When the Stars Go Blue

Ch. 5

Rory tapped her foot very impatiently while she stared at the cute bartender.

"Why's your boyfriend flirting with another woman?"

She narrowed her eyes on the man, frowning. "One: He's not my boyfriend, and Two: He's not flirting."

"He sure is staring at her breasts, though." The man commented, himself staring at her rack. "Can't blame him. If a woman like that was throwing herself at me, I would jump her in public. What do you mean he's not your boyfriend?"

"Just because he came into the pub with me at hand doesn't mean that he can go and flirt with someone else, apparently." She muttered, eyeing Jess across the room. She sighed, and took a gulp of her strong drink.

The man smirked. "You're hot, though. Why would he go after her?"

Rory smiled at him. "You're sweet, Pete. But, I would go more for a compliment like, 'You have beautiful eyes' or something. But, I guess I'm asking too much."

Pete neared his face to her's and looked at her, as if examining her eyes. "They are nice."

Rory chuckled. "Another Cosmo."

He nodded, and went to the back to go make her the drink.

Then, Louise went giggling and jumping over to Rory, with a guy holding her from behind. "Rory! My friend!" She then hugged her tightly, drunk. She could smell her breath from a mile away. "This is Drake…he's so hot, isn't he?"

Rory widened her eyes at her and smiled. "Sure."

"Well, I just talked to Madeline and she seemed to be going home with her guy. So, I guess I am too. Right, Drakie?" The guy smirked and nodded. Rory eyed the man nervously.

She leaned towards Louise, "How old is he?"

"No, he's mine!" She shrieked, "He already said he was going home with me. I just wanted to let you know. So, yeah, 'bye!" She hiccupped, and walked away, dancing, with her victim.

She sighed, and turned back to Pete, who now was flirting with a tall brunette that was sitting a couple seats down from her. But, she found her Cosmopolitan right in front of her, and for that she was grateful. She drank it down slowly, and turned to find Jess behind her. "Oh."

"Drinking, I see? I thought you didn't do that much."

Rory frowned, "God, you scared the crap out of me!"

"Oh, I see that the alcohol is starting to affect you?"

She shook her head, but she was admitting to herself that she was actually a little drunk in her mind. "I don't see why you would care. I see you like them nice and drunk…and chesty."

Jess shook his head at himself. "Nicole is an old school friend."

She giggled. "You have old school friends? You're not that old, Jessie. You've barely had a high school career. What? You met her when she was still flat, and that was probably only when she was three years old."

"Jessie?" He scoffed.

"It's better than freaking book boy."

Jess sighed, sitting down next to her. "How much have you drunk?"

"Not that much," She denied, "just a couple of drinks. Pete doesn't like a nice girl, with nice eyes to get drunk like I would like to right now. Pete's a nice guy, you know."

"You're on a first name basis with the bartender, that's a bad sign."

Rory rolled her eyes, taking a sip. "You were supposed to be my date."

"I know, I am. But, Nicole just took me and wouldn't stop talking. She has a squeaky voice. It's like talking to a mouse for half an hour. I wasn't having a good time, if that makes you feel better."

Rory looked at him from the side of her eye. "Slightly."

"Good. Now, can you look at me in the right way and then we can start on our real date?"

"You're such a jerk, you know. You can't just do that."

He smirked slightly. "What?"

"Charm yourself into my heart." She mumbled, "And yes, it worked. So, come on, let's dance."

Jess stepped back. "Whoa there. I don't dance."

"You have to."

"I don't actually have to do anything. Although, there is a beach in front of us. We could go walk."

"Are you trying to seduce me?" She asked, smirking.

Jess shrugged, "You're not looking for conversation, apparently."

Rory smiled, hopping off the stool. She took Jess' hands, and they both walked out of the pub together. Once they stepped outside, all they could hear was a couple making out against the wall beside them, and the sound of the waves crashing together. The powerful smell of the salty sea hit their noses, as they crossed the little sidewalk-sand thing that the owner of the restaurant/pub had created leading to the beach.

Rory hopped on one foot, taking off her heels, and carrying them in her hands. "I'll be able to feel the sand between my toes. It's the best feeling in the world. Take off those heavy shoes and join me."

Jess looked at her, to see if she was serious, and when she nodded, he sat down in an abandoned and sandy chair, and took off his black shoes. When he finally removed his socks, he sighed. "What do I do with them?"

Rory smiled evilly. "Throw them." She then, threw them out into the open, where they landed with a soft thud.

"Are you insane? What if someone takes them? We'll never be able to get them back."

She frowned. "Okay, I don't like the logical you. Now, get a flask and join me in my happy drunkery."

Jess raised his brows at this, but then lunged the shoes far away from there. Then, surprising Rory, he took out a flask from his pocket. Taking a swig from it, he cringed. "What the hell does Parker drink?"

"I don't know. But, I'm guessing that it's strong." She smiled at him, taking his hand. "Walk." They moved farther into the beach, walking beside the beautiful waves and the scenery, enjoying the company. "So, tell me something about yourself."

"Like…?"

She smirked. "What's your last name?"

"Jess Mariano. Nice to meet you." He reached out to shake her hand, which she, smiling, accepted. "And you are..?"

"Rory Gilmore." Rory chuckled. "I wonder if we're going to be left stranded on this beach. I'm sure everyone's going home with someone. And that means that someone's bound to take one of our car's."

"It wouldn't be that bad."

"What?"

"Being stranded on a beach with you."

Rory narrowed her eyes on his'. "Take it slow, buddy. I think I liked the cocky Jess better."

"Really? I thought that all girls liked the whole romantic, 'Aww, your cute' thing."

She smiled. "I'm not most girls."

He blinked, looking out into the beach. "Now, tell me something about you."

"Well, when I was little, I had this bizarre dream. You know, going out into a deserted island and just sit there and read. And that would be it, sit there in the sand and read the whole day. That would be my great fantasy. Because, well, let's just say that my house was a bit noisy to even read one sentence."

Jess nodded, looking back at her. "So, did you bring a book?"

"Strangely, yes. But, now that I have my fantasy right here in front of me, it's like I've grown up. And, maybe it was a good thing to be like that when you're young and hopeless. But, now, I guess I don't want to read on a beach."

He raised an eyebrow, "That doesn't make sense at all."

'Maybe I'm not making sense to myself right now.' She looked down.

Jess looked at the back of her neck that was exposed when she turned her head to look at the ocean. There were small dimples laying at the crook of her neck, and he couldn't help but want to loose himself there. 'I'd want to read in the beach right now. I understand the fantasy.'

Rory met his gaze again. 'I'm glad.'

Then, without even discussing it, they found themselves sitting on the beach, watching the waves crash into the beach noisily. Jess was laying on the sand, not caring if his hair even got a tiny bit of dirt into his hair, while he took swigs of his fun flask every now and then. Rory, however, was sitting, and watching everything around her, while Jess was watching her.

'I love it here.' She smiled, turning her head just to see his face as he watched the beach. He kept a straight face, but handed her the flask. 'No…thanks. I don't think I even should have drunk in the pub, and now that I'm a little non-drunker, than I can kind of think straight.'

He took a gulp of the flask. 'I hate thinking.'

'You hate thinking?'

'Yup. It's horrible, I mean, it just causes way too many problems.'

'I think thinking does the opposite.'

Jess shrugged. "No, because every time you think, someone else gets hurt when you weren't intending on it on the first place. Everyone always has the best intentions, but it never happens. Thinking is overrated."

"Someone had a bad childhood."

"You have no idea."

Rory chuckled, "I might have some."

They sat in silence for longer than Rory could bear to count in her head until he spoke, after taking a long drink out of his 'fun flask.'

"Do you want to go in?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Where?"

"The sea. Do you want to go into the beach?"

She looked around them, as if he was now the one that was crazy. She then looked out at the sea and sighed. She could barely see the black sky above her head, except for a few stars, how was she supposed to see where she was swimming? "Um, well, it's kind of dark. And…I have no bathing suit, you have no bathing suit."

"I know that."

"You're drunk. Did you know that?"

He smirked, "I'm not being smart. I just…please."

"Please?"

"Hey, I asked nicely."

"Jess, I'm not insane."

He rolled his eyes, "Says the lady who threw her shoes out into the open because she wanted to feel sand between her toes."

"I was drunk." She said reasonably.

"I'm drunk."

Rory sighed. "I'm not going into the beach with no clothes out into the night."

"Skinny dipping, then."

"Is this some crazy attempt to get me naked?"

Jess looked out into the open sea, unbuttoning his shirt while he did it. "I'm going in."

"Can you even swim?" She asked, looking at him as if he was crazy.

"I think so. Now, coming or not?"

Rory smiled at him. The beautiful smile that he hadn't seen much before. He just wanted to kiss her right there and then, which wasn't such a great place, because he was currently half naked and they were stranded on a beach. Or maybe it was the opposite…

While he was pondering this, he was subconsciously leaning in.

"Are you mental!" She yelled at him, her voice squeaking with fury. "Seriously. You are the most wishy-washy, most undecided, horny idiot that I have ever met."

Jess frowned.

"What do you think you were doing?" She huffed.

"Well, I could see what I wasn't doing."

Rory gave him the evil eye as he slipped off his pants, revealing green silky boxers underneath. Her breath stopped for a second, but then reality came back to her when he started slipping the actual boxers off. She hastily covered her eyes. "Okay, now you've gone mental. What are you doing?"

All she heard after that was a huge splash. She opened her eyes, assuming it was safe to look. She saw a shadowy figure lurking in the waters, screaming out in the coldness.

"Are you alright?" She yelled, concerned.

"Come on! The water's great!"

"Sure, and that was why you were screaming out in coldness when your crotch got iced."

She got no answer in return, and then saw no figure floating in the waters. She immediately went into a panic. "Jess! Jess?" She stood up from her resting place, and went towards the sea. "Jess! Come on, this isn't funny." Maybe it was the total anxiety or the horrible things that could be happening to him in that moment that made her remove all of her clothes and jump into the probably icy water.

When she got into the water, she went underwater, searching everywhere she could. She practically jumped into the air when she felt two hands snake around her waste. She screamed and turned to see Jess smirking at her, and leaning in once again.

It was probably because of all the non-characteristic Rory swearing that Jess didn't make it through the kiss without getting bruised. "You are such an idiot! Why would you even do such a thing? Trust me, I have met a lot of guys in my life but nobody has ever been such a disaster waiting to happen."

Jess rubbed his cheek from getting smacked. "You don't like getting kissed, do you?"

"It's not that! You tricked me into going skinny-dipping. You are probably being perverted and staring at me under water like a 13-year-old boy with hormones. You are not a kid, Jess. I'm sure you've seen loads of girls naked, fictional or non-fictional."

Jess narrowed his eyes at her. "Huh."

He felt as if her eyes were about to pop out. "Huh! Huh? That's what you say after you've completely humiliated me. Huh!"

"There's no one around, and it's too dark to see you naked. Huh is the correct answer here."

Rory crossed her arms around her chest. "You have problems."

"I know. My mom didn't breast feed me when I was a baby, I am now completely scarred and am obsessed with boobs ever since. What can I do?" Jess said sarcastically, which just earned him another smack. "I'm sorry, but why do you keep on smacking me?"

She huffed, "You deserve it."

They stood in silence, wet and mad. At least Rory was. She would peep at him from the corner of her eye every once in a while, to see if he was looking sorry, but he was just lounging around.

"Can we get out now?" She asked, shivering. "Sure, Fiji beaches might be okay in the day time, but I think that we're going to go all Jack and Rose on people. Except instead of drowning heroically, I'll murder you. Does that sound good?"

Jess smirked, "I'm not stopping you from getting out."

She sighed, finally letting her hands down from covering her chest, but sunk deeper into the beach so that he couldn't see anything. "What's stopping you from leaving?" He asked smartly.

She groaned. "I don't know. I don't know why I haven't just walked out of the beach."

"I think you're waiting for something to happen."

"Of course not. I hate you right now."

"Uh-huh."

"Stop being cocky, it's annoying." She muttered.

"I thought it was charming."

"If that's your best quality, I don't even want to see your bad ones…"

He sighed. "Fine, you want to call it truths?" He asked, pleading with his chocolate brown eyes that she had noticed all night. "I'm not going to plead, but I will try to be civil."

She let out a long sigh also, and moved a little closer. "Me too."

"Now, come on, you can't tell me your not enjoying the beach?"

She looked around at the beach and saw no waves around them anymore, it was kind of creepy. "I don't know. All the silence is getting me weirded out."

"I think it's a good change. I live in a house where there's fighting and crap being thrown around, maybe it's a good change."

"This is what you call a good change?"

"Maybe your house's not that bad because, well, you're obviously the princess in the picture, but everyone else's lives around you are not so fabulous."

Rory frowned, "You know nothing about my life. My parents aren't even together, my sister's perfect, and I don't even know about my brother. I'm not sure I even get noticed for anything unless I screw up. My mom's a psychopath."

"At least your parents are divorced."

"And how is that better?"

"Just trust me on this one," He looked at her, and he thought for a minute that he saw a little bit of understanding in her eyes. "How did we both go to Chilton and never meet?"

Rory smiled. "I don't know. We don't exactly befriend the same kind of people. Plus, we're a year apart. Sometimes I think that, well, we're so different it was amazing that we even met each other in this lifetime."

"Maybe." He said simply, nodding.

She moved closer to him, not disconnecting their gaze. It was not this huge romance, or love at first site. It was simple lust. Not even lust, attraction, or maybe what they were experiencing at that moment. Understanding. She stopped him from leaning in to kiss her again, frowning upon him.

He frowned, "What are you doing?"

She smiled, taking her salty wet hair out of the way, so, her blue eyes were clearly visible. "You've tried to kiss me a billion times tonight, you know. And I don't think it's good for your ego…even though it's rather inflated already."

"Not inflated, I don't even have an ego."

Rory rolled her eyes. "Sure. Anyways…" She brought up her finger to his lips.

"What are you doing?"

"Showing you what being kissed is like. Really being kissed. Nothing more than something innocent, the girl kisses the boy. Not because they want to get sex out of it, or because of the laws of attraction. But, just because they want to. And because there's a crush. A cute crush."

She placed her hand on his cheek and placed her lips on his', making him feel like it was impossible to move. Before he could deepen it, she moved away.

Rory blinked. "And now, Jess, I am going to remove myself from the water and call a taxi."

He tried to reach out to her, but she slyly pulled away.

"Just a crush, remember."

He smirked. "Huh."