Title: When She Cries

Book: II
Chapter: Twenty Six
Chapter Title: Word For Word

Rating: R.
Coupling: No one. They all end up alone. And dead.
Disclaimer: Aye, captain. I hold no deeds to Gilmore Girls. And I don’t own matchbox twenty’s You Won’t Be Mine.
Author’s Note: To Kait. Because she’s Kait. Oh and guess what? End of Book II.

 

*

 

Take your straight line for a curve/
Make it stretch/The same old line/
Try to find if it was worth what you spent/
Why you're guilty for the way/
You're feeling now/It's almost like being free/
And I know soon you will be.

 

So this was what life as a high school graduate felt like. It felt an awful lot like sitting in the town square in Stars Hollow as a barbeque raged on. Probably because that was what was going on at this exact moment. Lola smoothed out her skirt and stood up. This sucked. She hated Stars Hollow. Despite the fact that it represented the biggest lie she had ever seen, and everyone knew how much she loved a good lie.  Life was not like this. It was ridiculous to even have a town to pretend like it was.

 

            “Hello Lola.”

 

            She turned her head to see Kirk standing there, camera clutched in his hands. This was the perfect example. People like Kirk didn’t really exist. Actually they did, but they were put in their proper place with the straight jackets and padded white rooms.

 

            “Hey Kirk.”

 

            Kirk tapped his index fingers against the camera. “I’ve decided my life’s ambition is to be a photographer.” He paused and looked up. “I had tried it before but I believe I’ve finally reached a point in my life where I can truly appreciate the beauty of the craft.”

 

            Right. Even the word sounded dragged out and sarcastic in her head. “It sometimes takes us awhile to appreciate some things in life.”

 

            “Yes. Yes it does.” He looked around. “Nobody lets me take their picture. It’s very hard to develop a craft when you can’t practice it.”

 

            Well, um, he sure as hell wasn’t going to take a picture of her. “All good artists start off with still life.”

 

            Kirk brightened at the suggestion. “They do, don’t they? I was being overly ambitious.” He shook his head in disgust. “Stupid Kirk!”

 

            That pretty much summed it up. “No, some just have different styles. You must first try different types out first.”

 

            “Thank you, Lola,” Kirk smiled at her. “When I become a famous photographer, you’ll get my first dedication.”

 

            Like that’d ever happen. “Good luck.” She peered over his shoulder. “I see an apple tree over there.”

 

            He looked to where she had pointed. “You think an apple tree is a good place to start?”

 

            Lola nodded an affirmative. “It’s so very Americana.”

 

            “And that’s ‘in’ right now, right?”

 

            Only if you rewound time to like eighty years ago. “Very in.”

 

            Kirk thanked her one more time and then went off to photograph the apple tree. There was that. Finally. She looked to the other side and saw a person heading towards that she actually did want to see.

 

            “So this- this is Stars Hollow,” Aurora commented as she joined Lola, clutching a cup of Luke’s coffee. “It’s…different.”

 

            Understatement alert. “Isn’t it, though?” She headed towards the gazebo.

 

            Her friend didn’t reply, just took a sip of her coffee. “Ooh, I could get addicted to this stuff.”

 

            Lola sighed at that, and climbed the steps into the gazebo. “Luke will cut you off before it begins.” She sat down on the bench.

 

            Aurora looked down at the cup and shrugged. “I’ll strive not to get too attached.”

 

            “Speaking of getting attached…” She looked pointedly out at the crowd before focusing her attention onto unstrapping her sandals.

 

            “Don’t look,” Aurora warned, setting her coffee cup aside. “And my car has been temporarily revoked.”

 

            “Why?” Lola asked absently without looking up from searching her purse.

 

            Aurora fell into the seat between her coffee cup and her friend. “So that Tolly can drive me.”

 

            Duh. “How’s that going?” She asked as she pulled out her nail polish. “Sex?”

 

            “No.” Suddenly agitated, Aurora took the polish away from Lola and unscrewed the cap. “We’ve finally reached the point where we no longer aggravate each other and realize the advantage of each other so that we can be friends.”

 

            Lola set her foot up on the bench. “Too bad you haven’t realized the advantage of adding the ‘with benefits’ yet.”

            The red head scowled, not because Lola had said it, it was expected of Lola to say something like that. What annoyed her was that her thoughts lately had echoed that very same sentiment. “Don’t even. I can ruin your nails so fast.”

 

            “Yes darling,” she looked back out at the crowd.

 

            It was only fair to attempt pay back. “He gave a good speech.”

 

            Lola looked back over at Aurora. “Did you doubt that he would?”

 

            “I kind of stopped listening to his ‘speeches’ back in seventh grade,” Aurora would have shrugged except it would have destroyed the touch ups she was doing on Lola’s toenails. And she hadn’t exactly done anything deserving of that. Yet. “So I wasn’t quite sure.”

 

            “Huh,” Lola’s shoulders sagged a little. “Hindsight is such a bitch.”

 

            “Please, the perfect condition your nails are in are a testament to how much you didn’t pay attention to Dallie.” At least not during Franklin meetings.

 

            “I can multitask.”

 

            Aurora decided it better not to comment on that and finished the rest of her touch ups before screwing on that cap. “You are once again perfection, doll.”

            Lola unstrapped her other sandal and set both pairs beside her before stretching her feet out, so that her nails may dry. “Thank you, darling.” She sighed and looked at her best friend. “This is one reason college is going to suck.”

 

            Aurora couldn’t agree more.

 

*

 

            Tristan found his ex-wife sitting on the bench where the bus stop was. Rory watched as he sat down beside her.

 

            She stretched her hands out in front of her, before allowing them to settle in her lap. It was a nervous habit of hers whenever someone sat down next to her and she didn’t know what to say. Then she began to talk, words forming in her mouth before they did in her head. “So we did it.”

 

            “Isn’t this the wedding talk?” Tristan asked as he stretched his arm along the back of the bench.

 

            “Well this-this is a much more important day.”

            She would think so. “But we did manage to raise a child to graduate third in class and get accepted into Princeton.”

 

            “I would have preferred a child that graduated third and class and was going to Yale in the fall.”

            “So would I,” Tristan agreed. Three hours away was three hours too far away.

 

*

 

            Lola found him sitting by the oak tree on the edge of the square that they use to climb as children. She took in the coarse bark and looked at her flawless, porcelain skin- and man what had she been thinking at six years of age? She dropped her sandals by his side, and Dallie watched as they fell to the ground.

 

            “You look awfully brooding for a valedictorian,” she commented looking down at him. There was no way she was sitting in the grass.

 

            Dallie looked up at her, meeting her sapphire eyes. It was a good thing her clothes were dark because had she gone with something whiter, he’d be so delusional to think she looked like an angel. With her blonde hair loosely curled, her blue, blue eyes and the sun behind her creating a halo effect…it was eerie. “I’m not brooding.”

 

            “Then what are you doing?” Lola moved to the side and the halo effect was gone.

 

            It was good since he had begun questioning his own sanity. “Thinking.”

 

            “I see you’ve been taking communication lessons from your father,” her feet fidgeted.          

 

            Dallie stood up, there was no way in hell Lola was going to sit down in the grass, and he was tired of looking up at her while she looked down at him. He was either too young or too old to be dealing with such symbolism. He wasn’t sure which yet. “So?”

 

            “Buttons?” Her eyes glittered like mischief in a way he hadn’t seen since they were six.

 

            “In the years that I’ve known you, you’ve never done anything without a purpose. So I must believe you sought me out for a reason.”

 

            “Believe what you must,” Lola shrugged casually.

 

            “So you wandered aimlessly and stopped when you came across me?” He asked.

 

            “Not exactly,” It was more than she would have admitted in the past. “But I’m leaving with Rory after this.”

 

            “To?”

 

            “California,” Lola glanced back at the party. “But Northern this time. She has to interview some Senator.”

 

            “So this would be a good bye of sorts,” they had said good-bye plenty of times before, but none seemed so final.

 

            She smacked her lips. “Yeah.”

 

            Dallie leaned against the tree. “Enjoy Princeton.”

 

            Lola rocked on her heels. “Enjoy Harvard.” She rolled her eyes; she had never been craven before.  She went up on her toes, kissed him quickly on the lips and said, “Keep in touch.” And then she walked away.

 

            When she had disappeared back into the party, Dallie was pretty sure he would. But not so certain about the reason why.

 

 

Over the lies/You'll be strong/
You'll be rich in love/And you will carry on/
But no/Oh no/
No you won't be mine.

 

End of Book II.