Disclaimer: not mine. If some lines sound like the original work, that's probably because they are.
A/N: Updating, editing and expanding the original chapters, since I started this back in 2004.
Chapter 4
In the morning, Marty departed hastily. He mumbled something about having to get to work to a sleepy Rory. Rory got up not long after he left to turn on her little red coffee machine that stood on the other side of the room, on her desk. She prepared a mug and reflected on her night and planned for the day ahead.
Paris came home just as Rory got her Pop-Tarts in the toaster in their shared kitchen. Paris in her usual blunt manner commented.
"So, did Marty stay over? You, two were pretty cozy, cozy on the couch last night when I stopped by." Rory nodded and Paris continued, "Doyle and his roommate were annoying last night. They thought it would be a brilliant idea to draw on each other with spray cheese until one of the guys, the one with the lowest IQ, thought it would be better to sniff the stuff till he passed out. The other two had to take him to the hospital. A real shame, but like I said the guy's IQ is barely above one of a pencil. Idiocy is incurable at least in the college male mind. On the upside, Doyle and I had the place to ourselves."
"Oh, wow. " was all Rory could think to say.
After some more brief catch-up, Rory retreated to her room and picked up the book that she needed to finish for one of her literature classes. She found that she could not focus because her mind kept retreating to the events of the night.
Frustratedly, she picked up her cell phone and automatically dialed her mother. Her phone vibrated to alert her that she had several text messages and a voicemail waiting. Logan Huntzberger was attempting to reach her with three messages sent 5 minutes apart generally stating that he wishes she was there and a voicemail also from him earlier in the morning inquiring if she was 'free for lunch.'
The guy doesn't give up, does he?' Rory thought as she closed the phone, but then she remembered about her initial intentions of calling her mother and selected her home number in Stars Hallow.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Mom"
"Hey, Kiddo. How's the fabulous life of the young and the beautiful?
"Not bad. Although there have been developments…" Rory trailed off.
"Uh, oh. What kind of developments? And will it need copious amounts of notepads, planning and liquid erasers?"
"What? No. That's silly. It's not like that. Okay, the CliffsNotes version is …" She proceeded to describe the previous day's events in mostly full detail. Minus the intense make-out session because talking to her mom about those things were still weird post-Dean incident. "so, we got up this morning, and he rushed out of here to go to work, and I don't know where we stand."
"Wow, kid. This is big."
"I know. I just wish I knew where we stand. And another thing, now that I had been leading Logan on, I'm going to have to figure how to make it clear to him that I'm no longer interested."
"Well, from an older and much wiser Gilmore, it's simple. Just stop returning his, Logan's calls. He'll get the message. And as for Haked Man, just have a conversation with him"
"MOM! His name is Marty. And he wasn't naked." Rory coloured saying this into the phone. "But I'll think about it. Hey, how about you? Was there a good turnout at the Fiddler on the Roof school play?"
"Yeah, it was dandy." Lorelai had a weird tone in her voice. "Kirk never seeks to amaze how many times a year he publicly humiliates himself."
"So,… waa Luke there?" Rory asked carefully, knowing that the subject was touchy with her mom as of late.
"He was, but we stayed on opposite sides of the room." Lorelai responded dryly.
"Okay, well I got to get back to Thoreau's finest work, because this book won't finish itself. Love you."
Rory heard her mom say goodbye and hung up. She sat down and started to spread out the materials she needed for her upcoming paper. Shad had barely turned on her laptop, when her phone rang again.
"Hello?"
"We got to talk mail," Lorelai's renewed chatty voice came from the speaker.
"Not again."
"It's all for you. Every piece." The jealousy in her tone was apparent. "I mean, how can that be? You only half live here."
"This mail envy of yours is not pretty."
"Catalogues, business solicitations, credit card offers, oh, and for me: some more stupid Green Peace return labels."
"Well, you are the environmental philanthropist in the family."
"Well I feel badly for the planet right now."
Rory noticed that she was talking on her cell again, and she had mentioned to her mom that she needs to use her dorm phone to talk. "Hey, you called my cell…"
"I know."
"Well, I told you to call my landline because my cell phone bill is astronomical."
"But, a conversation with me? Priceless." There was a brief pause because she said, "Oh, joy." in a very sarcastic tone. "I did get a piece of mali. The temple of Apollo."
Rory knew what that meant, "Grandma's still sending you postcards, huh?"
"As if nothing remotely unpleasant happened between us. How does she do that? Compartmentalize like that, it's weird. She is the serial killer that goes to work who talks about a funny Seinfeld he saw and then goes home and cooks himself a man-flesh sandwich."
"Ew."
"Let's see how their trip has been since the last card." Then she made up a fictional letter that makes the grandparents sound evil. "… and the sun sets on Apollo." as she ripped up the postcard presumably,
"At least you don't get subtle reminders about Friday night dinners…"
"She's putting hooks in you, huh?
"Yeah, three cars in a row, reminding me that on no certain terms, that they will see me soon."
"Well, she's smart enough not to do that to me."
"Well, I'm mad at her too, you know. Just for the record."
"I know."
"Anything else?" Rory is getting impatient because she was trying to cut down her phone time.
"Woah, I get one minute of talk, then I get the bum's rush?"
"I'm in the middle of studying." Rory thought. A little white lie.
"I gotta pop out of an envelope for you to have an interest in me."
"I'll be home Friday. We'll eat. We'll talk. We'll laugh. What a time we'll have."
Lorelei desperate not to be cut off, said, "Skip is back in shorts."
"I am not wasting cell phone minutes on Skip's shorts."
"It's the Reno 911 short shorts, a little disturbing."
"Hanging up now." Rory reminded her mother.
"Fine, so Friday."
"Bye."
"Bye."
Rory finally had some peace to finish her homework. Then her cell rang again. She picked it up without looking at the display and said exasperatedly, " Look, mom…."
"Hey, Rory."
"Marty!" She felt the smile that crept on her face. "How's work?"
"Not bad."
"Good." She inhaled before she continued. "I wanted to tell you I had a great time last night."
"So did I. I hope it wasn't weird, me staying over like that."
"No, not at all. I enjoyed it. Well not in the creepy, hovering over you, watching you sleep kind of way." She realized her mouth ran away from her and tried to recover with "It was nice."
"Good, good." There was a long pause and a bit of a shuffle heard. "I was wondering, I am going home for Spring Break but before I do, I want to spend some time with you."
"Yeah. That would be really awesome."
"Really? When would be convenient for you?"
"Hmm."
"At the risk of sounding too hasty, what are you doing later tonight?"
"I haven't really thought about it yet."
"I found this Chinese place not too far from your dorm, and well I personally love Chinese. So I was wondering if you wanted to go."
Rory smiled wider. "That would be great. ' Cause I'll be starving later after all this studying."
"So, I'll swing by around six-ish?"
"Sixish works. See you then."