The Mess We Became

A/N: I'm not going to repeat myself; everything I want to say has been said in the past two author's notes. Read it. Wow this was on dull author's note. Oh yeah I almost forgot…

THANK YOU REVIEWERS! Every single review makes writing so much more fun! It's so nice to know I kept your attention past the first chapter, really. Double cheese on every one of your cheesy fries!

Also to answer a question and clarify to anyone who had doubts: Jess and Daren are both straight and I especially wouldn't think of making Jess anything but completely so ;). That's just the twisty humor I gave Amber.

Disclaimer: Don't you think if owned anything I'd be helping out on the show instead of writing imaginary scenarios for a website?

"Hello?" Rory answered her cell as she flipped through a couple of papers she got from work.

"Hey daughter o' mine, I would've called as soon as I got your message though I decided against it." Loralei's voice rang through the phone, "I mean I'm thinking 'Hey, she'll be alive tomorrow, will she not?' So that's when-"

"That's when you woke up the next day, completely forgot, and had a weird type of amnesia for four days. By the fourth day you decided to clear out the answering machine and then, you had an epiphany! Something about listening to the messages and deleting them gave you a feeling like you should give me a call oddly. That is why you decided to give me a call to inform of this life-changing moment," Rory said in a bittersweet tone.

"I'm proud of your mind-reading capabilities. The saliva I saved saying that will now be well used…elsewhere," her mom said suggestively.

"Mom, seeing as to how you are now married to Luke, all my mental images are for worse," Rory responded disgustedly.

"I wouldn't get too disgusted if I were you." Rory hears her mom sigh on the phone and continue, "The facts that I am forty-one, have a little boy who just started pre-school, and am not Suzanne Somers tends to make a woman mellow out a little."

"Mom, you don't look a day over forty!"

"Ha-ha…Your hilarity makes me wants to dig myself a hole. Moving on, what's new in your life," Loralei said waiting for the usual response consisting of 'Oh you know, work takes up most of my time.'

"Well…I'm going on a date with some guy Amber told me some stuff about and set me up with in two days," Rory responded nonchalantly. All complicated events of Sunday that led to her phone call had left her mind and crawled back into the messy, open hole.

"You, Rory Gilmore? You're going on a blind date?" She was genuinely surprised by her daughter.

"No, me, Olivia Newton John…"

"Okay, okay, I get it…how do you know the guy? Oh sorry…very stupid question. What's his name?"

"Who's to know? A name is a mere name," Rory airily claimed.

"Well look at you! You finally found the perks to being in at your prime age!" Loralei tunefully squealed so loudly that Rory had to hold the phone away from her ear a couple of inches.

"I have to get back to looking at some papers."

"Goodbye my poshly daughter!"

"Not a word," Rory chimed as she hung up her phone and thought about all the possible types of guys that might appear at with Daren the coming Friday as she idly flipped through papers. She had a feeling that, maybe; just maybe, this date might not completely suck.

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"What's a four letter word for pain? I mean other than pain because I am very aware that pain is a four letter word…" Amber pondered as she walked into the kitchen where Rory was.

Rory shrugged and stared at the baron fridge, "No clue."

Amber shook her head and glared, "You're about as much help as a pin in the ass. Ahhh…" She suddenly brightened and slammed the newspaper down on the counter. "R-O-R-Y," she said and exaggerated the writing of the name in the blank.

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Rory watched as Amber emerged from her room with her cell tucked in between her cheek and shoulder. "Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Whatever. Uh-huh. Okie doke. Same here…Buh-bye." Amber hung up and dropped the phone on the chair. Rory looked at her slightly amused, though more curious.

"That was…?" Rory said raising her eyebrows prompting her to finish the sentence.

"My mommy!" Amber said grinning broadly.

"Oh, I thought that was Daren."

"I don't know about you though I think it would be best to at least pretend to show slight interest when I'm talking to my boyfriend." Amber paused and continued with a smile, "Though I did talk to Daren today, he gave some specifications about the date tomorrow.

"Since when was this, 'the' date."

"Well if I said 'our', it would seem like…you know. If I said 'a', it's a bit vague. That's why I say 'the' by default. Don't consider yourself special, you have nothing to do with the 'the'."

Rory considered this logic for less than a second and moved on. "So, he specified?"

"Yup, he said that he wants to meet at that club like six blocks down from her, longer for him I think. He didn't want to come here because he thinks two guys waiting at the door would look, to say the least, super-dorky. I definitely agree so I said okay, especially since it's a blind date for you, and blind date meetings at the door are kind of awkward."

"It's the number one source of one night stands or what men hope to be one night stands," Rory concurred.

"I bet you made that up, but it makes sense." Amber added the last part as an afterthought and furrowed her brows.

"That would be a statement true to many things."

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"Change your shirt," Amber commanded as she pointed to Rory's shirt then to her room.

"What's so bad about this shirt?" Rory asked confused. It wasn't her favorite though it's not like it was disgusting.

"Blind date does not mean your date is blind." Amber fast-walked into Rory's room and pulled out a light green blouse with rhinestones on the cuffs. "I do this out of love, change. You won't regret it."

Rory couldn't help but smile at Amber's bold and brutal honesty. It's nice to have someone who won't sugar coat things to spare your feelings…not that it's no nice to be told a lie for the purpose of flattery occasionally.

She changed her shirt and looked in the mirror. Rory had to admit the change was for the better. The fact that she was going on a date with a complete stranger was slightly unnerving now. She trusted Amber, from the one time she briefly met Daren he came off as a nice guy. They said this guy might be her type, and that will have to be enough to go on for now. She looked at the clock that read 7:45. Fifteen minutes to the date is much too late to wimp out even if she wanted…though she definitely didn't want to.

"Let's go," Rory boldly said to herself mostly though Amber heard her and nodded. Rory tried to ignore the build-up Amber gave this guy a couple of days ago. She often heard that expectations lead to letdown, so she let go of all previous expectations and just decided to enjoy the night as it came.

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"Here." Daren walked by Jess and slapped a piece of lemon in his mouth.

Jess spat the lemon out onto the counter disgustedly. "We have lemons for what purpose?"

Daren plopped the lemon into his own mouth and sucked on it for a couple of seconds. He held his hand to his mouth and sniffed. "That purpose," he said as he threw the dry lemon away.

"I'll tell you when I develop an acute case of halitosis, until then…" Jess flicked the lemon piece with his forefinger and thumb, "I'll maintain my dignity."

"Suit yourself." Daren took a last look in the mirror and opened the door to leave now that they would be about ten minutes late by the time they get to the club.

Jess grabbed his keys and closed the door behind them, not really caring for a last look that he would've fussed about as a teenager.

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"So this is the place?" Rory asked as she got of the cab and stared at the flashy red lettering that read 'Restless Eternity.'

"Yup, I've been here with Daren a few times. Pretty good music, you can get good food, and get tipsy if you please…" She saw Rory nod her head to convey the meaning of 'hopeless.' "Hey, I said if you please. Nothing about me; I'm not in the mood to get a hangover tomorrow morning…I think."

"Well, of course."

Amber entered and Rory followed suit. She never fully liked the ideas of night clubs and blind dates though here she was. A two in one, 'get over yourself you big wimp,' combo platter.

The place really was pretty cool. The music was pretty good and she saw some people eating large consumptions of junk food that made her mouth water. Rory snapped back to reality and remembered she isn't here to be a pig.

"Is Daren the late type?" Rory wondered after looking at her watch

"He never comes earlier than ten minutes late, never later than fifteen," Amber said as she drummed her finger on the table. "You look antsy," Amber added after seeing Rory fiddle pointlessly with a strand of hair.

Rory looked up about to say that she is definitely not 'antsy' as Amber put it, but Amber got up and walked to Daren who was now standing a few feet away from them. She kissed him quickly and strangely said, "Lemony." She then squealed, "Where is he!"

"Oh, outside paying the cab, it's what he gets for being the one to bring money," Daren responded nodding out the door where the front of yellow care was seen.

"Why did you take a cab? You have a car," Amber asked even though she could say the same for herself.

"Habit really, I don't even know why we have a car. And I bet you took a cab too even though you drive like one."

"Parking is hell around here…"

"So why did you even ask the original question?"

"What question? I asked no questions, you're the one babbling…" Amber finished innocently and smirked.

Rory who stood there silently now decided to speak, "Glad you worked that out, though can I know his name now at least?"

"Well Rory," Amber began stepping forward

"I knew it was something like that," Daren mumbled quietly.

Amber ignored the comment and continued, "The young man that will be accompanying you this evening has a name. I'll tell you, for quite some time, I thought it to be a girl's name, though it's a name none the less."

"It'd kill you to just a say a name and forget the gimmicks?"

"Very much, though now I've gone through the gimmicks so I'll just tell you. The name's J-"

"The cab driver wouldn't go away even though I paid him so I figured he'll just go away," A generally uninterested man's voice said. Rory didn't even have to look to identify the voice, though. She forced a smile and blamed this on a hallucination. She shouldn't be rude to this complete stranger just because she's a maniac that has hallucinations of ex-boyfriends.

Rory looked up; she met the eyes of her hallucination. By the look of horror on his face he though she was a hallucination as well. One had to speak.

"Jess…?" Rory said meekly hoping more that anything the person would say, 'Who's Jess?'

"Rory," Jess said with more sureness than Rory. He was terrified, though he didn't feel like putting his heart on his sleeve again, especially not with an audience.

She felt the only thing that worse than knowing he's a hallucination, is knowing that he's not.

A/N: Muahahaha! What do you think is going to happen now? Next chapter picks up right where this left off. So…the usual…blah blah blah…honest reviews please…Did this chapter live up to the last?