"No, really," Lane said. "You're a godsend. Microwave means microwave popcorn, and hot things, and more food." She put her arms around one of the appliances that Brian and Zach had hauled up from Rory's car. "This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
Rory nodded, her lips pursed together. "You really need to get out more," she told her friend.
Lane sighed and dropped to the floor of her new bedroom. "Tell me about it. I'm hanging out with Goofus and Gallant all day and slinging hash at the diner. My boyfriend lives in California with girls in bikinis and I'm stuck here."
"Tell me you did not just say 'slinging has at the diner.'"
Lane put her head in her hands. "Kill me now!"
Rory sat on the bed and tucked her knees up to her chest. "So are things going okay?"
Lane tilted her head and considered. "Okay. The band's okay, we're getting along, I think it's going to work out. I like working at the diner."
Rory gave her friend a disbelieving look. "I meant with your mom."
"You mean my mom and the pod person that's now wearing my second least favorite sweater and eating my apples?"
Rory tried not to snicker. "Yeah, that's what I meant."
"I'm not happy about it, no. Weirdly enough, I miss my mom. I mean, living on your own is fine, but knowing you can't go home? Sucks. You're lucky. Lorelai'd never disown you," Lane said.
"She's already done everything worth being disowned for anyway. It would be redundant," Rory said. "And look at how she turned out."
"When we were little, I always wanted to live at your house. You got to eat cake for breakfast, you could listen to whatever you wanted, you never had to read the Bible, and you had not one but two cool wardrobes at your disposal. I had hayrides with future proctologists and soy muffins that walked on their own if they weren't consumed within twenty-four hours."
"Oh, Lane, think about it this way: if you hadn't had all that, if you hadn't grown up at your house, you'd be someone else. You wouldn't be Lane Kim, and who knows, maybe we wouldn't even be friends."
The two girls sat a moment, contemplating the idea.
"Way to kill a conversation, Rory," Rory said.
"Seriously," Lane said, and laughed. She turned her head towards the door. "Is that your cell?" As Rory rose and ran into the outer room, Lane got down flat on her belly on the floor, propped her chin in her hands, and stared at her microwave. "I love you, microwave. You may not be mine, but I love you. I'm going to be so good to you this summer, you have no idea, and you in turn will reward me with the bounty of your electrical microwaves." She saw Rory in the reflection of the microwave door, her arms crossed over her stomach. She lifted herself and peered over her shoulder. "I am in love with this microwave."
"I'm meeting Lorelai at Luke's at four for coffee. I think. Want to come?"
Lane sat up and brushed her hands over her shirt front. "Sure. Meanwhile, let's go to Doose's and buy things that you can cook in the microwave. Oh, EasyMac!"
As she spoke, the lights flickered and went out.
Rory sat beside Lane on the floor. "Guess we're not going to the market."
"Guess not."