Chapter 11:
SKIP TO DECEMBER
The weeks went by quickly for Rory. She was caught up in a whirlwind of activities. School was getting harder; the stress of going to college the very next year was taking its toll. But despite her stress, Rory was happy. She had all the friends she could ever want, and she had Logan. Everything with him was perfect, but not boring like things were with Dean. They never fought, but they had heated debates over seemingly nothing important. He was constantly surprising her with a fancy dinner for no reason, or a random appearance at her door with a bouquet of flowers. She knew she was being spoiled, but she loved it, all the same.
Lorelai and Luke maintained their friends status. She continued to convince herself that this is what she wanted. Things at the inn were going by smoothly, with surprisingly minimal problems with Michel and Sookie. Sookie had recently discovered that she was pregnant, and due in May. Everything seemed to be going perfect.
If only it could've stayed that way.
It was Saturday night, and Logan was dropping Rory off after their date.
"Night, Ace. I won't see you tomorrow because my father wants me to shadow him at work, but I'll pick you up for school on Monday.
"Ok. Have fun tomorrow," she said.
"Your sarcasm is not appreciated," Logan said, leaning down and giving her a soft kiss.
"See ya Monday," Rory said, smiling and stepping out of the car.
Rory had a busy Sunday ahead of her. She woke up and headed to Weston's, where she was eating breakfast with the Chilton girls. Lately she hadn't had any quality girl time, so it was nice to hang out with Stephanie, Juliet, Rosemary, and Paris without the guys for once.
When she arrived, Paris, Stephanie, and Juliet were already sitting down.
"Hey, guys!" she said, pulling up a chair.
"Hey, Rory," Steph responded. "Rose called, she's on her way."
"K," Rory said, pulling out a menu and glancing at it briefly.
Rosemary soon arrived and breakfast passed by quickly. When they were done, Rory rushed home to try to make some head-way on her rapidly growing pile of homework. At 1:00, she met Jess for lunch and the two went book shopping for what was supposed to be just an hour, but somehow became four. By the time she got home, it was 5:30, and she was starving. She met her mom for dinner at Luke's. When they arrived, Liz and TJ ran up to them, Jess trailing behind, shaking his head furiously back and forth and waving his arms around wildly,
"Lorelai, Rory! Good! I was hoping to run into you. Last night, TJ proposed!" Liz said excitedly.
"Wow!" Lorelai said, getting up to hug her.
"Yeah, I know! Wow! And listen, I was wondering if the two of you would like to be bridesmaids?" Liz said, for once unsure of her self.
"Of course!" Rory responded, also giving Liz a hug.
"We'd love to, Liz!" Lorelai said, grinning from ear to ear. Rory looked behind the newly engaged blonde and rolled her eyes. Jess was sitting at a stool, making a big show of banging his head against the counter.
When dinner was over, Lorelai and Rory went home and watched a movie before drifting off.
Logan pulled up in front of the Gilmore's house and waited patiently for Rory to arrive. He had something he really needed to tell her, but he wasn't sure how to start.
"Hey, sorry I couldn't find my shoe," Rory said, smiling. She slid into the passenger seat and gave Logan a small peck on the lips.
"Hey," Logan said shortly.
Rory immediately knew something wasn't right.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
Logan attempted a weak smile. "Um… how about I come over after school and I'll tell you."
"Is it something your dad did?" Rory said, remembering the way Logan had spent his Sunday.
"Um… yeah, I'll tell you all about it tonight, I just really don't want to talk about it yet," he said.
Rory was shocked. His expression was falsely nonchalant, but she could see pain and regret etched into every feature. She reluctantly respected his wishes and didn't broach the subject for the rest of the school day.
The school day was fairly boring; only one exciting event took place. Juliet had informed Rory that the previous night, Tristan had said that he loved her. She was very happy about his declaration. Rory was happy for her friend, but she suddenly realized that she and Logan were now the only couple that hadn't made this step. Did she love him? She didn't know, exactly. She did know that when she had told Dean that she loved him, something had felt wrong. She didn't want things to be weird between her and Logan. It had never even crossed her mind that any moment with him could be awkward, but all through the day, their time together was dripping with a tension, and a sense of foreboding about what lay ahead for the two of them.
The moment they arrived at Rory's house and had settled themselves on the couch, Rory started.
"What's going on?" she asked. Logan stared straight ahead, not moving. He gave no sign he had even heard her speak. "Logan? Come on, you're scaring me," Rory said. She was scared of this silence that filled the room thickly. All sorts of things ran through her head, but one thought stood out against the others: Was he about to break up with her?
Logan sighed deeply.
"I-" he started, and then he closed his eyes and breathed in and out a few times before bringing his gaze up to Rory's. "I'm moving."
Rory stared at him in shock. Whatever she had been suspecting, it definitely wasn't this.
"Moving?" she said. "Moving- where? When? Why?" she asked, trying to form a longer sentence but failing miserably.
"Seattle. This Friday. And I have no freaking idea why," Logan said, his breathing getting shallower as he struggled to stop himself from tearing up.
"Wait- you are moving- this Friday- to Seattle? As in, Washington State, all the way across the country?" Rory screeched, her voice sliding up two octaves.
Logan could only manage a nod.
"But- I mean- how- how could Mitchum do this to you?"
"It was just as much my mother's idea as it was my dad's. They claim that they want me to spend my last semester of high school in a different environment. They think that maybe if I get away from Colin and Finn, I'll become more serious about my school work."
"But what they mean is: maybe if they take you away from me, they can still set you up with Bambi McBimbo and marry you off into a respectable family," Rory said, hatred for Logan's family bubbling up inside of her.
"Yup," Logan said, simply.
Rory just stared at him for a few seconds and she suddenly became aware that there were tears streaming freely down her cheeks. Logan scooted over on the couch so he was right next to her, brushing the tears away with his thumbs and kissing her lightly.
"Ace, I.." Logan trailed off, sighing and kissing her again. Something was different about this kiss. It was full of passion, but it seemed to be desperate, and almost bitter-sweet in the sense that they were both hyper-aware that come Friday, they didn't know when they'd have this chance again.
The rest of the week was spent in a sort of trance-like state of shock. Both of them spent every second that they possibly good together, but they held off on the inevitable discussion until the last possible second. When school ended on Friday, Rory went with Logan to his house so he could make sure he had everything packed. She decided she wasn't going to go to the airport, but rather get a taxi to drive her home straight from Logan's. Both had been doing a lot of thinking, but Rory's conclusion would be the one to destroy everything they had worked so hard to build.
Friday afternoon saw Lorelai Gilmore walking into Luke's diner alone. Rory wouldn't be home until later, due to the fact that she was with Logan, saying goodbye to Logan before he left for Seattle. She walked through the door and froze. Luke was walking around, ten times more grumpy that usual. He slammed stuff down on the tables, barked at customers, and stomped around loudly.
"Here," he said gruffly, forcefully setting down a cup of coffee and a muffin on the counter for Lorelai before she even opened her mouth.
"Uh…" Lorelai said. "Luke? Wanna tell me what's going on?" she said, slightly hesitant.
"What? Nothing's going on," Luke said, very unconvincingly.
"Ha. Nice try. What is it?" Lorelai said.
"Nicole…" he started. "She was cheating on me."
Lorelai was shocked into silence.
"I- I had a bunch of really early deliveries this week, so I had been staying upstairs, and then last night I was going to stay here again, but the delivery was cancelled, so I went back to our place, and there's this other car parked in the driveway- and I go inside and up to our room and walk in on them- uh, you know.." Luke trailed off. He was talking a lot, uncharacteristically.
"Oh, Luke… I'm so, so sorry," Lorelai didn't know what to do in this situation. She wanted to help, but she didn't know what to do.
Rory and Logan piled the last of the stuff into the back of the limo that would be taking Logan to the airport.
"We'll- we'll write, a-and talk on the phone. I'll call you the second I get in. We can make this work," Logan said, pain evident in his gaze.
Rory took a deep breath and averted her eyes. She couldn't look into his pools of chocolate brown by speaking the next words. "I'm sorry Logan, I can't."
She had cried the entire way home from Logan's. The taxi driver drove the entire way with creased eye brows, but decided it was best not to pry in the young lady's life. Rory replayed the conversation with Logan in her head again, torturing herself with the memory of his shocked and hurt expression. But she deserved it. She was a terrible person.
"I'm sorry, Logan. I can't."
"What do you mean?" Logan asked, his eyes widening.
"Long distance. It isn't going to work for me. It's best if we just… end this now," Rory said, choking down sobs.
"Rory- no, you can't be serious," Logan had said, putting his hands on her shoulders and forcing her to look at him. "I won't let you do this."
"Logan, if we let this go on, it's going to end badly," she had said.
"It's only one semester, and then maybe I can talk my dad into-" he was cut off.
"Yeah, maybe. That's what our entire relationship would be. Maybes. Maybe I can visit next week. Maybe I'll talk to you later. Maybe you'll come home after high school. For all we know, your dad could ship you off to some foreign country for college, and we'll never see each other again!" Rory said, all her fears spilling out at once.
"Rory, please," Logan said, growing desperate.
"It would hurt too much," Rory said, whispering.
"And what about this? This isn't hurting you? Because it's killing me," Logan said, his voice cracking.
"I-I'm sorry, I have to go," Rory said, stepping away and running out to the street. She pulled out her cell and dialed a cab company.
Logan stared after her, still in a state of shock.
"You ready, son?" his father's hand on his shoulder pulled him out of his trance. He pulled away angrily and got into the limo. This was all his dad's fault, after all.
Lorelai had stayed with Luke for awhile at the diner. Business had slowed down and the two had stayed together for almost and hour. Lorelai didn't talk much, she just listened and tried her best to comfort the man who was obviously very upset. He was shockingly more mad at himself than at Nicole.
"What was I thinking? I had only been seeing her a month, and then I move in with her? I shouldn't have done that."
"Luke…" Lorelai struggled for words. "I don't know what to say to make this better. I wish I could help you." she was feeling the strain of today on her shoulders. If only she knew what she had coming.
Rory had asked the cab driver to drop her at the edge of town. The walk back to her house was a good half hour from that point, and although she usually didn't like exercise, she really needed to clear her head to keep herself from thinking about the terrible day she had just had. But that proved impossible, and she found herself thinking about Logan and all the times the two had had together, starting before they were together, and ending with the more recent, painful memories. This was the right thing to do. She tried to convince herself that ending her relationship with him was really for the best. It had been a little over three amazing months, but it couldn't go on if he wasn't going to be around. But if this was the right way to go, why did it hurt so badly? At least it was winter break now, so she had a whole two weeks to wallow before having to head back to school.
"Rory?" a voice called from somewhere behind her. She really didn't want to talk, but she knew it would be rude to ignore whoever it was calling for her. She turned around and came face to face with Dean Forrester.
"Rory, I'm so glad I found you," he said, smiling. Rory glared.
"What do you want, Dean?" she was in no mood to handle her cheating ex-boyfriend.
"I really need to show you something. And I really want to talk," he said, his eyes pleading with her.
Rory rolled her eyes. "Sorry, I'm kind of busy at the moment," she said, pushing past him and continuing her walk home.
"Please, it will only take a second," he said, catching up to her and keeping pace. Rory sighed. Dean could be persistent, and she knew he wouldn't give up until he got what he wanted.
"Fine," she said, grumpily.
"Great, come with me," he said, pulling roughly on her arm and dragging her to his car, which was parked in the parking lot outside of Doose's.
"Dean? Where are we going?" she asked, confused.
"It's too far to walk," he said, opening the door to his rusty truck and stuffing her in, shutting it quickly.
He walked around to the other side and got in, pulling out of the driveway quickly, and driving off, away from the center of town.
Something wasn't right, Rory realized. Something was wrong with him. She couldn't quite place it. It came to her just as they were exiting Stars Hollow and turning on a dirt side-road. His eyes were bleary and he swerved as he drove along. He had been drinking. Suddenly, she was very afraid.
"Dean, pull over, let me out," she said, loudly.
"No, I can't let you go," Dean said, his voice desperate.
"Dean, you shouldn't be driving. What were you thinking?" Rory said, freaking out and pulling out her cell phone. She didn't know who to call though.
She turned to face him, and saw that he was staring at her intently, not at all focused on the road.
"Look out!" she called, turning back to the front of the car just in time to see the small ditch and huge tree they were careening toward.
Then everything went black.
�A/N: Mwahahahaha I know I'm mean. Ten reviews!