Chapter 1
Rory stood there, shock rushing over her in waves as new questions
forced themselves into her head, begging to be answered. What was he doing
here? Why now? Was he here for her, or was this just a lucky
coincidence? Lucky, why was she thinking lucky? And why the hell was she so happy
to see him?
"Jess, what are you doing here?" She managed to stutter out.
"Wait a minute, you two know each other?" Logan was looking between the
two, shock written on his face.
"We used to date." Jess had a smirk written on his face, looking
pleased to tell the obviously rich boy.
"Yeah, until you left me without as much as a goodbye. Then you pop up
a year later." She left out the part about him telling her he loved
her, and how alone she felt when he left. No one needed to know that much.
"Well, let's not get hostile children." Colin smirked. He was
definitely enjoying the fact that a little nobody got Logan's new girl first.
Logan slipped his arm around Rory's shoulders, pulling her close to him.
"Looks to me like you might want to move along," Logan said.
"Don't see why, I'm allowed to stand here as much as you are," Jess
replied.
"Jess, please?" Rory pleaded with him. She had so many hopes for
tonight, and this was not one of them. She had no desire to watch Jess, her
ex, and Logan, her present date duke it out over where they could stand
at the concert
"Please what?" Jess was getting hostile, which usually happened when he
was hurt. Now was no exception. This was not the Rory Gilmore he loved.
This just wasn't what she would do, or who she would date.
"Please, just go."
"I thought you were sick of me going."
"She asked you to leave," Logan said, stepping between Rory and Jess.
Jess resisted the urge to punch Logan, although he had to clench his
fists tightly at his sides to do so.
"I'm not leaving until I talk to her." Jess wasn't sure what he would
say, but he had to know what had gotten into her.
"Jess," Rory pleaded as she looked at him over Logan's shoulder.
"Just find a new patch of dance floor," Logan said, smirking. He felt
that he was doing good, right before he felt Rory's hand on his shoulder
trying to force him out of the way.
"Logan, move!" she said. "Listen, why don't you go get me a drink? I
promise that Jess'll be gone by the time you get back." Logan looked from
Rory to Jess and back.
"All right," he said, giving a final glance to the half-full glass in
her hand before heading towards the bar. It was Jess's turn to smirk,
but only for a moment.
"What are you doing here?" Rory hissed.
"Seeing Three Day's Grace in concert," Jess replied.
"Right, and bothering my boyfriend didn't come up in your little plan,"
Rory couldn't explain why she was feeling so angry, maybe she was
simply mad at the thought that meeting Jess at the concert was a lucky
coincidence.
"No, it didn't. In fact, I had no idea you guys would be here."
"Hep Alien was opening! Of course I would be here!"
They stared at each other for a moment. Rory tried to sort out her
emotions, while doing her best not to focus on the passive look on Jess's
face.
"I didn't hit him," Jess said. It was all he could say.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Luke had given up on finding a time to tell Lorelai about Jess. He
figured she'd find out from Sookie, or Patty, or Taylor, or the many other
people who couldn't seem to stop talking about 'the return of the
delinquent.'
Which meant he wasn't thinking when he and Lorelai fell against his
apartment door, him fumbling with the keys while she did her best to
distract him with kisses. It wasn't until the door opened and Lorelai saw
the room that everything came tumbling down.
"What's with the extra stuff?" Lorelai asked. Luke gave a silent prayer
of thanks that Lorelai's slightly inebriated brain kept her from
putting two and two together and coming out with Jess.
"Um, look, you might want to sit down." Sitting was a bad idea,
because she almost sat on one of Jess's magazines.
"Since when were you into Punk Rock...," she trailed off, and then
stood up. "Jess is here."
"Uh," Luke couldn't form sentences, so he just let Lorelai talk, which
probably would have been the best course of action even if he could
form sentences.
"Jess is here, and you didn't tell me?" Lorelai asked. "Why didn't you
tell me, Luke? That kid broke my daughters heart!"
"I, um, I was going to tell you. Once Rory went back to school," Luke
muttered. "But then the whole town knew anyway, so I figured you knew."
"So you figured it was okay for me to find out from Sookie, or Patty,
but it never crossed your brain that I might want to hear it from you?"
"Well, I..uh, I..." Luke was at a loss. He had known that she would
hear before Rory left for school, yet he hadn't told her. He couldn't
explain it to himself, let alone her.
"I hoped that maybe you wouldn't hear about it or find out until Rory
left for school. I'm sorry." he looked down, hoping this wouldn't cause
a big fight between them.
"I'm gonna go, past my bed time," Lorelai started digging through her
purse to find her keys. A thought crossed Luke's mind.
"Did you know?" he asked. She stopped digging and looked up at him.
"Yeah, Jess showed up at the house two days after Rory went back to
school," Lorelai said. "I was waiting for you to tell me."
"I'm sorry."
She left, but she didn't look angry. Of course, Luke figured, it could
be the alcohol. Yet, it seemed more like she was tired, tired of Jess
breaking her daughter's heart. And tired of him, of Luke, messing up.
Luke sighed, he was tired of it, too.
