AN: Hey, I don't really have anything to say, it's just weird not having anything here. Oh, I HATE Logan. Marty, Marty, Marty! Oh, I know, I had not LL in the last chapter. Sorry. I'll have some here. Review please!
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I held her hand tightly as I guided her through the market. I guess you could call it a market. It was outside. What we were looking for, though she didn't know it yet, was a crab vendor. They are these people, Sasha told me about once, and they sell crab. You watch them crack open the shell for you, then they give it to you in this little basket and you pay them and take it away. You don't eat there. I thought we could find an empty pier somewhere by the bay and sit out there eating.
We got our food and two Root Beers and we started walking towards the bay to look for a place to eat.
I held the bag of food in one hand and held Rory's hand in my other.
"Jess?"
"Yes Rory?"
"Where are we going?"
"I don't know." I looked at her, and her face lit up. "Why don't you decide?"
We ended up wandering over to a pier. It was one of those ones with all the shops on it. It wasn't too touristy, but there were a few other people around. Mostly couples, but there was one or two families with little kids sitting on benches, looking at the seals. We walked over to the part of the wood that didn't have a guardrail and sat down across from each other, cross-legged, and started eating.
"It's almost like being home, on the bridge."
I looked around, noting a few similarities, "Yeah, it is." I thought a minute, except, you know, there are seals around and no Taylor or Ms. Patty to catch us making out."
She raised her eyebrows, as if carefully considering my last remark, "That is a perk," she finally said. I smirked.
"Liz got married. I don't know if your mom told you, she probably did. I just thought you should know, though. You know, just in case you didn't."
She looked at me funny. "Yeah my mom told me." She looked at me expectantly, then, when I didn't say anything, pressed on. "And?" She questioned.
"I don't know, I was just thinking about it. Its weird, you know? I mean, of course the guy's a fruit, they all are, but he treats her well, so that's good. She's happy. It's just weird. I don't know why I keep thinking about it. I shouldn't care, but I do."
"I know exactly what you mean. If my mom ever got married, it would be awkward. With Max, the guy she was engaged to, it was weird, but, I think that's just because he was my English teacher. My relationship with my mom would be totally different if that ever happened, if she had married him."
I though about this for a minute and realized that it was true. If Lorelei ever got married, she and Rory would never be able to be as close as they are. Then a thought came into my head. I asked her about it. "Well what about Luke?"
"What about Luke?"
"I mean what if the guy was Luke. We all know he has a thing for her. It's just a matter of time before she realizes it and realizes that she doesn't exactly hate him either. You know?"
She considered this for a minute. "Yeah," she started, slowly, "but Luke has somewhat always been there for us. I don't know if that would really be that big of a change."
"I guess you're Right."
A comfortable silence fell between us. In this time, she shifted so that she was laying the wood of the pier with her head in my lap. I looked over her. She had change into a red sweater. Her hair was straight, and she had grown it a little past her shoulders and started wearing it with a side part. "You're pretty," I said in a singsong voice, the way a six year old would.
She laughed and threw her hand at my shoulder, but I caught it and kissed it instead.
"I know of a place that you will love," I looked down at her, and she perked up, rolling her head back to look at me.
"Yeah?"
I nodded, pulling her up, "Come on."
And so we walked into the night. The air was heavy with the mist rolling off the bay, and we were simply intoxicated in each other. We were young and in love, and we had the world at out fingertips. This is the stuff that books are made of.
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Luke sat at Lorelei's kitchen table, watching her as she carried on making tea. He had come over to fix a bookshelf that Lorelei had tried to put in herself but had failed miserably.
"Any more calls from Rory?" Luke asked.
She finally came to sit at the table with a cup of coffee and a cup of tea. 'No, not since that first one. Jess?"
Luke shook his head.
Lorelei was the next to talk. "It's so unlike her." And then, verbalizing the question that they had been secretly asking themselves for the last week, "DO you think they're okay, Luke?" He looked up to look at her face. It was twisted with worry and concern, and, for a brief moment, he hated Rory for doing this, for making Lorelei hurt like this. "There are so many stupid things they could be doing. Do you think they're being stupid? I hope not. She better not. This is killing me. Why haven't they called? He better not hurt her."
Then Luke thought of Jess, his nephew. He loved him. Of course he loves him. Jess was stupid, and stubborn, and rude, but he loved him, and, as much as he hated to admit it, he missed him. Luke really cared about those two kids, together, with Lorelei, they were three of the few people he cared about most in the world.
"Luke?" Lorelei called out his name.
Her voice brought him back to reality. He tried to comfort Lorelei. "I'm sure they're fine Lorelei. They're smart kids. They wouldn't do anything dangerous." He fell into silence again. He didn't know how to comfort her, he didn't know what to do. This wasn't what Luke Danes was good at. He looked up at her face and watched, horrified, as a solitary tear slipped down her check.
He pulled his chair closer to her's and put his arm around her as she began to shake as the more and more tears appeared. "Hey now, Lorelei, come on," he tried hopelessly to calm her down. "Come on Lorelei, don't cry. Come one, we can watch a movie. D0 you want to watch a movie? Come on." He pulled her up and guided her to the living room.
He picked out a movie, something called The Way We Were, something he had heard her talk about with Rory in the diner a few times, and slipped it into the DVD Player.
He sat down on the couch next to her. Lorelei looked at him out of the corner of her eye, before picking up the remote and pausing the movie. Luke turned to her.
"Lorelei?"
"Luke I-" she paused, trying to find the words, "Thanks you. I don't know what I would be doing right now if you weren't here."
He just nodded as she picked up the remote control and pressed play, smiling at him.
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"Three," she commanded, slamming three cards down next to me knee.
Rory sat, cross-legged, at the foot of the bed facing the headboard, where I was sitting with my back against the wall. There were about fifty chocolate candies and they're wrappers spread out around her. We were playing poker. It was just about midnight.
I dealt her the three cards she had previously requested and took two for myself. She shuffled the cards around in her hand and then looked up at me. "So, Jess, when then you get to be Mr. Romantic?"
I smirked, still looking down at my cards. After dinner we had ridden the trolley to Ghirardelli Square. I had taken her into the chocolate shop and let her buy anything she wanted. She had picked out a dozen or so candies and I had picked out a few more, leading her to pick out even more. Then, oversized bag in tow, I had taken her to the ice cream factory. As we waited in line, I watched her as she watched the giant machines mix and mold the ice cream. I had shared in her fascination of the history of chocolate, and, to top the whole fiasco off, I bought her an oversized chocolate covered waffle cone filled with Double Chocolate Double Brownie Chunk dipped in Rainbow Jimmies. Afterwards of which, all she could say was, "Boy do I love you." I had kissed her and helped her eat her ice cream and reveled in her beauty and glow in the pure delight the evening had brought to her.
Now I looked up at her. She started at me expectantly. "Oh, you know, read a few Jane Austin's in my day," I answered her coolly.
"Right," she said, disbelievingly.
She moved around on the bed so that she sat practically on top of me, with her back now against the same wall as mine. I pulled her into my arms and kissed her anxiously. She fell into the kiss. She wrapped her arms around my neck pulling them as tight as she could. I gripped the skin on the small of her back, just above her hips. My hands slipped under her shirt, rubbing up and down. The kiss became relaxed, more eager. When it was over, she sat, still in my arms, with her forehead resting on mine. Every few minutes we would stretch our lips out, so that they barely touched. We fell asleep like that, entranced in each other.
I woke up the next morning to the sound of the Verve Pipe. We had forgotten to turn of the CD player last night. There was something heavy on my chest: Rory. I kissed her forehead and roller her over so that I could get up. I stumbled into the bathroom and took a shower.
When I was done, I came out to find Rory on the bed, awake but not moving. The song on the CD player had just ended, and she lay there, staring up at me, listening.
the show is over - close the storybook
there will be no encore
and all the random hands that i have shook
well, they're reaching for the door
i watch the backs as they leave single-file
you stood stubborn, cheering all the while
I looked over at Rory, she was so beautiful, her hair was hanging in her face, and she was all enveloped In the white sheets. The sun shone on her face, making in glow golden.
i know i can be colorful
i know i can be grey
i know this loser's living fortunate
cause i know you will love me either way
I walked over to the bed, and lay down on it, placing my face inches away from hers. She smiled and raised her hand to brush my check. I ran my fingers through her hair, brushing it from her face. I raised her hand to my lips and kissed it. She beamed.
most were being good for goodness sake
but you wouldn't pantomime
you are more beautiful when you awake
than most are in a lifetime
through the haze that is my memory
you stayed for drama though you paid for a comedy
I looked into her eyes. "Don't I know it." That's all I said.
She smiled and nuzzled my neck.
