Title: Happy Birthday, Lorelai
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summary: It's Lorelai's twenty-first birthday, and she needs help celebrating. Who does she ask?
A/N: One-shot. Just a simple fic set in the early Gilmore era, before the show started. And, we don't know, it totally could have happened.
Rated: PG-13 (T) for drunkenness and maybe some sexual situations.
Warning: This is completely unbeta-ed and even without spell-check. So just ignore any errors.
It was her twenty-first birthday, and she was all alone.
She wandered the small town, feeling, for the first time in four years, claustrophobic. There was nothing to do here, except what she did every day. But she'd given Rory to a baby sitter and Mia had given her the day off, and so she had nothing to do.
Lorelai Gilmore was finally completely legal, and completely alone.
She wanted to have a racous night, a horrible night of debauchery, a night where she would wake up with a hangover in a cloud of shame.
She hadn't had one of those since the night Rory was conceived.
Rory was going to be five in six months. That meant it had been over five years since her last night of debauchery. So why shouldn't she have another one?
Damn Stars Hollow. There wasn't a liquor store or bar anywhere to be found in the city limits. The only place to get alcohol of any kind was in Doose's Market, and Lorelai really didn't think she wanted to associate Taylor with her night of debauchery. So, instead, she walked into the nearest store and asked to use the phone.
As she talked to Miss Patty and explained that she was going to be spending the night out, she glanced around her surroundings. The small hardware store was crammed with aisles and aisles of hardware type things. She had no idea what anything in there was for. But she did see, out of the corner of her eye, what looked to be a cute boy.
With a final explanation that she was going to be crashing at one of her old friends' houses, she hung up the phone and handed it back to the man behind the counter. She thanked him, and he smiled and said, "Anytime."
As she turned to try to find the cute boy in the hardware store, she watched him walk behind the counter.
"I'm through with the inventory," he grumbled. "Will you finally release me from this hellhole?"
The man behind the counter chuckled and clapped a hand on the boy's shoulder. "All right, son. Since I've kept you trapped in this hellhole for three days, you can take two off."
"Thank you!" he said, throwing the notebook he'd used for the inventory on the counter. "See you tomorrow!"
"Whoa, whoa, what do you mean, 'tomorrow'?"
"Dad," the boy said, rolling his eyes. "You know I never see you after you close up."
"Oh. Okay." The man nodded. "See you tomorrow, son."
The boy grinned and sped from the store. Lorelai watched him leave, shot a last smile at his dad, and then followed him.
"Hey, you!" she called, chasing after him. "Wait up!"
The boy stopped in his tracks, and then slowly turned around.
"He didn't ask for me back, did he?" he asked of the girl advancing on him. "Dammit! He always does this. Always!" He started to go back, cursing under his breath. Lorelai reached out and grabbed his arm.
"Hey, no. Your dad didn't say anything."
"Oh." The boy looked confused. "So...why'd you call me?"
"Well, I was just wondering. Today's my twenty-first birthday, and I have nothing to do. Do you have any idea where a bar is? And once we get there, do you wanna celebrate with me?"
The boy thought for a minute, and then nodded. "Let's go."
Two hours later they were both thoroughly trashed, sitting in a bar in New Haven. The boy had suggested the bar because it was in a college town, and there was always trouble to get into in a college town. Lorelai had yet to learn his name, and she had yet to relinquish hers.
"This place is getting boring," he said, slamming his shot glass on the counter. "Let's find something else to do."
"Mmm," Lorelai pointed, still forcing down her gin and tonic. "Let's follow them. They look kinda smashed, but not too much."
"Okay," he said, sliding from his stool. He reached a hand to help her down, and she stumbled into him. They both snorted and started laughing.
"You're clumsy," he pointed out.
"You pulled me," she said in response.
"Oh, well," he shrugged. "It got us to hold hands, didn't it?" he asked, in his drunk state of mind.
Lorelai grinned. "We should kiss next."
"Okay," he said, leaning over and kissing her quickly on her cheek.
"No!" she exclaimed, laughing. "Not there!"
"Well, where?" he asked, genuinely stumped.
"I'll show you later," she said, breaking into a run and pulling him by the hand. "We're losing them!"
The trashed, but not quite, group did indeed make a stop at another party, this time on the Yale campus. Lorelai laughed at all the smart drunk people, trying to make sense of themselves and failing miserably. The boy laughed at her, as she continued to be clumsy. Halfway through the night, at about 11:30, the owners of the dorm room rounded everyone up and shoved them out. The large group split into three smaller groups: the druggies off to their own dorm rooms to shoot up and pass out, the studious college students off to their own dorm rooms to sleep it off, and Lorelai and the boy. She turned to the boy, saw two of him, and used his hand to pull him off campus.
As they stood on the sidewalk, next to a not-too-busy street at almost midnight, Lorelai let the cool air wash over her and clear her mind a little. She looked at the boy, smiled, and said, "We're both too pissed to drive home."
He nodded, and added, "And besides, I'm not too sure where the truck is right now."
"Right," she said, feeling a little smarter for being able to take charge. "So we should get a hotel room."
"Right," he nodded. And then he realized what she'd said. "Wait, what?"
"A hotel room," she said. "My parents sent me birthday money, and we can get a room and clear out the mini-bar and then try to wake up sober in the morning."
"But, but," he stuttered. "I have to be home."
"No, you don't. You told your dad you wouldn't see him 'til tomorrow." She smiled. "We can get a room with two beds, if you want."
"No, that's okay," he said. "One's okay. You still have to show me where to kiss you." He wrapped his arms around her waist.
She laughed. "Okay, we'll do that."
Bright. It was very, very bright. Lorelai groaned and raised one hand to protect her eyes from the horrible sun. She slowly sat up, keeping her eyes closed.
Suddenly she became aware of the shower running. In her room.
She crashed quickly, completely sobering up in half a second. She opened her eyes wide and checked her clothes. Still on. Slightly mussed, but slept in. She checked around the floor, made sure she still had her undergarments on.
"Oh," she moaned. She suddenly remembered why she hadn't been anything more than tipsy for five years. It wasn't because of Rory. It was because of the feeling of shame the next morning, the horrible feeling of not knowing what you'd done the night before. She stood up quickly - and then quickly regretted it, because of the dizziness - and walked to the half-open bathroom door. She spotted what must have been the boy's clothes on the floor, meaning that he'd slept in his, too.
She breathed a huge sigh of relief and collapsed onto the bed. The covers were still on, even, just a little mussed.
Although, she'd been able to have sex without taking off the covers before.
But she was almost entirely sure that she hadn't had sex last night. No, she was completely certain. At least, she didn't remember it.
She didn't remember anything past the bar, and her drunk conversation with the boy on the way to the hotel, when they'd giggled over the hundreds of different ways you could call someone inebriated. Pissed. Hammered. Sloshed. And so on.
The shower stopped, and Lorelai instinctively tensed. Here it was. The moment of truth.
The boy stepped out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist, carrying his clothes.
"Oh," he said, noticing her on the bed. "I'm...sorry. I didn't realize you were awake. I'll, um, just go back, um, in there," he pointed toward the bathroom, "and get dressed." He turned around to the bathroom, and then turned back around to face Lorelai. "Hey, um, do you see, maybe, my blue baseball cap over there?"
She glanced around herself, and then laid across the bed to see on the other side. There, lying on the floor, was a blue baseball cap. She picked it up and handed it to him.
"Um, thanks," he said, taking it from her. "I couldn't remember where it was, and I guess I didn't check over there before my shower."
"Sure," she said.
He smiled a tight smile, and then turned back around to head into the bathroom.
"Wait!" she called.
Once again, he turned back around to face her.
"Um," she started eloquently, "did we, uh..." She trailed off, and then got annoyed with herself. She'd asked this question before. It had just been years, and she was out of practice. "Did we have sex last night?" she finally asked, bluntly, causing the boy's eyebrows to shoot up.
"Uh, I don't think so. Don't you know?"
"No, I don't remember," she said, shaking her head.
"No, I mean, don't you know? My sister, uh, said you could...know," he lost steam towards the end, his cheeks suddenly reddening. "I'm just gonna get dressed," he said, turning back and finally making it into the bathroom this time.
Lorelai sat back against the headboard, thinking about it. Perhaps she did know, and maybe nothing had happened.
That was it. She nodded her head. Nothing happened, because she said nothing happened. She smiled. She felt immensely better now, and could go home, to see her baby with a free conscience.
The boy took her home, back to Stars Hollow, and they went their separate ways on Main Street. She hadn't ever seen him before, and she desperately hoped to never see him again, if only to save both of them the embarassment of that night.
"I can't believe we're getting a house," Rory said, skipping down Main Street.
Lorelai smiled at her ten-year-old daughter. "Yeah, I just can't believe we're finally leaving the Inn. I'm gonna have to learn to cook now."
Rory laughed. "Yeah, that'll happen."
"Hey!" Lorelai protested. "It could happen."
"Okay," Rory said, still laughing.
"Oh, look," Lorelai said, trying to change the subject. "That wasn't here before." She pointed to the new building where William's Hardware had been five and half years ago. There was a coffee cup hanging in front of the door, and "Good Food" was painted in script on two of the windows. "Whaddya think?" she asked, looking at Rory. "Coffee?"
"Probably!" Rory said, grinning. "Let's go get some!" She raced into the diner, leaving her mother in the dust. Lorelai followed, and found her daughter sitting at a table for four in the window.
"Hey, babe, maybe we should sit at the counter. There are only two of us."
"No, it's okay," a man said, walking up to them with an order pad in his hand. "I'm not that busy today."
Lorelai paused. That voice. There was something about that voice. She looked up. The man was wearing a flannel shirt, jeans, a -
Lorelai almost fainted.
He was wearing a very familiar blue baseball cap.
He was older, that was for sure. His shirt looked more filled out now than it had five years ago. His stubble was thicker. But it was him. She knew that now.
"I'm Luke, by the way," he said.
"I'm Lorelai, and this is my daughter Rory." Lorelai kept her eyes on his face, waiting to see if he recognized her. There was no hint of anything, so she decided right then and there to thoroughly annoy him until she was entirely sure he would never equate her with that girl of twenty-one.
"We'll have two huge cups of coffee and two menus, please, Duke."
There. That should do it.