Chapter 3: It's Been Awhile
"Jess? As in Jess, your ex-boyfriend who left you without an explanation or any type of warning?" Logan questioned, staring back at Jess who was standing perfectly still, seemingly frozen in time. Rory nodded absently, but inside all she felt was pure shock and disbelief.
"What… why the hell… what is he… God, it's been two years since I've heard from him. And now he's jus there like… I can't even think I'm so flabbergasted," Rory managed to tear her eyes away from the boy she once loved to look over at her new love who looked equally as dazed. But it was a different kind of shock. It was an "okay so what do I do now" shock. Glancing back to where Jess had been, she saw that he was now walking towards her. Totally unprepared Rory's heart suddenly jumped into her throat. With each step he took, Rory's pulse raced a little faster. Finally they were only a few feet away from each other. Rory tightly grabbed hold of Logan's hand and took a deep breath.
"Hi," she said, her voice shaking.
"Hi," Jess replied, his voice sounding equally unnerved "It's been awhile, huh?" he continued.
"If you consider two years 'awhile,' then yeah, it's been awhile. Awhile since you left without saying goodbye. Awhile since you disappeared to God knows where. Awhile since you left me to figure everything out on my own. Yeah… it's been awhile. It's been more than awhile. It has been a damn long time. But I've moved on. If you thought I hadn't, then wow, are you naïve. I don't know why you're here Jess, but I don't think I want to. I erased you from my life a long time ago. And I prefer to keep it that way. So bye Jess. See you around," Rory finished her rant and walked away from her past.
Jess leaned gingerly against the nearest concrete wall as he watched Rory walk away with her blond hunk of a boyfriend. "Well that didn't go as I planned," he thought to himself, running his hands through his dark, unruly hair. He closed his eyes and put his hands over his face. After a few moments, he put down his hands, opened his eyes, and began to take in his surrounding. Stars Hollow was exactly the same as he'd left it over two years ago.
"Some things never change," he muttered under his breath. He glanced down the street and saw her walking towards him. There she was. It was Rory sixteen years from now. Lorelai walked towards him, seemingly preoccupied by a lost object in her purse. Luckily for Jess, she had yet to have spotted him. Knowing that this meeting would be just as bad, if not worse, as the one with Rory, Jess hoped that Lorelai would walk right by him without even noticing his presence. Just when he thought that might happen Lorelai stopped just inches away from Jess, still searching through her purse. Jess didn't know what to do so he just stood there and stared at his feet hoping he'd blend into the wall or something. To his disappointment, Lorelai suddenly looked up. The expression on her face mimicked Rory's.
"Jess?" she asked, as if she was trying to convince herself of otherwise.
"Yeah, that's still my name," he replied sarcastically.
"Wow that's a new image for you. A brooding, sarcastic, troubled 'youngen.' Seems like you've changed a whole lot since I last saw you," Lorelai snapped back facetiously. Not wanting to cause a brawl, Jess closed his eyes and tried to compose himself.
"Hi Lorelai. Nice to see you," he said, being as polite as he possibly could.
"Oh, so now you're going to be nice to me? Why are you here Jess? If you're here to try to get Rory back or ruin her life or-"
"Why does everyone assume that I'm here because of Rory? It was over two years ago. I'm not that pathetic," Jess exclaimed, cutting off Lorelai's tangent. "Maybe I'm here because I want to apologize for what I did. Maybe I just want to be friends. Maybe why I'm here has absolutely nothing to do with your precious daughter. So why don't you back off!" Jess stalked away before Lorelai had any chance to respond.
