Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls. ( If I did I would have chained Milo to a chair and never let him leave.)

It's heeeerrrreee! The second chapter is up! Finally!

Crooked Smile

Chapter 2 – Late Night Musings

Dinner that evening had been excruciating; Rory had refused to look at him all night, and it was all he could do to stop his eyes from focusing on her chest. It was incredibly hard in fact, especially considering her mother and Luke just wanted to ask him questions all night and he had to do his best to avoid them also. Was his journey okay? Did he like his room? Was the colour okay? Did he like being here? Did he need anything? Toothbrush, school books, underwear, or a long rope for him to hang himself with? On and on and on, it was never ending! He'd been shipped off to a place that looked as if it was twinned with Oz, without notice or his consent; what did they expect, cartwheels?! Rory locked herself in her room as soon as dinner finished. Lorelai tried to get her to stay and chat but said she didn't feel well and went straight to bed. Taking inspiration from this, Jess pretended to be tired from the move and went to bed also.

Which is where he was now, lying wide awake in his bed, listening to the deafening silence. There were no police cars driving by, or any cars for that matter. There were no people shouting in the street, or through the thin walls of his apartment building. He felt as if he was the last man on earth, left alone after some sort of nuclear explosion had taken place. He normally didn't mind solitude, but without evening dull buzzing of another human voice, he was finding it difficult not to scream out loud. Jess sat up in his bed and looked at the clock; eleven. Unbelievable. If he was back in New York, he would probably just be heading out. This was partly the reason for why he was sent to Stars Hollow, in the first place. Well, not that Liz ever really noticed when he wasn't around. When she was listing her reasons for sending him to Stars Hollow, he figured it was more, lucky guess work, on her part.

He got out of his bed, walked over to the window and opened his curtains. It was pitch black. With so few street lights he felt as if he had been sucked into a vortex while he'd been sleeping. He ruffled his hair in frustration. He was dying for a smoke! He was really only a casual smoker – he really just did it when his friends were around, or to piss off his mom – but tonight he felt as if that he didn't have one he was going to put his head threw a wall. He was going to sneak one after dinner, but he thought Lorelai might come looking for him. He wouldn't have cared if Luke had caught him but Lorelai scared him. Nobody could be that friendly without being on some sort of medication. He turned looked out of the window again. From the dark shapes he could make out, he realised that the back door was below his window. He figured if he started smoking out of his window, there was a chance that either, Lorelai would smell it or some freak of neighbour would still be up and see it – they looked like the type of people that owned night vision equipment. But if he crept downstairs and out of the back door he could probably get away with it. Normally, he wouldn't have cared if he got caught smoking or not, but he was too tired to deal with a lecture tonight.

He pulled a pack out of his duffel bag and then proceeded to creep out of the door, and down the hallway. When he got to the top of the stairs he paused. Did any of the stairs squeak? He decided to chance it, and quickly rushed down them. As he moved towards the kitchen, he paused slightly outside of Rory's bedroom door. It was weird. He'd never really given a girl he barley knew so much thought before. He shook his head, and proceeded into the kitchen and then out the backdoor. How quaint, he thought. Nobody even bothers to lock the doors here. He sat down on the step, and lit his first cigarette. He then took a long glorious drag. It was like taking his first breath after holding it for twenty four hours. He then leaned back against the door and sighed, looking out towards the complete blackness of the night. What had he done to get himself sent here? He then smirked, beside himself, at this thought. The question wasn't 'what had he done'! It was what hadn't he done? Drinking, fighting, stealing and meaningless sex was just what made up the average Friday night to him. Some would call it attention seeking; a desperate plea for some kind of acknowledgment that he was actually alive, from a mother that was too stoned to tell what day of the week it was. But Jess he knew that this would be pointless. Liz never cared about what he did, where he went or who with, she was just glad that he was out of her sight. No, Jess merely acted out because it didn't matter that he did, and it was more entertaining to live his life dangerously that as a boy scout. His mother had only sent him because she was tired of the police showing up at her door, particularly when one of her crack head boyfriends was in the house; though she may have claimed otherwise. He thought about earlier in the day, when his life was just the same as it ever was, and then she tells him she was sending him to live in Hicks Ville with an uncle whom he hadn't seen since he was six.

Flashback

It was nine o'clock in the morning, when he walked into his living room and found it completely covered in boxes. And his mother, sober for once, labeling them all.

"What the hell is all this?!"

"Moving boxes." His mother stated simply. He chuckled or rather snorted in mild disbelief.

"So which one of your coke head boyfriends are we moving in this week? Or, wait, haven't you quite decided yet, but just want to get a jump start on the packing anyway?" Now under normal circumstances this would have resulted in a random object being flung at his head but this day Liz had kept her cool, and ignored it.

"We're not moving."

"Okay- so what's with-?"

"We're not moving you are!"

"WHAT! YOU'RE KICKING ME OUT! Now, I know your maternal instincts aren't all that slipshod, no matter how much pot you smoked while you were pregnant with me! Tossing your only child out onto the street is just a tad bit callous, even for you!" He couldn't even look at her. He stormed across the room into the kitchen, and then pulled a beer out of the fridge. Liz followed him; trying her very best to remain calm.

"I'm not throwing you out onto the street. I'm sending you to Connecticut, to live with your uncle. I bought you a bus ticket, you leave in an hour. I want you to pack your duffel bag with the stuff you will need for the rest of the week, and I will send the rest of it to you by Friday. Now, go and pack!" She stood firmly in font of him, and stared at him right in the eyes, as if daring him to disobey her.

"You're actually serious?!" Her face didn't move, she just continued to stand and stare in front of him "Alright, but before I do could you at least tell me what prompted this little plan of yours. I mean is not as if I've been behaving any differently to how I normally am, I mean I've just been acting the same way I always do. It's never seemed to bother you before. No wait! Let me guess. You've got a new boyfriend who's all into religion, and he's trying to 'save' you from all the evils and wrongdoings in your life! Me included, right? So, what is he a Methodist?"

"Jess-"

"Baptist? Evangelist? Muslim? –"

"Jess, that's not what-"

"No, I know, he's a Harry Krishna! Of course, I mean all you've ever wanted to do was wear a Moo Moo, and play the tambourine all day! He sounds perfect for you. Well, don't mind me I have some packing to do; I don't wanna be in your way!"

"Jess, THERE'S NO GUY!"

"Huh, well I guess there really is a first time for everything!"

"I'm going to choose to ignore that last remark, because I know you're upset."

"Have you been reading those parenting books again? You know, you'd be surprised at how many parents choose to read them before they screw their kid up, not when the damage is done and he's fully grown!"

"Just because you shave and have sex with half the girls in the neighbourhood, does not mean you're fully grown!"

"Well, I guess sleeping around is something you'd know all about isn't it?!" SMACK! Liz slapped him hard across the cheek, leaving a red mark that would be there for hours.

"Oh, god, Jess, I'm sorry." She moved to hug him but he moved away. "Look, this is exactly why you have to go and live with your uncle. We both need to sort ourselves out; we will kill each other if we stay together much longer. Jess, if you stay here you will end up dead in a ditch or in prison before your next birthday. Honestly, the way you live your life it's a wonder something like that hasn't happened already. You drink, smoke, you stay out all night without feeling the need to call, you cut school, steal, you're constantly being brought home by the cops-"

"Well, I guess my mommy should have taught me better!"

"Oh, and lets talk about all the naked girls I find in your room, for just a second, shall we?" she continued, ignoring him. "How many different girls have I caught you with this month alone?! Do you even know the names of half of them? Are you being safe? Do you really want a repeat of last year, with Connie and Jac-"

"DON'T YOU DARE BRING THEM INTO THIS! THEY WOULD STILL BE HERE RIGHT NOW IF IT WASN'T FOR YOU!"

"THE ONLY THING THAT I AM GUILTY OF IN THAT SITUATION WAS TRYING TO PRESERVE JUST SOME OF YOUR CHILDHOOD JESS! YOU WEREN'T READY!"

"IT WASN'T YOUR CHOICE!"

"YES IT WAS! I'M YOUR MOTHER!"

"REALLY, WELL YOU GOT SOME FUNNY WAYS OF SHOWING IT, LADY! You know what forget it, I am gonna leave! I'll only have to stay there until I graduate, right. Then I can go wherever the hell I want and with any luck I won't have to see you ever again!" He then stormed across the apartment and went into his room, slamming the door shut behind him. Forty five minutes later he was on a bus and heading to Stars Hollow.

End Flashback

Enough! He shook his head and brought himself out of the memory. He really didn't want to relive it. God, it had been an awful day. Well, with the exception of one small part. For a brief moment, his rarely ever seen but truly charismatic, crooked smile crept across his face. That short-lived scene after his shower today, was constantly replaying in the back of his mind. If he didn't keep his dreams under control he was going to need another cold shower. Uugghh, he moaned. How was he going to cope living in this house, when he couldn't get his step-cousin's, (if there was such a thing), breasts out of his mind. In the few seconds which Lorelai and Luke had stopped berating him with questions, he had taken the time to observe Rory. She seemed very timid but he suspected from the way she had yelled at him earlier, she was in fact really sexy and firm when she got all riled up. She was perhaps very sheltered, and coddled to a certain extent, as if she was some kind of china doll that would shatter at the slightest touch. But he could already see that there was a fire in her that was aching to get out. Maybe he would be the one to help her. He shook his head again at the thought. Luke's step-daughter, he reminded himself. Yes, but not his actual daughter, a slightly more wily and horny part of him remembered.

He took one last, long drag from his cigarette, and then flicked across towards the bushes. There, he thought, Litter. It will rock their tiny little worlds! He got up and stretched out his arms behind his back, then let out a big yawn. It had been a long day. Maybe getting some sleep wasn't such a bad idea. He turned around and opened the back door and then stepped back into the kitchen. He began to make hi way back to the living room, when a voice sounded, behind him. "Smoking can kill you, yah know!" He whipped round, and saw Rory stood next to the fridge with a glass of milk in her hands.

Rory had been lying awake for hours, just listening to the silence. That night, she had tried reading, doing extra credit assignments, cleaning her room, even organising her sock draw by colour – anything to stop her from leaving her room and running into their new permanent house guest. He'd seen her topless! When they met, she had been topless! And he had just been wearing a towel! A towel was the only thing that had been covering his wet, glistening toned ches- OH GOD! She had to stop thinking about it! She had to make a decision about Dean before adding yet more boy trouble to the mix. Oh, Dean. Sweet, reliable Dean. It was hard. She really cared about him. She did. Her past actions may not have proved that but she did. But she wasn't in love with him. And she knew that ultimately she didn't really want to be with him and he deserved somebody that did. It was just hard thinking of a way to do it. She'd never broken up with someone before. And she really didn't want to hurt him. Oh it was all giving her a headache.

She decided a glass of milk might help her sleep, so she got up out of bed and went into the kitchen. As she moved towards the fridge, the back door opened and she jumped back in fright; grabbing the closest thing to her, for protection. As soon as she raised her arms in front of hr Jess sauntered in, smirking.

"Are you crazy!" she hissed, not wanting to wake her Mom and Luke. "What the hell are you doing?!

"I didn't think your Mom would appreciate me smoking inside! What are you doing up?"

"I couldn't sleep so I came to get some milk, and then I thought some crazed lunatic was breaking in to my house!" Jess couldn't help but laugh at this.

"Look, from what I've seen today this town has plenty of lunatics, but I don't think that any of them are dangerous. And if they are you should probably think about locking your back door. Also, if I was a house robbing lunatic, what would you have done? 'Loafed' me to death?" It was then she realised, that instead of picking up a rolling pin or a knife, she was holding half of a French baguette that was left over from dinner. She blushed, embarrassed by her choice of weapon.

"Smoking can kill you, you know!"

"Thanks for the information. Look I know things were a little awkward after our semi-naked run in this afternoon but I promise I won't mention it, again, to anyone." He smiled, trying to make her more comfortable. He had a beautiful smile. A beautiful crooked smile which reached up to his gorgeous brown eyes, making them shine ever so brightly in the dim light of the kitchen. "How about we start over? Hello, my name is Jess Mariano. I'm seventeen years old and from New York. My favourite colour is black to match my soul. I like rock and punk but I can't stand rap. And my pot head mother just sent me to live with complete strangers in a really weird town." She laughed, and shook his hand as he held it out.

"Hello, my name is Lorelai Leigh Gilmore, but everyone calls me Rory. I'm from this crazy town, Stars Hollow. I don't really have a favourite colour but if I did it probably would blue."

"That's diplomatic."

"Yeah, and I love to read, I like rock and punk but can't stand rap. My Mom had me when she was sixteen and is now married to Luke. Me and my mom are complete coffee and junk food addicts. Oh, and I go to Private school."

"Well, it's very nice to meet you Rory."

"It's nice to meet you too, Jess. I'm gonna go back to bed now."

"What about your drink?"

"I'm suddenly not thirsty, anymore. Goodnight."

"Goodnight. Oh, and Rory-"

"Yeah?"

"Nice rack by the way!" Her face flashed with horror and she ran back to her room and slammed the door shut behind her. He chuckled, beside himself. Maybe this place really wouldn't be so bad.

Please let me know what you think!