Forever Changed

My name is Lorelai Gilmore and I am going to tell you about a series of events that changed our life forever.

A few years ago, I was happy. My 16-year-old daughter was going to Chilton and we lived together comfortably, just me and her in the town of Stars Hollow. Everybody in the town loved us, and we loved everybody. We thought life was perfect. We went to a diner called Luke's to get coffee every day, as Luke was a special friend. I wasn't going out with him, but we were a bit too close to be 'just friends'. Sometime during that time, I started sleeping with Luke. We would do this two or 3 times a week every week, before finally breaking up after just a few months. After that, our relationship was never the same. We would still go to the diner for the best coffee in town, but we weren't exactly friendly towards one another. He was the friendlier towards Rory than to me, as he had always loved her like his own daughter. But it was exactly a week after we had broken up with him that it happened.

I stared at the stick. It was pink. I thought, "It can't be! I can't have a kid with Luke! I'll be a single mother to two kids!" Yet I knew I wasn't giving Luke enough credit. He would definitely be a father to his child. He would even ask me to marry him. I just knew, though, that I didn't want to marry him. I didn't want help bringing this one up. I'd done it before, I'd do it again – alone.

I stuffed the test in my purse as I walked out of the bathroom and stopped. There, in the hallway, Rory was waiting for me.

"You were in there for ages! You never take that long in the bathroom!" she said to me.

I stood there for a minute, thinking what to do. There was no doubt that I would tell Rory straight away, after all, she was my best friend. We were more like sisters than mother and daughter. But the problem was, Luke had a right to know about it first – after all, he was the father. And I couldn't not tell him – he'd work it out.

"Mum," Rory's voice snapped me out of my daze. "I know something's up, and you're going to tell me now." As she said this she guided me down the stairs and onto the couch, where we sat facing each other.

"Ok," I agreed. If Luke was angry at me for telling Rory first (which I knew he wouldn't be), I'd use the excuse that Rory wouldn't take no for an answer. And I wanted to tell her first anyway.

I took a deep breath. "Now, you have to quiet until I tell Luke, because although we tell each other everything, he has the right to know first and­­-"

"MOM, STOP" Rory was practically yelling. "I want to know what's wrong, not that you shouldn't really tell me first."

"I'm pregnant." There. I'd finally said it. But as soon as I did, I started to cry.

"Oh, mum," Rory said. "It's ok. Luke will be a great father. And there'll just be three of us instead of two. You'll have another best friend. Hey, maybe this one will be more crazy like you and less sensible like me." She said this with a smile, trying to cheer me up, and knowing me well enough to know it was working.

I smiled. "Yeah. And Luke will be a great Dad. But I don't want him to; it'll change the dynamics in our household. I want to do it by myself again. Luke'll want to marry me, but I don't want to marry him. I don't really know why I'm crying, I'm happy."

"So, tell him you don't want to. And the kid will live here with it's mother anyway, Luke'll just take it more often. And you get free babysitting – what about work during the day? Luke'll take it," said the ever-practical Rory.

I entered the diner nervously clutching my bag and sat down at the counter. Normally I would be with Rory but I had asked her not to come this morning to give us some space with a promise to bring her some coffee from the diner. As soon as he saw me, Luke turned over a cup and started pouring coffee.

"Um, decaf please," I told him.

I had caught him off guard and for a moment he just stopped and stared at me. Finally he said "Why the hell would you want decaf? The only time I have seen you ever drink decaf was when you were pregnant with Rory."

That was it. The bomb was dropped. I stared at him for a second and burst into tears.

He threw the cup down, grabbed my arm, and pulled me upstairs to his apartment. Once I was seated on the couch (still crying, might I add), he stood in front of me and asked me if the baby was his. I nodded. He then asked me what we were going to do.

"Well, I don't know," I yelled at him. "Why don't you sit down and we can talk about it!"

He stood there trying to make sense of this, and finally sat down next to me and held me in his arms.

I pulled away from him. "I do NOT want to get back together, Luke Danes."

"OKAY!" He took a deep breath. "Ok. Do you want to keep the baby?" he asked practically.

"Yes, I want the baby," I told him firmly. "And I want it to live with me. And I don't want you to marry me."

He thought about that for a moment. "Ok then. That's fair enough. But my conditions are that I want an active part in this kid's life. That means not just leaving it with me at your convenience, and sometimes when I'm NOT working."

"Ok." I nodded. That I could live with. "So do I get my coffee now?" We went back downstairs.