Disclaimer: I own nothing but most of the dialogue. The Audrey Hepburn line is from Roman Holiday and belongs to the writers of that classic film.
Author's Note: So I was watching Roman Holiday for the first time today and when Audrey said this line this story just started to write itself. This is only my second Gilmore Girls fic, and the first that I think I may publish. Criticism is always welcome as long as it is constructive.
Summary: Rory and Lorelai have a heart-to-heart about a surprising date Rory made.
Timeline: Somewhere after Dean and Rory's initial breakup and before their reconciliation.
Title: I Hate My Nightgown
"I can't find anything to wear!" Rory yelled, her voice filled with frustration as she threw another skirt into the piles of clothing that were covering up almost every inch of her floor.
As Lorelai walked into her daughter's unusually chaotic room she let out a low whistle and dodged the shirt Rory had just thrown. "Whoa, there was another closet explosion huh? Good thing you weren't hurt hon, these may be made out of real cotton but they still pack a hell of a punch when thrown with enough force," she warned, shaking the blue shirt she held for emphasis.
Rory shot her mother a look as she discarded another shirt into the pile closest to her. "My clothes suck," she announced with a groan, melodramatically throwing herself back onto the bed.
"I hate my nightgown! I hate all my nightgowns!" Lorelai quipped in a high-pitched voice, grinning wickedly as her daughter upgraded her from a look to a glare.
"No Audrey jokes today, Mom, please. This is important."
"And you're saying Audrey isn't?" she replied with a mock gasp, putting one hand over her heart in false shock. "I thought I raised you better than that—Audrey quotations are always serious business."
Sitting up, Rory just looked at Lorelai until she threw her hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay, I'm being serious. What is so important that none of your clothes are good enough to wear to it?"
Rory looked down at the sweater in her hands, toying with the fabric mindlessly. "You'll think it's silly."
"Oh, hon." Lorelai picked her way through the clothes to sit down beside her daughter and pull her into a hug. "If it's this important to you how could I think it's silly?"
"Well," Rory began, pulling back to look at her mother with a bright gleam in her eye, "There's this dance at Chilton next Friday—"
"You wouldn't happening to be talking about the formal now would you?" Lorelai interjected eagerly.
"Yes, the formal. Well, I kind of got asked to it." She looked up, waiting for her mother's reaction.
"That's great hon! Who asked you?"
She took a deep breath. "Tristan Dugray," she said, quickly looking down at the sweater in her hands again. "And I said yes." After a moment of her mother's unusual silence she dared to peek up at her. "Mom?"
"Yeah?" she responded automatically, still staring into space.
"Mom!"
"Sorry, sorry! I was just… thinking."
"Come on, you can say it."
The words burst from her in a rapid stream. "I thought you hated that kid. I believe you said that he was an 'obnoxious, egotistical jerk who wouldn't know how to be grateful for anything if his life depended on it.' This is Bible Boy we're talking about right?"
Rory rolled her eyes. "Yes, he's Bible Boy. And I never hated him. I just hated how smug he is—was—about everything. But we got paired together on a project for English last month and I saw a different side of him while we worked together. We actually became friends."
Lorelai forced a smile and a cheerful tone as she replied, "That's… great."
"You can be honest, Mom. It's not like I'm five years old and asking you if Santa really ate all of the cookies and drank all the milk."
"I'm just not sure if this is such a good idea kid. You can't stand this guy and he torments you for months, but you agree to go out with him less than a month after you broke up with Dean and a month of friendship?"
"Trust me Mom I know that it's risky. And I'm not expecting it to turn into anything—I don't really think that I want it to. I'm just tired of never getting to have any fun just because I don't have a boyfriend anymore. All I want is to have a night of mindless fun with no expectations. Is that so wrong?"
"Of course it's not wrong. And if you're serious about not having any expectations then you go for it. But I know you, Rory. I know how your brain and your heart operate and I just don't think that you'll be able to keep yourself from wanting more no matter how hard you try."
"Maybe not," Rory admitted. "But I'm not a little girl anymore Mom. I need to try things out and make my own mistakes. You understand that don't you?"
Lorelai smiled and reached out to smooth her daughter's hair back before planting a kiss on her forehead and pulling her into a hug. "When did you become so grown-up?"
"I don't know, I think it just kind of happened," Rory teased.
"Okay then, daughter of mine, if you're sure this date is what you want—"
"It is," she nodded, a dazzling smile lighting up her face.
"Then that means one thing—shopping trip!"
Rory grinned and clapped her hands excitedly as her mother started to plan for their trip. Any excuse for shopping—but she knew that it went beyond that. Once again Lorelai had come through for her, choosing to trust her to make her own choices. But she also knew that her mom would still be there for her if it turned out to be the wrong one.
That was the great thing about her mom—she always came through for her and never said 'I told you so'.
Okay, almost never.
~~FIN