Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls….
A/N: Soo sorry about the eternity it's taken for me to update, but I've been insanely busy, and…well, I'm updating now, so hopefully you haven't given up on me :-p.
Chapter 4Jess opened the door to the diner, finding some comfort in the familiar ringing of the bells. He took a moment to look around, finding that the diner looked the exact same as it always had, not that he really expected Luke to have made any extreme changes during his absence. After all, some things never change.
As if his thoughts had conjured him, Luke appeared from the kitchen and stopped dead when he saw his nephew standing in the room.
"Jess. What are you doing here…are you in trouble, what happened?"
"Why do you always have the mindset of 'Jess is here, he's in trouble, he did something'? Can't I just come back to visit my loving uncle and his quaint little town?" Jess asked in the sarcastic tone that everyone who ever came in contact with him had learned to know and expect.
"Jess. What. Are. You. Doing. Here?"
"God, I don't even know anymore!"
It was true. After he saw Rory, everything that he had wanted out of his return had gone up in smoke. Coming back had been detrimental to his plan, and now he had absolutely no idea of how, or even if he was ever going to accomplish what he had set out to do. Get over Rory? It hardly seemed like a possibility at this point.
Without another word, he disappeared up the stairs to Luke's apartment. Just like in the diner, there were very few if any changes to the place. He saw a box of his stuff in the corner that Luke had failed to send to him after he had left and thought little of it until he saw a small book tucked into the corner, just sticking out enough that he could see it. He pulled it out and immediately recognized it; it was the last book that Rory had lent to him, one he had never returned before he left. He flipped to a page and saw her handwriting, notes that she had written in, her thoughts on a certain passage; he had become accustomed to it, and as he sat, reading it, he realized how much he had missed her, her insight into everything, just learning how she thought, what she thought. Every word would just make it harder for him to forget her; no, not forget her, that would be impossible, but for him to stumble on through life on his own, without her.
After watching Jess's departure from the scene, Rory crossed her arms and turned away, her back to her boyfriend, just staring into space. It wasn't the first time she'd watched him walk away, yet her reaction contradicted what everyone said was true. It gets easier with time. That's what they tell you about everything. But it didn't apply here. Watching him leave got harder every single time, her reaction always increasing in regret over not trying harder to make him stay, grief over losing him in the first place, and guilt over feeling those emotions when she had a new boyfriend and was supposedly very happy with him.
"Rory?" Tristan said quietly, interrupting her thoughts. "Rory, what's wrong?"
"What's wrong? I'll tell you what's wrong! What's wrong is the fact that you feel the need to always have the last word in everything, the need to turn everything into an argument! Why must you treat him like that? It can't be easy for him to have come back and…" She was cut off.
"Oh, and you think it's easy for me to stand here and watch my girlfriend's ex-boyfriend to tell me I'm not good enough for her?"
"He's just concerned about me, that's all. Why can't you just accept the fact that you aren't the only one I've ever cared about! It's like you want to wash away any traces of my past relationships away, make me forget all about them, as if they never happened!"
"Ror, you know that's not true, I only want what's best…"
"Don't talk to me like I'm 6 years old and mad that you're telling me I can't do something! What's best for me? What's best for me is to be happy, and, if you haven't noticed, I'm not! Because of you! You think that using some arrogant, condescending, patronizing tone is going to make me respect you and make me happy? Well, you might want to rethink your relationship philosophy then!" With one final glare, Rory turned and stormed away, not about to let him get the last word in this time.