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Length of Time Chapter 2
Nicole drove down a little abandoned road on her way to work, going over what Luke had said to her about Lorelai. She always knew that Lorelai thrust herself in Luke's attention by going to the diner everyday, practically every hour, and forcing him to talk to her, but she never knew that not only did Luke not like this, but that was the only reason he talked to Lorelai.
"I mean, he probably doesn't even consider her a friend, the way he made it sound!" Nicole thought, excitedly as she continued down the road that she drove down every day.
She was happy that she now knew this, as Luke's frustration over Lorelai was clearly not acted, but heartfelt, and she smiled even more at the thought that she could drop the subject of this woman, for good, and concentrate on the two of them more. Get more serious with him.
She noticed a car at the side of the road. "Isn't that Lorelai's car?" she asked aloud to herself. She slowed down as she drove by and didn't notice anyone in the car. She shrugged her shoulders and kept driving, smiling again at the day's events. "This is gonna be a good day, I can tell," she thought happily.
Meanwhile, in Lorelai's car on that same abandoned road-
Lorelai, now slumped over the armrest in the middle of the front seat, her head dangling over the passenger's seat, regained consciousness, barely, at hearing the sound of a car driving by. She knew that this was a once-in-a-lifetime (and her life was at dire risk) opportunity, as cars barely ever passed down this road. She knew that this could be the last car to pass down the road for the whole day.
She tried to gather all her strength against the searing pain in her stomach, and now, her entire body, and pull her head up, to ask for help.
The last time she had regained consciousness, she had tried to reach for her cell phone to call for help, which led her to pass out again, only instead of over the steering wheel, this was over the armrest.
This new effort to pick herself up, also to seek help, led her to pass out again-this time, with less hope in her final thoughts that she would wake again, or that help would find her. She felt all hope was gone when she found herself surrounded by black again.
Meanwhile, at Yale-
Rory believed the sweetest words she ever heard muttered were "Okay, class, you can stop now," which Professor Leafus said to the class about five minutes early, looking eager to end the class himself. Rory looked quickly away from Jess and over to the Professor.
"Write a one page reflection on this exercise and why you think I made you do it."
"And of course you will write one as well, Professor," Paris said adamantly.
"Uh, actually, Miss Geller, being the Professor and all, I just hand out the assignments, I don't actually do them. But let me remind you of something, I also grade them."
Paris rolled her eyes and yanked out the syllabus he had handed out at the beginning of class.
"This says that all members that are present in class and therefore participate in the in-class assignments are expected to do the reflections on those assignments. If you are absent, consider your grade a '0' for that reflection, blah blah blah, you know the rest. Were you not a participant and quite present in class?" she demanded.
"Uh, yes, but-"
Paris took a deep breath. "Well, I think that it would be fascinating to see how you felt about this assignment having done it yourself! And you can't just find loopholes in the assignment, reasons not to write it, or technically, couldn't we all just do that-"
"Come on, Paris, time for your next class," Rory said, while pulling Paris by the arm toward the door. She turned to the Professor, and added, jokingly "we never should have let her out of the attic."
Professor Leafus looked toward the doorway, stunned. He put his hand on the back of his neck. "Maybe tomorrow, I should be absent."
"Hey, don't you want to talk to me?" Jess said, nagging on Rory's shirt sleeve, as Paris stomped away. "Aren't you the least bit curious as to why I'm here?"
"Actually, I preferred doing the silent thing we just did back there. Let's have our own little exercise outside of class, and in it too, where we always regard one another with silence, and then later, we'll reflect on how it makes us feel, although I can already tell you that I enjoy it because I have absolutely no desire to talk to you," Rory said, as she attempted to get away from Jess.
"I know you're mad at me and you have every right to be, but aren't you wondering how I got into Yale?"
Rory stopped and turned to him.
"Jess! You know what? I am curious. I have NO idea how you could have gotten in, but I do know that it is not fair, because you don't deserve this, and it is just one more thing to add to the long list of things that make me mad in regards to you!"
"Mad at least means that you care still. And put some thought into me. That gives a guy reason to hope. Uh, that maybe we can at least be friends, that is."
Jess cleared his throat as Rory walked up to him until their faces were only inches apart.
"Listen to me. I don't put thought into you. Not anymore. I only just remembered how mad I was about you and everything that has to do with you because I was forced to stare at you for about an hour with nothing but my own thoughts, which because your face was IN mine, happened to be of you. But that assignment is over and as soon as you are out of my sight, my thoughts of you, angry or not, will be over too. Out of sight, out of mind. It's a great quote for how I feel about you.
And don't talk about rekindling any kind of friendship, because your actions give a girl reason to doubt, so don't you think for a second that you have any reason to hope, okay? And while I AM curious as to how you.. MANAGED... to get into this school, I don't care. I can live with the mystery. Just leave me alone. I mean it," she finally finished, taking a deep and angry breath.
She looked up at him and noticed then a small and unsettling (for her) smile crept up on one side of Jess's mouth. "I have to get to class," she finished, walking past him, not looking back.
And at Luke's-
Luke went through the next hour as if in slow motion. He couldn't think straight, and worked in auto-pilot. He grunted whenever anyone from the town addressed him and burned a hole, practically, into the phone with his eyes. He just kept staring at it, waiting for her to call.
He had a knot in his stomach, and every now and then, realized that he was literally holding his breath. He would let out a breath, asking himself why he was holding it in to begin with. He just felt so horrible about the whole thing.
"Did I actually insinuate that I only talk to her because she is here, talking to me, BOTHERING me, and I was raised not to ignore my neighbors... no, I didn't insinuate it, I actually SAID it," he thought.
"I actually SAID that I only talk to her out of politeness and obligation and basically also, that she ticks me off and-" his thoughts came up on him like a madman in the dark-he grabbed his forehead with one hand as his own choice words came back to him in full: "If she never came into this diner again, I wouldn't care!"
Suddenly, he felt as if his world had just ended. "How she must have felt when I said that," he thought, wincing. He knew it was worse than he could even believe. It had been over an hour since he had talked to Babette, and it was moving so slowly, and getting worse with each passing moment.
He knew that Lorelai already got to the inn, it was only twenty minutes from the diner, and probably got the message from Sookie, but purposely didn't call him back.
"And why would she? She was probably hurt by the whole thing. She must hate me now," he thought, and his anger and worry was momentarily replaced by sadness. He couldn't figure out why he was so sad.
He knew he didn't mean what he said and would just explain that he was actually just annoyed with Nicole's Lorelai-drilling and (hopefully) everything would be okay again. After he had a talking-to with Nicole of course, as well. He needed to tell her that he was lying about what he said and wanted her to just leave him alone about his friendship with Lorelai.
He still just couldn't figure out why he couldn't put the whole thing out of his mind when he figured it would all work out later.
He took a deep breath and headed to the phone, picking it up and dialing her cell phone number. It went, after three rings, into her voicemail. BEEP. "I.. Lorelai.. It's Luke.. Um.." He started, lamely, and then hung up in frustration. He knew he'd have to see her to apologize.
"This day couldn't get any worse," he thought aloud.
Meanwhile, on the little, old abandoned road, it was getting much worse..
Lorelai heard a noise and regained consciousness. It sounded like a truck, it was so loud. It must have been close to her. She forced herself to glance at the radio clock again. 2:03. "Oh my God, I haven't died yet!?" she thought.
"Miss?" A male voice's yelling broke her feverish thoughts. She could hear a voice through the windows of the car.
"Are you okay? Can you unlock this? Miss? I don't wanna break your window! You don't look right, Miss. Miss, can you unlock this?...."
She wasn't sure what was going on, but she gathered all her strength to get her hand to the door. to the unlock switch. She pushed it up, to unlock, before passing out again.
Even in her darkness, her senses were with her. She could feel the man pull her by the shoulders and touch her head, checking for a fever no doubt, as she was obviously not bleeding or visibly hurt.
She could hear some words coming from the kind man. He sounded older, she thought.
"Miss, you look... miss.. pale... are you alright miss?"
She could feel him carrying her, and then, she couldn't think or feel anymore. Her senses relieved her and she was encompassed by the blackness again. no thoughts, no feelings, just black.
At Luke's Again-Afternoon
Sookie walked into the diner and found her table with Jackson waiting at it. She greeted her husband and said kissed him before sitting down.
Luke walked out of the backroom and nearly fell down when he saw Sookie. He glanced around nervously to see if Lorelai had come in with her. Suddenly his palms felt sweaty to him and the knots that had gone from his stomach, due to the diner being so busy at lunchtime, returned in full. He walked over to the table.
"Did Lorelai come in with you?" Before he could wait for her to answer, as
obviously she was still upset and didn't come, he continued on. "Did you give her my message?"
"Actually, I didn't get the chance to. She didn't come in today. Emily had called looking for her, and I assumed that she needed her for something and Lorelai, being completely and always obligated to her, went to do that. But whenever I called her cell, she didn't answer. It's not like her not to call, either, just to say she's late. I came here for lunch, actually, to see if she is around here."
Luke just stared at Sookie, dumbfounded. "She didn't come in today? That can't be right. It's the-"
"Big opening, I know. I know she wouldn't miss that. Even on account of Emily. I started worrying that maybe Rory called with a problem at Yale, and a million other things that COULD keep her from the opening. That's why I called her a million times. But she didn't answer. And I couldn't reach Emily either, to see if she ended up going there for some reason."
Luke noticed that his heart rate sped up even more, and he tried to control
himself. Now he was worried, in addition to just feeling completely awful already. He was incapable of saying anything just then. He didn't know what to do, but he felt that he needed to be doing something.
Jackson, instead, broke the nervous silence. "You said you were gonna call Rory. Did you get through?"
Sookie shook her head nervously. "No, but that's not unusual. I.. I mean, I think it was her first day of classes. She wouldn't have been around no matter what. It was a longshot."
Sookie looked up, just then, and noticed how pale and unsettled Luke looked.
"Hey, are you okay? You look horrible. I mean, I'm nervous too, but-"
"This is my fault," he stammered, barely audible.
Jackson tried to break the nervous tension. "Why, do you have her tied up in the back? Because other than that, how could this be-"
"I made her upset when she left here."
He let out a small grunt and hesitatingly explained briefly.
"She overheard something I said to Nicole about her, irritating me and me not... well, liking it, and she left here very upset. I didn't even know she was here."
"Oh honey, I'm sure that's not it," Sookie said.
She motioned for Luke to sit, and he did so, still grunting and grudging.
She touched his arm. "Listen, I know Lorelai and nothing would have kept her from the opening at the inn. She has feelings, and they can be hurt, but she is also a professional. And this is a dream for her."
"I said I wouldn't care if she never came back to this diner again. Ever. At all."
"Ooh," Jackson grimaced. Sookie shot a look at him as if to say "you are so NOT helping!"
She looked back at Luke.
"Okay, Luke, I won't lie, you may have hurt her feelings, but she didn't run away or anything because of it. You KNOW Lorelai's stronger than that, Luke. I can promise you, it's something else. As her best friend, I am declaring that. Okay?"
Luke glanced up at Sookie and then back down again. He thought she might be right, but it didn't make him feel better. Something just wasn't right--- he could feel it.
With his senses all in overdrive the sound of the bell at the door made him jump and turn. He stood up when he noticed it was a police officer who entered the diner.
Length of Time Chapter 2
Nicole drove down a little abandoned road on her way to work, going over what Luke had said to her about Lorelai. She always knew that Lorelai thrust herself in Luke's attention by going to the diner everyday, practically every hour, and forcing him to talk to her, but she never knew that not only did Luke not like this, but that was the only reason he talked to Lorelai.
"I mean, he probably doesn't even consider her a friend, the way he made it sound!" Nicole thought, excitedly as she continued down the road that she drove down every day.
She was happy that she now knew this, as Luke's frustration over Lorelai was clearly not acted, but heartfelt, and she smiled even more at the thought that she could drop the subject of this woman, for good, and concentrate on the two of them more. Get more serious with him.
She noticed a car at the side of the road. "Isn't that Lorelai's car?" she asked aloud to herself. She slowed down as she drove by and didn't notice anyone in the car. She shrugged her shoulders and kept driving, smiling again at the day's events. "This is gonna be a good day, I can tell," she thought happily.
Meanwhile, in Lorelai's car on that same abandoned road-
Lorelai, now slumped over the armrest in the middle of the front seat, her head dangling over the passenger's seat, regained consciousness, barely, at hearing the sound of a car driving by. She knew that this was a once-in-a-lifetime (and her life was at dire risk) opportunity, as cars barely ever passed down this road. She knew that this could be the last car to pass down the road for the whole day.
She tried to gather all her strength against the searing pain in her stomach, and now, her entire body, and pull her head up, to ask for help.
The last time she had regained consciousness, she had tried to reach for her cell phone to call for help, which led her to pass out again, only instead of over the steering wheel, this was over the armrest.
This new effort to pick herself up, also to seek help, led her to pass out again-this time, with less hope in her final thoughts that she would wake again, or that help would find her. She felt all hope was gone when she found herself surrounded by black again.
Meanwhile, at Yale-
Rory believed the sweetest words she ever heard muttered were "Okay, class, you can stop now," which Professor Leafus said to the class about five minutes early, looking eager to end the class himself. Rory looked quickly away from Jess and over to the Professor.
"Write a one page reflection on this exercise and why you think I made you do it."
"And of course you will write one as well, Professor," Paris said adamantly.
"Uh, actually, Miss Geller, being the Professor and all, I just hand out the assignments, I don't actually do them. But let me remind you of something, I also grade them."
Paris rolled her eyes and yanked out the syllabus he had handed out at the beginning of class.
"This says that all members that are present in class and therefore participate in the in-class assignments are expected to do the reflections on those assignments. If you are absent, consider your grade a '0' for that reflection, blah blah blah, you know the rest. Were you not a participant and quite present in class?" she demanded.
"Uh, yes, but-"
Paris took a deep breath. "Well, I think that it would be fascinating to see how you felt about this assignment having done it yourself! And you can't just find loopholes in the assignment, reasons not to write it, or technically, couldn't we all just do that-"
"Come on, Paris, time for your next class," Rory said, while pulling Paris by the arm toward the door. She turned to the Professor, and added, jokingly "we never should have let her out of the attic."
Professor Leafus looked toward the doorway, stunned. He put his hand on the back of his neck. "Maybe tomorrow, I should be absent."
"Hey, don't you want to talk to me?" Jess said, nagging on Rory's shirt sleeve, as Paris stomped away. "Aren't you the least bit curious as to why I'm here?"
"Actually, I preferred doing the silent thing we just did back there. Let's have our own little exercise outside of class, and in it too, where we always regard one another with silence, and then later, we'll reflect on how it makes us feel, although I can already tell you that I enjoy it because I have absolutely no desire to talk to you," Rory said, as she attempted to get away from Jess.
"I know you're mad at me and you have every right to be, but aren't you wondering how I got into Yale?"
Rory stopped and turned to him.
"Jess! You know what? I am curious. I have NO idea how you could have gotten in, but I do know that it is not fair, because you don't deserve this, and it is just one more thing to add to the long list of things that make me mad in regards to you!"
"Mad at least means that you care still. And put some thought into me. That gives a guy reason to hope. Uh, that maybe we can at least be friends, that is."
Jess cleared his throat as Rory walked up to him until their faces were only inches apart.
"Listen to me. I don't put thought into you. Not anymore. I only just remembered how mad I was about you and everything that has to do with you because I was forced to stare at you for about an hour with nothing but my own thoughts, which because your face was IN mine, happened to be of you. But that assignment is over and as soon as you are out of my sight, my thoughts of you, angry or not, will be over too. Out of sight, out of mind. It's a great quote for how I feel about you.
And don't talk about rekindling any kind of friendship, because your actions give a girl reason to doubt, so don't you think for a second that you have any reason to hope, okay? And while I AM curious as to how you.. MANAGED... to get into this school, I don't care. I can live with the mystery. Just leave me alone. I mean it," she finally finished, taking a deep and angry breath.
She looked up at him and noticed then a small and unsettling (for her) smile crept up on one side of Jess's mouth. "I have to get to class," she finished, walking past him, not looking back.
And at Luke's-
Luke went through the next hour as if in slow motion. He couldn't think straight, and worked in auto-pilot. He grunted whenever anyone from the town addressed him and burned a hole, practically, into the phone with his eyes. He just kept staring at it, waiting for her to call.
He had a knot in his stomach, and every now and then, realized that he was literally holding his breath. He would let out a breath, asking himself why he was holding it in to begin with. He just felt so horrible about the whole thing.
"Did I actually insinuate that I only talk to her because she is here, talking to me, BOTHERING me, and I was raised not to ignore my neighbors... no, I didn't insinuate it, I actually SAID it," he thought.
"I actually SAID that I only talk to her out of politeness and obligation and basically also, that she ticks me off and-" his thoughts came up on him like a madman in the dark-he grabbed his forehead with one hand as his own choice words came back to him in full: "If she never came into this diner again, I wouldn't care!"
Suddenly, he felt as if his world had just ended. "How she must have felt when I said that," he thought, wincing. He knew it was worse than he could even believe. It had been over an hour since he had talked to Babette, and it was moving so slowly, and getting worse with each passing moment.
He knew that Lorelai already got to the inn, it was only twenty minutes from the diner, and probably got the message from Sookie, but purposely didn't call him back.
"And why would she? She was probably hurt by the whole thing. She must hate me now," he thought, and his anger and worry was momentarily replaced by sadness. He couldn't figure out why he was so sad.
He knew he didn't mean what he said and would just explain that he was actually just annoyed with Nicole's Lorelai-drilling and (hopefully) everything would be okay again. After he had a talking-to with Nicole of course, as well. He needed to tell her that he was lying about what he said and wanted her to just leave him alone about his friendship with Lorelai.
He still just couldn't figure out why he couldn't put the whole thing out of his mind when he figured it would all work out later.
He took a deep breath and headed to the phone, picking it up and dialing her cell phone number. It went, after three rings, into her voicemail. BEEP. "I.. Lorelai.. It's Luke.. Um.." He started, lamely, and then hung up in frustration. He knew he'd have to see her to apologize.
"This day couldn't get any worse," he thought aloud.
Meanwhile, on the little, old abandoned road, it was getting much worse..
Lorelai heard a noise and regained consciousness. It sounded like a truck, it was so loud. It must have been close to her. She forced herself to glance at the radio clock again. 2:03. "Oh my God, I haven't died yet!?" she thought.
"Miss?" A male voice's yelling broke her feverish thoughts. She could hear a voice through the windows of the car.
"Are you okay? Can you unlock this? Miss? I don't wanna break your window! You don't look right, Miss. Miss, can you unlock this?...."
She wasn't sure what was going on, but she gathered all her strength to get her hand to the door. to the unlock switch. She pushed it up, to unlock, before passing out again.
Even in her darkness, her senses were with her. She could feel the man pull her by the shoulders and touch her head, checking for a fever no doubt, as she was obviously not bleeding or visibly hurt.
She could hear some words coming from the kind man. He sounded older, she thought.
"Miss, you look... miss.. pale... are you alright miss?"
She could feel him carrying her, and then, she couldn't think or feel anymore. Her senses relieved her and she was encompassed by the blackness again. no thoughts, no feelings, just black.
At Luke's Again-Afternoon
Sookie walked into the diner and found her table with Jackson waiting at it. She greeted her husband and said kissed him before sitting down.
Luke walked out of the backroom and nearly fell down when he saw Sookie. He glanced around nervously to see if Lorelai had come in with her. Suddenly his palms felt sweaty to him and the knots that had gone from his stomach, due to the diner being so busy at lunchtime, returned in full. He walked over to the table.
"Did Lorelai come in with you?" Before he could wait for her to answer, as
obviously she was still upset and didn't come, he continued on. "Did you give her my message?"
"Actually, I didn't get the chance to. She didn't come in today. Emily had called looking for her, and I assumed that she needed her for something and Lorelai, being completely and always obligated to her, went to do that. But whenever I called her cell, she didn't answer. It's not like her not to call, either, just to say she's late. I came here for lunch, actually, to see if she is around here."
Luke just stared at Sookie, dumbfounded. "She didn't come in today? That can't be right. It's the-"
"Big opening, I know. I know she wouldn't miss that. Even on account of Emily. I started worrying that maybe Rory called with a problem at Yale, and a million other things that COULD keep her from the opening. That's why I called her a million times. But she didn't answer. And I couldn't reach Emily either, to see if she ended up going there for some reason."
Luke noticed that his heart rate sped up even more, and he tried to control
himself. Now he was worried, in addition to just feeling completely awful already. He was incapable of saying anything just then. He didn't know what to do, but he felt that he needed to be doing something.
Jackson, instead, broke the nervous silence. "You said you were gonna call Rory. Did you get through?"
Sookie shook her head nervously. "No, but that's not unusual. I.. I mean, I think it was her first day of classes. She wouldn't have been around no matter what. It was a longshot."
Sookie looked up, just then, and noticed how pale and unsettled Luke looked.
"Hey, are you okay? You look horrible. I mean, I'm nervous too, but-"
"This is my fault," he stammered, barely audible.
Jackson tried to break the nervous tension. "Why, do you have her tied up in the back? Because other than that, how could this be-"
"I made her upset when she left here."
He let out a small grunt and hesitatingly explained briefly.
"She overheard something I said to Nicole about her, irritating me and me not... well, liking it, and she left here very upset. I didn't even know she was here."
"Oh honey, I'm sure that's not it," Sookie said.
She motioned for Luke to sit, and he did so, still grunting and grudging.
She touched his arm. "Listen, I know Lorelai and nothing would have kept her from the opening at the inn. She has feelings, and they can be hurt, but she is also a professional. And this is a dream for her."
"I said I wouldn't care if she never came back to this diner again. Ever. At all."
"Ooh," Jackson grimaced. Sookie shot a look at him as if to say "you are so NOT helping!"
She looked back at Luke.
"Okay, Luke, I won't lie, you may have hurt her feelings, but she didn't run away or anything because of it. You KNOW Lorelai's stronger than that, Luke. I can promise you, it's something else. As her best friend, I am declaring that. Okay?"
Luke glanced up at Sookie and then back down again. He thought she might be right, but it didn't make him feel better. Something just wasn't right--- he could feel it.
With his senses all in overdrive the sound of the bell at the door made him jump and turn. He stood up when he noticed it was a police officer who entered the diner.