Author's Note: Please, don't get too used to this updating regularly thing. I am a true nerd in the fact that school consumes my life. So once break is over, I will update sporadically-- sometimes as often as once a month (oh, goody!). But I'm being serious. Enjoy this while it lasts.
So, I said that Luke would be in this chapter... he isn't. I'm sorry! But I wanted to kind of draw out some similarities between him and Jess before I formally introduce them to each other. Jaime does make an appearance. He will play a huge part in the next chapter.
Getting on with things, it's almost one in the morning here in the lovely, wonderful, and flat Kansas, so I'm going to bed.
Enjoy and review (please?)
PS: I threw one or two pop culture references in this chapter, but I just wrote this... as in, I wrote it tonight. Gimme a break, I'm tired. :)
1:57 at the Coffee Cart
I'm coming apart at the seams
Pitching myself the leads in other people's dreams
Now Buzz Buzz Buzz Doc
There's a hole where something was Doc
There's a hole where something was
Lorelai stood, coffee cup in hand, waiting for her daughter. She fingered her phone, pulling up a text that Rory had sent her an hour earlier.
a friend is coming w/
hope u don't mind
c u 2! :)
"Mom!"
Lorelai looked up to see her mini-me walking towards her. A man was following, one hand shoved as deep into his pocket as it could go, and the other was at his side and holding a thin paperback. That must be the friend she texted me about, Lorelai thought.
"How was the drive up?" Rory asked.
"It was good," Lorelai replied, still eyeing the boy behind her daughter. "You," she said to the man, "what's your name?"
He stared at her for half a second, but managed to open his mouth. "Jess," he said.
"Ah," Lorelai began, "so you're Editor Jess. I hear you also write."
"I'm a regular Don Marquis," Jess said.
"Huh," Lorelai mused. "I would've guessed more Andy Rooney."
"I actually auditioned for that role," Jess said, "but was turned down due to a lack of required eyebrow hairs."
"I'm Rory's mom." Lorelai held out her hand.
Rory elbowed him subtly, and he forced himself to reach out his hand. Lorelai took it. Jess gained enough control of his lips to draw out a fairly painful "Nice to meet you, Ms. Gilmore."
"Call me Lorelai," she insisted, noting the strain in his words. "Ms. Gilmore is my mother. Rory, did you get coffee?"
Rory shook her head. "I was going to get it here."
"Okay." Lorelai stood back to watch the college students order their usual. Jess' eyes were fixed on Rory's back as she ordered her grande-black-one-sugar-no cream, and this did not go unnoticed by Lorelai.
The two turned from the cart, Rory with a cup, Jess without.
"No coffee?" Lorelai gestured to Jess' empty hands.
Jess started to answer, but Rory got there too fast. "He doesn't drink coffee." Rory made a face. "He drinks tea."
Both women shuddered.
"What?" Jess asked, vaguely affronted. "Just because I want to live past the age of forty and, you know, grow a little more, I'm suddenly weird?"
No time was wasted in an answer.
"Yes," the girls said in unison.
The three started to walk down one of the tree lined paths that seemed to be in abundance on any Ivy League campus. "Do you really never drink coffee?"Lorelai asked in amazement.
"Yeah," Jess answered. "I really don't."
Rory poked Lorelai on the shoulder. "He also doesn't eat French fries."
"No!" Lorelai gasped.
"Yes! He says that they're bad for you, or something."
Lorelai grabbed both teens, bringing the group to a halt. "He eats hamburgers, yes?"
"No." Jess said.
"Cheeseburgers?"
"Nope."
"White bread?"
"Wheat and, on the odd occasion, rye."
Lorelai turned to Rory. "He's Luke."
"Carbon copy," Rory agreed.
Jess crossed his arms over his chest, his book now clearly displayed. He started walking. The two Gilmores followed after him.
Rory scrunched up her nose. "Hemingway,? Seriously, Jess?"
He rolled his eyes.
"I asked you not to bring a book. You didn't listen to me, and you brought a Hemingway?"
Jess grabbed Rory's small satchel from her, opened it, and pulled out a copy (well, actually, his copy) of Kitchen Confidential. Rory immediately snatched her purse back, grabbing the book with it.
"Well," Rory started, "at least I had the decency to hide it in a purse."
"I'm sorry Paris," Jess said, his voice sarcastic but humorous. "I didn't think to bring the new Coach daddy bought me this weekend at Barney's."
Rory played along. "And it would go so well with your Prada pumps, Brittany."
Lorelai smiled, watching the two keep this charade up for a full fifteen minutes. By the time they had finished, the trio had reached the headquarters of the Daily Princetonian.
Rory lead the way into the building, Lorelai behind her, and Jess falling in last.
Alicia was putting the finishing touches on that day's cover when she saw Jess enter the newsroom with Rory and some other woman. She sighed to herself. She had noticed him drifting away ever so slowly, noticed that it started when he met Rory. She was more his speed, she decided. She was going to actually be there, instead of in Chicago which was where Alicia was going at the end of the year.
Jess and Rory had so much more of a connection than Alicia had ever had with him. She loaded her stapler, trying to avoid the unavoidable. She checked her email, watching Rory show the strange woman around the office, Jess making an occasional comment. She organized all the reporters drafts alphabetically by topic then by last name as Jess explained the importance of a working copier on the premises. Just as they were leaving, she stood.
"Jess," her voice was unsteady. "Can I talk to you?"
Jess motioned to Rory, conveying that he didn't need to be waited for.
Alicia knew what she had to do.
Rory was watching C-SPAN, her roommate Angela (an aerial engineering major) passed out in the room next to her. Her feet hurt after giving the full walking tour of the Princeton campus to her mother. She was slightly put off when Jess didn't meet back up with them after his chat with Alicia. He probably went out with her or something, she thought. She was surprised by the sour feeling in her stomach at the thought of Jess being with Alicia.
Rain beat at the window of the dorm/suite she had scored her first day on campus. It had started pouring an hour before; two hours after her mother had left for Stars Hollow.
I don't like Jess, Rory thought. I mean, I like him, of course… but not like that. Not in that way. But still, her insides twisted at the thought of him and Alicia cuddling somewhere. But she quickly blocked that thought from her mind. After all, she thought, Jess doesn't really seem like the cuddling type.
Her musings on Jess were interrupted by a desperate banging at her door.
As she opened the door, Rory was met by Jaime. He was drenched, and his eyes were red and puffy. She stepped aside, letting him come in. "Jaime, what's wrong?"
He shivered, the agonizing combo of the chilly air outside and his soaked state getting the best of him. His green eyes, so usually full of liveliness, were hollow somehow; as if they were missing something.
Rory waited as he seemed to gasp in a ragged breath.
"Paris…" he started. "Sh-she cheat-cheated…." With that he burst into a new round of tears and collapsed on Rory's heard wood floors.
