Chapter Two
A.N. First off I want to thank everyone for their reviews, they really keep me writing and inspired to write so thank you!
It was over. My final dinner at the Gilmore's. We'd arrived home in one piece and my parents had settled in front of the TV and fallen asleep. They'd only just now retreated up to their bedroom and the house was silent. I'm packing my final things, my camera, my picture album with all of my favorite pictures and finally I pull the battery out of the lap top that I've never opened in the six months I've had it, another "useful" gift from the Gilmore's, and I pull out the ticket I'd retrieved from the bus station. I shove it into the back pocket of my jeans and pushing my window open I drop out my duffel bag and dropping a white envelop on my bed I pull myself up and out of the window.
I pause once my feet have connected solidly with the ground outside, but there's no more sound from the house then there had been a minute ago. Before picking up my bag I push my window shut again and cringe as it squeaks, I pause again. Still no sound. I can't help but feel like sneaking out of your house as midnight should be harder. Of course, it's not the first time I've done it but this time feels different. I'm leaving home, for good, I feel like the hall light should flick on and I should have to make a break for it. My adrenaline starts pumping. Nothing happens. Slowly I pick up my duffel bag and sling it over my shoulder, slowly making my way through the shadows hoping not to wake up any of our nosey neighbors.
The walk to the bus stations is long and slow, my duffel bag is heavy and gets heavier with every step. But I don't stop walking, I've calculated everything perfectly and with the ten minutes it will take me to get to the bus station I'll arrive just as the bus is ready to leave. There's no time for a flaw in my plan. I only have one night, because I know that if the plan get's killed I won't get up the nerve to go again. I almost lost it on the way home, listening to Mom talk about the plans for tomorrow and how Dad was going to cook and there'd be cake. Technically that was all today.
"Happy birthday to me," I whisper into the blackness of the night. Things were so quiet in Stars Hollow and I'm about to trade that in for the constant noise of New York City. And that thought alone pushes me on, Stars Hollow had been my mother's safe haven, sheltering her and her daughter from the cruel world outside. But to me, Stars Hollow had always been small and oppressive, smothering me with their small ways and small ideas. I've been suffocating since the day I was born and I can almost feel the air getting clearer as I move farther and farther through the town and closer to my destination.
"Good evening," the bus driver greets as I step on to the bus. I just nod my response and hand over my ticket. I glance around me quickly before I disapear up the steps, checking to make sure no one has spotted me getting onto the bus. Not that it really mattered, in my letter to my parents I told them I'd be going to New York, where I was staying and how they could reach me. But I didn't want to be spotted, I hate having to answer a slew of questions about things that aren't the other persons business and leaving town mysterious at 1 in the morning doesn't tend to go unquestioned if you're recognized.
I carry my duffel bag onto the bus with me, it's not crowded, I can see one person sleeping in the front seat and with the exception of the driver that's it. I opt for a seat towards the back, not wanting someone else to get on at another stop and decide that since I'm awake I'll be a good conversational partner. I'm not. I never have been. My conversational skills are lacking when it comes to people I don't like, everyone says I take after my dad in that respect. Teachers have always deemed me a "difficult child, hard to get along with and temperamental" it's probably been on every report card since I started school. Teachers would complain about me not socializing and then as soon as I'd find a friend they'd be complaining that we were always getting into trouble. So come Monday when I should be going to school Stars Hollow High won't be missing me and I certainly won't be missing them. The friends I do have there know where I'm going, they've known of my plan for months and already have plans to come visit me.
Reaching into my bag I decide there's no better time then now to look at the gifts that had been given to me just that evening by Rory and the Gilmore's. There's no doubt that both have given me books, not that were was before the gifts were handed to me anyway. The one Richard had handed me before I walked out of the house tonight is heavy and as I pull the paper off, I had to save this for the bus ride out, although I couldn't tell you my justification for it because there isn't one I can understand. Once the paper is off I stare at the book, The Collected Writings of William Shakespeare. I can't help but laugh out loud. It wasn't even last week that I'd voiced my distaste for "the bard" so it just figured that they would give me a gift I didn't like, on the inside cover was the inscription "you can't dislike something you've never tried, maybe there's something in here you enjoy." There wouldn't be, but I expected no less from the great Richard and Emily, I'd been receiving gifts from them that Rory would have loved my entire life, on more then one occasion I'd even gotten a "we gave Rory this book, she loved it I'm sure you will too."
With a roll of my eyes I push the heavy book back into my duffel bag, hopefully it'll be heavy enough to make a good doorstop or maybe I can see it back to a used book store. With that taken care of I turn the attention back to the second gift wrapped on my lap, it's wrapped in a deep shiny blue wrapping paper and there's a note that's attached that reads, Happy Birthday Lucy! Love, Rory, Logan, Charlotte & Mark it's a book done by a photographer I love. That's the one thing I have to give Rory credit for, she's the one person who doesn't compare me to herself so she'd never give me a book she'd like to read or music she'd like to listen to. The second one is my mom, she's been attempting to broaden my musical horizon since I was a baby but music has never been my thing, yet another thing that sets me apart.
As I wrestle to get the book back into my duffel bag, it had come out easily but the bag was so full it didn't want to go back in, the bus begins to move with a jolt and I begin the bus journey back through Stars Hollow and then on to New York City. I don't understand the tears that spring to my eyes when we pass by Luke's, I've wanted to do this my entire life. Leave Stars Hollow. Put my sister's life and other people's expectations behind me. But if that's what I've wanted ever since I could remember why am I crying? Shouldn't I be happy, excited to start out on this new part of my life? A life that's in a city where no one knows me, no one has any expectations of me. And why is there suddenly fear gnawing at my stomach?