Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls or the characters that I'm writing about. This is simply a work of fiction. Blah blah blah. Point of this? Don't sue me. Thanks.
"I love you."
The conviction in his voice as he spoke those words to her might as well have been a daggar through her heart. She wanted to speak. She wanted to stop him from getting into that car and driving out of her life for the third time, but she couldn't do it. Not yet, anyway. It seemed as though she was frozen in place. Her lips nor her feet could move to stop him from turning on his heel and walking back towards his beat up old car. Rory wished, more than anything, that she could scream for him. Jess, come back. The words were right there on the tip of her tongue, yet she couldn't manage to say them.
Even after he drove away, out of Stars Hollow and most likely her life forever, she couldn't move from that one spot. Rory stood there for only God knows how long, staring at the vacant space that he had once stood in. It was only when she felt a hand on her shoulder that she snapped out of it. Completely in a daze, she slowly turned around to face her mother. Her best friend. Lorelai. Rory stared at her mother numbly, still unable to speak. Lorelai seemed to sense her daughter's sense of sadness and she allowed a sympathetic smile to form on her lips.
"Hey, hon. You wanna go home?" Rory could only nod to that, her voice still gone for the time being. Lorelai nodded as well and gently took her fragile daughter into her arms, her arms wrapped around her comfortingly. Needing this closeness, Rory gently rested her head against her mother's shoulder. Why did he do it? Why did Jess come back only to once again leave her? Did he not understand that his constant dissapearing act hurt her? It had come to the point where Rory couldn't even date anybody else. Every single time she went out with another guy, they fell short. Why? It was simple. Their hair wasn't dark enough or their voice wasn't deep enough. They didn't say her name with enough passion. They didn't share her love for books or didn't understand her taste in music. To put it simply, none of them were Jess Mariano.
The walk back home seemed simple enough, although that was most likely because Rory had drowned herself in her own thoughts of the one that had gotten away. The one who continued to get away, actually. Lorelai opened the front door and gently ushered Rory in, treating her daughter as if she were a porcelain doll. Once the door closed, Rory knew what was to come. Lorelai was going to go into over-protective mode once again and, quite honestly, Rory wasn't equipped to handle that. Sure enough, Lorelai spoke first.
She dropped her keys onto the kitchen counter and, almost in sync with the sound of the clattering on the surface, her voice rang through the house. "It was Jess, wasn't it? That little.. Punk hurt you again, didn't he? I swear to God, Rory.. I know you two used to date, but I knew he was bad news from the second I met him!" She declared confidently, her hand resting on her hip as she stared at her daughter. Rory looked around the room in anxious search of an exit. She wasn't in the mood to have the 'Jess is evil' talk that she'd had so many times before. Instead of defending him this time, she simply shrugged her shoulders and began to walk towards her bedroom.
"Ror--Rory, I'm sorry. I know that you care about him, okay? But you've gotta just let this Jess thing go once and for all." Lorelai's voice had changed from angry and annoyed to quiet and caring in a matter of seconds. Rory hadn't even know that a mood could change that fast until this exact moment. Then again, this was Lorelai Gilmore they were dealing with. If anyone could do it, it would be her. She continued to make the short journey towards her room, only stopping once she reached her bedroom door. She turned around to face her mother and offered her a very small (and very forced) tight lipped smile. After a second, she reached the doorknob and opened the door to enter her room.
Upon doing so, she closed it behind her and leaned her back against it. Able to feel herself begin to break, she closed her eyes and attempted to calm herself down. He's gone now, Rory. Once and for all, Jess is out of your life. Never again would she have to worry about him sweeping back into her life and making a mess of things. He was really gone this time, wasn't he? Once and for all, he was out of Stars Hollow and out of her world. She re-opened those bright blue eyes of hers and allowed them to wander around her bedroom. Suddenly, Rory remembered the first time she had met him. Lorelai had decided that Jess and Luke should come over for dinner one night, upon Jess's arrival to town. He entered her room with a sense of confidence about him that made Rory weak in the knees.
Cautiously, Rory moved herself away from her bedroom door and walked towards the large bookcase. Sure enough, right there on the bookshelf was the book he'd taken from her. With shaking hands, she held onto it as a single tear slipped from her eye and down her cheek. Rory somehow managed to open the book and, as she stared down at the notes he'd made in the margins with his chicken scratch handwriting, she backed up until she hit her bed. As if in a daze, she sat herself down on the edge and kept her eyes fixed on the words that he'd written for her, regarding the book. Finally, after nearly an hour of not saying a single word, Rory spoke.
"I love you too, Jess."