Disclaimer: I only own the characters I made up! And I'm making up more in this chapter!
A/N: Thank you so much to all my reviewers!!
Thanks to everyone but also to Blondie: Actually I hadn't intended on bringing Jess to the party, but when I read your review I thought about it and I found a way to use that with my original idea and make it better! So thank you so much for suggesting it!!*!!*!! Just wanted to give you credit for that so people didn't think I was the mastermind and it was a coincidence! I'm not and it wasn't! But thank you!
And JessTristanLuver4Ever: Luke and Lorelai do have a two-year-old little girl named Mallory. Sorry I didn't mention it but it hasn't come up yet, however it will come up in a future chapter!
And Samantha: Thank you for your reviews Co-Queen!:) They actually pushed me to update this now! So, of COURSE you're not annoying me! Sometimes I need a SLIGHT push..lol...this is true!Oh, and the 'This Is Hell' Elvis Costello thing, it saved about a million brain cells! So thanky for that, too!
*
The next day at work Rory was torturing Andy about something, "Come on, it'd be fun, admit it."
"It would not be fun. I'll admit nothing." he said. Claire was watching, waiting to see how long it would take for Andy to crack. Jess was doing something with papers but he was listening too.
"You're no fun." she smiled sweetly, "Look," she pointed to her face. "How can you say no to that?"
"Very carefully. No." he said.
Rory pouts, "My prettiness is wearing off."
"No, it's not. I'm just growing immune." Andy said.
She smiles, "You think I'm pretty?"
Andy realizes what he said, and looked around as to look for help.
Jess was standing there. "You walked right into that one." he says as he shakes his head and straightens some papers. Not even looking at Rory or Andy.
"Yeah, I did, didn't I? Is that preventable?" Andy asked him.
"Usually, but occasionally even I did stuff like that." Jess admitted.
"Yeah right, you're the master at avoiding walking into situations, when did you ever walk into anything?" Rory asked.
"One time was the picnic basket auction thing."
"When?" she asked.
"When you asked why I was only nice to you."
"Right, and you accidentally told me instead of being sarcastic, but then you got all evasive and started talking about pizza." she remembered. She accidentally got a slightly whistful look.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were getting nostalgic." Jess said.
She snapped back to reality and put her guard up, "Well then, it's a good thing you know better."
Claire's watching with interest.
"Show's over." Rory told her.
"Hey, you won't tell me a thing about him, you guys have a history and no one's talking, so when I get a chance to eavesdrop I have to take full advantage." she defended.
Rory rolled her eyes, sighed, and went back to work.
*
After work Rory went home and started raiding her closet. She wanted to forget about Jess and go have fun at the party. At a party there's no way her mind could wander off to Jess. Or so she thought. She pulled out a pretty white dress, It went to just above her knees, it didn't have sleeves, the straps were tied at the shoulder, for decoration only. It was beautiful.
"Whoa, is that what you're wearing?" Shelly asked.
"Yeah, do you like it?"
"Yeah, it's beauitiful, but you'll probably be the only person there dressed in white."
Rory smiled, "Well, at least I'll have one other person in white."
"Who?" Shelly frowned, "You know someone else going? Then why am I going?"
"You are the person I know who's going."
"Oh no. You made me go, but there's no way you're making me wear a white dress. I don't want to stick out like a sore thumb." Shelly argued.
They walked into Shelly's room. "Oh, come on, I'm sure you have something."
"Rory, I'm not wearing a white dress." Shelly said.
10 minutes later they emerged, Shelly dressed in a white knee length dress with a white cardigan over it.
"I can't believe that you talked me in to wearing this." Shelly complained.
"It's pretty." Rory smiled.
"We're going to be the only ones there in white. It's a rock concert, lots of black."
"We're special. Now I have to go do my hair."
"You're mean."
"So's J- uh, well, that's okay." Rory quickly escaped to the bathroom.
"You're a perfect couple!" Shelly called after her, then retreated to the livingroom to pout.
Rory pulled her hair up into an easy up 'do. She pinned her hair in several little twists and left about three inches of hair hanging loose on each one, with one strand of hair left down on each side of her face. She walked down the hall toward Shelly. "I'm ready, when's James getting here?" she asked. She looked up, "Oh, hi, James."
"Hi, Rory." James was a couple inches taller than Rory with dark hair and blue eyes.
"You haven't been waiting too long have you?" she asked.
"Nope, just got here." he replied.
Rory grabbed her little white purse. "Shelly, are you ready?"
"Your hair looks better than mine too." she pouted, "I don't like you tonight."
Rory smiled. "Come on poutie, we have to go stick out like sore thumbs."
"Fine." Shelly grabbed a white crochet looking purse. "Let's go."
*
Soon they were at the party and Rory was waiting to wish Lane good luck. "Hey!" Lane ran over to her.
"Lane!" Rory smiled. They hugged.
"You came!"
"Of course I came."
"You never come to these. You come to concerts."
"Yeah. So, how's Dave?" she changed the subject.
"I'm good." Dave walked up behind Lane and wrapped his arms around her.
"Hi, Dave. You guys look like rock stars." Rory teased.
"I wonder why." Dave played along.
"Because we are!" Lane smiled.
They all talked for a few minutes then Rory saw something she didn't want to see.
"Oh my gosh, hide me." she pulled Dave in front of her.
"What?" he asked.
Lane just stared at her.
"Jess is here. Jess was not supposed to be here."
"Jess!?! The Jess?" Lane asked.
"Jess." Rory varified.
"What is Jess doing in New York?" Lane asked.
"Jess is here?" Dave asked, "Cool, where is he?"
"We don't like Jess." Lane told him.
"Oh, right, damn, Jess is here."
Rory smiled. "Jess is back. He, uh, works at CNN actually."
"You work at CNN." Lane said.
"Yeah, I know, he's my boss."
Lane's eyes got huge. "How did you not tell me this?!?"
"I was trying to forget about it tonight. Apparently it didn't work."
"You know, it'll only be so long before he notices you, you're the only person in a white dress." Lane said.
"No, I made my roommate wear white too." Rory said.
"Okay, you're one of two people in white." Lane said.
"Who cares? I'm not thinking about him tonight. So, where are Zach and Brian?"
"Oh, Brian's hyperventilating, Zach's trying to calm him down." Lane said.
"But you guys have performed many times before. Why would he do it now?" Rory said.
"Oh, they do this every show." Lane nodded.
"Oh."
"Yeah, it was amusing the first 7 times, but then it got kind of annoying." Dave said.
"Oh." Rory said again.
"I can't breathe, I can't breathe." Brian raced past them Zach in tow.
"Yes, you can. Chill out, dude."
"I'm dying." Brian insisted. Lane and Dave just watched them go by.
"I wanted to say hi." Rory said.
"Oh, you'll get to. When we take our break he'll be fine." Lane said.
"Oh, I see." Rory said.
"Now, the first time we performed he was freaking out even more at our break." Lane said.
"Why?" Rory asked.
"Because when he tried to change his shirt, his shirt got caught on his glasses, and he can't breathe very well anyway, but when the shirt was covering his face he thought his air got completely cut off and he went running through the aisle's screaming 'get it off, get it off' and people thought he was saying 'we rock, we rock' and then they all started chanting with him and it gave us our gimmick." Lane explained.
"So, that's why people do that." Rory said.
"Yep, it was all a misunderstanding, but we weren't going to say that." Dave said.
"Naturally." Rory nodded.
"But hey, we're about to go on, so we've got to get backstage." Lane said.
"Oh, okay. Well, I'll see you guys at your break." Rory hugged Lane once more. "Good luck!"
Rory didn't see Jess but she wandered her way back to Shelly and James.
"You're never going to believe who's here." Rory said.
"Jess."
Her jaw dropped, "How'd you know?" Rory asked.
Shelly's jaw dropped, "Jess is really here?"
"Yes."
"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh," she turned to James. "Jess is here." she told him. "Jess is here?" she asked facing Rory.
"Yes. Jess is here."
"Wow." Shelly said.
"Who's Jess?" James asked.
"The guy I told you about." she said eyeing him up.
"Oh, the guy that Rory's preten-" Shelly cut him off with a kiss.
"Shut up, honey." she said, then turned back to Rory. "You have to show me." she said.
"The guy that I'm what?" she asked.
"Pretty negative about." Shelly said. "Where is he?"
"I don't know, I lost him. I was busy not thinking about him."
"We're going to find him." she said.
"How? He's wearing normal clothes, he won't stick out like a sore thumb." Rory said. "Besides, I don't want to run into him, if I'm lucky I won't see him again. Ever, but since that's unlikely, tonight."
"Okay, well, when you see him make sure to bring him by." Shelly winked.
"You're hilarious." Rory said flatly.
"I know." Shelly smiled before starting into the crowd with James.
Rory went over to the drinks table, but she stopped when she almost ran into Paris. "Paris?" Rory asked in shock.
"Hey, Rory." she greeted.
"Wow, you came to this?" this wasn't Paris' type of thing.
"Yeah. Alan wanted to come."
"Oh, I've yet to meet him. Where is he?" she asked, expecting someone more like Paris.
"Right here." She turned and grabbed a blonde guy that looks so not Paris' type.
"Hey." The guy half nodded.
"H-hi. It's nice to meet you." Rory hid her surprise.
"Same here." he nodded and turned back to whoever he was talking to before.
"He seems nice." Rory offered a smile. "How'd you guys meet?"
"I was giving a speech at an assembly and after it was over we just sort of ran into each other, we started talking and it turned out I knew his sister, she was a lot like me. Well, his sister kept kind of pushing us together and soon he asked me out and I actually realized he was asking me out this time, and we've been together ever since." she said.
"Wow, that's a nice story. So, how are you?"
"I'm good. How are you?"
"I'm hanging in there."
"How's work?" she asked.
"Work's...interesting."
"And Jess?" Paris asked.
"He's...Jess."
"That says a lot."
"Doesn't it though. He's here. At this party." Rory said.
"Are you serious?" she asked.
"As a heart attack."
"Where is he?"
"I don't know. I saw him earlier," she said.
"You guys talked?"
"No, I kind of hid behind Dave." Rory said.
"Who's Dave?" Paris asked.
"Oh, um, one of the guys from the band. Lane's boyfriend."
"Oh, right, this is Lane's band."
"Yeah. Well, I'm really thirsty, so..."
"Oh, the drink table's over there. I think I'll get something too." Paris said.
"Oh, okay." Rory waited for Paris to tell her boyfriend then they went in search of the table.
"Over there- isn't that Jess?" Paris asked pointing toward the table.
Rory's head whipped up and looked in the direction of where Paris pointed. Jess was standing there with a girl, a blonde girl. "Yeah." Rory said, and she felt a ping of something. Jealousy? No, she quckly pushed that thought out of her head. "It looks like it is."
"Who's the girl?"
"I don't know."
"Maybe it's his girlfriend. Does he have one?" Paris asked.
"I don't know." The girl laughed at something he said, and she leaned in and touched his arm. "To the untrained, poorly trained, or half trained eye it would seem like it." Rory said.
"You okay?" Paris asked.
"Of course I'm okay." Rory gave a fake smile.
"You should go say hi." Paris offered.
"No, thank you. Jess and Blondie can flirt all they want. I am not going to think about Jess tonight. Why should I? He didn't say hi to me, of course I don't really know if he even saw me. But it doesn't matter. I'm not going to say hi, we don't have to say hi to each other. We don't like each other." Rory said.
"I'll go with you."
"I'm not going to say hi." she paused for a second, "Do you think I should?"
"Yep." Paris said.
"I can't. I don't have that right. Anymore." she mumbled the last part quietly.
"Fine, but you have a right to go get a drink. It's pathetic that you're just waiting here, for what, him to leave? You see the guy five days a week. Go get your drink, if you accidetally bump into Jess, then you do. If you don't well, you can at least see if he's acknowledging your existence." she said.
"You're right. I'm going to get a drink." Rory said.
"It's not Mount Everest."
They went to walk over to the drink table. "You know, I'm not really all that thirsty."
"Yes, you are."
"And I don't want to see him tonight."
"Yes, you do."
"And he's busy flirting with the girl, I don't want to interrupt."
"Yes, you DO." she pushed Rory up to the table.
In pushing the reluctant Rory, Rory knocked right into Jess. "Gee, thanks Paris." murmered Rory, "Sorry." she said to Jess, but secretly hoped he'd at least say something sarcastic.
"It's okay." he said, then turned back to the blond girl. Rory would never admit it, but this bugged her. A lot. She felt ignored. By Jess. Paris could see it. But then Paris saw the smirk on Jess' face which had nothing to do with whatever the blonde happened to be saying.
"Hey, Ror, isn't that Jennifer Aniston?" Paris pointed to a spot in the crowd.
The blonde gasped, "Jennifer Aniston? We should go see if we can find her!" she said excitedly to Jess.
"That's okay, I'm good." he said, not believing that she actually fell for that.
"But I wanna see." she whined.
"Well then, go see."
"Okay." she smiled, "I'll be back." and she bounced off to go find Jennifer Aniston.
"Well, it's good to see you at least flirt with girls of your intelligence level." Paris said to Jess.
"I wasn't flirting with her, she was flirting with me. I was simply cooperating."
"Right," Paris said.
"But why do you care? Jealous?" he smirked.
"Oh yes, that's it. I'm insanely jealous, for some reason all those years ago when I found out you actually like the waste of a writer Jack Kerouac, not to mention Rory, I fell head over heels in love with you. I feel so much better now that I've told you." she replied.
"You still don't like Jack Kerouac?"
"Never have, never will. But I doubt she knows how to spell it." she nodded toward where the blonde was pecking on the shoulder of every woman with Jennifer Aniston's hair color. "She's a real prize. Now, I'm going to leave you two idiots here." she grabbed a drink.
"We just re-met and I'm already an idiot?" Jess asked.
"You're both idiots." Paris said to Rory and Jess.
"Hey, Ror, Hi...Jess? Hi, girl calling them idiots." Shelly said.
"Hey, Shel." Rory said.
"That's Jess?" James asked Shelly.
"Yeah, I'm Jess. Who the hell are you people and how do you know me?"
"Hi, I'm Shelly, Rory's roommate." Shelly put her hand out to shake his.
"Hi," he replied shaking her hand.
"Hi," Shelly turned to Paris. "Who are you? Girlfriend?"
"God, no." said Jess and Paris in unison.
"No, I'm Paris, a friend of Rory's."
Shelly puts her hand out to shake Paris'. Paris just stares for a second, "I've gotta go see Alan." and she walked off.
Shelly stood there, "Wow, she's friendly."
"Yeah, that's Paris." Rory explained. "Okay, now everybody knows everybody, I'm gonna get my drink and leave."
"Oh, no you don't." Jess said.
Shelly smiled, "We'll leave. Nice to meet you." she turned and went off into the crowd again.
"So, what's with you two wearing white dresses? Looking for your next husbands?"
"Of course, know of any good candidates? Why am I not leaving?"
"Because, your friend stole my company, now I'm bored." he said.
"Well, talk to your cup, it'll probably make more interesting conversation than her anyway."
"Huh, don't like Cindy?"
"I don't know her. I mean, I think she looks like Claire. Only Claire has a boyfriend. Then again, Cindy might too, how am I supposed to know?"
"Claire has a boyfriend?" he asked surprised.
"Yep, she's just a natural born flirt."
"I noticed." he said.
"Well, I came here to get my mind off of work, so..."
"Oh, well how's life without work?"
"Good." Or at least it was a week ago, she thought. "How 'bout you?"
"Okay."
"You claim you weren't flirting with Blondie, how come?"
"Do I have to have a reason?"
"Most guys would have to." she didn't want to ask the next question, but she coudn't stop herself. "What, do you have a girlfriend or fiancee` or something?" she asked it, wishing she wouldn't have but wanting to know.
"Yeah right. That's a pretty dumb question."
This made her mad, "Right, you're not good with commitment, are you? You're right, how absolutely rediculous, the thought that you might actually have a girlfriend, sorry, my mistake." she said sarcastically.
"I just meant I only got to New York a few days ago and California's on the other side of the country. So if I did, do you seriously think we'd still be together now that I'm here?"
"That depends, does she know you're gone?" and she walks off without waiting for a reply. She was more mad at him now than she was before they talked. He had his nerve snapping at her. She accidentally walked right into some guy. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
"It's o-" he faced her, "Hi,"
She smiled. "Hi,"
"I'm Mark."
"Hi, Mark, I'm Rory."
"Having fun?" he asked.
"Oh, yeah. Are you?"
"I am now." he replied.
At first she smiled and instinctively wanted to leave, but then remebered Jess. This is the perfect way to get my mind off Jess, she thought. "Good."
Mark and Rory talked for a few minutes before Shelly saw her, frowned, and walked over to her. "Hey,"
"Hey, Shel,"
"Um, we were going to leave." Shelly said, glancing at the guy.
"Oh, okay." Rory said, "Well, it was nice talking to you." she said to the guy.
"Same here. Do you think I could get your number? Maybe we could go out sometime." he said.
Rory didn't even think before responding, "Sure."
Shelly stared at her.
Rory ignored Shelly and gave Mark her phone number, "Make sure you use that."
Again, Shelly stared at her in shock, then pulled her arm to drag her away.
"Oh, I will." he called after her.
"Okay, who are you, and what have you done with Rory?" Shelly asked.
"Rory's right here." she said.
"No, because Rory would never be that flirty. What did Jess say?"
"Not much, he's the same old Jess." Rory rolled her eyes.
"Well, you fell for him then." Shelly retorted with a smirk.
Rory glared at her, "Not anymore." she said, "Besides, if I still cared about Jess, would I have given Mark my number?" Rory asked, as if it were common sense to say no.
"Yep." Shelly replied and dragged Rory to James.
They left, and even though she was trying not to, Rory couldn't stop thinking about Jess. She sighed, thinking trying not to think of him was hopeless...but then she remembered Mark. A small grin took place on her face. Not Jess, Mark.
**
A/N: Wow, I know, I took FOREVER to update! I'm sooo sorry about that! I'll beg and grovel if you want me to!
Anyhoo, please review, I'm really sorry, I'm going to try to get into a more consistent updating pattern again. PLEASE REVIEW!! Thank you to all of my reviewers! You're all great! Sorry, I won't take so long next time!! :)
A/N: Thank you so much to all my reviewers!!
Thanks to everyone but also to Blondie: Actually I hadn't intended on bringing Jess to the party, but when I read your review I thought about it and I found a way to use that with my original idea and make it better! So thank you so much for suggesting it!!*!!*!! Just wanted to give you credit for that so people didn't think I was the mastermind and it was a coincidence! I'm not and it wasn't! But thank you!
And JessTristanLuver4Ever: Luke and Lorelai do have a two-year-old little girl named Mallory. Sorry I didn't mention it but it hasn't come up yet, however it will come up in a future chapter!
And Samantha: Thank you for your reviews Co-Queen!:) They actually pushed me to update this now! So, of COURSE you're not annoying me! Sometimes I need a SLIGHT push..lol...this is true!Oh, and the 'This Is Hell' Elvis Costello thing, it saved about a million brain cells! So thanky for that, too!
*
The next day at work Rory was torturing Andy about something, "Come on, it'd be fun, admit it."
"It would not be fun. I'll admit nothing." he said. Claire was watching, waiting to see how long it would take for Andy to crack. Jess was doing something with papers but he was listening too.
"You're no fun." she smiled sweetly, "Look," she pointed to her face. "How can you say no to that?"
"Very carefully. No." he said.
Rory pouts, "My prettiness is wearing off."
"No, it's not. I'm just growing immune." Andy said.
She smiles, "You think I'm pretty?"
Andy realizes what he said, and looked around as to look for help.
Jess was standing there. "You walked right into that one." he says as he shakes his head and straightens some papers. Not even looking at Rory or Andy.
"Yeah, I did, didn't I? Is that preventable?" Andy asked him.
"Usually, but occasionally even I did stuff like that." Jess admitted.
"Yeah right, you're the master at avoiding walking into situations, when did you ever walk into anything?" Rory asked.
"One time was the picnic basket auction thing."
"When?" she asked.
"When you asked why I was only nice to you."
"Right, and you accidentally told me instead of being sarcastic, but then you got all evasive and started talking about pizza." she remembered. She accidentally got a slightly whistful look.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were getting nostalgic." Jess said.
She snapped back to reality and put her guard up, "Well then, it's a good thing you know better."
Claire's watching with interest.
"Show's over." Rory told her.
"Hey, you won't tell me a thing about him, you guys have a history and no one's talking, so when I get a chance to eavesdrop I have to take full advantage." she defended.
Rory rolled her eyes, sighed, and went back to work.
*
After work Rory went home and started raiding her closet. She wanted to forget about Jess and go have fun at the party. At a party there's no way her mind could wander off to Jess. Or so she thought. She pulled out a pretty white dress, It went to just above her knees, it didn't have sleeves, the straps were tied at the shoulder, for decoration only. It was beautiful.
"Whoa, is that what you're wearing?" Shelly asked.
"Yeah, do you like it?"
"Yeah, it's beauitiful, but you'll probably be the only person there dressed in white."
Rory smiled, "Well, at least I'll have one other person in white."
"Who?" Shelly frowned, "You know someone else going? Then why am I going?"
"You are the person I know who's going."
"Oh no. You made me go, but there's no way you're making me wear a white dress. I don't want to stick out like a sore thumb." Shelly argued.
They walked into Shelly's room. "Oh, come on, I'm sure you have something."
"Rory, I'm not wearing a white dress." Shelly said.
10 minutes later they emerged, Shelly dressed in a white knee length dress with a white cardigan over it.
"I can't believe that you talked me in to wearing this." Shelly complained.
"It's pretty." Rory smiled.
"We're going to be the only ones there in white. It's a rock concert, lots of black."
"We're special. Now I have to go do my hair."
"You're mean."
"So's J- uh, well, that's okay." Rory quickly escaped to the bathroom.
"You're a perfect couple!" Shelly called after her, then retreated to the livingroom to pout.
Rory pulled her hair up into an easy up 'do. She pinned her hair in several little twists and left about three inches of hair hanging loose on each one, with one strand of hair left down on each side of her face. She walked down the hall toward Shelly. "I'm ready, when's James getting here?" she asked. She looked up, "Oh, hi, James."
"Hi, Rory." James was a couple inches taller than Rory with dark hair and blue eyes.
"You haven't been waiting too long have you?" she asked.
"Nope, just got here." he replied.
Rory grabbed her little white purse. "Shelly, are you ready?"
"Your hair looks better than mine too." she pouted, "I don't like you tonight."
Rory smiled. "Come on poutie, we have to go stick out like sore thumbs."
"Fine." Shelly grabbed a white crochet looking purse. "Let's go."
*
Soon they were at the party and Rory was waiting to wish Lane good luck. "Hey!" Lane ran over to her.
"Lane!" Rory smiled. They hugged.
"You came!"
"Of course I came."
"You never come to these. You come to concerts."
"Yeah. So, how's Dave?" she changed the subject.
"I'm good." Dave walked up behind Lane and wrapped his arms around her.
"Hi, Dave. You guys look like rock stars." Rory teased.
"I wonder why." Dave played along.
"Because we are!" Lane smiled.
They all talked for a few minutes then Rory saw something she didn't want to see.
"Oh my gosh, hide me." she pulled Dave in front of her.
"What?" he asked.
Lane just stared at her.
"Jess is here. Jess was not supposed to be here."
"Jess!?! The Jess?" Lane asked.
"Jess." Rory varified.
"What is Jess doing in New York?" Lane asked.
"Jess is here?" Dave asked, "Cool, where is he?"
"We don't like Jess." Lane told him.
"Oh, right, damn, Jess is here."
Rory smiled. "Jess is back. He, uh, works at CNN actually."
"You work at CNN." Lane said.
"Yeah, I know, he's my boss."
Lane's eyes got huge. "How did you not tell me this?!?"
"I was trying to forget about it tonight. Apparently it didn't work."
"You know, it'll only be so long before he notices you, you're the only person in a white dress." Lane said.
"No, I made my roommate wear white too." Rory said.
"Okay, you're one of two people in white." Lane said.
"Who cares? I'm not thinking about him tonight. So, where are Zach and Brian?"
"Oh, Brian's hyperventilating, Zach's trying to calm him down." Lane said.
"But you guys have performed many times before. Why would he do it now?" Rory said.
"Oh, they do this every show." Lane nodded.
"Oh."
"Yeah, it was amusing the first 7 times, but then it got kind of annoying." Dave said.
"Oh." Rory said again.
"I can't breathe, I can't breathe." Brian raced past them Zach in tow.
"Yes, you can. Chill out, dude."
"I'm dying." Brian insisted. Lane and Dave just watched them go by.
"I wanted to say hi." Rory said.
"Oh, you'll get to. When we take our break he'll be fine." Lane said.
"Oh, I see." Rory said.
"Now, the first time we performed he was freaking out even more at our break." Lane said.
"Why?" Rory asked.
"Because when he tried to change his shirt, his shirt got caught on his glasses, and he can't breathe very well anyway, but when the shirt was covering his face he thought his air got completely cut off and he went running through the aisle's screaming 'get it off, get it off' and people thought he was saying 'we rock, we rock' and then they all started chanting with him and it gave us our gimmick." Lane explained.
"So, that's why people do that." Rory said.
"Yep, it was all a misunderstanding, but we weren't going to say that." Dave said.
"Naturally." Rory nodded.
"But hey, we're about to go on, so we've got to get backstage." Lane said.
"Oh, okay. Well, I'll see you guys at your break." Rory hugged Lane once more. "Good luck!"
Rory didn't see Jess but she wandered her way back to Shelly and James.
"You're never going to believe who's here." Rory said.
"Jess."
Her jaw dropped, "How'd you know?" Rory asked.
Shelly's jaw dropped, "Jess is really here?"
"Yes."
"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh," she turned to James. "Jess is here." she told him. "Jess is here?" she asked facing Rory.
"Yes. Jess is here."
"Wow." Shelly said.
"Who's Jess?" James asked.
"The guy I told you about." she said eyeing him up.
"Oh, the guy that Rory's preten-" Shelly cut him off with a kiss.
"Shut up, honey." she said, then turned back to Rory. "You have to show me." she said.
"The guy that I'm what?" she asked.
"Pretty negative about." Shelly said. "Where is he?"
"I don't know, I lost him. I was busy not thinking about him."
"We're going to find him." she said.
"How? He's wearing normal clothes, he won't stick out like a sore thumb." Rory said. "Besides, I don't want to run into him, if I'm lucky I won't see him again. Ever, but since that's unlikely, tonight."
"Okay, well, when you see him make sure to bring him by." Shelly winked.
"You're hilarious." Rory said flatly.
"I know." Shelly smiled before starting into the crowd with James.
Rory went over to the drinks table, but she stopped when she almost ran into Paris. "Paris?" Rory asked in shock.
"Hey, Rory." she greeted.
"Wow, you came to this?" this wasn't Paris' type of thing.
"Yeah. Alan wanted to come."
"Oh, I've yet to meet him. Where is he?" she asked, expecting someone more like Paris.
"Right here." She turned and grabbed a blonde guy that looks so not Paris' type.
"Hey." The guy half nodded.
"H-hi. It's nice to meet you." Rory hid her surprise.
"Same here." he nodded and turned back to whoever he was talking to before.
"He seems nice." Rory offered a smile. "How'd you guys meet?"
"I was giving a speech at an assembly and after it was over we just sort of ran into each other, we started talking and it turned out I knew his sister, she was a lot like me. Well, his sister kept kind of pushing us together and soon he asked me out and I actually realized he was asking me out this time, and we've been together ever since." she said.
"Wow, that's a nice story. So, how are you?"
"I'm good. How are you?"
"I'm hanging in there."
"How's work?" she asked.
"Work's...interesting."
"And Jess?" Paris asked.
"He's...Jess."
"That says a lot."
"Doesn't it though. He's here. At this party." Rory said.
"Are you serious?" she asked.
"As a heart attack."
"Where is he?"
"I don't know. I saw him earlier," she said.
"You guys talked?"
"No, I kind of hid behind Dave." Rory said.
"Who's Dave?" Paris asked.
"Oh, um, one of the guys from the band. Lane's boyfriend."
"Oh, right, this is Lane's band."
"Yeah. Well, I'm really thirsty, so..."
"Oh, the drink table's over there. I think I'll get something too." Paris said.
"Oh, okay." Rory waited for Paris to tell her boyfriend then they went in search of the table.
"Over there- isn't that Jess?" Paris asked pointing toward the table.
Rory's head whipped up and looked in the direction of where Paris pointed. Jess was standing there with a girl, a blonde girl. "Yeah." Rory said, and she felt a ping of something. Jealousy? No, she quckly pushed that thought out of her head. "It looks like it is."
"Who's the girl?"
"I don't know."
"Maybe it's his girlfriend. Does he have one?" Paris asked.
"I don't know." The girl laughed at something he said, and she leaned in and touched his arm. "To the untrained, poorly trained, or half trained eye it would seem like it." Rory said.
"You okay?" Paris asked.
"Of course I'm okay." Rory gave a fake smile.
"You should go say hi." Paris offered.
"No, thank you. Jess and Blondie can flirt all they want. I am not going to think about Jess tonight. Why should I? He didn't say hi to me, of course I don't really know if he even saw me. But it doesn't matter. I'm not going to say hi, we don't have to say hi to each other. We don't like each other." Rory said.
"I'll go with you."
"I'm not going to say hi." she paused for a second, "Do you think I should?"
"Yep." Paris said.
"I can't. I don't have that right. Anymore." she mumbled the last part quietly.
"Fine, but you have a right to go get a drink. It's pathetic that you're just waiting here, for what, him to leave? You see the guy five days a week. Go get your drink, if you accidetally bump into Jess, then you do. If you don't well, you can at least see if he's acknowledging your existence." she said.
"You're right. I'm going to get a drink." Rory said.
"It's not Mount Everest."
They went to walk over to the drink table. "You know, I'm not really all that thirsty."
"Yes, you are."
"And I don't want to see him tonight."
"Yes, you do."
"And he's busy flirting with the girl, I don't want to interrupt."
"Yes, you DO." she pushed Rory up to the table.
In pushing the reluctant Rory, Rory knocked right into Jess. "Gee, thanks Paris." murmered Rory, "Sorry." she said to Jess, but secretly hoped he'd at least say something sarcastic.
"It's okay." he said, then turned back to the blond girl. Rory would never admit it, but this bugged her. A lot. She felt ignored. By Jess. Paris could see it. But then Paris saw the smirk on Jess' face which had nothing to do with whatever the blonde happened to be saying.
"Hey, Ror, isn't that Jennifer Aniston?" Paris pointed to a spot in the crowd.
The blonde gasped, "Jennifer Aniston? We should go see if we can find her!" she said excitedly to Jess.
"That's okay, I'm good." he said, not believing that she actually fell for that.
"But I wanna see." she whined.
"Well then, go see."
"Okay." she smiled, "I'll be back." and she bounced off to go find Jennifer Aniston.
"Well, it's good to see you at least flirt with girls of your intelligence level." Paris said to Jess.
"I wasn't flirting with her, she was flirting with me. I was simply cooperating."
"Right," Paris said.
"But why do you care? Jealous?" he smirked.
"Oh yes, that's it. I'm insanely jealous, for some reason all those years ago when I found out you actually like the waste of a writer Jack Kerouac, not to mention Rory, I fell head over heels in love with you. I feel so much better now that I've told you." she replied.
"You still don't like Jack Kerouac?"
"Never have, never will. But I doubt she knows how to spell it." she nodded toward where the blonde was pecking on the shoulder of every woman with Jennifer Aniston's hair color. "She's a real prize. Now, I'm going to leave you two idiots here." she grabbed a drink.
"We just re-met and I'm already an idiot?" Jess asked.
"You're both idiots." Paris said to Rory and Jess.
"Hey, Ror, Hi...Jess? Hi, girl calling them idiots." Shelly said.
"Hey, Shel." Rory said.
"That's Jess?" James asked Shelly.
"Yeah, I'm Jess. Who the hell are you people and how do you know me?"
"Hi, I'm Shelly, Rory's roommate." Shelly put her hand out to shake his.
"Hi," he replied shaking her hand.
"Hi," Shelly turned to Paris. "Who are you? Girlfriend?"
"God, no." said Jess and Paris in unison.
"No, I'm Paris, a friend of Rory's."
Shelly puts her hand out to shake Paris'. Paris just stares for a second, "I've gotta go see Alan." and she walked off.
Shelly stood there, "Wow, she's friendly."
"Yeah, that's Paris." Rory explained. "Okay, now everybody knows everybody, I'm gonna get my drink and leave."
"Oh, no you don't." Jess said.
Shelly smiled, "We'll leave. Nice to meet you." she turned and went off into the crowd again.
"So, what's with you two wearing white dresses? Looking for your next husbands?"
"Of course, know of any good candidates? Why am I not leaving?"
"Because, your friend stole my company, now I'm bored." he said.
"Well, talk to your cup, it'll probably make more interesting conversation than her anyway."
"Huh, don't like Cindy?"
"I don't know her. I mean, I think she looks like Claire. Only Claire has a boyfriend. Then again, Cindy might too, how am I supposed to know?"
"Claire has a boyfriend?" he asked surprised.
"Yep, she's just a natural born flirt."
"I noticed." he said.
"Well, I came here to get my mind off of work, so..."
"Oh, well how's life without work?"
"Good." Or at least it was a week ago, she thought. "How 'bout you?"
"Okay."
"You claim you weren't flirting with Blondie, how come?"
"Do I have to have a reason?"
"Most guys would have to." she didn't want to ask the next question, but she coudn't stop herself. "What, do you have a girlfriend or fiancee` or something?" she asked it, wishing she wouldn't have but wanting to know.
"Yeah right. That's a pretty dumb question."
This made her mad, "Right, you're not good with commitment, are you? You're right, how absolutely rediculous, the thought that you might actually have a girlfriend, sorry, my mistake." she said sarcastically.
"I just meant I only got to New York a few days ago and California's on the other side of the country. So if I did, do you seriously think we'd still be together now that I'm here?"
"That depends, does she know you're gone?" and she walks off without waiting for a reply. She was more mad at him now than she was before they talked. He had his nerve snapping at her. She accidentally walked right into some guy. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
"It's o-" he faced her, "Hi,"
She smiled. "Hi,"
"I'm Mark."
"Hi, Mark, I'm Rory."
"Having fun?" he asked.
"Oh, yeah. Are you?"
"I am now." he replied.
At first she smiled and instinctively wanted to leave, but then remebered Jess. This is the perfect way to get my mind off Jess, she thought. "Good."
Mark and Rory talked for a few minutes before Shelly saw her, frowned, and walked over to her. "Hey,"
"Hey, Shel,"
"Um, we were going to leave." Shelly said, glancing at the guy.
"Oh, okay." Rory said, "Well, it was nice talking to you." she said to the guy.
"Same here. Do you think I could get your number? Maybe we could go out sometime." he said.
Rory didn't even think before responding, "Sure."
Shelly stared at her.
Rory ignored Shelly and gave Mark her phone number, "Make sure you use that."
Again, Shelly stared at her in shock, then pulled her arm to drag her away.
"Oh, I will." he called after her.
"Okay, who are you, and what have you done with Rory?" Shelly asked.
"Rory's right here." she said.
"No, because Rory would never be that flirty. What did Jess say?"
"Not much, he's the same old Jess." Rory rolled her eyes.
"Well, you fell for him then." Shelly retorted with a smirk.
Rory glared at her, "Not anymore." she said, "Besides, if I still cared about Jess, would I have given Mark my number?" Rory asked, as if it were common sense to say no.
"Yep." Shelly replied and dragged Rory to James.
They left, and even though she was trying not to, Rory couldn't stop thinking about Jess. She sighed, thinking trying not to think of him was hopeless...but then she remembered Mark. A small grin took place on her face. Not Jess, Mark.
**
A/N: Wow, I know, I took FOREVER to update! I'm sooo sorry about that! I'll beg and grovel if you want me to!
Anyhoo, please review, I'm really sorry, I'm going to try to get into a more consistent updating pattern again. PLEASE REVIEW!! Thank you to all of my reviewers! You're all great! Sorry, I won't take so long next time!! :)