I took an extra long sip of my coffee before looking at the clock. I watched Luke take another order and knowing that he wouldn't be getting to me in time. I sighed and walked up to the counter. Jess was engrossed in one of his books I'd talked him into.
"I don't get this Elizabeth character…" he said while pulling my favorite donut from the pile.
"You just got to keep reading jess. By the way you're going to be late for school." I said smirking to him.
"Great, Uncle Luke I'm out." He said while grabbing his backpack and dragging my arm which held my donut in mid bite.
Luke half waved at our disappearing bodies. "What am I going to do with those two?" he muttered to himself.
It had always been Jess and I. Since the day when I first arrived at Stars Hollow after my mother had left her family. She was toting me in one arm while asking Fran the bakery lady about how to get to the Independence Inn. Jess had been in the same bakery with his uncle Luke. His mother had convinced her older brother to take Jess till things settled down in New York. Jess's uncle Luke couldn't get the young boy to eat anything in the dinner. So he hoped Fran could help him somehow.
As my mother Lorelai finished with the directions she noticed how large my eyes got about the cookies I saw on the display. Fran saw my excitement and handed me a cookie. After my first one, she had me hooked for life. A young Luke Danes asked for a cookie for the small boy in his arms. That was the first time I ever saw Jess.
"I'm so bored." I whispered in English class to Jess. He rolled his eyes and said, "You should have brought a book."
I rolled my eyes and tried to focus on our teacher. It was how school was for us. I worked my ass off for my grades while Jess just learned it once and he understood. He was a genius it's just he was cold to outsiders. He hated authority and being caged up.
The final bell rang and I packed up my bag. "Hey I'll see you at the diner later. You got to help me with my math homework." I said.
"I have plans tonight." He said.
"You never have plans Jess. Trust me I'd be the first person to know about this revelation. Meet at Dinner 7pm."I said.
I walked out the door as he shouted, "I won't be there." He watched as my figure disappeared into the crowd of Stars Hollow High.
I went over Lane's house to see if she knew something I didn't. Apparently my head was in the sand. A girl named Olivia Howards not Jess's usual type. Considering his last girlfriend Shane was a real winner. Lane filled me in that Olivia was smart. She was also rich, brunette, and a cheerleader. Those were the types that Jess and I used to make fun of.
"I can't believe he would go for a girl like her." I said while looking through Lane's 1975 music collection.
"Come on Rory. Jess doesn't have a type. We have seen him try every type. He'll dump her after a few weeks and then our group will be back to normal." She said while yanking a CD that didn't belong in that genre.
"I hope your right Lane because I don't want to be on cleanup crew for this ex-girlfriend."
Lane listened to hear if her mom was coming up the stairs. "Give him some slack. Remember when you dated Dean and how that blew up in your face. How you couldn't tell him you loved him. Jess and I both had to clean up that wreckage."
"I just don't know about this Olivia girl." I said.
"Let's leave Jess to his own choices. He's nearly seventeen. How about we save me from Korean marriage and get you a new boy. Did you see how Jacob Matthews was looking at you in English?" She said while closing up her closet.
Jacob Matthews, he was an amazing soccer player and taken the Stars Hollow High Minutemen to several championship wins over his high school career. "He's kind of cute and I really don't notice him in English because Jess takes up all my conversation time. It's the only class I have with him."
"Maybe you should talk to Jacob instead of Jess tomorrow."
"I'll think about it. I know Jess won't mind considering Olivia's in our class." I said while smirking.
As Jess promised and much to my disappointment; he wasn't at the diner at 7pm. He didn't come back when the diner closed and Luke said I should go home. I was frustrated. I couldn't go home without having to face my father who only looked at old photos of my mother. It had been two years since her death. Yet my father couldn't get over her memory. It wasn't like I didn't think about how life would be different if she were to be alive. However when my dad saw me, he saw the haunting image of my mother. Everyone saw her in me, I couldn't escape nor did I want to. It's how I carried a part of her with me.
I decided to take a walk to the bridge. The place where my mother and I used to talk when I was sad and she wasn't sure if staying married to dad was right for her anymore. I sat with my eyes looking into the water. I remembered that cold winter night when my mom had found me out here crying.
"I thought I would find you out here." She said while half hugging my body. "Tell mom, everything."
"Jess is changing and he doesn't want to be my friend anymore."
"Did he say that to you? Because I can call up Luke." She said gliding her fingers through my hair.
"I know we aren't sixteen yet but why does he have to be such a jerk to me? I thought I was the only one he would always stay to close with." I said between sobs.
"Ya'll are just freshman in high school. It's an awkward time. Jess will come around again. He's dealing a lot with finding about his mom being in rehab and his supposed father in California. Just wait and he'll come back to you. I remember thinking the same about your father…Back before we both had to grow up." she said.
I nodded and lay my head in her lap. "Promise that it will work out and that you'll help me through it all."
She laughed lightly and said, "Honey I'm your best friend and I promise to be there every step of the way."
My mind jolted to reality when I heard a thud on the bridge. I looked and saw nothing. "Why aren't you here like you promised mom?" I whispered to myself as I got up and walk towards home. A home that was full of old scars, memories, and a father that didn't know how to function.
I found my father on the couch. He had a beer bottle in his hand and the old video camera was hooked up to our TV. My mom's face was plastered in pause mode. A giant cake in her hands from Jess's 5th birthday. I turned off the TV. I pulled a blanket over his body and then took the portable phone into my bedroom. I listened to all five messages from my grandparents. Then I curled up in my bed and tried to sleep. It was another day in my life without my mother.