"Your call... it's your road trip."

Rory nodded and thought. She actually really wanted to sleep... but she thought that seemed silly. She was young, out and about, in a town she'd never seen before... well, not really a town. More like an interstate motel, but... shouldn't she want to go out and do... something? The question was, what was there to do?

"I don't know... what can we do?"

"Honestly? Probably not too much here."

"Can we... can we sleep for now, and then get up tomorrow and go to the city?"

"New York City?"

"Yeah... you can show me the sights... visit your mom..."

"I'll show you the sights."

"Jess..."

Jess ignored her. "If we're gonna get up early tomorrow, we might as well go to sleep."

"Jess..."

"You can change in the bathroom." He layed down on the bed he had chosen with all of his clothes on. Rory sighed and grabbed some pajamas out of her bag. She walked into the small bathroom and changed, brushed her teeth, and pulled her hair back from her face. When she went back into the room, the ceiling light was off, and the only light that remained in the room came from the small lamp on the table between the two beds. She looked over at Jess, who was writing in a battered paperback that she recognized as one of her own.

"You went through my stuff?"

"I wasn't in the mood for my book."

"What was your book?"

Still staring at the page he was reading, he grabbed another book from next to him and tossed it over to Rory. "Please Kill Me: The Oral History of the Punk Movement."

"It's good. You can borrow it if you want."

"Thanks." Rory got into her own bed and opened the book. The two lay silently for a little while. After a few pages, Rory layed the book down on the table.

"Do you want to sleep? Cause I can go out to the car and read..." Jess asked.

"No, no. Don't worry. I can sleep with the lights on."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"OK."

They were silent for a few more minutes, and then Rory spoke. "Jess? Why don't you want to see your mom."

"Night, Rory."

"Is it because she sent you to live with Luke? Because she was only thinking of you when she did that." Jess didn't say anything. "And look at how good your life is now. You have Luke, you're doing better in school, Taylor has almost stopped hating you..."

"The life that every hoodlum dreams of. Relocation to smalltown USA."

Rory was silent. Quietly, she rolled over so that she was facing away from Jess.

"Rory? Rory, I'm sorry."

"Whatever."

"I'm not mad at my mom. We wouldn't have anything to talk about. We didn't have anything to talk about even when I lived there. Besides, I'd rather just show you around."

"OK."

Jess read for a few more moments, and then he got up. "I'm going for a walk."

Rory sat up. "What? Where?"

"Just around. Lock the door behind me, OK? I'm taking the key." He grabbed the key off the table and turned the lamp off. Rory followed him to the door and locked it quickly after him. She ran back over to her bed and jumped in, pulling the covers up to her chin, but she couldn't close her eyes. Slowly, she sat back up and turned the lamp on. She walked over to the window and looked out; Jess was standing out by a lamp, smoking and staring off into space. It had started to rain slightly: she could see the mist close to the light. She sat there for a few minutes, watching him, and then she finally went back over to her own bed and began to read the notes that Jess had put in her book.