Happy Halloween! My evening's quiet. I'm watching Parenthood - something I've wanted to do for ages :)
This chapter may seem short and abrupt but just you wait, I got a plan ...
Enjoy!
•
"I've decided to hire the gardener as a chef."
Lorelai nearly dropped her fork as her mother told her those big news. "What?" she asked in shock.
"The gardener. Mr Danes, I believe is his name. He came to me the other day, begging me to keep him employed. Apparently his younger sister is expecting a child and she doesn't work, which means he has to earn money for her."
"And he cooks?" Lorelai asked carefully.
"He said he cooks very well. Let's see. Since Bertha quit anyway, it only made sense to give him a chance. He's going to start in December."
"So ... you're feeling sympathy for his sister and that's why you keep him employed?" Lorelai tried but her mother snorted.
"No, I think the girl is stupid for letting herself impregnate at such a young age but I find it very noble of Mr Danes that he's helping her instead of using the money for weed or God knows what young, poor men use money for nowadays."
Lorelai clenched her fists, staring at her mother angrily. "I don't ... I don't think he's poor, mom," she said through gritted teeth.
"Wealthy people don't dress like he does," Emily replied sharply. "I told him he has to wear different things if he wants to work in my kitchen and he agreed, saying he would dress appropriate. Well, let's see what he's going to wear."
Lorelai decided it was better to continue eating in silence. She had to be careful not to reveal their friendship to her mother. She'd never let Luke enter the house again.
Or let Lorelai leave the house, for that matter.
But she hated her mother right now, oh, how she hated her.
And her father didn't make it better, as he thought he had to interfere. "His sister is how old exactly?"
"I don't know, just a year older than Lorelai, I haven't asked," Emily replied and It was clear how indifferent she was about Liz. "I'm just glad we don't have to deal with something like this - and I dearly hope that, in near future, we won't have to."
Lorelai rolled her eyes. "We're careful, Chris and I," she moaned. "Trust your daughter, will you?"
"Give me a reason to," Emily said without looking at Lorelai. "You are always out and you never tell us where you're going."
Because I hang out with an older guy, Lorelai thought. Her parents would drop dead if they knew. But first they'd kill both her and Luke.
"I'm with Chris," she lied. "Mostly at the cinema or ... at the playground with his friends or his dog. We're also studying in his room a lot."
"Studying. Alright." Emily's voice was icy, but for once Richard defended his daughter.
"Her grades have really improved, Emily. She has always been a smart girl, only lazy. You know what she can do and now she has proven herself. Got an A in a math test last week, did you know that?"
"I didn't," Emily admitted. "I ... I'm sorry, I didn't know."
"Maybe she'll be able to go to Yale after all," Richard spoke and Lorelai nodded.
"I actually thought about it, dad. It would be cool. I will apply and see if they'll take me."
"You're a Gilmore. They'll take you." Richard smiled at his daughter proudly. "Plus, you know I have my contacts."
"Hm." Lorelai continued eating, happy that she had successfully changed the subject.
It was true, though, she hadn't lied. She had decided to work harder for school and apply for Yale.
Not to make her father happy but for herself. Lorelai really wanted to study, she had always wanted it, but lately she wanted it even more.
Why? Because of Chris? Because of Luke?
Lorelai didn't know but she knew that she wanted to show off what she could do.
•
"Good morning, Jill."
"Morning, Luke." Jill was smiling at him.
"Glad to see you decided to come back here," Luke pointed out. He and Trevor had claimed a desk at the very back of the classroom. "To the dark side."
Jill laughed. "You know, it's easier to talk back here," she said, never stopping to smile. Luke had to return her smile, even if he didn't reply want to.
What was Jill up to?
No matter what, though, he'd go along with it. Luke really wanted to get his thoughts away from Lorelai for a while.
"What do you wanna talk about?" he asked curiously and swore he could see a blush creeping over Jill's cheeks.
"Dunno. Stuff. Your favourite bands and your favourite sport and favourite subject and stuff. Your favourite food besides salad."
"Hmm, I don't really listen to music," he said quietly, as professor Robbins entered the classroom.
"What? You really don't? How?" Jill replied with wide eyes. "I live for music. Aerosmith and U2, The Cure, Depeche Mode ..."
"I know Aerosmith," Luke said lowly. "But only like ... one song. That one That's always on the radio."
"Oh my god." Jill shook her head. "But you do know Queen, right?"
"Of course." Luke was almost offended that she thought he wouldn't know Queen.
"Fleetwood Mac? Pink Floyd? Journey? Only a few of my favourite bands."
"Fleetwood Mac, I know them. My sister listens to them a lot, they're quite good."
"Oh, then we have a topic to talk about." Jill smiled. "What's your favourite song of them?"
"I'm not a fan of them, I don't know their songs, you know," Luke muttered. "I can tell you if I know the sing when I hear it, but that's it."
"Oh boy. Okay, but you said they're good? Right? Maybe you could come to my house one day and we could listen to them while studying for chemistry, what about that?"
Jill's eyes were wide and warm and filled with so much plea, Luke just couldn't reject her.
"Okay, sure. We'll have to study for chemistry after all, especially if we keep talking during the lesson ..."
Jill's face lit up.
•
Lorelai missed Luke.
Since the leaves all had fallen down now, he wasn't needed in the garden anymore and he wouldn't start working in the kitchen until December.
It was two weeks to December.
The air was chilly and it was dark all the time, even at the brightest time of the day the sky seemed to be gray and depressing.
Lorelai wasn't a girl to become sad over the winter months, no, she actually enjoyed them. Especially winter, the snow and the cool air, the possibility to build a snowman, ...
She loved to go ice skating, she loved to go skiing and she loved to take long walks through the snow before coming home and getting comfortable in the bed with a nice book and a huge cup of coffee.
Christopher was the opposite.
As soon as it got colder, he started to complain about the bad weather, the cool breeze when he got to school in the morning and the dark days. He said he wasn't looking forward to the snow, as he didn't like to do any sporty activities in winter. He preferred to go swimming or play volleyball, and those activities weren't as nice inside a hall as they were outside.
Lorelai disagreed whenever he complained and started to tell him the nice things about winter.
Christmas! Christmas markets! Cosy fireplaces! Hot spiced wine (her favourite)! Presents at Christmas! Cuddling in a warm bed!
Lorelai tried to make it better for him but Chris really didn't seem to be happy about it. Still he forced himself to be in a better mood, which made it all seem very wrong to Lorelai.
The difference between Chris and Luke was - while Luke always seemed to be in a bad or at least gruffy mood, he didn't hide it. But while he was in a bad mood, he was still cute and charming and caring.
Chris was different. While in a bad mood he tried to be charming, couldn't really hide his gruffiness though and thus was quite an unpleasant person to be with.
Anyhow, Lorelai missed Luke.
Of course she got that he had a lot to do for his school, he was busy as hell and he had a family to feed (that sounded as if he was about to have a child instead of his sister).
Lorelai knew that his father wasn't the best cook and that Luke had had to jump in ever since his mother had died. Apparently Liz couldn't do that either, except for doing laundry she didn't really help in the household.
And the first day Luke was at the Gilmores, he looked worn out and tired. Lorelai couldn't ask him what was wrong, though, since he was at the kitchen and it would've been conspicuous for Lorelai to walk into the kitchen.
Thus they met afterwards, in front of the gate, where Lorelai had surprised him in the beginning of his employment.
They hugged tightly, Lorelai inhaling his scent deeply and hoping he wouldn't read too much into it.
"How are you?" she asked once they released each other.
"Stressed," Luke admitted but he was smiling gently. "I have an exam almost every day and I don't have any time to study for them. And I don't sleep a lot anymore. I've been thinking of dropping outta college."
"What? No!" Lorelai exclaimed. "That's just now, in the beginning. You're just not used to it yet but you'll soon know how to manage everything. And once Liz has her baby -"
"It'll get worse," Luke finished. "The baby's going to need food, it's going to scream all night, someone needs to help Liz with taking care of it. I've already told you about it. I think I should get a full time job and earn money for them. Once the baby's older, I can always go back to college."
"But you won't," Lorelai pointed out. "If you'd start working, you'll see how nice it is to earn your own money and you won't go back to college then."
"You know how it works? How, have you ever started college?" Luke challenged and Lorelai sighed.
"No. But yes, I know how this works. I've seen it many times, like with Tyler's friends. Please believe me, Luke."
"And please believe me, Lorelai, That I can't go on. Your mother offers a lot and that's great. And I get to cook for a family who enjoys my food -" Lorelai nodded in agreement, "but I need a full time job. It's not enough for myself, my sister and a baby. Do you think my dad earns a lot? Well, he doesn't, and what he's earning goes to the state. To pay off the house and taxes."
"I understand that," Lorelai sighed. "I really do, Luke. But what if you got a loan, then finish your studies and get a really good job and earn loads of money? Like five times more than without having studied. That'd be so much better."
"Lorelai - don't get me wrong, but you don't know how the world out there works. You're too young to know."
"Hm," Lorelai made. "You're not too wrong about that."
"I know," Luke replied and Lorelai grimaced. He had no idea how correct he was.
"Okay. Do what you want to do. But promise me to stay in my life?"
Luke grinned sloppily and reached forward, once again taking one of her curly strands between his fingers, pushing it behind her ear. "How couldn't I?" he said. "You're too charming to cut you out of my life."
He did it again.
Lorelai's heart race sped up and threatened to take her breath. His blue eyes looked at her so gently, her knees went wobbly and she had to grab his arm. She would have fainted if she didn't.
"Talking about yourself, charmer?" she heard herself say. Damn. She wasn't really flirting, or was she?
"Maybe we can agree on that we're both charming as hell," Luke said and dropped his hand from Lorelai's ear to her jaw. He placed his fingers below her chin and made her look at him. "My bus is leaving without me."
"Then go," Lorelai said. She hated to say it. She wanted him to stay.
"I should," Luke said. "By the way, I passed that Latin exam from last week."
"Luke!" Lorelai called. "Only two minutes ago you said you're bad at school!"
"I am. But you helped me at Latin. So me passing Latin is all your doing."
Lorelai shook her head. "Give yourself some credits. And now we only need someone who helps you at English and Spanish and then we're good. You don't need help at maths and sports, anything else?"
"Chemistry. But I already have help there ... more or less. She's bad too but we study together."
Lorelai swallowed, ignoring her throbbing heart. "That's good, Luke.
She knew she had absolutely no right to be jealous at someone she didn't know. A friend of Luke's, if even probably she was merely a study buddy. But as a matter of fact, Lorelai was jealous.
She wanted to offer him to help him in chemistry too, even though she had no clue about the subject. She just want him to get him away from her, no matter who she was.
Lorelai hated jealousy.
"So ... see you tomorrow," Luke broke the silence and smiled at her. "I need to go home, thinking of what to serve the Gilmore family tomorrow."
Lorelai chuckled. "Just serve them burgers. They'd like that."
"I assume Miss Gilmore would like that, but the missus wouldn't approve."
"You're assuming right," Lorelai chuckled and hugged him. She couldn't get enough of his hugs.
And somehow she hoped that Luke felt the same.
"I won't make burgers. They'll kill you."
"We'll see about that," Lorelai joked and - without thinking about it - she pressed a quick kiss on his cheek. "Good night, Luke."
"Night, Lorelai."
He watched her walking back to the house.
With a pain in his chest he noticed that he would never see her as just a friend. It just didn't work.
She was more than that.