Title: When She Cries

Book: II
Chapter: Fourteen
Chapter Title: The Reason Card

Rating: R.
Coupling: Ultimately: Dallie/Jess, Gracie/Fin, Devon/Bent, Trixie/Ethan, Kait/Jess, Priya/Tolly. Now aren’t you glad I’ve spoiled myself in that way?

Disclaimer: Aye, captain. I hold no deeds to Gilmore Girls. And I don’t own matchbox twenty’s Damn.
Author’s Note: To Kait, because I extra-extra-extra-love her. To Jess, because she is my evil-plotter. To Ash, because she writes TWTA! And to Summer, just because she’s so cool.

 

 

*

 

This old world/Well/
Don't it make you wanna think damn?

 

 

            Brochures sucked majorly. Zander Hanes’s floor was seriously coated in the things, Lola was afraid to move from her spot in the floor for anything. So, yeah, her cell phone would just have to continue to ring. At this point she didn’t care about anything- not who was calling her, not what college she was going, and, okay, so she cared a little bit about the pain that was pounding at the sides of her head because she had been wearing her glasses for so long. The ringing stopped. Now she had a new message on her cell phone or they had finally given up. Either way, all Lola had to say was “hallelujah”.

 

            “I think I know how I’m going to decide what colleges I’ll apply to,” Lola announced to her long time friend.

 

            Zander looked up from the brochure he had been reading. “Please do share what system that is, my darling DuGrey.”

 

            “I am going to close my eyes,” She tossed the brochure she had been looking at off to the side. “And then I am going to pick up eight random brochures. And I will apply to those eight schools.”

 

            Zander smirked. “Very scientific. And flawless, too.”

 

            “Well this could have all been avoided if you had told me what schools I should apply to,” Lola reminded him, rubbing the back of her neck.

 

            “Right. So you can call me up next year and bitch me out for making you go to school you hate,” Zander shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

 

            “Well I need someone to blame.”

 

            “I stopped being your punching bag last year,” he reminded her. “You should have found a new one by now.”

 

            “When was this? I don’t remember ever relieving you of your duties.”

 

            Zander thought about it for a moment. “When you broke up with Reese Morgan at Spring’s New Year’s Party.”

 

            Lola made a pfft-ing noise with her lips. “I was so fucked up that night. Like I can remember that.”

 

            “You remembered that you broke up with Morgan,” he pointed out, setting aside the brochure.

 

            “That’s because I planned it in advanced and wrote it down,” Lola told him.

 

            He looked at her curiously, “How fucked up were you that night?”

            She put her index and thumb together, brought it up to her lips and sucked in. “That much.”

 

            “Must have been after I talked to you,” Zander was pretty sure that she had just been drunk when he talked to her. But, then again, he had been pretty fucked up that night too.

 

            Lola shrugged, “Probably.”

            “Do you have any colleges written down yet?”

 

            “I think I’m going with the normal,” she sighed, scribbling down eight schools in her notebook. “Yale. Harvard. Princeton. Smith. Columbia. Brown. Cornell.” She looked up at him. “I need an eighth.”

 

            “UCLA?”

 

            Lola narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t make me throw brochures at you. Serious suggestion please.”

 

            “Colgate?”

 

            “Good as any,” Lola replied as she wrote it down in her notebook. “Now, now. That was not that difficult. I can’t believe you made me sit here for four hours and read a bunch of brochures when all I had to do is look at the Chilton brochure that tells you what schools that a Chilton education will help you get into.”

 

            “But what do you know about them?” Zander challenged.

 

            “That they’re elitist,” she answered simply. “What more could I possibly need to know?”

 

            Thankfully Zander’s phone rang so he didn’t have to reply to that particular comment. “Hello?”

 

            “Um, hi,” came the hesitant, female, reply. “Zander?”

 

            It was female. And all the females he knew were over stuffed with confidence so it couldn’t be one of them. “This is he.”

 

            “This is, um, Ashley.”

 

            Oh, well that made sense then. “Hey Leese, what’s up?”

 

            “Nothing, really,” Ashley answered. “Just, uh, trying out your phone number.”

 

            “Well try it out any time you want,” Zander assured her, watching with interest as Lola start rubbing her lower back. He motioned her over to him.

 

            “Thanks.”

 

            “I’m glad you called however,” his own hands started to massage Lola’s lower back for her. She let out a moan of appreciation. “Because I’m having this birthday party thing next week. And I wanted to invite you.”

 

            Ashley reached for a nearby notebook to write the necessary information down. “When next week?”

 

            “Saturday night,” Zander replied, “oh, and invite Mariano too, while you’re at it.”

 

            Lola looked up with interest.

 

            “Second Mariano, Lolly,” he clarified for her, before turning back to his conversation with Ashley. “I don’t think you’ll need directions if Dev brings you.”

 

            “Lolly?” Ashley questioned.

 

            “Just DuGrey’s pet name,” Zander explained dismissively. “But ask him, and then you can get back to me with the affirmative or negative.”

 

            “Okay,” she agreed. “I have class with him in twenty-five minutes, so I’ll get back to you after that.”

            Zander said his goodbye to her and hung up.

            Lola tilted her head back, her blonde hair falling back to tap him lightly on his chest, and her black framed glasses sliding up slightly on her nose. “Who was that?”

 

            “Mutual friend of mine and Dev’s,” Zander replied, bringing his hand up to tip her head back to normal.

 

            “Female?” She questioned, and went to tip her head back again, but he put up his hand to stop her. “Wait, who do you and Devon know that I don’t?”

 

            “No one,” he assured her, bringing his hands down to her lower back again.

 

            Lola pouted. “Elusiveness is attractive on everyone except you. Don’t forget that.”

 

            Zander pinched her sides. “But it aggravates you so, Lolly.”

 

            “I’ll tell Meggie.”

 

            “Like she’ll care,” he countered, as he slipped his hands underneath the hem of her shirt. “She won’t.” And then he did the unimaginable- he tickled her.

 

            Lola shrieked and tried to free herself. A little regression after a long day was always nice.

 

 

*

 

            Thalia tapped her fingers against the edge of her keyboard. There was just no possible way to organize this. Not at all. The boys, which were what Dallie and Ethan were to be referred to as until further notice, just lived to make her life difficult. It was one big Y-Chromosome conspiracy.

 

            “When are you going to Duke?” Thalia looked behind her, over at Ethan.

 

            “Three weeks from now,” Ethan replied, before moving his chess piece. “Why?”

 

            “I was going to try and coordinate this so that any colleges we’re applying for, we can visit together,” Thalia explained. “What about Harvard? Dal?”

 

            Dallie looked up from the game. “Um, actually Thalia, I’m going next weekend.”

 

            She whirled around in her chair. “Why didn’t you mention anything?”

 

            “Because my mother arranged it for me,” he answered slowly. “And she just told me the other day I was going.”

            “It’s no big deal, Tallie,” Ethan spoke up. “I’ll go with you.”

            Thalia sighed, “What’s the point? You’ve got your mind made up on Duke.”

 

            “But I still need back up schools,” Ethan pointed out. “Which is why you’re going to Harvard. You’re first choice is Smith so it’s not that big of deal.”

            She resisted the urge to sigh again. “You’re not getting it?”

 

            “How am I not getting it?”

 

            “Haze is suffering from senioritis,” Dallie spoke up, and made his move. “Check.”

 

            Ethan moved his king absently. “Why? We still have almost a year left before the year’s over.”

 

            “Mate.” Dallie turned towards Thalia, “We can do Brown together.”

 

            “Didn’t you promise to go down with Lennon and, her twin brother Harrison?” Ethan asked.

 

            “Yale, then. It’s not that far away from here,” Dallie suggested.

 

            “Fine,” Thalia agreed. “And, Ethan, you could have so beat Dallie.”

 

            Dallie stood up. “That’s what they all say after the fact. I have to go.”

 

            “Where?” Ethan asked.

 

            “Home,” he sighed. “Dad’s working late, so I figure I should get into the kitchen before my mother gets a mind to.”

 

            “Email me with possible dates,” Thalia instructed him.

 

            Dallie waved and then left.

 

            Ethan shook his head, “I think you need a break.”

 

            Thalia couldn’t disagree with him, she even felt like she needed a break.

 

 

To Be Continued…