As you can see by the last chapter, I've overcome my writers block. I finally know where this story is going. Amazing, huh? Maybe it took the inspiration of all the Jess previews... but whatever it was that made me snap out of it… I'm glad it came.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore girls, but if only I owned Milo…
Chapter 6 – Teach Me Tommorow
"So, Jimmy?"
"So, Sasha." Jimmy looked back at her, not knowing what to do.
"How is work?"
Jimmy looked at Sasha strangely. "Work is gooood." he sang.
"Good, good."
"Yes." he mocked. "Very good."
"So how long is he staying Jimmy?"
"What?"
"Jess! How long is Jess staying."
"I don't know! I've just seen him for the first time in seventeen years!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah!"
"You really expect me to believe that, don't you Jimmy?"
"Uh, yeah, I do, because it's true."
"Hah!" she responded.
"Hah? Hah, what?"
"You've been sending money to that boy!"
"What?!"
"I saw you put that letter in the mail, Jimmy, to New York."
"I don't know what you're talking about." He turned away.
"We work so hard to keep this house, and you are handing our hard earned money to some kid!"
"Sash, that is not a kid!"
"Hoodlum?"
"Sash?"
"Thief?"
"Alright, already!"
"Well, tell me, Jimmy!"
"I'm not telling you anything because there is nothing to tell. You've lost it; I am not sending money to that boy!"
"Fine, you know what? Fine."
"Oh yeah? Fine!"
"Fine!"
"FINE!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.
Sasha stormed off and left Jess sitting at the bench. Jimmy sat down next to him.
"Marriage, huh?" Jess commented.
"We're not married."
"Oh."
"But I'm beginning to think we should be."
Rory sat on her bed with a big empty box. She then stood up and started going through her drawers frantically. Lorelai jumped up when she heard all the commotion. Listening to drawers banging open and shut, she flinched and walked cautiously towards Rory's open door.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Getting him out of my life." she responded.
"Who?"
"Jess."
"What, why?"
"Because!"
"Oh well that cleared it up." she quipped.
"I can't concentrate. Everywhere I look I see him. His eyes, his shirt, his hair!"
"Please tell me those aren't in the box." she cringed.
"Ha-ha." she said unenthusiastically.
Rory picked up her dress from Sookie's wedding and crumbled it into the box.
"Woah, woah!" Lorelai grabbed the dress.
"I can't have this!"
"Do you know how long that took me to make?"
"You let me pack away my dress from my dance with Dean."
"Yes, I know, but I have a dress that matches that!"
"You're right!"
"I am…" Lorelai stopped as she watched Rory run up the stairs and search through her mother's drawers. As Rory ran down the stairs with the dress, Lorelai stopped her.
"Rory, stop!"
"Why?"
"You're out of control!"
"No!"
"You need to cope with this before you pack him away!"
"He's gone!"
"What?" she gasped.
Rory started to tear up. "I can't believe I let him leave! How could I have held back what I wanted to say? I should have yelled at him. I should have made it hurt. I'm hurting so much! Where is he?! It's been two days! He should have called! I can't…"
"Woah, Rory, slow down. Take me through this."
"I can't." She wiped her eyes.
"You can."
"I can't!"
"You can!"
Rory went in to hug Lorelai and sob into her shoulder. "I ca-han't."
"Oh, sweetie." Lorelai rubbed her back and held her tightly.
"So then you moved to Stars Hollow?" Jimmy asked.
"Not by choice."
"Well, you kind of deserved it."
"That's what Liz said. She said I didn't deserve to live with her anymore… that I was ruining her life. That I ruined her whole life."
"Nice lady, that Liz."
Jess huffed. "Once she locked me out of the apartment."
"What?"
"Well, I don't know if she locked me out. But she had a visitor over."
"Oh."
"It was twenty degrees outside."
"Nice." Jimmy commented.
"Yeah, I climbed the fire escape and came in through the window… and walked in on them."
"Ack." Jimmy laughed.
"It wasn't the first time."
"Double ack."
"You have no idea. The scum bags I've had to deal with."
Jimmy was silent.
"Sorry, I didn't mean…"
"No, I deserve it. I was one of those guys." Jess looked at him with a straight face. "I'm not anymore though." Jess looked down.
"Did she… get the check?"
"Yes." Jess raised his eyebrow.
"Good."
"She ripped it up."
Rory and Lorelai sat on the couch. Lorelai was holding a bowl of ice cream with a spoon, and Rory was holding the container with a spoon.
"…and then we went to bed." she sniffed.
"Like... 'went to bed.'"
"No… we slept."
"Nothing happened?"
"No." she answered.
"Did you… want something to happen?"
"I thought… if I let him stay… or… do that… he'd change his mind."
"Rory..."
"Yeah, I know. I felt so cheap."
"Well, he said he's coming back."
"Sure." she said as she rolled her eyes. She pulled back her hair with her hand.
"You really did love him… huh?"
"I really… think…" she stopped. "I really did love him."
Jess was sitting in the book store with his head in a book, when he heard some girls laughing and giggling to themselves. Jess cocked an eyebrow up, and spotted a few girls huddled in a corner.
"Oh my god, he's looking over here!" one shrieked.
"Would you shut up? He's going to hear!" the other harshly whispered.
"So?" she said playfully.
The other girl eyed her threateningly.
"Come on Nat, what's up with you?"
"Nothing is up with me."
"He's cute. Make your move."
"Not now."
"He's the new guy; somebody is going to get him if you don't claim him, now!"
"Claim him?" she asked.
"Well, look at him."
"I'm looking."
"Go!"
"No." she persisted. Jess pulled his head up and looked directly at her. Nat turned around. "Oh crap, he looked right at me."
"Still is." the other girl said.
"Okay, Nicole. You are my best friend in the whole world, right?"
"Well…"
"Shut up. You are."
"Okay."
"Now I want you to go over there, and work your magic…"
"Nuh uh, Nat. If I go over there, he's mine."
"Nico…"
"And his shirt will be off within ten minutes… and we will be…"
"Shut up! Fine, I'm going over."
When Jess overheard, he put his head back in his book. Nat sat next to him.
"Nice book." she commented.
"Mmhmm." he grunted. Natalie looked over to Nicole with a questionable look. Nicole mouthed 'Go on.'
"So… what's your name?"
"Jess."
"Well Jess…" she looked over to her friend, "I'm Natalie. But my friends call me Nat." She put out her hand to shake.
Jess shook her hand and said, "Hi, Natalie."
"Nat."
"Natalie."
"You can call me Nat."
"Shouldn't I decide?"
"Well, why don't you decide tonight?"
"O-kay." he said. I'll be up all night deciding. He rolled his eyes.
Natalie got up and then turned around and yelled, "Are you coming?"
"Where?"
"Come on!"
"Whatever." he muttered and shrugged his shoulders as he followed her out the door. What else am I going to do? Nicole was left there with a grin on her face.
"So it looks like this will be our last dinner for a while, Rory." she said, cutting the knife into her veal.
"Looks that way." Rory replied.
"So are you packed for Europe yet?"
"Not yet." replied Lorelai. "It's much more convenient to leave it to the last minute."
"How can that be more convenient?" Emily asked.
"Well first of all, I'm going to pack things I need during the day, so I'll just keep unpacking the stuff I packed, and I'll probably leave it on the counter or on the bed, or on the shelves, or in the drawers."
"And then we are back where we started." Rory agreed.
"I always forget things when I pack late." Emily commented.
"Oh we've been making a list." Rory replied.
"A list?" Emily asked.
"Yes, we carry ours everywhere we go…" Rory said.
"And while we are daydreaming or staring out the window we might remember… 'Oh! I forgot soap!' and write it on the list." Lorelai continued.
"How could you forget soap?" Richard asked.
"It was just an example, Dad."
"Can I see this list, Lorelai?" asked Emily suspiciously.
"Uh… sure." Lorelai reached into her back jeans pocket. Then in the other.
"I…uh… must have left it in my other pair of jeans." Lorelai said nervously.
"That's okay though," said Rory. "We've been working on them for a long time, so I don't think we'll forget anything."
"How long?" Richard asked.
"Uh…" Lorelai thought. "Were you five or six when we started the lists?"
"Seven." Rory corrected.
"Seven?" Emily asked in amazement.
"Yes, of course then her list consisted of a pencil sharpener, cheese nips, and temporary tattoos." Lorelai laughed.
"No it didn't." Rory argued.
"It didn't?" Lorelai asked.
"That was your list." Rory corrected.
"No it wasn't!"
"Yes it was, and you still have those on your list!" Rory accused.
"Well… what can I say? I'm sure as hell not getting a real tattoo."
"So, how are things at school?" Emily asked, desperate to change the subject.
"Oh school is good." Rory answered.
"And Jess?"
Lorelai made a panicked face at Rory. Rory moved her head towards her grandmother and then back to her food.
"This is really good veal." Lorelai commented.
"What a relief." Richard said.
"Uh… yeah. Because with all that talk about mad cow disease…"
"That boy was a nuisance." Emily commented.
"Definitely not a good influence." Richard agreed.
"Hey!" Lorelai defended.
"I know the Anderson's boy is single. Rory, maybe I can set something up." Emily suggested.
"Oh that boy is well mannered, and he's going to Yale." Richard replied with enthusiasm.
"Not bad looking either." Emily said.
"That's enough." said Lorelai.
"What?" Emily asked.
"That's enough!" Rory said slamming her fist against the table. "I've had to put up with this when I was with him and it's still going on after he's gone."
"Rory." Lorelai tried to stop Rory from making a big mistake.
"You never supported any of my relationships Grandpa. And Grandma, I am not a charity case; I can find my own boyfriend!"
"We never said…" Emily tried to interrupt.
"Mom, let's go." Rory walked out of the room.
Lorelai made a face that clearly said 'I'm sorry.' and followed her.
"Sounds like my kind of town." Nat commented. Jess and Nat were sitting on a bench with two cones of ice cream staring out at the water.
"Boooring." Jess sang.
"Not so boring. You've got lots of characters in your town. All we have here is Fay."
"Who's Fay?"
"She's this old woman who hits on all these young guys."
"Sounds like Ms. Patty." Jess commented.
"Who?" Nat asked.
"Never mind."
"The water is really pretty." Nat commented.
"I'm not jumping in." Jess responded.
"And the ice cream really adds to it too."
"Yeah, on this freezing cold night." Jess retorted.
"Yup."
"So you just ignore my complaints now?"
"Yup." Nat laughed.
"Don't make me take your ice cream." Jess threatened.
"What are you going to do with it? Drop it in the sand?"
"Maybe." Jess answered.
"You are three."
"You are two." Jess reacted.
"I'd say you are one, but I don't think one year olds eat ice cream."
"They would probably get brain freeze."
"They probably couldn't hold a cone either."
"I don't think a baby could eat a cone."
"What's the point of eating ice cream then?"
"The unanswered question asked yet again." Jess commented.
"Ice cream is so much better in cones!"
"It's always better in cones." And at that, Jess shut up.
--
"Admit it!" Jess requested. "It's always better in a cone."
"It's always better in a cone." Rory laughed.
"Putting ice cream in a dish, eating it with a spoon?"
"What is wrong with people?"
Jess held his cone up in the air and sucked ice cream out from the bottom. "Hold the wheel." he told Rory.
"What?"
"I'm dripping here, hold the wheel."
"I can't hold the wheel, you're driving." she replied. "The person who's driving has to hold the wheel. That's the first thing they teach you in Driver's Ed."
"Huh." Jess replied. "I've gotta take that class one of these days. Take the wheel."
"Jess!"
"I'm letting go." At that moment, Jess pulled his hands back and Rory grabbed the wheel as if the car would spin out of control any second.
"Stop! Take it back." Rory commanded. Jess simply licked his cone. Rory observed a drip of ice cream land on his lips and Jess licked it off. "Okay, you are taking this wheel back and when you do, I'm going to kill you. I'm just letting you know that."
"I appreciate the warning."
"Jess!"
Jess grabbed the wheel and when Rory was sure he wouldn't let go again, she put he hands back in her lap. "Okay, I got it." Jess said. "Geez, you look pale. Are you okay?" he joked.
"Death, and it's going to be painful." she replied.
"You're not gonna kill me. Think how dull your life would be without me."
--
I left her to that life. And somehow, in some selfishness in his mind, he'd hoped it would be boring.
"I wonder if they'd be sensitive to it on their bottom jaw."
"I'm sorry, what?" Jess had been in a daze.
"You know… when you are eating ice cream… how your bottom front teeth are really sensitive to cold."
"No."
"What? How can you say that?" Nat asked.
"Because I eat ice cream all the time and I've never noticed I couldn't use my bottom teeth." Jess laughed.
"You're lying!" she accused.
"I swear I'm not."
"Okay, do it."
Jess tried to eat his ice cream, but he couldn't put it in his mouth because of his wide smile.
"Eat, eat, eat, eat!" Nat cried.
"I can't eat while you're staring at me like that!"
"Like what?"
"Like if I dropped the cone you'd lick it off the pavement."
"You can't do it." she chanted.
"No, I can't." he smiled.
"Hah! I must be the first person to point out a weakness."
"Hardly the first." he said as he rolled his eyes.
"The first to… break you out of that hard exterior."
"The second." Jess thought.