Finding Rory

Chapter 16: The Afterglow

Tristan and Rory were still laying in his bed in a tangle of limbs at 5:30. They had enjoyed just being there together, stealing kisses, and talking.

"Mare?"

"Hmm?" she asked.

"We need to get up and get ready for Steph and the guys to come over."

"Five more minutes?" she whined.

"Okay, baby," he chuckled. "Can I talk you into sleeping in my bed tonight?

"Just try to keep me out of it," she joked.

"No way, I want you here," he chuckled.

"Then why are you about to make me get up?" she groaned.

"Because I don't want my friends seeing my girlfriend naked?

"Good point. I don't want your friends seeing your girlfriend naked either. Alright, I'm getting up."

Tristan followed her out of bed and walked over to his closet.

"I'm going to go get dressed, and then I need to run out to my car and grab my phone charger. I guess I left it in there."

"There's an extra phone charger in the top drawer of my nightstand - you can just grab that one for now and plug it in," Tristan replied from his closet.

"Thanks," Rory replied.

She walked over to Tristan's nightstand and opened the drawer and gasped at what she saw.

"Oh my god," she uttered under her breath.

Tristan peaked his head out of the closet and looked at her.

"Is everything okay?" he asked in confusion.

"Yeah, or at least I hope it will be," Rory whispered.

"You're scaring me, babe. What's going on?"

"We didn't use a condom."

"Oh shit, Mare. That's all my fault. I am so sorry - I've never been in a situation before where being safe wasn't even on my radar. Are you on the pill?"

"I am, and I haven't missed any, so we should be okay. I've just always used a condom too so I could be extra safe; it comes with the territory when your mom got pregnant with you at sixteen."

"I feel awful about this," Tristan said, wrapping her in his arms and hugging her tightly. "I'm clean and haven't been with anyone in a couple of years. I assume you are as well?"

"Yeah, I'm clean too, and like I said, this is the first time ever that I haven't used a condom."

"When should you start your next period?"

"Around the 30th. Why?"

"Because you're not alone in this; it's something for both of us to go through together. I don't ever want you to feel like you're on your own, Rory. If you ever think you might be pregnant I would want to know before you even take a test so I could be right there with you."

"You would?" Rory asked in shock.

"Of course I would. We may have only gotten together today, but I'm completely committed to this relationship. Your days of dealing with life on your own are over."

"It's been so long since I've had someone who cares for me like you do in my life, other than family, of course," Rory admitted.

"Well, get used to it, because I'm not going anywhere."

"I like that," Rory beamed. "This is going to be really good, isn't it?"

"It is," Tristan agreed. "Now, you'd better go get some clothes on, woman," he smirked.