Chapter 18

"Stop the car!" Rory repeated.

Lorelai's head cocked to the side. "What?"

"Stop the car!" She repeated again.

In a panic, she replied, "Okay, okay – I'm stopping!"

The car made a screeching stop. Before Lorelai knew what was going on, Rory bolted out of the car, shouting "See you at home," because even Rory can't do something spontaneous and intense without informing her mother of her plans. And a spontaneous plan is, by definition, an oxymoron.

Rory, ignoring the painful fact that she was in heels and a short-ish silky dress without any other layers ran towards Luke's diner. The door was closed, the lights were off, yet that didn't stop from knocking loudly. When no one came to unlock the door at that immediate time, she reached up to the top of the door frame and felt for the dust-covered key. Though it was a small town, only a few people knew of that key. Jess told Rory about it once when they were dating.

Rory hastily unlocked the door and barged into the very obviously closed diner.

And there was Jess.

He was buttoning up his shirt as he reached the bottom of the staircase. He looked irritated and soaked; his hair in a sexy disarray; his skin shining with water. "Hey," he said with that dry husky voice of his. "Sorry, I was in the shower... Almost couldn't hear you..."

Rory had a look of fierce determination. Until she saw him. In her mind, she had run through a hundred different scenarios, but then she saw him...

And then she flustered.

Jess smiled with a furrowed brow, confused. "What're you doin' here?"

Her eyes went wide. "Uh... I don't know, exactly..."

He bobbed his head. "Ok."

Rory rolled her eyes, gesturing at him. "Oh, great, the monosyllabic thing again," she muttered to herself.

"The talking thing comes and goes," he said, doing up his last button. He subconsciously rubbed at his watch-less wrist. It felt, and looked, so naked not to have the leather there.

Rory looked up at him.

Jess frowned. "Does this feel... familiar to you?"

"Yeah, it does." There was a pause. "I don't know why," she breathed.

The boy's brow raised. "Huh." He clapped his hands together behind his back and took one lingering step closer, seeing they were on opposite sides of the room. "Because it kinda reminds me of our first kiss," he said with a smirk. It was supposed to come out cool and collected, but instead sounded a little corny.

Rory, looking bashful, stared down at her black heeled shoes, brushing some fallen hairs behind her ear. They fell back in front of her eyes. When no one spoke Rory found the confidence she lost and spoke. "I'm a little nervous."

"Well, you're no James Dean at this moment."

Rory blushed.

Jess rolled his eyes at his sarcastic stupidity. "Look, uh, why don't you just tell me what – you, uh – what you wanted to do... And we'll go from there."

"I don't really know what I wanted to do." Her perfectly smooth cheeks got even redder with embarrassment.

"Ok, just try this:" He paused. "Don't think; just do."

"Do what?"

"Whatever it is you wanna do... On instinct."

She frowned. "Doesn't sound very Yale-educated."

He sighed. "...Or we could just continue standing here awkwardly..." He took another step closer. Rory, however, remained stiff and unmoving.

He stopped. Jess began thinking to himself about what they were doing and what she was doing here. "Why are you here?"

"Huh?" She looked up, innocently.

"I said: why are you here?" He looked at her, actually at her. Rory's body suddenly looked fragile, and like her eyes could be on the verge of tears or shooting fire from them.

"I'm making a stand."

"Some stand," he muttered.

Rory sneered. "Nice support!"

"Never intended to give it," he said honestly. Rory couldn't tell how he was feeling. He was just... Blank. It was hard to tell with him.

She placed a hand on her hip. "I see what you're doing."

He raised a brow. "What am I doing?"

"You're trying to provoke me."

"Well, maybe that's a good thing," he said, his eyes narrowing. "Maybe then you'll actually do something."

Rory's gaze darkened. "You think I won't."

Jess shrugged, smiled and nodded arrogantly. "I know you won't."

"Fine, I won't," she said, whirling herself around and reaching for the door handle.

"Wait," Jess blurted out. He grabbed her by the waist from behind, and shoved the door closed with a flat palm. She could feel his hot breath tickle her ear, and instead of moving his hand from her waist, he held on tighter, yet it still felt intimately gentle. "...That was the part where you were supposed to prove me wrong and kiss me..." He whispered in her ear. Rory closed her eyes, breathing in his scent of leather and old books. It felt so familiar.

Her grip remained tightly on the door handle, but then she just felt... And her grip loosened.

Rory got her answer. She smiled because she knew. She knew how right it felt. With him. Rory's other hand slowly curled around his; the one he still had gripped onto her waist. This was the moment – the altering one where she had to make her decision. And she had. She knew what she wanted. She knew who she wanted. And she knew what she wanted to do next.

But then he whispered those three simple words.

"I love you..."

Rory's eyes opened. The loose grip she still had on the handle tightened again, and she pulled open the door.

Rory ran out of the diner, leaving Jess there; heartbroken, confused and alone.