JediPirateElfyDude: Uh, well they're supposed to be at the diner although they could be at Lorelai's, and Luke is having a mini-cooking fiasco while Lorelai is complaining to Rory about how bored she is because Luke is working. Patty then sits down to chat with her. Hope I cleared that up for you.

Everyone: Thankie thankie for the reviews. I'm working on some of the upcoming chapters, and I think I finally got it all planned out: the story will be about 25 chapters, give or take, and I've got some ideas in mind on how to end it. Not to worry though, it's far from over. I still appreciate feedback!

And, in advance, I don't think killing Kat (you'll meet her in this chapter) off will do any good. Believe me though, I thought about it.

A few weeks later, Rory awoke to the sound of the house line ringing.

"You're closer," she mumbled to Jess as he sighed and sat up, yawning. He climbed out of bed and picked the phone up off the dresser, "huh"-ing as he answered. A few minutes and a few 'huh's later, her hung up and turned to the bed where Rory was curled up under the covers.

"We're going to the beach today." She pulled the covers down so her eyes were visible as he got back into bed, reaching out for her under the sheets. She let herself be pulled against him, and snuggled into his body for a few minutes before remembering the phone call.

"We go to the beach everyday."

"Today we're going to a public beach, with some friends of mine. Of course, you don't have to; we could get out of it. But my buddies told me where and when we're all meeting up, and I want them to meet you." She sighed and nodded, wondering what Jess's friends would be like.

A few hours later, they were walking across a loud and crowded beach, Rory growing more and more grateful for Jess's private strip.

"Mariano!" a girl shouted, and Jess grinned and headed in her direction. Rory was wearing her black suit, hoping to impress the locals as someone worthy of dating Jess, and a sundress she'd purchased. She'd been there for almost a month, and her duffel bag of clothes hadn't cut it. Jess simply had swim trunks on under low rising jeans, which hung low on his hips. Rory wasn't the only one having a hard time keeping her eyes off him as he walked.

They stopped in front of a large group of kids in their mid-twenties, all gathered around a girl they were burying in the sand. She screeched playfully as one of the guys drizzled sand down her skimpy, flowery top.

Jess did the handshake/high five thing all males do while Rory shifted uncomfortably in the sun. All the girls here were gorgeous in their own cheap-looking way. Shane would have fit right in, but Rory didn't.

"Who's the doll?" asked a voice, and Rory grimaced. It was apparently obvious to more than just her that she didn't fit in.

"This is my girlfriend, Rory. Don't give her a hard time, all right?" The majority mumbled something positive in response, and he sat down next to a guy displaying a tattoo of a snake on his bicep. They began to converse, and Rory awkwardly sat down next to Jess, wondering if she'd ever feel at home with anyone in Jess's life.

One of the girls, a busty redhead, beckoned Rory to come closer to her with a crook of her finger. After glancing at Jess and seeing him deeply absorbed into conversation regarding some local punk band, she sighed and got up. She joined the girl and four others, most likely the girlfriends of the guys Jess was talking with, several meters away from her boyfriend and her comfort zone.

"You're with Mariano?" the redhead asked, and Rory was reminded of Francie from her Chilton days. It looked like this girl was the leader of the little group.

"Yea," she replied meekly, wondering if that would fly well with the girls.

"How long?" asked the girl again, fiddling with the ties on her halter top like Rory wasn't interesting enough to hold her full attention.

"A few weeks. Well, we dated in high school, but that was a really long time ago."

"You wanna smoke?" another girl asked, this one blonde. Rory politely refused her, and the entire clan grinned.

"She's a good girl," one of them snickered, and Rory felt her cheeks redden.

"Can't see why he'd be with a good girl. Jess is a very, very bad boy." Red hair cocked her head and grinned challengingly at Rory, as if daring her to ask for clarification. Rory kept silent, trying to become telepathic so she could summon Jess over to help her.

"And a quiet one. Jess like's 'em loud." They all giggled, and Rory gritted her teeth. She caught the gist of the conversation. They were talking about what Jess was like in bed. It suddenly hit her that he could have slept with any of these girls before her. She stared at the sand, wondering why tears were threatening to well up in her eyes. She'd known about his past. She just didn't like it speaking to her face.

"Does it talk?" came the sarcastic inquiry, breaking into her thoughts.

"I talk," she retorted, not knowing how else to respond.

"So why, of all the chicks in the world he could be with, is he with you?"

"Because he is, and that's all you need to know." She was testy now, and it showed.

"No need to be a bitch, I'm just asking." The girl held her hand out professionally. "I'm Kat, the old you." Rory shook Jess's ex-girlfriend's hand, and all the girls laughed hysterically. She'd known she was being mocked when Kat extended her hand, but the others found it extremely funny.

Jess looked up from his conversation at the hyena-like giggles, noticing Rory sitting by Kat and her girls. He sighed, knowing they were giving Rory a hard time. But he didn't want to go save her and make her look helpless. He knew that, pushed hard enough, Rory could fight back.

"Well, aren't you polite?"

"I was raised to be nice to people, even when I'm jealous of them," Rory responded, getting annoyed at the girls' behavior.

"You got me, I'm jealous. I'd kill to be flat-chested, or pale as a cloud." Jess heard their laughter again, this time meaner and more hostile.

"Seeing how that's what Jess is into, I can see why you feel that way." Rory smiled sweetly at the scowling girl, glad her mother had raised her to hold her own in a battle of wits.

"Give him another month, sweetie, and he'll be bored. He always does this. You're nothing to him, and no matter what he says, the second he sees something better, he'll toss you out. You think each of us hasn't had a thing for him, fucked him, broken up with him before he could drop us? Jess isn't Mr. Wonderful. He's a hell of a fuck, but he won't stick around. Forget about how he was in high school. He'll never love you, and he'll never take care of you." Rory's eyes burned with tears that started to fall with those last words, and the girls looked at each other, not daring to believe Kat's luck. They'd made her cry.

Rory stood up and headed for the boardwalk, leaving Jess behind. She needed to get out of there, she couldn't just sit there and listen to those mean girls tell her that Jess didn't love her, and would leave her as soon as he got bored.

Jess didn't see her leave, and it took until one of his friends pointed it out for him to notice.

"Where's your girl?" He looked over his shoulder to the group of gossiping girls, and didn't see Rory among them. Worried, he stood up and walked over to them.

"Kat, where's Rory?" he asked suspiciously.

"She headed thataway, I think." She smiled sweetly at him, and Jess inwardly groaned.

"What did you say to her?"

"We just had a little girl-talk, told her all about you. She was such a nice girl, we wanted her to know what she was getting into when she climbed into bed with you." He cursed, glaring at her.

"Rory is not just some girl, she's THE girl. You don't have to believe it, but I love her. And if that isn't 'me', then fuck it. I don't have to explain myself to you." He headed towards the direction Kat had pointed, hoping she was telling the truth.

Rory found the place her and Jess had eaten her first night here, near Jimmy's hot dog stand. Her stomach rumbled and she remembered she hadn't eaten in almost two hours. Taking her little change purse out, she counted four dollars and thirty-one cents. Enough for a hot dog.

She waited in line for a few minutes, wiping tears from her eyes with the side of her pinkie as she did, trying to forget Kat's painful words. 'He'll never love you'… Jess said he loved her, but what if it was all an act? What if he'd told Kat, and the blonde in the pink suit, and the other blonde the red suit, and every other girl he'd ever had sex with, those same words? What if Kat was right?

"Rory? What are you doing here?" came Sasha's voice from behind the counter. Rory looked up, and sure enough, Sasha stood there, looking skeptical.

"Hi. One please."

"Where is he?"

"He's on the beach with some people. One of the girls said something and I just had to get out of there."

"Does he know where you are?"

"He might." Sasha sized her up with a glance, and sighed. She shouted over her shoulder to one of the workers, and disappeared from Rory's view. She came around the building and put her arm stiffly around Rory, walking her away from the stand.

"Now, what's wrong? You look like you've been crying."

"Jess's ex-girlfriend is on the beach, and she's really insensitive."

"They all were. What did she say to you, sweetie?"

"Nothing, I don't even know if it's true."

"Rory, forget about what I said last time. Yea, I love Jess crazy much, but now I'm concerned about you, and I promise I won't hurt you. Talk to me, pretend I'm your girlfriend. What's on your mind?" Rory sighed, and gave in to Sasha's will.

"She said Jess would never love me, that he'd break up with me as soon as he got bored." Sasha cursed under her breath, mentally noting to yell at Jess for ever getting involved with the bitch who had said that to Rory.

"Honey, Jess apparently hasn't made the best choices concerning who exactly he sleeps with the past few years, but I put two and two together and I think you've got something to do with that. I know he loves you, I can see it when he looks at you. He didn't care about any of those girls. They were distractions to try and get away from you. He's not going to leave you, I promise." Rory didn't look cheered, so Sasha sighed and spoke again.

"I've never seen him this happy," she said truthfully. "He loves you. Don't let that skank make you think any different." They sat down on a bench and watched the sea for a few moments.

"You think?" Rory asked finally. Sasha smiled.

"I know." Rory nodded and smiled back, not afraid of Sasha anymore. Sasha seemed to sense what she was thinking, and grimaced.

"I wanna apologize for being a bitch to you the night you came over."

"Oh, you weren't a bitch, you were just looking out for Jess."

"Yes, I was. I acted just like Jimmy and your loser boyfriend did when Lily brought home a boy who wanted to take her to Formal. I didn't want to be a strict mom, I wanted to be a cool mom who got along with her kid's girlfriend, especially if she was as great as you. Something just got into me, but I swear, it's long gone now." Rory grinned and pulled her feet up beneath her, enjoying chatting with her new friend.

"So now I'm gonna stop trying to be cool, and trying to be motherly, and just be me. You sleeping with Jessy?" Rory laughed and covered her mouth with her hand, somehow having known she was going to ask that.

"You could call it that," she responded, as Sasha copied her and tucked her feet underneath her.

"He any good?"

"Last time I talked to you, you were telling me how much he's like a son to you, and now you're asking me this?"

"Hey, I'm a blunt chick. Of course I'm asking. It should be expected that I'm asking."

"Yea…he's great."

"Was he your first? I mean, I know you dated way back in the day." Rory sighed.

"No, he wasn't. He almost was, but it was a really stressful time for us, and we weren't doing too well together, and things ended with him leaving not long after that. I wish he had been, though."

"How did someone like you end up with the bad boy in town?"

"I don't know myself, we just had a lot in common. I had this boyfriend at the time, Dean, but I kinda wanted more, and then Jess moved there." Sasha nodded knowingly, probably reminiscing about past loves before Jimmy.

"Dean made me feel safe, you know, like nothing was out to get me and I was living in a perfect world. Jess made me feel like there were scary, real things out there, but he would keep them away no matter what. Dean couldn't compare to someone who made me feel safe like that." Sasha nodded as Rory felt the need to keep talking about Jess, berating herself for believing Kat.

At that moment, said dark-haired boy came up behind Rory and saw her sitting and talking with his father's wife. He breathed a sigh of relief, not having known where she was.

"Ror?" he asked as Sasha stood up and left, winking at Rory. Jess sat down in her empty seat, taking Rory's hand.

"Why'd you leave?"

"It's stupid now, but Kat was being mean, and I got hurt, and left."

"What did she say? Whatever it was, I promise you it's not true."

"I know. She said you didn't love me, and you'd do the same thing you did to all of them, leave when you got bored."

"Rory…none of them were what I was looking for. I was looking for you. I love you, okay?" He reached out and turned her chin so that her deep blue eyes were looking into his own dark ones, and she smiled at him as she kissed the hand holding her face.

"I know. I shouldn't have doubted you. Hey, Sasha's neat after all."

"What did you two talk about?" he asked with a roll of his eyes, scooting closer and putting his arm around her.

"Nothing…"

"She asked you about US, didn't she?"

"Maybe…"

"Dammit Sasha, can't keep her nose out of my life!"

"She just loves you, Jessy." He glared at her as she laughed and looked at the blue sky overhead.

"You wanna go back, or should we go home?"

"We can go back, I want you to be able to hang out with your friends. I can tolerate Barbie and her gang for an hour." He kissed her forehead and they walked back to the beach holding hands, Rory feeling silly for ever doubting him.

They reached the group and Jess went back in the direction of the guys, accepting a cigarette from one of them. Rory joined the girls, feeling superior instead of like an outcast. After all, they had been rejected because of her.

"Tears all gone?" Kat asked dryly.

"Yup. Miss me?"

"Not really."

"Coincidence, I didn't miss you either." Kat stood up and walked towards the guys, and two of the girls followed. Two stayed behind, however.

"I'm Regina, and this is Kim," the remaining blonde offered, not smiling but not frowning. The girl with darker hair nodded, her face also emotionless.

"God, it's like Madeline and Louise all over again," Rory stated, thinking of two of her old friends. They'd kept in touch since graduation, however, and sometimes gathered in Hartford to have lunch and chat.

"Who?" Kim asked, confused. Ah yes, just like Madeline and Louise.

"Two girls I went to school with. They used to hate me, but we're sorta close now." The girls nodded and dismissed it, and began talking about hair color. Rory joined in the conversation whenever she knew enough to interject, and they passed the afternoon in civil discussion. When Jess appeared beside her to tell her they were leaving, and she said goodbye to Regina and Kim, she felt that the day hadn't ended badly at all.