Chapter Ten
The afternoon of the auction was fast approaching. Lorelai and Rory were walking towards the gazebo where the auction was taking place. Lorelai smiled happily looking around at all the people who filled the square awaiting the auction. The turnout was fantastic this year. She grabbed Rory's basket and went and signed both baskets up. Then she came back and looked at Rory who looked a little frantic. "Don't worry, I'm sure Dean will get here. You'll have someone to bid on your basket."
"Yeah I know." Rory said sighing
"Aren't you excited?"
"I'm jumping up and down on the inside I swear." Rory said sarcastically while thinking and the whole time I'm jumping up and down I'm screaming get me the hell out of here.
"You know what's wonderful about this festival?"
"No what?" Rory asked as if she cared
"That it always falls on the day after trash day. Therefore, al the stuff that you forgot to throw out that you would normally be stuck with for another week, you can instead put in a pretty basket and auction off for charity."
Rory nodded. "That is wonderful." she said sarcasm dripping from her words
"Feeling the love radiating off of you today Ror. What's the problem?"
"Nothing. I'm just cranky I guess."
"Hey guys!" Lane said as she walked up
Lorelai noticed that Rory's mood picked up some. "Hey Lane. How's everything going?" Lorelai asked smiling and waving politely at Mrs. Kim
"Just fine if you consider the fact that my cousin is buying my basket." Lane said while groaning
"It could be worse." Rory said looking at Lane pointedly
"How do you figure?" Lorelai asked
"Her head could be on fire." Rory answered simply
xxxxxx
"Okay, I'm still at five, do I hear ten? Five going once, five going twice, sold to the young man for five dollars. You know what's's nice, you can put a couple of rolls of toilet paper in there and stick it someplace in the bathroom– decorative and convenient. Now this next one may not look like much..." Taylor droned up at the podium
"Mine." Rory said to no one in particular
"...but remember people– good things come in small packages." Taylor finished
"How badly does he want to be hosting a game show?" Lorelai said mockingly
"Hm, he can taste it." Lane answered
"Let's start the bidding at three dollars." Taylor said
"HEY!" Rory yelled slightly offended
"Five dollars" Dean said smiling at Rory
"Now that's the kind of bidding we want to hear today." Taylor said excitedly
"He's good, He's very good." Lorelai said approvingly
"Five dollars do I hear ten dollars." Taylor asked
"Ten dollars." came a voice from the back of the square.
Rory whipped around immediately and saw Jess. He smiled at her and she looked at him puzzled as to why he was bidding on her basket.
"Okay I have ten dollars. Do I have fifteen?"
"Twenty." Jess called out the whole time keeping eye contact with Rory
"Twenty dollars do I hear twenty five?"
"Thirty." Dean snapped
"Okay see you boys don't seem to understand the way this thing works." Taylor said trying to bring some of the attention back towards himself
"Forty dollars." Jess said still locked in on Rory
"Fifty dollars." Dean said watching as Rory's eyes moved between him and Jess repeatedly
"What's he doing Rory?" Lorelai snapped
"How should I know?" Rory snapped back
"It looks like he's trying to outbid Dean." Lane said stating the obvious
"I know that but why?" Lorelai asked still looking at Rory
"I don't know." Rory repeated
"Excuse me, have either of you noticed how tiny this thing is?" Taylor asked confused
"Seventy five." Jess said regaining Rory's attention
"Did you ask him to do this?"
"No! Why would I ask him to outbid Dean?" Rory snapped angrily
"So that you didn't have to spend the day with Dean." Lorelai stated
"Now we're not talking cents gentlemen we're talking dollars remember." Taylor pointed out
"Uh oh Dean's hesitating." Lorelai said pointing out the obvious
"Eighty." Dean said faltering a little
"He does not have eighty dollars to spend on that basket." Rory told them
"Eighty? Eight dollars?"
"Ninety." Jess said this time gaining Rory's attention and keeping it.
"Ninety dollars, is that correct?"
"You know I don't think he'll have to." Lorelai said reassuringly
"Okay, we've got ninety going once, ninety dollars going twice... sold to the nice hoodlum in the back for ninety dollars." Rory heard Taylor say
"I'm trying to think, uh, in what scenario this situation could be construed as a positive." Lorelai said to both Lane and Rory
"Well.." Lane asked
"Well, no one's head's on fire." Lorelai said calmly stealing Rory's excuse from earlier
"Dean looks mad." Lane said as she saw Dean storming towards Rory
"What the hell was that!" Dean yelled at Rory
"I have no idea." Rory said truthfully and calmly
"I'm not sure I believe that!"
"Well it wasn't planned or anything! I haven't spoken to Jess since we saw him in Doose's."
"Why would he do that Rory!" Dean demanded
"Maybe he just wanted to spend some time with her... maybe he was just hungry." Lane said trying to help
"Was I talking to you Lane!" Dean snapped
"Don't you dare yell at her!" Rory snapped back
"I'm sorry Lane, I'm just so made at Jess."
"Whatever it's fine. I'm gonna go David looks like he's ready to eat whatever Mama put in my basket. Call me later Ror." Lane said before walking off
"Bye." Rory called after her before turning around to face Dean again. "You have no right talking to her like that!"
"I said I was sorry!" Dean yelled
"Dean..."
"I'm gonna kill him!"
"He was probably just joking around."
"I don't care."
"Why would he do this Rory?"
"You keep asking me that question and I still don't have an answer for it."
"I gotta tell you this is probably the one insane town festival type thing I can get behind." Jess said as he walked over to Rory
"Glad you had fun." Dean said angrily
"Thanks." he said to Dean then turned to Rory, "So shall we?"
"Shall we what?" Dean said answering for her
"Shall we go." Jess said slowly
"She's not leaving with you."
"The person who buys the basket wins the company of the person who makes the basket for lunch." he points to the basket, "basket," then points to Rory, "basket maker," then points to Dean, "guy who didn't bring enough money."
Dean looks over at Rory pleadingly. "Rory."
"I have to have lunch with Jess Dean."
"Rory..."
"I'll call you afterward."
"I had the whole day planned out."
"Should have brought more money then." Jess said snidely
"If you don't shut your mouth..."
"Dean stop. The rules are he buys the basket he gets lunch with the basket maker. He just paid ninety dollars to eat a meal with me. Now I have to go, but like I said I'll call you afterwards, immediately afterwards. The second he's out of sight afterwards. It's for charity Dean."
"And they already have the money Rory so let's just go."
"I can't."
"Are you ready to go Ror?"
"No she's not." Dean answered for her again
"I'm sorry when I really want to talk to Rory should I call her Dean instead?" Jess snapped
"It's fine Jess let's go."Rory said pulling Jess away and walking away from Dean
"RORY!" Dean yelled
"I'll call you later."
xxxxxx
Rory shoved Jess hard. "Why would you do that!"
"Antagonizing Dean is fun."
"Jess..."
"I overheard you freaking out upstairs the other day with Lane about this whole thing. You said you didn't want to spend the day alone with Dean. I solved your problem, now let's go get a pizza." Jess said smiling knowing that she wasn't really mad
Rory pouted. "But what about my basket?"
"No chance in hell Gilmore. No chance in hell."
"Don't think that I've forgotten you were eavesdropping on my conversation with Lane."
"I'm sorry about that. You wanna push me in the lake? It's cathartic I hear." Jess said pointing to the lake that Luke pushed him in
"Maybe in a little while." Rory said smiling.
Rory walks ahead of Jess and something falling from her wrist catches his attention. He reaches down and picks it up and smiles when he sees it's the bracelet Dean made for her. He swiftly puts it in his pocket and then jogs to catch up to her.
xxxxxx
"I'm home!" Rory called out as she entered the house hours later
"Kitchen." Lorelai said loudly
"Hey." Rory said walking in and sitting down at the table
"Hey."
"So who ended up with your basket?"
"Mrs. Patty tried to sell me."
"Again?"
"Yup so I suckered Luke into it."
"How'd you swing that?" Rory asked impressed
"I'm extremely convincing..." at Rory's unsure look she added, "ok ok I begged."
"Sounds about right."
"So what'd you and Jess do?"
"We got a pizza and went to the bookstore."
"Dean called."
"Oh."
"Six times..." she added and then when Rory looked like she didn't care she also added, "You know you were only promised to Jess for lunch. Trips to the bookstore weren't included."
"I like the bookstore, so does Jess. It's next to the pizza. What's the big deal?" Rory asked defensively
"You don't seem to angry at Jess for causing a fight between you and Dean." Lorelai stated
"Mom."
"In fact you seem relieved. You even seemed relieved out there earlier."
"Mom."
"Almost like it was planned."
"It was not planned. I'm so tired of saying that! How many times do I have to tell people that it wasn't planned?"
"As many times as it takes to make me believe you."
"Don't believe me. I don't care! I'm going to my room."
"What's going on with you kid!" Lorelai yelled following her into her room
"Nothing!"
"I don't believe you. You've been flipping back and forth between happy, sad, and angry all month. I need you to tell me what's going on Ror. I can't help you fix it if I don't know what I'm fixing."
"There is nothing for you to fix. You couldn't fix this if you wanted to."
"Are you pregnant!"
"Are you insane?" Rory snapped
"I had weird mood swings when I was pregnant."
"I'm not pregnant! I've never even had sex! And unless I completely forgot I wasn't involved in an immaculate conception. I'm the Chilton Mar..." Rory said stopping herself from finishing the word Mary. Her eyes immediately filed with tears that began running down her cheeks.
Seeing Rory break broke Lorelai's heart. "Ror..." she said softly barely about a whisper
"Just get out." Rory said slamming the door behind Lorelai and curling into a ball on her bed, where she proceeded to cry until she passed out from exhaustion.
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