Author's Note: Hope you are enjoying the story so far! I'm not exactly sure where it's going, so it's a mystery to both you and me what will happen next. This chapter's really dialogue-heavy because it's just Rory and Jess talking. Hope you don't mind. :)
Rory listened to Jess sigh and immediately felt guilty.
"I'm sorry for calling you, Jess," she said.
"I'm not sorry." She raised her eyebrows. Really?
"Really?" she repeated out loud.
"Yeah, really. I know I kinda…ambushed you…back there," he said awkwardly. She knew what he was referring to. She started walking towards the nearest coffee kiosk, just to have something to do with her legs, something to concentrate on besides what she was going to say next.
"Jess…why did you run?" Rory asked, biting down hard on her lip. That was it; she was starting this uncomfortable conversation. So much for avoiding it. She could almost feel his defenses going up.
"You ran first," he said sullenly. She remembered zigzagging around the town square. Trying to outrun a boy in sneakers when she was a girl in a dress and heels – hopeless.
"Well, actually – " Rory started. She was thinking that he ran first: when she ran into him in Weston's and then in the bookstore. But she didn't want to quibble about that. They had bigger fish to fry, so to speak. "How was California?" she asked instead, barely-concealed anger apparent in the tone of her voice. She wasn't over it. He ran then, too.
"Not so great," Jess replied truthfully. "It wasn't how I expected it to be. And…I missed you."
I have to sit down, Rory thought, and plopped down on the nearest bench, next to a boy who seemed very concerned about a coffee stain on his hoodie. He glanced at Rory and launched himself off the bench, off to the laundry room, she assumed. The light had begun to change as evening drew nearer. Rory was alone. Her head was buzzing. Half of her was angry, so angry that he dared say he missed her when he was the one who left in the first place. The other half felt vindicated.
"Oh yeah?" she said, the words coming out rougher than she meant them to. "I missed you too, Jess. At prom. At my graduation. My first day at Yale. You were supposed to be there." Her voice grew quieter. "And I miss you now. Talking to you like this, it's hard." He was silent. "Where are you now?" she asked, less to change the subject and more just to get him to say something.
"In Philadelphia," he answered. "Rory. I'm sorry. I should have said that a lot earlier. You know me…you know I'm not the best with…emotions." He chuckled to himself. "I guess I get that from good old Uncle Luke." His tone grew more serious and Rory felt herself softening towards him. She really did miss him. "I got scared. Things had actually been going well for once, and then they kinda derailed. I wasn't gonna graduate, Rory. That's why I couldn't take you to prom," he confessed.
"Jess, you were the smartest student at Stars Hollow High. Why weren't you going to graduate?" she asked, realizing too late that the question was irrelevant. "Never mind. Why didn't you just tell me? I would have done something…I don't know what…but something."
"I know. I know you would have. Listen, Rory, I have to go. I've got something I need to do."
"Oh," she said, feeling more disappointed than she expected.
"But I want to keep talking to you. I don't want to lo- I don't want us to stop talking. So can I call you back tomorrow night?" he asked. He almost sounded like he was going to say he doesn't want to lose me, Rory thought, then dismissed it. He had already lost her. Hadn't he?
"Yes," she said in reply to Jess' question. "Here's my number." She could picture him scribbling it in the margins of whatever book he was currently reading. "Bye, Jess," she whispered, even though no one was around.
"Bye, Rory."