I know it's been quite a while since the last time I updated…but you know how life is when you're 19…school, work, homework…all this stuff keeps me busy 24/7, so please understand, kay? Thanks! Enjoy next chapter!

9- Broken

The next morning, Rory and Jess got up early to get breakfast and be able to finish packing what Rory needed. Lorelei got downstairs when they were bringing boxes into Jess's car.

"What are you doing?" Lorelei asked Rory, who was passing by with a box.

"Loading the car with my stuff" Rory answered, looking at her like she had three heads.

"What do you mean, with your stuff?"

Rory stopped in her track.

"Well, I'm bringing the stuff I need to New York."

"What?"

"What? You were expecting me to move back here?"

"Actually, yes! I thought that since we had made up, you would come back!"

"Sorry, but I'm not. Yes, we made up. Here's the key word: we. But there wasn't only you in all this. There was Lane and Dean too. Did they call or show up? Nope! They must have known I was in town, I didn't exactly hide. I'm not coming back into a town that doesn't feel like a home, to people that doesn't even seem to have noticed I was gone."

With that, she went back to what she was doing, with tears in her eyes. Her and Jess left a while later after a quick and cold goodbye to Lorelei and Luke, who had come from the diner in a hurry when Lorelei had called him while Rory and Jess were finishing to load the car. Five minutes after Rory and Jess had left, Lorelei fell down to the ground, not able to hold her tears longer. Luke immediately bented down to pull her into his arms to try to confort her...something that didn't seem to work. So he stayed there for as long as Lorelei cried.

"How did I end up messing things up with my daughter, huh?" Lorelei managed to ask through her tears.

"I don't know, Lor. I honestly don't know."

"She will never forgive me, Luke! Never!"

"Don't say that. You know as well as me that it's not true. Rory never stayed mad at you for very long. You know that."

"Well, she proved the opposite these last two months!"

"Maybe, but she also came back. You had even made up, yesterday. I'm sure she will come back again soon. Or she'll at least give you a call."

Lorelei didn't answer, she just snuggled further into Luke's arms.

"How can you find the right words, huh?" Lorelei asked after a moment.

Luke smiled lightly.

"I don't know" he answered before getting up. "Come on, let's get inside or you'll get cold."

He helped her up and they went inside. At that moment, Jess's car was parked on the side of the road, a few miles away of Stars Hollow. Inside, Jess was conforting...well, trying to confort Rory, who was crying her eyes out.

"How could she dare expect me to go back there? How could she?" Rory said through her tears. "She knew I haven't talked to Lane or Dean, even the rest of the town. She should have known I wouldn't go back."

"Maybe she took for granted that since you had made up, you would go back. It was even pretty clear. She can't expect you to move back if you aren't ready to. You can't live somewhere you don't feel welcomed. Trust me, I know that feeling."

Rory sniffed.

"Why didn't you tell her that?" Rory asked softly, calming down.

Jess thought for a moment.

"I don't know, Ror. You know, maybe it's better that I didn't talk at all 'cause maybe she would have banished me from this town and forbidden me to see you."

Rory smiled lightly through her tears.

"I wouldn't have let her" she said seriously.

Jess just left a light kiss on her forehead before taking back the wheel.

"Come on, we have a long road ahead of us."

Rory nodded and rested her head on Jess's shoulder. Jess pulled the car back on the road and they made their way back to New York. Rory fell asleep not long after they had gone back on the road.