The next morning, on the way to school, Rory stopped by the diner to speak to Jess. She nodded at Miss Patty and Babette, who were sitting morosely by the window, hunched over a skimpy breakfast of dry toast and coffee. "Hey, doll," Babette said absently.
Timidly, Rory approached the counter. She felt she had to have a serious talk with Jess, but she had no idea what to say. The truth of the matter was, she had been thinking of having sex with him. She had been thinking about it a lot. It just hadn't been the right moment. She had been distracted. She hadn't felt sexy. Wasn't it supposed to be romantic, rather than something you just did on the spur of the moment?
Luke was standing with his arms crossed over his chest. He had a little wad of toilet paper stuck to his chin. He'd recently taken up shaving. He wasn't used to it, and frequently cut himself. Rory smiled at him. "I think having an open sore is a violation of the Health Code."
Luke scowled. "Humph. You want breakfast?
"I wanted to talk to Jess." Rory looked around.
"Is he here?"
Luke poured her a cup of coffee. He went over to the stairs and shouted, "Jess! Get your ass down here!"
Rory sat on one of the stools at the counter, tucking her skirt around her legs. She crossed her ankles. She picked up the coffee cup and looked at it. She sort of pretended to take a sip, and then put it back on the counter. She looked up when she saw Jess come down the stairs. "Hi," she said.
"Hi," said Jess. He stood there looking at her. He wasn't sure what to say. He wanted to turn around, go back upstairs, and give himself more time to prepare. He reflected that he really should have planned ahead. What does a guy say to a girl who has shot him down? A girl he's tried to get into the sack, when she plainly wasn't ready? Especially when the driving force behind his efforts was jealousy of her perfect former boyfriend? I am not jealous of Dean, he told himself.
Luke raised an eyebrow. "What the hell is wrong with you two?" When no answer was forthcoming, he asked, "Rory, do you want some breakfast?"
Rory was startled. She'd forgotten Luke was there. "Oh, okay. How about some pancakes?"
"Felix!" Luke shouted. "Pancakes!"
From the kitchen came, "Okay, boss." There was a sizzling sound as batter hit the griddle. Felix was Luke's new short order cook. He was an ex-convict from Louisiana with tattoos covering 30% of his body. Felix had moved to Stars Hollow to start over. He was renting a room from Kirk's mom. Kirk was very fond of Felix, because he was the only one who could keep Cat Kirk in line. Felix may or may not become important to this story later.
Jess, who had been letting Rory twist in the wind, finally decided to speak. "Are you really going to eat those pancakes, or are you just going to pretend to eat them and then say you have to run to catch your bus? Because we could eliminate the middle man here."
"Jeez, what was I thinking?" Luke leaned into the kitchen. "Felix, cancel the pancakes!"
"Hey!" Felix shouted. "I already poured the batter!"
"I guess you're right," Rory said to Jess. "I never do eat anything, not really."
"Someone is eating these pancakes!" Felix called. He hated it when people said they were going to do something, and then didn't do it. That was why he went to prison in the first place.
"Someone will eat the pancakes!" Luke shouted. Felix was moody, and a lot of trouble, but he was a great short order cook. Luke considered his reflection in the side of the milkshake machine. He peeled the toilet paper off his face. It started to bleed. He looked at Rory and Jess, a line of blood dribbling down his chin. "Are you guys fighting? Jess?"
"No," said Jess.
"Yes," said Rory.
"What did you do, now?" Luke asked Jess.
Jess was irritated. "Jeez! Why is it always me?"
"It's nothing," Rory said quickly.
"Are you sure?" Jess asked her.
She looked at him. "I'm sorry," she said.
Jess was sorry too, but he didn't say so. That wasn't his style. "Okay," he said. He leaned over the counter and gave her a kiss. Rory smiled at him. She took his hand, and kissed him back. Jess tugged on her bottom lip with his teeth, thinking that she was so cute he wanted to carry her upstairs and throw her in his bed. He moved closer to the counter, so Rory wouldn't see anything she shouldn't see.
"Jess," Luke said, dabbing at his chin with a rag, "refills at table six."
"In a minute," Jess choked out.
"Are you okay?" Rory asked, concerned.
"Now, Jess." Luke was starting to get grouchy.
"Give me second," Jess gasped. He pulled away from Rory's soft, pink lips, thinking: two times two is four, four times four is - oh man!
"Jess?" Rory asked. His face was red. He sort of looked like he was dying. Rory bit her lip and looked at her lap, blushing. That only made matters worse for Jess, because Rory was very pretty when she blushed.
There was a bang. Rory looked over her shoulder, and Jess looked up. Dean had come into the diner. The problem Jess had been having? That went away in a hurry. "Hey, Rory," Dean said cheerfully. Over her head, he smiled at Jess. "Jess."
"Dean," said Jess, his jaw clenched.
"Dean," Rory said. She looked at Jess. He didn't seem too bothered. She turned back to Dean and smiled up at him with real warmth.
Dean grinned at her. "Still sore?"
Rory shot Jess a worried glance. "I'm okay," she said, turning back to Dean.
"We sort of ran into each other last night," Dean explained to Jess.
Rory swiveled in her seat, to watch Jess's reaction. "Literally," she added.
"I knocked her off her feet," Dean said, and his tone was pregnant with subtext.
"You should watch out for yourself," Jess said stiffly. "It would be a shame if somebody got hurt."
In the middle, Rory wasn't catching everything. She would have had to twist around each time one of the boys spoke, and look him in the eye. She wasn't prepared to do that anymore. "How are you?" she asked Dean. "What's up?"
"Aw, gee." Dean rubbed his head, and put on a beleaguered expression. "You remember when you told me you'd help me with my college application? I'm kind of in a bottleneck. I was wondering if I could take you up on it?"
Behind Rory, Jess shook his head in exasperation. He shot Dean a knowing look.
Rory looked up at Dean. She didn't see anything wrong with the request. He had asked her right in front of Jess. Just to be sure, she looked over at Jess. Dourly, Jess shrugged. "Okay," she told Dean. "Sure. Oh, there's my bus!" Propping herself on her fingertips, she leaned over the counter and gave Jess a quick kiss.
Dean had to ball up his fists and put them in his pockets to keep himself from touching her. That Chilton skirt was a lot shorter than it used to be.
"Bye!" Rory called out, seemingly to everyone. She ran out of the diner, with her skirt fluttering and her long hair streaming behind her. Both boys watched. Even a casual observer would have seen them shift uncomfortably, swallowing hard.
The minute she was gone, Jess said, "Smooth. You're a real piece of work."
Dean shrugged. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"She's not going to fall for your act," Jess said.
Dean gave him a dark look. "She fell for yours."
"You dumped her," Jess said. "And you did it in front of the whole town."
Dean smiled. "Rory doesn't like to fail."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Only that I've known her a lot longer than you have."
"And?"
"Getting dumped buy her boyfriend in front of the whole town is a pretty big failure."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Jess had his hands on the counter. He could have been getting ready to leap over and grab Dean by the throat.
"Pancakes up!" Felix called.
Dean bent down and looked Jess in the eye. "You just think she's yours," he whispered.
"Break it up, you two," Luke said. "Dean? Did you want something? Or did you just come in here to yank Jess's chain?"
Dean laughed. "I came in here to yank Jess's chain. Consider it yanked, midget."
"You want a war, you got one." Jess took a step, as if he were going to go around the counter. Luke caught his collar.
"Dean, hit the road. Jess, take five. Get in the back and cool off. Then you run your ass over to school, too."
"Fine!" Jess threw up his hands. "Whatever." He pointed at Dean. "This isn't over."
"Have a nice day," Dean said. He left.
At the window table, Miss Patty and Babette exchanged a smile. Today was the first day of their new diet, but they were halfhearted; secretly, both were thinking of asking for Rory's pancakes. Watching the boys duel for Rory's favor was a welcome distraction. Patty looked down at the table top; it was covered in crumbs. "Oh," she sighed, her stomach growling, "if I didn't know better, I'd say those boys were into each other."
"What?" asked Babette. Miss Patty had been in show business, and had a lot of unusual ideas.
"Homo eroticism is very big these days," Miss Patty observed. She was up on all the latest trends.
Babette dunked her toast in her coffee. It got too soggy, and fell in. With disgust, she pushed her coffee cup away. "It's all about the girl, sugar. Remember when we were young?"
"I remember," Miss Patty said. She drummed her fingers on the table, thinking, pancakes. She didn't even like pancakes. She was so darn hungry! "And it's never about the girl."
"Is somebody going to eat these pancakes?"
Felix called plaintively.
Rory collapsed into her seat on the bus, panting, the taste of Jess's kiss still in her mouth. She hauled her heavy backpack up on the seat beside her, unzipped it, and starting rooting around for her book. While she had missed the nuances of the conversation between Jess and Dean, she hadn't missed Jess's analysis of her eating habits. "Let's eliminate the middleman," she grumped. She looked at her reflection in the window. "Like he'd still want to get in my pants if I was fat."
See? There were some things Rory understood
perfectly well.
To Be Continued