A/N-A million thanks to everyone! The response for my first chapter was overwhelming, I'm glad I still have people out there who will trust me as an author! However, I have no time currently to type up my shout-outs that I pride myself on….please forgive this err in time management. There was also an email mishap that resulted in me needing to get a new one, so several reviews did not reach me until much later so as I said, sorry!
I don't own a freakin' thing.
"Monday," Lorelai groaned, knocking on Rory's door where inside she was pulling her Chilton sweater over her head, glancing at the door when she heard her mother shuffle by.
"Monday," Rory grunted in response when she exited her room, reaching for her backpack that threatened to pull her down with its sheer girth. She pulled on her jacket and buttoned the buttons, her fingers feeling independent from her body as it worked without the aid of caffeine. Meaning barely working at all.
"If we run we can go to Luke's," Lorelai said as she also put on her jacket and picked up her purse. Rory checked her watch.
"Mom," she started, pointing to the watch. "It's seven. We don't have to run."
"Seven? Lorelai screeched, staring at her, awestruck with the car keys in her hand. "I could've slept a whole other half hour. Damn the cheery chickens," she said, referring to the barnyard alarm clock.
"Clucking isn't exactly the modern day equivalent of "Good morning Vietnam"," Rory said as she walked out the door ahead of her mother.
"Do they make an alarm clock that makes that noise?" Lorelai asked as they walked side by side, looking at Rory densely. Rory glared at her through the bluish morning light, not amused by the hour they were out and about and the tone of a general Monday morning.
Lorelai retreated silently, not offended. They walked in companionable silence, at a fairly quick gait. Lorelai looked over at Rory and saw the draw of her face change as she let thoughts come into her mind, be quickly examined, and sometimes get thrown out of her other ear. She saw Rory blush at one thought and Lorelai's mind began reeling.
Nothing in her life up to this point should cause blushing upon reminiscence. I'm gonna have to kill that kid, Lorelai thought. She smiled when she thought of the pleasantness that had overcome Rory's face as she appeared to dwell on said thought, silently replaying it in her head.
"Earth to Rory?" Lorelai said, laughing at her daughter's spacey complacency.
"Yeah?" she said, looking at her mom, trying to wipe the mild blush and smirk off of her face.
"You okay there? Looked like you got the white-hots for somebody in your head there and I figured I should drag you out before I had a grandchild that could cross dimensions," Lorelai said, casually over-explaining.
Rory flushed deep fuchsia. She didn't know her mother to be especially aware. Particularly in the morning, before coffee, and of the now transfixed picture of Jess mouthing that he loved her before he filled her with more want and physical need than she had ever sought after. Then again, there was no way her mother knew those details. She may have noticed her slight coloring and change of carriage. Slouched, almost as if she was hiding some divine secret, afraid to expose it.
"Okay, either you have some serious, record breaking insta-fever or I caught you fantasizing about the hoodlum," Lorelai said, trying to make rational sense of Rory's lack of response.
"Fantasizing is a harsh term," Rory said, gracelessly dodging the question.
"There is nothing in anyone's history to suggest that the term 'fantasizing' is a harsh term," Lorelai said, somewhat frustrated.
"There is in mine. I was thinking. Since when are you telepathic?" Rory said doubtfully. She walked ahead marginally, just enough to know that she was bothering Lorelai. Lorelai moved to catch up.
"Just call me Miss Cleo." Rory slowed her gait again so she could draw level with her mother. She sighed, trying to find the nerve to explain. Lorelai watched expectantly as she caught up and walked along side, studying Rory and narrowly avoiding a run-in with a lamppost.
"Well…," she sighed again, unable to compile the words tastefully. "I was thinking about yesterday, and what happened after we left you to buy the candy," she tried, hopeful that her mother's morbid curiosity with her loss of innocence was satiated.
"And? Is there something I should know about, because I swear, if the kid did something I'll go over there and kill him with the thing Patrick Swazye uses in Road House, you know, the throat thing?" Lorelai said, dead set on the verge of a rant.
"No, nothing bad. And if you ripped out his throat there may be judicial repercussions." She slowed to a stop at the corner before the diner, all too aware that she wasn't going to be able to discuss the subject with Lorelai once they entered. Fidgeting with the hem of her skirt as she was so prone to do, Rory suddenly looked up and tried to be dead honest. "He told me he loved me."
Lorelai felt like somebody had smacked her on the back, her internal guessing game being totally shot down. Her eyes bugged slightly at her daughter, who now was fighting her urge to grin like an idiot.
Instantly trying to find a reason Jess may have not been totally, honest, Lorelai began to move side to side, coming up with other words. What rhymes with love? Um? Glove? Dirty, Lorelai thought as she tried painstakingly to make herself an excuse.
"How did he say it?" she finally came up with.
"What do you mean? Contextually, tone of voice, placement of feet, what're you asking, mom?" Rory asked, smiling a little. She knew the answers to all of those too.
"Like, did he just come out and say it or was there build-up to it, or did he answer you?" Lorelai said anxiously, dreading every second of the conversation and its destination.
Rory started to fidget again, masking her smile unsuccessfully. "I said it first, and he looked so shocked mom. He looked like the happiest little kid on earth. He looked like a four year old who's neighbor had just handed him a twenty dollar bill and a bag of M&M's," Rory said, smiling.
Lorelai looked at her and smirked at her daughter's reaction. As powerfully as she felt compelled to wring Jess's neck, she knew that the demeanor and happiness that Rory was carrying with her right now was solely from him.
Rory look Lorelai's smile as good and opened her mouth, poised to continue. "No! That's fine! I don't need to know more right now! You can tell me later, when I have liquor in my system. It's not a good idea to tell me now," Lorelai said, gently nudging them across the street and into the diner. Rory smiled.
xxx
Jess awoke that morning, stretching like a cat and running a hand through his hair which was an absolute atrocity. Still trying to bring himself awake, Luke knocked. Jess grunted in acceptance and Luke walked in, fully dressed.
"I'm gonna need you down here for a little while this morning. It's Monday and the Gilmores will be in here, without coffee. Just thought I'd warn you. Five minutes," he said, throwing a pair of jeans at Jess as he walked out of the room.
Jess groaned and fell back onto his bed, covering his face with the pants, hoping that Monday would dissipate into Friday and he could at least have the prospect of a weekend to look forward to. Instead he rose from the bed, scowling as he walked into the bathroom, scoured his teeth, then pulled on the jeans and walked over to his dresser, searching for a t-shirt. He was humming and nodding his head to a tune in his head and he heard the door inch open.
"Luke, I said I'd be down in a second, keep your pants on," he said without looking up to see the person who was behind the door.
"If you're mistaking me for Luke, we're gonna have to get your eyes checked or I may smack you," Rory said, entering the room and closing the door behind her. Jess, surprised at who had come in, looked up, shocked at first. She was smirking at him and his early morning state. He was yet to change the state of his hair and was barely conscious.
Thankful that he had brushed his teeth, he walked over to her and gave her a quick kiss before pulling a black t-shirt on and closing the dresser. Jess picked up a comb and attempted to put right his hair before reaching, hopeless, for the gel and attacking his hair.
Rory watched this, laughing as she saw him give up on the comb. He looked over at her with an eyebrow raised as he finished, wiping his hands the rag.
"I'll try not to mistake you for Luke again. You've been up here a lot lately, your mom doesn't have anything particularly malevolent to say about me these days or do you pull a Mission Impossible and sneak up here unnoticed?" he asked, still looking in the mirror, being sure that his hair was perfected the way he did.
"Actually, the spiteful comments have lessened exponentially. Luke sent me up here to make sure that you were actually awake and getting ready. My mom of course complained but I think Luke distracted her. I ran up here."
"So there's no way to be sure. Your mother could be outside the door listening right now. Just to be sure," Jess said as he opened the door slightly, looked out, smiled, and pulled his head back in. He smirked at Rory and she pulled his head down and planted a kiss on him that soon grew throughout his whole body into little florets that made every touch seem glorious.
He responded, wrapping his arms around her waist. She released his mouth from the kiss and smiled at him.
"This is what my mother is worried about," she said while he touched their foreheads.
"Come again?"
"The whole walk over this morning she was antagonizing me about what I was thinking about and when I told her I think she would've been better off ignorant."
"What exactly did you tell her?" Jess said, confused.
"That…what we said yesterday…outside of the diner." She sighed. "Don't you remember?" Jess pretended to think about it for a minute and Rory reached to smack his arm. He laughed and nodded at her, his arm blazing under her touch more than anything. Definitely not stinging from her half-hearted slap.
"I do love you," he said, giving her one of his rare but brilliant smiles, so often hidden in the night, shielded from judgmental eyes and hypercritical sunlight.
She grinned at him again, brightly as well. She was of sunlight at moments like this. That perfect sunlight that doesn't reflect and doesn't beat down. The sort that comes in the early spring and just barely warms your face through the air, the kind that doesn't require any clouds. She was of that sunlight sometimes.
"I thought so," she coyly countered. He narrowed his eyes at her, unsure of the meaning. "I love you too," she admitted, acting as if by force.
xxx
"So I was talking to my mother the other night," Lorelai started, tapping on the counter. "And I guess we absolutely must go to Friday night dinner. So I was thinking that maybe on Saturday you and I could see a movie?" she asked hopeful, looking up at Luke who was beaming totally.
"That would be nice," he managed to say. Lorelai grinned at him and leaned across the counter to kiss him.
"We're gonna get caught," Luke said, breaking the kiss and gesturing toward the curtain.
She followed his glance and shook her head. "Nah," Lorelai said, kissing him again. Luke leaned into the kiss, ignoring the bell coming from the kitchen, signaling a ready order.
"Ahem!" they heard Kirk say. Quickly freeing themselves from their lip-lock, Lorelai turned and Luke readjusted his vision to see Kirk who was sitting down the corner from them, tapping the rim of an empty coffee cup.
"Yeah Kirk?" Luke said, sighing.
"I would just like to inform you that while I support this…coupling, that I have finished my coffee and I would like some more. And I'm somewhat…rubbed the wrong way by the fraternizing," he said, gesturing timidly at their condition.
"You want more coffee Kirk?" Luke asked, reaching behind him for the pot. Before Kirk could answer one way or the other, Luke was filling his cup and turning around to receive the waiting order.
"Thanks Luke," Kirk said to himself as he sipped it absently. Lorelai smiled and returned to her waffle that had since been forgotten about.
Jess meanwhile had abruptly stumbled past the curtain into the diner, shocked.
"Would you stop pushing me?" he said as Rory gracefully descended the stairs and came to stand before him as he rubbed his shoulder. She grinned mischievously at him and then acknowledged her mother with another smile, this one of naïveté.
"What're you talking about? I would never push you down the stairs," Rory said as she sat next to her mother and looked around for Luke, ready to order.
"I can distinctly remember one occasion where you pushed me down those stairs, and I'm pretty sure you told me something along the lines of 'tough shit'," Jess said as he came before her.
"I'll have pancakes," she said, ignorant to his ramblings. He rolled his eyes and went to give Caesar the order.
"Were you kissing? Did you make sure that he brushed his teeth?" Lorelai asked with her nose wrinkled, drawing on her coffee. Rory widened her eyes supernaturally and went to finish the coffee that she had forgotten about. As she finished her sip the pancakes were put in front of her and smiled at Jess appreciatively.
"So I was thinking," Rory said, swallowing. "Lane was saying that the band doesn't have anywhere to practice and they'd really appreciate a space that nobody was using that could fit all of their equipment. And I had an idea," Rory said to Lorelai.
"Uh huh."
"Maybe we could let them use the garage?" she said hopefully.
"Sure. How're we going to get all of the junk out of it?" Lorelai countered.
"See, that's the beauty of having boyfriends. They usually are strong, and have free time that they don't mind doing favors for their girlfriends during," she said, smiling.
"That would be so fun to watch them do," Lorelai said, grinning as she finished her waffle and checked her watch. "You should get going, I'll see you for dinner." Rory shoved the rest of her pancake into her mouth and grabbed her backpack, starting for the door.
"Bye Jess!" she said as she walked by, kissing his cheek and opening the door.
"Love you," Jess smiled as she walked out the door. Luke stopped moving and stared at him, hand on hip.
"'Scuse me?" Jess smirked and replaced the coffee cup.
xxx
"I went out with Jamie again," Paris said, hiding her smile without victory. Rory jumped at her voice coming from beside her, beyond her peripheral vision.
"Wow, you really have that sneaky thing going on. It's like you're born to be a politician," Rory said, closing her locker door and starting down the hallway with Paris to their Lit class.
"He took me to dinner and we talked some more," she said again, ignoring Rory's comment.
"How was that?"
"Really, really good. He said his family is really excited to meet me."
"Paris! That's amazing," Rory said, encouraging.
"How're things with Jess going, after what happened and everything," Paris wondered, stonily avoiding the words. Sometimes she thought before she spoke.
"They're so good," Rory gushed, not realizing who she was speaking to. She was too thrilled with what was happening to care that Paris wouldn't really care.
"Too good?" Paris asked as they stopped outside the door to the classroom, Paris raising an eyebrow. Louise and Madeline chose this moment to make their appearances in the presence of Paris and Rory and sauntered up beside them.
"What's too good?" Madeline asked.
"Rory's relationship," Paris said, pleased to have an audience.
"There's no way for things to be too good in a relationship," Louise said knowingly to Rory, placing a hand on her shoulder reassuringly.
"Things are perfect the way they are," Rory said to the three.
"You were sounding awfully dreamy when you said it before," Paris said.
"Well, it was the mood. I had a good morning, things have been really good lately. I think that's license to be 'dreamy'," Rory said, stepping side to side as if uncomfortable.
"Good morning? Jesus, nobody has a good morning around here," Louise said.
"What do you mean?" Rory asked. Louise gestured to Madeline's wincing at every word and then looked at Louise again, questioning.
"Well, we sort of had a small, impromptu Halloween get-together last night," Louise started.
"That ended with a fifth of Vodka somehow missing and Madeline almost drowning in the punch bowl," Paris finished, rolling her eyes and pulling her books to her chest.
"I didn't know it was spiked," Madeline said, now holding the bridge of her nose and squeezing her eyes shut.
"It was a wee-bit tragic at the time," Louise said.
"What was tragic was that after she discovered the empty bottle of Belvedere, she kept drinking it," said Paris.
"So, bottom line is, bad party?" Rory tried.
"No, great party. Bad morning," Louise said. Madeline nodded pensively and she and Louise walked into the room. Paris and Rory exchanged a look and entered the room behind them.
xxx
Rory walked into the diner to meet her mother that afternoon after school, her backpack still in tow. She smiled from the mafia table and Rory walked over happily.
"Hi," she said as she sat in the chair and picked up her mother's coffee cup.
"Are we ready to set, 'Make them clean them clean the garage' in action?" Lorelai asked excitedly. Rory widened her eyes.
"Oh my gosh! I had totally forgotten! I have to get my wits about me. Can I have a second to plan my seduction?" she asked frantically.
"Of course! But be swift grasshopper, we have to catch them while they're still confused. Boys tend to have a longer confusion phase, but we must still be swift. For we never know when they'll get smart," Lorelai said, sage-like. Rory nodded and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly and composing herself.
"Should I fix my hair?"
"It probably wouldn't hurt to have it bouncing and behaving in this circumstance." Rory nodded brusquely and took it out of the ponytail, letting it fall around her shoulders. She then looked down at her outfit and wrinkled her nose at her mom.
Lorelai studied her. "Lose the sweater-vest." Rory pulled the vest over her head and shoved it into her backpack.
Meanwhile, across the diner…
"What do you think they're talking about?" Luke asked Jess illicitly.
"Same thing they always talk about," Jess whispered hoarsely. "Trying to wrangle us into bed." Luke blushed about thirty different shades of purple and Jess smiled.
"Jess," Luke said, uncomfortable. Jess watched as Rory let down her hair and swallowed.
"I have the feeling that this isn't going to end well," he said while he continued to watch, mesmerized.
"Lorelai's been acting especially nice since she got in here, and I can think of no reason for that." He saw Lorelai contemplate and then saw Rory remove the sweater.
"They want something," Jess said, nodding while trying to erase the images in his head before they became apparent in his eyes.
"Something we don't want to typically do," Luke said, crossing his arms over his chest and nodding slowly.
"We're goners," Jess said, positive.
"Oh yeah," Luke agreed. They saw Rory turn around and smile in their direction, Lorelai waving gently. They both stood and walked over, leaning across the counter and blinking innocently.
"Whatever it is, fine. I'm not going to let this go any further," Jess said, throwing his hands up in surrender.
Lorelai smiled at Rory. "I kind of thought that might be your answer," Rory said, smiling at him appreciatively. He rolled his eyes and walked into the storeroom, defeated.
Sorry it took so long! Concentration for me has been few and far between. Expect the next chapter at the end of the month, I have final exams coming up and the only word I honestly remember in French right now is potato.