Hello everyone! I'm back with yet another chapter of this story that I hope you're enjoying. I also hope you've checked out my other two stories and you keep reading, reviewing, and following this one;) Remember, you can see everyone's outfits for this story on my website in my bio-if you can't already tell that I'm a fashion guru! Please, get on with the story...
RORY'S POV
"Who's paying?" I asked as Steph blasted the radio in the speakers of her car even though Colin turned it down every so often, receiving only a glare from Steph while she turned it up even higher than before.
"Mom's making me pay..." my brother mumbled as he looked out the window. At that, Steph, Finn, and I busted out laughing, getting a glare from Colin. I leaned forward and, with a wink, told Steph to go straight to Manhattan.
We were ready for an all out shopping trip-or at least Steph and I were. We had our shopping shoes on (A.K.A. sneakers), designer skinny jeans, and colorful tops. We even brought Steph's big black minivan to carry all the bags we knew we would end up with.
"You brought your essentials kit right?" Steph asked me nervously.
"Um, essentials kit?" Finn asked curiously.
"You know, the essentials for a shopping day. The usual, makeup, flip flops, robes, band aids, Advil, snacks, drinks, sunglasses, hats, earring backs, and after the shopping incident of 2007-when Steph fractured her wrist getting it stuck in the dressing room door-a hand brace." I said quickly and Finn and Colin laughed at the long list, but all me and Steph did was give each other knowing looks. They'd obviously never been on a hardcore spree-our way.
Once we parked the car in a parking lot near the shopping areas, Steph took in our surroundings.
"Bergdorfs?" she asked me
"Always, come on boys." and they trudged along behind us with Colin checking his phone very few seconds. Once we got to the large and overpowering store, we began browsing right away, while the boys went straight to the lingerie level-the perverts.
We walked around, but decided to try our luck at a store that specialized in evening gowns especially that would work for the gala, so we took the elevator up to the next level to find Colin and Finn chatting up a shopper and a cashier with bleach blonde hair and Barbie smiles. We pulled them away, receiving annoyed stares from the girls, and Colin and Finn.
Once at the next store, us girls made the boys watch every dress we tried on in the waiting room, until we both found the most beautiful, perfect, and expensive gowns for the night.
I fell in love with a deep purple gown covered in black flowers and some diamond accents. It had a sweetheart neckline, a fitted bodice, full skirt, and I looked gorgeous in it.
Steph found her dress to be more unique. It was a magenta color with a halter neckline, and was sleeveless. It also had a long train in the back and sheer lace along with being covered in intricate flowers like mine.
For the rest of the day, we visited Tiffany's, Bergdorf's(again), Proenza Shouler, Ralph Lauren, Emporio Armani, DKNY, Hermes Madison, Chanel, Saks Fifth Avenue, and even made Colin and Finn buy themselves outfits at Lanvin Men and Ralph Lauren.
...
"Steph, did you really have to buy twelve different pairs of earrings?" Colin asked looking at a receipt from Chanel.
"COCO made me!" she replied with a pouty face as I burst into laughter at the reference and the boys just looked at us weirdly and then rolled their eyes in confusion.
Colin pulled us along with the many bags he was holding, but you couldn't even see his hands under the tissue and perfume scents coming from the bags. We'd already taken 5 trips earlier to the car because we couldn't carry all the bags we ended up with. We were listening to the boys groan in frustration as they loaded the lat of the bags in the car while Steph and I sat perfectly content in our sneakers and happy with all the new toys we'd just bought.
"So, who's running the gala tonight?" I asked once we were back in the car and off to Hartford.
"I forget, actually, but it's supposed to be humongous. Guest list is rumored to be about a thousand people, can you believe it? We haven't been to one this big in a long time."
"That's what mom said, how's it different though?"
"Really big organization I guess, and also like a sort of reunion thing for all of high society form everywhere in the world."
"Wow, I didn't know it was that big of a production."
"It definitely is, mother dearest told me I 'ought to find a husband there'" she said with a roll of her eyes.
That's one thing I never had to worry about. My mom wanted me to fall in love with whomever and whenever I wanted. This was odd and unusual in society, but me and Col did get lucky when it came to parents-at least our current parents. Christopher was never a father to me or my brother. We hadn't seen him since they were about 3 years old and then Michael had officially adopted us. We had no desire to see him and I always guessed it was vise versa too. We were lucky enough to have mom who took us and we lived with Luke and Cassandra in Stars Hollow for 3 years, when Mom was just 15 and pregnant again at 16.
Cassandra was mom's sister. They were best friends even though she ran away from society when she was 19 because she fell in love with Luke. Cassie always wanted and deserved more, she was a travel photographer until she became serious with Luke and moved to stars hollow and got married. You can imagine how hard it was for Luke to see her go when she was only 36. She was in a car accident from a drunk driver on her way home from our grandparent's house in Hartford. It was even harder for mom to never see her best friend, sister, and caregiver ever again.
It was even hard for Colin and I, we'd known our aunt our whole lives and looked up to her like no one else. The truth was, it was hard for everybody and Emily and Richard would never forgive themselves for pushing her away and sending her home after a fight that night.
Cassie was a free spirit and never looked back, she always found meaning in anything, even the worst of situations, and everybody she met loved her.
Cassie was alive in everybody even if she was dead.
"Hey, Rory, we're at the house. Get changed quickly so we can get to the club on time!" Colin said to me, snapping me out of my previous, deep thoughts.
"Okay, I swear I'll be two minutes. Oh, Steph! I'll see you later?" I said while giving Steph a kiss on each cheek like we always did.
"KK, I'm coming over at 3:00." Steph said as she got out of the minivan, called her driver, and instructed him to come and pick up the car and put all the bags in my room. Then, she walked over to her own, shiny, small, silver car.
"Finny, it's your turn to be my date tonight. I'll see you at 5." I said to him as I gave him a hug and walked inside the house with Colin.
"Okay, okay, Colin. I'm going!" I yelled as he scolded me for walking too slowly-the nerve.
I put on my dress, shoes, purse, and necklace out of the many bags from today. I walked down the stairs to find Colin waiting impatiently at the front door swinging his keys back and forth.
"Two minutes, huh?" he teased.
"Shut up!" I protested and smacked him in the chest with my new Chanel bag.
"Hey!"
"You bought it" I shot back with a giggle as we drove off to the club.
...
We entered the room only to find grandma sitting in the restaurant sipping tea, and looking rather annoyed.
"Well, if it isn't my only grandchildren 10 minutes late," she sighed "Rory looking beautiful, Colin very handsome. Now, sit, sit." she said with a grin as we sat down at the vintage garden table set.
"So, Rory, how's graduate life?"
"It's good, feels different not putting on my Chilton uniform each day, but I'm excited for summer and next year." I replied nicely as she grilled me and Colin more and more on question about Yale, college and our plans for the summer.
"Staying out of trouble Colin?" she said stiffly.
"No promises Gram, how's the DAR?"
"Same old, same old, lets order." and she signaled a waiter to our table.
"Hello, welcome to the Club Restaurant and Bar, I'm Marty, can I start you off with some drinks?" the waiter asked
"Iced tea" grandma said annoyed and I rolled my eyes at her behavior towards people that weren't high society, something we learned not to do from our own mom and dad.
"For you?"
"An iced tea, please" I replied sweetly.
"Just an ice water, thanks" Colin said politely
"Okay, I'll get those right away" and with that he walked away, but someone else appeared.
"Emily! So good to see you here!" a woman of about 50 years old exclaimed to our grandma.
"Shira, what a pleasure! Oh, please excuse my behavior; these are my grandchildren Rory and Colin. Rory, Colin, this is Shira Huntzberger."
"Nice to meet you" I said shaking her hand as Colin did the same
"Pleasures all mine, so good to meet family of Emily."
Suddenly, a blonde man walked in and bumped into our waitor as he was walking away from our table.
"Oh, sorry." he said.
"No, seriously, you couldn't see me there? Do I know you?" the blonde replied sourly
"I've bartended for you - for your parties."
"That's right, you have. You're a talented man," the blonde turned to see our table watching their encounter, "He makes a kick-ass margarita." he said to us and I was confused when Shira rolled her eyes at him disapprovingly.
"Thanks" he said with a laugh
"It's good to see you again. What's your name?"
"Marty"
"So, assuming your services are still for hire this year, your financial situation hasn't changed at all?"
"Nope"
"Good. Okay, I'll give you a call."
"Sounds great"
"All right, good running into you-nice gig by the way" and he left the waiter embarrassed with his head hanging and walked over to us while smirking-to our table!
"Logan, what an entrance, I hope you aren't being disrespectful."
"Me? Never, I'm a friend to all people, large and very, very small."
"I hate those guys." Colin muttered under his breath to me.
"Really? I can't see why." I muttered right back to him and was surprised to find him still talking to Shira, how did he know her?
"Emily! Good to see you." the blonde, "Logan" said and gave Emily a hug and kiss on both cheeks.
"Logan, what a nice surprise!" and now I was very, very confused, who did this "Logan" person think he was, and I could tell Colin was thinking the same thing.
"My grandchildren, Lorelai and Colin." Grandma said and gestured to us as I gave him my fake society smile.
I got a closer look at him once he came over to shake our hands. He was definitely very blonde, with dark chocolate brown eyes of mystery and a smirk that must've made all the girls around him swoon. What was I doing? He was an ass and I knew I would never speak to him again.
"Logan, Logan Huntzberger" He said with an outstretched hand, bringing me out of my thoughts and I blushed as I took it skeptically.
"Rory, Rory Gilmore" I replied bored and mirroring his expression, and he shook hands with Colin and they introduced themselves to each other.
I looked at the time and realized it had been an hour since we first got there and we needed to leave soon in order to be there for Steph and get ready for the gala.
"Grandma, we really have to get going." I said to her and she nodded.
"Oh yes, I've kept you here too long to be in my company, now, I should probably get going too. Shira, Logan, thank you for keep in us company."
"Oh, yes, we understand-we must do this again formally! It was so nice to meet you, Rory and Colin. Take care. We'll see you tonight at the gala!"
"Of course"
"Emily, good to see you, Colin, good to meet you man. Rory, Rory Gilmore-I'll see you around." he said with his trademark smirk and trailed away with his mother whispering furiously to him. I laughed, glared, and linked arms with Colin as we said goodbye to grandma and walked off to the car. I sighed as we started to drive away from the posh scene that was the club.
...
When we got back at 3:15, Steph was sitting in the kitchen chatting with mom.
"Hey, how was lunch?" she asked
"Eventful, we'll talk later?"
"Okay, ready to get pretty?"
"Always"
"Good to talk to you Lor." Steph said and we ran up the steps to my room. I sat down in front of my vanity to let her do my hair into an intricate up do she was always so good at, I never had to go to the salon.
"Oh, S, it's beautiful!"
"Anytime, okay do mine!" I curled her light hair into wavy ringlets to make a classic and effortless look. We put on our large and long trailing dresses, then heels, bracelets, earrings, rings, necklaces and makeup until we were finally ready. There were many galas in a year, but this one seemed to be a very big deal and I wanted to look my best.
"We're ready!" she exclaimed. We walked downstairs to find the boys joking with one another.
"Love, you look beautiful!" Finn said to me and I smiled a thank you, I turned to look at Steph standing in front of Colin waiting for him to compliment her, while rolling her eyes. I laughed shortly as I saw Colin looked nervous, weird. Something was definitely going on there.
"You look...good." he said, blushing.
"Wow, thanks, Col. You really know how to make a girl blush" she said taking his arm and pulling him out the door and into the limo.
Me and Finn laughed an followed after them, out the door, and into the shining black limo waiting expectantly for us.