A whatever life; Cinderella Story.

Lorelai stared off at nothing in particular as A Cinderella Story played in the background. Luke was next to her in the couch with his arm around her and had long since dozed off to sleep-a place Lorelai was having trouble getting to.

All she could think of was the movie and of another Cinderella Story-one that hadn't ended up so well.

How many times had she repeated the same line the movie was known for to her daughter?

She remembered clearly the first time they'd seen this together. It'd been before Rory went to Chilton. Lorelai had rented it hoping it'd give them both the reassurance they needed.

Even thought deep down she knew it was ridiculous Lorelai couldn't help but blame herself. She felt as thought she had thrown Rory to the lions without preparing her properly. The fact that her daughter had let that pompous jackass Mitchum Hunztburger walk all over her rested solely on her shoulders.

She felt tears burn her eyes once again.

How had she messed up so badly?

Paul Anka sensing his master's distress whimpered. Lorelai lost concentration on keeping her eyes as wide as possible and before she could do anything to stop it the tears rolled down her shirt and onto Luke's shirt.

Before he could wake up and ask her what was wrong she buried her face in his chest. She didn't want to answer questions right now she just wanted to forget. Forget how hurt and frustrated she felt. How guilty she felt for failing her daughter and for making Luke wait.

She felt Luke's hand go trough her hair. Feeling comforted Lorelai took a shaky breath and snuggled closer taking in the smell of coffee and flannel that she'd come to associate with Luke.

He kissed the side of her head and resumed t stroking her hair and Lorelai found herself falling asleep.

At Hartford unknown to her mother Rory had been watching the very same movie. She was now staring at the blank TV.

Hadn't she watched the movie so that she'd forget about her family drama for at least ne night?

Instead the movie had left her mother's words from so many nights before, engraved into her brain-thanks to Samantha's father and Samantha herself.

But she was not like Samantha. She wasn't. There were many differences between their situations-aside from the obvious one which Rory didn't even want to acknowledge.

For instance Samantha had gone to Princeton she'd gone to Yale….

Well, she was sure there were more.

As she drifted off to sleep Rory tried to focus on that thought alone instead of the line that threatened to haunt her forever.

Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.