Title: When She Cries
Book: III
Chapter: Four
Chapter Title: It’s Unfair
Rating: R.
Disclaimer: Aye, captain. I hold
no deeds to Gilmore Girls. And I don’t own John Mayer’s Tell Me What To Say.
Time
Frame: Same
day as last fic!
Author’s Note: To Katie, to brighten her day.
*
When
you were young and playing princess/
In your Mother’s dress/Into the mirror/
Dreaming
what your prince would say/
I know you still remember to this day.
There was this feeling of emerging
from a daze that you had been in too long, and were just now realizing the
reality around you. Like how a butterfly must feel when it emerges from its cocoon,
a startled thought of ‘hey- this isn’t the same place where I was last’. Now
Lola DuGrey wasn’t a blonde stereotype, or lacking any intelligence what so
ever so it wasn’t a literal thing. She knew she was in New Haven still. But she
wasn’t the same person she had last known herself as. She rubbed her forehead.
Now she was confusing herself. She hadn’t done that since high school, and even
then it was a rare occurrence the mysteriously happened when something was
related to Dallas Mariano.
Lola had left the house while Tolly
was still cooing over Aurora, who probably would have recovered from her
hangover without his coddling. But that was her personal opinion, and she
hadn’t been asked. So she kept her mouth shut. Her and Aurora had never gotten
into an argument concerning a boy, and she wasn’t going to be the one to rock
that particular boat. Maybe she needed to stop purposefully distracting herself
and do the task she had set out to do. But then again, she was one to avoid
reality.
“I didn’t know you were shopping
today,” came a voice before Aurora Thomas set herself in between Lola and the
shelf.
Lola moved on, and ran a hand
through her blonde hair. “It was a spur of a moment kind of thing.”
Aurora fell into step with her,
“Well, you still should have told me. I would have come.”
“You realize you’re far too chipper
for someone recovering from a hangover,” Lola pointed out, stealing a look at
her friend.
“Tolly has wonder drugs,” she shrugged.
“They worked miracles. I could become an alcoholic and never feel a thing.”
“Your waist would feel stretching,”
Lola told her before inwardly grimacing at the mention of gaining weight.
“There’s always a downside to the
good,” Aurora mocked disappointment. “Like sex.”
She stiffened for a moment but
regained her composure. “Sex is the ultimate example. Tons of downsides to
that.”
“But the good outweighs the bad,”
Aurora paused, almost thoughtful. “Right?”
Oh, duh. They were talking about Aurora’s
one-night stand the other night. And Aurora’s constant reassurance that having
one-night stands were okay. And could lead to something romantic. “Depends on
who you fuck.”
She frowned. “That doesn’t look too
promising.”
Lola wrapped her arm around her
friend’s waist and squeezed. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m over it,” the girls separated
and continued walking on. “So what are we shopping for?”
“Um,” she tugged on the end of a
blonde lock. “Nothing that important. Just shopping.”
“Because shopping at a dirty
supermarket is fun?” Aurora looked at Lola oddly. “If I wasn’t shopping for
anything important I’d at least head down to Starbucks.”
“I’m not in the mood for caffeine,”
Lola said, biting her lower lip. “But you can head over if you want.”
“You’re not being fun today,” Aurora
commented. “And your basket is empty. What are we shopping for, Lorelai?”
She was always in trouble if
someone, other than Dallie or her paternal grandparents that was, called her
Lorelai. “Nothing.”
“I’m going to find out sooner or
later.” And so they regressed back to primary school. “So you may as well tell
me.”
That wasn’t necessarily true. But it
was, she’d bet her trust fund that Aurora would find out. “Or you could be
patient and wait.”
“Or you could tell me.”
“We could do this for a very long
time,” Lola pointed out. And she didn’t want to do it for a short time, let
alone an extended amount of time.
Aurora shook her head, “No, only
until nine. It closes at nine.”
Lola rolled her eyes and set her
basket down, it was probably for the better, but she’d still have to disinfect
her hands when she got home. Then she led Aurora down the aisle and stopped.
Pulled a box off the shelf and placed it in her friend’s hands.
“That’s what I’m here to get.” She
regretted doing this immediately after she had set the basket down. But what
was done was done, time to get over it and move on. She didn’t spend a lot of
time regretting things. Maybe that’s what landed her in this situation.
Aurora’s mouth and eyes had widened
in surprise. “Well.” Her gaze dropped down to Lola’s stomach. “Um, wow. Wow.”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry, I think I just said ‘wow’ more times than I did
last night.”
“That’s not good, it was only two
‘wow’s,” Lola looked around uncomfortably. “Can we go now?”
Aurora shook her head and placed the
test back onto the shelf. “Not that one. I never trust anything that says ‘easy
and fast’. We’ll let that speak for its self.” She reached over and picked up a
box from a higher shelf. “This seems more reliable.”
So it was settled. Now if only that
was the hardest part of the whole thing.
*
Waiting was something that Lola
DuGrey absolutely disdained. It made her insides frazzled. Feeling frazzled was
something Lola hated more than waiting. So you could see how screwed she was on
this whole waiting deal. It wasn’t helping matters at all, with Aurora pacing
back in forth in her spacious room. There was nothing more than Lola wanted
than to be back in her room at Hartford. How far away was New Haven from
Hartford? She couldn’t even remember. She hated that. She hated a lot of things
recently.
“Did those drugs that Bartholomew
gave you earlier happen to be uppers?” Lola asked, lying back down on the bed.
Aurora stopped in mid-pace. “No.”
Apparently she had lost her sense of humor. “How can you be so calm? It’s
inhuman.”
Maybe she was inhuman. Lola leaned
up and rested on her elbows. “I took downers earlier,” she offered.
Yup, Aurora had definitely lost her
sense of humor because she was glaring at Lola now. “Can you show an emotion,
please?”
“Why should I when you’re overdosing
on them?”
“Lorelai.”
Second time today. “Aurora.”
Her friend crossed her arms across
her chest, “Fine. What do you suggest you do while we wait?”
“There’s plenty to do. We could book
appointments. I need a trim, before I develop split ends. And a new French
manicure. Or we could be lazy and watch a movie. The other night I got out my
copy of JFK, and it’s always fun to see the government killing its own
president. There’s also the matter of the horrible bags under your eyes that we
must get rid of,” Lola shrugged as she lay back down. “Take your pick.”
She sat down on the edge of the bed.
“How about the option where we talk about what you’re going to do?”
“Sounds too WB for me.”
Aurora sighed. She had almost
forgotten how impossible talking to Lola was. “You have a limited time to dwell
on options, Lo.”
“Are you still drunk?” Lola
questioned, as the phone rang. “Hey- look, you can stop now. My conscience is
calling.” She reached over and answered it. “Hello, darling.”
“How much would it cost me to ask a
favor?” She was asked without preamble.
Huh, she had been right. “$17.95.
You caught me in a magnanimous mood.”
“I can see how generous that is,
Lola,” Dallie replied. “Do you think you could take a little detour on your way
home for Thanksgiving break?”
There was something she liked and
hated about Dallas Mariano. Since she had grown up with him, he had this
ability to make her feel any age again. From birth to the age of eighteen. This
was a bad thing because- really who wanted to feel like they were at the awkward
ages of 10 through 13 again? Or an infant? But it was good right now, because
she wanted to feel any age except the one she was at.
She played with the end of her hair.
“How big of a detour?”
He was hesitant; Dallie could be so
nice that it was cute. He also had the ability to make her feel like a complete
and utter bitch. That too, was a good and bad thing. “Um, one to Cambridge?”
That was a big, extra two-hour long
detour. “Okay.” Which is why it surprised her when that word came out of her
mouth.
“Okay?” Dallie sounded suspicious.
Was she really that much of a bitch? That question was most likely better left
unanswered.
“Okay.” She reiterated. Lola would
ask herself why she was agreeing to this, but she was too busy suppressing the
overwhelming need just to see him again.
“Okay,” he parroted. “You’ll give me
the details later on?”
The timer went off in the other
room. Oh right. “Yeah, I’ll call you.” And then she hung up. She had the habit
of being somewhat abrupt like that.
Lola decided then she didn’t need a
test, doctors or anyone else to tell her what she all ready knew. And she wasn’t
sure how she felt about that.