Rory chewed her food slowly, the slower she chewed, the more she thought. She was in an absolutely sour mood. Lorelai tried joking around with her, but Rory only bantered with her mother half-heartedly. She didn't even really understand why she was so moody. Jess didn't want to talk about the heavy stuff, fine. No, that wasn't fine. Didn't she deserve to talk and possibly shout her head off at him for doing what he did? Didn't she deserve some sort of explanation, some answer to all the why questions that plagued her mind? Yes, she most certainly did. And Jess said he wasn't ready. Well, when was he going to be ready? Probably never, she thought cynically.

"More coffee?"

Rory looked up to see Jess holding a pot over her cup about to pour.

"No thanks," she replied.

He frowned. She never said no to coffee.

"What's wrong?" Jess asked.

Rory shook her head casually. "Nothing," she said, picking at the remnant of pancake that remained on her plate.

"Look, Rory, you've been sorta quiet for the past two days. You sure you don't wanna talk about something?" Jess pressed on.

Rory's head shot up. "What's the point? You don't want to talk about it," she snapped back, getting off of the stool and walking out of Luke's.

Jess stared after her, his mouth slightly ajar. So that was what this was all about. Yesterday she gave him a tame version of the silent treatment. She only talked to him to order food and didn't meet him at the bridge like she had done for the past few days.

He had only tried to be honest with her the other day when he didn't want to talk about the past. Ironically, the truth, which was always emphasized as the good thing, screwed him over.

So why did he not want to talk about it? Well, apart from the inevitable shouting match that would surely result from opening that can of worms, he was still scared. Still unsure. Still...ashamed. With good reason, he thought.

But what was worse? Avoiding the subject completely and then having Rory disappointed and angry at him or facing what he ran away from, what he was still running away from. In a weird way, by coming back here and avoiding the subject, he was still running. But he was trying to make it better too! He shook his head in frustration and confusion. He was so stuck.

Rory heard the knock at the door. When she opened it, she was taken off guard when she saw Jess standing pensively in front of her.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi," she replied, not bothering to hide the surprise and bit of coldness in her voice. "Do you want to come in?"

"Uh, yeah," Jess replied, shifting uncomfortably and stepping into the Gilmore house.

"So, what do you want?" Rory asked rudely, grabbing one elbow with her other hand and biting her nail. She made her way to the kitchen and grabbed a soda, handing another one to Jess.

Jess didn't reply right away. "I'll talk," he said quietly at he stood there in her kitchen.

Rory scoffed. "Don't let me twist your arm," she replied sarcastically.

"What? You wanted me to talk. So I'll talk..."

"Geez, Jess. That's not supposed to be how it is! You should talk because you want to talk. Because you feel you should talk. Don't put this on me," Rory snapped.

Jess was getting flustered now. "At Luke's you were being moody because I didn't want to talk on the bridge before. Now I'm telling you that I'll talk and you don't want me to talk? I don't get it, Rory," he shouted back.

"You should talk because you want to," she repeated loudly.

Jess sighed loudly. "Rory, I don't think I'll ever want to talk about it."

"Well then, I guess we won't be talking anytime soon," Rory replied stubbornly.

"Shit! Do you know why I don't want to talk?" Jess asked passionately. Rory didn't respond. "Because I knew this would happen. We would get into this argument and this whole thing would blow up."

"You don't think I deserve to blow up at you? After what you did? After you just left?" Rory said, each question getting louder and louder and her anger increased.

The whole reason for why they were arguing with each other returned to Jess. He inhaled and exhaled and whispered, "Of course you do."

Rory looked at him in surprise. They had just been shouting at each other and all of the sudden Jess sounded so small. His eyes were full of sadness and regret and shame. She looked away.

Jess stood there in the Gilmore kitchen, clutching the soda can that was now warm. He waited for Rory to shout at him some more, to vent all her hurt and frustrations at him. He had been so inadequate for her in so many respects, but the least he could do for her now was stand there as she lashed out at him.

But there was no lashing. He looked at Rory, whose eyes seemed to be welling up with tears.

"Rory..." Jess said quietly, putting the soda can on the table and taking a few steps towards her.

She took a few steps back to maintain the distance between them. "Don't Jess," she replied, her voice on the verge of breaking. "You need to go. I'll see you later," she added, unable to look at him.

Jess sighed, defeated. "Yeah." He walked to her back door next to the refrigerator. "I'm sorry that I dragged you into my shitty life. You made...you make me happy. And you are the only person I wanted to make happy, but then I realized that I wouldn't be able to do that. Running away is what I do best. I'm a coward, Rory."

Rory refused to look at him as he opened the door and walked out, but she heard the door shut behind him and knew that he was gone.

Author's Note: Hi everyone! Sorry for the long long time between updates. I put this story away because I didn't know where exactly to go with it, but I think I have more of an idea now and I felt inspired to write some more. Just for clarification, this takes place in December of 2003 - so Jess never made that STUPID return where he said he loved Rory and ran away and then returned telling Rory that they should run away together and Rory and Dean NEVER slept together (gross!). I started writing this before Season 4 began, so just take this as a post-season-3 fanfic. Alright, please let me know what you think! Thanks for reading!