A/N: Thank you so much for your reviews! I'm so happy that you guys are still reading!

Chapter 27

'I can't believe you didn't tell her, Lorelai.' Jess said, pacing around the kitchen.

'I will. I'll tell her. It just wasn't the right time.' Lorelai replied. She was stooped by the fridge, emptying its components.

'I don't like this.' He stated blankly.

'I know and I'm going to tell her.' Lorelai promised, then smelled a carton of Thai food and said. 'Hey, do you remember when we ordered Thai food?'

'Um, Thursday?'

'Ugh.' Lorelai tossed the soggy paper box in the trash.

Jess grabbed a chair and sat backwards on it. 'Look, I had to delete another answering-machine message from her grandmother this morning. She's gonna notice. Or her grandma's gonna say something.'

'I'll tell her tonight. I just didn't want it to be a big deal.' Lorelai smelled the milk, closed it up and put it back.

'I don't get it. Why didn't you tell her on Sunday?'

'I had errands to run.' She explained weakly.

'And Monday?'

'She got the news about Yale. She was too stressed. It wasn't the right time.'

'And yesterday? Also not the right time?'

'Jess. That's enough.' Lorelai gave him an annoyed glance, then passed him a box of pizza. 'Does this mystery pizza smell okay to you?'

He sniffed the box. 'No. Definitely not.' He folded up the pizza before pushing it into the trash.

'Thanks for cleaning out the coffee machine yesterday by the way. The weird coffee aftertaste is gone now.' Lorelai said, as she wiped a stain on the top shelf of the fridge.

'What are you talking about? That was Rory.' He said with a shrug.

She turned at him with raised eyebrows. 'Rory hasn't cleaned the coffee machine in six years.'

'Well, she did.'

She gave him a knowing look. 'Okay.'

He shook his head at the subject change and drummed his fingers on the chair. 'Do you want me tell her?'

'No. Just don't get involved.' She sighed. 'I'll try and cheer her up and then I'll tell her. Tonight.'

'That's eight.' Rory said, crossing her arms.

Lorelai scoffed. 'It's not eight.'

'Eight pairs of heels. You're taking eight pairs of heels with you to Europe.' Rory repeated, hoping the seriousness of the situation would begin to sink in for her mother.

'That's four for each of us. It's not a lot.'

'The red heels?' She pointed incredulously to the strappy heels on the table. 'You wore those once to Friday night dinner and took the next three days off work 'cause your feet were swollen.'

'But… pretty.' Her mother pouted.

'No.'

'Fine. I'll take that one away.'

'Take them all away.'

'Fine. Four pairs.'

'Zero pairs.'

'Rory! We can't go to Spain and meet Antonio Banderas in dirty old sneakers. I need two pairs.'

Rory sighed. 'One pair.'

'But then, when I'm wearing heels, you won't have any to wear. I can't be wearing heels alone like a hooker.' She looked at her pleadingly. 'You wouldn't do that to your mother.'

'One pair. And if we do meet Antonio Banderas, he'll be all yours, sister.'

'I need you to be my wing-lady.'

'Gross.' Rory wrinkled her nose. 'No.'

'Fine. One pair for now.' Her mother relented, dropping the shoes. 'Now, t-shirts, right?'

'Yep. That's next on the list.' Rory ticked an item on her notepad.

'Okay, meet you back here in five minutes!' Lorelai ran back upstairs to her room.

Rory stepped back into her room and opened the wardrobe, staring into it for the hundredth time that morning.

'You know you're supposed to pack light, right?' Jess said, not looking up from his book.

'This is light.' Rory argued, trying to sound cheerful as she transferred another pile of clothes from her wardrobe onto her bed, where it landed on Jess's knees. It was hard to find space to dump all her clothes, since Jess was sprawled out diagonally on the bed. His head hung off the edge, upside down, half hidden behind the book he was reading. He was now using a small pile of her clothes as a makeshift neck-pillow. It'd been over two hours and he was still refusing to move.

She could feel him roll his eyes at her, though he wouldn't glance away from her copy of A Moveable Feast. There was no mistaking his sullen mood. 'You're missing the whole point of backpacking.'

'Jess.' She kneeled by the bed, resting her elbows on the mattress and sliding forward, inching her face closer to his.

He adjusted the book in his hands, but still wouldn't look up.

She sighed. This was all her mother's fault. Her mother had walked into her room when she got back from school, announcing that Kirk had just delivered their backpacks, their Europe backpacks, and that they needed to start packing right freaking now. School – and work and everything else in life – could wait.

It was an obvious attempt at cheering her up, seeing how down she'd been about the Yale financial aid news for the past two days. Rory had looked forward to packing, of course. It was one of her favorite things about travelling. But Jess was taking it as if he'd just found out she was being shipped off to a warzone.

'Backpacking's supposed to be light.' He argued again, for the umpteenth time.

'This is very light. So light. It's practically weightless.'

'It's your entire house.'

'You're moody.'

'I'm giving advice.'

'Gloomy advice.'

'It's been three hours and your bag's still empty.' He argued.

'Well, if you weren't just lying there, I'd be done faster.' She gestured.

'I'm reading.'

'Hemingway. You're reading Hemingway.'

'So?'

'Gloomy Mc-Gloomy-pants.' She forced the book away from his fingers and snapped it shut, which earned her another eyeroll and an accusing glare.

'What do you want?' He asked harshly.

His tone softened slightly when he saw her sad eyes. He explained. 'Don't expect me to be holding pompoms here, Rory.'

'I'm not. I'm not expecting you to.'

'Good, 'cause I'm not.' He reached his arms under her bed and pulled out another book. Wuthering Heights.

She shook her head, regretting that she told him where all her books were, as she leaned her head against the side of the bed, close to his cheek. 'It's just a month. One month. We can survive one month.'

'I know.' He said sullenly.

'You can travel too. You always said you wanted to do a road trip.'

'I'm gonna go get something to eat.' He announced, snapping the book shut.

'Gloomy Mc-gloomy—'

'Want anything?' He cut her off, lifting himself out of the bed.

Once he walked out to the kitchen, she heard him sigh in contempt at the sight in front of him. It wasn't a pleasant sight, she had to give him that. Their kitchen looked like it'd been hit by a tornado. Clothes were strewn across every corner, piled up on chairs, heaped on the table and flung on kitchen cupboards. An array of smaller bags, scarves and shoes littered the surface of the kitchen counter and spilled out onto the floor. Lorelai's backpack was lying open in the far corner by the door.

'Mom got all her stuff down here so we can coordinate.' Rory explained, though he hadn't asked.

'Gr-eat.' He said, sidestepping a pile of shoes on his way to the fridge. 'And of course, nothing in the fridge.'

'We're going to Luke's later.' She justified.

He scoffed. 'Well, that just about tops this freaking –'

Lorelai's voice interrupted from upstairs. 'Rory, where's my B-52's t-shirt? Is it in your room?'

'No! It's in your room!' Rory called back, then turned to grab Jess's arm, pulling him towards her.

'Jess, did you take it?' Lorelai's voice came again.

'Oh, jeez.' Jess wrinkled his face. He seemed so disgusted with the prospect, she had to laugh.

Before he could make his way back to her room, she stepped into his path. 'Jess, wait.'

'Will you tell your crazy mom I didn't take her clothes?'

'Done, now can we please talk?'

'Can't. I'm busy.'

'Doing what?'

'Drinking this soda.' He lifted the green soda can.

'You hate lemon coke.'

'Not when it's spiked with vodka.'

She cocked her head. 'There's no vodka in the house.'

'That you know of.' He muttered and tried to step past her, but she planted herself firmly in front of him. She leaned into his chest, wrapping her arms around his waist. He looked away, continuing to mope.

'One month in Europe won't change anything. You know that, right?' She murmured softly, kissing his jaw, which unclenched slightly at her touch. Still, the small kisses she pressed to his cheek did little to soften his posture any further.

'Jess…' She pleaded, planting a soft kiss on the corner of his mouth. It seemed to work, at least a little, as he slumped his shoulders and turned to meet her lips. The kiss he gave her was brief and unexciting, but he didn't pull away when she went for another. Progress.

But then, Lorelai's voice came up again. 'What about my blue jacket with the green buttons? Is it at the dry cleaners?'

Rory groaned, as Jess stepped away from her limply. 'Mom, you're the one who picked up the dry cleaning!'

'When did I pick it up? Last Wednesday?' Lorelai called, her voice getting closer.

'I don't know!'

'Thursday?'

'I don't know!'

Jess hung his head in exasperation, retreating into Rory's room and slamming the door. Rory could only shake her head at his attitude.

'Friday?' Her mother called again.

'Yes.' Rory threw up her arms.

'Really?'

'No! I don't know!'

'What if I get the fur jacket instead?' She could hear her mother thudding down the stairs. A few seconds later, she appeared, holding out a grey jacket with a furry collar. 'What do you think of this?'

Rory touched the collar and frowned. 'I'm getting sweaty just touching it.'

Lorelai waved the jacket in front of her daughter again. 'Doesn't it look Nordic? It'll fit perfectly when we go to Finland.'

'We're traveling in July.' Rory reasoned.

'So? Isn't Finland always cold?'

'Take it back upstairs.' Rory instructed.

'Mean.' Lorelai pouted, then turned to grab another frivolous item. 'But wait, if I take the furry jacket, I can also take this maroon dress that looks exactly like Kylie Minogue's dress in the music video for Chocolate.'

'Yes, I'm sure they'll mistake you for Kylie Minogue in Finland.'

She reconsidered. 'I'll have to go blonde, won't I?'

'And Australian.'

Lorelai put an indignant hand over her chest. 'Are you suggesting I can't put on a very convincing Australian accent?'

'No. What I'm suggesting is that your Australian accent is more Matthew McConaughey than Nicole Kidman.'

She frowned. 'Who cares? We'll be in Europe. They won't be able to tell.'

Right then, the phone rang for the tenth time that day. Rory jumped up to answer, but Lorelai was faster. She pressed a button and it went to voicemail.

'Let me answer. You don't even know that it's grandma.'

'Uh, yes, yes I do.' Lorelai said knowingly.

'You can't keep fighting about the Chilton money thing forever.' Rory pointed out.

'Not forever. Just a few more weeks and then we go to Europe.'

Rory sighed as the unmistakable voice of Emily Gilmore sounded through the phone.

'—Getting a little ridiculous. You know how much I hate talking to a machine. But if I must, then here it is. I'm calling to remind Rory that she needs to come by the house this afternoon to pick out dresses to wear for her graduation. This afternoon, Lorelai –'

'What happens if we throw the phone out?' Rory wondered.

'She'll send pigeons. It'll be worse.' Lorelai replied, crossing her arms.

'Do I really have to go this afternoon?'

'No, just ignore her, Rory. She can pick her own dresses. My mother's been dressing herself just fine for the past 50 years.'

Rory frowned. 'But… She's calling like 30 times a day. Would it really be that bad if I just pick up the phone?'

'It'll be like the Mount Everest of bad.'

'But, mom –'

Emily's voice continued. ' – Tried to confirm with you yesterday and the day before that, but I'm starting to think your phone is broken. I need to speak with Rory about the –'

Lorelai quickly deleted the message.

'What's going on?' Rory looked at the phone suspiciously, then at her mother.

'Come on. Just forget about it. Cheer up. We're packing. This is fun.'

'But you just –' Rory pointed at the phone.

Lorelai shook her head, pulling her back to the kitchen. 'I'll go put on some music. We can have a dance party and jump around the heaps of clothes lying around.' Lorelai spun Rory around by the arms. Then, she paused, staring intently at her daughter's face. 'You're okay, right? About everything?'

'I'm nothing but smiles.' She smiled extra wide to prove it.

'It's just… You still seem so down, Rory.'

'I'm not down. I said I was gonna look for scholarships to cover college tuition so that not getting financial aid won't matter.'

'But I already told you, honey, we can make it work, even without the financial aid.'

'I won't let you pay for Yale. I'm looking for scholarships and I'll find another way to get the money.'

'I don't want this to be something you stress over.' Her mother said.

'I'm not. I'm fine.' Rory said, though she could feel her stomach knotting again.

Lorelai nodded, not looking convinced. 'And I take it Jess is still working on his audition for the Addams family?'

'I think he's doing his Marilyn Manson impression now.'

'Rory… did you talk to him?'

'I… Not yet, but I will. He's just… processing.'

'Well, see, I always pictured us in party mode while packing. A full-on Cyndi Lauper music party with dancing and tiaras and boas and junk food and those tiny cupcakes with the mountains of whipped cream on top.'

'What's your point?'

'Uh, my point is that your boyfriend's killing our vibe.'

'Be nice. He'll come around.'

'But I want our party.' Lorelai whined.

Rory sighed. 'Lorelai Gilmore, no amount of whipped cream cupcakes is gonna make me let you bring the furry jacket.'

Lorelai groaned. 'But what about the maroon dress? The perfect Kylie-Minogue maroon dress?' She pouted. 'You know if I bring along the maroon dress, I can bring this pretty maroon bra that totally matches.' She held up the lacey item by the straps, blinking innocently.

'You're really intent on looking like a 40-dollar stripper, aren't you?'

'It's cute.' Her mother defended.

Rory shook her head. 'Forget it. You're not doing anything slutty while we're in Europe.'

'I can't help it if Antonio falls instantly in love with me!'

'I doubt he will when I show him our Christmas card from four years ago.'

'Hey, you said we'd never mention the botched dye job!'

'I'm sure he'll think the red mermaid hair goes perfectly with the maroon dress and bra.'

'How did I raise my daughter to –' Lorelai started.

Jess burst out of Rory's door at that unfortunate moment. 'I still have a headache, have you got any –' He took one look at the lacy lingerie in Lorelai's hands and squirmed, shielding his eyes like they were burned. 'Oh, not in the freaking – Jeez.'

The two girls shared a look and burst out laughing as he retreated back into the room and slammed the door again.

'Did you ever consider it may be possible we may have too much stuff?' Rory pondered on the way to Luke's.

'Never.' Lorelai grunted bravely, her back hunched under her overstuffed backpack.

At the same time, Jess, who was making a heroic effort not to show the extent of the backpack's weight, said. 'Yes.'

As soon as they walked in, Lorelai dropped her backpack right in front of Luke's door and fell into the nearest empty chair. She announced. 'We are so not walking around Europe with those annoying things on our backs.'

Jess dropped Rory's backpack by the wall with a little more care and settled into the chair next to her. Folding his arms on the table, he dropped his head into the crook of his elbow and put on his rehearsed scowl. He looked around the diner, trying to detect any changes since he'd left it. It felt strange to be sitting at a table and ordering as a customer instead of being behind the counter.

'But how will we backpack through Europe without backpacks?' Rory had her arms stretched out in despair.

'Oh, please. At least you can bully your boyfriend into carrying your heavy bags for you.' Lorelai gestured at him.

'Hey, he offered.' Rory said indignantly.

'I did not offer.' Jess said moodily, though he couldn't help that his mouth twitched when Rory kissed his cheek.

Lorelai suggested. 'Maybe he can carry both of our bags.' She turned to him again. 'Jess, can you carry both our bags? I'll make Bambi-eyes at you just like Rory does.'

Rory glared at her mother's insensitivity.

'You're cracked. Both of you.' He scoffed, resting his chin on his elbow again.

Lorelai went on, kicking Rory's foot as she gave her backpack a death glare. 'All the time we talked about backpacking, I never pictured us with backpacks.'

'What did you picture?' Rory asked, kicking her mother's foot back.

'Sexy, accommodating European men with neat mustaches –'

'Please don't finish that.' Jess cut her off. 'And that's my foot you're kicking by the way.'

Lorelai rolled her eyes. 'At least my new walking shoes are all broken in. If you count broken toes, broken skin…' She cradled her foot in her hands and began taking off her shoes.

Luke walked over to their table, shaking his head in disapproval. 'Don't do that.'

'Don't do what?'

'Don't take off your shoes. This is a restaurant.' He sighed.

'I don't see a 'No clothes, No shoes, No service' sign.' Lorelai challenged.

'It's right here.' Luke pointed at his face. 'Don't do it.' He said, giving her a stern look, which she ignored. Then, he turned to Jess and cleared his throat. 'Well, Jess. It's been a while, hasn't it?'

'Luke.' Jess replied coldly in greeting.

'If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were avoiding me. And the diner.' The older man said, with a hint of bitterness.

Lorelai and Rory shared a look. Had he been avoiding Luke? Still? How had they missed this?

When Jess didn't reply, Luke cleared his throat. 'So, three burgers, large fries, pancakes on the side?'

Lorelai nodded and smiled. 'Angel.'

'I know.' Luke scoffed. 'So when you planning to travel?'

'Should be the day after graduation.' Lorelai answered.

'But we haven't booked yet.' Rory added.

'But we'll book soon.' Lorelai looked at Rory. They held each other's eyes in silent debate.

Luke stared at Jess for a moment, but when the boy refused to lift his head, he sighed and turned to Lorelai again. Gesturing at Lorelai's backpack, which was blocking the front door, he said. 'Can you move your stuff?'

'Can? No.' Lorelai answered cheekily. 'Would if we could? Debatable.'

Luke gave a dramatic sigh and lifted Lorelai's bag effortlessly, leading to another round of shameless flirtation between them.

Rory turned to Jess, who was staring out the window. 'Jess. Are you okay?' She stroked his hair softly, dropping her voice. 'Were you really avoiding Luke? Is that why you never came to Luke's with us before?'

'Look, let's just eat and go, okay?' He muttered quietly, sighing at Rory's disappointed look.

Luke turned to Jess again. 'Your mom called again by the way. Which you would've known if you'd bothered to listen to any of my messages.'

'I'm not talking to her.' Jess said curtly.

'A five-minute call, Jess. Will a five-minute phone call really kill you?'

'Yes.' He replied.

'Look, I had to tell her about what happened with your school. She just wants to talk to you. She's not going crazy or anything.' Luke said.

He shook his head, wishing Luke would stop pretending to know what Liz was like. Of course, she'd go crazy. She was prone to going crazy over grocery lists and the placement of the TV in their living room. And it wasn't something he particularly missed.

'I also told her Jimmy dropped by.'

'You what?' He could feel something stirring inside him.

'You should call her. In fact, I might not get a hold of you again so I'm calling her right now.' Luke set off towards the phone.

'She won't pick up.' Jess called. It was Monday afternoon. His mother was hungover like all hell on Mondays and she'd never pick up the phone. With any luck, it'd already be thrown against the wall and wouldn't even ring.

He was all too aware of both pairs of blue eyes on the table staring at him in concern, maybe even pity. Suddenly, the headache, the stares, the arguing with Luke, this whole diner… It was all too much. He rose from his seat, and headed for the door, hearing the all-too-familiar slam of the door behind him.

Rory was up in an instant, determined to go after him.

'Don't. Rory, don't.' Lorelai said, grasping her daughter's arm.

'I have to go talk to him.'

'No, you don't. This is too much for him. You going to Europe and his fight with Luke and his mom… it's bigger than you. You need to give him space to cool off.'

'No, we need to –'

'Need to what? Talk about this? Is that what you were gonna say? Because, honey, judging by his reaction today, I think you've both been doing a crappy job at that.' She scoffed.

'You insisted we do the packing today!'

'How could I have known he'd be so mentally unprepared? It shouldn't exactly be a surprise to him.'

'It's not my fault he's upset!'

'We're leaving for Europe in two weeks and you two seem like you're hearing about it for the first time!'

'We didn't get a chance to talk about it yet. But we will.'

'You've been together for what, close to a year? And you've been in each other's faces everyday for weeks now and all this time you both knew you'd be leaving for Europe after graduation and you never talked about it? It never came up?' Lorelai threw her hands up. 'I know you're always wrapped up in each other, but you never came up for air and thought, 'oh, maybe we should talk about this big event that's gonna put us on different continents over the summer'?'

'We've had a lot to deal with. There was a lot going on.'

'No, honey. He had a lot to deal with. Think about how overwhelming all of this must be for him.'

'Why are you taking his side? This is overwhelming for me too.'

'I'm not taking sides. I'm Swiss, babe. But you owed it to him to talk about the hard, uncomfortable stuff before it catches up to you both.'

'That's not fair. Jess and I do talk about stuff.'

'Really? So you have a plan for staying together when you go to Yale, is that right? And he knows what he'll be doing after graduation? And you've talked about whether he'll move to New Haven or Hartford or New York or freaking Hawaii?'

'Mom, stop!'

Lorelai went on unimpeded. 'Or will he stay in Stars Hollow? And if you'll see each other when you're in college, then who will meet whom? Where will you meet? How often? And –'

'Stop it! Just stop!'

'You're acting like this is a serious relationship, Rory, like you're completely in love with the guy, but you two have no plan, no idea how you'll make this work. And, honey, this is you we're talking about. You're the girl who plans her week in fifteen-minute intervals.'

'So? Maybe I'm being spontaneous. I'm allowed to be spontaneous.'

'Uh-uh, Rory.' She shook her head resolutely. 'This isn't spontaneity, it's avoidance. The way this is going, you're both setting yourselves up for some serious heartbreak here.'

'I need some air.' Rory rose from her chair.

'Don't go to him, Rory. He's not ready for a serious conversation right now. He's too emotional and so are you.'

'I don't wanna talk about this anymore!'

'Rory –'

'No!' She pushed back her chair and ran out of the diner tearfully. 'Don't come after me.'

A/N: I hope this chapter didn't feel too rushed. I'm trying my best to move the events along. As always, let me know what you think please!