"Ok, well come on let's go out the window," Lorelai said, gesturing to the open bathroom door behind them. Luke's mouth gaped open at her.
"The window? Why would we go out the window when there's a perfectly good door over there? It has hinges and everything." Lorelai sighed heavily, and glanced quickly at the ground.
"Look, the female majority of St. Mark's is here, to see if they could score with the superstar living in Stars Hollow might I add," Luke's ears turned red at that. "And they are most definitely talking about me right now after that little performance your not-friend put on, and I'd really rather just slip away quietly."
Luke's heart sank when he saw whatever that pain was in her eyes. But Luke Danes was not the type to climb out windows, and especially not when there was a door readily available.
"Hey, well if they came here to meet the superstar of Stars Hollow, what could be better revenge than walking out of the party with him?" He grinned wickedly, and she looked up at him, her grin quickly matching his.
"Lead the way Superstar."
He opened the door of his Dad's old green truck for her, and quickly ran around to get in the drivers seat. He apparently wasn't quick enough, because by the time he got into the truck she had turned to him with a panic stricken look on her face.
"Luke, it's only 10:30. I can't let you leave the party this early, I mean the party is basically for you. Every teenager in the state of Connecticut is going to be talking about it on Monday morning." She started to unbuckle her seatbelt and leaned toward the door, but Luke grabbed her hand before she could get it unbuckled.
"Lorelai, it's really ok." She looked at him reluctantly. "Really. You'd be doing me a favor. This type of thing really isn't my scene." She still looked at him reluctantly.
"Parties with loads of girls falling all over you aren't really your thing?"
"Nope," He answered so quickly she laughed.
"Then what exactly is your thing?"
"Oh, I don't know. Watching the Red Sox with My Dad?" Her smile lit up her face even more than he had realized was possible.
"That is so pathetic I actually believe you." He laughed a real laugh for the first time Lorelai had ever seen. She'd been a little skeptical about him, but with that laugh, she saw why all of her friends had dragged her to this tiny town to meet him.
"Well I don't want to go home to Adolf and Eva yet anyway. What do you townfolk do around here anyway," She asked, realizing that her parents would still be awake if she went home now.
"Uh, not much. I go to school, go to baseball practice, work at my dad's store, cook dinner, and go to sleep," Luke said, realizing that it probably sounded even lamer than it felt coming out.
"Store?" She asked, her eyes locking onto his.
"My dad owns the hardware store in town. I work there almost every afternoon, but ever since he got sick I've been working weekends too," Luke said before he realized that he'd brought up his dad's cancer. He didn't know what it was about this girl that made him spill his guts when he didn't even know her last name. But when he forced himself to look into her eyes, he didn't see the uncomfortableness that was in everyone else's eyes when he mentioned his Dad. He just saw complete understanding.
"So you're really close to your dad then? I mean, I assume you must be if you're ignoring your babe status to watch baseball with him and take over shifts at the hardware store instead." He just nodded.
"Wow. That must be nice," She breathed out, a wistful look crossing onto her face.
"I take it from your polite nickname you're not close to your parents?" She just shook her head, refusing to meet his eyes. He frowned, pissed that he'd somehow gotten her to stop talking already.
"Hey, do you want to go the lake?" He blurted out, desperate to get her to start talking again, and remembering she'd mentioned not wanting to go home. "I've got some beers in the back. There's not much else to do here."
Two hours later, Luke realized he'd probably never need to worry about her not talking ever again. He'd driven them to the lake, and they sat in the back of his truck, a beer dangling from each of their hands. Once she'd had half of the beer Luke had stolen from his Dad, she started talking about god knows what and she hadn't stopped since. She weaved form topic to topic, going from the history test she'd had yesterday to how much she hated President Reagan, briefly mentioning her ex Christopher (Luke's ears had perked up on that on. From what he quickly gathered, he was an ass, and Lorelai was well aware), to quizzing Luke about his love life. He'd reluctantly mentioned Rachel, or at least the genuine concept of Rachel. He saw no reason to go into detail with Lorelai looking at him like she currently was. Lorelai quickly took it in stride, jumping to the Star Wars movie she'd just seen in theaters, and then bombarding Luke with questions about his Dad, and Liz, and baseball. Normally Luke would get far, far away from anyone who had spoken this many words without taking a breath in between, and would definitely run away from anyone who made him talk about himself this much. But, he found he didn't mind watching the way the moonlight reflected off her eyes as she was comparing him to her "favorite Luke, Luke Skywalker", and he definitely didn't mind the jealous spark he saw when he said Rachel's name. He liked it when she stopped in the middle of one of her stories for a brief second to brush a piece of her dark hair behind her ear, and he definitely liked it when she shivered in the middle of a sentence and scooted closer to him, grabbing his arm and wrapping it around her shoulders while never stopping the constant stream of words coming from her mouth.
"Hey Luke?" She asked, turning her head up towards his face, his arm still wrapped around her shoulder. She'd fallen silent a couple of minutes ago, and it had been silent as Luke tried to will up the courage to scoot a little closer and kiss her.
"Are you ever going to kiss me?" She asked, her face lighting up into that smile that caused Luke's stomach to turn itself into knots. He froze. He suddenly couldn't force his body to move the couple of inches forward, to kiss her like he'd kissed a fair amount of girls at Stars Hollow High. Her face suddenly went ashen, and she scooted away from him quickly.
"Oh, I uh, I'm sorry it's just with that most beautiful girl I'd ever seen comment and the we've been sitting here for the past couple of hours alone and you shared the beer you obviously took some trouble to get but I should've known you've been pretty quiet and you probably just couldn't get me to shut up long enough to take me home and once you realized you weren't going to score easy with me just because I'm a sophomore-" She was cut off as Luke gently cupped his hands to her face and pulled her face up towards his, brushing her lips for a gentle soft brush of the lips.
He drew back and looked at her nervously. She stared at him, shocked, and then quickly recovered. She grabbed his hand and pulled him back towards her.
"Why'd you stop?" She giggled as she crashed her lips back onto his. The kiss was more aggressive this time, as she passionately melded his lips with hers.
The kiss was more passionate this time, and she quickly deepened it, dragging his body closer to hers. Their tongues battled for what could have been seconds but really felt like blissful eternity. She pushed him onto his back, and he fell onto the back of the truck, her lips attaching itself to her ear. Luke had to stop the groan from escaping his lips as she worked his way down to his neck, and her hands slipped up the bottom of his flannel. Ignoring every nerve in his body that hadn't been ignited like this in months, he tried to focus on the fact that she was only a sophomore and that he'd only met her a matter of hours ago as he grabbed her hands and pulled them away. He pressed a quick kiss back onto her lips and pulled her onto his chest. She snuggled up onto his chest, the silence and beer and body heat lulling them into a sleepiness.
"Hey Luke?"
"Hmm?" He asked as he pressed a light kiss to the top of her head.
"I'm glad you followed me into the bathroom like a serial killer," She whispered as she closed her eyes and drifted off into a sleep.
An hour later, as the sun started to rise, Luke reluctantly shook Lorelai awake and they wordlessly got back into the truck. Luke drove with one hand, the other hand resting firmly on her thigh, as she half drifted off with her forehead resting on the window pane. He was afraid that if he let go, he'd never get the courage to touch her again.
"Are you sure your parents aren't going to be mad?" Luke looked over at her skeptically, as he pulled up in front of a massive house. He worried that he'd already ruined it by keeping her out until the sunrise. "I could come in and apologize if that'll make it easier for you."
Lorelai smiled at his thoughtfulness through her cloud of half sleep. He hadn't talked much during the night, but she'd already gotten the general idea of who he was in the short snippets of when he started talking about Liz and his Dad, and of how he'd stroked her hand as she dozed off on his chest. Confident, warm behind his grumpy, quiet exterior, always more concerned with the people he loved than himself. She hoped this wasn't a crazy thought, but she was hoping that maybe someday she would be added to that list.
"No. They thought that I was spending the night at Allison's tonight. Anyway, as long as I show up to the parties I'm supposed to in the dresses I'm supposed to, they don't normally care that much." His heart panged when he saw the soft, sad smile she gave at that.
"Ok. Well.." He trailed off, not wanting her to get out of the car, and trying to think of what to say to express what he was feeling, to make sure he'd get to see her again. She looked at him patiently, hoping he would ask to see her again. When he didn't, she sighed and plastered a fake smile on her face.
"Ok, Luke, well I had a really nice-"
"Wait Lorelai, I don't know if I made it clear enough, but I really want to see you again. I kind of want to see you a lot of agains. I mean, I don't really think I've ever felt this way about anyone before after such a short time, not even Rachel and she was my first and.." He started to ramble again. He'd never rambled once in his life, and here he was reduced to a blubbering idiot twice in front of her.
"Luke." She cut him off, her eyes lighting up with a real smile again. "I'd love to see you again."
He breathed a sigh of relief. She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. She opened up the truck door and disappeared into the early morning sunshine as Luke sat staring at her, wanting to cement every detail of this night in his mind before he drove back to Stars Hollow and woke up his Dad to recount every detail.