At five am, her alarm sounded. Rory leapt out of bed, barely having been able to sleep in the first place. After four hours of sleep, she got out of bed and wandered to her closet. It only took her a few seconds before she decided that she didn't have anything in her closet that she wanted to wear.
Searching her floor, she found the clothes that she'd worn the day before and slipped them back on. After a quick dose of eyeliner and assorted other applications of make-up, she felt that she was ready. As she was just about to leave, she noticed that there was noise coming from the kitchen. Her mother was already awake? Cringing, she crept to her window.
"I'm sorry," she whispered to her mother, who wouldn't be able to hear her.
Crawling out of the window was not an easy mission in the shoes and the skirt. Nevertheless, she got out and crept out into the driveway. Seconds later, she heard a knock on her bedroom's door. Flinching, she carried on, pushing her mother from her mind.
The trip to the bus station was only a few minutes long, and she perched on the bench to wait for the early bus. Unfortunately, before the bus arrived, she noticed her mother's jeep coming around the corner. Another thread of panic, which was getting rather familiar, ran through her stomach. Looking around, she ducked behind a tree that was near the bench.
Her mother got out of the car beside Luke's and looked around, obviously checking for her. Just as she was about to start running, the bus came around the corner and towards the bus stop. She leaped to her feet and ran for the door, checking her mother's current status. Rory saw the frown on her mother's face, avoided eye contact and hid behind the arriving bus.
She saw her mom coming towards her and stumbled onto the bus the second the door opened.
"Look, I'll give you ten dollars if you leave… now," Rory told the bus driver. He shrugged and closed the door, almost peeling out of the lot.
Rory paid her toll, including his 'tip', and a ticket to New York, before drifting to the back and sitting down. She sat down and thought about what she was doing. Her mother probably saw her getting onto the bus, but there was always the chance that she thought she was going into Hartford… right. Frowning, she curled her legs up to her chest, which was quite the feat in the skirt.
Looking outside, she realized that she'd forgotten to bring a book. Instead, she proceeded to read the labels on the bus. After a few minutes, she'd read every single ad on the back of the bus and had to move forward so that she could read the rest of them. Barely half an hour later, she was at the front of the bus, reading the schedules and pondering if the bus driver had some sort of bus manual she could read.
"You look bored," the bus driver said, looking at her with his mirror.
"Yeah… well, I wasn't prepared for the trip," Rory stated, smiling at him.
"Any reason for the quick take-off?" he asked her, making conversation.
"My mom… I'm going to New York… she doesn't know," she stated, deciding that it wouldn't exactly hurt her to tell him, as he would never meet anyone from Stars Hollow, let alone her mother.
"Ah, we get a few of those. Running away from your problems doesn't always work, though," he told her, glancing at her in concern.
"Oh, I'm not running away, just meeting someone," she said, smiling at him.
"Okay, be careful. New York's a big place," the bus driver said with a small smile in her direction. It was obvious that he was used to having quite a few girls running away.
"Don't worry… I will," Rory stated with a firm nod, and went back to reading the signs for the second time. "Umm… hey, do you have something to read?"
Fortunately, the bus driver happened to have a newspaper, and then a bus-manual when she'd finished that. The trip passed a lot quicker when she was absorbed in her reading. After only a few minutes, she arrived and crawled out of the bus. Looking around, she got her bearings and headed off towards the direction that she believed was Washington Square Park.
After a few minutes, she found a subway station and figured that it would be the easiest way to get to the park. Locating the station, she got onto the train and got to a part of New York she actually recognized. After that, it didn't take her long to meander to the park. Unfortunately, Jess was no where in site. Checking her watch, she noted that she was over half an hour early. Shuffling, she located Jess's apartment on the horizon and headed towards it.
In her mind, she made sure to keep her navigational sense keen. Before long, she got to the dimly lit foyer that she recognized and found his door unlocked. Sighing, she looked at the stairs, and then at the elevator, before glancing back to the stairs again. Finally, she gave in to the fact that it was seven thirty in the morning and that she was too tired to go up stairs.
The second that she got into the elevator, however, she wanted to go back to the stairs. Stubborn to the core, however, she pressed the 'fifteen' button and traveled the rather long distance up to the fifteenth floor. The second that the doors were opened, she leapt out, deciding that elevators were evil. She looked around and located where his apartment was, it was the last one to the left. A corner suite, she decided.
When she lifted her hand to knock, the door fell open. She pressed it open further and walked into the apartment. There were clothes everywhere. It was like walking into a hurricane zone. Looking around, she located the only closed door and attempted to make her way to it while not touching as many of the clothes as she could manage. Stumbling the last few steps, after getting caught in a camouflage shirt, she pressed her ear against the door and heard what sounded like snoring on the other side.
Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, which she then regretted based on the stench of the apartment, she pressed open the door. Inside was Jess, dressed only in his boxers. Attempting to avert her eyes from his sleeping form, she walked along the edges of the room, where the clothes were less dense, before deciding that she didn't have much of a choice but to make her way to the bed. Reaching over the bed, she poked his shoulder and he jerked away from her, but didn't wake up.
"Jess? Jess, please wake up!" Rory whispered, reaching over and poking his shoulder again.
Her grumbled and further turned away from her. Sighing, she put a knee onto the bed and shoved his shoulder a little harder with her finger.
"Liz, stop it… Rory's coming over… I need to sleep," he mumbled in his sleep, but still didn't wake up.
"Jess!" Rory said at normal voice level, shoving him.
With her help, and his own turning away from her, Jess flew off the bed and hit the floor. She fell onto him with their combined momentum.
"What the hell?!" Jess shouted at the top of his lungs, grabbing Rory's shoulders and attempting to wake up.
"Jess!" Rory shouted, grabbing onto his arms and attempting to crawl off him, but he was holding her there.
"Rory?" he asked, blinking to get the sleep out of his eyes.
"Yes, it's me, it's eight!" she told him, squirming and attempting to get out of his hands, but they were a lot stronger than they looked.
"It's eight? Oh, right," he said, but didn't bother to move. He watched her from barely an inch away.
"Yeah…" Rory said. Her voice was a whisper as they closed the distance between them.
When they finally met in the middle, he let go of her arms in favor of wrapping them around her waist and she let her arms wrap around his neck. It was only after her hands started trailing up and down his back that she realized that he was still half naked.
"Jess, you need to get dressed," she told him between kisses.
"Clothes, right," he said, but they didn't stop.
After a few seconds, she finally broke away from him, pressing her hands against his chest and glanced up at his eyes. She leant forward, hesitantly, and kissed him lightly before pushing away again.
"Get dressed," she said, suddenly realizing that she was sitting on a boy's lap, who was wearing next to nothing… and that this was closer to any boy than she'd ever been before in her life.
"Okay," he told her with a nod and helped her off him before standing up and walking around his room, looking for clothes to wear.
"Umm, who's Liz?" she asked, realizing that he'd said a foreign female name; one that he was obviously close to, as she would poke him in his sleep. Was he seeing someone else too?
"She's my mom," he told her, looking over at her with a smirk.
"Oh, right, sure, mom," Rory said, instantly feeling a lot better.
"Uh… could you," Jess said, nodding towards the door and motioning at the clothes. At first she didn't realize what he was saying before her eyes widened and she stumbled over her feet again in her effort to get to the door.
"Sorry!" she said, averting her eyes and making her way into the kitchen.
Once there, she looked around. A loaf of molded bread, and a piece of stale cheese were lying on the counter. After a few seconds she went to the fridge and looked inside, hoping to get something for them to drink or eat. Unfortunately, all she found was more moldy food and a head of very slimy lettuce.
As she was about to poke something that looked like it 'might' have been good, Jess came out of his room. He was wearing the camouflage shirt that she'd tripped over, a black leather jacket and black pants. His hair was gelled like she'd first seen him and she smiled at him, nervous once more.
"Hey," he said, moving past her and closing the fridge.
"Hi," she said, noticing his instant effort at hiding his lack of food.
"Do you want to go somewhere for breakfast?" he asked her, avoiding her eyes.
"Sure," Rory said, grabbing one of his hands and squeezing it in encouragement.
"Okay, come on," he said, smiling at her and walking towards the door. He kept hold of her hand and looked at the elevator, which was still on their floor. "You took the elevator?"
Rory felt a sudden rush of giddiness when they continued holding hands after the moment was finished. When they got to the hallway, she noticed the smirk and the elevator. "Yeah… I'm never going on another elevator again," she told him, nodding a little bit.
"This place does that to people," he said, leading her towards the stairs.
They walked down them slowly, each seeming to revel in each other's presence. The fifteen floors past very slowly, and by the time they got to the third floor, they were kissing again, stumbling down the steps. When they finally got to the bottom floor, they broke away and Jess took her hand again, leading her out of the apartment.
"Where are we going?" Rory asked curiously.
"Just this place I know," he told her, smiling at her.
Rory nodded and decided that she wouldn't have really known about the place even if he'd told her. The walk was only a few minutes before they reached a strange looking German store. He opened the door for her and allowed her entrance.
"This is nice," she said, not really expecting such a place in New York. It was… cute.
"Yeah…" he said, leading her to the counter. "What do you want?"
"I don't know… coffee?" she suggested. After so many years of going to Luke's, she really didn't know what anywhere else served.
"Alright," he said with a nod and ordered two coffees and two plates of pancakes. "Their breakfast here is good."
"Good, great!" she said, before sitting down at the table nearest to the counter and looked up at him.
Jess turned and sat at the table as well. They looked at each other over the table and he grabbed one of her hands, twisting their fingers together. "I'm glad you came," he told her, giving the goofy smile that only happened when two people cared for each other.
"Yeah, so am I," she said, also giving him the 'goofy' smile before she realized that she had. The smile just didn't seam to want to go away. She looked away from him, trying to gather her wits, but held onto his hand tightly.
"But, Rory, what about… uh, your boyfriend?" he asked, and it was obvious to hear that this wasn't his favorite topic to bring up.
"Right… his name is Dean, but… I don't love him," she said, looking up at him with her large doe-eyes.
"So… why are you with him?" he asked, letting go of her hand and pulling his hands down into his lap.
The loss of contact almost seemed to hit her physically. She gathered herself, feeling suddenly very upset at the idea of losing Jess. She'd only known him for two days, but she was already craving hand-holding. Something told her that this was not a good sign.
"I-I-I don't know… I just… my mom, and the town… and they thought that we were together and that we were meant, so I just said 'yes' and I'm sorry, I didn't know if you were going to call," she told him, fumbling over all of her words.
"So, what? You're with him because people think you should be?" he asked her, frowning and eyeing her. "That doesn't seem like you."
"Well, we've only known each other a day… and you don't know that much about me, and yes," she said, flapping her arms and crossing them across her chest.
"Does your mom know you're here?" he asked, suddenly realizing this extreme flaw in the logic of the situation.
"No, she thinks I'm at a prayer rally in Hartford," Rory said guiltily.
"I guess that I wouldn't exactly be her ideal boyfriend," he said, his eyes downcast.
"It's just… she likes Dean, and she wanted me to be with him… and no, I don't think so," she said, trying not to offend him.
"Well, then I guess Dean works as a good decoy," he said with a smirk, and one of his hands reached over the table again, palm up as an offering to her. There was still something that told her that this wasn't finished yet, but for the moment, she would try to enjoy it until the explosion occurred.
"Yeah… decoy," she said, smiling at him and putting her hand in his, grasping it firmly.
Just as they were gazing and she was debating on another conversation topic, the pancakes were delivered. Neither of them ate for a few minutes, not wanting to let each other's hands go. Finally Rory took her hand out of his, hesitating, before grabbing her fork and digging into the pancakes. Even with their eating, their eyes were glued to one another's.
When they were finished, their hands intertwined again and they watched each other for a few minutes, before the waiter came and took their plates away, lying the bill down on the table.
"Right, let's go," Jess said, grabbing the bill and reaching for her wallet.
"Here," Rory said, reaching for her own wallet and handing him a few bills.
"No," he said with a smirk and went to pay the bill. He then returned to the table and put the tip on it. "Come on." He nodded towards the door and placed his hands in his pockets.
Rory nodded, watching him closely and rising when he suggested their leaving. She smiled at him and followed when he moved into the streets.
"So… you still don't like the subway?" he asked her with a smirk.
"It's fine… the subway's fine," she corrected.
"Okay," he said, then grabbed her hand and led her to the nearest subway entrance.
The train ride was made in silence, but their hands had already joined together again. He led her out of the train again and directly to the entrance of a Museum. She looked at him with a small smile, shock and excitement ran through her at the idea of seeing it, especially the idea of seeing it with him.
As they entered, he again forced her not to pay and paid the entire 'donation' himself, which was rather extreme, before proceeding to show her around. It was obvious that this was a pastime of his, as he knew pretty much every single inch of the ground. The entire trip took over three hours, which was perfectly fine with her. By the end of the trip, they were both doing the 'goofy' smile and Rory was almost skipping.
"So, you up for another trip?" Jess asked.
"Yeah, I'm here until eight," she said with a smile.
"Good, come on," he said, taking her hand again and diving, yet again, into a subway station.
The train took a few minutes to arrive and the two of them kissed each other breathless while it did. When they got in, there was only one seat left. Jess took it and sat Rory down on his lap. The make-out session then continued. One good thing about New York, she decided, was that no one gave a damn about two teenagers crawling over each other in the middle of a very, very public place.
When they got to their stop, Jess took her hand again and bumped her off him, then led her above ground to one of the largest buildings on the block. He took her inside and her mind was instantly blown by the amount of books that were on the shelves. Jess stopped to allow her to take it all in.
"You like it?" Jess asked, weaving their fingers together again.
"Wow," Rory said, pulling him along for once as she looked at all the covers. The best thing about the books were that most of them were older, this wasn't just some new bookstore, it was antiques, collector's books as well as modern ones.
"I take that as a 'yes'," he said, letting her hand go so that she could examine all the books.
With the sheer enormity of the shelves, it took them almost four hours to look through it all. By the end of it, Rory had a stack of about fifty books and was attempting to sort through them all. Jess had his own little stack, which he hauled over to her.
"What're you doing?" he asked her as she was making different piles.
"I'm sorting," she told him, debating over one of the books she held in her hands.
"Don't bother, just get them all," he told her with a shrug.
"I don't have money for all of these!" she told him, looking at him with wide eyes.
"It's alright, I'll pay for them," he told her with a shrug.
"You can't buy all of these! Besides, I can't get them home," she said, after realizing that he was serious.
"It's alright, I can buy them… and you can just take them home in trips," he told her, nodding towards the pile.
"Are you sure?" she asked him, her eyes blindingly wide.
"Yeah, come on," he said with his smirk and helped her haul the books over to the register.
"Ah, Mr. Mariano," the clerk said, and then looked at the girl, the stack of books and back to Jess again. "Quite the load you have here, but don't you have enough already?"
"Hey, yeah, this is Rory, she's… uh," he broke off, not really knowing what to call her.
"I'm his friend," Rory said, holding out her hand out to the clerk and shaking his.
"Friend?" the clerk said, looking between them.
"Yeah, friend," Jess said, his body jerked up and a hint of anger in his voice. "Just, ring them up."
"Sure, Jess," the guy said, dropping the topic.
"Jess?" Rory asked, noticing the change in his stature.
"Let's go," Jess said, handing the guy a rather large amount of money.
"Bye, Jess," the clerk said, bagging the last few books.
"Jess, please-," Rory started, but he shook his head and grabbed most of the books. There were about ten bags, he grabbed four in each hand and started towards the exit.
"Come on," he said, practically marching and not bothering to wait for her.
"Jess, wait, I need to talk to you," Rory said, grabbing the two bags of books and racing after him.
"Rory, let's just… get home," he told her, frustration obvious on his body.
"Okay," she said, her eyes were wide and begging with him not to be angry with her. He took one look at her and they entered into the subway again.
The trip home was made in silence. There was only one seat again, but he let her take it, standing beside her. When they arrived at his station, he picked up the bags again and led her to his house.
Rory was about to bring up the fact that he was hauling almost one hundred pounds of books, but she let it go. He didn't seem to be flinching under the weight. When they got to his apartment, she raced forward and held open the door for him. He stopped for a second, giving her a look before walking into the apartment building and to the stairs.
"Are you sure you don't want to take the elevator?" she asked him, stopping him before he got to the stairwell.
"Yes, that thing is a deathtrap," he said, his voice was snapping, but a smile actually snuck onto his face.
"Here, let me get the door," she said, opening the stairwell and holding the door for him.
Jess nodded, his face going back to passive, and then pushed past her and started up the stairs. Rory slid behind him, watching him in amazement as he made the trip. Fifteen floors, carrying one hundred pounds, and he didn't even break a sweat. Her mind started debating what it was he did that kept him so fit, maybe he dragged books home all the time? When they got to the top floor, she pushed past him again and opened the door, then followed him to his suite, where he put the bags down and unlocked the apartment.
"Aren't those heavy?" Rory asked him, motioning towards the bags.
"It's okay," he told her, picking them back up again and hauling them inside, where he placed them on one of the only places that wasn't slathered with his, or, she guessed, his mother's clothes. As he placed them down, he continued to not look at her, avoiding her completely as he shuffled into the kitchen.
"Jess, I'm sorry, I just… I don't know what to call… this," she told him, concerned and trying to make it better.
"Whatever," he told her, evading the topic like he seemed to do all the time.
"Please, look at me!" she told him, grabbing one of his hands and forcing him to turn to her.
"What?" he yelled at her and she dropped his hand, jerking away. "Maybe someone else would go for this… but I'm not going to play second. If you want me, then I want you and only you… not this other dick and not to be someone that you have to hide."
"I know, I just… I don't know what to do," Rory said, feeling her fragile relationship with him crumbling around the corners.
"Ditch him, Rory, and tell your mom about me," he told her, putting a hand on the side of her face.
"I can't… I just… I can't," she told him, begging him to understand. She put a hand over his on her cheek.
"Why?" he demanded sternly.
"Because, Jess… I'm going to Harvard, I'm going to Chilton, I'm dating a 'perfect' guy, and… you're… well," she said, looking around.
"Yeah, I'm white trash," he muttered, his hand falling off her cheek and to his side.
"You're not white trash, you're… you're smart and you read and you're… well, you're good looking and… and… please understand that she'd never understand. If I have Dean… at least then she won't follow me… because then I'd never be allowed here again, or she'd follow me… and I don't want her to follow me, because I want to be here with you, alone," she told him grabbing one of his hands again.
"Is that it?" he asked her, not yanking away.
"Yes," she told him, pulling on his hand to try to get her point across.
Jess nodded, looking back up at her again. "Okay," he said, pulling her to him and kissing her softly.
"Do you want something for dinner? We kinda skipped lunch," he asked her, a small smirk on his lips.
"Sure, dinner would be good," she replied, smiling hopefully and thankfully that he understood, or at least that he was trying to.
"Great, what do you like?" he asked her, dragging out what looked like an antique phone book.
"Uh… anything, what do you like?" she asked him, suddenly curious as to what his eating habits were. His kitchen looked like hers, and that probably meant that he ordered in a lot, which probably meant that he knew all the good places.
"How about Chinese?" he asked her, looking at her over his shoulder.
"Sure," she said with a smile, and then checked the time. She still had two hours to catch the bus so she could be home before her mother started to ask questions. Two hours would be enough time for dinner and to get to the bus stop.
After they ordered, they moved back into Jess's room, which he cleaned while she went into the washroom. There was now an obvious trail to the bed. When she got into his room, though, she learnt that said bed was actually a futon. They both sat down and he pulled her to him again. Almost instantly they dissolved into kisses with hands wandering everywhere.
Half an hour later, they were shocked apart by the sound of a knock on the door. The two of them rose together and stumbled to the door. Jess opened it to the deliveryman and grabbed the food. He tossed a couple of bills at him while he turned back to Rory and slammed the door shut. They then proceeded to the table, where they both sat on the same chair.
"This is going to be interesting," he said with a smirk, hauling the food onto the table.
"Yup," Rory said, kissing him quickly and they started sorting the food. Fortunately for him, seeing as how he had no idea if there were any forks in the kitchen, the restaurant had given them two plastic forks.
The dinner past quickly and soon they were back to stumbling down the stairs in an effort to get Rory to the bus station on time to get home. Fortunately, they didn't have to go on the subway, so they were able to run cheerfully through the streets, almost getting hit three or four times with their distraction in each other.
When they finally got to the bus stop, they both stumbled onto the bus and Jess shoved the fare into the driver's hands and crawled into the back with Rory. He broke the making out for a second to allow them to catch their breath.
"Rory, are you my girlfriend?" he asked her, kissing her neck.
"Yeah," she whispered to him, running her hands through his hair and making a mess out of the carefully-gelled structure.
"Good," he told her with a smile, and they proceeded to continue kissing her until they couldn't breathe anymore.
The two hours of the drive past in no time, at least she didn't have to read old newspapers and the manual for driving buses again. The thought was fleeting. Instead she was completely enthralled by Jess. He was driving her insane. When they reached the Hartford stop, she had to switch buses to take the bus back to Stars Hollow, and he had to go back to New York.
"Rory," he said, his voice seeming lower, gruffer.
"Yeah?" she asked, noticing the same gruffness in her voice.
"I-I… Y'know, I don't know. How about I come out here next week?" he asked her, kissing her softly again.
"Sure," she said, and he turned away to go back onto the bus. She suddenly felt the need to tell him something important. "Jess, wait!"
"Yeah?" he asked, turning around to face her again, a little bit of, for lack of better word, hope shining in his eyes.
"I-I… well… I'll meet you here. Call me, okay?" she asked him, smiling sadly at her inability to convey what she was feeling at that moment.
"Yeah, I'll call you," he told her, moving towards her once more and kissing her breathless before running back to catch the bus as it was about to leave.
Rory followed suit, moving to the Stars Hollow bus that had just arrived. She watched the New York bus until she couldn't make out Jess's face in the back window anymore and walked into her bus. It was only then that she realized that she'd left all of her books at Jess's house. She sighed, frustrated with herself and his ability to drive all other thoughts from her mind.
At the end of the half an hour bus trip, she hopped off to find Lane hiding behind a park bench. Rory frowned and looked around for why she would be hiding; she found it in the shape of a jeep parked by Luke's. Ever-so-stealthily, she crept off in such a way that she wasn't in view of the diner and Lane rushed to her side.
"Rory, thank God you're home!" she said, and hugged her friend closely. "She almost caught me, she came to the store!"
"Oh my God, what happened?" Rory asked, concern lacing her voice.
"I told Mama that it was no one and I distracted her until she went away," Lane told her, the panic of the incident still obvious in her voice.
"But she didn't find out?" Rory asked, suddenly finding that, if she wasn't able to see Jess, she would probably freak out.
For some reason, in two days, Jess had managed to do what Dean hadn't been able to do in three months. She really cared for him, and there was even the possibility of loving him. She cringed away from the word, however, thanks to the breakup between her and Dean over it.
"No, we got away," Lane told her, and then grabbed onto Rory's hands again. "Tell me, 'everything'."
Rory felt a huge amount of relief at the idea of Lane having gotten away and the two of them skulked off so that her mother wouldn't be able to see them as they made her way back to her house.
"Well, I got there and I had to go to his house to get him, and he was still sleeping… and he was in his boxers-," Rory began, but was abruptly cut off by a gasp from her friend.
"He was naked?!" Lane demanded.
"No, not naked… just… not fully clothed," Rory said, blushing a little bit and attempting to steer clear of the topic.
"Oh my God, that's amazing! Okay, so what did you do?" she demanded.
"We went out to breakfast and he took me to the Museum of Natural History… and then he took me to a bookstore and bought me books… and then we went back to his house and ate dinner, then he drove back here with me," Rory told her, smiling at the very memory of the day, even with the fight.
"What happened about Dean?" Lane asked with concern laced into her voice.
"He freaked out, but he understands and… well, we're okay. And Lane, I think I love him," she finished quickly, getting the words out as fast as she possibly could.
"You love him?!" Lane shrieked, and Rory made sure that no one was around. Seeing as how they were wandering on the outside of town, to avoid her mother, she was fairly certain that no one heard her, or at least they didn't know who was talking, or what about.
"Shh!" Rory hissed, continuing to check. "Yeah… I think I love him."
"But it's only been two days!" Lane reminded, but her happiness was still firm.
"I know… but I don't know what else to call it," she said, confused at her own emotions.
"What are you going to do with Dean?" Lane asked.
"I don't know, but Jess and I agreed that he's a good decoy, so that mom doesn't follow me to New York," Rory said with a very firm nod.
"So he's okay with you dating someone else?" Lane asked. It was obvious she was a bit disgusted with the idea.
"My mom wouldn't like him, Lane… I know she wouldn't. At least with Dean there, I can date Jess without people constantly questioning me," she said, very firmly gazing into her friend's eyes.
"Alright, okay, so you're dating two guys. It's a love triangle!" Lane said, again excited.
"I know," Rory said, although she wasn't at all happy about being in a love triangle. She wanted one guy, and she was pretty sure he was Jess.
When they got to her house, she snuck forward and saw her mother wasn't home yet. Sighing with relief, her and Lane made it onto the front porch.
"Thank you," Rory said, hugging her friend tightly and smiling before unlocking the door and saying her goodbyes. There was one more outburst about a love triangle, which Rory quickly shushed, scared of the neighbours, which was thanks to Babette living right next door.
"Goodnight!" Rory half-whispered. Lane then disappeared back into the bushes, so that she could get home without giving her mother notice about her absence.
When Rory trailed back into her room, the first thing she did was change into her PJs and hide the clothes so that her mother wouldn't find them before she washed them. For some reason, she was almost positive that New York had its own specific smell and that her mother would probably recognize it.
Sighing, she sat back down on her bed and looked out of the window. When headlights appeared on the street, she turned off her lights and crawled into bed. A few minutes later she heard her mother enter her room, but she pretended to be asleep and ignored her. She was too excited and terrified of this thing with Jess to talk to her mother. She would probably just spill everything and ruin it all.
Thankfully she left and Rory shuffled so that she was on her back, staring up at the ceiling. Now she wished that she had one of those books, maybe they would at least get her mind off of him. Unfortunately, thanks to her mind being firmly locked on him all day, they'd both forgotten them. Sighing, she closed her eyes and felt sleep tugging on the edge of her consciousness. Giving into it, she found that she couldn't escape Jess in her sleep either, as he was right there in her dreams.
The next morning she woke up with a start and heard her mom shuffling about outside her room again. She looked over at the clock to see the time, six o'clock. Not her ideal time to be awake. Sighing, she crawled out of her bed as quietly as possible and opened her door a crack to see her mom sitting at the table, drinking coffee, obviously waiting for her to get out. Taking a breath and closing her eyes, she silently got dressed and hopped out her window again.
"Are you really going to do this all summer?" she asked herself, and then she saw Dean driving up, and decided that it the answer to that question was a definite 'yes'. Dashing away, she managed to scoot into the bush behind her house just as Dean got to the porch. With more than a little bit of guilt, she made her way to Lane's house. At least she had 'one' person she could talk to.