Title: When She Cries
Book: III
Chapter: Seven
Chapter Title: Why Did She Mess With Forever?
Rating: R.
Disclaimer: Aye, captain. I hold
no deeds to Gilmore Girls. And I don’t own John Mayer’s Why Did You Mess
With Forever?
*
Now everything inside me tells me I should run to you/
And throw my arms around you/
Hold your steaming crying cheek against my own/
And tell you nothings wrong.
It was amazing how showers could
transform a person. Lola had gotten out of bed, from what her Grams was
threatening to call ‘the great depression’, took a long shower. Followed by a
hot bath, and then did a quick filing of her nails. Curled her hair and voila!
She was beautiful again. And ostensibly Lola.
She had left later than she had
originally planned when Dallie had made his phone call, but she was leaving
from Stars Hollow, rather than Princeton. Lola pulled into the dorm parking lot
and readjusted her shades before she got out. Dallie had promised to be outside
of the dorms, waiting for her. And if Dallie had promised…then it was going to
come true.
Then she found him. Sitting on the curb, by two suitcases and a brunette. He always did have that misfortunate affinity for those with the darker hues. Dallie stood as he saw her approaching, and the brunette gave her a startled look, that quickly darkened. Oh, was she causing trouble in paradise? How sad.
“Afternoon, darling,” she greeted
him coolly. Ah, it was like stepping back into a time machine.
“You’re late,” Dallie returned,
picking up his duffel bag.
“By eleven minutes,” Lola told him.
Dallie and his specifics. Lovely. “Arrest me?”
“If only I had the authority,” he
answered, picking up his other suitcase with his hand. The duffel bag was for
the books he had homework to do from, and the suitcase was clothes and other
personal items. Not that he didn’t have that stuff at home.
Sierra had been literally biting her
tongue until this point. But the words from the blonde had brought up rather
disturbing sexual images that were no doubt her intention. If her best friend
weren’t one, she’d say she hated blondes. Just from this meeting. She turned
sweetly to Dallie, “Introduce me?”
“Um, okay,” he hadn’t actually had
to introduce Lola to anyone in forever. Where they came from, she was simply
known. “Lola, this is Sierra…”
Lola interrupted him, “Like the
club?”
As usual, Dallie ignored her. “And
Sierra, this is Lola.”
Sierra glared at Lola, “Like the
showgirl? Or the transvestite?”
“Touché,” Lola said before banishing
Sierra’s presence from her mind. She turned to Dallie, “I assume you’re all
ready to return home?”
The word reminded Sierra of how
Dallie had described Lola. It had been no more than the simple words of ‘I grew
up with her.” No one ‘grew up’ with a girl like Lola. Growing up with someone
implied birthday parties, sleepovers and embarrassing photos of the two of them
taking baths together. That was innocent, practically related stuff. There was
nothing innocent about Lola DuGrey. Sierra should have known that just from the
name. There was never a harmless woman named Lola. She was sure that if she
looked it up in the history, she’d find that all Lolas were jezebels.
“Yeah, let’s go,” Dallie was
answering Lola, snapping Sierra out of her inner musings.
This wasn’t sitting so well with her
anymore. She felt flustered, and bothered. And she wanted to grab Dallie around
his waist and dig her heels in so he wouldn’t be able to go. It wasn’t a
comfortable feeling. However, the homicidal urge she felt towards Lola was.
Maybe she should start seeing a shrink again.
Dallie turned towards her and gave
her a kiss on the lips. Her forehead furrowed. Had it been too short? Had it
been done purposefully done in front of Lola? Had he not lingered because Lola
was there? Since when did she become overly analytical?
“Gee, just when you think you’ve
seen When Harry Met Sally one too many times…” Lola broke in; running
her hands threw her perfectly spiraled hair. “People go and reenact a scene
from it. Right before your own eyes.”
Harry and Sally had driven off
together, leaving his girlfriend behind. What had become of that girlfriend?
Absolutely nothing, she had been left in the dust while Harry and Sally went
off, exchanging orgasm information. What would have happened had the girlfriend
gone with them? Would the movie ended any different?
Dallie pushed Lola gently on the
shoulder, making her go forward. “Is there a chance we can make this entire
trip without you uttering a word?”
Lola seemed to have a quick moment
where she had to regain balance. Weird. Maybe Sierra’s eyes were deceiving her
into seeing faults in the otherwise perfect girl. “Not at all, Cowboy.”
Sierra hated the way that nickname
rolled, or rather purred, off the other girl’s tongue. It brought images of
riding to mind, and she wasn’t thinking about horses. As a seductress, this
girl was Grade A.
“Dallie?” The name came out of
Sierra’s mouth before she had a chance to think of what she was going to say.
Her boyfriend, that’s right her
boyfriend, turned around to look at her. “Yeah?”
“Did you happen to mention to Lola
that I’d be accompanying you on this trip?” Well, that was nearly unexpected.
“Uh….” Dallie was sputtering. If she
weren’t so caught up in creating a web of lies, she’d step back to admire how
cute he was when he sputtered.
Sierra reached forward and grabbed
the duffel bag from him as if it were her own and smiled widely. But her arms
almost sagged from the weight of the bag. Damn, did he really have to take this
many books home with him? She looked at Lola with wide-eyed innocence. “That
won’t be a problem, will it?”
Lola smirked, the smirk of a
superior girl that could see right through her. “We’re all heading the same
direction.”
Dallie still looked at her oddly,
and it looked as if he wanted to say something to her. Like pointing out she
didn’t have anything more than the clothes on her back to wear over the week.
She’d kill him if he embarrassed her like that. Fortunately he remained a good
boyfriend and didn’t say anything.
*
They were stopped at a rest stop.
They had only been in the car for an hour, but Sierra had to admit that it felt
good to be able to get out of the car and stretch. Probably because she hadn’t
planned on riding in a car this long today.
“So,” Dallie began, as soon as they
were out of the car. And Lola had gone down into the bathrooms. “Do you have
any explanation about that insanity that you displayed earlier?”
“Um,” Sierra answered. “Other than
it’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind?”
“A rational explanation.”
“Why wouldn’t I want to go to
“Well, for one,” he took a step
closer to her. “You hate my mother.”
She did, she really did. But she
shrugged it off, “I need to get over that.”
One more step closer. “You had plans
with Kait.”
Damn it, she did- didn’t she? Looks
like she had phone call to make when she got to
“It might help if you guys called
him by his name,” Dallie pointed out. He brushed a stray strand of her hair
behind her ear.
“Well,” Sierra had a hard time
thinking when Dallie was being all sweet like that. “You should hear what he
calls me.”
“Yeah?” He was smirking at her now.
“Yeah,” but that was okay because
she was smirking back.
Dallie leaned in and kissed her. And
she practically melted into him. It was times like these she could believe that
she had fallen in love with him.
And then a groan interrupted him.
“I’m going to be horribly ill.”
Dallie rolled his eyes at Lola.
“That’s very tame considering what you and Luke Ferris did in public, New Year’s
Eve, 2026.”
“I don’t remember that,” Lola walked
past them, towards the driver’s side.
“Probably because you were too drunk
to remember it,” Dallie’s words echoed Sierra’s thoughts.
“Darling, I’m never that
drunk.” Lola slipped into the car, and they all followed suit. People probably
followed Lola like that a lot. She started the car and looked pointedly at
Dallie. “However, sometimes I wish I had been.”
Everything within Sierra stilled
right in that moment. She could think Lola as a seductress as much as she
wanted, but the cold hard facts in front of her unsettled her. Had Dallie slept
with Lola? Lola had implied as much. But she couldn’t picture someone like
Dallie with someone like Lola. But there seemed to be a harshness in him that wasn’t
usually there when he was around her. He could be mean. But she had never seen
him be so to anyone else. Until Lola.
Sierra had a feeling a lot of people
had felt like everything was normal and great. Until Lola. Maybe there was a
support group out there.
*
Lola lingered in the car after
pulling into the Mariano’s driveway. She didn’t want to go home, her
grandmother had promised to keep her mouth shut until Lola had a chance to tell
her father (and mother) herself. But she didn’t want to go and tell her father.
She was the quintessential daddy’s girl, and she hated nothing more than to
disappoint him. She had thought herself above it, but she wasn’t.
Dallie stayed in the car too. Sierra
had shot out of the car because she hadn’t been smart at the rest stop, and had
to use the bathroom. Stat.
And he was looking at her funny. He
was studying her, she knew. He had spent a lot of time studying her, trying to
figure her out. But he never had, there was a sense of pride in that.
“Are you okay?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” She settled
back into her seat. She was so fucking tired. Like, all the time. She was tired
of being tired, too.
“You seem to be a little…” Dallie
trailed off as he tried to figure out the polite way to put it. “Off.”
“I’m tired.” For once, it was an
honest answer. “I did a lot of driving today.”
“I’m sorry for making you go out of
your way from Princeton,” Dallie told her softly. He was nice. Too nice. It was
one of the reasons she didn’t like him.
“I didn’t come from Princeton.”
“What?”
“I took a leave absence from
Princeton,” Lola sighed, and closed her eyes. Sleep would be so good right now.
“W-why…” For the second time in a
day, Dallie was sputtering. And Lola was glad she didn’t have the presence of
mind to consider it cute. “Why would you take a leave of absence?”
She shrugged and opened her eyes
again. “I thought it to be for the best.”
“Have you told Tristan yet?”
“It’s one of the things I’m going to
tell him about,” Lola answered. It would probably come after the other
announcement.
“Is that why you’re lingering in my
driveway?” Dallie hesitantly put his hand on her shoulder.
She shrugged off his hand, and they
both watched it drop onto the emergency brake.
“Perhaps,” Lola took off her
sunglasses. It wasn’t that sunny anyway.
“And the other reason?” He
persisted.
Why was it so hard to get two words
out? The hardest part was over, Kenzie knew. Kenzie didn’t really have a
reaction, other than the calmly handed out marriage proposal. He wasn’t going
to drag her through the legal system, and he wasn’t condemning her. Her
grandmother knew. In less than an hour, her parents would know too. So why was
it so hard to tell Dallie?
“I’m trying to keep my lunch down.” If you could
even call it a lunch. It had been a granola bar and half an apple, actually.
Not even born, and her kid already had an eating disorder. Her kid. Heavy
words, indeed.
She had confused Dallie again. It had been
habitual, purposely confusing him. “Why?”
“Being pregnant makes you vomit a lot.” Lola
rested her head down onto the steering wheel. Her whole body felt like hot and
cold flashes were warring with each other.
“And you would be?” Dallie’s voice squeaked.
“Pregnant, that is.”
“Yeah.” She didn’t lift her head up from the
steering wheel.
“Huh.”
He sounded so much like his father right there,
she wanted to laugh.
Then they were quiet. Too quiet, and she felt
the need to say something. But she didn’t. She could feel his unasked questions
in the air, and she knew they were questions she didn’t have the answers for.
Questions she didn’t want to think about. Either he would ask them and get
angry with her. Or get angry with her for not talking and leave.
Instead, his hand found his way to her shoulder
again, and he moved it in a circular pattern. Over and over again.
Lola squeezed her eyes against the tears, making
them burn. Making them ache. Her whole body shuddered and she wished that he
would go away. Why couldn’t she ever drive him away? If he knew what was good
for him, he’d let her drive him away. But he just stayed there. And she was
glad she wasn’t wearing mascara, if she had- it would be running by now.