Rory walked up the path to her house, knowing Jess was watching her from his car window. She opened the door as quietly as possible, trying to slide in silently. With any other boy Rory might have felt guilty about breaking the rules. However, this time she loved it. She was a girl with secrets. It felt wonderful, like all these beautiful things that happened between her and Jess were constantly about to explode to the surface of her skin and come out her eyes and mouth.

Rory tiptoed to the window, about to send an air kiss to Jess when she heard her mother's voice, so soft and sharp, cut through the darkness of the room.

"It's about time."

She turned surprised.

"Mom, I didn't think you'd still be up."

Lorelai stood up, frowning and her eyes blazing.

"Yeah Rory, I didn't think I would be either. But that's what happens when your daughter goes out at night with a boy you can't trust and doesn't come home at the time she promised to."

Rory stepped back, hurt from the harsh words her mother had flung at her.

Why did she have to be so angry about this? It was just one time and as if Lorelai hadn't made breaking curfew a habit when she was Rory's age. Why did she have to ruin this perfect floating feeling that Rory had?

Rory tried to handle this in a reasonable way.

She started calmly, "Mom, I'm sorry I came home late. It was irresponsible and inconsiderate because I should have known you would be worried. But it was just one time and tonight was…"

Rory was cut off as her mother's shake of her head and deadly decree, "I don't want you to see him anymore."

"What?"

"Rory, this is really for the best. I mean what about your plans? What about Harvard?"

Rory stood agape before her mother, completely lost at this.

"What does Jess have to do with Harvard?"

Lorelai waved her hands.

"Everything Rory. That boy is like poison. He's going to make you forget all your plans. I mean it's already happening. Breaking curfew and sneaking in. That's not like you Rory. Soon you will be only doing the things he wants you, if you aren't already."

"You are right. Sneaking in isn't like me. It's like you and that's what you are so scared of, that I will turn out like you. Well don't worry mom, I'm not going to get pregnant." Rory said icily.

A silence fell between them. These were the harshest words they had ever exchanged, and yet neither could take them back.

Rory took a breathe. This had been one of the most perfect nights and she needed all of these bad feelings to go away. She loved her mother, she just wished she would try a little harder to understand what Rory was going through right now. She was in love and something wonderful had happened to her tonight and all she wanted was to keep that feeling without her mother breaking it.

"Mom. Please don't be angry. I didn't mean what I just said. It's just …something special happened tonight and I really would like to share it with my mother, the person I love the most in the world, and now that she will be happy for me."

Lorelai flinched, "I'm not sure I can do that Rory. I'm not ready to hear this."

Lorelai's mind was already spinning. Her daughter slipping away into a car with a boy. Her daughter, her Rory, had done god's knows what in the hours of the night when she was supposed to be at home, sleeping in her bed. Her fear that Rory had gone way to far tonight had made her spend all night sitting on the couch, listening for cars in the distance, and clutching the pillows tightly to her chest.

But Rory, Rory didn't know any of that. All she knew is she had this unbelievable piece of news, this incredible moment trapped in her skin and all she wanted to do was to tell someone.

"Mom," her eyes shining with happiness, " Jess told me he loved me tonight."

Lorelai sighed, unable to look at the happiness in her daughter's eyes right now.

"Of course he did Rory. That's what boys like him tell girls like you before they sleep with them."

Rory couldn't breathe for that moment. She felt like her mother had just slammed something so incredibly heavy on her and it was crushing everything she had in her body. She gasped for air.

"I didn't sleep with Jess."

She hated the look of relief in Lorelai's eyes. She hated her for being so hypocritical and self-righteous. What if she had slept with Jess? Would Lorelai just turn on her like this. Wasn't it her decision and her life?

Lorelai turned to her in the darkness of the room. Her eyes, calm now, silently asked her to forget all these words.

Rory knew that couldn't happen. That beautiful feeling under her skin had evaporated and she could hardly remember that special moment now. All she could see was her mother's face when she demeaned everything Jess and her had.

Rory took a breathe and felt her body shake with anger unparalleled in her young life.

"From now on, you have no right to talk to me about Jess or what I do with Jess or even anything that happens in my life. None at all. You don't know Jess. You have nothing but your stupid assumptions about him. You refused to even try to know him. And that's fine because I don't want you to try anymore. I will never ask you what you think about him again because I don't care. Jess loves me. He loves me. Do you know how happy I was tonight? You ruined that. You took it from me and you didn't even try to understand what it meant to me."

Rory took a step closer, her eyes blazing blue.

"I know what you think. You don't think Jess is good enough for me. You don't think Jess is good enough for your perfect little daughter. Well I'm the one who decides this. Jess is good enough for me; he is good for me. You are the one who is not good enough to judge what we have."

And with that Rory made for her room, blindly knocking things over as she went, and slammed her door.

Lorelai stayed outside.