A/N: Here she is, the first chapter of Watching the Days Go By! If you've found your way here from A Walk Out in the Cold, hello again! If not, this is the sequel to another story I wrote called a Walk Out in The Cold, so feel free to look that up if you want to read about the year and a half leading up to this moment. The title and chapter titles are lyrics from Too Much by All Time Low. I hope you all like it :)
"Jess," Rory said, wiping her eyes quickly as she turned to face him. It had been a while since she had seen him and she certainly didn't expect to see him at her graduation, much less thirty seconds after being dumped by her boyfriend. It was a little embarrassing to have a witness, but she was glad he was there anyway. "What are you doing here? I could barely get enough tickets for my family."
"I just snuck in," Jess said with a shrug. "Actually, I got here too late and the ceremony had already started so I've just been waiting around. I figured I'd find you eventually."
Rory mustered up a laugh. "Well, you picked a great moment to find me." She sighed, sliding down the trunk of the tree she was sitting by. If her gown got a little dirty then so be it; she had already graduated. "I didn't think he would leave," she said as Jess joined her on the ground. "I knew he wouldn't be happy, but I didn't think he would just end things."
"Why did he?" Jess looked around, like he might actually be able to see Logan in the crowd. Rory was sure he was long gone, though.
"He got a job out in California and wanted me to go with him. And I wasn't ready to do that. It sounded like an amazing opportunity for him, but if I went with him and married him then that would kind of be it for me. I'd have to find a job somewhere around San Francisco. I've sent resumes to papers all over the country and I could still hear back from any one of them. Knowing Logan I'm sure he could find me a job at the Chronicle or the Guardian, but what if they didn't want me and a paper in Seattle or Chicago did? I'd be stuck there." Rory took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I felt so bad saying no. The look on his face…" She rested her head on Jess' shoulder and closed her eyes, willing herself not to start crying again.
"But everything you just said made a lot of sense," Jess said. "You did say you might go with him a last week, though."
Rory thought back to the text she had sent Jess and cringed. "I was just mad about not getting the fellowship. Once it was actually a concrete thing that I had to make a decision about, I just couldn't do it. You were right. I couldn't see me in California either." When Logan had described the hiking and biking they could do it had sounded amazing, but it didn't sound like Rory. He had already imagined a wonderful life for them together in California but Rory couldn't mentally put herself in the picture.
"You're actually admitting that I'm right?"
"Hey, it's like you said. Things never stay the same. Don't get used to it though," Rory warned. "You're not right very often." Taking one more deep breath, Rory stood up and offered a hand to Jess. "My mom is going to freak out if she can't find me pretty soon and she'll never see me sitting on the ground," she said. They had taken pictures together after the ceremony, but they must have wandered off after she went to talk to Logan because she couldn't see them. "I know you didn't call my mom or grandma up and tell her you were coming today, so this will be a weird surprise for them too."
Jess attempted to scowl, although he didn't pull it off very well. While Rory was sure her cheeks probably had tear stains and mascara marks on them, Jess looked sort of happy to be there. "After you telling me that your grandma hates me? No, I didn't call your family and tell them I was coming." He paused. " Wait, 'too'? Are you calling me a weird surprise?"
Rory smiled, even though she felt so emotionally drained she couldn't imagine actually feeling happy for a long time. "Of course. Oh, I think my grandpa." She waved to her family, although she wasn't actually sure they could see her. Her grandma was talking to someone intently, no doubt bragging about Rory even though everyone there was with someone who just graduated.
"Is he the tall one with the bow tie?"
"Yup," Rory said, feeling a twinge of pride. She felt so lucky that her grandparents were there to see her graduate. And that they were socially versed enough to not do anything uncomfortable when she walked over there without Logan and with Jess. Not that she had replaced Logan with Jess, of course. Suddenly she felt nervous. "This is going to be really awkward, you know. I'm going to have to tell them about Logan."
"Do you want me to go? I don't want to intrude on your family stuff. I just stopped by to say hi," Jess said.
"You just 'stopped by' Yale from Philadelphia? That's not stopping by, Jess. You can come with us. Sookie and Jackson are joining us for dinner too, so it won't be weird," Rory said. "Plus I'm sure my grandparents will insist on it. They're too polite not to. And my mom will grudgingly agree and everyone will pretend they're happy with the arrangement."
Jess snorted. "You make it sound so tempting. I guess I can go, if I'm invited. I took the train here but it wasn't a return ticket, so I don't have to leave by a certain time or anything."
"We can drive you back to Stars Hollow," Rory said. "You want to see Luke and your mom and stuff, right?"
"I hadn't thought about it," Jess said. Rory rolled her eyes. Of course he hadn't thought about it. Things like that never seemed to cross his mind.
"You haven't been to Stars Hollow since Christmas, right? You should really see your mom and sister more than once a year."
"But that means seeing TJ," Jess argued. "I don't want to see him even once a year."
Rory started to answer, but her mom butted in first. Rory had been so wrapped up in considering their dinner plans that she hadn't noticed her walking over. "There you are!" Lorelai said, hugging her. "My little graduate. And Jess! What a surprise." She sounded genuinely surprised, which was encouraging. It was better than sounding disappointed or annoyed. "Is Logan tracking down more of his friends?"
Rory looked at Jess, widening her eyes slightly. She only wanted to tell the story about Logan once and her grandparents and dad were still a few feet away, having been sidetracked by another friend of the Gilmores. Thankfully, Jess took the hint. "Rory mentioned that her graduation was today and I've been wanting to visit my mom anyway, so I thought I would stop by and say congratulations."
"That was nice of you," Lorelai said, though her attention was on Rory. Rory could feel her mom staring at her, but she didn't make eye contact. Had she known Jess was going to show up she would have told her mom about the extent of their contact. She had only been putting it off for a year and a half. Rory and Jess had hung out when he was in Stars Hollow a while back, but she hadn't wanted to get into a whole conversation about it with her mom. Not because Lorelai didn't like Jess (even though she wasn't his biggest fan), but because she had always felt a little weird having a close friendship with someone that Logan didn't like.
"Rory! We thought Logan had whisked you away somewhere," Emily said as she caught up with the group. "We thought we were going to have to form a search party." Noticing Jess, her smile became a little strained. "It's Jess, isn't it? How funny, Rory didn't mention you were coming today." As strange as seeing Jess was for Lorelai, Rory couldn't even imagine what her grandma was thinking. She hadn't seen Jess in years and after he and Rory had broken up she probably assumed that was the end of him.
"No, no whisking," Rory said, trying to sound cheerful. Once her dad and grandpa were standing with them she took a deep breath, preparing to rip off the proverbial band-aid. "Actually, Logan and I are not together anymore."
Though she desperately wanted to stubbornly stare at her shoes, she watched as her family reacted to the news. Lorelai literally gasped, while her grandpa's face looked like it had turned to stone. "Look, we don't have to talk about it here. Why don't we leave and go somewhere else until we have to meet Sookie and Jackson for dinner?"
"Oh honey, we don't have to go out tonight. We can just go home if you want," Lorelai said.
Rory shook her head. "Honestly, I just want to go out and have some good food hang out with all of you," she said, even though going out to dinner meant telling the break up story again. Rory was almost certain that her mom had called Sookie the second after Logan asked her permission to marry her, so she would be dying to know what Rory had said. Going home felt like she was giving up, though. She wanted to go out with her family and be happy, or at least try to be happy. Although if she went home she wouldn't have her family looking at her like she was a wounded kitten. "Really, I'm fine. Logan got a job in California and I didn't think that I should go out there with him right now, so we ended things." Technically he had ended things on his own, but it seemed less dramatic if Rory made it sound like an amicable split. Jess knew the truth though, and was giving her an odd look.
"We do have reservations…" Emily said hesitantly. "If you're sure you want to go, then we can go."
"It's really not a big deal," Rory lied. "I just want to go somewhere and sit down and have some food. I'm starving. They should have these kind of things catered." She was trying to make a joke, but she had a feeling that her grandpa would end up saying something about it to someone important at the school. She wouldn't be surprised if there was a Rory Gilmore buffet at next year's commencement ceremony.
"Jess, would you like to join us?" Emily asked. "I'm sure they could pull up a chair for you at the restaurant." She sounded friendly enough, but Rory knew how much she hated last minute changes in plan. People who didn't RSVP to events were the bane of her existence.
"That sounds great, if nobody minds," Jess said, mimicking her polite tone. Since he didn't have a black eye, it was already going better than the last time the three of them had dinner.
"We don't mind," Rory said quickly. "And mom, I said we could give him a ride to Stars Hollow tonight so he can visit with his family. He took the train in, so he doesn't have a car with him." Lorelai gave her a look, but agreed. It wasn't like she could say no in front of her parents, especially since Rory had already told Jess he could go with them.
As the group headed to their respective cars, Rory looked over at her dad. He hadn't said a word since they had caught up with each other, but he looked a little irritated. No doubt he remembered when Rory and Jess had gotten into a car crash back in high school. Rory mentally crossed her fingers, hoping it wouldn't come up at dinner. As excited as she was to see Jess, her summer was off to a complicated start.
