Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters.
Notes: Hey lovelies! Sorry for the wait, things have been crazy. I'm going to be updating back to back chapters of this fic, and for those of you who also read A Gentleman Never Tells, I'll be updating that asap! Also have a few other Kingsman fics in the works. Basically I'm drowning in prompts.
It wasn't long before they pulled into the driveway of the Cap Shack; Rory yawned and got out of the car, following Lorelai inside. "Oh yea, Mom, here." Rory handed her the record.
"Where'd you get this?" Lorelai asked as she looked it over. "I mean, the Bangles on vinyl is wonderful but I somehow doubt they were selling this at the Majestic."
"We had about 20 minutes before the show so I went in this record store nearby to pass the time and saw it was signed by Belinda, so I got it for you." Rory beamed.
Reaching out to take it, Lorelai was about to turn away when she caught a flash of black ink on her daughter's hand. "What is that?" she asked, still slightly suspicious.
"What?" Rory asked, suddenly sort of jumpy.
Quickly, Lorelai grabbed Rory's hand and looked over the number penned there. "Aha! You got someone's number. What's his name? Is he cute? Cuter than Dean?"
Rory blushed a bit and quickly answered. "It's not like that at all! He's the guy that owns the record store; he said to call if I was interested in anymore signed records!"
Lorelai grinned knowingly. "Whatever you say kiddo."
Rory hmpfed and went off to her room. "I'm taking a nap!"
"Alright. Go dream of your new cutie - I mean record store owner guy."
Rory slammed her door in response and flopped on the bed. She took out her phone and saw one new text from Jess.
[Let me know when you get home. -J]
Rory grinned and rolled onto her side. [Home safe and sound. How's my book? -R]
[ ;) Being acquainted with my notes.-J] Jess actually blushed a bit. He never used emoticons.
Rory stiffened. [Your notes? -R]
[Breathe. I promise you'll enjoy them, lighten up. -J]
For a second, Rory wondered how he knew she was tense about it, but then she remembered the ease with which they had sunk into friendly banter and light flirting. Even though they'd only known each other a few hours, it felt like years. [I'll try. Just no pen please? That paper's really thin. -R]
[What kind of a person do you take me for? I'd never use pen in a book. -J]
[Just making sure. My own mother did that to me once. I still haven't forgiven her for the ink stain on page five of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. -R]
[That pains me and it's not even my book. -J]
[Exactly. So you can see why I'm protective of books that leave my possession. -R]
[It wanted to come stay with me, needed a change of scenery. -J]
[But just this morning it told me it was happy to stay by my side always! -R]
[But then it met me, couldn't resist. -J]
[You /are/ fairly irresistible. -R]
[In a purely platonic way. -R]
[Because it would be creepy of me to imply otherwise. -R]
[Uh huh, sure Rory. I know what you're really thinking. -J] Jess grinned as he reread her previous text.
[Not creepy at all by the way, you aren't even capable of it. -J]
[Oh /do you now/? *snorts* you clearly haven't met me. -R]
[I do, you think I'm "irresistible." And, I have too met you, got you to ditch and everything. I'd say I know you pretty well. -J]
[Oh really? Well then what's my favorite book? -R]
[Well you had a copy of The Fountainhead in your bag; it was clearly well loved, why? I'll never know. Ayn Rand was a political nut. -J]
[You have very good deductive reasoning, good sir. And political nut or not, it's a good book. -R]
[Zzzzzzzz -J]
[Well if you're so knowledgeable, what's /your/ favorite book? -R] Despite her best attempts not to be, Rory was giddy with anticipation.
[The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. But to be honest, I have a lot of favorites, specifically Howl, anything by the beats and the lost generation. I have a soft spot for Oliver Twist...Salinger… -J]
Rory thought that over for a second. [Hemingway? Really? I mean, Oliver Twist, Salinger, Howl, anything but Hemingway. He's so boring! -R]
[Now you know how I feel about Rand. Anyway, I have to go, Jimmy is home. Talk later? -J]
[Sure :) bye! -R]
[Bye Booktease. :) -J]
Rory set her phone down and flailed a bit, all giddy and smiling from her chat with Jess. She even felt pretty energized. But she tensed thinking about what she had to do next. She quickly changed into jeans and a nice long sleeve blue sweater. She pocketed her phone and left her room. "Mom?"
"Yes Loin Fruit?" Lorelai called from the living room. "Did you power nap?"
Rory nodded, smiling a bit. "Is it okay if I go out? I wanna see Lane."
"Don't see why not. Just don't do anything I wouldn't do. Oh. Wait. Don't do several things I would do, namely getting pregnant and sneaking alcohol."
Rory rolled her eyes. "Bye mom." With that she quickly left the house and headed to Lane's, she needed to talk to someone. And she told Lane everything. It was weird not being able to talk to Lorelai about this. Oh well. She thought.
About five minutes later she was letting herself into the shop. "Lane?"
"Rory?" Lane called, her voice muffled by the intervening stacks of furniture.
"Uh...how about you come to the front? It'll take me ages to follow your voice."
Lane sighed loudly. "Give me a second. A stack of chairs shifted, trapping me."
"Okay." Rory giggled.
There was the sound of wood sliding against wood, a groan of frustration and then a shout of victory. "Free! Be there in two seconds." Within a minute, Lane had made her way to front of the store. "Ta-daa!"
Rory whispered her next words. "I really need to talk to you, can we go somewhere?"
Lane looked her over for a second and then called out, "Mom, Rory and I are going to Luke's for coffee. I'll be back in an hour!" Quickly, she ushered her friend out the door. "Quick before she has time to respond or ask questions."
They quickly hurried out the door. "I was thinking we could go to the bridge? No one will overhear…"
"That bad huh?" Lane asked, hooking her arm through her friend's. "Well, if Mom asks any questions, Luke's was really crowded when we got there and we decided to take a walk instead."
Rory smiled, relieved and headed to the bridge. It was a rather short walk. Rory sat down and let her legs dangle over the side. "I think I'm cheating on Dean!" she blurted out.
Lane plopped down next to her. "Woah stop the presses. Start from the beginning. I'm good but not that good."
"Okay...well, I met this guy, Jess, in New York today, at the Majestic theatre. And just...just instantly he took my breath away. But then we ended up sitting next to each other and then one thing led to another and I ended up ditching the show and he showed me around the city! Lane it was so amazing! We went to Washington Square Park, had hot dogs, took the subway, and went to a record store! And...and he kissed my cheek! And before I left we exchanged numbers. But Lane we have so much in common! I spent an hour texting him about books before I came over." Rory finally stopped, needing to breathe.
Lane let out a quiet "wow" and turned to look at Rory, clearly excited. "But what about Dean?" Lane asked, suddenly serious.
Rory bit her lip and fiddled with her sleeves. "I don't love him...I don't..I don't really feel anything besides friendship. I think it's been that way for a while. Jess... Jess makes me feel things. And I..." Rory took a deep breath. "I'm going to break up with Dean."
Lane nodded. "Can't say I blame you. This Jess guy sounds amazing. What are you gonna tell Dean? And what about your mom?"
"I'm going to be as honest as I can be. But Jess is a secret, Lane. You have to promise, my mom, /no one/ can find out." Rory held out a pinky.
Lane hooked her pinky with Rory's and squeezed. "Promise. But why? I mean I get that breaking up with one person for someone else is bad but what about your mom? You never keep secrets from her."
Rory shook her head. "She'd never let me see him again, certainly wouldn't let me go to New York. And she would kill me if she found out I skipped the show to run around New York City with a guy I just met. Lane I cannot tell her."
"Alright. She'll get not a peep from me," Lane swore.
Rory hugged her before standing. "I need to go break up with Dean now..."
Lane hugged her back. "Good luck, girlfriend. Let me know how it goes?"
"I'll call you later."
With that, Rory quickly headed to Dean's house. She wasted no time ringing the bell once there.
Anxiously, she fidgeted with the sleeves of her sweater. When Dean answered the door, she burst out with, "I need to talk to you."
Dean blinked, a bit shocked by the outburst. "Okay...uh...here?" Dean closed the front door behind him.
For a few seconds, Rory just looked at him. "I...I want to break up," she finally said, her voice breaking.
Dean actually stumbled back. "What?! Why?!"
She swallowed hard. "I just...I don't...my feelings for you don't match your feelings for me, and I really just...I don't want to tie you down when there's someone else whose feelings will match yours." She looked at him, her eyes large. "Please, don't be mad."
Dean ran a hand through his hair. "Don't be mad? What the hell Rory?! How can I not be mad you just….you just do this out of the blue! I thought everything was fine!"
"Please Dean. I really just want you to be happy and if we stay together, you won't be. Trust me."
Dean shook his head. "Just go Rory." His voice broke halfway through the sentence.
She nodded and turned away. Halfway through her first step she turned around and looked at him. Thoughtlessly, she brushed her hair out of her face with the hand still carrying Jess' number. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."
"So am I," he said as he looked up, he noticed the phone number but decided to keep it to himself. Things made much more sense now. He then went inside and shut the door, not caring if it slammed.
Wrapping her arms around herself, Rory started making her way home, passing through town and ignoring several concerned looks on her way.
Luke noticed and called her name from the front of Luke's. "Rory! Can you come here?" He never made it a point to meddle, but Rory looked so….down. She was a good kid; least he could do was give her some coffee to go.
"What's up Luke?" Rory asked dejectedly as she walked up to him.
"Just hold on a sec. I'll be back." He quickly filled a to go cup and hurried back. "Here."
Rory seemed confused as she accepted the cup. "Did Mom call in an order for me to pick up on my way home?"
"No, just. Look, just take it, it's yours." He gave her a slightly awkward headpat and went back in the diner.
Still confused, Rory shook her head and continued on her way home, nursing her coffee as she went. Rory made it home a few minutes later, just as her phone buzzed in her pocket. Deciding she would rather get inside before she pulled her phone out, Rory downed the last of her coffee and trudged up the steps and let herself inside. The house was oddly quiet and Rory wondered if her mom was out. Remembering the buzz of her phone, Rory pulled it out of her pocket and sighed.
[Hey. -J]
[Hey -R]
[You okay? -J]
[You want the truth or the party line? -R]
[Truth, I always want the truth Rory. -J]
Rory sighed and leaned against the front door. [I feel like a total piece of shit. -R]
[You want to call me? Vent away, sounds like you need it. -J]
For a second, Rory thought about it. It would be nice to talk about it, but did she really want to discuss this with Jess?
[Rory, come on, I won't judge. You're upset clearly, just...I want to help. -J]
As soon as she saw that, Rory hit the button to call Jess. Before he could even get out a hello, the words started tumbling out of her mouth. "I just broke up with my boyfriend because I don't love him and I feel horrible for hurting him, but I didn't want to keep seeing him when I didn't feel anything for him, especially once I realized I kind of have feelings for you and now I just feel like I'm pushing this forward too fast and on my God."
Jess paused before he spoke. "First, I want you to take a deep breath okay? Maybe a few of them."
Rory did as he asked, trying her best to calm down enough to talk at a normal, human pace. "Okay."
"Look, Rory, this thing with us? We can take it as slow or as fast as you want. You're in charge. If...if you need to take some time till you're not hurting, okay. I'll still be here." Jess took a shaky breath.
Taking another deep breath, Rory responded quietly, "That's just the thing. I'm not hurting...I'm mad at myself for hurting Dean but I'm not...I'm not hurt and I thought I would be."
"Well… what do you want to do? We could work on just getting to know each other for now? Honestly, Rory I'm fine with whatever. As long as you're okay.." Jess wasn't the best at relationships, let alone expressing his feelings.
"I don't...I don't know. I want to see you again and I want to get to know you and argue about Hemingway versus Rand because Dean and I could never do that. But at the same time, I feel like I should respect that I just dumped my boyfriend. It's weird. But I do know that I want to get to know you and I want to see where this goes."
"We can do all of that, whatever you want. We can text, we can talk on the phone...though I work a lot so I should probably tell you when I work..." Jess trailed off. The verbal thing came and went.
Rory grinned. "I'd like that. So where do you work?" She pushed off from the front door and headed towards her room.
Jess bit his lip and took a moment before answering. "I work for my dad, he runs a business. I do a lot of grunt work, though honestly everything would fall apart without me. I tend to work a lot of odd hours, nights or early mornings. But since he thinks I need to go to school, I've been working weekends and after school. I could take a day off though?" Jess took a few breaths. Geeze, this was the most he'd probably ever said to anyone.
"Huh. I had you down as more of a...waiter, sells all the little old ladies that come in on the special dessert? What kind of business does your dad run?"
Jess panicked slightly. He certainly couldn't tell her the truth; yea my dad's a mafia boss. That'd certainly end well. 'He's in uh… finance? Loans, stock, boring crap."
Rory nodded. "Sounds appropriately boring for a dad in NYC. I'm gonna guess that you're good at math, then?"
Jess actually laughed. "No. I can make change and deal with large sums of money but no algebra shit."
Rory laughed. "Oh come on. Surely a smart guy like you wouldn't have that much trouble."
"Rory. They put letters with the numbers. It's stupid and I hate it. That's why I read."
Rory laughed harder. "But it's so much fun! Maybe not quite as much fun as reading but fun."
"No."
She chuckled. "Okay. Want me to tutor you?"
"Yes."
"And to be clear, I do mean actually tutor you. Like books and practice problems."
"Uh huh." You could practically feel his smirk.
Rory rolled her eyes and said, "I mean it Jess. Real tutoring."
Before Jess could answer he heard the front door slam. "JESS GET OUT HERE YOU USELESS PIECE OF SHIT!" Jess flinched; there was no way she hadn't heard that.
"Rory I have to go. I'm sorry." just as he was hanging up there was more shouting, another bang and then the line went dead.
"Jess!? Jess!?" Rory looked at her phone. He was gone. Frantically, she sent a text. [Is everything okay? Are you okay? -R]
It was almost an hour before he responded.
[I'm fine. Everything is fine now. I'm sorry I had to hang up. -J]
[Jess...I don't mind you hanging up but I just...That didn't sound like "fine" to me. If you don't wanna talk about it, that's fine, but you can always talk to me. -R]
"Fuck…" Jess ran a hand through his hair. [Alright. I'm not fine, but I don't want to talk about it either. I'm used to it. -J]
Rory sighed. [Okay. But I'm here if you ever do want to talk. -R]
[You'd be the first to know, the only actually. -J]
[Not many people you can talk to huh? -R]
[I don't talk to people unless necessary. It's safer to keep my mouth shut. -J]
[New subject. -J]
Somewhat shocked, Rory thought about what to talk about for a second before asking, [So what do you do in your spare time? Besides read.-R]
[Listen to music, hang out in Washington Square Park, and fuck off around the city. -J]
[Okay...I might also sneak into Broadway shows. -J]
[But you don't know that. -J]
Rory laughed. [You totally sneak into Broadway shows don't you? What's your favorite? -R]
[Next To Normal or Spring Awakening. I like most of them though. -J]
[Wow. Dark tastes, huh? -R]
[They're relatable. -J] That's all he said and he hoped she wouldn't press.
[Just...pick up the soundtracks sometime. That's me "talking about it." -J]
[Oh, okay then. Guess that makes sense. I think my friend Lane has those. -R]
[She has good taste. -J]
[Eclectic but good. -R]
[Nothing wrong with eclectic, I don't exactly give off the Broadway fan vibe. -J]
"ROOOOOOOORRRYYYYYYY, MOMMY IS HOME."
Rory groaned quietly. [Now it's my turn to disappear. My mom's home. Talk to you soon? -R]
[Yea, goodnight. -J]
Before Rory could respond, Lorelai burst into the room, coffee in both hands. "There you are munchkin. Ain't no hiding from me."
"I was not hiding!"
"Uh huh. Generally, when someone calls out that they are home, they do it expecting a response." She sat on the bed. "Ya know a sort of, call and reply type thing?"
Rory stuck her tongue out. "I was finishing my coffee."
Lorelai looked around. "What coffee? I see a notorious lack of coffee cups in your vicinity."
Rory held up her to go cup that was resting behind her books.
"Ah. I stand corrected. Why did you stop and get coffee without me? Are you having coffee with someone behind my back?" Lorelai feigned hurt.
Rory couldn't help but laugh. "No, I just stopped by Luke's on my way home."
Eyeing her critically, Lorelai asked, "Was Lane with you?"
"The first time yea, but we ended up leaving because it was too crowded."
"Uh huh. Luke's….crowded at four in the afternoon? Okay, well there is obviously something you don't want to share so I will let you get back to whatever it is they're having you kids do for homework these days."
Rory huffed. "We didn't go straight to Luke's but I'm done being interrogated," with that she pulled out her history homework.
Lorelai's head snapped backwards a little at the huffiness but she knew better than to push. Rory would let loose a torrential outpouring of words when she was ready to.
Rory scribbled away in her notebook, outlining the most recent reading assignment.
Before she could get chewed out again, Lorelai got up and quietly made her way from the room, closing the door behind her. She wasn't sure what was wrong, but she had a feeling the phone number on her daughter's hand and the fact that people had seen Dean and Rory fighting might have something to do with her rotten mood.
I've created both a Playlist and Pinterest board for this fic :) come visit me on tumblr for those links: broadway-babe-eggsyunwin
Thanks for reading!