...It almost felt as though Rory's blood had stopped pumping, her heart stopped beating, her eyes stopped blinking...but for some weird reason, she could not control the fact that her hands were shaking so terribly that the paper almost tore...

Her eyes scanned the piece of paper as though it were the most important thing in the world, and her brain took in and memorised each and every word before she was even aware of it herself.

Jess' scrawly, but perfectly imperfect handwriting covered half the page, and there were many words scratched out so violently here and there that there were little holes dotting the paper.

***

"Dear Rory," it began.

"I'm sorry about the way I was so disrespectful about Dean before. I don't know how to express the way I feel - I guess" (a huge scratch) "I was jealous." (another huge scratch) "I was jealous that he had such a beautiful, such a perfect girlfriend, and I supposed it was just me trying to hide the truth from myself, and so that's why I said something as stupid as that."

"I know that this will hardly justify what I said to you, and I hope that you can find it in your," (a scratch), "heart to forgive me, and maybe we can be," (5 cms worth of scratches) "friends."

"I also know that we haven't exactly made the best start in terms of friendliness, and it was mostly the fault on my part. I would really like to get to know you more." (scratch) "You're not like other girls, Rory. You're not shallow like they are. You're smart, funny, intelligent, and everything that..." (there were a few lines of intelligible scrawls after that which Rory squinted to read, but could not for the life of her decipher)

"Love, Jess."

***

Rory sighed with happiness, holding the letter to her heart, but taking much care not to crease or crinkle it. After a few minutes, she laid it down on the table and put it under some dictionaries to straighten it.

Rory realised how obsessive her actions were, but at this stage she really couldn't care anymore. To the best of her knowledge, Jess had put the letter into her blazer pocket as he'd brushed past her before school that day. Plus (!!) he had more or less admitted that he loved (or at least, really really liked) her, and that put Rory on top of the world.

She whizzed through her homework like never before, and emerged 20 minutes later with energy to spare. Then, suddenly she realised the importance of what Jess had said, and the consequences that would undoubtedly follow regardless of the option she chose - whether or not to go out with Jess.

On the one hand, she would be completely happy and satisfied to be Jess' girlfriend, but on the other hand Dean would hold the biggest grudge against her like never before. And if she didn't become Jess' girlfriend, she would feel so completely miserable that she'd never be able to concentrate on anything ever again - but Dean and her could still hopefully patch up.

Admitting these consequences to herself took a lot of self-determination on Rory's part, and she felt as though she 'deserved' to have Jess as her boyfriend. But then again it was far too complicated! Not to mention what Lorelai and Lane would think!

Wait a minute - would she even tell Lorelai and Lane about Jess? No doubt they'd try to be supportive, but at the end of the day they really did dislike him and they all thought that she should be with Dean - that she'd completely stuffed up her only chance of complete happiness with a boy who truly loved her the way she was.

"Rory!!" Lorelai's voice totally disrupted her daughter's thoughts.

Rory shook her head, "I won't tell her just yet...maybe later," she promised herself. To Lorelai, she shouted, "What?"

"Dinner! Chinese food! Nice and warm, just the way you like it!"

"Coming!" Rory sighed to herself and heaved herself up from her chair. As she did, she caught sight of a corner of Jess' letter poking out from her French bilingual dictionary.

Rory smiled and left the room.

NOTE: Just a note to Tara, yes I do live in Australia. Good guess! :) Thanks to everyone who reviewed me, and please keep your suggestions and comments coming! Also, I don't know what the likeliness is of Jess writing such a soppy letter like that, but hey, that's the beauty of fanfiction, isn't it? :)