AN: Okay, so I know you all mainly loved my story because of it's speedy updates, but it's kind of hard to dodge my personal life for so long (I mainly only could because I was sick) but now, I'm afraid to say, my updates aren't going to be quite as fast. But believe me I'm going to be writing like a mad women to keep these chapters coming. This chapter's a bit longer for those who had a problem with the length :P
Disclaimer: Don't own...
Chapter 9
"Jess, do you ever wonder what would have happened if I had come with you that night? If we would have driven off into the distance somewhere and lived together like you had said? Jess?"
Jess was so thankful that his eyes were closed and that he hadn't uttered a sound for a long while. Because this was exactly the kind of question he needed to avoid. Had he ever thought about it? He had to stop himself from letting out a bitter laugh, for he had only thought about what it would be like to wake up to her every damned day since he had asked her that question that had inevitably tore his life apart and forced him to pick up the pieces. He concentrated on his breathing, the steady rise and fall of his chest. That night, when she had said no, it had been a turning point in his life, that night he had -tried- to move on, knowing that she would never be hi-
Before he could even comprehend what was happening, Rory's lips were pulling away from his. Wait - had she just kissed him? Had he fallen asleep already? But the faint taste of her left on his lips and the soft tingle her hair left as it brushed against his neck felt all too real for him to be dreaming. At the loss of contact, he strongly resisted the urge to just sit up and crash his lips back to her's. But then he felt a dull ache in his chest as he came to the realisation that maybe that kiss had been a way for her to find out if she still had feelings for him. Since she thought he had been asleep it would be the perfect way, after all there would be no reprecussions. She probably hadn't felt anything. Now she could go on with her life, her question answered, living in peace. And there Jess would be, the only thing pulling him along being the unlikely hope that just maybe one day, she would see.
"Ahh! Hello?" Lorelai had just managed to answer the phone in time before it went on to the answering machine.
"Lorelai?"
She waited for a moment for the voice to say who it was, but there was nothing but silence on the other end. "God, is that you? I told you to call on Tuesday."
"Lorelai, it's uh, Logan... Is Rory there?"
"Oh, Logan," Lorelai said tensely, not having gotten over Logan's need to 'spread it around' as quickly as her daughter. "She's not here."
"Do you know where she is? She isn't answering her cell."
"I, uh... no, I haven't heard from her in a while," Lorelai stated, deciding to lie.
"You haven't... that's weird. She didn't leave a note. She normally at least leaves a note telling me where she's going."
"I... I'm sorry, I can't help you. I was, uh, actually wondering where she was myself..."
There was a short pause, and then, "Lorelai... are you sure you don't know where Rory is?"
"I... no..." Lorelai cursed herself from being such a bad liar. At least if it was only the 'blinky' thing like Rory she would be able to hide it whilst on the phone.
"What's going on? Why won't you tell me where she is?"
Lorelai scowled at how possesive he had sounded.
After a moment of silence, Logan spoke up again, feeling a little more frustrated, "Look, I think I have the right to know where my own girlfriend is."
Lorelai clenched her teeth. Jess sounded so good right about now. "She's with a friend."
"What, is she with Paris?"
"You know, it's funny how you're so obssessed with Rory right now, because from what I've heard, you don't seem to care as much whilst you're trying to seduce an entire wedding party."
Logan sighed, "Look, I've told Rory this a million times, we weren't together-"
"Oh, so, as soon as you aren't with Rory, you finally get you're chance, is that it?
"No, of course that's not it-"
"I'm sorry, Logan, but I can't help you. Did you ever think that maybe she didn't leave you a note for a reason?"
"Lorelai-"
"Oh, go convince some girl to steal a cannoo," Lorelai said bitterly before hanging up the phone with a huff. She had the urge to scream out loud. Rory was such a good girl. She was perfect. But she always seemed to choose the wrong guys. Logan was a bad influence, introducing her to parties, the rich society life, booze, and a life of crime...
Dean had started off being the sort of first boyfriend every mother dreams about, but then, he had become the worst of the three in Lorelai's eyes, becuase he had put Rory, her innocent Rory, in the position of being the other woman, only to break her heart for the third time. Although if she had known her daughter as well as she thought she did, she would know there was only one person who had ever broken her daughter's heart.
Jess had started off as a mother's worst nightmare, stealing, mouthing off to everyone (herself included), and slinking around the town pulling elaborate pranks. Although, maybe the thing that had gotten to her the most was how much he had gotten to Rory. Lorelai knew her daughter had been falling hard. But then he had left, and he had broken her daughter's heart. She had hated him, despised him with everything she had after that. But now... now she knew he had regretted it, and not just in the simple sense of the word, but truely, with everything he had, regretted it. He had changed, and he was trying so hard to be better than he was... and part of Lorelai just knew it was because of Rory - for Rory.
So maybe he wasn't so bad after all.
As soon as Rory's eyes opened, they landed on Jess. He was awake, staring at the ceiling. Her stomach fluttered just at the sight of him, and she smiled.
"Hey," she spoke sleepily.
"... Hey."
She couldn't help but notice how tense he had sounded.
She bit her lip, wondering if she had done something. "So serious," she mocked him playfully, trying to lighten the mood.
He sighed, finally turning his head to look at her, "Just... thinking."
"Oh," Rory said, her smile dropping, "What about?"
Jess shrugged, looking back up at the ceiling, "Nothin'"
Rory nodded, trying not to let it show how hurt she felt. There was a long pregnant pause, and Rory tried to lighten the mood again, "You know I had the strangest dream last night that you were trying to get me to drink some water, and I said 'no', and you said 'why', and I said..." she drifted off... he wasn't even looking at her.
Finally, he began to speak, still staring at the ceiling. "You hungry yet?"
Rory nodded, and then realising he wasn't looking at her, she added, "Yeah... starving."
"Okay... I'll be right back."
And Rory was left wondering what had happened to the sweet, caring Jess that had been taking care of her for the last two days. But then, with a sinking heart, she remembered back to their teenage years, when he would just close himself off from her, from everyone, for days at a time. It was another one of his funks, and she hated the fact that he still had them. But maybe this time, she would be able to get through to him...
He returned ten minutes later with the usual bowl of mashed potatoes. She prodded at the mixture with her spoon for a little while.
"So..." she began.
He didn't answer.
She put her bowl and spoon aside, struggling to sit up so she could watch him."How are you... feeling?" she asked hesitantly.
"Fine," he shrugged.
She took a breath, "Something's wrong... I know there is."
"Rory," he warned.
"Jess."
"Rory, I told you, I'm fine," he said in a just-drop-it tone.
"Sorry," she mumbled, flinching away from him a little. She eyed him sadly; he still looked so tense, and like there was something on his mind. She layed down beside him, absently playing with the sleeve of his shirt with her fingers and his body stiffened.
"I should probably go check on Matt and Chris. I don't want them slacking off 'cause I'm not there," he said, sitting up and running a hand through his scruffy bed-hair.
Without giving her one chance to glance into his deep, warm brown eyes, he was gone. Rory tried to hold in her tears, knowing that she would never be able to reach him the way that he was able to reach her.
Jess came back a couple of hours later to find Rory to have pulled down a large selection of his books from his bookshelf. He slowly stepped closer, and he felt a painful stab to the chest as he noticed the silent tears staining her cheeks.
"Rory?" he started gently.
She lifted her head to look up at him, her lip quivering, and then she closed the book and threw it with a huff down to the floor. If it had been anyone else - and Jess meant anyone else - they would have been instantly banished from his home for treating his books so carelessly. But... it was Rory.
He sat on the edge of his bed, knowing her well enough to just simply sit and wait.
After a moment of quiet sulking, she huffed, "I can't read anything!"
"Huh," Jess teased playfully, "then I guess you've been lying to me for a very, very long time."
Rory rolled her eyes, ignoring his comment. "Everytime I try to read something I get this blinding pain in my head, and it's distracting, and it really hurts!"
The tears were now pouring from her eyes, and she knew it had very little to do with her proclaimed 'reading crisis'.
"Rory, by the sound of it, you really shouldn't be reading right now."
"But I haven't read a book for days, not to mention the paper, heck, I would even take a magazine right now if I could!"
Jess shook his head, a smile creeping up the edges of his lips despite himself. "Rory, lay down," he ordered gently.
"But... what?"
"Just lay down... trust me."
She raised her brow at him in confusion, but did as she was told. He leant over her, grabbing one of the books from the pile and sitting back against his pillows, trying to get comfortable. He flipped the book open and then turned to her.
"Okay, so if you tell anyone that I caved and actually read to you-"
"I won't," Rory smiled, tears still filling her eyes
"Cause, you know, I have a reputation to uphold."
She choked out a small laugh, wiping at her eyes, before looking at him seriously. "Thanks, Jess."
He smirked at her, and then turned back to the book, beginning to read softly to her.
Rory couldn't stop staring at him. It was like he had some sort of a magical pull that kept her eyes glued to his face, eyes, lips, everything. For the last twenty minutes it had been his lips, and she had watched with a small, giddy smile as his lips formed every perfect word that he read. She wanted to laugh at herself for thinking words like 'the' and 'it' sounded perfect, but coming from him, anything would sound perfect. Now, though, her eyes had wondered down a little further, and she could feel a blush coming on. But it's not like it was her fault; it was the magical pull, she couldn't help it. His elbow was bent, resting beneath his head on the pillow, and the other arm was holding up the book. She gave her eyes only a moment to wander over the slight muscles in his arms before reluctantly pulling them away. Now they travelled slowly down his chest and stomach, and she could see every line of his body through the thin material of his shirt with the much appreciated help of gravity. She was surprised at how much her body seemed to want her to just roll over and lay on top of him. No dirtiness intended, although...
She only just noticed the silence surrounding her, and she looked up to find that he had stopped reading, and was now staring at her with a smirk. Oh no, how long had he been watching her? Her cheeks quickly began to stain red, and she started to sit herself up.
"I, uh, need to shower," she stated quickly, not looking at him. And she stood up, ignoring how light headed and dizzy she felt.
"Wha- Rory, can you even walk?"
Jess got up and made his way over to her worriedly.
"I... I think I'm okay," she said. But then the dizziness took over and she grabbed at his shoulder's to keep herself from falling.
Jess only then noticed how much her whole body was trembling, and his brow furrowed, because he had thought that the fever part of her sickness had passed a while ago. He brushed his hand agaisnt her forehead and then down to her cheek and she shivered into him, but she had felt perfectly fine. She caught her breath and stepped back a little, her eyes still locked onto his.
And then the strangest thing happened, because Jess noticed that she had stopped trembling. And his heart jumped in his chest; could he possibly-?
He stepped up against her again so tantalizingly slow, and she had a really hard time breathing, let alone stepping back. He could feel her warm, ragged breath against his lips now, and it was intoxicating, sending all of his senses into overdrive. He was currently in a war with every muscle in his body, forcing himself to stay in control. He reached forward slowly, carefully, and began to trace his fingers against the soft skin above the hip of her jeans. Her eyes fluttered closed and she lost her balance, leaning into him as her body began to tremble against his touch. Jess' pulse began to race, and he was trying so, so hard to control himself. He felt like a kid hyped up on red cordial being forced to sit still. He slowly slipped his hand under the material of her singlet, his fingers traveling up her side, and she let out a soft moan, her legs threatening to crumble beneath her. And then Jess felt a pulling against his shirt, and before he could prepare himself, two hands were now travelling up beneath it.
And all thoughts of trying to control himself were lost.
He crashed his lips to her's, hungrilly, and slid his other hand under the material of her singlet and around to her back. And she was trembling so much now that the part of Jess that wasn't so absorbingly distracted was more than a little worried. But she was kissing him back, with the same amount of want, need. He felt her tongue graze his bottom lip, begging for entrance, and he more than eagerly obliged. His hands were against the bare skin of her back, pressing her flush against him - but it wasn't enough. Jess pushed them both back until Rory was pinned up against the wall, and he began tugging at her shirt-
But then there was a knock, loudly echoing through his upstairs room. Rory forced herself to pull away, still breathing hard, and she looked to Jess. But he shrugged, moving to her neck to work on her pulse point.
"Jesss," she breathed.
"Mm."
"Jess, wait, it could be my mom," she tried to argue.
"She's at work," Jess mumbled, before silencing her with his lips. She gave in for a momant, enjoying the tremble that shot through her body as his tongue eagerly explored her mouth.
"Mm, Jess wait," she said breathlessly.
Jess groaned as the knocks grew louder and more frequent, and he really couldn't help but wonder if the person on the other side of that door had some sort of a death wish. "Rory, you can't seriously expect me to answer that door right now?"
But Rory looked at him with those big blue eyes of hers, and he couldn't refuse. He sighed, running his hands through his hair and turning away from her.
"Okay... just... give me a sec," he said, trying hard to calm his heart rate, and other things.
Rory modestly looked away, fixing her shirt.
"Okay," he sighed, now settled and making his way out the door and down the stairs. The banging was now threatening to pound down Jess' door, and he opened it with a scowl already plastered to his face. when he saw the person on the other side, he knew his facial expressions wouldn't be getting much of a workout, his expression for now would do perfectly fine.
"Where's is she?" Logan demanded, stepping past Jess and inviting himself in.
"Excuse me?" Jess scowled, his frustration in the blonde dick rising at dangerous speeds.
"You know you should probably think before you invite my girlfriend to these little parties of your's, Spencer Johnson," Logan muttered angrily, holding up a familiar looking envelope.
Jess tried not to focus on the girlfriend reference and instead focused on the other. "Who?"
"Exactly."
"Get out," Jess demanded, not having the energy to deal with this guy right now.
"Not until I get Rory back."
"You know, funny you should say that-"
"Logan?" Rory called, appearing at the top of the stairs.
"Rory, what are you doing here?" Logan demanded.
"I... I-"
"Rory?" Jess was worried, hadn't she been barely able to stand only a minute ago?
"Rory, we're leaving, now!"
"She doesn't have to go with you."
"I'm her boyfriend, of course she has to come with me!"
Jess chuckled, "Well, you're obviously doing a pretty poor job of satisf-"
Logan's fist collided with Jess' face and he was stumbled back a little before lunging forward at Logan.
"Logan, no! Jess-!" She screamed, making her way down the stairs.
Jess looked up as she called his name and his eyes widened, pushing past Logan and running forward. It was the last thing she saw before the dizziness blinded her, and everything faded to black.
AN: Review please!!
