So that meeting with Mr Medina hadn't gone the worst it could of. It was actually okay. But she needed to ignore that. He was not Max, he was Mr Medina, her teacher, who she had to interview. And whose interview she needs to buy a folder for.
Rory sighed and pushed open the door to the shop.
X
Jess took in a deep breath. Luke had no right to say those things to him, he wasn't his parent. Luke was his uncle, who he had absolutely no memory of. Luke didn't know him. Just because Liz dumped him on him didn't mean he got to suddenly act like a parent, because he wasn't. His finger twitched in need of a cigarette, why didn't he bring his pack with him?
Then he saw her, just walking. He found his legs moving in her direction without a thought.
"Hey". She looked up and smiled,
"Oh, hey!"
"What are you doing out here?", wow, amazing conversation skills, Mariano. His conversing skills never bothered him before... What was up with him?
"Just getting some stuff for school, what about you?"
"Oh yeah - same thing", why did he say that? What if she asked-
"It's different with all the people, huh?", she interrupted his thoughts and he stared at her blankly for a second.
"Louder", he responded, glancing around at the crowds of people walking around them.
"Oh yeah, as loud as New York I bet". He smirked,
"You'd be surprised".
He started fiddling with a coin in his hand.
"What are you doing?", she asked, watching the coin.
"Oh this?", he held up his hand,
"Nothing. Just a little disappearing act", he opened his now empty hand. She laughed and rolled her eyes.
"Another insider's tip? If you ever want to speak to me again, don't pull that out of my ear"
"So I assume the nose is off limits too", he knew -and hoped she wouldn't notice- that a tiny smile was on his face.
"Any place you wouldn't naturally find a coin, let's leave it at that",
"Fair enough. So what are you doing now". She looked at the plastic bag in her hand,
"Homework",
"Ah. I'll just leave you with one last trick then", she glanced up at him again,
"Oh?". Fighting down a smirk, he took the book out of his back pocket and held it out to her.
"You didn't have to get your own copy, I said I would lend you mine!", he let a small smirk come onto his face.
"It is yours". She looked confused for a moment but then her eyes snapped up to his.
"You stole my book!"
"Not stole, borrowed"
"Okay, that's not called a trick, that's called a felony", he knew she wasn't being serious - fully serious, anyway.
"I just wanted to put some notes in the margins for you", he told her honestly. Raising an eyebrow, she took the book and opened a random page, flicking through some more, and then stopping to read his neat, black handwriting.
"See! Yet another felony, I should really report this to Taylor, he won't be very happy", she grinned at him.
"Wait. You've read this before!", her eyes met his and she could see the smirk in his eyes, a smirk that was not as annoying as she would usually think- wait, what?
"About 40 times",
"I thought you said you didn't read much", she teased with a smile.
"Huh. Well, what is much?", this was said with a smug smirk.
"Night, Rory", he turned to walk away,
"Night, Dodger", she murmed, reading the notes. He turned back around,
"Dodger?". She looked up at him with a smile,
"Figure it out", she stated, then started walking away.
"Oliver Twist", he called out after her. She smiled at the pages, then turned around to give him a small nod, and continued walking away. Not even her mother could get her references like that. It made her giddy.
Jess stood there for a minute, watching her walk away. 'Night, Dodger ', her words resounded in his head, and when he turned away, he couldn't have stopped the smile spreading across his face if he wanted to.
X
"So, Janie Fertman's trying to be my friend again", Lane said as she and Rory walked down the street.
"Yikes. What kind of a vibe were you giving her?", Rory asked.
"Oh, my patented 'Keith Richards Circa 1696 Don't Mess With Me' vibe, with 1000 yard Asian stare thrown in", she replied, mimicking staring at nothing.
"That should do it", she grinned. Then they heard a police siren.
"What's happening up there?", Rory asked, to herself, really, looking at the large crowd surrounding Doose's and a very prominent police car.
"Hey, what's going on?", she asked, spotting Dean's familiar figure. He turned around.
"Don't know. I got here, and this is what I found. I told him it looked fake but he didn't believe me".
"And you have such an honest face", she cooed.
"He must not love me as much as you do", he met her gaze, but something felt... Off. She didn't think she wanted to look into his eyes.
"Okay, you two are officially sickening", Lane muttered, unintentionally saving her, she took the opportunity to break eye contact.
"Everyone's accounted for, Taylor. Looks like this is just an elaborate prank", a uniformed woman said, walking over to Taylor.
"But it looks so real - where'd they get the police tape?", he cried, throwing his hands in the air.
"Kids have their ways", she replied.
"Who'd be depraved enough to...", the conversation faded away from Rory as she looked up across the street and saw Jess leaning against the lamp post. She met his gaze, a silent question in her eyes. He smiled at her and turned around, walking away. Guess she had her answer.
X
"Should you be standing here all alone? I hear this is a pretty dangerous corner". Rory resisted the urge to face him,
"I'm fine", she replied coldly,
"Feeling succinct today?", he half-joked.
"Pretty much", she still refused to look at him.
"Did I do something to offend?", he asked.
"Me?", she finally spared him a glance.
"Yeah"
"No"
"Good"
"You might want to ask that same question to Luke, though",
"Meaning?". She glared at him,
"You've got this whole town down on him!"
"Really. How'd I do that?", he raised an eyebrow.
"You know how you did that!", she snapped. When he just looked at her vacantly she tapped the ground beneath them, which still had the outline of the body stained into it.
"Ah", he moved to look at it,
"What about it?", that obnoxiousness was starting to annoy her.
"You did it. The whole town knows you did it, they had a town meeting about it", she replied exasperatedly.
"You actually went to that bizarro town meeting? It's so... To Kill a Mocking Bird", he scoffed. She glared at him again.
"Yes, I went. And so did Luke, and when he got there, everyone ganged up on him. They all want you gone!"
"Like anyone would miss me", the comment stopped her for a second, but she wouldn't let it show.
"And he's standing up, yelling at everyone and defending you! And now he's a pariah and it's all because of you!". He didn't reply. She threw her hands up in the air.
"What a shock, you don't care!"
"I didn't say tha-"
"You care nothing about Luke or his feelings. All he does is stick up for you and all you do is make his life harder! Luke has done a lot for me and a lot for my Mom and I don't like to see him attacked!". Jess looked at the ground.
"I didn't know they were coming down so hard on him", he murmed. She glared him.
"Okay, I get it". She looked at him sceptically,
"No, no, I really get it. I do get it", he added sincerely. She looked back to the ground, suddenly feeling embarrassed by her outburst.
"Did you at least think it was funny?", he indicated the chalk outline. Looking at it, she remembered Taylor's expression and failed to keep the smile off her face,
"That is so not the point!", he gave her a knowing look.
"Ahh, you thought it was funny", he said nodding. The soft smirk -actually, she thinks that classified as a smile- on his face make her feel like he did it for her, like it was all worth it to see her laugh. She felt butterflies in her stomach, but she kept the eye contact, his dark eyes looking at her, as if confirming her thoughts.
"Maybe it was a smidge funny", she admit, allowing the smile to crawl up her face, she still didn't break eye contact.
"Good", he replied quietly. Then the door burst open, snapping them out of their reverie.
"I got it!", Dean called, emerging through the doorway, he stopped short seeing Jess.
"Oh, uh, hey", he looked between Rory and Jess.
"Oh, Dean. I don't think you've met. Jess, this is Dean, Dean, this is Jess, Luke's nephew". Jess looked Dean up and down,
"Boyfriend?". She nervously avoided his gaze, feeling uncomfortable,
"Of course", she wished she could clear her throat, the words sounded wrong.
"Sorry, you didn't say", his voice made her want to defend herself. He turned to Dean,
"How you doing?", Dean glanced from Rory to Jess again.
"Uh, good", he sounded like an idiot.
"Okay, see you around", Rory quipped, her voice made her want to wince.
"Seems to turn out that way, doesn't it", he replied. He glanced at Dean and then turned and walked away. Rory turned around herself, and she felt Dean's arm around her shoulders, which for the first time felt heavy and uncomfortable, she ignored that and walked.
X
"Oh man, it's such a relief to have that Sookie thing fixed", Lorelai said to her daughter.
"I know, I hate fighting with friends", she replied.
"That's what enemies are for", Lorelai agreed
"And God knows we have our fair share of those",
"People who eat crunchy food with their mouths open",
"People who dog-ear library books",
"People who spit when they talk". Rory raised a hand to her face,
"Oh gross! You got me in the eye!",
"Did not!",
"You totally did!",
"You're full of it", her mother concluded.
"Luke, where's my toast?", the younger Gilmore called over the counter.
"Oh, it's gonna take a while. My big toaster's broken, so I'm stuck with just this dinky one", he indicated the small white toaster on the counter.
Jess turned from where he was wiping down the counter and pressed down the lever on the big toaster and immediately went back to wiping.
"How'd that happen?", Luke asked, pressing down and popping the lever,
"You're gonna break it", Jess muttered,
"It was broken before!",
"Well it must have gotten better", he quipped sarcastically,
"Inanimate objects don't usually 'get better', did you fix this?",
"Please", he scoffed.
"Jess",
"I have no idea what your babbling about. I don't fix things", he retorted
"But yesterday-"
"I got school", Jess cut him off, grabbing a book and his jacket off of a stool on his way out. Rory looked up as if she hadn't been listening. He just about paused as he opened the door and met her gaze. She swore he smiled.
She got through to him after all, and no matter how much he denied it, she knew - his eyes gave him away. She smiled down at her food.
X
So that's the second chapter done. I'm not really planning on adding in scenes that aren't about Jess and Rory, because I don't really like that, so yeah. Please review, I want to know your thoughts. -Crys