Disclaimer: Like always, I claim nothing… no point in suing!!!

Chapter 6: Unasked Offers

On a night in March Jess found himself on a bar stool in a crowded village bar. His fellow employees had asked him to go out with them in order to celebrate one guy's birthday, and since they caught him in a good minute,  right upon receiving his pay-check, he had actually agreed for which he was now cursing himself. Here he was sitting among a crowd of so called alternative New Yorkers, he had to listen to a band whose members thought of themselves as the new Nirvana but unfortunately they sounded more like The Offspring and he had the joy of seeing every one around himself getting pissed. Great evening!

Jess thought about his bed and how much he wanted to be in it rather than spending his time in this shack of a bar. He should be sleeping, but instead he had guys around who were already too drunk to notice that he was in the mood to kill them all. Gosh this was so pathetic. He never thought it would be so bad, but the guys, after having a few shots, actually started singing 'Happy Birthday' for Josh right in the middle of the bar. Totally embarrassing, and Jess tried to hide his face in the mean time. If this one guy, Kenneth, hadn't been by his side the entire night, he would have left immediately. This was just awful.

The band was taking a break. Luckily.

Or not. Kenneth seemed to think that the break was a reason to start talking.

"So why are you working in a diner?"

Great question, Jess thought to himself. This was just terrifying. Not only was it pathetic that he, who had made fun of Luke frequently for running a diner, was now working in a diner, but he also made contact with his co-workers.

"Because I get more money." That was about the truth. Now Jess usually would have uttered something with less syllables like 'More Cash' but this Kenneth guy actually wasn't too bad considering he had just moved to the city from California and was the only one that wasn't completely trashed yet. Jess kind of sympathized with him. He had seen California and decided that New York and California didn't fit, just like J-Lo and Ben. It would be hard for Kenneth here and Jess was sure this guy wouldn't last two months in the city.

So okay, this guy wasn't too bad, but did he have to try to make friends with him?

"So, how do you like work?"

This was a joke right? Was he actually thinking that one could like anything about working, especially when you were carrying around eggs, pancakes and burgers and all that other greasy, smelly stuff for stuck-up customers all day?

"Not at all."

"Huh" Great, now he even stole his line. This was just getting better and better.

"So, how do you like the band?"

"Same as work."

"What?"

"Not at all."

"Oh, I see" Kenneth obviously was surprised by that "why not, I mean people around here really like them; I have even read good commentaries about them in the paper."

"Oh yeah?" Jess asked. "Honestly whoever wrote that must have a deluded sense of music. The only good thing about them is that they are taking a break now.  I mean, the beat just sucks, way to slow. The lyrics are crap. The lead singer tries to pretend he has a voice. And well the worst part about it: They think they're the new Nirvana. They're just not. They try to imitate something rather than playing stuff that actually fits their way of playing. Poor creatures, poor souls."

"Huh" again, Kenneth was stealing his line. Jess turned away from him, hoping he wouldn't ask another question. The band was setting up again, which caused Jess to sigh and he decided that it was time to go. He could use some sleep. Even though the diner-job had flexible hours, Jess was still getting used to not having a regular schedule, and he was still in lack of sleep. He was glad he was done with the studying though. In January he had passed his GED and even though Jess didn't like to brag, he liked to say that his scores were quite good. Pretty high actually.  They even helped him get a job at this diner just a few blocks away from his new apartment, which he had been able to get because of the new diner-job and because of the money he had saved up in the last months. So, yes, he was now living in something worthy of the name apartment. It still wasn't the penthouse suite, but it was warm and dry, not more than your usual amount of New York bugs and insects, and it actually had a few pieces of decent furniture. Hell, Jess even had a shelf to put his books on.

Yes, he had been reading again, ever since he met Rory. He didn't know why, but meeting her had made a  positive change in his life. Knowing she loved him just made him feel so much better. For once he felt like there was hope. It was sappy, but knowing she loved him and missed him made him happy. Jess actually regained sight of the good things in life, like music or books. And then the new job, more money, his passed GED; everything seemed to be going fine and maybe that's what made Jess socialize tonight.

But enough was enough. He couldn't take anymore of this. He had enough of people for today. He got up from his chair and put his jacket back on. He emptied his bottle of beer, only the second he had the entire night, and prepared himself to say goodbye to Kenneth, when somebody tapped him on the shoulder. Jess turned around to see a guy that had been sitting across from him at the bar for a while. He hadn't paid much attention to him.

"Hi, I'm Max, Max Fuller"

"Huh, okay, whatever…" Jess turned to leave again, he wasn't in the mood for some stupid bar talk.

"No wait, please. I know this is kind of weird, but I just got to overhear your little comment about the band here and I really liked it."

"Okay, so you think the band sucks, have a good night." This was getting on Jess's nerves. He wanted to be out of here.

"Please, hear me out. We could really use someone like you. We, I mean, the staff of my paper. I'm publisher of a little local newspaper, called "The Village" and we make reviews of local bars and restaurants, as well as music, band, books and all that stuff. You seem like you could maybe contribute to our music section. Well, if you can write that is."

Jess couldn't help but think this sounded interesting. He remembered having a look into on of their issues at work and he didn't think it was that bad. In fact, it was kind of good.

"Okay, I am listening, what's the deal?" Jess offered.

"Okay, well, this wouldn't be a fulltime job, because obviously we're low-budget and we're all doing this in our spare time. You'd get a few bucks though for every article you write, let's say the average is about 10 bucks for a page-"

Jess grinned at that. That was close to nothing.

"-but if you were to write about music or books for example you'd get free samples to write about."

"You need someone for book-reviews as well?"

"Yeah, why, do you read?"

Jess was about to say 'not much' but changed his opinion.

"Yeah" Jess cleared his throat, "Yes, I mean, I read a lot."

"Mmh, well okay, and are you always that sarcastic."

Jess smirked and said "Not at all".

Max Fuller smiled at that. "Okay, you have your high-school diploma?"

Dreaded question.

"No, but I just passed my GED in January."

"Okay, that'll do. Would you be up to take some writing classes, for example at a Community College? Depending on how well you write, maybe just a few, just to get to know the basics of journalist writing."

"Doesn't sound too bad" Jess said hesitantly. He had just been done with studying and should start again right away? But somehow this offer seemed kind of intriguing to him. Even though he wouldn't earn much money, it seemed like this could be fun and free music and books sounded nice. And it would not look bad on his record. Oh my god, Jess Mariano actually cared about his record.

"Okay why don't you think about it and give me a call as soon as possible?" Max Fuller got out his wallet and pulled out a business card "What's your name by the way?"

"Uh, it's Jess, Jess Mariano" Jess said taking the card.

"Okay, so call me. Have a good night."

Jess watched Max Fuller leave the bar and stood there pensive. This was weird, but maybe a step into the right direction? Jess hadn't thought about what he wanted to do in the long run, but writing reviews for a paper didn't sound too bad. Maybe he should take the offer just to try it out.

Jess said goodbye to Kenneth and left to go home. He would think about this. Yes, he would think about this.

A.N.: Okay, so we're back to Jess alone in New York. Thank you for your reviews. Smile1, I am glad you like it better now. I think I am getting a sense of how to write this, and I have ideas for future chapters, but still, I am grateful for any review. Tell me what you like, and also what you don't like. That would help a lot.  I hope this one was not too boring. I know the last two chapters were more eventful, but I need some room-fillers. There'll be more Rory and Jess in the future, I just still need to figure out how. There might be a familiar character in the next chapter though… Bye, Janine