Running After Kansas by Oregano
It wasn't that difficult to hate Pete Townsend, really. The Diner Men despised him as much as they despised the label "The Diner Men." (It's just not that funny, you know?) They hated every fibre of Pete Townsend's, and how he used these for every date with Rory, every smug smirk, every lifted eyebrow.
Luke Danes had long ago exploded with hatred for the man, for he was the one who had known about him the longest, but not it front of Rory, of course. He had learned his lesson from Lorelai Gilmore one too many times long ago regarding meddling with a Gilmore girl's affairs. The verbal abuse from them alone would make you regret the day you were ever born. That experience was like sticking your hand in a vat of boiling oil. So whenever closing time came, all Luke could do was linger downstairs as his companions worked, exciting conversation with either Jess or Nicholai about Pete Townsend's pitiful existence.
Nicholai Stratt was more of an introvert when it came to matters such as hate. His boiling point was slow to come, which was actually much like Jess's. However, Nicholai was merely a boy of seventeen, which meant that his threshold for torture could only go so far. It came a point where there were just too many floaty hearts, too many chucks of the chin, and too damn many, "Howdy!"'s. Soon, he was mixing up orders, putting ketchup bottles next to pancake eaters, and snapping at Kirk.
Jess Mariano didn't really mind the boy's snapping at Kirk, for it was a habit more born out of working at the diner than meeting Pete Townsend, but he did worry about Nicholai in general. Jess was no stranger to having an unwanted beau spending lots of time with a mother. He knew the anger that gnawed inside, and the control you painfully have to maintain, for it was more important to see her happy than anything else, even if it meant sacrificing your own comfort.
The door once again announced a customer, and in walked Rory and Pete, hand in hand. They sat at a table near the counter, and Pete proceeded to snap his fingers impatiently as if he was in some snazzy French restaurant and Jess had a curlicue moustache curled so well that it would rival a snail shell.
Nicholai moved to walk to the table, with a dark glint playing in his eyes, but he was checked by his superior with a gentle hand on the shoulder to pull him back. Nicholai turned to face Jess, as if a little boy facing his stoic father, innocent eyes and small lips and all.
"You go take table four," Jess said to the boy quietly, and made his way towards Rory and Pete's table.
The tension in the whole diner became somewhat akin to putting your whole head in a plastic bag and inhaling deeply, and although previously unmentioned, Rory Gilmore was not ignorant of this. "Hey, Pete," she said softly, "why don't we go somewhere else to eat?" There was nervousness in her voice.
Pete merely grinned and leaned in, touching Rory's arm. (Nicholai nearly had an aneurysm.) "Naw, baby, you said you wanted to have coffee, and we all know that Luke's Diner is the only establishment we can bring our business of coffee-drinking."
Nobody knew it then, but this was basically the day of reckoning. What Jess Mariano would do right now would blaze a trail unto upcoming events, moving this story into its much needed overdrive. All things would change from this one action. He was an unknowing Pandora, without the boobs and the box. Jess Mariano walked towards the table bringing with him a dark cloud that usually appeared in lieu of a great storm.
As Jess arrived at the table, pen and pad in hand, all thoughts of writing anything down seemed to fly out the window. Gripping his pen tightly in his hand, he took almost all of Stars Hollow by surprise.
Jess Maraino smiled. Truly, a wide, bright, fantastic smile that would make the Virgin Mary cry. Rory had totally forgotten how handsome this man was. "What can I get you?"
Time seemed to stop at that moment, and Rory Gilmore, the sole recipient of this smile, was seventeen again. There was no Yale, no Julian, and no Nicholai.
There was only Jess.
Jess Mariano and his dishevelled hair, his leather jacket that smelled of cigarettes and literature, his eyes that would only light up whenever Rory was nearby. The smart remarks and the transparent way he would woo her despite flaccid ways to hide this fact; this was the Jess Mariano whom everyone hated but Rory Gilmore loved dearly.
He never smiled, and when he did, it was only a small grin laced with amusement and covered laughter. Rory loved it when he smiled, but was never given the chance to experience it quite like this.
It was a crooked sort of smile, with that lifeless lower lip of his stretched over his teeth, creating a misshapen triangle. The corners of his mouth almost touched the edges of his eyes. It suddenly occurred to her that this smile was actually reaching his eyes. A small matchstick of a flame suddenly burst within her, and she wanted to cry.
She never cried, you know. He left and she put everything in a box and buried it all deep inside. Today, that time capsule was unearthed, and she almost broke down then and there.
They looked at each other, one smiling, and the other with tears dancing in her eyes, stuck in a standstill. Finally, Rory looked away, breaking all contact with Jess, his eyes, his mouth. "Blueberry muffin and a coffee, please," she squeaked, forcing her eyes towards the tabletop.
Jess then pursed his lips and nodded, then proceeded to walk away, leaving Pete Townsend with his index finger still up in the air and a confused face to go with it.
Nobody really understood the meaning of this smile, and all efforts to find out were met with disappointment, for Jess Mariano would not tell. Miss Patty left no house untold, no passer-by uninformed. Luke and Nicholai were just as perplexed, but merely chalked it up to some sort of childhood thing that Rory and Jess once shared, and ventured no further.
There was one person, however, who had a slightly better and clearer view of things. She was Rory's confidante, her best friend.
Who could forget Lorelai Gilmore's role in all of this?
Lorelai was the wishing hole Rory kept throughout her life, dropping secrets and wishes into her ear, expecting nothing but complete and utter attention. So when she heard about Jess Mariano's weird smile thing, she only smiled a secretive smile of her own and walked away, her daughter's voice floating softly in her head.
"I wish Jess would smile more. I know you're not fond of him, but really, you should see him when he's happy. It's… miraculous."
"Surreal" could not evenbegin to describe the day Rory Gilmore had today. After her date with Pete, she came home with her mind filled with the day's events, one event in particular, outshining the rest. Jess Mariano's megawatt smile replayed in her head, and in spite of herself, she heard herself sigh that sigh only people in love sigh.
She reached for the doorknob to get inside, but before she could turn it, someone spoke. "Is he going to be another Dean?"
The question came so sudden and so unexpected that Rory almost screamed. She slapped her throat with her hand and forced herself to calm down. "Why, Jess! Why do you keep showing up out of nowhere!"
But Jess wasn't about to be deterred. "Is he?"
"What do you mean?"
"Is he someone you're going to force yourself to love so you can save yourself the effort of denial?"
She looked at him square in the eye. She could tell that this was going to be ugly. Thank God Nicholai was out with his friends. "And are you still the other guy, Jess? And denial of what? Of my feelings for you? Well, bust out the gurney, Buddy, because your ego's about to take a beating."
"I'm not saying that you have feelings for me. That look you gave me this afternoon was proof enough." Jess smirked sardonically and scoffed at her.
Oooh! The nerve of this man! "Do you know why I spend so much time with Pete? It's not because of you, you self-centered prick! It's because he doesn't make me feel like a… like…" She trailed off at that. Rory looked away and tried to take control of her emotions.
Jess sensed something about this. It was definitely something more than a young love thing. He craned his neck to look at her face and asked her softly, "Like what?"
He jumped at the abrupt way she faced him. Head on. "Like a widow, Jess. I just lost my best friend. What I need more than anything right now isn't a blind date, not a strange, kind of, 'Hey, yeah, I'm sorry about your husband. If you need anything…' What I need is—,"
"Normalcy." They said together, but Jess said it more as a whisper under his breath than Rory's outburst.
"… not a scarlet letter," Rory finished, taking on Jess's soft delivery.
They stood there on the porch for a while, contemplating each of their next moves, for both of them were in a complete loss for words or actions.
Suddenly, Rory spoke again. "I broke up with him today. That stupid smile of yours…" She shook her head with a small smile playing on her lips. "What was that?"
Jess looked up at her with the same softness and amusement. "I don't know, either. It just happened."
Rory nodded at that, and turned to open her front door. "Well, thank God it did."
Author's Note:
I am a review whore. Make me happy, please?