Jess sat in the common room of their dorm suite, reading, and
waiting for Rory.
"I can't BELIEVE you would say that!" he heard Paris cry. "What is WRONG with you?!"
"What's wrong with me?!" he heard Gloria scream. "JESS!"
He didn't reply, only turned the page of his book.
A moment later he was pegged with a bottle of hairspray, knocking his book out of his hands. He blinked down at it and got to his feet, carrying it into Paris's room, where the noise was coming from.
"Are you telling me I'm having a bad hair day?" he asked.
Gloria rolled her eyes. "I was trying to get your attention."
"Well you got it," Jess replied, handing her the bottle. "Now what do you want?"
"Tell Paris she needs to let me do her hair nice for this party tonight," Gloria ordered.
"Tell Gloria that my hair is just fine the way is, and not all of us have to do ourselves up like street walkers when we go out!" Paris yelled.
Gloria growled and lunged for the other girl, but Jess caught her. "Gloria... no dead roommates."
"Why not?" Gloria replied, struggling against Jess's grip. "Haven't you ever seen 'Dead Man on Campus'? She dies, and I can get A's!"
Paris backed away, looking slightly disturbed.
Jess groaned and dragged Gloria out of the room. "Why can't you even make an attempt to get along with her?"
"Why? You don't."
Jess rolled his eyes again and sat back down on the couch, picking his book back up.
Gloria sighed and sat next to him. "So... dinner with your mom and TJ tonight."
"Don't remind me."
She smirked. "Poor baby has to eat with Mommy."
He glared at her and opened his book to read more.
"Okay!" Rory called, walking out of her room. "All set!" She began to walk toward the door, but Jess shot up, and took her by the arm and dragged back into her room, closing the door behind him. She blinked. "Jess..."
He walked to her and started kissing her.
She laughed a little. "Jess..." Not that she wasn't enjoying attentions, but it was rude to keep Liz, TJ and Luke waiting.
He didn't reply, only kept kissing her.
She pushed him away gently and smiled. "Is this your oh-so-subtle way of telling me you don't want to go?"
"No," he replied. "There are just... more important..." he looked her up and down. "More enjoyable things we could do tonight."
She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.
"Gloria is dragging Tanna and Paris out to a party," Jess said. "We'll have the place to ourselves..."
She smirked. "And you want to..."
"Make love," he told her seriously. "All night. Starting right now."
She stared at him for a moment, and felt herself falter from his words a little, but regained her composure quickly. "And... missing dinner with your mom, your uncle and your step-dad-to-be is just an added bonus."
Jess nodded.
****
"I can't believe you'd rather have dinner with my family than make love."
Rory giggled a little. "It's not that, and you know it," she told him, practically dragging him toward the diner. "We told Luke we'd come."
He mumbled something that was obviously obscene under his breath, and she smiled.
Luke was counting out the register when they walked in. "You're late."
"I'm always late," Jess replied. "Haven't you been paying attention for the past three and a half years?"
"Where are Liz and TJ?" Rory asked, sitting at the counter. "And where's your coffee?"
Jess walked behind the counter and took the last of the day's coffee and poured it into a to-go cup for her.
She smiled at him. "My boyfriend gives me coffee," she said. "He loves me lots."
"He'd love you even more if you hadn't rejected his plan for tonight," Jess joked. He turned to Luke. "So we're late? Where are they?"
"Where do you think you get it from?" Luke replied. "It's genetic."
"Huh."
The door opened again, and Liz came bounding through, holding TJ by the hand, all smiles.
Jess averted his eyes and shook his head. He wished he were lying in Rory's dorm. Naked. With Rory. Who would also be naked.
Naked Rory.
"Jess!"
He blinked. It really wasn't any good to think of his girlfriend naked when his mother had just shown up. "Hi, Liz."
She rushed behind the counter and gave her son a great big hug, which drove out all thoughts of Rory, even though she was sitting right in front of him with a huge smile on her face. He sighed and gently pried his mother off of him.
Liz smiled and patted his cheek gently. "You look great."
Jess gave a slight nod, and stood awkwardly in front of his mother.
"Hey, there, Jess!" TJ said. "Good to see ya!"
Jess gave TJ a blank stare, and nodded again.
"Oh!" Liz said. "TJ, this is Rory, Jess's girlfriend."
"Hi, there," TJ smiled. Rory waved in return. He glanced from Rory to Jess and then back to Liz. "Kinda mismatched, aren't they?"
Rory blinked, and Jess raised an eyebrow.
Luke rolled his eyes. "Come on. We've got reservations."
*****
"So that's Rory."
Luke sighed. He'd been stuck with taking Liz and TJ in his truck, while Jess and Rory followed in her car. "That's Rory."
"She seems nice," TJ commented.
"She is," Liz nodded. "She's very nice. And she's very good for Jess."
"She doesn't seem like his type."
"How would you know?" Luke asked. "You've said two words to her."
"It's the vibe," TJ replied. "She just seems too... I don't know. She doesn't seem like she's for him."
"Well, you don't know either of them," Luke told him. "So you have no room to talk."
Liz sighed. "Okay, okay. New topic!"
*****
"So, apparently, we're mismatched," Rory commented, keeping her eyes on the road.
"Huh. Funny how we never knew."
"Do you think we're incompatible?" Rory asked, smirking at him absently.
"Yup."
"Ugh. I knew it," Rory laughed. "Oh well. Looks like we gotta break up."
Jess smirked. "Yup. I'll go find myself a floozy, and you can go rope up a Yale-y."
She snickered and shook her head. "So... the Halloween Masque..."
"Ugh..."
"What? I already told you that we could go as God and Lucifer," Rory pointed out. "You seemed kinda excited."
"What would Lucifer wear?"
"What do you think Lucifer would wear?"
Jess shrugged and thumbed through his copy of Sherlock Holmes. "I don't know. Not tights."
She stifled a laugh. "But your legs in tights would just be so..."
"Don't even."
She laughed a little. "Okay, okay... You could wear a suit?"
"I don't do suits."
She sighed. "You'll figure something out."
"What does God wear?" Jess asked.
Rory only smiled and kept driving.
*****
"How was dinner?"
Rory sighed over the phone. "Awkward. Very awkward," she told her mother. "Liz was all smiles. She was trying to be really affectionate towards Jess."
"Yeah?" Lorelai asked, snickering a little. "Did he bite her hand off?"
"Nope. Just looked extremely uncomfortable and disturbed," Rory replied, sitting down at her desk. "According to Jess this whole motherly love thing is new."
"Where is he now?"
Rory sighed. "I dropped him off at his place... he was originally gonna come here, and were gonna... gonna read, but he was so drained from tonight."
"I know that feeling," Lorelai said. "Parents can suck the life right out of you."
"Another fun conversation with Grandma?" Rory asked.
"Don't get me started," Lorelai muttered.
"This Friday's dinner isn't going to be very pleasant, is it?"
"Bring Jess."
"Are you crazy?!" Rory cried. "Not a chance! Grandma will murder him! And I have a big test next week, the last thing I need is a massacred Jess on my hands."
"I'll protect him," Lorelai reassured. "But My mother doesn't know you guys know she knows that you guys are makin' with the love."
Rory sighed. "I wish he were here right now."
Lorelai snickered. "I see where your mind is. Dirty."
"Not dirty!" Rory protested. "It's beautiful! It's like... it's like a song that you never want to get out of your head."
"Babe... I know you love him and he loves you, and this is really an amazing time for you, but..."
"But?"
"Don't let yourself become so attached that if you have to let go, you can't," she finished.
They sat on the phone in silence for a moment.
"So..." Lorelai said uneasily. "When are Liz and TJ planning their wedding for?"
"Early to mid November," Rory replied. "And I dropped the Dragonfly as a possible site for guest lodgings and ceremony holding."
"That's my girl," Lorelai smiled. "How does Jess feel about this TJ guy?"
"Oh, Jess thinks he's an idiot," Rory replied. "I'm kind of inclined to agree. He's not exactly smart... then again, Jess tells me neither is Liz."
"How was Luke holding up?"
"Quiet... he kicked Jess every time he heard him mutter something under his breath, so at least he was keeping himself busy."
Lorelai smirked. "Hey, I gotta go, okay?"
"Oh, okay," Rory smiled. "See you Friday?"
"Yup," Lorelai nodded. "Love you, Kid."
"Love you, too, Mom." Rory hung up the phone, and looked around the empty dorm room. Her roommates were still out at the party, and probably wouldn't be back for hours. She sighed, grabbed her keys and her bag, and walked out of the dorm.
*****
Lorelai knocked on the locked diner door, and saw Luke look up and quickly walk over. He unlocked the door and opened it. "Hey."
"Hey."
"What's up?"
"Got coffee?" Lorelai asked hopefully.
Luke blinked. "Now?"
She nodded. "I need my fix."
He sighed and stepped aside to let her in.
She smiled and walked in and over to the counter where she sat down. "How was dinner?"
"Excruciating," Luke replied. "TJ's an idiot, Liz is a flake, I'm cynical, and Jess is annoying. The only well-behaved person at the table was Rory." He began to brew fresh coffee and sighed. "I don't know what Liz sees in this guy."
Lorelai shrugged. "There could be a redeeming quality in there somewhere in all that stupid."
"He commented that Jess and Rory are 'mismatched,'" Luke told her. He smirked a little. "You shoulda seen their faces."
She laughed a little. "Yeah, Rory mentioned this guy isn't the brightest crayon ever." She sighed.
"You okay?" he asked her as he pulled out a mug and set it in front of her. "You seem a little less... deranged this evening."
She shrugged. "It was really quiet," she told him. "Really quiet. Deathly quiet. I felt like a corpse sitting at home tonight."
"Where's Sookie?"
"She's having 'family time' with Jackson and Davie," Lorelai replied.
Luke nodded and poured her the coffee when it was done brewing.
"Mmmmm, heaven," she smiled and took a sip. "You're my favorite drug dealer ever."
He rolled his eyes. "And we're back to deranged..."
*****
She knocked on his door and waited a few moments for him to open up. He appeared in the open doorway, wearing a t-shirt and his boxer shorts. His hair was sticking up and messy, and he squinted at her. "Rory?"
"Hey. I know you said you wanted to sleep, but..."
"What's wrong?" Jess asked.
"Nothing," she replied. "I just..." she turned red. "I missed you," she told him quietly.
He gave her a smirk that was almost a smile. "Wanna sleep here?"
She nodded, looking him in the eyes.
He nodded back and took her hand, leading her in. She shut the door behind her.
"I can't BELIEVE you would say that!" he heard Paris cry. "What is WRONG with you?!"
"What's wrong with me?!" he heard Gloria scream. "JESS!"
He didn't reply, only turned the page of his book.
A moment later he was pegged with a bottle of hairspray, knocking his book out of his hands. He blinked down at it and got to his feet, carrying it into Paris's room, where the noise was coming from.
"Are you telling me I'm having a bad hair day?" he asked.
Gloria rolled her eyes. "I was trying to get your attention."
"Well you got it," Jess replied, handing her the bottle. "Now what do you want?"
"Tell Paris she needs to let me do her hair nice for this party tonight," Gloria ordered.
"Tell Gloria that my hair is just fine the way is, and not all of us have to do ourselves up like street walkers when we go out!" Paris yelled.
Gloria growled and lunged for the other girl, but Jess caught her. "Gloria... no dead roommates."
"Why not?" Gloria replied, struggling against Jess's grip. "Haven't you ever seen 'Dead Man on Campus'? She dies, and I can get A's!"
Paris backed away, looking slightly disturbed.
Jess groaned and dragged Gloria out of the room. "Why can't you even make an attempt to get along with her?"
"Why? You don't."
Jess rolled his eyes again and sat back down on the couch, picking his book back up.
Gloria sighed and sat next to him. "So... dinner with your mom and TJ tonight."
"Don't remind me."
She smirked. "Poor baby has to eat with Mommy."
He glared at her and opened his book to read more.
"Okay!" Rory called, walking out of her room. "All set!" She began to walk toward the door, but Jess shot up, and took her by the arm and dragged back into her room, closing the door behind him. She blinked. "Jess..."
He walked to her and started kissing her.
She laughed a little. "Jess..." Not that she wasn't enjoying attentions, but it was rude to keep Liz, TJ and Luke waiting.
He didn't reply, only kept kissing her.
She pushed him away gently and smiled. "Is this your oh-so-subtle way of telling me you don't want to go?"
"No," he replied. "There are just... more important..." he looked her up and down. "More enjoyable things we could do tonight."
She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.
"Gloria is dragging Tanna and Paris out to a party," Jess said. "We'll have the place to ourselves..."
She smirked. "And you want to..."
"Make love," he told her seriously. "All night. Starting right now."
She stared at him for a moment, and felt herself falter from his words a little, but regained her composure quickly. "And... missing dinner with your mom, your uncle and your step-dad-to-be is just an added bonus."
Jess nodded.
****
"I can't believe you'd rather have dinner with my family than make love."
Rory giggled a little. "It's not that, and you know it," she told him, practically dragging him toward the diner. "We told Luke we'd come."
He mumbled something that was obviously obscene under his breath, and she smiled.
Luke was counting out the register when they walked in. "You're late."
"I'm always late," Jess replied. "Haven't you been paying attention for the past three and a half years?"
"Where are Liz and TJ?" Rory asked, sitting at the counter. "And where's your coffee?"
Jess walked behind the counter and took the last of the day's coffee and poured it into a to-go cup for her.
She smiled at him. "My boyfriend gives me coffee," she said. "He loves me lots."
"He'd love you even more if you hadn't rejected his plan for tonight," Jess joked. He turned to Luke. "So we're late? Where are they?"
"Where do you think you get it from?" Luke replied. "It's genetic."
"Huh."
The door opened again, and Liz came bounding through, holding TJ by the hand, all smiles.
Jess averted his eyes and shook his head. He wished he were lying in Rory's dorm. Naked. With Rory. Who would also be naked.
Naked Rory.
"Jess!"
He blinked. It really wasn't any good to think of his girlfriend naked when his mother had just shown up. "Hi, Liz."
She rushed behind the counter and gave her son a great big hug, which drove out all thoughts of Rory, even though she was sitting right in front of him with a huge smile on her face. He sighed and gently pried his mother off of him.
Liz smiled and patted his cheek gently. "You look great."
Jess gave a slight nod, and stood awkwardly in front of his mother.
"Hey, there, Jess!" TJ said. "Good to see ya!"
Jess gave TJ a blank stare, and nodded again.
"Oh!" Liz said. "TJ, this is Rory, Jess's girlfriend."
"Hi, there," TJ smiled. Rory waved in return. He glanced from Rory to Jess and then back to Liz. "Kinda mismatched, aren't they?"
Rory blinked, and Jess raised an eyebrow.
Luke rolled his eyes. "Come on. We've got reservations."
*****
"So that's Rory."
Luke sighed. He'd been stuck with taking Liz and TJ in his truck, while Jess and Rory followed in her car. "That's Rory."
"She seems nice," TJ commented.
"She is," Liz nodded. "She's very nice. And she's very good for Jess."
"She doesn't seem like his type."
"How would you know?" Luke asked. "You've said two words to her."
"It's the vibe," TJ replied. "She just seems too... I don't know. She doesn't seem like she's for him."
"Well, you don't know either of them," Luke told him. "So you have no room to talk."
Liz sighed. "Okay, okay. New topic!"
*****
"So, apparently, we're mismatched," Rory commented, keeping her eyes on the road.
"Huh. Funny how we never knew."
"Do you think we're incompatible?" Rory asked, smirking at him absently.
"Yup."
"Ugh. I knew it," Rory laughed. "Oh well. Looks like we gotta break up."
Jess smirked. "Yup. I'll go find myself a floozy, and you can go rope up a Yale-y."
She snickered and shook her head. "So... the Halloween Masque..."
"Ugh..."
"What? I already told you that we could go as God and Lucifer," Rory pointed out. "You seemed kinda excited."
"What would Lucifer wear?"
"What do you think Lucifer would wear?"
Jess shrugged and thumbed through his copy of Sherlock Holmes. "I don't know. Not tights."
She stifled a laugh. "But your legs in tights would just be so..."
"Don't even."
She laughed a little. "Okay, okay... You could wear a suit?"
"I don't do suits."
She sighed. "You'll figure something out."
"What does God wear?" Jess asked.
Rory only smiled and kept driving.
*****
"How was dinner?"
Rory sighed over the phone. "Awkward. Very awkward," she told her mother. "Liz was all smiles. She was trying to be really affectionate towards Jess."
"Yeah?" Lorelai asked, snickering a little. "Did he bite her hand off?"
"Nope. Just looked extremely uncomfortable and disturbed," Rory replied, sitting down at her desk. "According to Jess this whole motherly love thing is new."
"Where is he now?"
Rory sighed. "I dropped him off at his place... he was originally gonna come here, and were gonna... gonna read, but he was so drained from tonight."
"I know that feeling," Lorelai said. "Parents can suck the life right out of you."
"Another fun conversation with Grandma?" Rory asked.
"Don't get me started," Lorelai muttered.
"This Friday's dinner isn't going to be very pleasant, is it?"
"Bring Jess."
"Are you crazy?!" Rory cried. "Not a chance! Grandma will murder him! And I have a big test next week, the last thing I need is a massacred Jess on my hands."
"I'll protect him," Lorelai reassured. "But My mother doesn't know you guys know she knows that you guys are makin' with the love."
Rory sighed. "I wish he were here right now."
Lorelai snickered. "I see where your mind is. Dirty."
"Not dirty!" Rory protested. "It's beautiful! It's like... it's like a song that you never want to get out of your head."
"Babe... I know you love him and he loves you, and this is really an amazing time for you, but..."
"But?"
"Don't let yourself become so attached that if you have to let go, you can't," she finished.
They sat on the phone in silence for a moment.
"So..." Lorelai said uneasily. "When are Liz and TJ planning their wedding for?"
"Early to mid November," Rory replied. "And I dropped the Dragonfly as a possible site for guest lodgings and ceremony holding."
"That's my girl," Lorelai smiled. "How does Jess feel about this TJ guy?"
"Oh, Jess thinks he's an idiot," Rory replied. "I'm kind of inclined to agree. He's not exactly smart... then again, Jess tells me neither is Liz."
"How was Luke holding up?"
"Quiet... he kicked Jess every time he heard him mutter something under his breath, so at least he was keeping himself busy."
Lorelai smirked. "Hey, I gotta go, okay?"
"Oh, okay," Rory smiled. "See you Friday?"
"Yup," Lorelai nodded. "Love you, Kid."
"Love you, too, Mom." Rory hung up the phone, and looked around the empty dorm room. Her roommates were still out at the party, and probably wouldn't be back for hours. She sighed, grabbed her keys and her bag, and walked out of the dorm.
*****
Lorelai knocked on the locked diner door, and saw Luke look up and quickly walk over. He unlocked the door and opened it. "Hey."
"Hey."
"What's up?"
"Got coffee?" Lorelai asked hopefully.
Luke blinked. "Now?"
She nodded. "I need my fix."
He sighed and stepped aside to let her in.
She smiled and walked in and over to the counter where she sat down. "How was dinner?"
"Excruciating," Luke replied. "TJ's an idiot, Liz is a flake, I'm cynical, and Jess is annoying. The only well-behaved person at the table was Rory." He began to brew fresh coffee and sighed. "I don't know what Liz sees in this guy."
Lorelai shrugged. "There could be a redeeming quality in there somewhere in all that stupid."
"He commented that Jess and Rory are 'mismatched,'" Luke told her. He smirked a little. "You shoulda seen their faces."
She laughed a little. "Yeah, Rory mentioned this guy isn't the brightest crayon ever." She sighed.
"You okay?" he asked her as he pulled out a mug and set it in front of her. "You seem a little less... deranged this evening."
She shrugged. "It was really quiet," she told him. "Really quiet. Deathly quiet. I felt like a corpse sitting at home tonight."
"Where's Sookie?"
"She's having 'family time' with Jackson and Davie," Lorelai replied.
Luke nodded and poured her the coffee when it was done brewing.
"Mmmmm, heaven," she smiled and took a sip. "You're my favorite drug dealer ever."
He rolled his eyes. "And we're back to deranged..."
*****
She knocked on his door and waited a few moments for him to open up. He appeared in the open doorway, wearing a t-shirt and his boxer shorts. His hair was sticking up and messy, and he squinted at her. "Rory?"
"Hey. I know you said you wanted to sleep, but..."
"What's wrong?" Jess asked.
"Nothing," she replied. "I just..." she turned red. "I missed you," she told him quietly.
He gave her a smirk that was almost a smile. "Wanna sleep here?"
She nodded, looking him in the eyes.
He nodded back and took her hand, leading her in. She shut the door behind her.