once again, you have no idea how much i love you guys that review my story.
it is what gives speed to my posting!! so from now on, i'm gonna TRY to
update twice a week and get this finished already.
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Chapter 20 - Worry About It Later
Rory finished drying her hair and smiled at herself in the mirror. After she and Tristan had gotten back from their swim and managed to convince Paris that neither one of them was in danger of being murdered in their sleep, the three had spent a relatively quiet day cleaning up the apartment and, in Tristan's case, napping in a dark room. Stepping out of the bathroom, Rory was greeted with a rare sound in their domain... silence.
"Hello? Anybody out there?" Feeling like a character in a horror movie, Rory crept down the dark hallway into the empty room. "Where is everyone? Was there some sort of bomb scare I had no knowledge of?"
Peeking into the kitchen, Rory spotted a note taped to the coffee pot. Shaking her head, Rory muttered, "They know me too well." Then, smiling to herself, Rory read the hastily scribbled note informing her that they'd gone to pick up dinner.
Finding herself in the rare position of being home alone, Rory flopped down onto the sofa intending to enjoy the silence. She just felt so... so... content. Paris had finally stopped hating her, and they were actually friends. She and Tristan had managed to work out their differences. Even her and Dean had reached an understanding in their relationship, for the first time since the breakup, being able to spend an entire night together as friends. She sighed contentedly, feeling that everything was finally in place. ...Then she remembered the one dark cloud in the horizon. Jess.
The two of them hadn't talked since that night over a month ago, and she didn't know if he even wanted to. Although, Rory had to admit, even if he did, it's not like he had her number; she had changed rooms right after their last argument, and it wasn't as if he was the type to ask her mother where she was. Rory furrowed her brow in thought. Did she want to talk to him? Granted, she wasn't ready to be his "girlfriend" but a friend she could handle. And it really bothered her that they were on such unfriendly terms right now, especially with her mom and Luke closer than ever. What would happen when she got back to Star's Hollow and things were all weird between them?
Feeling a sudden need to square things away with him, Rory picked up the phone, her hand shaking as she dialed the all-too-familiar number and heard the all-too-familiar male voice pick up.
"Yeah?"
"Umm... hi, Jess?" She stuttered a little at the shock of hearing his voice after so long.
"You've got him. Who's this?"
Great. He didn't even recognize her voice. This was going to be more difficult than she'd thought. "It's Rory." She heard sharp intake of air followed by a slight scuffle on the other end that Rory recognized as him almost dropping the phone, but she pretended not to notice as his voice, now hardened, filled her ears again.
"Didn't think I was going to hear from you."
Biting her lip, she tried to sound undaunted by his harsh tone. "Well, I thought maybe we could get past that."
"I don't know. There isn't a whole lot left to say, is there?" Rory gripped the phone tightly. She had known this was going to be hard, but he was being completely unreasonable. Didn't he care about their friendship at all?
"Jess, don't be like this."
"Like what?" His tone was harsh and Rory had to take a deep breath to relieve the oncoming anger before she could continue.
"Like how you're being. The 'I don't care about anyone' thing. The 'it doesn't matter to me that the last time we talked was a month ago and it ended badly' act. Please just talk to me." Her plea was met with silence, and Rory suddenly felt a knot in her stomach. She half expected the next sound she heard to be that of a dial tone. But instead, she heard a slight sigh followed by his response.
"What do you want me to say?" Rory smiled lightly. His tone had eased up a little, and she knew they was making progress. She quickly continued talking.
"Anything. Books, music, your crackpot theories about small towns... what would you have said if I had called you three months ago?"
"From Chicago?"
"Yeah."
"Three months ago you were in Stars Hollow and you didn't have to call. You just walked over."
"Jess..." Rory's plea went ignored as he finished his sentence.
"... And if you did call, I would've told you to just come on over. I hate talking on the phone." She sighed and looked at herself in the mirror, an exasperated face staring back at her. She was fighting an uphill battle.
"You're not making this very easy."
"Should I be?" His tone had suddenly become serious and Rory knew it was now or never. Either talk about what she had called to talk about or he was getting off the phone.
"Jess, I want us to be friends."
"Just friends?" She tried to decipher the tone of his voice: hurt, anger, hell, it could be excitement for all Rory could tell. Jess was a very good actor. She decided to answer as honestly as she could.
"Yes... no.... I honestly don't know. But for now, yes. I don't have it all figured out yet, but I know that I miss having you in my life. I miss listening to your cynical interpretations of small-town antics, planning your next big baseball heist." She heard a small chuckle across the line and feeling encouraged, continued. "I just think that we jumped into a relationship too quickly after I broke up with Dean, and I didn't have time to get over it."
"I know." His tone was quiet and calm, as if he'd been expecting to hear her say those exact words for months. Rory took in a deep breath before asking her next question.
"But do you understand?" The response she got made her smile softly.
"Yeah, I guess. I don't really want to, but I do. You needed time, and that's what the whole Chicago thing is all about."
"So we're good?" Rory bit her lip, knowing that whatever Jess said now was going to be entirely blunt.
"Yeah, as good as can be expected... but I have to ask..." His voice trailed off at the end, seemingly unsure as to whether or not to continue.
"Ask what?" Rory prompted him, somewhat anxious to hear what he had to say. After another few seconds of silence, his voice came back on the line, quiet and uncertain.
"What happens you get back?"
Rory let out the deep breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "Jess... I don't know how to answer that."
"The truth usually works." His response was simple and quick, the way they always were. And for some reason, that calmed Rory's nerves a bit.
"The truth is that we'll have to figure that out when I get home." She paused, biting her lip in thought. Weakened by the deafening silence over the line, she continued in a smaller voice, "Can you live with that?" After another slight pause she heard a defeated voice answer.
"Do I have a choice?"
"No." This time it was her who answered quick and simply, knowing that it was the truth. She didn't know what she wanted right now, but she didn't want to lose a friend.
"Then I guess I can." Rory smiled and shifted the phone to the other ear, leaning up against the wall as she switched into a more congenial mode.
"Good. So, now tell me really, what have I missed in the past month?"
"Well... I think I finally topped the baseball heist. It was tough, and I really owe it all to Taylor, but don't ever tell him. You see, Kirk went out and bought a green moped and I overheard Taylor calling it "a monstrosity to the town decor..." Rory laughed as he continued the story.
* * * * *
Jess hung up the phone, still smiling from the phone conversation with Rory. He had really missed talking to her, whether they were "dating" or not. She was a refreshing break from the rest of the idiots he dealt with from day to day around here. Plus, it was nice to know that they might still have a chance when she got back here in another month.
"Jess, get your butt down here!" Luke's voice bellowed from the bottom of the stairs and Jess turned towards the clock. 5:30. Lorelai must've be there already; on time for once. Jess had somehow gotten roped into closing... again, since the two of them spent the morning, and now evening 'making up.' It was sickening.
Taking the steps two at a time, Jess walked in on the tail end of an conversation between the two.
"...keeps ringing Luke!!! And I have been calling for two whole hours." Lorelai illustrated her point by holding up two fingers, like a kindergartner learning to count. "Lorelai, you can call her after the show. If we don't leave now, we won't have time for you to take your customary twenty minutes the concession stand."
"But I promise I'll be fast. I just want to make sure she's still alive and that Tristan and Paris haven't transformed into the devil and eaten her or anything."
"Nobody ate her, Lorelai. We're going."
"Nooooo!!!! Phone! Phone! Phone!" She began chanting while hopping up and down, trying to free her cell phone from Luke's hand when she spotted Jess standing and quietly watching them. "Jess! Tell your uncle to give me the phone."
"Since when does he listen to me?" Jess smirked at the woman who raised her index finger at him.
"Good point." Then turning back to Luke, her face drawn in lines of seriousness. Then, she spoke, the three year old coming out again. "My phone."
"That you're going to use to call Rory, and we don't have the time."
"We have plenty of time. Besides, I just want to know what she's doing!"
Eager to get rid of the nuisance Rory called Mom, Jess answered the question. "They're eating." Immediately, all heads in the diner swivelled in Jess' direction, and he fought a groan. Had he really just done something that stupid?
"And what makes you so sure of that?" Lorelai's eyes were doing that prodding thing again and Jess' turned back to the counter, pretending to be busy arranging items while mentally cursing himself for initiating this conversation. Maybe if he was rude, she'd leave him alone.
"Well, that's what she said, and I believed her... unless you think she wasn't telling me the truth. And I gotta, say, calling your own daughter a liar isn't really the most-"
"Jess, shut up." Luke's exasperated tone cut him off. He was obviously still clutching his hope that they would be able to see a movie without having to miss the first fifteen minutes.
Smirking at him, Jess replied. "Hey, she asked."
"Actually, I didn't. I just stated that I wanted to know-"
"Lorelai, shut up." Luke used the same method of silencing on his girlfriend, who didn't respond quite as amicably as Jess.
"Hey! Don't tell me to shut up. I can say whatever I want, like if I wanted to call you a-" Lorelai cut herself off as a thought appeared to occur to her. Not missing a beat, she rounded on Jess. "So you were talking to Rory?"
"Uh.. yeah." Not liking the curious tone in her voice, Jess started to back away, scoping out his possible escape routes.
Unfortunately, Lorelai's curiosity was not easily satisfied. Her voice became interrogative as she began advancing on him. "Did you call her or did she call you?"
"I didn't have her number." Avoiding eye contact, Jess started edging towards the door to the kitchen. Lorelai followed his movement on the other side of the counter.
"So why did she call?"
Jess was just about to slip through the door when Lorelai jumped in front of it, forcing his backwards movement towards the wall. Frustrated at his foiled plan, Jess tried diversion. "Don't you have a movie to see?"
"It can wait. What did she say?"
"Call her yourself."
"I tried. Luke was very uncooperative. You saw no need to help. So now I choose to torture you." Lorelai smiled patiently, as if this rationale was perfectly logical before once again resuming the interrogation. "When did she call? How long did you talk?"
Jess found himself backed into a corner and began searching around for a weapon, something to fend Lorelai off with when she began using physical violence to extract answers from him.
Luke must have noticed the desperate gleam in his eye and took pity on him because in the next second, there was a large clattering on the other side of the diner; Jess and Lorelai both burst into laughter at the sight of Taylor Doose, covered in food, laying on the tile in a mound of broken dishes and resisting the assistance to get up by an apologetic Cesar, who had obviously tripped and dropped the filled busbin directly on him.
"For heaven's sake Luke! Why don't you get some decent help around here!?" The angered patron rose from his seat and kicked his way through broken dishes as Luke, who was standing suspiciously close to the 'accident' fought a grin.
"Sorry Taylor. Your dinner's on me... well, actually it's on you, but I'll pay for it." Luke was enjoying the sight of a ketchup soaked Taylor Doose.
Noticing that Lorelai had turned to watch the commotion, Jess took it as his opportunity for a quick exit. Reaching the doorway, Jess stopped and gave his uncle a quick nod of acknowledgment, receiving a slight smile in return.
"Luke, who are you smiling at?" Lorelai followed his gaze to the doorway where Jess was making his getaway, and she rounded on her boyfriend. "You did that on purpose! To let that information miser get away! What..."
Lorelai's voice trailed off as Jess moved further from the diner, a small smile threatening his usually brooding face.
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a/n - i know, i know i'm gonna get it. absolutely no trory action. but the whole point of this story is the unresolvedness (i think i just made that word up) back at home for her, and the differences in her life there as opposed to what's happenin' in Chicago. so... just be patient. I PROMISE the next chapter will be a whole lot more interesting....
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Chapter 20 - Worry About It Later
Rory finished drying her hair and smiled at herself in the mirror. After she and Tristan had gotten back from their swim and managed to convince Paris that neither one of them was in danger of being murdered in their sleep, the three had spent a relatively quiet day cleaning up the apartment and, in Tristan's case, napping in a dark room. Stepping out of the bathroom, Rory was greeted with a rare sound in their domain... silence.
"Hello? Anybody out there?" Feeling like a character in a horror movie, Rory crept down the dark hallway into the empty room. "Where is everyone? Was there some sort of bomb scare I had no knowledge of?"
Peeking into the kitchen, Rory spotted a note taped to the coffee pot. Shaking her head, Rory muttered, "They know me too well." Then, smiling to herself, Rory read the hastily scribbled note informing her that they'd gone to pick up dinner.
Finding herself in the rare position of being home alone, Rory flopped down onto the sofa intending to enjoy the silence. She just felt so... so... content. Paris had finally stopped hating her, and they were actually friends. She and Tristan had managed to work out their differences. Even her and Dean had reached an understanding in their relationship, for the first time since the breakup, being able to spend an entire night together as friends. She sighed contentedly, feeling that everything was finally in place. ...Then she remembered the one dark cloud in the horizon. Jess.
The two of them hadn't talked since that night over a month ago, and she didn't know if he even wanted to. Although, Rory had to admit, even if he did, it's not like he had her number; she had changed rooms right after their last argument, and it wasn't as if he was the type to ask her mother where she was. Rory furrowed her brow in thought. Did she want to talk to him? Granted, she wasn't ready to be his "girlfriend" but a friend she could handle. And it really bothered her that they were on such unfriendly terms right now, especially with her mom and Luke closer than ever. What would happen when she got back to Star's Hollow and things were all weird between them?
Feeling a sudden need to square things away with him, Rory picked up the phone, her hand shaking as she dialed the all-too-familiar number and heard the all-too-familiar male voice pick up.
"Yeah?"
"Umm... hi, Jess?" She stuttered a little at the shock of hearing his voice after so long.
"You've got him. Who's this?"
Great. He didn't even recognize her voice. This was going to be more difficult than she'd thought. "It's Rory." She heard sharp intake of air followed by a slight scuffle on the other end that Rory recognized as him almost dropping the phone, but she pretended not to notice as his voice, now hardened, filled her ears again.
"Didn't think I was going to hear from you."
Biting her lip, she tried to sound undaunted by his harsh tone. "Well, I thought maybe we could get past that."
"I don't know. There isn't a whole lot left to say, is there?" Rory gripped the phone tightly. She had known this was going to be hard, but he was being completely unreasonable. Didn't he care about their friendship at all?
"Jess, don't be like this."
"Like what?" His tone was harsh and Rory had to take a deep breath to relieve the oncoming anger before she could continue.
"Like how you're being. The 'I don't care about anyone' thing. The 'it doesn't matter to me that the last time we talked was a month ago and it ended badly' act. Please just talk to me." Her plea was met with silence, and Rory suddenly felt a knot in her stomach. She half expected the next sound she heard to be that of a dial tone. But instead, she heard a slight sigh followed by his response.
"What do you want me to say?" Rory smiled lightly. His tone had eased up a little, and she knew they was making progress. She quickly continued talking.
"Anything. Books, music, your crackpot theories about small towns... what would you have said if I had called you three months ago?"
"From Chicago?"
"Yeah."
"Three months ago you were in Stars Hollow and you didn't have to call. You just walked over."
"Jess..." Rory's plea went ignored as he finished his sentence.
"... And if you did call, I would've told you to just come on over. I hate talking on the phone." She sighed and looked at herself in the mirror, an exasperated face staring back at her. She was fighting an uphill battle.
"You're not making this very easy."
"Should I be?" His tone had suddenly become serious and Rory knew it was now or never. Either talk about what she had called to talk about or he was getting off the phone.
"Jess, I want us to be friends."
"Just friends?" She tried to decipher the tone of his voice: hurt, anger, hell, it could be excitement for all Rory could tell. Jess was a very good actor. She decided to answer as honestly as she could.
"Yes... no.... I honestly don't know. But for now, yes. I don't have it all figured out yet, but I know that I miss having you in my life. I miss listening to your cynical interpretations of small-town antics, planning your next big baseball heist." She heard a small chuckle across the line and feeling encouraged, continued. "I just think that we jumped into a relationship too quickly after I broke up with Dean, and I didn't have time to get over it."
"I know." His tone was quiet and calm, as if he'd been expecting to hear her say those exact words for months. Rory took in a deep breath before asking her next question.
"But do you understand?" The response she got made her smile softly.
"Yeah, I guess. I don't really want to, but I do. You needed time, and that's what the whole Chicago thing is all about."
"So we're good?" Rory bit her lip, knowing that whatever Jess said now was going to be entirely blunt.
"Yeah, as good as can be expected... but I have to ask..." His voice trailed off at the end, seemingly unsure as to whether or not to continue.
"Ask what?" Rory prompted him, somewhat anxious to hear what he had to say. After another few seconds of silence, his voice came back on the line, quiet and uncertain.
"What happens you get back?"
Rory let out the deep breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "Jess... I don't know how to answer that."
"The truth usually works." His response was simple and quick, the way they always were. And for some reason, that calmed Rory's nerves a bit.
"The truth is that we'll have to figure that out when I get home." She paused, biting her lip in thought. Weakened by the deafening silence over the line, she continued in a smaller voice, "Can you live with that?" After another slight pause she heard a defeated voice answer.
"Do I have a choice?"
"No." This time it was her who answered quick and simply, knowing that it was the truth. She didn't know what she wanted right now, but she didn't want to lose a friend.
"Then I guess I can." Rory smiled and shifted the phone to the other ear, leaning up against the wall as she switched into a more congenial mode.
"Good. So, now tell me really, what have I missed in the past month?"
"Well... I think I finally topped the baseball heist. It was tough, and I really owe it all to Taylor, but don't ever tell him. You see, Kirk went out and bought a green moped and I overheard Taylor calling it "a monstrosity to the town decor..." Rory laughed as he continued the story.
* * * * *
Jess hung up the phone, still smiling from the phone conversation with Rory. He had really missed talking to her, whether they were "dating" or not. She was a refreshing break from the rest of the idiots he dealt with from day to day around here. Plus, it was nice to know that they might still have a chance when she got back here in another month.
"Jess, get your butt down here!" Luke's voice bellowed from the bottom of the stairs and Jess turned towards the clock. 5:30. Lorelai must've be there already; on time for once. Jess had somehow gotten roped into closing... again, since the two of them spent the morning, and now evening 'making up.' It was sickening.
Taking the steps two at a time, Jess walked in on the tail end of an conversation between the two.
"...keeps ringing Luke!!! And I have been calling for two whole hours." Lorelai illustrated her point by holding up two fingers, like a kindergartner learning to count. "Lorelai, you can call her after the show. If we don't leave now, we won't have time for you to take your customary twenty minutes the concession stand."
"But I promise I'll be fast. I just want to make sure she's still alive and that Tristan and Paris haven't transformed into the devil and eaten her or anything."
"Nobody ate her, Lorelai. We're going."
"Nooooo!!!! Phone! Phone! Phone!" She began chanting while hopping up and down, trying to free her cell phone from Luke's hand when she spotted Jess standing and quietly watching them. "Jess! Tell your uncle to give me the phone."
"Since when does he listen to me?" Jess smirked at the woman who raised her index finger at him.
"Good point." Then turning back to Luke, her face drawn in lines of seriousness. Then, she spoke, the three year old coming out again. "My phone."
"That you're going to use to call Rory, and we don't have the time."
"We have plenty of time. Besides, I just want to know what she's doing!"
Eager to get rid of the nuisance Rory called Mom, Jess answered the question. "They're eating." Immediately, all heads in the diner swivelled in Jess' direction, and he fought a groan. Had he really just done something that stupid?
"And what makes you so sure of that?" Lorelai's eyes were doing that prodding thing again and Jess' turned back to the counter, pretending to be busy arranging items while mentally cursing himself for initiating this conversation. Maybe if he was rude, she'd leave him alone.
"Well, that's what she said, and I believed her... unless you think she wasn't telling me the truth. And I gotta, say, calling your own daughter a liar isn't really the most-"
"Jess, shut up." Luke's exasperated tone cut him off. He was obviously still clutching his hope that they would be able to see a movie without having to miss the first fifteen minutes.
Smirking at him, Jess replied. "Hey, she asked."
"Actually, I didn't. I just stated that I wanted to know-"
"Lorelai, shut up." Luke used the same method of silencing on his girlfriend, who didn't respond quite as amicably as Jess.
"Hey! Don't tell me to shut up. I can say whatever I want, like if I wanted to call you a-" Lorelai cut herself off as a thought appeared to occur to her. Not missing a beat, she rounded on Jess. "So you were talking to Rory?"
"Uh.. yeah." Not liking the curious tone in her voice, Jess started to back away, scoping out his possible escape routes.
Unfortunately, Lorelai's curiosity was not easily satisfied. Her voice became interrogative as she began advancing on him. "Did you call her or did she call you?"
"I didn't have her number." Avoiding eye contact, Jess started edging towards the door to the kitchen. Lorelai followed his movement on the other side of the counter.
"So why did she call?"
Jess was just about to slip through the door when Lorelai jumped in front of it, forcing his backwards movement towards the wall. Frustrated at his foiled plan, Jess tried diversion. "Don't you have a movie to see?"
"It can wait. What did she say?"
"Call her yourself."
"I tried. Luke was very uncooperative. You saw no need to help. So now I choose to torture you." Lorelai smiled patiently, as if this rationale was perfectly logical before once again resuming the interrogation. "When did she call? How long did you talk?"
Jess found himself backed into a corner and began searching around for a weapon, something to fend Lorelai off with when she began using physical violence to extract answers from him.
Luke must have noticed the desperate gleam in his eye and took pity on him because in the next second, there was a large clattering on the other side of the diner; Jess and Lorelai both burst into laughter at the sight of Taylor Doose, covered in food, laying on the tile in a mound of broken dishes and resisting the assistance to get up by an apologetic Cesar, who had obviously tripped and dropped the filled busbin directly on him.
"For heaven's sake Luke! Why don't you get some decent help around here!?" The angered patron rose from his seat and kicked his way through broken dishes as Luke, who was standing suspiciously close to the 'accident' fought a grin.
"Sorry Taylor. Your dinner's on me... well, actually it's on you, but I'll pay for it." Luke was enjoying the sight of a ketchup soaked Taylor Doose.
Noticing that Lorelai had turned to watch the commotion, Jess took it as his opportunity for a quick exit. Reaching the doorway, Jess stopped and gave his uncle a quick nod of acknowledgment, receiving a slight smile in return.
"Luke, who are you smiling at?" Lorelai followed his gaze to the doorway where Jess was making his getaway, and she rounded on her boyfriend. "You did that on purpose! To let that information miser get away! What..."
Lorelai's voice trailed off as Jess moved further from the diner, a small smile threatening his usually brooding face.
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a/n - i know, i know i'm gonna get it. absolutely no trory action. but the whole point of this story is the unresolvedness (i think i just made that word up) back at home for her, and the differences in her life there as opposed to what's happenin' in Chicago. so... just be patient. I PROMISE the next chapter will be a whole lot more interesting....