Title: Others' Mistakes
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Some dialouge ripped off of "Rory's Birthday Parties."
Summary: AU. Jess is a goody-two-shoes Gilmore. Rory is a bad-girl Mariano. Everything else proceeds as planned. Set in early season two.
A/N: Yeah, it's been forever. And the real story hasn't even started yet. This is more of backstory. Hopefully there'll be more up soon, but you never know. (If you want a really good excuse, check my bio) Thanks for all the reviews! Oh, and the characters will be OOC--AUs are like that.
Lorelai Elizabeth Mariano was one fucked up little girl. Her father had disappeared the day she was born, leaving her with a mother who had no clue what she was doing. Eventually, Laura Beth's mother gave up, which just made it worse. Laura Beth tried to be the responsible one for about eight years.
October 8, 2000 was the day Laura Beth died.
A number of things contributed to her demise. One was that her mother, who had seemed remarkably sober in the week leading up to Laura Beth's birthday, suddenly stumbled home two nights before, babbling incoherently and leading a bulky body behind her. That bulking body showed up in Laura Beth's doorway at five the next morning, becoming the sixth one in as many months to do so. This time, it was harder to fight him off, and when Liz heard her screams, she responded by proclaiming her daughter a slut and throwing her out of the house, which was starting to occur with alarming frequency. Another thing was that her best friend, Catherine Troi, dragged her to her first big party, which just happened to be across the state line in Jersey, and promptly abandoned Laura Beth to make out with her boyfriend. The last and final thing, however, was that Laura Beth met Joseph Haller, an extremely good looking, suprisingly sober, college aged boy sitting on a couch.
Laura Beth promptly struck up a conversation with him, believing him to be one of the only sane ones at the party. She had always been friendly, and prided herself on her ability to strike up conversations with strangers. She attributed this to the endless string of people appearing at her breakfast table from her mother's bed.
"What's your name?" he asked a few minutes into the conversation.
"Laura Beth. What's yours?"
"Laura Beth?" he repeated, raising his eyebrows and ignoring her question. "You certainly don't look like a Laura Beth."
She blushed and tugged at the plunging neckline of the mini-dress Cat had forced her to wear. "Well, my real name's Lorelai Elizabeth."
"Lorelai, huh? Well, Lorelai, whaddya say we go get something to drink?" He smiled, a lopsided smile, and she could feel herself giving into him.
Laura Beth went with him to get a drink. Then Laura Beth took a hit of Esctasy from him, and Laura Beth went upstairs to an empty bedroom with him. It was after her second beer but before the first joint that she ceased to exist.
"Lorelai, Lorelai, Lorelai, Lorelai." He repeated her name over and over again, causing her to giggle and try to clamp her hand over his mouth.
"That's not my name," she protested, giggling more. He leaned over and kissed her.
"Well, it sure as hell isn't Laura Beth."
"Oh yeah? And what's so special about Joseph?" She made her voice higher, and rolled her eyes after saying his name.
He leaned over and kissed her again, causing her to resume her giggling. He then started repeating her name again, this time slurring it.
She tried to do the same to his name, but failed miserably, and descended into laughter.
"Rory!" he screamed suddenly.
"Ew," she said softly.
"Rory, Rory, Rory, Rory, Rory!"
She half-heartedly pushed him, and then kissed him. "You're a good kisser," she said after they separated.
"I'm good at other things, too," he said, nuzzling her neck.
She giggled as he slowly eased her back onto the bed.
Two hours later, Rory was huddled on the edge of the bed, her knees at her chin, rocking back and forth. Joey, only half dressed, was lounging on the bed, his third joint clenched in his fingers.
Cat burst through the door, and, seeing Rory, said, "Finally!" As she walked towards her, she realized that something was wrong with the other girl. She turned on Joey.
"What's wrong with her?"
He shrugged. "She's paranoid when she's high."
"She's high?" Cat practically shrieked.
"One tab of E and two joints."
"Oh my God!" Cat rushed to her friend and tried to make her stand up. Rory waved her off and continued rocking. "Oh, come on, Laura Beth, we need to go. Laura Beth," Cat pleaded, gently shaking Rory's shoulder.
Rory mumbled something, but it was muffled by her hair hanging in her face.
"What? Laura Beth, I can't understand you. Speak up."
She mumbled something again, and Cat turned to Joey. "What's she saying?"
"She's not Laura Beth anymore."
"Well, who the hell is she?"
"Rory."
At the same time, in a house a few states away, Jesse James Gilmore suddenly awoke. He glanced at his clock. Four. That meant he had exactly three minutes of sleep before his mother crawled into his bed and told him the story of his birth for the sixteenth time. He sighed. He really didn't need this. Granted, it was a Sunday, but he had plenty to do. Well...not really. He just had plans to hang out with Lane and Dean, and maybe some Chilton-ites would show up later in the day. But still. He was getting a little old for this birthday thing.
He had just made up his mind to tell his mother this when she edged his door open.
"Birthday boy," she sing-songed softly, tip-toeing into the room.
He immediately felt his resolve melting as he edged sideways in the bed.
"Happy birthday, baby boy," she said, sliding under the covers with him.
"Hey," he said, allowing her to link her arms through his elbow.
"I can't believe how fast you're growing up."
"Really? Feels slow." Sometimes he felt like he'd never get older, and he'd be stuck in high school forever.
"Trust me, it's fast," Lorelai said, patting his arm. "What do you think of your life so far?"
"I think it's goin' good."
"Any complaints?"
He thought for a second, and then said, "Mandatory school athletics could disappear and it'd be better."
"I'll get right on that."
They were both quiet for a second, and then Jess asked, "So do I look older?"
Lorelai patted his smooth cheek and then said, "Oh, yeah. You walk into Denny's before five, you've got yourself a discount."
"Good deal."
"So you know what I think?"
"Hardly ever."
She grinned into the dark and continued like she hadn't heard him. "I think you're a great, cool kid, and the best son a mother could have."
"You say that to all your children."
"Yes, but I only mean it with you," she retorted, then got back on track. "It's so hard to believe that exactly this time many moons ago, I was lying in exactly the same position--"
"Oh, no," Jess groaned, trying to pull the pillow out from under his head to block his ears. Lorelai stopped him and continued.
"Only I had a huge, fat stomach and big fat ankles and I was swearing like a sailor--"
"On leave," he reminded her.
"Right! On leave. And there I was--"
"In labor."
"And while some have called it the most meaningful experience of your life, to me it was something more akin to doing the splits on a crate of dynamite."
"And the girl next to you was stoned out of her mind."
"It's my story. The girl next to me told me she'd always thought she was having a boy, and she didn't have any girl names, but she always wanted to name her son Jesse James. It sounded like that name would piss my father off just enough, so I decided that was the right one."
"I love you, Mom."
"Shh. I'm getting to the part where your grandfather complains about his shoes."
Lorelai stayed just long enough to finish her story, and then she kissed Jess on the forehead, wished him a happy birthday again, and then left the room.
Jess didn't go back to sleep right away, and instead lay in bed thinking over the past year. He'd started his second year at Chilton a few months ago. He'd been assigned to even more projects with Paris Gellar and Louise Grant, mainly because they were alphabetically assigned. One night everyone had come over to Stars Hollow to do a project, and they'd eaten dinner and had discussions about books--Louise and Tristin Dugray had sat there, silent and bored, while Jess and Paris had gotten into a lively argument about the Beats versus the Brontes. Since then, he'd considered Paris an equal, and maybe a friend.
Sometimes, though, he was friends with Tristin. He had just the right amount of disrespect for authority, while still being hypocritical enough to look down on those less fortunate. Basically, Jess found Tristin stuck up, a little stupid, and hilarious. He would never count on Tristin for a literary discussion, but he could certainly count on him for a school prank and a little fun.
His best friend, though, was Lane Kim, whom he'd met in kindergarten at Stars Hollow Elementary. Mrs. Kim had considered him untrustworthy even then, being both a boy and the son of an unwed mother. Recently, though, she'd come around to him, and even left them alone a lot of the time. Lane had just recently gotten a crush on Todd Mullins, because, she said, he'd "grown out of his awkward years." It had then been Jess's job to befriend Todd, so that Todd could befriend Lane and then fall madly in love. Jess had failed, though, because Todd was a stupid idiot and he couldn't stand him. Instead, he'd befriended Todd's friend, the new kid from Chicago, Dean Forrester. Dean read Melville and listened to Nick Drake and became the final puzzle piece to their group. The only bad thing about him was that he was athletic, and in every school sport there ever was. But, since he didn't make Jess do them with him, Jess could let that go.
"Hey," Lorelai said, popping into Jess's room again and scaring the hell out of him.
"Jesus!" he screamed.
"Sorry," she said, not at all sorry. "Have you seen my slipper?"
"You didn't wear them down here."
"I didn't?" she asked, confused.
"No. Your feet were bare and cold as ice."
"Well, damn," she said. "Go back to sleep."
"I'll try," he said pointedly.
"Oh, you'll do just fine." She kissed his forehead, and then smoothed down his hair. "Goodnight, babe."
"'Night, Mom."
With that, Lorelai smiled and left the room.