It's a sunny Saturday morning, the first warm day of the year, and Jess meets Doula at Grand Central. He can't believe how grown up she is at sixteen: shoulder length black hair, his own brown eyes, all doc martens and eyeliner and army surplus.

"Hey Dee Dee," he kisses her cheek just a bit more quickly than she can duck.

"Hey big brother," she's somehow got Liz' scratchy voice without the decades of Parliaments and it suits her.

"Where to first?"

"Do you even have to ask? Soup dumplings!"

He shoulders her duffel bag and they jump on the 4 train down to Canal and emerge to the bustle of Chinatown. They head to Green Bo for the dumplings and then Tonii's for rice noodles. Finally, Chinatown Ice Cream Factory because it's still early enough that they haven't run out of the good flavors yet. Jess gets a scoop of black sesame and one of egg custard and Deedee gets the Lychee Rose. They walk quickly up Elizabeth and down Grand until they turn on Forsyth and can slow down a little and enjoy their cones.

"How's school?" He asks.

"Same as always boring, banal, bland."

"Nice alliteration Doctor Seuss. You're going, though? Your grades are good?"

"My grades are fine, Mister GED," she rolls her eyes at him.

"Alright, alright. Reading anything interesting? In school or out?"

"In school, Crime and Punishment. I always assumed Russian novels would be wordy and dull and keep you at a distance but it really grips you. It surprised me in a good way."

"Dostoyevsky will do that to you. Really gets under your skin. You read Notes From The Underground yet?"

She shakes her head, mouth too full of ice cream to answer.

"I'll get you a copy, it's the perfect book to read when you're sixteen."

Back at his apartment she flings herself on the floor in front of his record collection and starts making a pile to listen to.

"You wanna stay here and listen to records all day?" He asks.

"Duh, what else?"

"I thought we could go to the Whitney, maybe walk the High Line. It's so nice out."

"Maybe tomorrow," she says gasping as she slides Ca Plane Pour Moi/Pogo Pogo out of the shelf. "I didn't know you had this!"

"Which one? Oh yeah, that one's around. It's not hard to find."

"Hmmph, well I've never found it."

"Keep it, sis. I'll find another one." She squeals and he playfully kicks at her from his seat on the couch.

"Why do you have so much ska? It's dork music."

"Is not! You can't like punk without liking ska, it's disrespectful. British punk especially came out of the second wave ska and two-tone movement, it's racist to ignore the Jamaican roots of punk. Plus you can dance to it," he grins.

"Please, like you dance," she rolls her eyes.

"I contain multitudes," he says in an imperious tone. "Seriously, put on that first Specials album and I defy you to tell me it's not one of the greatest albums of the twentieth century."

"Sure, grandpa." She slides it out of the shelf and then carefully out of its sleeve and drops it gently on the turntable.

They listen in silence for a bit, their heads bobbing along in time with the music.

"Hey Jess?"

"What's up?"

"Why don't you ever have a girlfriend?"

"I don't never have a girlfriend, you've just never met any of my girlfriends."

"Okay but I'm sixteen and you've never brought a girlfriend to Thanksgiving or Christmas or anything, it's weird. Are you gay?"

"If I was gay wouldn't I have brought a boyfriend home?"

"I don't know, maybe? Maybe not, you'd be gay but you'd still be you." She squints at him, appraisingly.

"I've never brought anyone home because I've never dated anyone that seriously, not since high school, really. A few months here and there, but nothing that long term. I don't want to bring someone home to that nutty town without being really sure about them."

"How were you more serious about someone when you were my age than you are at almost forty?"

"I don't know Dee Dee. I'm not a scientist." He throws a pillow at her.

"I have a girlfriend," she says, catching the pillow and sticking out her tongue at him.

"Oh, so that's where you were going with this train of thought! Tell me about her."

"Her name is Ellie. We met at the music store. She goes to school in Woodbridge."

"I see. How long have you been dating?"

"A few months. She's really pretty, and she has tattoos—her mom let her get them even though we're still in high school. Isn't that cool? I really like her, but we had a fight yesterday."

"Hence the desire to sit in my dark apartment listening to records instead of enjoying this beautiful day in the greatest city in the world."

She frowns. "I don't know. It was stupid, really."

"Nah, fights are always about something stupid, but your feelings aren't stupid. What happened?"

Doula sighs, "She was supposed to come to Stars Hollow last night to go to the Spring Fling Festival with me and mom and dad, but she bailed on me and didn't call until the festival had already started. So not only was I stood up, I was also late and I missed the beginning."

"Why did she bail?"

"She said she was too tired from school and her job to drive over."

"Okay, well that seems reasonable, but I know it's not fun when someone cancels plans at the last minute. Why did you fight about it?"

"Just, I don't know. I go to school and I work in the diner and I help out at home but I still want to see her. I just feel like she doesn't want to put in the effort, and she never calls until the last minute. It wouldn't be so bad if she would let me know what was going on ahead of time. So…I told her she was being inconsiderate, and she said that I have no idea what I'm talking about and she has a lot going on right now and that I expect too much from her." She looks at him, miserably. "Was I wrong?"

"Ah, kid. I don't know. You're not wrong to feel bad about getting bailed on, that sucks. But it sounds like maybe something's going on with her that she hasn't told you about. Maybe something at home? Have you asked her what's wrong?"

"No, she's really weird and private about family stuff."

"Some people need a little encouragement to open up. I'm not saying that's it for sure, but it sounds like maybe she's upset about something and doesn't know how to open up to you about it."

"Hmmm, maybe. Did anyone ever act like this to you?"

He laughs, "I'm pretty sure I've always been the Ellie in this situation. Especially when I was your age. I didn't know how to deal with my feelings, so I would just be an ass to people so that they wouldn't even try to get close. I don't know for sure if it's the same with Ellie, but it sounds like maybe she needs someone to talk to."

Deedee frowns, furrowing her brow, it makes her look like a little kid again. He reaches down and ruffles her hair.

"So, I should call her?"

"Do you want to?"

"Yeah. I don't like the way we left it. I hope she's okay, but also I wish she wouldn't wait until the last minute to cancel plans."

"So find out what's going on in her life, and then tell her that you want to be there for her, but that you would appreciate it if she gave you more of a heads up." She nods. "Do Liz and TJ know about Ellie?"

"Yeah, they know. And Uncle Luke."

"Oh, and you couldn't spare a text for your dear brother?"

"Sorry, I wanted to wait to talk to you in person. We hadn't started dating when I saw you at Christmas!"

"I'm just teasing you, kid."

"Jess?"

"Who did you date in high school?"

"Oh, uh, you know her, Rory."

"Rory, as in my cousin, Rory?"

"Oh yeah, I guess she is your cousin now. We dated, but I screwed it up."

"So our cousin Rory was your only serious relationship???"

"Ew, settle down, she's not my cousin."

"By marriage she is."

"Sure, but that makes it sound so gross and weird." He snaps another throw pillow in her direction. "Go call your girlfriend and leave your poor cousin-kissing brother in peace."

Deedee practically runs to the guest room (also Jess' office) to call Ellie, leaving him on the couch listening to The Specials.

Am I just a hypocrite, another piece of your bullshit

Am I the dog that bit

The hand of the man that feeds it?

Do the dog

Everybody's doing the dog. Relationships are the same and the same and the same. Everyone fights about the same things. Sharing money, sharing time, sharing feelings. He stares up at the afternoon light playing across the stamped tin. "Why don't you ever have a girlfriend?" Well, why doesn't he? He hasn't dated anyone in years, hasn't even slept with anyone in the past year. It's not on purpose, just a reflex. He runs, he takes his medicine, he works, he writes, he gets eight hours of sleep every night. He sees his family on holidays, he goes out with the guys from work every now and then, catches up with Manny over handball some weekends, once a week he tries a new restaurant, sometimes he'll catch a movie at the Metrograph or that new theater over on Essex. His life is full, right? Where would someone else even fit into his day?

It's the worst excuse in the world

And it, it doesn't make it alright

Ugh, get off my case Jerry Dammers. He stops the record and puts it away carefully. He's tempted to try to listen in on Doula's phone call, but he puts on Gang of Four's Songs of the Free instead and picks up the throw pillows off the floor.

He takes Deedee to Nakamura for dinner and they slurp huge bowls of Torigara ramen under a photo of Hayao Miyazaki and then they walk over to his favorite bakery and get pudding for dessert. They walk around the neighborhood and he points up to an apartment above a laundromat on Avenue B. "That's where Liz and I lived when I was eight."

She makes a face. "I wish you'd call her mom."

"Hey, she's your mom, she's my Liz. Two completely different people, and that's a good thing, I promise you."

"Still, she's been clean for what, almost two decades now? Can't you give her a break? She loves you."

Almost two decades, damn. "I have given her a break. A lot of breaks. I know she loves me, and I love her too. It's just different. I don't know how to explain it. Or, maybe I do, but I don't want to explain it to you, you're still a kid."

"Jess, I'm sixteen."

He sighs as he looks at his sister. "Only sixteen year olds don't think sixteen year olds are kids. I don't want to explain it to you because I'm glad she's mom to you and I want her to stay that way for you. Maybe we'll talk about it someday, but it's my baggage, not yours." He can't put that on her, it would only poison his relationship with her and her relationship with Liz. "There were good times too, though, I can tell you about those if you want."

"Ooooh, the secret history, gimmee," she grabs his arm, looking like a kid on Christmas.

"Hmmm, well, she used to waitress at an Italian spot over near Union Square and she would bring home breadsticks and ravioli after work and we would sit on the floor and watch X-Files or Star Trek and have a little floor picnic. That was pretty cool. And sometimes Liz would let me ditch school and we would go to Coney and get hot dogs and people watch on the boardwalk. We'd ride the Wonder Wheel and she would always insist that we get one of the swinging cars. Even though they scared me to death, she liked them so much I would always end up giggling like a maniac the whole time. How's that?"

"That's nice. I like that. It's so funny to think of her all spontaneous and letting you ditch school. So not her vibes now."

"Yeah well, that's good, sis, I don't want you skipping school either."

"God you're so corny. I wouldn't skip school anyway, I like school."

"How'd things turn out with Ellie?"

"Good, you were right, she found out her parents are divorcing a couple of weeks ago. Apparently they haven't gotten along for a long time and she thinks it's the right decision, but at the last minute she got really upset at the idea of coming to see me and being around my family with Mom and Dad so obsessed with each other."

"Makes sense.You guys good now?"

"Yeah, we talked it out, I apologized, she apologized. We made plans to meet up at the music store this week and get pie at Weston's after so it'll just be the two of us."

"That's great, sis," He hooks his left arm around her and pulls her into a half-hug, half-headlock while she jokingly struggles.

The next day the weather is still beautiful and they walk the High Line and then they go to the Whitney and he takes her to Corner Bistro for one of their magnificently messy burgers. He puts Deedee on the Amtrak back to Hartford at 5pm and is relieved when he gets a text from TJ that she made it home safe. He spends Sunday night laying on the living room floor listening to Sound System over and over again and trying to work out the outline for his new novel. He has some chunks of prose, a main character, and some ideas but it's all still pretty undefined in his mind.