She's Gone
Inspired by "36 Days" by Hawk Nelson.
Luke looked around the diner. The lights were off, and all of Stars Hollow seemed to have packed away and gone to bed for the night. He threw his dirty cloth on the counter and stared out the window. Lorelai was gone. She had moved away, to New Jersey. She left to expand her Dragonfly Inn. Lorelai had gotten a good offer on making a chain of Dragonflies. She was becoming tight for cash, as Rory was attending Yale, and she stuck to her stubbornness to refuse money from her parents.
There had been a party for Lorelai's departure. Another crazy town function. Luke had not attended, but he was now seriously regretting his choice. He had always tried to hide his feelings for Lorelai. After reusing her proposal, little was said between them. Once the big business executive had called-Luke thought his name was Hank, or something like that-she had been too busy to talk anyway. It was in, coffee, and out again.
Luke had decided to keep pleasure away from business, especially after what had happened with Nicole. Lorelai was considered business, and so nothing could become of their relationship. Then again…
Luke finished stacking chairs on top of the tables. Nothing was left now; it was time to go to sleep. Luke found it extremely difficult to tear his eyes away from the window. It was almost as though if he stared long enough, he would see her strolling up the street, needing a nice big cup of coffee. But she never came.
Luke finally made it up the stairs. He couldn't understand why his heart felt so heavy, because Lorelai seemed to have taken most of it with her to New Jersey. Luke sat on the end of his bed, staring helplessly at the wall. Then, he took a business card off the dresser. People had been tossing them around the streets during Lorelai's party; the cards contained her new phone number. The cards seemed to have drifted into the diner, scattered across the floor. Luke had saved one.
Luke picked up the phone, and with trembling hands, dialed the number. The phone rang once, twice, three times…Luke became nervous that she wouldn't answer. Then what?
"Hello?"
Luke froze. He had dialed, but somehow he had not expected someone to answer.
"Hello?" Lorelai persisted.
"Lorelai," Luke responded hoarsely.
"Luke? Is that you?" Lorelai whispered.
"Y-yes," Luke stammered.
"Hi," Lorelai whispered tentatively.
There was a long pause. Luke took a deep breath, and said shakily, "I love you, Lorelai." Silent tears started to well up in his eyes and fell softly down his face.
Lorelai paused. Luke could hear that she was starting to cry, too. "I love you too, Luke. I love you, too."