Rory was extra happy to be getting back to school after the last weekend, she always loved school but right now she needed to get away from her home. Her dad came to town last week and brought his girlfriend with him, Rory like Sherry well enough but it was weird and even though her dad had left on Sunday his presence was still felt around the house. That's how it always was when he came for a visit, normally she liked feeling like he was close but this time it was different. Her mom didn't say anything to her but Rory had a feeling she was taking the fact that her dad had a serious girlfriend harder than she was letting on. The atmosphere in the Crap Shack had been heavy ever since.
So that's why she was extra excited about school today. Her mom and she were walking down the road to Luke's like they did almost every morning and she realized it'd been a while since she'd seen Jess too, she supposed it was understandable with how busy her weekend was but she had little butterflies at the thought of seeing him this morning.
She tuned back into her conversation with her mom when she realized she hadn't been listening most of the walk. "But my question is how did that happen? How was it that suddenly everyone in the world was saying 'music has charms to soothe the savage beast' when it was written breast?"
"I don't know, at some point someone just misspoke and it caught on."
"How do things like that catch on?"
"Mom please, you're driving me crazy."
"Did some guy like say it at a really big rally of some sort, then everyone went home and started saying it that way and then it just spread from there?"
"Yes, exactly."
"Oh now I know you're just trying to shut me up," Lorelai said as she opened the front door to Luke's. "Oh my god."
"What?"
"Look, it's completely empty."
Luke came from behind the counter to clean it up. "It's just one of those weird lulls that happens occasionally."
"Oh, can we sit wherever we want?" Rory was unreasonably excited about this.
"Wherever you like." Luke on the other hand was the exact opposite.
"Wow!"
"Such luxury, I've never dreamed of." Lorelai agreed.
"Where do you want to sit?"
"I don't know, how about this table with the unobstructed westward view of the wide cosmopolitan expanse of Clump Street?" Her mom offered.
"Tempting. Do you know that on a clear day, you can see all the way to the garbage cans behind Al's pancake world?"
"Or we could sit at the table in the corner, you know that mafia table so that no one can come up behind you and whack you with a cannoli."
"Whack you with a cannoli? Oh! Because he left the gun and took the cannoli."
"You're so my daughter."
"Ay yiy yiy." Luke couldn't help but chime in, he cared deeply for these two but sometimes they made him wonder if they were insane.
"I got it, let's sit at the counter."
"No, the counters are not power seats."
"Yes but with no one here we can sit at either end and play bagel hockey."
"Oh, bagel hockey!" They both start to walk toward the counter at the same time.
"Just sit at a table." Luke stopped their fun before it could even start.
Lorelai wrapped her arm around Rory before speaking, "Oh, you're pretty rude for a guy who only has two paying customers." But they go to the table without any further fight.
Just then Jess came down the stairs and stopped for a moment when he noticed Rory, Lorelai found it strange that her daughter seemed frozen for a second too. After they stayed still just staring at each other for too long, in her opinion, she decided to force start this interaction.
"Morning Jess!"
She had to hold in a laugh then he gave his head a little shake before responding, "Hey."
"Haven't seen you around for a few days, where have you been?"
"Right here, you guys didn't come for your normal coffee fixes throughout the day."
"Hmm, I guess you have a point. Are you headed to school?" She asked noticing his lack of school stuff, just his signature book in the back pocket.
"Yup, you know me, the model student, gotta get there early."
"Yeah, 'cause that's what pops in my head when I hear the name Jess Mariano." She said sarcastically and smiled a little at Jess' smirk.
"And I work very hard to keep that kind of reputation but the truth is I just love learning." His response was just as sarcastic, if not more so.
"Actually, I should probably get going to school too," Rory said while standing up.
"You sure hon? You haven't even eaten yet, let alone had your cup of coffee."
"Yup, I'll just take a donut and cup to go." Luke nodded and started getting her order ready.
"I'll walk you to the bus stop if you want." Jess offered and Lorelai swore she saw a blush on his cheeks.
"Uh yeah, that works for me." The two teenagers were looking everywhere but each other.
"Cool." Jess nodded.
"Cool." Rory concurred. She walked up to the bar and took the offered to-go bag and cup from Luke before walking to the door with Jess right behind her.
"Okay, what was that?" Luke asked as soon as the door closed.
"That was two kids who like like each other but aren't dating yet. Or as I like to call it, Rory and Jess: the early years."
"Yeah? Huh. But what about Dean?"
"Not sure, I told her she either has to break up with him or back off from Jess but she's living in this limbo right now, it's not good and it's not fair for anyone."
"Huh, well this is good, right? I think it'd be good for Jess."
"Yeah, it could be good. Jess has calmed down a lot since he first got here. We did good getting everyone to back off and it seems like as soon as people accepted him around town he stopped trying to prove everyone right that he was a bad kid."
"Then why don't you sound too happy about the situation?"
"Listen, Luke, I like Jess, you know I do, and I want to help him but Rory is my kid. I don't want her to get hurt if he backslides or just plain decides that he doesn't like it here. I'm worried he could get her into trouble."
Luke stayed quiet for a while, at first he looked upset but he seemed to calm down when he realized her worries weren't coming from a judgmental or malicious place, she just wanted to protect Rory, which is what he wanted too so he couldn't blame her. "I think Jess just needs to keep getting what we're giving him. Look, as soon as he felt safe, and like he had somewhere to stay and people to rely on he calmed down."
Lorelai agreed with him to an extent but she also knew that was a naive way to think. For now, she wasn't going to get involved but she had no intention of letting Rory get hurt, whether emotionally or in her future by getting in trouble with him.
"You don't have to wait for the bus to come, I don't want you to be late because of me."
"I won't be… unless you want me to leave?"
"No!" She said a little too excitedly in her opinion and continued much calmer, "I mean no, you can stay, I haven't seen much of you lately since my dad took up most of my time this weekend."
"Yeah, I thought I saw him around town. How did that go?"
"Okay I guess, he brought his new girlfriend, it was a little weird. And my mom has been a little off ever since. Honestly, I'm glad to be going to school and just to get out of town I need a little breather."
Her words gave Jess an idea, probably a bad idea but an idea nonetheless and he knew right away that he was going to go through with it. He'd been wanting to do it for a while anyway and having Rory with him would just be the icing on top. "Yeah? Sorry, parents suck sometimes."
Rory still didn't know much about Jess' upbringing or why he came to Stars Hollow, her mom kept her word and stayed quiet about it and she hadn't dared to ask him herself, she really wanted to though. She was smart enough to infer that it wasn't the happiest childhood and he didn't have the best parents though. She decided to open up a little in hopes that he'd do the same. "Yeah, you can say that again. I love my dad, I really do, and every time he promises to be around more I believe him but I always get proved wrong."
Jess wanted to reach out to her to comfort her but didn't think he had the right so he kept his hands right where they were. "Yeah, I know a thing or two about absent fathers."
"Yours doesn't come around much?" She asked.
"Try not at all. He went out for a diaper run when I was a baby and hasn't come back since. I guess it's a really long line." This time it was Rory who wanted to comfort Jess but she didn't stop the impulse, she reached over to where his hand was resting on the bench and grabbed it with her own. She felt a little silly after when he looked at their hands then at her then back to their hands again. She was getting ready to pull away when he turned his hand over to hold hers back.
"Dads can suck." She offered.
"Agreed. It's cool though, we don't need them. Plus you seem to have a whole town full of people that look out for you like your family, you seem to almost have a second dad in Luke."
"Luke has always been there for me, he's the one to come when something in our house breaks, or when I used to need help with volunteers at school, he'd always show up for me."
Jess smiled at her but she noticed it was laced with a little melancholy, she opened her mouth to ask what was wrong but the bus pulled up. Instead, she had no choice but to squeeze his hand once before letting go and standing up. "Bye Jess, I'll see you later today."
Jess nodded and as she was getting on the bus he decided to go for it. Before the bus doors closed he jumped up and squeezed in. He paid his fair without a word, Rory didn't even realize she was followed until someone sat down next to her. She looked over and her eyes opened wide. "Jess, what are you doing?!"
"Skipping." He said simply.
"What? Why? Where? Why?"
"In order, I'm skipping, because I want to, to New York for the day, and again because I want to."
"Jess, you're going to get in trouble!"
"It's fine, Lane will give me what I missed, she's done it for me before."
"What? You've done this before?"
"No, not specifically gone to New York before but yeah I skipped, plenty of times."
"Jess, come on, school is important, you have to go."
He scoffed, "It's not important, who cares? There are plenty of people who made a great life for themselves without a high school diploma, your mom for example. Plus, it's boring, the books on the reading lists are things I read when I was still in diapers and it's not like I'm ever going to need calculus in my day-to-day life. School is a snore."
"What about college?"
"I'm not going to college."
"What? Why not?"
"See reasons for not caring about high school."
"Jess, you have to try, Luke is working so hard to give you a good life."
"I never asked him to, I was doing just fine in New York without him, I hadn't seen him for a few years before I got dropped on his doorstep." He was getting annoyed now.
"Jess, seriously, school is important, you have to go, you have to try, for me, please."
He stayed quiet for a few long moments before replying. "Okay."
"Okay?"
"Yeah, okay, you just have to do one thing for me first then I'll do this huge thing for you."
"What's that?" She asked dubiously.
"Come with me."
"With you where?"
"To New York for the day, I promised I'd show you around, let's do it today. You skip with me today, just this once and I'll stop skipping just because I don't feel like going." He made sure to word it in a way that he could still skip if he had to go to work or something important.
Rory was smarter than that though, "No, you don't skip at all unless it's very important."
He quirked his brow at her, after a while he decided work could be considered very important so he nodded his head and held out his hand. "Deal."
She shook it without thinking of the consequences, she forgot that meant she'd have to skip today too. Her eyes opened wide when she realized what she agreed to. Part of her wanted to back out, the good girl people pleaser but the much bigger part of her, the part that really liked Jess, the part that got a rush of excitement at the thought of doing something bad, the part that wanted to be more spontaneous was excited and had butterflies swarming around in her stomach. She took his offered hand and shook it. "Deal."
She was filled with nervous energy that she couldn't use because they were stuck on a bus and would be for a while. It wasn't long before Jess took out the book he was currently reading, which just so happened to be For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemmingway. It was definitely not her favorite book, she could barely stand the author but she had promised Jess that she'd give him another chance. So she thought 'What better time than now?' And used it as an excuse to edge closer and read off his page even though she had a book of her own, Jane Eyre, in her backpack. It wasn't long before they were both lost in the book and Rory's head was leaning on Jess' shoulder, she made sure to ignore the warm feelings she got when she felt him rest his head on top of hers.
It wasn't until they crossed state lines that she decided she needed a break from reading. When she started thinking about what was happening she freaked out a little bit, she'd never done anything like this before, she skipped once but it was for a really good reason, she was doing this just for fun, not only that but she left the state without letting her mother know with a guy she liked one who wasn't even her boyfriend! What was she doing? She was a terrible girlfriend and an even worse daughter, she had to go back, maybe she could fix this, maybe no one had to find out at all. She had a chance if she went home now.
"Rory, what's wrong?"
"What?"
"You're damn near hyperventilating. What's wrong?" Jess asked while putting his hand on her shoulder and looking her in the eyes, she calmed down a little bit when she saw how worried he looked.
"N-nothing, I'm okay."
"No, you're not. Don't lie to me. H-how can I help when I don't even know what's wrong?" He internally cringed at how much of a sap he sounded.
"I've never done anything like this before, if the school calls my mom she'll have a heart attack and be scared to death until she finds me. I mean I have my pager on me but still, I'll be in so much trouble."
"Okay, it's okay, calm down. You sound a lot like your mom, we'll call the school when we get to the city and you can be your mom and tell them you'll be out for the day. It's fine, she won't have to know at all." He said and started kneading his hands that were still on her shoulders to relax her, it worked, and the tension in her shoulders eased. "Do you want to go home? I don't want to feel like I'm kidnapping you, I want you to have fun with me, not feel like it's a chore."
She stayed quiet for a while, thinking over her options. She knew it was wrong but she wanted to stay with Jess and have a fun day with him more than anything. Calling the school handled her mother's situation, though she'd have guilt about that until she told her the truth, which she knew she would so she was able to push that worry and guilt away. Dean on the other hand, that wasn't as simple, she knew it wasn't fair to him what she was doing, and she knew she should probably just break up with him but for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to do it. She needed something, a push maybe? She wasn't sure, she couldn't deny anymore that Jess wanted her the same way she wanted him, not after bid-a-basket, he wouldn't have asked her if he was wasting his time or if he should back off if all he wanted was friendship, so that wasn't it. She didn't know but something was stopping her so she deserved all the guilt she felt, and she knew it but Jess didn't, he wasn't doing anything wrong. He offered to leave her alone and she flat told him no, so this wasn't on him and she wasn't going to let him see the guilt and the tiny bit of regret she had for coming.
She smiled at him brightly and felt relieved when it looked like he believed it and the tension in his shoulders eased, "No, I don't want to go home, I want to be here and do this, with you."
"Okay then. Good."
"But I do want to know what you plan on doing today."
"Well I want to show you around, like my favorite bookstore, and this awesome record shop that you'll love, it's run by this insane freak who's like a walking encyclopedia for every punk and garage band record ever made, catalog numbers, he's crazy. This place is right out of 'High Fidelity'. Oh, and I want to introduce you to a few people, like Javier, he's been my best friend for as long as you've known Lane, and Tia…" He trailed off when he realized he was talking as much and as fast as the Gilmore Girls have been known to do. He wasn't usually one to talk so much but what could he say, he was excited.
"Wow, that seems like a lot to do in one day, but I want to do it all!"
"Yeah it might be but I'm sure we can make it work. Oh, and I'll take you to my favorite food joint, or at least the place I ate most often."
"Okay," Rory was getting really excited, for some reason having a plan made this whole thing seem real to her. It wasn't surprising actually, Rory was the type of girl who liked to be organized and have her days laid out. She looked out of the window and saw skyscrapers getting closer, they were almost there. She had to stop herself from jumping in her seat like a child but couldn't stop the little jiggle of excitement she did anyway and she grabbed Jess' hand without even thinking about it or noticing.
Jess definitely did though and couldn't help but think he might actually have a shot at getting what he wanted for once. He wouldn't let himself hope too much though, he'd learned from experience that hope was a dangerous and painful thing, he usually ended up getting screwed over no matter what situation he was in and had a feeling this wouldn't be any different. That little ball of hope in his chest was still there thrumming away though.
When they got off the bus Rory saw Jess' shoulder ease and him close his eyes while breathing a sigh of relief, like he finally felt comfortable in his own skin again, like he was finally home. It gave her a strange mix of happiness, sadness, and fear. She got that this was his home, where he lived most of his life but she was hoping that Stars Hollow was starting to feel that way to him too, she couldn't help to think that wasn't the case at all after seeing his reaction to coming here. Was he just planning on leaving one day and never coming back? Could she trust him to stay? Was there even a point in letting him in if he didn't plan to stay there?
He opened his eyes and looked at her, her worry over her thoughts lessened a lot at the look of affection in his eyes, "So are you hungry?"
'Starved, that donut didn't do anything close to filling my stomach."
"Come on, I know a place."
It didn't take long to make it to their destination and Rory was surprised to see that it was a hot dog stand. She did love hot dogs and couldn't help but feel like a native when stopping at a place like that. The person running the stand took their order and they waited in line, while they waited she couldn't help but think she hadn't felt this happy in a long time and how strange it was that standing in line waiting to get food gave her this feeling, she had a feeling it had less to do with what she was doing and more to do with who she was with.
"Thank you!" She said as their hotdogs were handed to them and Jess paid. They started walking away and after she swallowed her first yummy bite she continued. "Oh my god, this is really good!"
"I'm glad you like it."
"I feel very urban today."
"Oh yeah, the plaid just screams urban."
"I think I look like a native."
"How well do you know Manhattan?"
"I've been here a few times, we saw the Bangles here."
"When was that? 20 years ago?"
"It was a reunion and they were great."
"Yeah, they were okay."
"And a couple years ago mom brought us here to shop and we couldn't find a parking place and all the parking lots were total rip-offs, she kept making u-turns and cutting off taxis, and we were being screamed at in so many different languages that we just turned around and went home and bought a Hummel at the store in Stars Hollow."
"How very adventurous."
"I'm just saying, I'm no stranger to the Big Apple."
"You are if you're calling it the Big Apple."
"So I don't have the lingo down yet but at least I have the attitude."
"You do, huh?"
"Oh yeah, you saw that guy, he was staring at us in like, and instead of ignoring him like I'd normally do, I just fixed him with a whithering stare."
"I still don't think that's fair, and in fact, I'm not sure if I believe you, you were facing away from me, and I saw no whithering stare."
"Well, I did."
"Then I've gotta see it."
"No."
"Come on, let me see your whithering stare!"
"It's dangerous, I could hurt you."
"I've been hurt before."
"No."
He sighed and looked away, "I'm disappointed."
Rory shrugged, letting him know it wasn't going to happen. Jess took a chance as they were walking and 'accidentally' let his hand rub against hers, when she didn't pull away he went further and let his fingers slip in between hers. He couldn't stop the smile when she let her fingers intertwine with his. She was surprised when he turned and walked into one of the subway entrances.
"Where are you going?"
"The subway."
"Oh, I thought we would walk."
"It's 15 blocks. Come on, I think you'll like it." He cajoled.
"Do they allow hot dogs in the subway?" She still had about half left and had no intention of throwing it away. She felt mildly embarrassed when he laughed.
"You are so an out-of-towner."
She rolled her eyes and let him lead her down the stairs. It only took her a few minutes on the subway to start enjoying the new experience. She spent most of the time during the ride people watching, looking around at the people of the city who did this every day, who got to live in such an exciting place for so long it lost its excitement for them, all the different types of people from the rich looking businessmen to the group of teenagers probably skipping school like her, to the homeless person sleeping, that one made her sad, not all of it was pretty but she could see why someone like Jess would like it here so much more than Stars Hollow.
Jess was sitting next to her reading his book but she didn't even notice too lost in her own thoughts and watching the other people around them. She was brought out of her head when he touched her shoulder, she realized he was standing up, and he nodded to the door. "Come on, our stop is next."
She nodded and stood up, following him. It was only about a two-block walk from the subway to the record store, she was right when she told him it'd be cool to be in the city with someone who knew it. She didn't feel like a tourist at all when she was walking with him. Her eyes opened wide when they walked into the store, it wasn't as if it was the biggest music store she'd ever seen before or anything but there was just a feeling inside it. She immediately started looking through the different records and Jess followed. She was lost in the records wishing she brought much more money than she did.
"I haven't even heard of half these bands," Jess said.
Rory stopped looking for a second and took a step closer to him, "I love that about this place. God, Lane would want to live here!"
Jess laughed, "Yeah she would, we should get her something, I told her about this place before, getting here is on her bucket list, or her 'as soon as I can get away from Mrs. Kim' list. Rory laughed and went back to looking. After a few more minutes of looking, Jess picked up a record that looked interesting and brought it over to Rory, "Who's Slint?"
"I don't know."
He turned it over, and someone next to them answered, "Grunge quartet out of Kentucky. Two albums plus a double a-side single. Disbanded in '94"
"Thanks," Jess said and the guy nodded before he got back to work.
"Oh my god!"
"What?" Jess asked and looked at what Rory was holding, "The go-go's, you must have that one already."
"No, for my mom, she'd love it! This was her favorite group when she was my age and it's signed by Belinda."
"Thinking ahead for an apology present in case we get caught?" Jess laughed.
"It might have crossed my mind, and if not she's graduating soon, I've been looking for a present for a while. You'd think it'd be easier to choose a present for someone you're so similar to."
"Graduation?"
"From college, from business classes."
"Wow, when does she have the time?"
"I know, right? She works so hard, I just want to get her something nice."
"You should get it, I can hold on to it for you if you're worried she'd find it beforehand."
"Okay, yeah, that might work. It's not like she snoops through my things or anything but we have a pretty open-door policy on both our rooms and closets."
"Ahh."
"Thank you so much for bringing me here, this was fate."
"I think it was."
"And in return, I just might show you my whithering stare." She said as she was walking to the counter to check out.
"I'm a lucky man." He said as he went back to looking, he couldn't help but to sneak a few looks at Rory though and he smiled a little bit when she looked back at him too. He grabbed that copy of Slint, they sounded interesting enough and he didn't want to walk out of the store with nothing, it wasn't like he was able to come here as often as he used to. By the time he was checked out Rory was waiting at the door for him but she was lost in the bargain bins. "Are you ready to go? We still have a few more stops to hit."
She sighed, "Yeah, it's probably for the best, I could see myself getting lost in here spending hours just perusing."
"Oh, if you want to peruse, I got the place for you."
This time they were able to travel on foot since the bookstore was close, when they made it to the store Jess was surprised when Rory became excited though he probably shouldn't have been. "You've heard of it before?"
"The Strand? Uh yeah, it's the last one of the used bookstores that used to make up Book Row, right?"
"Should have known a weirdo like you would know about that."
She scoffed, "As if I'm the only book weirdo in this relationship."
"You got me there." He said with another little smile. He opened the door for her and she was surprised when she realized there were stairs, and it was clearly open to the public, "It's four stories." Jess mumbled in her ear before they were off.
Rory wasn't sure how much time they spent in the store or how much money they'd ended up spending but she did know she was about 20$ short for her purchases, thankfully Jess put the money up before she had a chance to be embarrassed, well, too embarrassed anyway. When they walked out of the store she looked over to him. "Thanks, I'll pay you back when we get home."
"Don't worry about it."
"Of course, I'm going to worry about it!"
"Rory, I invited you here, it's my treat."
She decided to not fight about this now but she'd make sure to give him the money somehow. She checked her wrist watch and her eyes opened wide. "Jess, it's already 2:30, we have to get going soon. My mom will worry if I'm not home by 6-7 at the latest, I'm supposed to have the paper today so she expects me to be late but not too late."
"Okay, okay, yeah we were in there a long time, weren't we? We'll have to have a more scheduled trip here in the future so I can finish showing you everything I wanted to."
Rory blushed at the thought of doing this again but not so spur of the moment and in secret, "Yeah, I'd like that."
"I got an idea, you're probably hungry, right?" Her stomach let out a timely growl and she nodded her head, "Let's grab something to eat and then we'll head back to the buses."
She nodded once. "Okay, where do you want to eat?"
"Come on," he said without answering and grabbed her hand before walking off in a direction clearly with a place already in mind, she just followed, trusting that he wouldn't bring her anywhere bad or somewhere that she wouldn't like.
This time the walk was about 15 minutes and she was surprised that it looked like they were walking into a diner, she was expecting something different, there were diners in Connecticut, heck, he worked at one. It made more sense as they were walking to a seat when he started nodding at people who called out his name. They took a seat and she looked around.
"You know people here?"
"This was the first place I ever worked."
"How long ago was that?" She never had a real job before and it seemed that Jess had been working for a while if he was already on his second, at least. She was confused when he cringed and didn't answer the question right away. She reached over and put her hand on top of his, in the back of her mind there was a reminder that she was getting far too comfortable touching him like that and it wasn't okay but that thought was easily pushed away. "Jess?"
Jess didn't want to tell her, he didn't want her to feel bad for him and he definitely didn't want to see that look of pity in her eyes that was in Luke's more often than not nowadays. On the other hand, he didn't want to lie to her, he knew it was stupid, and even a childish fantasy but he wanted her to know him, the good and the bad parts, he wanted her to like him for who he really was, even the parts that made most people cringe when they heard. He knew he couldn't do that though, not yet anyway but he could answer at least this one question. "I started here about seven years ago."
"Sev— what? Jess that'd make you like ten, right? Unless you're older than I thought you were."
"No, not older, I'm 17 years old."
"What— isn't that illegal? Why?" She had too many questions and she wanted to get to the bottom of them but they were interrupted by an older Hispanic lady making her way over to them with a face that was somehow showing anger, worry, relief, and happiness all at the same time "Jess Marino, that better not be you. You've got some nerve showing up here after up and disappearing for two months with not a peep from you."
Rory was surprised to see the smile on his face when he looked at the woman, "Tia, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you."
He stood up by the time she made it over to them and gave him what Rory could only describe as a bear hug, when she pulled back she put her hands on his cheeks and looked at him. "Let me get a good look at you, how are you doing? Are you alright? What happened? Did Liz get you kicked out again? You're looking good, healthy, that's good, I was worried, and don't even get me started on Javier, he's been moping around here since you left."
"I'm good, I'm with my uncle, Javier didn't tell you? He was supposed to. Liz sent me away telling him she couldn't handle me anymore."
Carmin scoffed, "That woman is a piece of work. And so is my son apparently because no, he didn't tell me."
"I didn't have time to stop by before I left, I was woken up by a duffle bag thrown at my face and a bus ticket, I had to leave less than an hour later. I called him though." Jess looked down at Rory almost as if he forgot she was there for a second before grabbing her hand quickly to get her to stand up, she took the hint and nervously flattened her school skirt after she was standing. She had a feeling she was meeting someone very important to Jess, almost like meeting his mom, except this wasn't really his mom, obviously. Either way, she could tell this woman meant a lot to Jess and vice versa.
"Rory, this is Carmin, Carmin, this is my friend Rory."
Rory held out her hand to shake but was a little surprised when Carmin pulled her in for a hug with a big smile on her face, "Get in here, any friend of Jess' is one of mine."
Rory was pretty sure she heard the air quotes around the word friend when it came out of her mouth and wondered if she had a sign over her head that she couldn't see announcing her feelings for Jess. She did enjoy the hug though, it almost felt like this woman radiated warmth. When Carmin pulled away she looked at Rory with her hand on her cheeks the same way she looked at Jess. Rory could do nothing else but stammer out, "Nice to meet you."
Carmin smiled again before pulling away completely and looking back at Jess, "So where is this 'uncle' of yours hiding you?" Yup, this time Rory was positive she heard the air quotes, and she didn't like what they inferred, Luke was the best and did a lot for the people he cared about, as far as she could tell he was a great uncle to Jess and no one had any reason to say otherwise. She kept her mouth shut on the subject though, for now anyway. She didn't want to make a bad impression and didn't know her enough to judge or know what she was getting at.
"Connecticut, it's fine though, I have a roof over my head, and food, I can't complain. Well, other than the fact it's so quiet there, I can't sleep without music playing because it's completely silent."
"Is this where you met your new friend?" She asks looking back over to Rory.
"Yeah, we just came up here for the day, we actually have to be heading back soon, unfortunately. I was hoping to introduce her to Javier and a few other people but we lost too much time in The Strand." Rory was sure she'd never heard Jess talk this much ever, like in this conversation alone she was almost positive that he spoke more words than all the words he said in the two months she'd known him.
"Ahh, another reader. I swear, I've never seen anyone with their nose in a book as much as this one." She told Rory and Rory smiled, Carmin turned back to Jess, "How's your writing going, have you been keeping up with it?"
Rory's eyes opened wide, she didn't know Jess liked to write, she looked over at him and could tell he was embarrassed but she didn't understand why, it was nothing to be embarrassed about. Jess looked away from Rory not wanting to see her reaction, vaguely he answered. "Yeah, you know, when I have time."
"Hmm. What am I doing? Sit down, sit down, eat, you said you have to leave soon. You know you have to try this new dish we're working on. It's on the house, obviously. Rory, do you have any eating restrictions?"
"Nope, I'll eat almost anything you put in front of me, unless there's too much veggies in it."
"My kind of lady. Okay, sit tight, I'll be back in a minute." She smiled at Rory and patted Jess' shoulders on her way back to the kitchen.
"So Carmin, she seems nice." Rory ventured after a few moments of silence.
"Yeah, she's like family to me, she makes everyone call her tía. Her son Javier is one of my best friends, I met them here."
"When you were working here… at ten years old."
"Rory…"
"No, I just, I don't get it, why?"
Jess looked out the window and stayed quiet for so long Rory was positive she wasn't going to get an answer before he eventually sighed and turned back to her. "I didn't really have a choice, I was hungry and my mom wasn't around to make sure I was fed, I had no other family so I had to figure it out myself."
Rory felt herself pale and she felt so bad and sympathetic towards Jess, she just wanted to hug him and take away all his pain, that wasn't a fair thing for a kid to have to go through, he didn't deserve it.
"Rory, stop." Rory jumped at the serious almost angry tone in his words, "Don't look at me like that, don't feel bad for me, don't treat me any different than you did a few minutes ago. I'm fine, not some sob story, that's why I don't tell people shit like this."
"O-okay, but why didn't you go to Luke? He would have helped you."
"He came and visited enough, he knew where I was living, who I was living with. He had no problem coming to visit on Christmas and left with a smile on his face a few hours later. He didn't care enough to do anything."
"I don't believe that, I have to believe if he knew he'd have done what he could have to help you."
"That's your right, I guess."
"No, really Jess, I know it."
"Okay, then he was just a blind idiot, whatever."
She opened her mouth to push her point more before realizing that probably wouldn't help the situation at all, and wouldn't change the past. She looked at him and realized he closed in on himself, his shoulders were slouched inwards, his head was lowered, and his arms were crossed over his chest. He said he didn't want to talk about this or for her to treat him differently, so she wouldn't, though sometime in the future she made a promise to herself to get more information. For now, she'd get back to their fun day that they were having before this conversation ever happened. "So, what do you think she's making us?"
He looked at her surprised and then smirked at her in a way that could almost be considered a smile if you squint hard enough. "Not sure, she doesn't own the place or anything but she's worked here since it opened so the owner pretty much lets her do whatever she wants. Could be anything."
"Hmm, interesting. You know I like a good food surprise, Al's Pancake World would have gone out of business a long time ago otherwise."
Jess chuckled, "That's true, some of the stuff you and your mom eat I'm sure wasn't meant for human consumption."
"Hey, we're not that bad!"
"Oh please, you know I'm right."
"I know no such thing." She said faking indignation.
Carmin came over to the table with two delicious-smelling pasta dishes. Rory inhaled and asked, "Mhmm, what is this."
"Like I said it's something new I'm working on, "Lemon chicken with a creamy lemon and pepper pasta sauce. No veggies on the side." She joked.
Rory smiled but didn't say anything else because now that the food was in front of her, her stomach was growling even louder, she didn't realize how hungry she was.
"Thanks, tía, smells delicious like always," Jess said before digging in.
"No problem, you guys enjoy and you mister." She said poking him one time in the shoulder, "Make sure you say goodbye to me before you leave. Javier will be so upset he missed you."
"Next time I'll make sure to call instead of just showing up."
"You better." She said sternly but with a smile on her face before making her way back into the kitchen.
Rory and Jess didn't say another word before they put their forks down, neither of them realized how long it had been since the hot dog. Rory was the first to finish and she looked at Jess with a smile. "We have to teach Luke how to make that!"
"Seconded." Jess agreed as he finished. He looked at the clock on the wall a second later, "Shit, we have to go if we want to make it home on time."
Rory looked and her eyes widened. "Oh god, we have to go now."
Jess agreed with a nod and stood up, he quickly ran to the counter and called Carmin's name, she came out a few moments later and Rory walked up to join them. "Sorry we have to eat and run but we're late, we probably shouldn't have even stopped here but I couldn't resist."
"Damn right, I'd have kicked your behind if I found out you were in the city and didn't stop in at least to let me know you're okay. Alright, go, go, I don't want you two getting in trouble and not being able to come back for another visit."
"Thanks," Jess said, and Rory was surprised that this time he was the one to initiate the hug, usually the only time she saw Jess involved with a hug he was awkwardly standing, unsure what to do when the other person was hugging him.
This time Rory wasn't surprised when she got pulled into a hug too, she smiled when she pulled away. "It was so nice meeting you."
"You too honey, Now I'm expecting you to come back soon."
"I'll try."
"Good."
Jess waved at Carmin one more time before they were on their way out of the restaurant and to the subway to get to the bus station. She was grateful Jess was here because she was sure she'd have gotten on the wrong subway track and ended up in Queens or something. She had a big goofy smile on her face most of the way back to the bus because she was in such a great mood from the fun day she had with Jess. She looked over to him and noticed his lips were ticked up a little too, which she was coming to learn might as well be a bright smile when it came to Jess.
They had just sat in their bus seats, the bus was scheduled to leave in about five minutes so Rory was stuffing all her stuff into her backpack that she picked up from the bus terminal lockers on the way. "Oh my god Jess, today was great, I had so much fun! I can't wait to tell my mom…" She trailed off when she remembered that her mom didn't actually know what she was doing today.
"It's fine, Rory, just blame it all on me, say I kidnapped you if you have to tell her. Though if she hasn't paged you by now you're probably safe."
"What about Luke? He isn't going to wonder where you are?"
Jess scoffed. "Yeah right, he's so oblivious he doesn't even know I have a second…" Jess trailed off when he realized he said too much.
"A second what?"
"Nothing."
She sighed, "Aren't we past this by now? Don't you get that you can trust me?"
It was Jess' turn to sigh, he patted her knee softly and didn't really think about it when he left his hand there. "It's not that Rory, it's just, I'm not really used to explaining myself, I guess."
"Oh, yeah, I get that. In the sort of way that I don't get it at all because I've never had that but understand where you're coming from. You don't have to tell me."
He sighed again, "He doesn't know that I have a second job."
"What? Why do you need one? Where?" She realized her questions were probably one of the reasons he didn't want to tell her in the first place when he just quirked his brow at her. "Sorry."
"I'm saving up for a car, it's really expensive with gas, maintenance, insurance, stuff like that. Plus I feel better when I have an emergency stash and some cash to spend. You're an expensive friend to have, I had to pay 90 dollars just to have lunch with you." He joked.
"Hey, I didn't ask you to do that!"
"I know that I just, you know, like hanging out with you or whatever." He looked away shyly and Rory couldn't help but find it adorable.
"Yeah, well, I like hanging out with you too."
He looked over at her, "Yeah?"
"Yeah."
Without consciously deciding anything Rory quickly felt herself leaning closer to Jess, she wasn't sure what she was doing until her lips touched his. Just was surprised, frozen for a second, and just as Rory started to pull away embarrassed Jess surged forward and kissed her back.
It lasted for a few seconds and Rory couldn't help but think that this was the best kiss she'd ever had, why wasn't it like this when she kissed Dean? Her whole body froze at the thought of Dean, she realized this was the first time he'd entered her mind all day. She was a terrible girlfriend and she definitely shouldn't be kissing anyone else right now. What was she doing? She pulled back abruptly and pulled her hand to her lips while she looked in front of her lost in her own thoughts.
"Rory?" Jess ventured tentatively a few moments later, he started to reach over to touch her shoulder but pulled back when he decided she didn't look like she really wanted to be touched right now. "Are you okay?"
"I have a boyfriend!"
Jess flinched as if she slapped him. Bitterly he replied, "Yeah, I guess so."
The sound of bitterness in his voice made her look at him and she felt terrible, he looked sad, distant, and even blocked off like he was trying to hide his emotions from her. "Jess…"
"You kissed me Rory, not the other way around. I don't understand what you want from me."
" I know that…"
"I asked you if you wanted me to back off, and you said no, you basically told me you like me too."
"I do…"
"And another thing, I didn't force you to come today, and I didn't force you to hold my hand, you did that on your own."
"I know…"
"Good, I'm glad you know because I sure as hell don't. I have no idea what you want from me."
"I don't either."
"Well, it's about time you figured it out because it's not fair to me. Fuck, it's not fair to your oaf of a boyfriend either." Jess refused to look at her after he said those final words and he had all intentions of keeping that promise until he heard her sniffling. He turned to look at her and saw her hunched over herself and he knew she was crying. "Oh jeez, Rory, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry."
Without thinking too much about whether it was a good idea or if she even wanted the comfort he reached over and wrapped his arms around her, he was relieved when she leaned into him. He lightly rubbed her back and held her close, unsure of what else to do, he wasn't normally one to try to comfort someone who was sad. Especially because as far as he could tell, she was sad because she had feelings for him, which didn't feel too good when he thought about it.
That's why he was surprised when she looked up at him a few minutes later and said, "I have to break up with Dean."
He was proud when he was able to hold back a triumphant smirk at her words. "You do?"
"Yeah, I know you're right, I'm not being fair to either of you. And, and I've known I had to for a while, I just didn't want to hurt him, he's not a bad guy."
Jess tended to disagree but didn't voice his opinion. Plus he figured saying anything to the contrary would just keep the subject on Forrester longer and he had no want to talk about him any more than strictly necessary. "Okay."
"So uh, yeah that's what I have to do. And no more of that" She said pointing at his lips then hers, "Until I do."
"A real shame." He meant that too, but he understood her reasoning, whatever happened between them she didn't want it to start from them being cheaters, and he had to agree with her. He pulled her close so she was no longer curled into herself and she let herself rest her head on his shoulder, that was okay, right? "Alright, Gilmore, I can agree with your terms. No more funny business until after you talk with the boyfriend."
"Yeah, thanks, Jess."
He didn't verbally respond, instead, he kissed the top of her head without thinking about it. He pulled back enough to be able to look at her in her face, "Wait, that doesn't count, right?"
She giggled, "Right."
"Good." They were quiet just enjoying each other's company the rest of the ride home.