“Mom!” Rory burst into
Lorelai’s room.
Lorelai shifted in her bed,
turning her back to Rory. “Shh. Sleeping.”
Rory stomped into the room
already dressed in her Chilton uniform. She took the end of the comforter Lorelai
was using and whipped it off her lying form.
“Wha-? Weh? Hey!—“ Lorelai
shot up sputtering. “Now, that’s just mean.”
“Mean it may have been but
I have something called school and you have to go to work.”
“Boo! No work. I’ve decided
that no one at the Inn appreciates me. I’m going to run away to the circus. I
will be caffeine woman – astounding the audience with the enormous amount of
coffee I intake.”
“Right…Anyway, there’s an
assembly this morning for the new student council. And Paris is making me meet
her extra early so we can go over our speeches. So, if we don’t leave soon I
won’t be able to get any coffee at Luke’s. And if I don’t get any coffee this
morning because of you, I’m going to get really mean.” Rory turned towards
the door before tossing a “you have twenty minutes” over her shoulder and
leaving the room
“You are so bossy!” Lorelai
called after her. “I don’t know where you get it.” She made a face before
pulling herself out of the bed to get ready for the day.
…
“Are those new?” Rory said
looking at Lorelai’s shoes as they headed to Luke’s.
“What? No! These are my
favourite shoes.”
Rory inspected the shoes
and frowned. ”They are?”
“Yes. In fact, if they’d
have me, I’d run away with them and spend the rest of my life in sole bliss.”
Rory rose a brow.
“But no,” Lorelai
continued. “No, they are snobs and refuse to spend every waking minute with me.
Instead they’d prefer to stay in their box – alone.”
Rory blinked. “So when did
you buy them?”
“Last weekend.”
“As I thought,” Rory said
matter of factly before they walked into Luke’s.
Rory followed her mother
into the diner but abruptly stopped in her tracks. Jess and the girl without a
name, were making out at one end of the counter.
Rory hadn’t really thought
about how she’d feel when she saw them together again, but she hadn’t counted
on the tumultuous feelings raging inside of her. Anger. Pain. And the worst one
of them all…Betrayal. And it was the worst one because she shouldn’t have felt
betrayed that Jess was with someone that wasn’t her, kissing someone that
wasn’t her. He owed her nothing.
He owed her nothing,
logically she knew that but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. It didn’t stop the
anger from burning inside her.
“Rory?”
Rory looked up to see
Lorelai giving her a look of inquiry. And she suddenly realized that she’d just
been standing there staring at them.
”Sorry.” She shook her head
as if to clear it and followed her mom to their usual table.
“It’s Jess, isn’t it?”
Lorelai said abruptly.
“What? No!” Rory denied
quickly, as she turned herself so that she couldn’t see the kissing couple.
“Rory, you can’t lie to me.
I know you.”
“It’s not him. It’s just that.”
She made a disparaging gesture towards them. “It’s so disgusting. Who does
that? I mean, this is a public place and he has no right to be standing there
making us nauseous. He’s going to drive out business! People won’t be able to
keep their food down watching him shove his tongue down her throat.” Rory
stopped her tirade as she saw the look on her mother’s face.
“My God—You have feelings
for him.” Lorelai said tersely.
“No, I don’t.”
“Rory. Stop! Just stop. The
signs all point to it. Why else would you be reacting this way? Why else would
you be ignoring your great boyfriend?”
Rory shook her head vehemently.
“You’re wrong and I’m not ignoring Dean. I just spent all of yesterday with
him. And you know what? It was great…because I’m in love with him and only
him…Mom, I’m just tired and cranky and need a big cup of coffee but I can’t get
any because Romeo over there is slacking off. Where is Luke?”
“I don’t know. But the
sudden mention of coffee is getting me all jittery.” Lorelai said eager to
follow another conversational tract. “Ok, we don’t have time for this. I’m
going to go find Luke.” Lorelai got up from the table. “Are you going to be ok,
down here?”
Rory nodded and watched her
mother climb the stairs to Luke’s apartment. She turned back to Jess and the
girl and wasn’t surprised to see that they were still kissing. Just as she
wasn’t surprised when she found herself walking determinedly up to them.
“Excuse me!”
Jess lifted his head and
looked over at her. When he noticed who it was, he quirked a brow.
“Paying customer here,” she
said in annoyance.
He merely continued to look
at her, a hint of a mocking smile playing on his lips.
“Isn’t it your job to serve
paying customers?” She said in exasperation.
He looked around. “What
customers?”
Rory turned to see that
there were only two people, other than themselves, in the diner.
Rory turned back to look at
Jess. “Look, can I just get come coffee?”
“All you had to do was
ask.” He said mockingly before he let go of the girl, who had been shooting
Rory dirty looks all through the conversation, and went behind the counter to
make it.
“To go,” Rory said quickly.
He shrugged. “Whatever.”
“Jess?” Rory did her best
not to roll her eyes at the whiny sound emanating from the blond girl.
“Yeah?”
“We should go.”
“In a minute, Shane.”
Ah. So that was her name.
And what a stupid name it was.
Shane? Whatever.
Jess poured the coffee into
two large Styrofoam cups and set them on the counter in front of Rory.
“Lorelai, stop it.” Luke
came suddenly into the room with Lorelai following closely behind.
“Not before I get my
coffee, Lukey.”
“Don’t call me that.” He
grimaced as he walked behind the counter.
Lorelai batted her eyes.
“But it’s so fun…Lukey!”
Rory interrupted them
quickly. “Mom, I have the coffee. We have to go. I’m going to be late.” She set
a few dollars on the counter, picked up the two cups and made her way out of
the diner.
Lorelai followed her out
quickly. “What happened?”
”Nothing happened. Nothing.” Rory stopped walking and turned to her mother.
“Mom, I just want to make sure you know that I’m not interested in Jess. I don’t
want to be with Jess. I love Dean. I’m happy with him. And whatever little
stupid thing I might have had for Jess is over. Completely.” With that said she
continued walking.
Lorelai watched her
daughter and hoped it was true.
…