The Accidental Ask-out Chapter 4 - Movie Night, a gilmore girls fanfic

Spoilers for those who haven't seen The Breakfast Club!

Luke knocked on the door of the Gilmore house. He heard Lorelai shout from inside.

"It's open!"

He rolled his eyes and opened the door. "It's not safe to leave your door unlocked all the time."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Lorelai appeared as she walked from the kitchen to the living room carrying snacks for the movie. "You bring pie?"

"You told me I had to. Where do you want it?"

Lorelai gasped. "Dirty!"

Luke immediately blushed. "Jeez."

"Just bring it into the living room. Rory, grab some plates and forks on your way in here!" She turned back to Luke. "You remembered the fries too, right?"

"Yep."

"And some ketchup!" Lorelai added.

"Okay." Rory replied.

"We weren't sure what kinds of movies you like or what you've seen, so we got a bunch of different choices, and thought we'd let you pick which ones you wanna watch tonight. You cannot go wrong with any of them. You've got your classics; Fiddler on the Roof, Gone With The Wind, which is a little bit longer which means that it'll be the only one you have to watch tonight, It's a Wonderful Life, Bringing Up Baby. A few eighties favorites; Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Breakfast Club, Dirty Dancing. A couple of musicals; Westside Story, Grease. And, last but not least, The Little Rascals. So, which ones haven't you seen? We'll narrow down from there."

"Well, I've seen little rascals, but not that one." He picked it up to look at it. "The one I saw was in black and white, this one's newer."

"Ooh-kay." Lorelai said, moving that one to the side. "But what about the other ones?"

"I've seen "It's a Wonderful Life"." He shrugged. "That's it."

Lorelai looked at him, aghast. "You're kidding."

"No."

"You've never seen any of these?" She gestured to the rest of the movies.

"No, I haven't."

"What about other movies? Like, Casablanca?"

"No."

"You've never seen Casablanca?"

"Look, can we just-"

"Chinatown?"

"Lorelai, do you want me to pick a movie or what?"

"Bonnie and Clyde."

Luke picked up a movie at random. "I picked a movie, now can we please just stop talking about this?"

"It happened one night? His girl friday? Treasure of the Sierra Madre?" Lorelai kept asking. "Diner‽"

Luke sighed, knowing that this line of questioning would continue until he answered her. "I saw Mr. and Mrs. Bridge?"

Lorelai covered her mouth in shock. "Oh, my god. We have a lot of work to do."

"Ah, boy." Luke sighed.

Lorelai took the movie he was holding and headed toward the vcr to put it in. "Breakfast Club, good choice."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

About twenty minutes into the movie, Luke looked over uneasily at Lorelai. "Is it okay that Rory's seeing this?"

"I was only a year older than her when I saw it." Lorelai shrugged.

"I've seen it before anyway." Rory said.

"How did you not see this movie when it came out?" Lorelai asked. "You're not that much older than me. You're definitely in the age range of the movie's target audience."

"I didn't go to the movies a whole lot." Luke said. "I was working."

"All the time? You were, what, eighteen, nineteen, twenty? Working in your dad's hardware store, you couldn't take two hours to see a movie?"

"My dad was sick." Luke said quietly. "I had to work."

Lorelai refrained from saying anything else. For a while, at least. After a few moments, Lorelai couldn't help herself.

"So which one were you?" Lorelai asked Luke.

"Which one what?"

"The brain, the athlete, the basket case, the princess, and the criminal." Lorelai rattled off.

"She trying to figure out which archetype you fit into." Rory told him. "I'm the brain."

"I'm thinking you were either Bender or, what was the athlete kid's name?"

"Andrew." Rory supplied.

"Right, you were either Bender or Andrew."

"I was not Bender." Luke defended. "And doesn't this defeat the entire point of the movie?"

"You haven't even seen the movie, how do you know what it's about?"

"Because I'm not an idiot." He gestured toward the tv screen. "Everything I needed to know was right there in the beginning of the movie. They're all trying so hard not to be defined by their parents, their situations in life. Doesn't it defeat the point of the movie if you take those titles and assign them to other people?"

"Come on, Luke, please?"

Luke sighed and relented. "I was on the track team, so I guess, the athlete. Would've played baseball but the school didn't have a team."

"So, somewhere between the athlete and the brain."

"What?"

"Track is for nerds and losers. You were a mathlete."

"I was not a mathlete." Luke said. "Math was one of my worst subject. Actually, every subject was my worst subject subject, I barely passed. Didn't even go to my high school graduation. I only got into college on a scholarship."

Lorelai frowned. "I didn't know you went to college."

"I didn't." Luke shook his head. "Not really. I flunked out in freshman year. Wrenched my knee in practice one day and I was benched for the season. Then my dad got sick-"

"And you had to take over the store." Lorelai finished.

Luke nodded. "For a while. He got better, but he still needed the help, so I stayed working at the store. Didn't go back, didn't graduate."

Lorelai was silent for a moment. "Did you want to?"

Luke shrugged. "It would've made my dad happier, I think. He didn't like it that I quit school, quit track. I could've gone back and joined the team again the next year, but it didn't matter as much to me."

Lorelai nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I get it. I mean, I technically graduated high school, I got my diploma, but I didn't do the whole cap and gown thing."

"Why not?"

"Because I wanted Rory to be there." Lorelai said. "She was only a baby, but it was important to me for her to be there, and my parents wouldn't take her, and the school wouldn't let me hold her when I went up and my parents wouldn't take her, and... it just wasn't worth it without her there. So I just didn't go. But hey, at least she'll see me graduate business school. Hopefully."

"She will." Luke assured her.

"Gross!" Lorelai and Rory chorused when Ally makes it "snow" on her drawing. Luke smirked.

"I thought you liked the snow." He mocked.

"Snow, yes. Dandruff, ugh." Lorelai made a face and shivered.

"Hey, Luke, did you ever get detention?" Rory asked.

"No comment." He muttered.

"Mom, did you?"

"Yup."

"What for?" Rory asked. Luke wanted to hear the answer to that question.

"Aside from the usual skipping school, I was often sent for talking in class."

"Now why doesn't that surprise me." Luke said.

"Oh, you think I'm bad now." Lorelai retorted. "Believe me, I was way worse in high school. Total diarrhea of the mouth."

"Oh, gra-ross." Rory objected.

Lorelai turned to Luke. "So, out with it. What were you sent to detention for?"

He rolled his eyes. "Can we get back to the movie, please?"

"No, spill!" Lorelai paused the movie.

"Fine." Luke sighed. "There might have been... an incident involving... a duck... and my teacher's car."

"You're kidding!" Lorelai cackled as Rory stared with wide eyes.

"What kind of incident?" Rory asked. "What happened to the duck? Did it get hurt?"

"The duck was fine." Luke assured her. "Mr. Patters gave me a low grade on a paper I worked really hard on and I didn't think I deserved it, so I found a duck and found out where he lived and put the duck in his car overnight."

"You didn't." Rory was aghast. Lorelai was still laughing.

"You said the duck was fine." Lorelai settle down enough to say. "But what about the car?"

"The car? The car was never the same after that." He smirked. "He had the upholstery completely redone, the carpets cleaned, had the car completely detailed but he still complained that the car smelled."

"How'd they trace it back to you?" Rory asked.

"I returned a book to the library about the care and keeping of waterfowl." Luke said sheepishly. "The librarian made the connection, who told my dad, who told the school. I got detention for the next six weeks."

"You learn your lesson?" Lorelai asked.

Luke shook his head and grinned. "No. Did you?"

Lorelai just grinned back at him. A few minutes later, she was giggling helplessly. Rory and Luke looked as her quizzically. She explained in between fits of laughter.

"Up-poultry. Get it? Upholstery? Up. Poultry. Up-poultry!"

At one point, Luke looked over and say Rory covering her face, not watching the movie. Lorelai had her arm wrapped around her daughter and was rubbing her arm.

"Is she okay?" Luke asked.

"Oh, she's fine." Lorelai assured him. "It's just this next scene is a little hard for her to handle."

Luke turned back to the screen, and frowned. It was just the characters, walking around, stretching their legs. Bender was throwing papers around. "What about it?"

"The book." Lorelai said quietly.

"The what?"

"The book!" Rory said, obviously upset. "He's ruining it, he's tearing pages out of the book!"

"Oh, I know baby." Lorelai consoled her. She looked over at Luke. "She gets a little upset when people destroy books. She left a copy of the Swiss Family Robinson out in the rain and it got ruined when she was eight, and she was distraught for weeks. It was like a death in the family."

"It was unreadable by the time we found it." Rory pouted. "And a little moldy. We buried it in the front lawn of the inn, because they were redoing some of the landscaping. Every time I see tulips, I think about that book."

"I see." Luke said.

"Who only puts one slice of bologna on a kid's sandwich like that?" Luke complained.

"Kids whose parents don't give a crap about them." Lorelai said. "If you give it another second, thought, there'll be something else to complain about."

"Is that sugar?"

Lorelai nodded. "There it is."

"And cereal? Oh, that is disgusting." Luke made a face.

"Yeah, even I'm a little grossed out by that." Rory admitted.

"Do you think there was mayonnaise on the bread?" Lorelai asked. "Cause that'd be really gross."

"Yeah, cause eating a sugar sandwich with extra sugary cereal on it very normal." Luke said.

"Wait, so now they're sneaking out?" Luke asked.

"Well yeah." Lorelai said. "It's gotta happen at least once."

"When did they decide they were gonna sneak out?"

"I don't know."

"Do they get caught?"

"That would be telling."

"Why are they going to his locker?"

"You'll see."

"How big is this school?"

"That…" Lorelai said, talking about the scene where Bender takes off to protect the other kids from being discovered by the teacher. "Is the high school equivalent of throwing yourself on a grenade to keep your buddies from getting blown to bits."

"He's not really gonna smoke it, are they?" Luke asked.

"What do you think?" Lorelai asked.

(Clair gets up and follows Bender)

"Are they really gonna smoke in the library?" Luke asked.

"Yup." Rory said.

"Hey, Luke?"

"What?"

"Did you smoke pot in high school?"

"What? No!"

"Not once?"

"My dad would've kicked my ass if he ever caught me smoking pot."

"So you didn't?" Lorelai asked pointedly. "You were never offered one, one of your girlfriends or teammates never gave you a joint, or some pot brownies? Never went to a party, tried any kind of recreational-"

Luke turned to face her. "Look, it was bad enough that my sister got into all that stuff, he didn't need both of us breakin' his heart."

"Okay, okay, sorry." Lorelai immediately backed down. Luke turned back to face the movie just as Andrew came out of the office.

("So why do you have a fake ID?")

("So I can vote.")

"Mom-"

"No."

"But I didn't-"

"No."

"You know I would never-"

"No."

Luke turned to look at them. "What?"

"Nothing, you don't need to know." Lorelai told him.

"Okay." He went back to the movie.

"Okay, this is really making me uncomfortable." Luke said as Claire and Ally verbally spared on screen.

"We can fast forward a little bit if you want."

"You let Rory watch this?" Luke looks around. "Speaking of which, when did Rory leave?"

"What?" Lorelai looked around, and got up and went to the kitchen while Luke paused the movie. Lorelai came back with a note. ""Mom, forgot I was going to hang out with Lane tonight. Sorry for sticking you with Luke, but I already promised. See you tomorrow, Rory." I swear that kid…"

"Do you think that's true?" Lorelai asked.

"Think what's true?" Luke asked.

"That we're doomed to become our parents?"

"No." Luke said. "At least, I don't think so. Maybe, I don't know."

"That's not an answer." Lorelai said. "If you woke up one morning and realized that you'd become your dad, what would you think?"

"There are worse people to turn out like than your parents." Luke said.

"My parents?" Lorelai asked.

"Parents in general." Luke corrected.

"You must've had nice parents."

"What do you say that?"

"Because if you had bad parents, you wouldn't have said that." Lorelai said. "If you had bad parents, or a bad childhood, then there'd be nothing worse than growing up and realizing that you'd just repeated the cycle."

"And what about you, if you woke up one day and found out that you'd turned out like your mom, or even your dad, would that be so bad?"

"My worst nightmare."

"Really?" Luke said doubtfully.

She nodded grimly. "You've clearly never met my parents."

"This is one of the most iconic dance scenes in film history." Lorelai said.

"It's just a bunch of kids goofing off."

"That's what makes it so perfect."

After the movie, Lorelai walked Luke out to the porch. Luke was full of questions.

"Do you think Bender and Clair got together after that?"

"I don't know, maybe." Lorelai shrugged. "The better question is whether or not they would've made it."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if they did get together, start dating, would they have enough in common to stay together?" Lorelai postulated. "Or at least like each other enough to put up with each other being polar opposites."

"They weren't polar opposites." Luke said. "They just didn't see what all they had in common cause it wasn't obvious."

"Yeah. I guess. Hey, do you think we would've gotten along in high school?" Lorelai asked.

"I don't know." Luke said. "Maybe. Though, you probably wouldn't have been caught dead with a track kid."

"I don't know, you're, what? Four years older than me? Hanging out with the older kids automatically make you cooler. Doesn't matter what they do. I doubt you would have wanted to hang out with me."

"What? Why?"

"Well, I was kind of a brat." She shrugged. "I didn't care what anyone thought about what I did or said or anything. All that mattered was what I wanted to do. Until Rory came along and then it was all about what I needed to do for her, for the pregnancy. Well, once I finally accepted that I was pregnant. I didn't have time to care about what other people thought, or at least I pretended I didn't. But once people found out, boy did I find out who my real friends were."

"Yeah?"

Lorelai nodded. "Yup. Not one of them stuck around."

Luke was shocked. "None of them?"

"Not a one. Good riddance, I say."

They let the conversion drop to silence for a few moments before Luke picked it up again. "I'm sorry."

"What for? What's past is passed."

"No, I mean, I'm sorry we didn't get the chance to be friends then. Sounds like you could've used one."

She smiled at him softly. "Thanks. I still can, you know. From time to time."

He smiled back. "Well, you know where to find me. Good night."

"Night." Lorelai watched from the porch as he made his way back to the diner. And as Rory came sneaking up the sidewalk to the house. Lorelai knew that Rory couldn't see her from where she was standing and let her get all the porch before acknowledging her.

"So."

Rory jumped. "God! Don't scare me like that."

"Random hang out session with Lane, huh?" Lorelai said.

"Something like that." Rory walked up the steps and sat on the wicker bench,and Lorelai sat next to her. "So how was the rest of the movie night?"

"Uneventful." Lorelai said. "He fell asleep when I put on Hardbodies."

"How can you fall asleep during a classic like Hardbodies."

Lorelai shrugged. "I don't know. Luke said something about coming off a double shift, but I think he just has no taste. Oh, well. To each his own."

"So, what the verdict?" Rory asked. "Will we see him again for movie night?"

Lorelai pretended to think. "You know what? I think there is a very good chance that we'll get the chance to introduce him to all sorts of classics."

"Luke better watch out." Rory joked. "He might accidentally become an honorary Gilmore Girl."

"A Gilmore Guy."

"Yeah!"

Sorry that this is a little bit piecemeal. I tried to make it flow better for a long time and then I got plot-blocked. But I'm back now, and hopefully I can keep putting out chapters on a more regular basis.