"I'm in the running for valedictorian." Rory had walked through the dinner, barely saying hi to Luke before running up the stairs to see Jess. He was the first person she had wanted to tell.

"Huh."

"Of Chilton."

"I figured."

"Please Jess just say that you are proud or don't just say something, anything at this point might be nice."

"Does your mother know?" He says it with a smirk.

"That you are leaving? No, but I don't think I was suppose to either." She just gets up, shaking her head, before getting off the couch and grabbing her coat. She almost made it to the door before he grabbed her hand.

"Rory…"

"What? Are you going to start making excuses or lying to me now or something? I'm not really in the mood. And I have to go home and write this stupid speech now, and I don't really need any of this extra stress right now. And before you deny your leaving I can see your bags packed, so can you let go of my arm now?"

"Ror. Please listen. The speech is going to be great, and you will do perfect on your finals, you don't need all that extra studying. I know you will study anyway but chill out ok. And we both know I'm not the small town kind of guy. Now I wasn't planning on leaving for a few days… how about I help you with that speech."

Rory nodded, surprise written across her face at his speech. She doesn't remember a time when he has ever said so much in one breath, well not about him at least.

They were lying on the couch; her hand was playing with the collar of his shirt as he read what they had written so far. Her breath on his neck made him speak in a lower softer voice than usual. The paper was placed on the table behind his head and he used the arm that had been holding it to pull her slightly more on top of him before kissing her. He was pushing up her shirt so he could slide his hands against her back when he felt the tear drops on his face. He quickly stopped kissing her, pulling his head back and pulling her closer simultaneously. The look he gave her clearly said spit it out Gilmore.

"Where do you think you will go?" She said it carefully, watching his face for any signs he was going to close down and refuse to talk about it.

"California. See my father."

"Huh."

"I thought the valedictorian of Chilton would have something smarter to say."

"When? How long?"

"I don't know yet Rory. I am kind of figuring this out as I go."

"I don't want you to go." She whispered this before burying her head in his neck. He could feel the tears and he hated himself even more. She started pushing herself away from him and he held her tighter to himself. She wanted to hit him and she wanted to run away at the same time. "It's not fair. You're not supposed to make me love you then go away."

"Rory. Rory." He had to speak more forcefully before she collapsed against him, sobbing more loudly now. "Hey this isn't easy for me either. God I have never wanted to stay somewhere and want and have to go at the same time. And there is no reason for me to want to stay besides that I love you too." This brought her tear stained face up to meet his.

"If I said please don't leave."

"Please don't ask me to stay." She nodded before kissing him again. She pushed his head back against the couch and he smiled against her lips before flipping them so he was pinning her. "You know you could come with me." He said it then kissed her, trying not to watch her freak out. When the kiss ended her eyes were watery but thankfully were not tearing anymore.

"We both know I can't."

"Maybe for awhile during the summer." She nodded softly before thinking clearly and kissing him hard.

"Does that mean you will stay till my school year is over?"

"How about I go out there, get a place. Come back here get you, get the rest of my stuff."

"And what do I do in the mean time?"

"School, finals, make a list of books you and I both have so you don't take the ones I already have."

"You know my mother is going to want to kill you." His response was to smirk slightly.

"Are you going to tell her?"

"We both know I have to. But I think I will wait till after finals. I don't want her trying to persuade me not to go." He nodded understandingly before kissing her once again.

When it was time for her to go she did it with a heavy heart and what felt like heavy feet. She hesitated at the door.

"Don't leave without saying goodbye?" He nodded softly. She was out the door and down the stairs to the dinner in what felt like a blink of an eye to the teenager still standing by the table.

"Goodbye Rory." He whispered to the thin air.

He got on the bus and looked at Stars Hollow for the last time, no not the last time he corrected himself. He would be back soon to get Rory hopefully that would be the last time. The back of his mind whispered that he loved Rory enough to come back to this town.

Authors Note: Ok so I wrote this to get over some writers block and actually kind of like how it turned out. That is odd for me by the way. Okk so I guess let me know what you think. I may think of writing some more to this one. Not sure where it would go just yet… ok well I have a couple of ideas but