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"Happy Birthday!"
Jess rolls over, groaning, and looks up to see Rory grinning at him. She's taken off the tanktop she sleeps in, pushing her chest onto his and giving Jess a kiss. Jess sleepily kisses her back, enjoying the nudge of her breasts, but is too tired to give Rory a real kiss. How old is he now? Right, twenty-one. Jess groans slightly and Rory lightly pokes his arm.
"Hey, what's with the grumpiness?"
"Nothing...just tired."
"You're twenty-one," Rory tells Jess, making him groan again. "Feeling that extra year older?"
"Something like that."
"You don't want to go and buy your first drink?"
"Not exactly my first."
"Your first legal one," Rory says rolling her eyes and Jess remarks, "Kind of early in the day. Well, actually -" He was about to make a remark on how Liz got started long before noon on her drinks of the day but stops himself. Jess doesn't want to think about Liz, especially not today. He rubs the sleep from his eyes and laughs as Rory kisses him again, stopping to pull off her underwear.
"You're not awake enough for that?" she teases, running a hand across his leg and Jess says honestly, "I want to be. Must be my encroaching age."
"Lie still," Rory says and, before Jess can ask what she means she's on top of him, kissing him all over and by the time Jess is so awake he can't stand it, Rory smiles, shakes her head and straddles him, kissing Jess as he pushes inside her. Rory starts to move with him, gasping slightly and Jess can barely catch his breath. Rory's eyes are bright, her skin flushed, and Jess locks his gaze on hers. He could float away on those eyes. Rory moves harder, closing her eyes, gasping faster, and Jess tries to match her rhythm, holding her hips. They rock faster, melded to one, breaths ragged. Jess tries to focus but knows he can't hold off much longer. Fuck. He moves with Rory's slickness, feeling perspiration bead down his chest, but then a strand of her hair tickles Jess's arm and he comes with a loud groan. Rory breathes harder and harder and then Jess feels her come too and with a cry she arches up before falling down on his chest. They lie still for a moment, a tangle of sweaty arms and legs and then Jess sheepishly says, "Sorry."
"For what?"
"Your hair tickled me - I could have kept going."
"For how much longer?" Rory teases and Jess grins. It would probably have only been minutes.
"Oh, hours."
"Right," Rory says with a smirk and then smiles properly, leaning into his chest. "Happy Birthday, Jess."
"Thank you," Jess says, kissing her shoulder. He's pretty confident in thinking it's the best sex they've ever had. He lies back, utterly content, and rolls to his side when Rory gets up to use the bathroom. Jess lifts up the book she was reading, or trying to read, the other day. Jess is halfway through and finding it pretty good, but Rory hasn't given it another shot. She seemed kind of weird when he asked her about it, but maybe she feels awkward not finishing it or something. Rory gets defensive over stuff like that.
After showering, Jess finds a relatively clean pair of pants and a shirt before kissing Rory goodbye.
"See you later."
"It's not fair that you have work on your birthday."
"I agree."
"There should be a law against it."
"Again, agreed, but sadly, not to be."
"We'll just have to change the law," Rory says with a sigh. "So begins our life of crime."
"What about that whole Thelma and Louise thing you have with Lorelai?"
"We can only aspire to that," Rory says but her voice is sad. Jess bites his lip - what did he have to go mentioning Lorelai for? He lifts his hand in an awkward half-wave and heads to the restaurant.
Work is great up until the moment Brad claps a massive hand on Jess's shoulder, calling him the birthday boy. Jess didn't want anyone to know it was his birthday - he's silently wondering who ratted him out until he remembers mentioning it weeks ago when asked when he was. Why the hell didn't Jess say a fake date? Moron. Now Brad is loudly talking about buying Jess a drink after work and, before it can develop into anything solid, Jess quickly holds up his hand and abruptly shakes his head.
"I'm good."
"What do you mean, you're good?" Brad demands. "It's your twenty-first birthday!"
"So what?" Jess asks and Brad stares, laughing in disbelief.
"So what? So you only turn twenty-one once."
"I'm busy after work," Jess says automatically but Brad shakes his head.
"One beer? Come on, man. If you don't drink I'll get you a lemonade."
Jess is about to comment that he thought the whole point was it being a legal drink, but Brad looks weirdly hopeful and Jess starts to feel like a jerk. He starts scrubbing a plate and says, "One drink."
One drink turns to three. They're talking about the worst jobs they've ever had and Jess and Brad both ponder if their current one is in the running at the same time. They chuckle, clinking their glasses, and Jess feels like he's in some cheesy Bette Midler movie. The beer has made him feel pleasantly relaxed but he shakes his head at another. He doesn't want to get back drunk.
"I'm going out with my girlfriend."
"Miss Yale," Brad remarks and Jess says, "She has a name."
"Sure. What was it?"
"Rory," Jess says but despite Brad's nod he gets the sense she'll always be Miss Yale in his head.
"Still with her then."
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"No reason," Brad says, backing off. He swallows the last of his beer and asks, "How come you're so secretive about everything? You're always reading or look like you want to be reading."
"I usually do."
"This is going to sound super cheesy, but don't you get lonely?"
"I'm fine," Jess says shortly. He gets to his feet and says, if only to shut Brad up, "How about shooting some pool?"
Brad looks at Jess with a funny expression ascertaining if he's being serious, when a loud voice shrieks behind them, "Baby!"
Jess feels his whole body turn from boiling to pure ice. He slowly turns around to see the voice belonging to Liz who is grinning ear to ear, her arms making a ridiculous rattle from the wooden charms she has decorated on her jacket.
"What are you doing here?" Jess asks and Liz exclaims, "To see my baby boy on his birthday! Everybody, this is my son Jess and it's his birthday today!"
Jess looks around for a convenient trapdoor. People are sniggering, Brad wearing an expression somewhere between confusion and amusement and Jess hisses, "Liz, not here!"
"What do you mean, not here!" Liz cries. "You're twenty-one, my baby boy! I'll buy us a round of beer."
"No," Jess says just as Brad says, "That'd be great."
Beaming, Liz hustles to the bar and Jess sinks down onto his seat. Beer with a guy from work is one thing. Beer with his mother is a different story. Jess rubs his knuckles against his cheek and glowers when Brad says, "She seems nice."
Liz returns with three slopping glasses and, halfway through three mortifying childhood stories, Jess stands up, spilling the beer onto the table.
"I'm leaving."
"Jess - hey, wait for me."
Jess strides out with Liz on his heels, not bothering to say goodbye to Brad. He marches to the middle of the sidewalk and stops only when Liz cries, "Wait, please, Jess!"
"What are you doing here?" Jess demands, whirling around. "I know, I know, it's my birthday. But how'd you know I was here?"
"Luke told me where you work,"Liz says eagerly. "I went there and this janitor guy, who was a total sweetie by the way, told me you'd gone to this bar. I asked him to tag along but he has to work for another two hours. My Jess, out with a pal! Can I see where you live?"
"No!" Jess is furious. Luke called her? He was half hoping his uncle would call him tonight but now Jess thinks he'll ignore the call if he does. He doesn't want Luke to even think of birthday wishes.
"Why?" Liz asks, looking slapped, and then she adds, "I guess I know," before Jess can answer.
"Good," Jess says forcefully. "You can go back to Stars Hollow, enjoy the icecream social or whatever. The thrilling sequel to the Liz saga, now with husband number four. Maybe this one is dumb enough to stick around."
"Hey."
"Don't come visit me."
"It's your birthday," Liz pleads. "You're my kid. You know Jess, when they laid me in your arms all I could think about was how smart you were. I knew already. And I wondered how the hell you came out of me. I still wonder that."
"Me too," Jess says roughly. "Talking about what we remember, walks down memory lane aren't such a fun stroll for me, okay?" A memory is fresh in Jess's mind, his sixth birthday and Liz forgot. It was a hot day and she'd promised the circus and she forgot. She was out all morning and didn't remember until evening. It still stings to think of.
Liz nods, looking down, and Jess starts walking away. She waits for him to reach the corner before calling, "I love you!"
Jess is still incensed when he gets back to the apartment. He curses the door as it refuses to open, giving it a harder kick than necessary. He just wants to sleep - screw going out. His thoughts on how to tell Rory are interrupted by a horrific smell of burning. Jess runs inside, heart thumping painfully in his mouth, but then he sees Rory bent over a burnt mass, submerged in a fog of smoke.
"What the hell is going on?" Jess demands and Rory turns to face him. There is a large streak of flour across her cheeks and she says, "I wanted to bake you a cake."
Her voice is filled with embarrassment. It's too smoky in the room to see but Jess guesses her face is red as well as white from the flour. Rory adds, "Guess that was a dumb idea, huh?" and Jess silently goes over to the window, forcing it open. For once he's glad the place doesn't even have a smoke alarm. The beer has gone to his head, aching through his skull, and the stench in the kitchen isn't helping. He grabs the blackened mound which is stuck to the plate Rory has slipped it onto.
"Why did you try and bake?" he demands. "You use the oven to store shoes! Have you even successfully turned one on before?"
"I just wanted it to be a surprise," Rory says in a small voice and Jess snaps, "Great idea! You probably doubled the electric bill while you were at it! This just caps the perfect day!"
Rory's lip trembles and through the thick air Jess can see her tear up a little. God, he's an asshole. Tentatively he steps closer to her.
"I'm sorry," he says sincerely. "Ignore me Rory - I'm a jerk."
"I shouldn't have tried to bake."
"You shouldn't have to listen to me be an ass. You were doing something for me and I just - God, I'm so sorry. You should make me sleep out here."
"The kitchen isn't too far from the bed," Rory points out. Her voice is wobbly but she smiles as Jess says, "I'll sleep on the floor."
"I think you're good."
"Make me eat that cake then," Jess says, making Rory laugh. "I'm so sorry, Rory. I just had a bad night."
"Why - what happened?"
"I ran into Liz. Well, she ran into me."
"What?" Rory asks, putting an arm around him, and Jess says, "Luke told her where I work. She came to wish me a happy birthday."
"Oh." Rory doesn't sound sure of what to say, which makes two of them.
"Yeah. That was my reaction too."
"Well, did you talk to her?"
Jess shrugs. He doesn't want to go over it. It's his birthday, isn't that supposed to be his best day of the year? Some junk like that.
"Do you still want to go out?" Rory asks and Jess shakes his head.
"I'm tired. Can we just hang out?"
"Of course - but can we still get pizza? I mean, I'm starving and there's no air in here but besides that, it is your birthday. You should have pizza on your birthday."
"I can't argue with that," Jess says.
"Good - let me go wash my face. I don't think I want flour to be my new look."
"I think it's cutting edge," Jess jokes, making Rory laugh, and brushes some off her nose. Rory washes the rest off and adds, "I wish I had a real gift. The cake was so stupid."
"It's okay."
"It's not. I'll make it up."
"You have," Jess promises Rory. It's the best birthday he can remember. Jess smiles for the first time all night, and he and Rory exit the apartment into the new year of his life.