

"Seriously? Against her locker?" Robert asked.

"Everyday," Rory replied, nodding emphatically.

"I genuinely thought she would get jealous and it would help my case," Tristan responded looking shamefaced.

"How did that work out for you?" Stephanie added.

"It didn't. Anyway Rory looked so innocent I started to call her Mary, as in the Virgin Mary, and well it kinda stuck. Became more of a term of endearment than a taunt."

"Says who?" Rory asked incredulously.

"Me?" Tristan said, sheepishly, suddenly afraid of the repercussions of the nickname.

"It's okay Tris, Paris used it a lot in Yale as well, until she decided it was inappropriate too."

"You mean when she realized you were a screamer?" Finn stated joining in on the conversation as he had been feeling left out. Colin reached out and smacked his head.

"It's okay, Paris and I have done a lot of embarrassing things to each other in the years we have known each other. Some that the guys here have been witness to." Rory said with resignation.