A chapter from Richie's POV this time! Enjoy!
Richie stretches, staring at the alarm clock. Five minutes before he has to get up for school, and that's not including the time he needs factoring in for his sisters getting ready. There's one bathroom for them all and the morning is always crazy. Richie shuts off the alarm before it starts blaring, turning off the extra one on his phone, and lays back in bed. He hears his family begin to move around but enjoys the relative peace for a little longer before forcing himself up, by which time he's five minutes late.
"Coming through!"
Richie jumps as Annie yells, speeding past him and almost knocking into Charlotte who's wrapped in a bath towel.
"Hey, I'm going in there!"
"I need to pee!" Annie wails, slipping past her and slamming the door shut. Charlotte lets out a yelp of of frustration before stalking back to her bedroom. Richie doesn't want to imagine her reaction if he goes in before her when Annie comes out. Instead, he selects some jeans and a shirt for the day before ambling to the kitchen to make breakfast.
"Morning, son." Jess nods over the paper he and Rory are reading. "How'd you sleep?"
"Fine."
Richie reaches for a section and his mother bats his hand away.
"Nope, breakfast before books. Or papers."
"But -"
"You can read while you eat," she says placidly and, sighing, Richie gets up and slots two pieces of bread in the toaster. As he waits Richie hears the bathroom door open and Charlotte groan loudly, "Finally!"
Richie exchanges smirks with his parents and, as the toast pops up, Annie comes in clamouring for orange juice. Jess pours her a glass and a bowl of cereal, despite Annie being nine years old, and Richie takes bites of toast while trying to read the paper at the same time, spraying crumbs on it.
"Do not get butter on the lit section," Rory warns him and Richie protests, "I'm not!", sending another shower of crumbs flying. Rory takes it away, before further damage can be done, and Jess says, "You're going to be late if you don't get ready anyhow."
Like that's such a terrible thing, Richie thinks sourly. As he trudges upstairs he hears the shower stop but Charlotte doesn't emerge. He hears the faucet turn on and off and on again and as he groans, "What are you doing?" his sister shouts, "Trying to have some peace!"
Rolling his eyes, Richie heads back to his bedroom to get dressed. By the time he's pulled his socks on the bathroom is free and Richie hurriedly brushes his teeth and splashes water over his face. There's no time to shower - he'll have to do it after school. He hears Rory calling for him to hurry and Richie manages to get a sluice of water all done his front as he steps away from the sink. Sighing, he grabs his backpack from the bedroom and runs down to the front door where Annie and Charlotte are waiting.
"You took ages," Charlotte complains and rolls her eyes when Richie retorts, "Whose fault is that?"
"Guys, save the chitchat for the car," Rory interrupts, looking frazzled. "Come on, let's go!"
"Mommy, I can't find my shoes!" Annie exclaims and, as she locates them, Rory remarks, "Shoes? In my day we walked fifty miles in the snow just to get to our shoes!"
Five minutes later they are packed in the car. Rory drives to the high school first, where Charlotte is a junior and Richie is in his freshman year.
"Have a great day," Rory says, giving her son and daughter a kiss under some duress. "Look after your brother, Charlotte."
She speeds off to get Annie to her school before Richie can protest that statement. He looks over at Charlotte and says, "Forget that."
"Already forgotten," Charlotte assures him. She shifts her backpack strap and says, "I guess I'll see you later. Have fun, or whatever."
"Right," Richie says sarcastically. He watches as she disappears into the crowd on the steps and waits before following the rest in. The first bell goes and Richie keeps his head down, finding his way to Homeroom. He gets there just before the second bell and sighs as he sits down. Richie is a month into high school and can't say he loves it. He's never been that crazy about school in general but this seems more intense. He keeps getting told off for daydreaming.
The day slowly passes by. At lunchtime a girl with curly red hair puts her tray down on Richie's table and asks brightly, "Can I sit here?"
"Um, okay." Richie moves over a little and looks at the girl over the edge of his book. Her name is Mary - no, Maria - no, Mary - and Richie tries to get back to his book as Mary/Maria sits down and lifts her sandwich. Instead of eating, she says, "How are you finding calculus?"
Richie shrugs. Honestly, it's so boring he could cry, but he doesn't want to get into conversation. He wants to finish his sentence. Mary/Maria seems oblivious to this as she chatters on, pausing to smile at him here and there, and finally a girl on the table across from them calls, "Maddie! We're going to be late!"
"Coming!" Maddie - that was her name - calls back. Richie notices that she only took one bite of her lunch. She looks at Richie and says, "See you in class."
"Sure."
Maddie gives him one last grin before loping off with her friends. Richie finally gets back to his book and, just as he finds his place, the bell rings. Fantastic.
The rest of the day is fairly non-descript. Rory picks Richie and Charlotte up and talks about some new article she's working on. Rory practically gets a new article every day, it seems. Richie zones out a little and goes to his room once they're back. He'd halfheartedly planned on doing his homework but after reading part of the textbook and typing a sentence of his essay Richie finds himself reading his novel. Finding where he got up to at lunchtime, he read blissfully until Jess calls three times to tell him dinner is ready.
Dinner is mostly taken up by Annie talking about her day. She chatters enough for Charlotte and Richie combined. She takes a break to gulp some water and Rory turns to her older kids.
"How about you guys?"
Charlotte talks about the amount of work she has already. Teachers are already getting started on preparing for college and Charlotte complains about that a little, stabbing her fork into a potato. Conversation turns to that for the rest of the meal until they start dessert. Rory hands Richie his plate and says, "How about you?"
Richie shrugs, taking a bite of cake. "It was okay."
"Anything to add to that?" Jess asks. Richie shrugs again. If Annie is the most talkative, he is the most quiet. Lorelai, his grandmother, nicknamed him Cool Dude when he was born. Richie is fine being quiet. He has his books, his friends and the movie theatre. That's fine. Jess described Richie once as floating through, and Richie didn't know if it was a compliment or not.
"How's high school?" Rory asks gently. "How are you finding it?"
"Loud," Richie says honestly and Jess nods.
"Sounds about right."
"But is it okay?" Rory asks anxiously and Richie nods with a sigh.
"It's fine, Mom."
He finishes his cake with no more questions. Annie interrupts to talk about some new show she wants to see and Charlotte goes to do her homework. Richie slips away with a cup of coffee with the intention of doing the same. The work isn't hard, he guesses, just dull. The only way he gets it done is by putting the book on the other side of the room. Impatiently, Richie rushes through before reading until Rory knocks on the door to tell him to go to sleep.
The rest of the week goes by in a similar fashion. Maddie sits by him a couple more times and Richie can't figure out what it is she wants. Can't she see he's trying to read? On Friday they all pile into the car to go to Lorelai's house. In the past, Richie and Annie would pass the time by playing car games but it seems kind of dumb now. Annie looks a little hurt when Richie tells her he doesn't want to play, giving him a dose of guilt, but it goes away as he puts his headphones on. He listens to music all the way there, getting a blissful kind of space, at least until Annie spills her drink in his lap. Lorelai is waiting on the porch for them and runs out to meet them, hugging each of them as tightly as she can, and laughing as Rory races inside for the coffeepot. Richie never liked coffee until this year but he's starting to get a taste for it and, upon first telling his mother he enjoyed it, Rory's eyes filled up and she said, "Now you're really growing up!"
They enjoy the coffee, Annie a cup of cocoa, and a slice of Luke's chocolate cake before going over to the diner. Luke still likes to keep an eye on things, despite not being able to walk around as fast anymore. He stills enjoys shouting at people for using their cellphones, however, and Lorelai remarked that she's positive it was her husband who caused the power outage a few weeks ago to prevent people charging their devices. Luke serves them a cheeseburger each and complains about the toaster being broken.
"I'll take a look at it," Jess says, getting up and ignoring his uncle saying, "Jess, the circuit's completely shot."
Richie watches his dad tinker with a little, test it and say proudly, "Fixed."
"What? How'd you do that?"
"Oh, easy..."
Jess rattles off some terms Richie doesn't know but Luke nods, sighing. They're both pretty good at fixing appliances and Lorelai isn't half-bad either, but Richie is hopeless. Jess tried to show him how to dismantle their toaster and put it back together, but Richie put it back together wrong - so wrong that Jess had to work it at for two hours. He showed Charlotte and Annie too. Charlotte picked it up fairly quickly and Annie took longer, but she was still better than her brother. Richie tries not to let the fact that a nine-year-old is more adept than him rankle too much. His thoughts are interrupted by Babette and Miss Patty coming in, exclaiming over how big he, Charlotte and Annie have got and Richie resigns himself to having his cheeks pinched. When they get back Lorelai puts on an old movie and hands out several bags of snacks. Jess stayed at the diner to help so Lorelai says, "Gilmore girls only. And one Gilmore guy."
"Honorary Gilmore girl," Rory teases and Richie rolls his eyes. "Mom, come on."
"You say it like it's a bad thing," Lorelai scolds. "Hush, child, before we throw you out of the clubhouse!"
Lorelai had Rory when she was sixteen and Rory is always talking about how they were best friends growing up. Charlotte has some creep for a father named Logan, and her surname is Gilmore, like Rory's, but Richie's and Annie's is Mariano. Rory says they're still Gilmores by blood though so the name being different is no big deal. They're expected to follow Lorelai's Movie Night Rules to the letter. Lorelai always winds it up by saying 'Gilmore Girls only and one exception'. When he was a kid his mother and grandmother would give him a kiss as they said it but now they only do so to embarrass him and, to his relief, refrain today.
After the movie over Annie passes out in a sugar coma. Rory picks her up and takes her to her old bedroom to nap and Charlotte goes to the bathroom (no one is allowed to stop the movie for that). While she's gone Lorelai looks over at Richie.
"How's it going, Cool Dude?"
"It's okay."
"Yeah? How's high school."
Richie shrugs and Lorelai says, "That bad, huh?"
Richie shrugs again . "Kind of boring."
"And you'd rather be casing the joint?"
"I'd rather be reading."
"I wonder where you get that from," Lorelai teases, nodding at Rory who's come back in and says, "Hey, I liked school. Jess is the one to blame."
"I would say blame me but I was never into the book thing," Lorelai remarks. "The fabulous flair you got from me."
"I remember that every time I look in the mirror."
"There's some nice Jess sarcasm," Lorelai teases. "You've got the monosyllable thing going too now. Pull any pranks lately?"
"No..." Richie used to love pulling pranks. Nothing too heavy; sugar in the salt shaker here, a toy spider there, but the fun's gone out of it. He misses it but at the same time, it just feels kind of dumb. Richie takes a handful of popcorn and Lorelai presses, "Tell me something about your week. Anyone cute in your classes?"
Richie shakes his head but feels his cheeks go red. His mother and grandmother exchange looks and Richie closes his eyes as Rory says gleefully, "That's why you were so silent!"
"Mom, no. It's nothing - she's no one."
"She?"
"Just some girl from my math class. I don't even like her. She's decided to sit next to me every day in lunch and I don't know why."
Lorelai and Rory exchange another look and Richie exclaims, "What?"
"Hon, I think she has a crush on you," Lorelai says gently. "If she's sitting with you every day."
"Do you like her?" Rory asks and Richie says helplessly, "No! I don't know!"
"Well, it's okay," Rory says, giving his arm an awkward pat. "You're only fourteen."
Richie feels himself slowly die inside. How did he wind up getting into all this with his mother and grandmother? He remembers all the drama last year with Charlotte and that jerk, Tyler. Richie had vowed to never do something as dumb as date someone and he definitely doesn't want to date Maddie. He tucks his knees up into a tight ball on his chest until Charlotte comes back from the bathroom and, to Richie's relief, the subject is changed. He gets up so she can sit down and idly wanders around the room, looking at the pictures on the mantel. Amongst the embarrassing baby pictures are some of his great-grandparents. Emily is still alive but Richard, his namesake, died before Richie was born. Rory talks about close she was with him but he sounds kind of scary to Richie, and the portrait of him at his great-grandmother's house doesn't help. Richie imagines him, up in the afterlife, looking down at the boy named after him. Look at everything I achieved, Richie pictures him saying. You can't focus on work, you can't fix a toaster and you don't even know when a girl is flirting with you! Pathetic.
The next day Richie goes out with Jess. They go to Stars Hollow Books, happily browsing the shelves for an hour or so, and get lunch at Luke's. Taylor is fighting with the Rabbi and Reverend over some new town policy and Jess laughs, shaking his head.
"I swear this place is frozen in time. I hated living here...there was stuff I missed, which I didn't think I would, but every time I come back here I remember why I couldn't stay."
"Was it just Mom you missed?" Richie asks shrewdly and Jess chuckles.
"Mostly, but not everything. Speaking of which...what's this about a girl in school?"
"Mom told you?" Richie exclaims. "Jeez, I can't believe her!"
"She didn't rat you out. I overheard her and Lorelai discussing it when I got back and made them fill me on the rest. So, Maddie, huh? Describe her."
"I don't know. She's got red hair and she's in my math class."
"That's it?"
"What else should I say?"
"Never mind," Jess says, holding up his hands. "So...do you like her?"
Richie shrugs and angrily eats a fry. "I don't know. Am I supposed to like her?"
"Richie, you're not supposed to like anyone," Jess says gently. "That's not how it works...it's okay if you like someone and it's okay if you don't."
Richie shrugs and his father says, "Hey, you don't have to have a definitive answer. You're only fourteen - kind of young to worry about the whole dating thing."
"Dating thing?" Richie can feel his palms start to sweat and Jess says, "Like I said, you don't need to worry about that."
"What if I screw it up?" Richie blurts out without thinking, louder than intended. Taylor's, the Rabbi's and the Reverend's heads turn and Jess coughs, hiding his face in his cup for a moment.
"Richie. The only thing you need to worry about is to be decent with her...respect what she wants. And don't do things you aren't ready for...man, that's a whole separate talk."
"Dad, please don't talk about this with me," Richie begs. "I know about this stuff."
"It's just a talk - your sister and I survived it."
"Dad, I don't want to date Maddie!" Richie exclaims. He knows his voice is loud again but is so desperate to avoid a talk he doesn't care. "I don't even know if I like her!"
"Okay, okay," Jess says, putting his hand on his son's arm. "I believe you. I'm just saying that if you want to talk, I'm here. About anything. It doesn't have to be that."
"I know," Richie promises. His cheeks are burning hotter than his cup of coffee. Silently, they finish lunch and walk slowly back to the house.
The following Monday finds Maddie sitting next to Richie again. She talks and talks and finally Richie puts down his book and says, "You want to go outside?"
"Sure," Maddie says. She sounds excited, biting her lip, and follows Richie outside. Once they're away from the gaggle of students he asks directly, "Do you like me?"
Maddie starts giggling. She giggles so much she can't answer and Richie starts getting annoyed.
"Is that a yes or a no?"
"You're cute," Maddie says eventually. She gets over her giggles and looks as nervous as Richie felt discussing it with Jess. She examines him and asks, "Do you like me?"
"I don't know," Richie says honestly. Her eyes widen and then she says, "Oh."
Her voice is sad and she starts to turn away. Richie stares at her and says desperately, "I might like you."
What the hell does he know? The guys Richie hangs out with are already talking about girlfriends. Some of them have already had a first kiss. It seems crazy to Richie that last year they were into comic books and thought girls smelled and now they're all competing to date faster. Is he the weird one? Maybe he'll know if he likes Maddie once he kisses her.
"Really?" Maddie asks, turning back and brightening up and Richie nods.
"Yeah. Maybe we should kiss or something."
"Okay..."
They step closer to each other and Maddie puts her hands on Richie's shoulders. Her nose is almost brushing his. Richie swallows, awkwardly putting his hands on her back and mashes his mouth against hers. What is it you're supposed to do with your tongue? He brushes it against hers but suddenly Maddie backs away, wrinkling her nose.
"Your mouth tastes funny."
"I had chips and soda,"Richie explains and then, without warning, emits a loud burp.
"Ew!" Maddie screams. She shields her face too late and runs back into the building, calling, "Richie Mariano belched right in my face!"
"Sorry!" Richie thinks to call back but Maddie's gone then. He guesses it doesn't matter not knowing if he likes her - she definitely doesn't like him. Slowly, he walks into the school and braces himself for the rest of the day. The clock has never moved so slowly. Even leaving isn't that much of a relief. Richie doesn't want to discuss his day with his parents. They get frustrated, saying they want something more than a one-word answer, and after dinner Richie says he wants to go over some study notes with a guy from school.
"We have a test in a few weeks," he fabricates. "Can I head over for an hour?"
Rory and Jess dubiously agree. Promising to be back by nine, Richie hitches his backpack onto his shoulder and heads out. He walks aimlessly around the park for a while, watching the sun set on the water. He'd spend hours here as a kid, playing with his sisters, Charlotte before she got too old and then Annie once she stopped being a baby. Annie is still young enough to find it fun but Richie's too old and miserably he throws a stone in the water. He doesn't usually mind being the middle kid. He's always done his own thing and let his sisters do theirs. Sometimes they deliberately annoy each other but Charlotte and Annie are okay, as far as siblings go. But right now Richie wishes he wasn't between the youngest and oldest. This whole year has sucked. He's too old to play with toys but too young to be a teenager. Or maybe he just sucks at it. Richie throws stone after stone in the water and then looks up to see it's got dark but, instead of going home, he finds himself going over to the public library. It's closed but Richie knows where a loose window is and he slips through, finding the light. He holds his breath in case an alarm goes off but it doesn't. Richie was afraid they might have installed one after the time he freaked out the people in here with the red balloon prank last year.
Heading over to the kids' section, Richie pulls his book from his backpack and begins to read. He loses himself in the text, scribbling a note in the margin here and there, and almost jumps five feet in the air when the door is suddenly slammed open.
"Richard Lucas Mariano!"
His mother, father and library manager are staring down at him and Richie's shock turns to guilt. His mother looks like she's been crying and his father looks upset too as well as seriously angry.
"What the hell are you doing in here?" he explodes. "We were worried sick, it's after ten! We were calling you, calling your friend and he said you weren't there - what the hell!"
"I..."
"You what?"
"Jess," Rory says gently, seeing the look on her son's face. "Give him a minute."
Jess exhales, nodding and Rory says, "I'm going to go warm up the car."
The library manager says something about checking in her office. Jess waits for her to go before sitting down on the beanbags with Richie.
"Bud," he says gently. "What's going on?"
"So you know how you said I didn't need to worry about screwing up dating? I burped in Maddie's face!"
"What?"
"I didn't mean to! We kissed and it was an accident!"
"You kissed her?" Jess exclaims. "I thought you didn't like her!"
"I didn't know if I liked her or not," Richie moans. "And then I messed it all up!"
His father smiles but not unkindly and says, "It's not that big a deal."
"Yes it is. I screw up everything."
"Richie. What are you talking about?"
"I can't do anything," Richie says, wiping the tears that have fallen. "I'm named after one guy who was like this insanely great businessman and Grandpa who can fix anything and run the diner. And you write books and fix stuff too and I can't do my work and I just float."
"Slow down,"Jess says, looking into his eyes. "Richie, how you can you say you can't do anything? You read in every damn spare minute. You're smart - all your teachers say so - when you put the work in."
"But it's hard."
"That doesn't mean you aren't smart. I found the work easy and didn't do it. That's not smart."
"But you still wrote books."
"Yeah, when I was an adult. You're fourteen! And you know, when I kissed a girl for the first time, she nearly choked on my tongue!"
Richie laughs and Jess puts his arm around him.
"You're not just smart. You're kind and great to your sisters, most of the time, and you're funny and sarcastic - not that I always love that, I'll admit. And some of those pranks were damn creative. That I do take credit for."
Richie laughs again and Jess looks at him.
"You keep talking about resembling us guys but you remind me so much of your mom. You've got so much Rory in you and I don't only mean your eyes."
"Really?"
"You don't just get the book thing from me. But I mean how you are, your personality - it's a lot like your mom's. And that's something to be proud of. You're a lot like me, sometimes scarily so, but you're also so much like your mom. And I hope you appreciate that."
Richie smiles and Jess adds, "Look, I didn't mean to freak you out when I talked to you about dating and a sex talk -"
"Dad!"
"I want to talk about that stuff with you, but I don't think you're there yet. And that's not a bad thing, Richie. Enjoy being fourteen."
"I hate being fourteen," Richie admits and Jess laughs.
"Yeah, it's not the best year. But you'll get through it."
"You said I float."
"Huh?"
"You said I float through stuff...is it bad?"
"Richie, all I meant is that you have your own world," Jess says. "That you do things your own way. It's only bad if you lose sight of stuff. But I think it's good to be how you are - you're independent, you're a dreamer. Most writers are - maybe you'll be one, someday."
"Like you?"
"Maybe, or like Mom. Or maybe not. But you have that streak in you, a kind of calmness. A lot of people wish they had it. You've had that calmness since you were born."
Richie looks down at his hands, thinking. It's odd to view himself that way.
"I didn't feel too calm today."
"You're human - it's not bad to get mad or upset. Just talk to us, don't run off."
"Dad?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm really sorry I freaked you out."
"I know," Jess says, giving him a hug. "Come on, let's go find Mom."
When they get home Rory makes them a cup of steaming coffee each. Charlotte yells at him for freaking her out before hugging him and Annie tells him he's a jerk.
"Hey," Jess admonishes and she shakes her heads, her blue eyes full of tears.
"I'm not sorry!"
She runs up to her room and, with a sigh, Jess follows her. Rory silently slides a cup of coffee over the table to her son.
"Thanks," Richie says quietly. He looks up at his mother who finally says, "How could you take off like that? You remember what it was like when Charlotte ran away last year! Is this a trend now? Are all my kids going to -?"
"Mom, I'm sorry."
"Why did you lie to me?" Rory demands. "Why did you go and hide in the library?"
She doesn't sound angry, just upset and Richie says, "I had a really bad day at school. I kissed this girl and it went really badly and I...I'm sorry."
"Maddie?" Rory guesses. Richie nods, taking a sip of coffee, and Rory says, "So why couldn't you tell me? I wouldn't have laughed at you."
"I was embarrassed. And Mom, I just...I don't like being fourteen. I don't like high school. I don't fit in there, and everything just sucks."
"Richie," Rory says and she moves to sit next to him. "Why don't you tell me this stuff? Is it because I'm your mom?"
Richie shrugs and Rory goes on, "I was still a teenager once. Sweets, you used to talk to me all the time. I mean, you don't always like talking in general, I know, but you used to tell me stuff. Just because I'm your mom and not a guy doesn't mean I won't listen to you or can't understand. I know that you don't want to tell me everything...I get it. But I want you tell me some things. I want you to know that you can. Richie, if you need to go and hide in the library you need to talk to us first. Even if we cant fix it, me and Dad, we'll listen."
"I'm sorry," Richie says and he hugs her. It feels good to let his mother hold him for a minute. Rory kisses the top of his head and says, "It's okay. Hey, do you know that the first time I kissed a guy I ran away with a box of cornstarch?"
"What?"
Richie listens to Rory tell the story and then heads up to Annie's room. After sulkily being allowed in he sits on the end of her bed and says, "I'm really sorry."
"You're a jerk."
"I know. I'm sorry."
Annie nods and, tentatively, Richie puts an arm around her and then she climbs into his lap.
"You're still a jerk but it's okay."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
Richie catches sight of a hairbrush and some bubbles in the corner. "Hey," he says to Annie. "Want me to show you a trick?"
After Annie's got the prank down to an art, and sworn not to practice until they're outside, Richie knocks on Charlotte's door. She says he can come in but sounds grumpy and Richie opens the door to see her sitting at her desk and writing on her laptop.
"What are you doing?"
"Writing an email to Logan," Charlotte says coldly. Jess officially adopted Charlotte last year but she still keeps in touch with Logan, her biological father. They write to each other now and then and sometimes meet up. Richie once said that he didn't get it, that Charlotte didn't even like the guy, and Jess had taken him aside. It's complicated, bud, he'd said gently. It's your sister's thing. You just need to respect it. Richie tries to. He still doesn't know the full story. He watched Charlotte write for a while and then says, "I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"You know...running off."
"Kind of ironic," Charlotte admits. "I used to wish you'd run off when we were kids."
Richie doesn't remark that he still gets that sensation from her. He has the feeling Charlotte is still grumpy about him being born at times. He knows she asked for him to be given back when he was born, and Richie can remember how mad she was when Annie arrived. He's about to make an excuse and leave when Charlotte turns around and says, "I could kill you. Do you know how freaked out I was?"
"I didn't think..."
"I ran off last year, remember? And remember how mad you were at me? You know much this sucks."
"I'm really sorry, Charlotte," Richie says. "I just had a crappy day and needed to not to here."
His sister's face softens and she nods. "I know that feeling. I get it."
They sit quietly for a moment and then Charlotte offers, "You want to talk about it? I'm your big sister, I can give advice."
"Like what?"
"Depends on what it is - I might not be any use for guy stuff."
Richie tells her about the ill-fated kiss and to her credit Charlotte doesn't smile. Instead, she says, "It'll be a big deal for a month or so and then it'll just be something embarrassing that happened. It'll become a funny story."
"No way."
"It will, I swear. You're in the worst year of high school, that's all."
"What year's a good year?"
"Okay, none are great," Charlotte admits. "But you'll feel less awkward."
"What if I don't?"
"College?"
"Gee thanks," Richie says but he feels better. They both laugh and he says, "Thanks. And I'm sorry...I really am."
"I know...like I said I get it."
They smile at each other and for once, Charlotte doesn't seem like just his older sister. Maybe she does understand some of Richie's things.
Before going to bed Richie heads downstairs to get a glass of water. His mother is leafing through the book he'd had in the library and Richie guesses it fell out of his pocket.
"Oh...that just..."
"I like what you wrote," Rory says, indicating at the notes in the margins. "From what I read - I hope it's okay that I read some."
"Sure."
"Dad wrote in my copy of Howl."
"I know."
"I never wrote in my books, but you have my handwriting," Rory says fondly. Richie smiles and remembers what Jess said, about resembling her. They're both quiet in their ways.
"Mom..."
"Yes?"
"How do you get past feeling like you're doing it wrong? School and stuff," Richie finishes vaguely and Rory smiles.
"It's something you figure out as you go along, usually with a few hit and misses."
"Really?"
"You'll figure it out," Rory says and Richie lets her give him a hug and kiss.
"I love you," Richie mumbles, so he can deny it he feels embarrassed, and Rory smiles at her son. "I love you too, my wonderful exception."