(A/N) Hey, and I am back! I hoped you all liked the last chapter. I am going to continue this story you just have to be patient with me. I'll get back to the story now.
Chapter Two
The next night, Jess got to the Gilmore house and wasn't sure what to do from there. Finally, he grabbed a couple of pebbles from the fountain and threw them at her window. He saw the front door open and almost ran away, but saw Rory.
" What're you doing?" Rory asked, chuckling.
" I didn't know if it was okay to ring or not." He whispered.
" She's not here."
" She's not?" Jess asked in his normal voice. Rory walked over to her.
" She's playing Bridge tonight."
" Oh good." Jess says, throwing the remaining pebbles back in the fountain.
" I parked on the street so she wouldn't see."
" You're very good at covert ops."
" Years of practice. So, where do you want to go?"
" I don't know. I don't know the area that well."
" You live here."
" I know, but Hartford's still a mystery. Even when I went to Chilton I got on the bus and headed home. So I don't even have any old high school hangouts to revisit. And these days I've just been eating here."
" Well, I just prefer not going someplace that doesn't have food in the title."
" Meaning…"
" Olive, chili, soup. No gardens. No plantations."
" Got it. Something funkier."
" Steer me to the college district. I'll find us something funky."
" Sounds good." At that moment a silver Porsche pulls into the driveway. Great. A blonde-headed monkey. Don't tell me this is her boyfriend.
Logan? Why is he here? What about Omaha? He just ruined my night with Jess. Completely.
" Logan." Rory said cheerfully.
" Am I interrupting something?" Logan asked, getting out of the car and walking towards Rory.
" No. Hey, when did you get back?"
" A couple of hours ago."
" Oh. I—I thought you were getting back tomorrow."
" Thought that I'd surprise you Ace." Ace? What kind of a name is Ace?
" Well, I'm glad you did 'cause you get to meet me my old friend Jess. Jess this is Logan, my boyfriend." I knew it! I should get a cookie. Not that anyone knows what I'm thinking. Unless they're mind readers. Mental note: Got to be more careful about what I think. Damn! I'm being paranoid!
" Logan, this is Jess, he's in from out of town." Logan and Jess stare at each other, each having bad vibes about the other.
" Wow. That sounded so grown up. We're at the age now where you say like, 'In from out of town' and 'old friend.' 'Cause when you're young all your friends are new and you have to get old to have old friends." Jess smiled at her rambling. God, how I missed that. That rambling I mean.
Logan extends his hand shakes Jess's.
" How you doing?"
" Okay." Jess half-smiles out of politeness of course. He would never even consider smiling wholeheartedly at someone like that Logan guy.
" We were just going to go grab a bite to eat." Rory says, hoping Logan would leave.
" Great, well how about we all go together? Is that okay?"
" Okay by me." Jess answers quickly. Rory frowns a little, but tries to wipe it off her face before either of them noticed.
" Alright. Good. We were actually at a loss for where to got, so you actually saved us."
" Call me Superman. Why do you follow us?" Logan said to Jess as he wrapped an arm around Rory's shoulders and heads towards the car.
" Sure." Not like I have a choice.
" Great. Come on." Jess watched Logan open Rory's door, then get in himself.
Logan backed out of the driveway and saw Jess's beat up brown car parked on the other side of the street.
" Is that his car?" Logan asked once Jess started to follow them.
" Yes." Rory said stiffly.
" Nice sense of style." Rory rolled her eyes and tried not to turn into the defensive mode, but Logan was making it pretty hard.
" Why'd you come back early?"
" I already told. Wanted to surprise you. Why? You wanted to be alone with John?"
" It's Jess. And yeah, I did."
" What were you going to do?"
" We were going to talk, have dinner, catch up."
" Oh yeah?" Logan asks, unbelieving.
" Yeah."
" Really?"
" Yes."
" You weren't going to go off and have sex with him?"
" What!" Rory asks, appalled.
" You weren't going to go off and have sex with him?" Logan repeats. Rory started to breathe heavily and tears stung her eyes.
" How could you even think that?" She asked quietly.
" I don't know! You seemed pretty capable of cheating on me, seeing that at the end of your first year at Yale you slept with a married guy!"
" I can't believe this." Rory wiped the tears away from her face. They drove the rest of the way in silence, Rory starring out the window, arms crossed over her chest.
" I'm sorry." Logan said once they reached the pub.
" No, you're not." Rory whispered, wiping the fallen tears away.
" Don't you tell me that I'm not sorry Rory, 'cause I am!"
" No you're not."
" Shut up!" He slapped her across the face and she immediately touched a hand to her face. She turned to the door and threw it open. Rory leaned against the car, staring out at the street. Jess got out of his car and walked up to Rory when he saw her.
" What's wrong?"
" Nothing." Rory said, after seeing who was next to her.
" Nothing seems like a whole lot of something." She rolled her eyes at him and Jess looked at her face. There was a bright pink mark across it.
" What happened to your face?" Jess asked, rather calmly coming from him.
" I fell asleep. Against the seat belt. Long drive."
" Oh." Logan got out of the car and slammed the door.
" Let's go inside." Rory nodded and followed him inside, followed closely by Jess. Something is definitely wrong here.
…………………….
" I live pretty close. I'd have had you over to check it out but it's a bit of a mess." Rory sat with her arms crossed over her chest. Logan had already had three drinks and Jess had hardly touched his beer.
" And you don't have serve any food, so we would've been starving at your place." Rory added.
" I have appetizers—half full bags of chips. Just check the expiration date before you dive in."
" I'm good with this place." Jess said, taking a sip from his beer. He was beginning to get restless. He had planned to spend the night with Rory. Not with Rory and her boyfriend.
" Little pointer—don't come here on folk night."
" Yeah, I'm not a big fan of folk music.'
" Something we have in common."
" Great." Rory looked at Jess and smiled. She had missed him so much, he had been a big influence on her life. Her mother had always told her not to dwell on the past, but she sometimes finds herself doing exactly that. She always tried to forget about him, but couldn't.
" Where's a waiter? Yo, yo, right here. Another McKellen's Neat, and Jess, another Brew?" Logan asked.
" I'm still working on this one." Jess held out his beer and showed him.
" Another one—just in case."
" We should probably order. It's a big menu so if you need guidance…." Rory said.
" I'm not hungry."
" You're not hungry?"
" Nope."
" I thought the whole point was that you two were going to get something to eat?"
" And talk." Rory added.
" Well yes, it's a given that you're gonna talk while you eat. You know, the chef de cuisine will gladly make anything you want if nothing appeals."
" The burgers are good here." Rory told Jess.
" Maybe a burger." He said, looking at her and smiling with his eyes.
" Get one of those fancy ones too. It's on me so don't let the price stop you."
" I'll pay for my own." Jess picked up the menu and looked over it slowly.
" Good man. So, how long have you guys known each other?" Jess closed his menu and looked away from Logan.
" A while."
" You date?"
" Yes." Rory answered quickly, awkwardly.
" Ah. No hemming, no hawing. Good course of action. Were you two high school sweethearts, rock around the clock, two straws in the milkshake?"
" Logan." Rory warned.
" Did we cheers I don't think we cheered. That's bad luck. Let's cheers."
" I think we did already. Twice."
" Well, let's do it again. Cheers." Logan and Jess raise their glasses while Rory raised a plastic cup and clinked.
" So what do you do Jess?" Logan said after they all took a sip of their drinks.
" Oh, this and that."
" Describe the 'this', describe the 'that'."
" He writes." Rory said, annoyed.
" You write? Impressive. What do you write?"
" Nothing important." Jess said, irritated.
" He wrote a book." Rory said.
" Oh, you penned the Great American novel Jess?"
" Wasn't quite that ambitious."
" So what're we talking here? Short novel? Kafcla length or longer? Dos Pasos, Tolstoy? Or longer—Robert Mussil? Proust? I'm not throwing you with these names am I?"
" You seem very obsessed with length." Jess said, now even more annoyed with the blonde-headed monkey sitting across from him.
" I'm just trying to get a picture in my head, that's all."
" It's a short novel." Rory finally said.
" Any good?"
" I haven't read it yet."
" Yet? At least you're gonna have one reader. That's something."
" Yeah." Jess raised his glass up to his lips and wished he could throw it at Logan.
" You know, I should just write down all my random thoughts and stuff that happens to me and conversations I have and just add a bunch of 'he says, she says,' and get it published—you got a copy on you?"
" No."
" You should send me a copy." That was the last straw. He took another sip of his drink and placed it on the table.
" Sure, where should I send—the blonde dick at Yale?"
" Jess." Rory called after he stood up.
" Whoa, whoa. I'm just trying to keep it friendly here buddy." Jess grabbed his jacket and walked around the now-standing Logan.
" Get out of my way." He said under his voice. Rory stood up and started to follow him.
" Forget him Rory."
" Don't follow me." Rory jogged after Jess and he slipped on his jacket.
" Jess, wait. Jess, I'm sorry." She caught up to him and he stopped, buttoning up his jacket.
" We shouldn't have done this."
" He's just in a bad way lately."
" He's a jerk."
" He was. In there—definitely. I'm so sorry."
" I read that guy the second I saw him. I should have begged off."
" Well, I didn't want you to."
" He better not come out here."
" Please Jess, he had a lot to drink. He's tired from traveling. This isn't him. I swear." Rory pleaded.
" What the hell is going on?"
" I told you. He's tired and his family's bugging him—"
" I mean with you?" He cut in.
" What do you mean?" Rory asked quietly.
" You know what I mean. I know you better than anyone. This isn't you."
" I don't know."
" What are you doing? Staying at your grandparents' place, being in the DAR, no Yale—Why did you drop out of Yale!"
" It's complicated."
" It's not! It's not complicated!"
" You don't know."
" This isn't you. This—you going out with a jerk with a Porsche. We made fun of guys like this."
" You caught him on a bad night." Rory pleaded.
" This isn't about him. Okay, screw him. What's going on with you, Rory? This isn't you Rory." She stared past him into the pub. He was right. Everything he said was right.
" You know it isn't. What's going on?" Jess continued, then bobbed his head in front of hers, snapping her out of her thoughts.
" I don't know… I don't know." She crossed her arms and tears stung her eyes. Jess looked at her. This wasn't the Rory he knew, yet alone loved. The Rory he knew was always sure of herself. Not that he didn't love her, he just didn't like this Rory all that much. He missed the old Rory. His Rory. Not Logan's Rory, his.
" Hey, uh…May—may—maybe we'll catch up at a better time." He touched her elbow affectionately, and she immediately felt butterflies in her stomach. The butterflies she hadn't felt ever since he walked out of her life. He walked off slowly. He turned suddenly.
" Happy birthday, by the way. Wasn't that a couple of weeks ago, your birthday?" She nodded slightly and he smiled at her, then began to walk off again.
" Jess!" He turned to face her.
" Where can I find you?" He smiled at her.
" Your mom's Inn. Room 10."
" Good room." Rory said sadly.
" So I've heard… see you around. Hopefully, anyways."
" Yeah." He turned to go again but her voice stopped him.
" What was that?"
" I'm proud of you, really proud."
" Thanks…I wish I could say the same." There it was. The guilt trip. She was always the one he was proud of and now she was the one that was proud of him. There was nothing he could be proud of with her. She smiled then walked over to him. She enveloped him in her arms and kissed his cheek softly. He held her like that for a few minutes.
" Bye, Rory." She pulled away from him. Tears were streaming down her face and Jess used the back of his hand to wipe them away. He took her hand, squeezed it then walked off. She stared after him for a few seconds then turned to go inside, where she found Logan sitting and drinking.
" You're not going to believe this," he said once he saw her, " Over the music, over the crowd, I hear one girl's voice cutting through it all—the folk singer, she's in the corner with her boyfriend." Rory glares at him, fists clenched.
" I sent them over a round of drinks. What the hell?" He took a sip of his drink and looked up at her. " He gone?"
" Yes, he's gone." She says stiffly, then stands across from him, behind Jess's seat.
" Writers are so sensitive."
" You were a jerk, Logan." She says, shaking her head, as if she couldn't believe how he was acting.
" I was just challenging him, jeez. Hey, if Hemingway could take it, so can he. Hey, if he wanted to he could have taken a pop at me." He says raising a fist and punching his hand.
" Pugnacity—it's a vital component of literary life. Again, consult your Hemingway. Come on, do not let his guy get to you."
" You're getting to me."
" Me?"
" Yes. You were an ass." She said flatly.
" Look, I'm sorry. I came back early. I really messed things up here." He said sarcastically.
" Jess wrote a book. He wrote a book and you mocked him."
" I didn't mock him."
" He's doing something."
" Fine. He's doing something. Everybody in the world is doing something. More power to him."
" I'm not. I mean, what am I doing? I'm living with my grandparents."
" That's temporary. Have a drink."
" Temporary can turn into forever."
" You are not living with your grandparents forever."
" I'm palling with my grandmother. I'm being waited on by a maid. I come home and my shoes are magically cleaned. My clothes are magically cleaned, ironed and laid out. My bed is magically turned down. I'm in the D.A.R.? I'm going to meetings, teas, and cocktail parties?" Rory asks, finally finding out that she wasn't the normal Rory.
" Again, temporary. Have a drink." He repeats.
" And wasting my partying and drinking, just hanging out, doing nothing." Logan stood up in front of her.
" Whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't pull me into his."
" I didn't say anything about you."
" Yes, you did. Don't make me feel guilty for your partying and drinking. That's your choice. I'm not forcing you. When I ask you out, you can say no." He yelled.
" That's all we do."
" It's not all we do."
" It's all you do."
" Well, that's my prerogative you know? You're damn straight. I'm gonna party while I have the chance, because come June my life is over."
" Oh yes, your horrible life, let's hear about it."
" Got a week?"
" You have every door open to you. You have opportunities that anyone would kill for, including me."
" No one's stopping you from making whatever you want happen. Go into journalism. Be a doctor. Be a clown. Do whatever you want."
" It's not as easy when it's not handed to you."
" Really? It's all so easy for me? I don't want that life! It's forced on me! You talk about all these doors being open? All I see is one door and I'm being forced through it! I have no choice! You try living without options!"
" How hard are you fighting it?"
" I didn't tell you to quit Yale. You did that. I gave you one month. You went beyond the month and it had nothing to do with me. It was all you! Now you want to change, change it.
But don't blame me, don't you dare blame me! You know what? Why don't you just go off with John—Jack—whatever his name is?"
" Oh, I'm not going off with Jess!"
" Fine. Come on."
" Where? Let's go. I want to go. I don't want to be here."
" I don't want to go anywhere with you!" Rory yelled.
" I drove you here and I want to go!"
" I don't want to go." Logan sighed and hastily pulled out some money from his suit's breast pocket and threw it on the table.
" I'll cover the bill, cab. Do whatever you want. It's your choice." He stormed out of the pub and Rory sighed. Whatever I want? Fine. I will. She pulled her cell phone out of her purse and dialed the operator.
" Hi, can I have a number for a cab company… A company, any company, you pick…Thanks." She dialed the number into the number pad as the operator recited it and saved it. " Uh-huh…Thanks."
TBC
AN: I don't own most of the dialogue, but getting into the next chapter I will. I didn't have time to spell check it, so please disregard the mistakes if any. Thanks for the reviews. REVIEW PLEASE.
