Title: It Was Always You
Author: Angeleyez
Summary: Future Fic: Rory left for college on bad terms with Jess. Now six years later Rory is happy and successful working as an advice columnist at a newspaper in New York City. Her best friend's sister just got engaged and Rory can't believe who the groom to be is.
Rating: PG: 13
Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah. You want the long version? See prologue. Here's the reader's digest version: Me poor. Don't own Gilmore Girls. Don't sue.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed. I never understood how important reviews were to authors until today. I was completely ecstatic at the sight of them. They made me so happy I did the snoopy dance. Heh. Thanks (and an extra special thanks to the reviewers with newspaper suggestions!!) *grin*
Oh and to Nameless: I had never heard of the story "When You Love Someone" until you mentioned it so I looked it up. I didn't actually read the story but I did read the summary. I'm sorry if my story is similar and if it is, it was not intentional. Please don't get mad! This is my first GG fic and I want everything to be perfect! Although I must admit there are a lot of stories out there that are similar to each other in story/idea. Anyways, I hope it's not too similar to Phoebe's and I swear I came up with this idea myself.
Sleep wasn't coming. It was within her grasp and just when she thought it was there, his face would enter her mind and she would be wide awake again.
Rory loved her sleep; God knows she needed it. But she hated the period between getting into bed and the actual drifting off. It was the one time where there wasn't anything to distract her from her thoughts. Any thoughts and worries she had pushed out of her mind that day would come back with a vengeance, and they would bring their friends.
She had tried everything to get to sleep. Even counting sheep. They hadn't worked. Neither had counting oompa loompas. They had just made her giggle.
It was Friday night and no, wait, it was early Saturday, and she really needed sleep if she wanted to survive lunch with Chris and the look-how-happy-and-in-love-we-are couple.
Love.
Her thoughts were plagued by that word. It was just four letters. One syllable. Such a simple word. And it brought nothing but pain.
Gah! She was sick of this. Night after night of laying awake with his face in her mind and that same question repeating itself over and over in her head.
What if?
That question had haunted her for six years. She couldn't stop thinking about what might have been, what could have been with… him. Better not to think of him by name. Better not to think of him at all.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Sleep was finally coming, she could feel it. But as she finally drifted off to dreamland she couldn't help remembering one of the last things he had said to her.
"You don't want me."
"This alarm clock is obviously defective! It never seems to wake me up!"
"Rory what did you expect? It's cheap and fuzzy."
"As all alarms clocks should be!"
"Would you go and get dressed? You are dripping all over the floor."
"Well this room needs a little change. The water damage will look quite nice with the juice stains."
Lane sighed. "Listen, you go prettify yourself. You got about five minutes. I'm going to the JavaHut to get a doughnut. You want a coff- Oh, wait stupid question."
"Thanks, Lane! What would I do without you?"
"Oh I don't know, live a horrible coffeeless existence? Because you know that's the only reason I'm here."
"Oh don't be silly! I would never be able to live without the coffee. I'd just die."
Lane laughed. "Very funny, ha ha. I'll be back in five." She headed toward the apartment door. "And you better be dressed by the time I get back!"
Rory then ran off to her room. She was running late as usual and the evil shower had run out of hot water. She was shivering from finishing up with cold.
Damn shower. What did I ever do to it? Well yeah I did kick it that one time. Rory continued thinking to herself as she threw on her clothes.
Five minutes later Rory was standing in front of her mirror admiring her speedy work. She brushed her hair and smoothed her white blouse. Perfect. She just needed her coffee and she was all set.
"Back!" Lane called as she came through the door. Rory came out of her room. "You look great!"
"Thanks. And double thanks for the coffee. I'll see you…"
"Tomorrow." Lane finished for her. "I'll be out late with Dave tonight."
"Out late with Dave. Why you two aren't married yet I'll never know."
"You know we both aren't ready for marriage. My god, I don't think we could even live together. We have been so off and on over the years. I like how it is now. No pressure to move forward. God I lo-"
"No!" Rory held up her hands. "Do not say the L word. I'm going to get enough of that today."
"Sorry. But hey if you need to get out of there just fake sick and run to the bathroom. Or better yet, just pass out. That always work."
"You know that is a better plan than the one I had. Pretending to faint is so much easier than actually gouging my eyes out. And a lot less messy too."
"Very true. Oh god. You have to go! You are supposed to be there...now!"
"Oh no!" Rory grabbed her coat.
"Coffee for you," Lane said as she handed it to Rory.
"See you tomorrow! Have fun with Dave!" Then she was running to the elevator.
Okay, five minutes late and five minutes away. What a great impression she was making. Ugh. What did it matter? Chris would understand. She did own a similar alarm clock.
Rushing down the busy sidewalk, Rory tried to drink her coffee. The tops the diner put on their coffee always got her annoyed. They were designed for minimal sippage. She ripped off the top and shoved it in her pocket. She needed big gulps.
Yes, that was better, Rory thought as drank her coffee. To someone else it would be hard to drink coffee and run down a street and dodge people at the same time. But Rory had mastered this. Over the years she grown very good at-
Obviously that woman did not have the same skills. She slammed into Rory causing the coffee to go all over Rory's blouse. Her white blouse.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" Rory stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. Deep breaths, deep breaths. "Damn, damn, double damn!" She didn't have time to go back to change and she was so late.
She started moving again. "It doesn't matter. Just a stupid stain. Just a huge, giant stain," she muttered underneath her breath.
Finally, minutes later Rory had arrive at Dino's Café. Looking at herself in the window she gasped. The wind had totally screwed up her hair and her cheeks were flushed red. And the stain. Oh boy. Taking a deep breath she went inside.
She immediately spotted Christine at a table in the back. Angela was next to her and who Rory guessed to be her fiancée was sitting across from her. Well, Rory thought, as long as they aren't sitting next to each other they can't kiss as much.
From where Rory was standing you would not guess that Chris and Angela were sisters. They looked nothing alike. Chris was blonde with green eyes and Angela was a blue-eyed brunette. In fact, the one time Rory had gone to lunch with the two of them the waitress had mistook Rory and Angela as sisters.
Rory began walking forward. Chris saw her and waved. And then Angela's fiancée turned around.
Suddenly Rory couldn't breathe. All of her breath actually left her body yet her legs kept moving her forward.
She had to be wrong, it couldn't be him. There was just no way.
Sitting at the table was the first thing she thought about in the morning and the last thing she thought about at night. It was his face that haunted her dreams.
And all of the old feelings came rushing back full force. It was like an old wound had opened up, one that had taken so long to close. Yet she continued walking as if nothing was wrong.
Here he was, right in front of her. She had imagined seeing him again so many times. For the life of her, she couldn't remember what she had wanted to say.
He looked surprised to see her, maybe even a little happy. But the look lasted only a few seconds before it fell back to his usual stoic expression.
She reached the table.
"Hey Rory! You remember my sister, Angela. And this is her fiancée."
Rory could only stare. After all this time. Six years.
Jess.
A/N: Weeee!! Hope you guys liked the chapter. I'll try to keep cranking the chapters out as fast as I can as long as I have the ideas and one person who actually likes this. I know where I want to go with this. I have the end all planned out. I have some sort of idea of what I want to do with the story right now. I just have to get it all out on my computer. Well review, review!