Aki- All reviews make me happy, but Oranesherbet7, your review made me extra happy. So here is the next chapter. Finally the big Rory-Amber talk.
Chapter 16
"A sleep over?"
"Yes, well actually, more of a slumber party, because I'm already sleeping over."
Jess ran his fingers through his hair, "So what are you doing again?"
Rory sighed exasperatedly, "Me and Amber are going to have a girls' night in. Stay up late, watch TV, eat junk food, talk. It's perfect."
"And Amber's okay with this?" questioned Jess.
"It was her idea."
"Really?"
"Really."
"Really?"
Rory glared at him, "Do you not believe me?"
Jess just shrugged noncommittally.
Rory pushed him lightly towards the kitchen doorway, "Go away and ask her then. You're in my way anyway."
"In way of what, your snack organization?"
"Hey," cautioned Rory with her hand, "Snack organization is an essential, and I repeat, essential, part of the pre- party set up. In order to ensure a successful girls' night in one must find, assess, and organize the snacks. My mother has always gone for more of the hodgepodge method of serving snacks, everything served at the same time. I, though, have developed what I believe is a more successful method."
Jess raised an eyebrow at her dead seriousness in what he would consider a comical situation. Rory continued,
"The main flaw is my mother's process is that it leaves the party goers able to access to all snacks at anytime so one would eat their favorite snack first, thus making all other snacks disappointing. My system is based on the theory that you save the better snacks for last, then the anticipation will keeping everything tasting good.
"For example, here are pretzels, chips, and popcorn," said Rory indicating to the food lying on the kitchen counter, "Although all are tasty party treats, pretzels probably the least. If I served chips before pretzels, the pretzels wouldn't taste as good when they got their turn, so I have to serve in the order of pretzels, chips, than popcorn. But-,"
"There's a but?"
"Don't interrupt me. But chips and popcorn are both greasy, salty, starch snacks, too similar. The solution, serve something sweet, i.e. chocolate or marshmallows, to cleanse the pallet in-between."
Jess snorted in laughter. Rory glared again at him.
"I'm sorry, but you just said that all with a straight face."
"Don't mock the system."
"I'm not mocking the system. I'm mocking the system creator."
Rory crossed her arms, "You know what? I stand what I said earlier. You can leave."
"Okay…I leave you and your snacks alone," muttered Jess with a smirk before exiting.
He heard a frustrated sigh come from Amber's room and went to it.
"Anything wrong?" he asked.
Amber was glaring at her open closet, most of the contents of which were know strewn across the floor of the room.
"I know there is a sleeping bag in here somewhere!" yelled Amber perturbed.
"Oh, it's right there," said Jess, walking to the closet and pulling a tightly rolled up sleeping bag from a single high shelf that Amber could neither have easily seen or reached.
"Why was it up there?"
"'Cause you never use it."
"But what if it was an emergency? What if I needed it!"
"I'd get it for you."
Amber huffed, put a hand on her hip, and shook her head, "You just don't get, do you."
With that Amber took the sleeping bag out of her father's hands and marched out of her bedroom. Jess put his hand to his forehead and shook his head. He was stuck in his apartment with two crazy women.
A few hours later…
"Get everything you need, Jess, because once that clock hits seven, girl's night begins and you cannot disturb it," said Rory as the three of them, Jess, Rory, and Amber, the latter two prematurely in their pajamas, cleaned up the kitchen from their dinner of pizza.
"You're trapping me in my room?"
"Yes."
"What if I have to go to the bathroom."
"Go now."
"What if I have to go then."
"Hold it."
"But what if I can't?"
"Then climb out the window. You should be able to find a restaurant…or a tree."
Jess narrowed his eyes at her, "We're on the fourth floor."
"Well, you should of thought of that when you bought this apartment, shouldn't of you?"
Jess rolled his eyes at her, "If I have to go the bathroom so much that I would resort to climbing out the window, I would just sneak to the bathroom when you are asleep."
Rory looked over to Amber, who was loading the dishwasher, "How will we prevent this?"
"We'll set up a trip line," answered Amber seriously, shutting the dishwasher door. She smiled at their banter. The funny thing was that neither of them seemed to notice it. The spark between the two of them. Grown-ups can be so naive sometimes."Okay, I'm going," gave up Jess.
Rory waited until she heard Jess's bedroom door close before nodding to herself and proclaiming, "Victory."
Even later…
"Rory, can I ask you a question?" asked Amber. They had just finished watching a rather humorously cheesy TV movie, before which they had discussed Amber's life: her friends, her school, future plans, and such.
"Shoot."
"The night that you guys, uh, made me… did you love my dad?"
Rory sighed, "You might be too young to understand this, Amber, but their some people in your life that you are going to love even when you don't want to or you're not in a relationship anymore. Your father-," Rory paused, she cherished these words she said, knowing they were absolutely true. She continued, "Is one of those people to me."
"How can you love someone even when you don't want to?"
"You can't control love. It's like when you truly, honesty love someone they earned something from you, piece of your heart. And they will always have the little bit of your love and heart. So yeah, I did love Jess then," concluded Rory wistfully. Amber suppressed a smile. Their it was again.
Rory shook her head to get her thoughts out of the clouds and bring herself back to the now, "Is that all?"
Amber looked down at her fidgeting hands in her lap, she did have one more question.
"Well, there's something else, the answer really doesn't matter though because I asked you to come and you did, so…"
"You're rambling," grinned Rory.
"I know," said Amber looking Rory in the eye, "I just need to know, why did you leave?"
The question needed no other explanation.
Rory sustained the eye contact between the two of them before answering, "I have thought about that same question a lot, especially lately, but before too, but I have miserably failed to find the answer to why I left, but I think I found something close.
"You'd have to understand were I was in my life at that time. I had given up on everything, my schooling, my career. I had gotten in trouble with the law, if you can believe that. My mom and me were in a big fight and we were not talking; I had moved in with my grandparents. And I had this party-boy boyfriend.
"Then Jess shows up with his book that he had written and it hit me. He had done something amazing with his life and me, after one phrase of criticism, had ruined everything I had going for me. He showed me that.
"The next night things went a little far, but after that day I went home. I made up with my mom. I went back to school, got a job, and started a new, strong, full steam ahead life. Everything was good again and then a little more than a month later I found out I was pregnant." Amber sat in silence, not daring to interrupt and too entranced in a story she had long waited to hear.
"I was so scared. So scared of disappointing my mom. So scared of her being mad at me or cutting me off, even though that is a ridiculous thought, but my mind was jumping to the worst case scenarios. So I hid my pregnancy and the truth from everyone except Jess."
"Oh," said Amber at the conclusion of her story. It was in a disappointed tone. Amber had always imagined her mother coming back and having some great and noble reason for leaving, like to go live in some obscure third world country to nurse sick children back to health or negotiate peace in the UN. It wasn't even a good, 'I know I wasn't good enough for you and your father could have given you a better life than I ever could of,' and that wouldn't have even worked for Rory.
Rory noticed her pain, so she took Amber's hands and hers and made the young girl look at her in the eyes again, "You know all those people who say they don't believe in regrets?"
"Yeah."
"Well, they're all idiots. Everyone has regrets and things they wish they could change. I don't ever regret having you. I regret not being there for you. You were, and are still, not a mistake. Unplanned, a surprise, yes, but not a mistake. The mistake that happened was me leaving you. Please know that I did not leave you because I didn't want you or I didn't love you. I left you because-"
Amber stopped her, "You don't need to finish. I know what I needed to know." With that Amber through her arms around Rory's neck and whispered, "I love you too…Mom."
Those were the first tears Rory had in a long time that were tears of joy.
Hope that worked...R/R!