Chapter 30
It took Rory longer than she'd expected to get ready for her Grandmother's Friday night dinner. She knew that she had been taking a long time, not because she was aware of her surroundings, but because her mother wouldn't shut the hell up.
"Come on already!"
"I'm still getting ready," Rory shouted back from in her bedroom with a closed door. But it was weird; usually a door (locked, or not) would never get in her way, and yet...
She heard her mother groan. "How many times do we have to have this conversation?!"
Rory rolled her eyes as she added on a touch of mascara to bring out the blue. "Whenever you're unnaturally excited to go to the grandparent's dinner – wait. Why are you so excited this time?"
There was the longest of all pauses. "...No reason."
Rory mimicked her mother's groan. "What did you do?"
"Nothing."
Rory rolled her eyes, put down the lip gloss, and walked out of the room. She rushed down the hall, pulling on her coat. "What did you do—?" Rory stopped herself short, her jaw dropped and she stared ahead at her mother. "Oh... No..."
Lorelai smiled smugly as she stood proudly in the middle of the living room with her hands placed on her hips.
"Mom," Rory gritted her teeth with horror.
Lorelai's smile faltered and she pouted. "What?"
"You cannot wear that!"
Lorelai looked down at her t-shirt, tugging at the ends of it. Then she looked up and grinned, a twinkle of evil in her eye. "Really? 'Cos it looks great," she said with a smirk.
Rory's eyes narrowed. "Mom. You really expect me to let you walk out of the house wearing a shirt with a rhinestone penis on it?"
Lorelai grinned proudly again, and flattened out her rhinestone penis shirt with her hands. Then, without another word, walked past her mortified daughter, grabbed her coat and walked out the door.
Rory raised a shocked brow. "Mom?" She turned around swiftly in her blue dress and matching heels and followed her. "Mom, no!"
"Come on," Lorelai said with her chin raised. "We're going to be late."
"Please don't do this!" Rory begged as her mother persisted in locking up the front door. Rory grabbed her by the arm. "I'll give you twenty bucks," she bargained.
"Nope."
"Thirty."
"Nope."
"Three hundred!"
Lorelai turned around and grabbed her by the arms. "Rory, there is not enough money in the world to stop me from wearing this shirt," she said, then grinned like the little minx she was.
"Where did you even get it?" Rory asked with an unintentional sneer – or at least a squinting of the eyes.
Lorelai let go of her daughter, and stood up straight. "I found it. In storage. The real question is: why didn't I think to look through storage earlier?"
Rory looked at her mother quizzically. "Be-e-cause we... never... look through storage?" She suggested. "I mean, it's sort of our rule. Remember?" Rory said slowly, like her mother was a complete idiot. Then she smiled simply. "We made it after we cleaned out the garage for Lane's band, and – and I hugged that thing..."
"What? Hug-a-Canada?" She teased with a grin.
Rory sighed. "Okay... Let's just go..." She sighed again, giving up on a meaningless argument. Especially since the wrath of Emily Gilmore would rain upon her.