"So you are going to eat and then straight to bed?"
"Yes."
"Nothing else."
"Nope."
"And tomorrow you will arrive in Stars Hollow as scheduled." Lorelai wanted her daughter home, where she belonged, where she was safe, and where no dark haired boys were.
"Correct. No more spontaneous anything. I am Stick-To-A-Plan-Rory from now on." Rory was still sitting on Jess' bed in his clothes her wet hair drying into thick strands.
"Good to have you back."
"Okay well I am going to go. Good night mom." Rory looked at the closed door thinking about what was on the other side, Jess and his friends.
"Wait." Lorelai wasn't quite finished.
"What?"
"You and Jess are sleeping in different rooms, right?" Lorelai was reluctant to talk about the possibility of sex, of her daughter having sex.......with Jess.
"Yes. I told you."
"And if something...............if things get carried away you would use protection right?"
"Mom! I am not even ready for that. Or thinking of that." A lie, but necessary. "I am still with Dean technically speaking and I can't believe you would think I would do that."
"Well you are alone in an apartment in New York City with Jess, Rory, so....yeah it crossed my mind as I am sure it did his."
"Well my answer to that is no, so don't even worry."
"Okay I won't." Lorelai sighed. She believed her daughter. She wanted to believe her daughter.
"I love you and I will see you tomorrow."
"Goodnight. I love you too."
99999999999999999999999
"Wow." Tyler smiled at Jess and shook his head, as if congratulating him.
"Don't." Jess looked at the hallway, and back at Tyler.
"She's a nice girl Jess."
"Yes, she is."
"What the hell are you doing with a nice girl?" Tyler pointed at Jess and looked at him knowingly.
And he did know Jess well. He was at the party where Jess first had sex when they were both 13. Tyler rolled the first joint Jess ever smoked when they were 14. He was there when Jess stole a pack of cigars and a bottle of Absolute Vodka from a liquor store and ran like hell with him down the street when they were 15. He watched Jess get the shit beat out of him outside a club for saying something a big guy didn't like, when they were 16. And he was with Jess when they both got busted for possession at a party in the meat packing district when they were 17, which sent Jess to Stars Hollow.
"It's time for you two clowns to leave." Jess looked at Tyler unblinkingly. He knew that this wasn't about Rory. It was about him.
"I mean she's pretty, but definitely not your type." Tyler looked back to where Rory had disappeared.
"Did you see those eyes?" Eddie couldn't stop smiling.
"And ass." Tyler knew where to drive his nails.
"Get the fuck out. I'm serious." Jess had kept his civility, but now his anger was evident. He walked to the door and opened it.
"You know I will forgive you for being so rude right now, cause I know that if I was alone with such a fine little thing I would want all the time in the world to do whatever I wanted." Tyler walked to the open door as he spoke, Eddie following close behind him.
"Out. Now."
"Bye." Eddie walked in front of Tyler and into the hallway.
"See ya around." Tyler looked back at Jess and smirked one last time, knowing the full effect of his words on him.
Jess shut the door behind them and listened to their footsteps going down the stairs. Softer and softer until he couldn't hear them at all. He thanked God Rory hadn't walked back in during his and Tyler's conversation, if you could call it that, he thought.
Jess looked around his grungy apartment. Unclean, and unsuitable for someone so beloved and good as Rory, definitely. She was in there talking to her mother, probably, telling her what horrible friends he had. What an awful and small apartment he lived in.
He walked to his room and knocked on the door softly.
"Come in." Jess opened the door to find Rory stretched out on his bed, her legs dangling off the side, cell phone in her right hand. It was hard not to think of her in a sexual way then, especially since it was his bed and she was wearing his clothes. She sat up as he walked in slowly, running a hand through her dark wet hair. Jess wished she would lie back down again. He would put his hands on either side of her head and kiss her senseless.
"Hey."
"Hey."
"They're gone." Jess sat down on the bed beside Rory, not looking at her but at her clothes folded neatly, although wet, on the floor.
"So those were your friends." Rory was looking at Jess' profile. Examining his face and loving every inch of it. Rory tried to find a disagreeable aspect, she was looking hard, but she couldn't. He was too lovely.
"Eddie and I are not friends. He is just always around." Jess remembered the time when Eddie fell asleep on the subway and got his brand new Air Jordans stolen from him. Dumbass.
"And Tyler?" Rory could sense that there was some history there. The looks. The flowing conversation.
"I've known Tyler a long time."
"So you're not friends," Rory stated simply. Too simply.
"You can't understand." Jess shook his head and rolled his eyes. He wasn't about to explain to Rory about the disintegration of his friendship with Tyler, and more, much more than that. That the people Jess once considered "cool," his friends, now seemed foreign and child-like even. As if Jess was watching characters in a movie instead of good friends. Jess hated that he came back from Stars Hollow feeling superior to them. Jess hated that he had changed to someone, or that his once friends had changed into comical characters.
"Well explain it to me. You and Tyler have known each other a while. Were once great friends in the tradition of Stand By Me...... and now what?" Rory looked at Jess looking away and knew that this was one of those moments that she knew was critical. She needed Jess to open up, to let her in.
Didn't he know that she wanted him no matter what? Didn't he know that she just wanted to listen to him tell her things, any and all things about himself? That she would listen for hours if he would only talk to her, really and truly talk to her?
"It's just......" Jess looked away and then back to Rory and then back again struggling with the words, "....before I went to Stars Hollow things between me and Tyler were getting testy, weird." Jess didn't want to tell Rory that a significant component of their weirdness was that he and Tyler were fooling around with the same girls. That at one party Jess left a bedroom only to have Tyler enter it laughing saying that Jess wouldn't mind, would he?
"Maybe he felt bad that you went away and he stayed?"
"Tyler doesn't think like that." You think like that, Jess thought.
"How does he think then?" Open sesame, she commanded.
"He thinks that since I am not calling to hang out I must be mad at him, except he can't figure out why. So he comes over with Eddie to get me to come to a party and finds a pretty girl wearing my clothes. Now, he figures that really it is all about a girl. That I have been so into her that I haven't cared to call or hang out or anything. So as soon as you leave he will come by again."
"Do you want to hang out with him?"
"No. I'm here aren't I?"
"I mean when I leave. Will things just go back to normal between you?" Rory was leading Jess to a specific unanswered question. Which they both knew.
"I don't really know, and in truth I haven't given it much thought." Jess was evasive, avoiding the inevitable confrontation. Not prepared yet to answer yes or no.
"Why not? You're finally home. You got what you wanted."
"Well that's the thing, I haven't really decided on that yet." Jess looked at Rory head on. And she didn't get her answer, but she got something real close. And it was the best Jess could give. At that moment.
"Oh." Rory looked down at her cast. At the thick and itchy ugliness of it. And also all it represented. The accident. Jess breaking her. Jess leaving her. The evidence for Dean, for the entire town, that she had been betraying Dean with Jess.
Slowly Jess turned her chin towards him and kissed her softly, knowing full well where her thoughts were. Rory wasn't difficult to read. And Jess had been wanting to kiss her so badly for so long, that knowing that he could was quite exhilarating and quite addictive.
Jess did to her mouth what he wanted to do with her entire body. Taste. Explore. Touch. Slowly find every crevice while hearing every sound she could ever possibly make. The kissing was satisfying and achingly slow. It was Rory whose touch became ferocious, who deepened the kissing and the moaning sounds. Jess responded to her, as he always did.
They pulled away abruptly hearing a knocking sound before the consequences and the rationalizing, and analyzing crept into their heads. They were both a little dizzy still and surprised, pleasantly surprised.
"Someone's here." Rory looked at Jess who walked to the door.
"Stay in here for a sec." Jess looked at Rory and she nodded. None of them wanted to deal with the possibility of Eddie and Tyler's return. She watched Jess leave and stayed in the room, listening to Jess open the door and hearing a strange voice. The words she couldn't make out and she leaned in to the crack of the open door for a better listen, instead catching a distinct smell. Chinese food.
Rory walked out to see Jess paying the delivery guy and setting the food on the kitchen table. She smiled at him and he smirked back, both of them laughing at their insecurities and apparent paranoia.
"Yes."
"Nothing else."
"Nope."
"And tomorrow you will arrive in Stars Hollow as scheduled." Lorelai wanted her daughter home, where she belonged, where she was safe, and where no dark haired boys were.
"Correct. No more spontaneous anything. I am Stick-To-A-Plan-Rory from now on." Rory was still sitting on Jess' bed in his clothes her wet hair drying into thick strands.
"Good to have you back."
"Okay well I am going to go. Good night mom." Rory looked at the closed door thinking about what was on the other side, Jess and his friends.
"Wait." Lorelai wasn't quite finished.
"What?"
"You and Jess are sleeping in different rooms, right?" Lorelai was reluctant to talk about the possibility of sex, of her daughter having sex.......with Jess.
"Yes. I told you."
"And if something...............if things get carried away you would use protection right?"
"Mom! I am not even ready for that. Or thinking of that." A lie, but necessary. "I am still with Dean technically speaking and I can't believe you would think I would do that."
"Well you are alone in an apartment in New York City with Jess, Rory, so....yeah it crossed my mind as I am sure it did his."
"Well my answer to that is no, so don't even worry."
"Okay I won't." Lorelai sighed. She believed her daughter. She wanted to believe her daughter.
"I love you and I will see you tomorrow."
"Goodnight. I love you too."
99999999999999999999999
"Wow." Tyler smiled at Jess and shook his head, as if congratulating him.
"Don't." Jess looked at the hallway, and back at Tyler.
"She's a nice girl Jess."
"Yes, she is."
"What the hell are you doing with a nice girl?" Tyler pointed at Jess and looked at him knowingly.
And he did know Jess well. He was at the party where Jess first had sex when they were both 13. Tyler rolled the first joint Jess ever smoked when they were 14. He was there when Jess stole a pack of cigars and a bottle of Absolute Vodka from a liquor store and ran like hell with him down the street when they were 15. He watched Jess get the shit beat out of him outside a club for saying something a big guy didn't like, when they were 16. And he was with Jess when they both got busted for possession at a party in the meat packing district when they were 17, which sent Jess to Stars Hollow.
"It's time for you two clowns to leave." Jess looked at Tyler unblinkingly. He knew that this wasn't about Rory. It was about him.
"I mean she's pretty, but definitely not your type." Tyler looked back to where Rory had disappeared.
"Did you see those eyes?" Eddie couldn't stop smiling.
"And ass." Tyler knew where to drive his nails.
"Get the fuck out. I'm serious." Jess had kept his civility, but now his anger was evident. He walked to the door and opened it.
"You know I will forgive you for being so rude right now, cause I know that if I was alone with such a fine little thing I would want all the time in the world to do whatever I wanted." Tyler walked to the open door as he spoke, Eddie following close behind him.
"Out. Now."
"Bye." Eddie walked in front of Tyler and into the hallway.
"See ya around." Tyler looked back at Jess and smirked one last time, knowing the full effect of his words on him.
Jess shut the door behind them and listened to their footsteps going down the stairs. Softer and softer until he couldn't hear them at all. He thanked God Rory hadn't walked back in during his and Tyler's conversation, if you could call it that, he thought.
Jess looked around his grungy apartment. Unclean, and unsuitable for someone so beloved and good as Rory, definitely. She was in there talking to her mother, probably, telling her what horrible friends he had. What an awful and small apartment he lived in.
He walked to his room and knocked on the door softly.
"Come in." Jess opened the door to find Rory stretched out on his bed, her legs dangling off the side, cell phone in her right hand. It was hard not to think of her in a sexual way then, especially since it was his bed and she was wearing his clothes. She sat up as he walked in slowly, running a hand through her dark wet hair. Jess wished she would lie back down again. He would put his hands on either side of her head and kiss her senseless.
"Hey."
"Hey."
"They're gone." Jess sat down on the bed beside Rory, not looking at her but at her clothes folded neatly, although wet, on the floor.
"So those were your friends." Rory was looking at Jess' profile. Examining his face and loving every inch of it. Rory tried to find a disagreeable aspect, she was looking hard, but she couldn't. He was too lovely.
"Eddie and I are not friends. He is just always around." Jess remembered the time when Eddie fell asleep on the subway and got his brand new Air Jordans stolen from him. Dumbass.
"And Tyler?" Rory could sense that there was some history there. The looks. The flowing conversation.
"I've known Tyler a long time."
"So you're not friends," Rory stated simply. Too simply.
"You can't understand." Jess shook his head and rolled his eyes. He wasn't about to explain to Rory about the disintegration of his friendship with Tyler, and more, much more than that. That the people Jess once considered "cool," his friends, now seemed foreign and child-like even. As if Jess was watching characters in a movie instead of good friends. Jess hated that he came back from Stars Hollow feeling superior to them. Jess hated that he had changed to someone, or that his once friends had changed into comical characters.
"Well explain it to me. You and Tyler have known each other a while. Were once great friends in the tradition of Stand By Me...... and now what?" Rory looked at Jess looking away and knew that this was one of those moments that she knew was critical. She needed Jess to open up, to let her in.
Didn't he know that she wanted him no matter what? Didn't he know that she just wanted to listen to him tell her things, any and all things about himself? That she would listen for hours if he would only talk to her, really and truly talk to her?
"It's just......" Jess looked away and then back to Rory and then back again struggling with the words, "....before I went to Stars Hollow things between me and Tyler were getting testy, weird." Jess didn't want to tell Rory that a significant component of their weirdness was that he and Tyler were fooling around with the same girls. That at one party Jess left a bedroom only to have Tyler enter it laughing saying that Jess wouldn't mind, would he?
"Maybe he felt bad that you went away and he stayed?"
"Tyler doesn't think like that." You think like that, Jess thought.
"How does he think then?" Open sesame, she commanded.
"He thinks that since I am not calling to hang out I must be mad at him, except he can't figure out why. So he comes over with Eddie to get me to come to a party and finds a pretty girl wearing my clothes. Now, he figures that really it is all about a girl. That I have been so into her that I haven't cared to call or hang out or anything. So as soon as you leave he will come by again."
"Do you want to hang out with him?"
"No. I'm here aren't I?"
"I mean when I leave. Will things just go back to normal between you?" Rory was leading Jess to a specific unanswered question. Which they both knew.
"I don't really know, and in truth I haven't given it much thought." Jess was evasive, avoiding the inevitable confrontation. Not prepared yet to answer yes or no.
"Why not? You're finally home. You got what you wanted."
"Well that's the thing, I haven't really decided on that yet." Jess looked at Rory head on. And she didn't get her answer, but she got something real close. And it was the best Jess could give. At that moment.
"Oh." Rory looked down at her cast. At the thick and itchy ugliness of it. And also all it represented. The accident. Jess breaking her. Jess leaving her. The evidence for Dean, for the entire town, that she had been betraying Dean with Jess.
Slowly Jess turned her chin towards him and kissed her softly, knowing full well where her thoughts were. Rory wasn't difficult to read. And Jess had been wanting to kiss her so badly for so long, that knowing that he could was quite exhilarating and quite addictive.
Jess did to her mouth what he wanted to do with her entire body. Taste. Explore. Touch. Slowly find every crevice while hearing every sound she could ever possibly make. The kissing was satisfying and achingly slow. It was Rory whose touch became ferocious, who deepened the kissing and the moaning sounds. Jess responded to her, as he always did.
They pulled away abruptly hearing a knocking sound before the consequences and the rationalizing, and analyzing crept into their heads. They were both a little dizzy still and surprised, pleasantly surprised.
"Someone's here." Rory looked at Jess who walked to the door.
"Stay in here for a sec." Jess looked at Rory and she nodded. None of them wanted to deal with the possibility of Eddie and Tyler's return. She watched Jess leave and stayed in the room, listening to Jess open the door and hearing a strange voice. The words she couldn't make out and she leaned in to the crack of the open door for a better listen, instead catching a distinct smell. Chinese food.
Rory walked out to see Jess paying the delivery guy and setting the food on the kitchen table. She smiled at him and he smirked back, both of them laughing at their insecurities and apparent paranoia.