I'd Rather Be Anywhere But Here
Chapter 7
Disclaimer: It really is a tragedy! I don't own this work of art! I am in no way, shape, or form affiliated with GG or ASP or the WB. Don't sue me.
Rating: PG-13 for mild cussing
Pairing: R/J and L/L
Summary: Jess is in California. Rory is at Yale. Jess is not over Rory. Rory is over Jess…or is she?
A/N: I love my reviewers. I am sorry it has taken so long to get these chapters up. But I'm giving you 2.
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Rory's phone began to ring. Rory opened one eye, rolled over, and looked at the clock. 7:30 am. Who is calling me at 7:30 am on a Sunday morning? She rolled back over and put her pillow over her ears, trying to ignore the ringing. A few seconds later it stopped. Rory smiled. Ha! They gave up! A minute later it started to ring again. She groaned and mumbled, "Shut up!"
"Rory! Rory! The telephone is ringing!" Tana yelled as she pounded on her door.
Rory mumbled incoherently.
Tana continued to knock. "Rory! Would you like me to answer your phone?"
"Unglmapoget!" Rory yelled.
"Okay!" Tana said as she barged into her room and answered the phone.
"Hello?" Tana said perkily.
"Uh…who is this?" Lorelai asked.
"This is Tana, I'm answering Rory's phone."
"What a bright girl," Lorelai said sarcastically.
"Oh, thank you," Tana replied, seriously.
Lorelai stifled back her laughter. "So is Rory there?"
"Yes," Tana answered simply.
"Could I possibly talk to her?"
"Oh, sure." Tana said and thrust the phone into Rory's hand.
"Low?" Rory asked groggily.
"High?" Lorelai teased.
"It's 7:30 am," Rory stated.
"Yale has taught you so much!" Lorelai said sarcastically.
"I know," Rory said as she shifted the phone from one ear to the other.
"How come you didn't call me last night?" Lorelai asked.
"Oh, I didn't get home until after midnight…are you mad at me?" Rory asked concerned.
"No," Lorelai replied icily.
"Mom…"Rory protested.
"No, it's fine," Lorelai answered.
"Mom, I'm sorry, next time I'll call at midnight and wake you up to tell you all the gory details of my date."
Lorelai cleared her throat. "…gory?"
Rory smirked, "Oh yeah."
"Oh little offspring of mine…you are kidding right?"
"Yeah."
Lorelai sighed with relief, "Well babe, I can forgive you this time, but next time you must call."
"Alright," Rory agreed.
"So what are you waiting for? Fill me in!" Lorelai demanded.
"Well…we went to a nice restaurant, we had good food and coffee, we talked and he drove me home."
"Hmm…what about the kiss, was it good?"
Rory frowned. "Uh…yeah it was good," She lied, not wanting her mom to know and trying to deny the real reason that she hadn't.
"That's good. It should be a rule…don't date a guy who can't kiss."
Rory smiled, "Yep." I've only ever kissed two guys. Jess and Dean. Jess was better…of course. Rory dazed off into her thoughts.
"…What do you think?" Lorelai asked.
Rory snapped out of it. "Sure," She replied hoping that it was the right answer.
Lorelai shrieked, "Are you serious?"
Rory frowned. What did she ask me? "Uh, yeah."
"Huh…I didn't think that I'd look good as a red head…maybe I should try dyeing it tonight," Lorelai said as seriously as she could.
Rory gasped, "No, don't do it!" She exclaimed.
Lorelai smirked, "I was only joking…I knew that you weren't listening…Do you wanna tell mommy what were thinking about?"
Rory blushed, "No," She replied quickly.
"Okay."
"I think I'll come home tonight…we could have do a movie night," Rory suggested.
Lorelai squealed, "Yeah!" She said as she jumped up and down, "What time can you be here?"
"Uh…I need to do a lot of things today. Number one, get three more hours of sleep, number two, finish my term paper, and number three, study for an exam. So I can probably be home by 4:00." Rory finally decided after she jotted that down on a 'to do' list.
"Alright…so what do you feel like watching?...I was thinking maybe…I don't know."
"Well…we can figure that out when I get there," Rory said.
"Okay, I guess I'll see you at 4:00, I might be a little late since I'll be coming from the Dragon Fly."
"You're working on a Sunday?" Rory asked in awe.
"Yeah, I know, amazing…I've gotta a lot of crap to do though." Lorelai replied.
"Do you need me to pick you up…or do you have the Jeep back?"
"Oh, crap," Lorelai cursed. "Gypsy told me to pick it up at 8:30…and I couldn't possibly walk to Gypsy's in…" Lorelai looked at the clock, "half an hour!"
"Why don't you ask Luke to drive you…or are you still not on speaking terms?"
"Oh…yeah. We made up yesterday. That's a good idea."
"I am so brilliant," Rory teased.
Lorelai nodded, "You get that from me."
Rory laughed, "I bet."
Lorelai smirked, "Well, I've gotta run. See you tonight."
"Bye." Rory said before hanging up the phone. We haven't had a movie night in such a long time! Rory reached over and unplugged her phone. Now I can sleep without any interruptions. I should inform Tana too. Rory slowly climbed out of bed and walked into the Common Room. She found Tana studying on the couch.
"Good morning Tana," Rory said as she sat down next to her.
Tana looked up, "Oh, good morning Rory. Your mother is very nice!"
Rory smiled. "Yeah, well I'm going to go back to sleep until 11:00 and I don't want to be disturbed…can you handle that?"
Tana nodded, "Sure."
Rory got up from the couch and walked into her room. I should probably set my alarm clock. She set it for 11:00, curled up in bed and once again drifted off to sleep.
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Lorelai hung up the phone and began to search for her purse. She finally found it in her closet. She grabbed it and hurried out the door. She speed-walked to Luke's in record time, 5 minutes.
"Dinerman!" She bellowed as she flung open the door, "Where are you?"
Luke popped his head out of the kitchen. "What do you want Lorelai?" He asked even though he knew the answer. He grabbed the coffee pot without waiting for a reply.
"Hey now, why do you automatically think that I want coffee?" Lorelai asked pretending to be offended.
"Well I just assumed…"
"You know what assuming does…it makes an ass out of you and an ass out of me." Lorelai teased.
Luke turned red, "Well, uh…" He stuttered.
"I was just kidding Luke," Lorelai said smirking, "Actually, the real reason I came by was to see if you could drive me over to Gypsy's in about 5 minutes…She has the Jeep done…and coffee would be a bonus."
Luke sighed before responding, "Yeah, I guess," Luke answered. "Caesar!" He yelled into the kitchen. "Watch the Diner! I'll be back in 20 minutes tops!"
"But its rush hour!" Caesar yelled back to Luke.
"Just watch the damn diner!" Luke hollered back.
"Oh, fine" Caesar said annoyed.
Luke grabbed his keys and poured coffee into a disposable cup for Lorelai.
"Thanks!" Lorelai said as she took a sip.
"Are you ready to go?" He asked as he began walking towards the door.
"Yeah," She said as she followed him out the door, to his truck which was parked across the street. He opened the door for her before walking around to open his own.
"This is like a date," Lorelai said smirking.
"Just because I'm a gentleman?" He asked raising an eyebrow, very Jess-like.
Lorelai pondered this before answering. "Actually yes," She said nodding. "I haven't had a door opened for me in quite awhile."
"It's this new age thing, no one has any respect for anyone. I liked it better 20 years ago when men had respect for women, now it's just a game…who can get into her pants first."
How sweet. Lorelai smiled, "Any you win the prize."
Luke frowned, "Excuse me?"
Lorelai blushed, "Oh no! I didn't mean it that way…not that you haven't ever been in someone's-…I don't need to know that. I meant that you were right...that's all 80% of men think about these days."
"Oh," Luke said nodding. They pulled up to the front of Gypsy's. "Well here we are," Luke said as he put the car into park.
"Yep, well thanks for the ride Luke," Lorelai said and leaned over and gave him a spontaneous peck on the cheek.
"Uh, yeah, sure," Luke said as his face began to redden.
Lorelai grabbed her coffee and her purse and climbed out of the truck.
Uh…what was that? Did I just kiss Luke on the cheek? No…I couldn't have…but I did, and it wasn't even weird. No stupid head, SHUT-UP. This is Luke we're talking about, it WAS weird. He is my friend, and just my friend. I DO NOT LIKE LUKE! That would be sick, that would be wrong, that would be dirty.
"Hey Lorelai," Gypsy said, breaking Lorelai's train of thought.
"Oh, uh, hey…is my Jeep ready?" Lorelai questioned.
"Yeah, you're all set. I'll need a check for 75 dollars though."
Lorelai nodded, grabbed her checkbook and began to write it out. "Here you go," Lorelai said as she handed her the check.
"Thank you," Gypsy said as she put the check in her pocket.
"Your welcome," Lorelai said as she pulled out her keys, "So I'm good to go? The old clunkers not gonna die a block away?" Lorelai asked sarcastically.
"Uh…if it does you can always bring it back," Gypsy suggested.
Lorelai smirked and walked over to her Jeep. "Bye Gypsy!" Lorelai yelled before getting in and driving off.
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Later that day
Rory was just finishing studying when she looked at the clock. 3:25, time to leave. She grabbed her purse, locked the door and walked to the parking lot. Where is my car?? Uh…well it could only be down this row. She started to walk down a row. Is that it? She hurried over to a car that looked identical to hers and looked at the license plate. Damn. Not it. She continued walking. Is that…no. Well where is it? That is the last one on this row…it has to be it, unless I don't even have the row right. She looked at the license plate. "I found you!" She yelled at it with enthusiasm. She glanced around and noticed that everyone was staring at her. "I lost my car!" She explained and opened the door and got in.
She started the car and began to drive towards Stars Hollow. Why don't I listen to some music? She turned it on and flipped through the channels. She landed on Alice 102.7 and decided to leave it there.
"You're listening to Alice 102.7 and this is 'Running Away' by Hoobastank." The radio announced. Hey, I know this song.
I don't want you to give it all up and leave your own life collecting dust. I would have accepted it if you wanted to go home, but at least you could have told me.
And I don't want you to feel sorry for me. Because I am fine.
You never gave us a chance to be. We were just starting to really click.
And I don't need you to be by my side to tell me that everything's alright. Because I can tell myself that.
I just wanted you to tell me the truth. Why did you leave??
You know that I'd do that for you. Yes I would because I'm not afraid to show my feelings.
So why are you running away? WHY?
Why are you running away? You suck. Stop.
Cause I did enough to show you that I was willing to give and sacrifice. Perhaps…well I was almost there.
And I was the one who was lifting you up when you thought your life had had enough. You thought that you were nothing and that no one cared about you but you were wrong.
And when I get close you turn me away. Why couldn't you open up to me?
There's nothing that I can do or say. I don't even want to hear your voice.
So now I need you to tell me the truth. Stop all of your lying!
You know that I'd do that for you. I would.
So why are you running away? Please tell me.
Why are you running away? It's driving me crazy.
Is it me? Did I do something wrong?
Is it you? Did you not like me anymore?
Nothing I can do to make you change your mind. I don't want to talk to you unless you'll tell me why.
Is it me? What did I do?
Is it you? You could have at least told me.
Nothing that I can do. Or is there?
Is it a waste of time? Was it a waste of time?
"And that was 'Running Away' by Hoobastank," the radio once again announced.
Rory reached forward and turned off the radio. She pulled off to the side of the road and stopped the car. She stared off into space and began thinking about Jess. Rory sat there for 5 minutes.
If only I could have known what was bugging him on the night of the party, then maybe I could have helped him. I mean, if there was something that I was doing wrong, he could have at least broken up with me…he didn't have to leave town! She gained her composure and once again began to drive home.
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A/N: Is the Luke/Lorelai thing to unbelievable? What did you think about the song thing? Give me your feedback.
