Title: Kiss before crying
Name: Joy
Email: SleepingBeauty2@ziplip.com
Rating: PG
Rory headed to her room to change for her conversation with Dean. Feeling more like herself in jeans and a sweatshirt, she called her mom at work, "Mom."
"Hey sweetie. What's up?"
"I'm supposed to talk to Dean tonight," she said biting her lip.
"He asked to talk?"
"No, I did," Rory said, knowing what her mother would do.
"Wow! I'm coming home right now," Lorelei said as she motioned to her assistant to take over at the desk.
Exactly what she had been hoping for, Rory still felt the need to say, "Mom, you're at work. You don't have to come home."
"My shy and reserved daughter just went up to her ex-boyfriend and asked to talk to him- I'm coming home. In fact, I'm already in the car driving. What are you planning on talking about?"
"That's the thing- I'm not sure. I don't know how to bridge the conversation."
"Well, Ror what do you want?" Lorelei said as she tried to stay focused on driving and talking her daughter through the teen angst.
"I- I don't know," she said into the receiver.
"Then why did you ask him to talk?"
"Tristan told me to."
"That was lame… and what does that little weasel have to do with you and Dean," Lorelei said displaying her displeasure.
"Uh… Well…"
"Rory?"
"He got dumped at the party I went to with Lane. We sat and talked about being dumped. He leaned over and kissed me- I fled in tears."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't feel like hearing about it…"
Lorelei pulled into the driveway then entered the house. "Well, I won't give my opinion on that, but you said he told you to talk to Dean," Rory's mom said with hand on hip throwing her coat and phone on the sofa.
"He took me out for coffee after school. He made it pretty clear that he wanted to date me. I made it pretty clear I wasn't ready to date anyone else. He got all bent out of shape when he thought Dean had dumped me for not sleeping with him, but then caved to talking to Dean when I told him why we broke up," Rory said fidgeting in the chair by the phone.
"OK, Mr. Mary gets to hear why you broke up, but I don't! Now I'm hurt."
"I just know you'll make a big deal out of it."
"I have been alerted to big deal potential. I'll keep it in check," Lorelei offered, sitting on the sofa.
"Dean told me that he loved me. When I didn't say it back, he got all upset. That's why we broke up, I wasn't ready to say 'I love you,'" Rory said pulling her knees to her chest.
"So that's what this is about?"
"What?"
"Honey, what do you feel for Dean?" she said moved to the edge of the chair her daughter was in.
"I don't know. I'm sixteen. How am I supposed to know what love is?"
Lorelei stroked Rory's hair, "I knew I was in love with your dad at sixteen. You sure that has nothing to do with this."
"No… I don't know," she said with an upset pout.
"What do you want things to be like with Dean, honestly?"
"I want things to be the way they were before he said he loved me."
"That can't happen," she stated with the thirty-two years of wisdom she had. "How about dating Dean again and asking him to be patient on the love stuff. He knows about your dad and I. If you connect the dots for him, I'm sure he'd get it."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah," said Lorelei. "Now what time are you meeting him?"
"At five," responded Rory.
"You better get going."
Rory grabbed her coat and headed out the door, "Mom?"
"Yeah, honey."
"Thanks," Rory said with her lopsided grin.
"That's why I'm here."
The walk over to the grocery store was nerve wracking for Rory. She was basically going over to ask Dean out. Her palms were sweating and her stomach was doing summersaults, but she had no idea how nervous Dean was. He had been checking the clock every few minutes since she left. Pricing the same melon four times wasn't a great sign of confidence either.
He hoped she was coming by to talk about getting back together, but he didn't think he would be that lucky. Dean had been preparing for her to yell at him or tell him she couldn't ever see him again. His worse fear was she would say she was dating someone new and not to bother speaking to her ever again. He saw her coming down the street and he broke out in a cold sweat. Then he noticed she turned around briefly as if she decided not to bother with him. His heart sunk but was soon uplifted as she turned around again in determination.
Rory entered the store to see Dean staring at her smiling. "I wasn't sure you were actually coming," he said.
"Why would you think that?" she asked.
"Well, you turned around out there… and well, I thought…"
"You saw that, huh?" she said biting her lip.
"Thanks for coming," he said towering over her smiling. "Uh, let me get my coat and we'll go."
"All right," Rory said as she watched him enter the back room and then return.
As the couple exited the grocery store the owner called Miss Patty with the news that the towns favorite couple might be on the mends.
They walked in companionable silence for a little while before Dean became impatient. He wanted to know if she was going to break his heart again, "Rory, what did you want to talk about?"
She took a deep breath and then twiddled her fingers, "Well, I wanted to sort of explain. It took me a little while to figure out completely…"
He stared down at her soft hair and just wanted to hold her so badly. Keeping from taking her hand or putting his arm around her was killing him internally. He had brought it on himself but maybe things were changing.
"My parents were our age when they had me… My mom was in love at my age and that's always sort of scared me. I guess I'm just not ready to say the words… I care about you a lot. It's just the words are hard… Does that make sense?" Rory said looking directly into Dean's eyes. He swore his heart stopped for a minute.
Trying to find his voice he said, "Yeah, but I still don't know what this means for us… Is there an US?"
"I'd like there to be… I guess I wanted to ask you was if you would go out with me again and just be patient. Understand that this is my hang up and not about you," she said.
Dean couldn't take it anymore. He wanted to be back with Rory since an hour after he broke up with her. He dropped a light kiss on her lips and pulled her into his arms. "I'm sorry… I should have thought about it. It just hurt. I shouldn't have… Of course I'll go out with you again and as for patience, if I can attempt to read your favorite book with several Russian names over and over, I think we'll be fine."
He finally set her back down only to realize Rory was still holding on to him. When she finally let go they kissed a very sweet kiss. Dean's hands framed her face as he touched her cheek. Rory began to cry. "What the matter?" Dean asked wiping away the tears.
"I missed you… And I like your kisses," Rory said avoiding the phrase, 'I wanted to be kissing you the other night.' He smiled at his girlfriend and kissed her gently as he took her hand. "I should tell you…" she began, "Tristan isn't as bad as I thought."
Dean raised an eyebrow in disbelief, "Oh really. How is that?"
"He told me that three days was long enough for any guy to realize they had made a mistake. He also told me to come talk to you," she said as they walked down the street hand in hand.
With the same shocked expression Dean asked, "The accountant? But he likes you? Why would he do that?"
"We sort of established a friend thing after he asked me out a few times. He now knows he's not allowed to stare at me in class anymore," Rory said very proud of herself. "It seems to be more important to him that he stay on my good side then have me hating him."
"OK, I guess I'll have to be nice the next time I see him… Uh, did he… I'm a guy, so I have to ask. Did he try anything?" Dean asked. From the look on her face he knew he didn't want to hear the answer. He took a deep breath as she spoke.
"Well, he kissed me, but I burst into tears… It wasn't you…" she said in a whisper.
The pain in his chest grew for a second and then subsided, "It wasn't me?" They stood close together gazing into each others eyes, "I guess I can live with that." Dean kissed her waiting lips. The kiss was tender and slow. It was a healing kiss. "Uh… Can we go over to Luke's so I can gain admittance back in there? It sucks being the town villain." Rory giggled a bit as they headed over to Luke's.
Luke saw the couple approaching and asked Rachel to wait on them while he made a phone call. "Lorelei?" he whispered into the phone.
"Yes, who is this?" she asked.
"It's Luke!"
"Why are you whispering?"
"Do you know Rory is out with Dean?"
"Yes, I know. I have been swamped with calls. Go serve them, don't put Dean in a headlock, and be nice!" Lorelei demanded.
"All right!" Luke said in a huff.
A half an hour later Rory Gilmore returned from her outing with her reinstated boyfriend. "Mom," she called.
"Yeah?" Lorelei responded from the couch.
"Did you really throw out all that stuff I gave you?" Rory asked very concerned.
"If you go into your room for five minutes, I bet I can make it magically appear," Lorelei said with a smile.
"Thanks!"
"No problem baby!"