Believe Me, I'll Be There
Chapter 2 – He's telling me it'll be all right
Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Gilmore Girls, and I don't own any movie, book, author, or college references either.
A/N: Here's the 2nd chapter! FYI, The Professor and the Madman is a book about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, by Simon Winchester. (I think that's how you spell his last name.) Enjoy! ~Arianna
It was starting to get closer to the time I would get back my college applications. Every day, I jumped up the minute the mail got to our house and ran outside, hoping for an envelope for me, anything, any response from any of the three schools I'd applied to.
I continued doing my homework, of course, hanging out with Jess, and watching my mom stare at Jess like she wanted to kill him. I stopped talking to her about him, but it was hard. Not telling her everything. I started talking to Jess more, though.
I walked to the diner one Friday afternoon.
"Hi, Rory," Luke said.
"Hi, Luke."
"Coffee?"
"Of course." He saw my eyes dart to the stairs behind the counter, and he grinned.
"He'll be down in a second," Luke told me.
"Thanks."
Jess appeared on the stairs.
"I'll go…get something," Luke said, and left.
"I would have been at the bus stop, but Luke informed me that I owe him about a million hours of work," Jess said apologetically.
"Oh, no problem."
"Good." Jess came around the counter and put his arms around me.
"Jess…" He kissed me, and I willingly let him, kissing him back. We stopped, but stayed there; my hands on his shoulders and his around my waist.
"Hey, you okay?" Jess asked me.
"Yeah, I guess."
I knew he wanted to comfort me and didn't know what to say. "You wanna talk?"
"I don't know…I'm sure they want to get acceptance letters off as soon as possible. You know, the rejections, the small sheets of paper that say 'sorry, try again,' it doesn't matter how long it takes to send those."
"Rory…"
"They send those to hundreds of thousands of people. You'd think they'd learn to hurry up so people have time to—"
"Rory, you're gonna get in! They'd have to be idiots not to be begging you to come to their schools."
"Thanks, Jess," I whispered, leaning on his shoulder.
"I'm serious. They probably don't know how to tell you how much they want you to go there."
"Much as that's not true, it's really, really nice of you and I appreciate it," I told him. "And it did make me feel better."
"That's the point." Jess kissed me again. "That's not all of it, is it?"
"Not exactly." Jess and I sat down at a table in the back corner. The diner was empty. "Things are weird. Mostly with me and my mom."
"That's a new one."
"I know, I hate it. It's like I can't talk to her anymore." I sighed. "Thanks for listening, Jess."
"Anytime."
"Oh, hey, I brought that book you were asking about." I opened my backpack and handed Jess my copy of The Professor and the Madman.
"It looks good."
"It is."
"You wouldn't happen to have a copy of the OED, would you?" Jess asked me.
"Oh, yeah, I do. You can borrow it, if you help carry it here." I grinned.
"Deal. So see you tomorrow?"
"Yeah, wanna come over and pick it up?"
"Uh…me? At your house?"
"Don't worry, it's fine."
"Okay." I got up; so did Jess. I kissed him goodbye and left the diner. He watched me leave and then went back to work. I saw Luke come back downstairs and start talking to Jess.
I walked back through Stars Hollow to my house. Jess was right. I could do it. And he cared about me enough to say it. That far from being upset, I couldn't stop smiling. Not now.