Author's Note: Okay…after much planning, I think I have figured out where this is going. College applications are being a female dog, so updates may become sporadic and small so I apologize to my small audience. I typed this chapter up this week, and I dunno, it seemed like my writing was off. Anyways, I hope its not to corny or anything.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, and I took some dialogue from the let your baliakkas episode.
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"Logan, just stop…" Rory lightly removed her boyfriend's hand from her stomach. Two hours at Mike's Bar had gone by drudgingly slow and Logan was being a dick as usual. Colin and Finn did nothing to help the situation, except laugh at Logan's gestures. Their laughter was starting to give her a headache and the neon lights of the sign of the bar were starting to blind her.
"Okay, Ace…another round?" Logan pointed at her and raised his eyebrow suggestively. He had a drunken glow that Rory couldn't look away from; she was attracted and repulsed at the same time. She bit her lower lip as Colin and Finn looked anxiously awaiting their fate. Drunken grins plastered on their faces, like ventriloquist dolls on some antique stage. The room began to spin, lights blurring and flashing.
"Sure, go for it," she muttered. The boys let out a cheer and Logan motioned to the waitress, who immediately appeared out of nowhere with a platter full of glasses. Rory blinked hard and closed her eyes, losing herself in her own senses. She had only taken one shot. The alcohol in her system was not enough to cause this crumbling reality. Crying or screaming as loud as she could felt like the only way to relieve this…whatever it was. But she kept silent, watching her boyfriend and his friends waste the night away.
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Jess pulled the car to a stop across the street from the Gilmore mansion. At least, it looked like the Gilmore mansion. He couldn't remember what it had looked like from the last time he had been here. Only bits and snatches mixed with angry and hurt, broken trust. "You got it from a fight with Dean, didn't you? Don't lie to me, Jess…" Past conversations echoing against pale streetlights and broken moonlight.
He sighed and pressed his forehead against the steering wheel. What was he doing here? What was he trying to prove? Hell, he didn't even know if she was even home. Jess reached over to glove compartment and checked the creased, tattered map of Connecticut again. Yep, this was definitely rich grandparents' estate homes material. Here he was, without a plan, without any sense of the future. Reaching into his pocket for a cigarette, Jess settled into a seemingly comfortable position, waiting….for what? Retribution, a second chance, fate, destiny? "No," Jess whispered. He was waiting for her.
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Rory pulled the car to a stop in front of Logan's apartment just as Colin and Finn decided to attempt to jump out. Slamming on the breaks sent Logan, sprawling from the passenger seat into her lap as Colin tumbled out onto the street. "Whoa there, Speed Racer," Finn cracked as Colin began rolling around in the street laughing, "We're smashed. Treat us like toddlers, be our mother." Logan moaned and sat up rubbing his temples. With another high pitched giggle, Finn slid out of the car and stumbled to help Colin stand on his feet. "We'll bill you for child support, you two have a goodnight kiss for me and Colin." Logan squinted and attempted to face his girlfriend. He placed a hand on her shoulder.
"No; Logan, you're wasted, just go get some rest," Rory said, her limbs beginning to paralyze from her insomniac tendencies. He smiled and gazed at her questioning, raising an eyebrow. She ran a hand through her bangs, "Just go inside…" Logan leaned forward, pressing his mouth to hers. Rory jerked backwards at the wincing alcoholic aroma and hit her head on the window shield.
Logan quickly pulled her closer, "I'm so sorry…sorry." His speech was slurred, dripping out of his mouth spilling out into the car. She sighed, his face seemed so concerned about her. "You're just so…so fucking beautiful, sometimes…I just don't deserve you," he continued, tipping forward towards her before catching himself. Rory stared at his comment as Logan tripped out of her car towards his apartment. Oscar Wilde and Dorian Grey. Yale. Shattering mocha eyes. Things in boxes. Crossroads. Run away. I don't deserve you. No. NO. NO.
The deepest part of Jess she had every seen was when she had stolen his copy of Dorian Grey after he had outrageously been denying to her since when they first met. She had snuck up to Luke's apartment and searched the shelf until snatching from its stuffed place behind the stack of Hemingways. NO, why was she thinking about this? Snapping back to reality, she pushed the car into drive and sped off towards home, wherever that may be.
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Jess tensed slightly when the washing burn of headlights spilled into his comfortable dosing position. His head perked up and he became caught in the few seconds of sleep alertness, not knowing his identity. The car pulled past him and into the driveway. He thought he saw a flash of coffee brunette, but Jess was wise to illusions. It was all he had been chasing his entire life. Checking again, he made sure the car had pulled into the Gilmore driveway. The glow of the cigarette was starting to burn his fingers. He flicked it out the window and stumbling, pulled himself out of the car with his bag. Strolling towards the iron gates that looked like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had written about, Jess paused uncertain of the identity inside. He let out a sigh and pushed forward, his hands gripping the rough scared metal. It was her. She was caught off guard, attempting to grab something from inside her car. He slipped inside, an ally cat approaching cautiously. Rory leaned back, almost tripping, and turned.
Time froze into puddled seconds. Brown meeting blue. Russet meeting azure. Coffee meeting sky. Teasing, taunting, examining, probing, inquisitive, questioning eyes. Jess, she thought, the word spilling unconsciously into the air where it hung suspended between them. He forgot who he was, why he had come. All he could attempt was a grin, which melted her insides into hot glue.
"What are you doing here?" It was a question, polite, modest, not hostile in any way. Simply confusion and surprise mixed into lust and fascination. Jess shrugged, a simple gesture that Rory had missed in the last couple of years. She missed familiarity, cigarette smoke, leather jackets and books. Nostalgia gripped her chest as memories began ripping through her like ruffling pages. Rory caught herself in her knees and suddenly came surging back to reality, the rippling pond of silence. "Sorry, wow…it's just been a long time…"she muttered, her tongue feeling foreign in her mouth.
"Yeah," he spit out nervously. Goddamn it, why was he this nervous? It was Rory for Christ's sake. "I got a job…"Completely lost, Rory opened her mouth and then closed it. "Professional driveway skulker…" he continued.
Her mind snapped back, "Pays great?" She felt the illogical speech side of her brain that had been dormant kick in.
"Yeah, but the hours suck," he smirked. Rory smiled back, missing the wit that the two of them had spent long afternoons bantering back and forth. Snap back to reality. This was different, everything was different. She unconsciously tightened her fingers on her right wrist.
"What are you doing here?" She asked it again. His brain frantically searched for another sarcastic commentto throw back while the other half screamed of past memories and lackluster afternoons at the bridge.
Jess opened his mouth. "I have something to show you." He glanced up at the glaring windows of the house, staring at them like shrunken eye sockets. "Is there another place or time we could…" his voice trailed off.
"No," Rory grinned again, "No, um…my grandparents would probably hear us in the house, and uh…the pool house is being remodeled, but we could talk in there if you don't mind haphazardly hanging ceiling fans and the high you get from the paint imported from France, then sure…"
Jess smiled at her Gilmore rant. He had missed this more than he had ever thought. Them, he had missed them just being…Rory's smile settled into a complacent expression of happiness. She had never seen Jess just so….him…before. She felt the tightening of her chest as the nostalgia attacked her from every angle of her brain. They stood there, smiling like idiots, but for them it wasn't awkward, it was just them. "Yeah, I don't mind," his breath whispered, spilling words out onto the night air. Destiny…kismet. She stumbled awkwardly towards the pool house, attempting to keep her composure. She was excited for nothing, nothing had to happen. It was…Jess, her past. Her past that she had shut out for these months with D.A.R. and Logan. It could not be denied any longer. Shoving his hands in his jeans' pockets in a half-shrug, he ambled towards her gesturing into the backyard.
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Thanks for reading...reviews and advice on where to take this are encouraged and advocated by the gremlins that live in my computer...