Party Time! by Bligy
Summary: A response to a challenge posted by Amie:
At Lane's first gig when Jess and Rory are in the parents bedroom together. Rory does not say no.
Basically, a rewrite of Keg! Max! It might be a stand alone, but we'll see how people like it. I could always extend it.
Rating: R
Categories: Rory and . . ., Rory/Jess
Characters: Jess Mariano, Other, Rory Gilmore, Rory Gilmore
Genres: Drama, Missing Scene, Romance
Warnings: Sexual Situations
Challenges: Party Time!
Series: None
Published: 2007.03.31
Updated: 2007.04.12
Index
Chapter 1: Party On
Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Chapter 3: Chapter 3
Chapter 4: Chapter 4
Chapter 5: Chapter 5
Chapter 6: Chapter 6
Chapter 1: Party On
Author's Notes: I saw this challenge awhile ago and it got the thought bunnies working. This isn't my best work, but while I'm redoing StS, I thought that it would be fun to take on.
For the moment, it's a stand alone, but if people like it enough, I'll expand on it.
Rory opened the door upstairs hesitantly. She knew that they weren’t supposed to be up there, but no one seemed to know where Jess was. This was the last place in the house that she hadn’t checked. Upon opening the door, she noted that said boyfriend was curled up in a chair at the edge of the room.
“There you are,” she greeted softly, walking into the room, but staying in the doorframe.
“Hey,” he returned quickly, glancing away and then back again.
“I’ve been looking all over for you,” she continued.
It didn’t take much to notice that he was unhappy, why, however, was a mystery. Frowning to herself, she closed the door behind her as he talked.
“Just got tired of everything down there,” he told her, slouching on the comfy chair.
“Are we allowed to be up here? I mean, Kyle was kind of discouraging it,” she questioned after closing the door.
Jess rose to his feet when she turned around, and she walked over to meet him. The lighting was dark and the party’s noise was heavily muted by the door. A bit nervously, she made her way over to him.
“When you have a party, you get what you get,” he stated, as though this was common knowledge to the party goers of the world.
“Yeah, I guess,” Rory agreed as she moved closer. Reaching out one of her hands to his face, she smiled as he kissed her palm. “Sad boy, what’s wrong? You were looking forward to this party, what happened?
“Nothing,” Jess brushed off, as he normally did, but Rory didn’t believe him. He’d been sulking all night, there was something wrong.
“Something did,” she disagreed softly, “C’mon, tell me.”
Instead of answering, he kissed her softly. It was obviously an attempt to trick her out of talking, but she wasn’t having anything of it. For the past few days, he’d been distant and upset over something.
“You’re not tired of me, are you?” she pressed, and was greeted by another, more passionate, kiss. As they broke apart, she smiled at him. “That’s a pretty good answer.”
Instead of smiling at her little joke, which she thought he would, he looked more upset and pulled her closer. There was a moment when his thoughts were blatantly apparent on his face, something that didn’t happen very often, and she saw the sadness that was blanketing him. Wanting to make the sadness go away, she allowed him to kiss her and stopped talking.
His hands were warm on her back, holding her to him, and she wrapped hers around the back of his neck. The kiss heated up and he moved them backward, to the bed. A flutter of anticipation screamed through her body, and she thought about what was happening. One of her hands abandoned its place on his head to feel the mattress beneath her as she sat.
He moved them so that he was on top of her on the bed, never stopping their kissing. Breathing became an issue as his hands lowered on her body, and she attempted to funnel through what was reality and what she’d dreamt the past few days. Sure, this wasn’t exactly the romantic way that she’d imagined losing her virginity, but this was Jess. It wasn’t as though he was going to be traditional.
“Jess, wait,” she asked, wanting to talk to him about it, but he ignored her.
At first she was going to object again, remembering Dean on the stairs and the party below them. Lane was there and she was going on in a few minutes. She wouldn’t be able to watch them, but then his hand wandered beneath the seam line on her pants and the comment was chased from her lips.
“Jess,” she whispered, but this time it was in encouragement. He pulled back for a second, perhaps to ask her permission, or maybe just to make sure that he wasn’t going to be shoved off.
Rory nodded slightly, and he went back to working the belt off her pants. Her hands soon found their way beneath his shirt, tugging it slightly and allowing her contact with his bare back. Despite all their make-out sessions previously, they’d never gotten this far. His skin was like fire against her hands, and all she could think about was that she wanted to see it, to feel more of it.
His shirt was soon over his head, breaking their kisses momentarily. Her jeans were the next thing to go, and she helped him kick them off the bed. His hands then sought out her shirt, crawling beneath them carefully. Rory lifted herself off the bed for a moment to get her jacket off and flung it randomly into the room.
As though this were the flame that lit the fire that was blazing between them, he took the moment to tear the shirt off her body. Rory hesitated for a second, not quite sure what she was supposed to think of, being naked in front of someone. Jess hesitated with her, and they looked at each other for a moment before returning to their kissing. It didn’t take that long for her to get his pants off, the belt having been the trick part, but he’d helped her.
There were now only three pieces of clothing involved in the situation. It was difficult to tell which would go first, but with the way his hands crawled up her back, she had a decent idea. Her own hands crept down to his boxers and she ran her hand along the elastic top hesitantly, not wanting to go beneath them yet. Before she had made her decision, he’d managed to unclasp her bra and was attempting to get it off her shoulders. She helped him, arching her back a little into him. Once he’d taken the straps off her shoulders, she flicked it off into the room. This left their top halves naked and touching, causing the fire that had previously only been on his back to extend throughout her entire body.
Feelings that she’d only felt in dreams caught up to her and made her breathing speed at least five times its normal rate. Finally, they were left with only two scraps of cloth separating them, and the choice of which would go first was only based on who could get it off quickest. Rory squirmed as his hands trailed down her stomach and to her underwear. Hers mirrored his on their way down to his boxers. She forgot to breathe for a second as his fingers pressed beneath the scrap of cloth.
“Jess,” she gasped, and her hands froze.
He said nothing, she didn’t really expect him to, but she could feel the tension that was screaming through all his muscles. Her hands abandoned their place on his body and reached down to her own, helping him by taking off her last piece of clothing. Their kissing increased as she took the last step and slid his boxers over his hips. It was a bit of a task, all things considered, but it was accomplished after a few seconds.
Jess pulled back once more to watch her face as he slowly pressed himself against her. Another thread of panic screamed through her body, and she almost made him stop, but then she saw his eyes and nodded. The process of him sliding into her seemed to take ages, but neither looked away. When he hit her barrier, they both gasped. She arched slightly and he thrust through it. Pain like she hadn’t felt in a very long time struck her, and she had to bite his shoulder not to cry out. He ran his hands through her hair comfortingly as she worked through the pain.
After a minute, the pain gave way to something else, something that she hadn’t felt before in her entire existence. Shaking slightly, she kissed him and he started moving. Her hands seemed to be frozen on his back and she had a difficult time coordinating her kissing with his movements. On one particularly well-aimed thrust by Jess, she lost all ability to think and her head lashed to the side. For a second, she could almost swear that she passed out. Gently, his hand went to the side of her face and tilted it back so he could kiss her.
She returned the kiss and felt her body starting to move with his. It was a totally different experience, and she could barely believe the feelings that were coursing through her. Her hands ran up and down his back before settling in his hair, pulling him closer to her. Was this what it meant to be truly close to someone? If so, she never wanted to be apart from him again. The thought brought another thought into the matter, she loved him. Her body jerked a little bit as the pleasure became too much for her. She bit into her lip instead of crying out as she felt the tension that had been building release. Despite this, he kept moving, and the feeling rebuilt again, quicker this time. She released a small cry to the world as she felt another release, and then another.
Jess had managed to squirm his way into the crook of her neck. His breath was hot against her shoulder as they kept moving. She was just as eager as he was for this to happen. After a few seconds, she heard him breathing shorter and felt the muscles in his back tense up. Just as soon as she was positive that he had to be as tightly strung as she’d ever felt, she felt it release. Crying out with him, she laid back in the bed, spent. He kissed her shoulder gently, just lying on top of her. What she would have always figured as too much weight seemed just perfect, just enough.
“Jess?” she murmured, and she felt him move slightly. “I love you.”
His back instantly tensed again, and she frowned. Gently, she pulled him up so that she could see his face. He was looking anywhere but her.
“Rory… I-I’m sorry,” he told her, and pulled away.
“Sorry for what?” she cried as he leapt off the bed.
“I can’t take you to prom,” he told her, running his hands through his hair in frustration.
“Why not?” she asked. Tears stung her eyes, but she blinked them back, wrapping her arms around her chest. Now that he wasn’t with her, she realized that it was quite cold.
“I flunked out,” he whispered, facing the wall, away from her.
“But… you said that you were fine,” she stated, and shuffled off the bed.
“I thought I was,” he admitted, shrugging his shoulders.
“Look, it doesn’t matter. It’s just prom, you can take summer school, or something, right?” she suggested, standing up and walking behind him.
“Why did you choose me?” he asked, defeated. The question had been plaguing him for months. Why had she chosen the bad-boy over the perfect boyfriend?
“I told you already,” she said, kissing his shoulder lightly, and he turned around to face her. “I love you.”
“But why?” he pressed, and she walked around so that she was in front of him again.
“Why does that matter? I love you, that’s all I need to know,” she assured him, standing on her tip-toes to kiss him again. The kiss was soft and fleeting, but it got her point across.
Their faces were kept together at the forehead and he pulled her against him again, pressing his hands into the small of her back. A thought passed over his face as she watched.
“I’ll get you to prom,” he told her with a kiss.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said again, then pulled away a little bit. “We should probably get dressed… there’s a party going on down stairs… someone could walk in.”
“Okay,” Jess agreed, but pulled her back for another kiss that made her toes curl. It was going to be alright, she knew it.
As she gathered her clothes to her, she turned to him again. A question was pounding in her mind and her heart. It was aching to be asked, but she didn’t want to spoil the moment. After fastening her bra, slipping on her underwear and shirt, and finally her pants, she turned to him. He’d been ready a few minutes prior, but was waiting for her.
“Jess… do you love me?” she asked him finally, nervously rubbing her hands together in front of her and looking at him eagerly. Another thought passed over his face, and he looked away, and then back. The stern expression on his face almost made her think the worse. He didn’t love her. She dove away from him, but he caught her hand as she was opening the door.
He pulled her back against him and kissed her solidly with a nod. “Yeah,” he finally whispered, and her heart sped up.
“Let’s go,” she told him, a dopey love-sick smile on her face. Although he still looked worried, he nodded and they descended into the party.
As they walked down the stairs, holding hands and giving each other ‘looks’, they passed by Dean and Lindsey. Neither of them noticed the couple, but Dean noticed them. Rory pulled Jess into another soft kiss and they almost tripped down the last few stairs. When they landed, he pulled her against him again and they kissed passionately. Most of the guests surrounding them stopped to stare or whistle, but the couple was oblivious to the rest of the world.
Their kiss was rudely interrupted, however, by someone coughing behind them. Rory pulled back and looked behind here, where Dean was standing with the ‘Frankenstein glare’, as Jess had so proudly called it. His height differences was only helped along by the fact that he was standing on a stair above them, it made him look gigantic.
“What do you want?” Jess growled, but Rory pulled herself closer against him, hoping to quell some of the testosterone. After all, he had the girl. There was no need to fight.
“Hi, Dean,” she said softly, wrapping her arm around Jess’s waist tightly. She wanted to be close to him in the moment, so that he wouldn’t do something stupid.
Dean didn’t say anything, he just looked angry. Jess glared back and she stepped between them.
“Alright, Jess, how about we just go,” she suggested, grabbing Jess’s hand and squeezing it tightly. He tore his eyes from Dean to look down at her and nodded slightly.
“Bye, Dean,” she sighed and allowed herself to be pulled through the party.
Unfortunately, he followed them. Rory noticed and attempted to rush them faster, not wanting to have to deal with a confrontation. When they got outside, Dean was still there. Jess noticed and turned around to face him, letting Rory’s hand go.
“Do you have a problem?” he snarled, not touching the other boy but standing up to him all the same.
“Yeah, you,” Dean snapped back and shoved Jess, hard, across the yard.
Jess went flying into some picket fences that were surrounding the property. Instantly, there was a crowd around shouting ‘fight, fight, fight’, and Rory was scrambling around to stop one of them. At first Jess returned the hit, punching Dean in the face. The bigger flinched and threw himself into Jess’s stomach. Rory flinched and ran at them.
“Stop!” she shrieked, grabbing onto Jess’s jacket. He looked at her and frowned, then threw Dean off and straightened his clothes, as though gathering himself.
“You’re not worth it,” Jess finally said as the crowd waited, and turned back to Rory. She smiled at him, happy and proud that he hadn’t gone through with the fight.
“Let’s go?” she suggested, nodding towards Luke’s Diner.
“Yeah,” he agreed, grabbing her outstretched hand and leading them away from the party. Rory turned back only once, to see Dean looking after them, angry and forlorn. Slowly, she turned around and looked up at Jess, who was looking concentrated and thoughtful. She stood on her tip-toes and kissed him softly. He snapped out of his trance and kissed her back. They then proceeded to do the half-kissing, half-walking thing that they’d taken all winter to perfect on their way back to Luke’s.
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Chapter 2: Chapter 2
By the time they’d reached Luke’s, their hands were already roaming more freely than they ever had before tonight. Rory gasped against his mouth when one of his hands stroked the underside of her breast, and she pulled away a bit, looking around to make sure no one was around.
“What’s wrong?” he asked her, running a hand through her hair, the other was tenderly running down her cheek.
“I-I think I need to go,” Rory stammered, the full weight of what just happened hitting her hard.
“Why?” he asked, hurt obvious on his face.
“No, don’t do that,” she requested, kissing him soundly and pulling him against her. His hands fell to her waist and travelled up her back, underneath her shirt. “Jess, stop.”
He pulled away from her completely, walking behind the counter and glaring at her angrily. His hair was a mess, his eyes were dangerous and his shirt was on backwards. Despite it all, she couldn’t help but smile at him and laugh a little bit. At first he looked confused, and then he shook his head, sighing.
“What?” she asked him between the laughter, and sat down at a table a few meters away.
“I’m flunking out of high school, and you’re laughing at me,” he said solemnly, and she stopped laughing abruptly.
“What are you talking about?” she demanded, offended that he would even think that.
“I don’t know what I’m talking about. I don’t know what I’m going to do, or how I’m supposed to feel. I don’t want to go back, Rory. I don’t want to have to deal with all that shit anymore. It’s stupid. Everything that they teach, I can learn on my own. I don’t need to take some stupid tests to tell me that I know what I know,” he shouted, pointing at the school building across the square.
Normally Rory might have been scared by the outburst, but she knew that it wasn’t meant for her. He wasn’t shouting because he was blaming her, or even because of her in general. He was shouting because he was confused and disappointed. Again, the desperate need to make that ‘look’ disappear from her face curled in her stomach.
“Then don’t,” she said simply, not really believing the words, even as she said them. Was she really telling Jess to drop out of school?
“What?” he asked, obviously as confused as she was.
“Don’t go back to high school,” she repeated, a solid thought finally forming in her mind.
“Are you feeling alright?” he asked her, scoffing slightly and staring at her like she was pod-Rory.
“Just get your GED at college next year,” she told him, moving towards him. She knelt on one of the stools in front of the counter and leaned over so that she was just inches from him. “Take awhile to just… think.”
“But Rory, you’re going to ‘Yale’. What am I supposed to do? Sit here and twiddle my thumbs while my genius girlfriend does amazing things. Hell, you’ll probably find Mr. Right there. You know, rich, smart, privileged. Someone who can give you what you deserve,” he ranted, and she saw the fear in his eyes for the first time.
Shaking her head in disgust at his words, she almost felt like smacking him. Why was he being so totally irrational? She wasn’t like that.
“I don’t want some jerk in a Porsche, Jess… I want you,” she told him angrily.
“Why? God, why me?” he finally demanded, jerking backwards, away from her.
“I love you,” she bit out, and got off the stool. She walked behind the counter while he stared at her like she was some sort of scary monster.
“But why?” he asked again, and his voice almost broke. He looked away from her, his jaw clenching in an attempt to keep back whatever he was feeling.
“Stop it, Jess, stop hiding,” she shouted, and he turned to face her, not used to being yelled at.
“I’m not hiding,” he told her, and the mask was in place again.
Before she knew what she was doing, her hand reached up and smacked him across the face, hard. They both froze after realizing what she’d done, but Rory recovered first. Tears in her eyes, she turned around and marched out of Luke’s. As she was storming down the road, she heard the jingle of Luke’s bell, and a few seconds later, felt warm hands encircle her waist.
“Don’t, don’t leave. Luke’s at Nicole’s tonight. Stay with me,” he begged her from behind. His lips caressed her neck softly and she had to bite back more tears.
“Why can’t you just accept me?” she asked him, still not turning around to face him. Her hands, on their own violation, crawled onto his as they pulled her to him.
“Because you’re perfect, you’re not supposed to love someone like me,” he told her honestly, stopping his kissing for a minute.
“I’m not perfect,” she whispered, but felt shattered at how much self-loathing her boyfriend was harboring.
“You’re perfect to me,” Jess admitted honestly, and Rory felt her heart break more for him.
“Okay,” she agreed, nodding her head slightly.
“You’ll stay?” he asked hopefully, and she turned in his arms.
“I’ll stay,” she confirmed, and they kissed again, once more stumbling into Luke’s diner.
The second that they were behind the curtain, their clothes started to fall off again, only this time, Rory wasn’t letting him be the one with the last scrap of clothing on.
~gGg~
Morning rose, but the two lovers in Luke’s diner did not. Rory felt something warm lying across her back, and squirmed slightly. Frowning, she sat up, not recognizing her surroundings for a minute, before realizing that she was lying in Jess’s bed… with Jess. Mumbling to herself, she stumbled out of the bed and made a rather loud ‘crash’ as she landed.
“What the hell?” Jess exclaimed as he jerked up in the bed, shocked awake by the noise. When he realized that it was Rory who’d caused the noise, he leaned over the bed to look at her on the ground. One part of his hair was sticking out to the side, the rest was just mauled. That probably had a lot to do with their activities from the previous night. Nevertheless, he was still drop-dead sexy, and she suddenly felt her will to leave the room compromised. When he smirked, she was positive that she would do almost anything he asked her to. “Going somewhere?”
“It’s seven o’clock, Luke will be home soon, and you were probably supposed to open,” Rory pointed out, remembering why she had to leave. “And my mom’s going to notice that I’m not home, and I’m then she’s going to realize what’s happened, and that means that I can’t tell her, and she’s going to be so mad at me.” She continued rambling on, grabbing what few clothes she could find around the bed. Unfortunately, not many of them were hers.
“So you’re leaving then?” Jess asked with an over-dramatic sigh.
“Yes,” Rory grumbled at him, but smiled when she saw him watching her every move. “Stop that!”
“Stop what?” he asked, and jumped out of the bed. Despite having done… things with him the previous night, seeing him naked and in the sunlight was a different matter. The clothes in her hands were numbly dropped to the ground, and he smirked at her. Realizing what she’d done, she averted her eyes, blushing, and grabbed the clothing back up again. The effort was futile, however, as his hands were soon encircling her waist, and his lips were claiming hers again.
“Luke’s going to come home,” Rory warned half-heartedly.
“I don’t care,” Jess told her, throwing what little caution he had to the wind and pulling them back onto the bed. During their rather passionate make-out session, the sound of a slamming door echoed through the house from downstairs. Much like the time Luke had caught them during their first kiss, Rory leapt away from him and Jess looked at the door in annoyance.
“Oh my God,” Rory panicked, grabbing her clothes and forcing whatever she could find onto her body. In the end, she had to make due with the t-shirt that he’d worn the night previously, and no bra. As the footsteps ascended the stairs, hesitating once or twice, the panic continued to rise. When they stopped on the landing, she looked over at Jess, who was now fully clothed, looking casual and reading a book on his bed, to the door again. She got the message and crawled under his bed. Sure, the closet would be more comfortable, but something told her that was a bad idea.
“Jess!” Luke bellowed as he opened the door, and she cringed.
“What?” Jess snarled back.
“Why is there a… why was this in the hallway?” Luke asked, and although she didn’t know for sure, she could take a safe bet and say that it was a soft-pink bra. To be more specific, it was the one that she couldn’t find upstairs.
“It liked the view?” Jess suggested nonchalantly.
“Is this Rory’s?” Luke demanded, but Jess didn’t answer. She flinched when she heard something smash against the wall.
“Woah, what the hell?” Jess shouted, and she felt his weight lift from the bed. A few seconds later, another slam echoed through the room.
“Is she in a closet again? Like what’s her name? I thought that you actually cared for Rory!” Luke fumed, opening the doors of the apartment in a rage.
“Calm down!” Jess yelled at him, but Luke was obviously not hearing any of it.
“First you flunk out of school, now you’re… doing things with Rory that you shouldn’t be doing, but you know what our agreement is, Jess. You’re going back next year, and you’re going to finish school, and we’re going to go to Lorelai’s right now and tell her what’s going on,” Luke directed.
“No, I’m not. I’m not going back to high school… Rory and I talked about it, I’m going to take my GED at college,” Jess muttered. She had to listen very hard to make out what he was saying. It wasn’t like him to be quiet, but she knew that this was a tender subject.
“She knows?” Luke asked, he sounded genuinely shocked.
“Yeah, she knows,” Jess answered angrily.
Shifting slightly, she pushed the blanket away from the end of the bed, so she could see them. They were standing nose-to-nose, puffed chest to puffed chest, red face to red face. If it weren’t for the fact that she was too scared to move, she might have laughed. They looked more like father and son than uncle and nephew.
“Get ready, we’re going to Lorelai’s,” Luke finally shouted, then slammed out of the apartment again.
Jess sighed, hooking his thumbs in his pants and giving a sideways glance down at the bed. “Well, that was fun,” he cracked.
“Does this happen all the time?” Rory asked as she squirmed out from beneath the bed.
“The shouting? Yeah,” he replied with a shrug, and offered her a hand up.
“Thank you,” she said as they were inches apart again.
“For what?” he asked against her lips.
“For covering for me,” she whispered, and then kissed him softly. When they heard footsteps on the stairs again, Rory was about to leap under the bed, but he hauled her into the washroom with him.
“Jess!” Luke howled again, throwing open the apartment door with enough force to make Rory cringe again.
“What?” Jess hollered back through the door.
“Lorelai is downstairs. She says that Rory didn’t come home last night,” Luke informed him, slamming his fist against the door. “Is she in there?”
Jess hesitated, looking back at Rory. She deflated, placing her head in her hands and nodding to him.
“Yeah, she’s here,” Jess finally admitted, and opened the door to reveal both of them.
Luke froze, staring at them, and then opened his mouth to say something before closing it rapidly again. He did the same motion twice before turning around and marching back down the stairs.
“Huh,” Jess muttered as he turned around to look at her. “Well… better now than never?”
“She’s going to kill us,” Rory moaned, standing up to lean against him, hiding her face in his chest. “Not that I regret it, but I probably should have gone home last night.”
“Nah, at least we can both be here to face her,” he commented, and grabbed her hand firmly in his. “Let’s go?”
Rory hesitated, not wanting to leave the protective circle of his arms, not wanting to have to live up to the responsibility that last night put on her, and most definitely not wanting to have to face her mother. Taking a deep breath, she nodded, and they started towards the stairs.
Back to index
Chapter 3: Chapter 3
Their descent down the stairwell seemed to take hours. Jess looked so composed, so ready for this, but Rory felt like a wreck. Her mother was going to slaughter both of them, yet he looked like he was just going down for breakfast. Sighing a little bit, she watched as he pushed the curtain open and then led them out.
The diner was empty with the exception of her mother. Lorelai was sitting at the counter, staring down at the coffee in her hands. There were tears on her face and when she saw them, they started again. Rory flinched and leaned into Jess’s shoulder. Luke was standing to one side of the counter. He looked conflicted, whether to comfort Lorelai or shout at them.
“Hi mom,” Rory finally said.
“’Hi mom’?” Lorelai repeated. “That’s it?”
Silence took over the diner again as they all stood, still as boards. Outside, a small crowd had gathered. They were waiting for Luke’s to open, but now that Rory and Jess appeared, the crowd was growing to include the gossips as well.
“I’m sorry I didn’t call last night,” Rory tried again, not really quite sure how to fix this problem.
“You told me you’d… tell me, before…” Lorelai trailed off. Rory knew this wasn’t because she hadn’t called. Her mother disapproved of Jess. It was understandable that the good girl wasn’t supposed to go off and lose her virginity at a party with the bad boy, but occasionally fate was cruel.
“I’m sorry,” Rory said again, letting go of Jess’s hand and going to sit beside her mother at the counter.
Jess and Luke shifted awkwardly and they both disappeared to go get something. Jess into the storeroom to look, needlessly, for ketchup, and Luke into the kitchen to start preparing them some breakfast.
“Where you at least safe?” Lorelai requested dejectedly, looking down at the coffee in her hands.
Rory froze when she realized that they hadn’t been ‘safe’. They’d been anything but safe. They’d had sex twice last night and hadn’t used protection either time. She frowned and wrapped her arms around her stomach self-consciously.
“You weren’t?” Lorelai shrieked, staring at her, normally responsible, daughter in horror.
Rory didn’t respond. She simply looked the opposite direction, holding back tears. What was she supposed to say?
“What about Yale?” Lorelai shouted, grabbing her daughter’s shoulder and turning her so that they were face to face.
“I’m fine!” Rory returned, still trying to avert her eyes.
“You weren’t supposed to be me, Rory. You’re supposed to be going places, doing things!” Lorelai reminded her, and she cringed away again. Instead of continuing her one-sided screaming at her, she went to a more responsive member of the party, who had chosen that moment to come out of the storeroom.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen. It’s your fault!” Lorelai screamed in his face, and he frowned at her, not quite sure what he was being blamed for.
“Mom, stop it. It was both of our choices!” Rory reasoned, jumping off the stool and trying to defend her boyfriend.
“Stay out of this!” Lorelai shouted at her daughter, and then went back to Jess. “I knew that you were trouble, I knew that I never should have let you near Rory. You should have stayed in New York after you tried to destroy her life the first time!”
“What?” Jess asked, appalled at the accusation.
“You know? When you attempted to kill her in the car accident?” Lorelai reminded him, and Rory saw the fight in his eyes. She knew that this was going to get bad.
“That wasn’t my fault! She’s old enough to make her own damn decisions without you attempting to look over her shoulder,” he responded, slamming the ketchup down on the counter angrily.
“What’s going on?” Luke asked as he drifted out of the kitchen.
“No, she’s obviously not. If she’s lowered her standards to you, then I’m not finished yet,” Lorelai accused, and shoved him a little bit. Rory saw the clenching of both his jaw and his fist. He didn’t like being pushed around, but for the sake of civility, he turned back to her without doing anything rash.
“Hey,” Luke shouted before Jess could, and grabbed Lorelai’s arm. He yanked her away from both of them and to the other side of the diner.
“Jess…?” Rory asked, trying to move towards him. He looked at her as though he didn’t know her and turned to walk upstairs again. Rory looked at him, and then back to her mother and Luke, who were screaming their lungs out about the situation. Shaking her head, she figured that this was about as bad as things could get. Tears stung her eyes as she ran upstairs. Jess needed her more than her mother.
“Jess, open up,” she requested as she stepped up to the door. Trying the handle, she found it locked. “Jess! Please?”
“What?” he shouted when he opened the door.
“What she said wasn’t true. I love you, it doesn’t matter what she says!” Rory attempted to tell him, but he scoffed and moved farther into his bedroom. “Listen to me!”
“What the hell is there to listen to? The entire time I’ve been with you, all I’ve been told is that I’m not good enough for you. At first I could deal with that, but now? It’s like everywhere we go, we’re being watched, and I’m being judged, and God-forbid I kiss you in public, or we hold hands. I hate this place,” Jess raved, not looking at her the entire time.
“Then come with me,” Rory suggested quietly.
“What?” he asked her, turning to face her in confusion.
“To New Haven, come with me,” she suggested again, shrugging her shoulders lightly.
“And do what? My car is gone, I can’t get to Wal-Mart, and I won’t be able to work here,” he objected, motioning at the diner.
“We’ll figure it out. Please, just… calm down, think about it?” Rory begged, reaching out and grabbing one of his hands lightly.
He didn’t say anything, simply stared at their joined hands. At first all she could see was the torture that this situation was causing him, but then his expression changed into one of thoughtfulness.
“New Haven?” he asked quietly.
“Sure, why not? They probably have a ton of bookstores, you could work for one,” she said lightly and walked towards him.
“I guess,” he agreed, nodding his head.
“We can look for apartments during the summer, and maybe get another roommate or two,” she continued, leaning her head against his chest. The conversation stopped there. He wrapped his arms around her waist, letting her hand go, and kissed the top of her head lightly.
“I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you too,” Rory replied, just as quietly, and they stood there for a few minutes.
The shouting from downstairs finally brought them back to reality. It was getting nearer to the staircase, and was soon travelling faster towards them. Rory frowned and turned in his arms. Their hands joined, fingers laced, over her stomach and they watched the door in apprehension.
“You’re not going up there!” Luke hollered.
“Yes I am!” Lorelai screamed back, and the door was opened viciously. “We’re going home.”
“Rory, you can stay as long as you want to,” Luke objected, looking at her over her mother’s shoulder.
“No, we’re going home, now,” Lorelai said again, glaring at both of them.
“I don’t want to go home yet,” Rory responded, her hands tensing in Jess’s.
“Well I don’t want you to get pregnant, I guess neither of us is getting what we want,” Lorelai hissed sarcastically.
“She’s not going to get pregnant!” Luke shouted again. Jess’s hands tensed in hers for a minute, but she grasped them tightly, attempting to reassure him. She wasn’t going to get pregnant; she had too much ahead of her. They both knew that a pregnancy could screw it all up. Something told her not to worry, so she was going to listen to that something. It was the only voice of reason in this entire shouting match.
“I want to stay here,” Rory voiced again, breaking the contemplative silence that had taken over all four of them.
“No,” Lorelai snapped again.
“Mom…” Rory sighed, hiding her face in Jess’s chest.
“No, I will not be ‘mom-ed’. You screwed up, big time, and now we need to fix this,” Lorelai fumed, reaching out for them. Jess stepped back, away from her reaching hands, and Luke stepped towards them, to defend if he had to.
“Fix this?” Rory asked, shaking her head and staring at her mother in confusion.
“Yes, we’re going to Hartford and we’re going to put you on the pill. Then we’re going to go home and you’re going to be grounded for a long, long time,” Lorelai told her, and took another step towards them.
“Lorelai,” Luke warned, not wanting to have to do anything rash to keep the woman in line
“What?” she shrieked back at him. “Can you not see what he’s doing to her?!”
“What, what am I doing?” Jess finally said from behind her. His body was tight as a spring again, but this time it was looking for a fight.
“You’re ruining her life!” Lorelai screamed, pointing at Rory while glaring at Jess.
“Lorelai, leave,” Luke bellowed.
“What?” Lorelai gasped back at him, looking hurt.
“Get out of my diner, and don’t come back until you know what you’re saying,” Luke demanded, pointing at the door.
“Not without Rory,” Lorelai snapped and stepped towards her daughter again. Jess pushed Rory behind him and Luke stepped so that they were both in front of her, and she felt her heart breaking. She had to choose between them? Why was it that people couldn’t accept this? First Jess, now her mother, the only person who seemed to be able to accept them was Luke.
“She’s staying,” Jess stated evenly, his fists clenched at his sides.
Lorelai looked at her over her ‘protectors’ shoulder’s. She looked broken, upset to the point where she didn’t know what to do with herself. As she turned to leave, tears hit and sobs wracked her shoulders. She collapsed to the ground and Rory rushed around the men to help her.
“You weren’t supposed to be me,” Lorelai repeated, clinging to her daughter.
“I’m not,” Rory attempted to tell her, holding her close.
“But…” Lorelai started, but trailed off, the fight slowly leaving her system.
“I’m going to take her home,” Rory said quietly.
“I’ll drive,” Luke informed her and grabbed his keys.
When she refused to stand up, Luke gathered her into his arms. Jess and Rory watched as their guardians strolled out into the street from the window above. The crowd there had gathered ten-fold once they’d seen the shouting.
“I’m sorry,” Jess told her quietly.
“About what?” Rory asked, grabbing his hand and rubbing it gently with her fingers.
“I didn’t mean for… this to happen,” he sighed, motioning towards the truck.
“She’s just scared,” Rory shrugged it off and stood up on her tip toes to kiss him. One of his arms wrapped around her shoulders and he pulled her tightly against him. The kiss quickly grew in passion and she had to pull back before it went too far.
“She doesn’t need to be… I’ll take care of you,” he promised, running a hand through her hair and keeping them pressed against each other.
“I know,” she assured him, laying her head against his chest. A cough from the door alerted them to Luke’s presence, again.
“Uh… she’s ready to go,” he stated awkwardly.
Jess kissed her forehead and nudged her towards the door. “I’ll call you later,” he muttered, and looked back outside.
“Later?” she pressed, hating it when he said that.
“He’ll call you when he gets off work,” Luke assured her and led her out the door, down the stairs, and into the truck.
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Chapter 4: Chapter 4
School for the next two weeks could have easily been described as the seventh circle of hell. She was so nervous about the possibility of being pregnant that she hardly noticed a thing going on around her. Fortunately, she found herself getting the familiar cramps and bleeding at the end of the month, and everyone relaxed. She and her mother hadn’t talked since it happened, they’d done a very good job of avoiding each other, and her and Jess hadn’t had sex again in fear of jinxing their luck. True to her word, her mother had put her on the pill, which she was fine with.
Lane had had a panic attack when she’d found out what had happened, and where. It seemed like there was only really one person in the entire town who didn’t know that she and Jess had slept together: Dean. It worked for her, she was still angry at him.
“Miss Gilmore?” her teacher called, and she was snapped back to reality.
“Huh?” she asked, looking around in embarrassment when she realized that everyone’s eyes were on her.
“A bit more focus please?” the teacher requested, and she nodded, blushing.
When she arrived home, Jess was sitting on the front porch… talking with her mother. She almost tripped over her feet in shock. What was going on? Even she hadn’t been able to talk to her mother yet. Not wanting her boyfriend castrated, she ran towards them.
“Uh… hi,” she said hesitantly, frowning at them both.
“Sit down,” Lorelai said coldly, and Rory complied, sitting beside Jess. He grasped her hand tightly in his own, but didn’t take his eyes off her mother.
“Jess says that you want to move in together,” Lorelai informed her quietly. “He says that he’s found a place and that he wants to take you to see it this weekend.”
“What?” Rory asked, turning to Jess with excitement. He smirked at her, his eyes still tight, and grasped her hand tightly in his own. “Since when?”
Lorelai coughed, bringing the focus back to her. Her mother sighed, running a hand through her brown hair uneasily. Rory recognized the signs. This was the way she always reacted around Jess. It was the ‘I don’t like him, I know he’ll hurt you, but there’s nothing I can do about it’ look.
“I don’t know if it’s such a good idea,” she finally declared.
“Why?” Rory demanded, offended.
“Rory,” Jess chided softly, holding her hand tighter. “Look, I love your daughter, and as much as I might hate you, and your family, I’m willing to do anything,” he saw her perk up at this idea, and amended, “almost anything, to get this. I want this, she wants this, why can’t you just… accept it?”
“Because you’re not even going to graduate, what the hell kind of confidence do you expect me to have?” she snapped at him.
“I think that you should trust your daughter,” Rory muttered bitterly.
“Rory,” Lorelai attempted to amend, obviously seeing the flaw in her logic.
“Then I won’t go to Europe,” Rory blurted.
“What?” her two companions said in unison.
“I-I won’t go to Europe,” she stated again, and Jess seemed to go into a state of shock.
“Like hell you won’t!” Lorelai shouted.
“So, what? You can tell me that I can’t do what I want to do, but I can’t tell you that I don’t want to do something if I don’t want to it?” Rory rambled a little bit.
“Jess, leave… now,” Lorelai sighed, placing a hand to her forehead. Rory recognized this look too. It was an extension of the ‘Jess-look’.
“Rory?” he attempted to confirm.
“Bye, mom,” Rory said, pulling Jess to his feet and hauled him away.
“Where are you going?” Lorelai shouted after her.
“I’ll call you,” Rory replied, walking quicker. Once they were about a block away, she felt a pull on her arm. She stopped and turned to him with a sigh, stopping their mad dash.
“What was that?” he inquired, frowning and attempting to figure out the situation.
“That was me… doing something impulsive,” she said, smiling nervously.
“You just told your mother that you were willing to give up your graduation dream so that you could move in with me,” he specified, still not believing it.
“You’re worth it,” she shrugged with a larger smile, kissing him. One of his hands fastened around her neck, pulling her to him and deepening the kiss.
“Let’s go,” he said with a smirk. It was the first smirk she’d seen on him in a long, long while that his eyes brightened as well.
“Where are we going?” she asked, as he pulled her towards the shopping district.
“Dress shopping,” he answered shortly.
“You’re taking me dress shopping?” she deadpanned, attempting to pull on his hand to stop him. He resisted and pulled her harder, causing her to stumble a little bit.
“Nope,” he shook his head.
“Then…?” she pressed.
He didn’t answer her, very Jess-like. When they entered into the store, however, Lane was already scanning the hangers, looking at the dresses. It took her a few seconds to actually notice them.
“Rory!” she squealed, running towards her with a red dress. “Good?”
“Uh… doesn’t Mrs. Kim have to approve it?” Rory mumbled in reply.
“Oh yeah,” Lane’s face fell, and she placed the dress back on its rack.
“See you later,” Jess told her, kissing her and leaving the store.
“So… do you know how he’s getting you to prom?” Lane asked. Her confidence in Jess was obviously about as much as her mother’s.
“Nope, but that’s the mystery of Jess,” Rory shrugged, and felt that stupid grin on her face. The mystery was part of his appeal, even before she started dating him.
“How’s your mother taking it?” Lane inquired, attempting not to act too interested.
“Well… she was getting better, until Jess mentioned the apartment,” Rory sighed, looking through the racks and pulling out the occasional dress.
“Apartment?” Lane chirped, but Rory could hear the disapproval in her friend’s voice.
“Yup, we’re moving in together next year,” she said firmly, not bothering to look up from her browsing until Lane’s hand touched her shoulder.
“Wait… you’re moving in with him?” Lane attempted to clarify.
“Uh… from where we stand right now, yup,” Rory muttered, looking anywhere but her friend’s face. She knew the expression that was on it, concern, disappointment, fear.
“And… you got her to agree to this, how?” Lane pressed.
“She didn’t. I told her that I wasn’t going to Europe if she attempted to force me to stay,” Rory brushed off, stepping past Lane and looking at more dresses.
“Woah, woah, wait a minute. You’ve been waiting for this trip for… well… as long as I’ve known you,” Lane stated, following her.
“Yup,” Rory replied, and pulled out a dress. Her eyes widened and she stared at it like it was the most beautiful thing in the world.
“As off topic as this is, wow… that’s perfect,” Lane interjected, and they both admired the dress in awe. “Go try it on! But don’t think that this conversation’s finished!”
“I don’t,” Rory muttered bitterly, wondering how Luke was going to take the information. As supportive as the diner-man was, he probably wouldn’t be too accepting of them taking that step.
It took a few seconds to get into the dress, but when she did, she knew that this was it. She ran her hands down the material, listening to the fabric crinkle.
“Let’s see!” Lane shouted from outside the change rooms. Rory stepped out, blushing a little bit. “Wow.”
“Yeah… but I can’t afford it,” she pouted, checking the price tag. It was over four hundred dollars.
“What about your mom?” Lane chirped, seeming to have forgotten their previous conversation.
“Well, see, there’s the whole ‘I’m not talking to her’ issue going on,” Rory reminded her, and watched as her friend’s face fell again.
“Yeah… that could cause problems,” Lane agreed, but then gave her a look. “Call Jess?”
“What?” Rory gasped, and stared at her like she’d grown another head.
“Unless your grandmother would…?” Lane suggested awkwardly.
“I don’t know,” Rory shrugged, wrapping her hands around her waist, suddenly realizing the flaw in their situation. “Maybe?”
“Call her, and then call Jess if that falls through,” Lane said with a lot more confidence.
“Okay,” Rory sighed, and grabbed her cell phone.
Five phone calls and billions of promises later, she’d managed to get her grandmother to buy it for her. With a large grin on her face, she started to rush home, wanting to tell her mother about her dress. As she hit her lawn, she hesitated, thinking about the fight. She frowned and chewed on her lip a little bit, indecisive, but finally started across the lawn. The door opened silently and she stepped inside the house warily, not knowing if she’d be welcome at the moment.
“Mom? I bought my prom dress,” she called, and stepped inside, looking around.
“Oh? I thought that Jess wasn’t graduating,” Lorelai replied nonchalantly from the kitchen.
“He didn’t, but he’s still taking me,” Rory shrugged, hugging the dress to her chest protectively as she walked towards her mother’s voice nervously.
“Really?” Lorelai asked skeptically.
“Yup,” Rory nodded, and sat down at one of the kitchen chairs. “So… do you want to see my dress?”
“Sure,” Lorelai nodded, but Rory could see the pain that it was causing her. Sighing, she dragged herself into her room and got into her dress. Despite how terrible the situation was, she couldn’t help but smile as she saw herself in the gown. Her hands ran delicately along the blue material, tracing it as it gave way to the softer, lighter blue beneath the top layer. A thrill of anticipation ran through her and she grinned at her reflection, biting her lip and imagining Jess was there with her.
After her fantasy had played out in her mind, she blushed and attempted to get her mind back on track. She picked out a set silver necklace set and let her hair out of its ponytail. Smiling at her reflection once more, she opened the door and stepped into the kitchen.
“What do you think?” she asked as she left the room.
“Wow,” Lorelai replied, much in the same way that Lane had. “That’s… gorgeous. How much was it?”
“It was on sale,” Rory lied and rushed over to her mother. She hugged her tightly, seeing the tears in her eyes.
“So… this is it?” Lorelai inquired, wiping tears from her eyes.
“What?” Rory replied, not understanding the abrupt subject change.
“You’re a woman now. Having sex, moving out on your own, going to prom…” Lorelai clarified, hugging her again.
“Mom!” Rory cried, still not liking the idea of hearing her mother saying the word aloud.
“What?” her mother mock questioned.
“So… are we okay?” Rory inquired after a few minutes.
“Not by a long shot. I still don’t want you moving in with him… but I guess I don’t have much of a choice,” Lorelai sighed, shrugging her shoulders helplessly.
“I love him,” Rory stated simply. “I want to be with him…”
“I know, I know, just… don’t let him be your Christopher, okay?” Lorelai quipped.
“He won’t,” Rory brushed off, hugging her once more and exiting to her room with a broad smile on her face. Sure, her mother didn’t exactly approve, but at least now she wasn’t going to tie her to the bed and force her to stay. It was an improvement, even if it did take the threat of a lifetime to make it happen.
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Chapter 5: Chapter 5
Rory felt a twinge of fear in her stomach. It was tightening by the second. Her hand was clasped lightly in Jess’s on their way back from a day of ‘reading’ at the bridge. Monday had come and gone, so had Tuesday, it was Wednesday and she still hadn’t been able to ask him. Sighing, she tugged a little bit on his hand, pulling him to a stop a few steps away from the diner.
“Jess?” she started, but couldn’t think of a way to continue.
“Yeah?” he answered, his eyes burning into her. She’d been acting strangely all week, he’d kept asking why, but she hadn’t been able to tell him yet. Her hand nervously ran along the strap of her bag, her only bargaining chip lay inside.
“I need to ask you a question,” she told him firmly, but didn’t continue. The fear that had nested in her stomach travelled up to her throat, causing a blockage that wouldn’t allow words.
“Huh,” he muttered, rolling his eyes and letting her hand go. He shoved his hands into his pockets and stared at her with questioning eyes.
“Are you busy this Friday?” she blurted out, and cringed a little bit.
“Yeah, working, why?” he inquired suspiciously. She squirmed under his gaze and her hands started twisting in front of her.
“Can you come to dinner with me again?” she got out, but the fear didn’t go away. This was only one of the billion promises she’d made to her grandmother.
“No,” he shrugged bluntly and sighed. “I’m not going back into that house ever again.”
“Please, Jess, you have to try! I mean, my grandparents are really, really important to me and I really need you to get along with them, especially with what’s going on with my mother right now, and after you apologized you did say that there would be a ‘next time’, so can’t that next time be now. Besides, I kinda promised that I’d bring you when grandma bought the dress for me,” she rambled, attempting to get it all out in one shot.
“What?” he groaned, looking very upset.
“Yup,” she said, begging him with her eyes.
“I could have bought you the dress,” he defended.
“No, you don’t have the money,” she shrugged, having already discussed this more than once with him.
“I do have the money, my car was stolen, remember?” he grumbled.
“You need the money for college, remember?” she taunted him back, glaring lightly.
“I can get a loan,” he attempted, but her glare only deepened.
“Please? You promised!” she reminded him.
“When did I promise?” he asked skeptically.
“After you told me what happened to your eye,” she returned, and ran her hand gently along the eye that had been brutalized by… a football. There was still something wrong with his story, but she had yet to figure out what had actually caused the bruise.
“That wasn’t a promise. That was a confirmation that I would meet them at a later date,” he objected, but sighed. “Last time you brought me a book, and a kiss.”
Rory smiled and leaned forward, kissing him softly, with a promise of more to come, and reached into her bag. She brought out a heavy book that she’d had to go into Hartford to obtain. She blushed furiously as she handed it to him. His eyes widened almost comically when he saw it, and she felt that this moment was worth the embarrassment that buying it had cost her.
“’The Art of Sex’,” he quoted. “Huh.”
She bit her lip and shrugged. He looked at her from under his lashes and smirked. He brought her closer and kissed her gently. Before either of them meant it, the kiss started to turn into something more. They still hadn’t had sex since the scare, despite her being on the pill. Now, with his hands in hair and hers running dangerously close to being under his shirt, she thought that it was high time that they amend that.
Stumbling, they kissed their way into Luke’s and around the tables that they both knew well. Rory was sure that there were probably dozens of eyes staring at them right now, knowing precisely what was going to happen in a few minutes.
“Not in the diner!” Luke shouted at them, which broke them apart for a moment. Rory blushed and smiled slightly, before Jess took her hand and pulled her towards the curtain.
“I’m going on a break,” he said to Luke while pushing the curtain aside.
“You were just on a break,” Luke objected, following them and attempting to keep them from leaving.
“Well, I’m going on another one,” Jess returned, and smirked dangerously. Rory bit her lip and begged Luke with her eyes to let him go.
“How long?” Luke finally grumbled.
Jess didn’t answer. His smirk just widened and pulled he her towards the stairs. Rory grinned back and allowed him to lead her. She heard the distant jingling of the diner’s bell, but ignored it in favor of rushing up the stairs after Jess.
The second that the door of the apartment was closed, they were kissing again. The book was thrown to the side and they were soon on the couch, him pressing against her through the material of their clothing. She gasped and helped him take off her jacket, both of them struggling to get the clothing barriers off. When they were busy working on his pants, she still had her bra and skirt on, the door to the apartment burst open.
The two teenagers leapt apart, Rory attempting to cover herself. When her eyes rose up to see who had interrupted them, she had to blink a few times to make sure that her eyes weren’t deceiving her.
“Dean?” she asked.
“Get out,” Jess spat angrily, standing in only his jeans, which were partially unzipped. Rory couldn’t help but stare for a few seconds, before her eyes were drawn back to the angry man at the door.
“You bastard!” Dean shouted, and rushed at Jess. The fight started instantly, the boys met in the middle and Jess went down, Dean riding him. Jess didn’t say down for too long, after the first two punches connected with his face, he threw Dean off and kneed him in the stomach, slamming them both down to the ground, Dean on the bottom, and punched him a few times in rapid succession.
“Stop it!” Rory screamed, and grabbed Jess’s arm as he was about to punch Dean again. “Stop it.”
Jess hesitated, looking from Rory down to Dean and then back again. He gently took his arm out of her grasp and lifted himself to his feet. She could see anger written on every muscle on his body. Her eyes turned coldly down to Dean, who was attempting to lift himself to his feet. Their eyes connected and Rory couldn’t help but feel a decent amount of hatred towards him. He’d ruined a good moment, and a good mood.
“Get out,” she shrieked, feeling tears stinging her eyes. “Go find Lindsey and leave me alone!”
“Rory-,” he started, but she turned away, going to see Jess. She kissed his bare shoulder gently and he turned to look at her. She smiled, and he seemed relieved. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her closely.
Rory heard the sound of the door slamming behind her, and she flinched at the force that was used. Her hands fluttered over his face, where a bruise was forming. Gently, she pulled his face down to her and kissed the blossoming bruises.
“Let’s get some ice?” she suggested. He nodded and grabbed his shirt. She grabbed hers and they both tugged on the material. When they were fully clothed again, their hands met and they started down into the diner.
The first thing that told her something was wrong was the silence. Luke’s diner was never silent. She glanced at Jess, who seemed to have noticed too. They pushed the curtain to the side and looked out into the room. Luke was standing with a ladle brandished at Dean, who was being stared down by Lorelai, who was blocking his retreat from the diner.
“What’s going on?” she whispered to Jess, drawing the attention of a couple of people who were near them.
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll leave them alone,” Lorelai screamed at Dean emotionally.
“How can you just… stand there? He’s corrupting her!” Dean shouted back, which caused Luke to move from behind the counter, the ladle waving dangerously.
Jess abandoned her hand in favor of rushing after Luke. He snatched the ladle out of the older man’s hand, but it didn’t stop his uncle from swinging his fist at Dean’s face. Dean, who hadn’t expected the attack, found himself on the ground, under someone from the Danes family, for the second time in five minutes.
“Get out of my diner,” Luke bit out, his anger seeming to ride the air.
“And stay away from my daughter… and her… and… Jess,” Lorelai finished, although she had to choke out the last word. Dean glared at all of them angrily, but finally left the diner.
Silence took over the room and everyone shifted uncomfortably. Luke was the first to break the tension, going into the back to grab some ice for Jess’s face. When he returned, they all made their way over to a table and sat down, staring at each other uncomfortably.
“Did you ask him?” Lorelai started, looking at Rory.
“Yup,” Rory nodded, grabbing Jess’s hand under the table. His other hand was preoccupied holding ice to his face.
“And the other thing?” Lorelai pressed.
“Nope,” Rory sighed, looking down at the table dejectedly. She hadn’t gotten around to ‘that’ yet. The conversation dwindled down again, no one wanting to address this new complication, and no one really knowing how to start the conversation about what had happened a few minutes ago.
“So… what happened up there?” Luke finally grumbled, needing to break the tension that had grown over the table. Rory let out a breath of air, glad that someone had the courage to bring it up.
“We were…” she trailed off, unable to finish.
“He came up and started shouting. He hit me, I hit him back,” Jess shrugged, looking away from them but his hand tensed around hers a little bit.
“And… what? You just let him go?” Lorelai asked skeptically.
“Yeah, he did,” Rory confirmed with a small smile and a nod. She looked at Jess out of the corner of her eye, again proud that he’d pulled away from a fight with Dean. “Then he came down here…”
“Lorelai came in,” Luke supplied gruffly.
“He started shouting, I hit him… he shouted some more, Luke grabbed the ladle…” Lorelai continued on with their strange story.
“Then he accused me of corruption, gee… how original,” Jess muttered in his little corner, glaring at Lorelai a little bit.
“He’s not wrong,” Rory reminded him, turning his head and kissing him softly. They smiled at each other and kissed again, but where interrupted by a cough on the other side of the table. Rory blushed and looked over at the adults. “Sorry. Do you think he’ll try again?”
“Probably, he’s still crazy about you,” Lorelai shrugged.
“It’s hard to watch someone you love with someone else,” Luke added impulsively, and was then given looks from everyone else at the table. He bristled a little bit, looking anywhere but Lorelai and attempted to shrug it off. “What? I was in high school too.”
“Right,” Jess smirked and gave a knowing look between the two adults.
“So how’s Friday going to work?” Lorelai said after a few more seconds of uncomfortable silence.
“Right… your car,” Rory agreed, remembering that it was gone again.
“Uh… yeah… about that,” Luke coughed, drawing everyone’s eyes again. “It’s… in my garage.”
“What?” Jess shouted, looking very angry.
“You were flunking out of school!” Luke attempted to explain.
“Jeez,” Jess grumbled and sat back down in the seat, his hand clenching around Rory’s to the point where it was almost painful. She squeezed back and he let some of the tension melt away so that it was just them holding hands again.
“So… I guess, Rory are you…?” Lorelai didn’t have to finish.
“I’ll go with Jess,” Rory replied softly. She needed to make sure that, if he was late or something stupid like that, at least she would be there to defend him.
“Come on,” Luke started after another few seconds of silence and grabbed Jess. “Back to work.”
“I’ll call you after I’m done,” Jess promised, kissing Rory softly as he was yanked away.
“How mad do you figure he’s going to be?” Rory asked as they watched Jess moving around the diner.
“That all depends on what you promise him afterwards. Did the book work?” Lorelai inquired, looking at her daughter with a small smile. Rory blushed a little bit, biting her lip.
“Yup,” she nodded, and the girls shared a moment.
“Home?” her mother suggested hopefully.
“Home,” Rory confirmed. They stood up, linked arms, and skipped out, singing “We’re off to see the wizard!” at the top of their lungs, earning the baffled stares of everyone in the diner.
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Chapter 6: Chapter 6
“Remind me why I willingly agreed to enter hell?” Jess muttered as they drove into the Gilmore Mansion’s driveway.
“It had something to do with a book,” Rory reminded him, her blue eyes wide and innocent. He looked over to her and had to hold back a smirk. She bit her lip, loving the she had that affect on him.
“We’re late,” he pointed out as they arrived, but neither of them wanted to get out of the car. “Does she know?”
“Know what?” Rory asked, turning to look at him in the car.
He didn’t answer her, just looked at her with a raised an eyebrow. A soft blush rose on her cheeks and she had to turn away. Her eyes caught on the mansion’s door and a sigh escaped her lips.
“Come on,” she coaxed, getting out of his rust bucket of a car and starting towards the door.
“You didn’t answer me,” he scolded playfully, grabbing her hand and stopping her. As she turned around to object, he caught her behind her back and pulled her into a kiss. She felt her knees melt and she had to keep her arms wrapped around his neck to keep from collapsing.
“We’re late,” she objected halfheartedly between kisses. One of his hands slid down her leg and crawled up her skirt, carefully out of the view of the mansion, in case anyone was watching.
“Come on,” he said suddenly, breaking away from her and walking towards the house, a small smirk on his face.
“Jess,” she gasped, her legs still a massive amount of jelly. Suddenly she realized what he was doing. She closed her eyes, attempting to get her body under control, but all she could think about was getting back into his car and driving to a motel somewhere that they wouldn’t be disturbed. She pictured his lips running across her skin and her breath caught.
“Rory?” he inquired, placing a hand on the side of her face. She leaned into it, opening her eyes and gazing at him in longing. His eyes were drowning masses of chocolate. He wanted this as much as she did.
“Let’s go,” she moaned, pulling him against her and kissing him again. They stumbled as she pulled him back towards the car.
“We’re late,” he echoed her former complaint, but she brushed it off. He was teasing her, and it was working. Every word he said was running up and down her back, sending shivers through every part of her body.
“Ahem,” sounded from the door, just as they had made it back to the car. She was pinned against its side, his arms on either side of her and his face pressed into hers. Her hands were in his hair, absolutely destroying whatever style he’d worked for hours on, and she could imagine that she probably didn’t look much better.
“Hi, grandma,” Rory whimpered from behind him, gazing at the stern woman from over her boyfriend’s shoulder. Emily Gilmore did not look impressed.
“Buzzkill,” Jess muttered, but turned around to face their enemy for the evening. Rory observed as he attempted to catch his breath and she couldn’t help but let her eyes wander a little bit. Her face turning scarlet, she looked away from him and attempted to follow him without actually looking in his general direction.
“Rory Gilmore, what has gotten into you?” Emily spat, glaring at Jess menacingly.
Despite all her good attempts, she couldn’t help but look at Jess. He was attempting with all his might not to smirk again, and she suddenly felt the urge to as well. What had gotten into her? Well… wasn’t that the tale. A scoff from her grandmother snapped her out of her fantasy, bringing her back to reality with a jump.
“Uh…” she began, but she couldn’t think of anything to say.
“We got caught up in the moment,” Jess offered with a shrug. “Things have been tense.”
“Tense?” her grandmother repeated, glaring at him.
“Wrong word,” he grumbled, looking away. Rory couldn’t help but smile at him. He’d come to her rescue. He’d failed miserably, but he had tried.
“Is mom here?” Rory asked finally, attempting to change the subject.
“No, and you two are already late. It’s a wonder that you managed to get into the schools that you did with the way that your family is run,” Emily said, and Rory felt a stab of hurt at the words.
“You don’t know anything about the way her family is run,” Jess rumbled, stepping up the stairs so that he was on the same level as her grandmother.
“What do you know about anything?” she snapped back, and a staring contest broke out.
“Jess… it’s okay,” Rory attempted to calm him, stepping up the stairs as well and taking his hand. When he didn’t stop the staring contest, she kissed his knuckles lightly, and he blinked, turning to her. Their eyes caught and she smiled at him. He nodded at her and stepped past her grandmother, entering into the house without permission, pulling Rory with him.
“May I take your coats?” the maid asked the second they stepped in, with Emily quick on their heels.
“They won’t be staying long,” she chirped from behind them, even as Rory was removing her coat.
“Grandma?” Rory asked, not used to this cold shoulder that she was being given. Granted, she had just been caught making out with her boyfriend, about to ditch dinner, which was probably not the best impression to make, but she hadn’t expected her to be this bad.
“We’ll just wait for your mother to get here,” Emily replied cheerfully as she walked into the study.
“Is she okay?” Jess inquired as her grandmother left the room. Rory looked up at him for a moment and shrugged helplessly.
“I’ve never seen her like this,” she admitted, and they both inched into the study, where Emily was downing some alcoholic beverage like it was her life’s sustenance.
“Do we go in there?” he whispered, neither wanting to interrupt the woman’s drinking splurge. Just as she was about to reply, the door opened and slammed behind them. Rory jumped out of her skin and turned around to face her mother, who was staring at them both in amusement.
“It’s just me,” she said with a large grin. Jess rolled his eyes and Rory wrapped her arms around her waist. “What’s going on?” Rory was hesitant to tell her what had just happened, not wanting disapproval from both her grandmother and her mother.
“Grandma caught us…” she started, but couldn’t figure out the words to go after that.
“She caught you…?” Lorelai prodded, glaring at Jess.
“She caught us making out, and now she’s drinking like a fish,” Rory blurted out, grabbing Jess’s hand and looking around her shoulder at Emily, who was now on her third glass of whatever liquid she’d been downing all night.
“Oh boy, that’s not good,” Lorelai muttered and walked into the study with a large smile on her face. Jess and Rory followed slower, neither really looking forward to being there. “Hi mom!”
“Lorelai, there you are!” Emily hissed, and Rory flinched. Jess pulled her to him, protecting her from whatever lashing they were about to get. “How can you let this go on!?”
“What?” Lorelai deadpanned, looking around as though it wasn’t obvious.
“That! Him, it’s… disgusting! I can’t believe that she’s even considering taking him to Chilton! He’s a shame on the Gilmore name!” Emily ranted, and Rory felt Jess tighten beside her.
“Chilton?” he asked against the back of neck. Even in their situation, she shivered.
“I’ll tell you after?” she pleaded, noticing his angry eyes. He didn’t look happy, but he didn’t say anything else.
“Well… I’m sure that he’d be happy to ‘not’ go if you didn’t want him there,” Lorelai begged off with a shrug.
“And let Rory go to her rightful prom alone? I wouldn’t hear of it,” Emily shrieked, causing all three of them to flinch.
“Stars Hollow’s prom is my rightful prom,” Rory grumbled, which gained her the stares of everyone in the room. “What? I’ve never wanted to go to Chilton’s prom, ever. The only reason I went to Chilton in the first place was to get into Harvard, and now I’m not going to Harvard, I’m going to Yale, so I can be closer to Jess. I guess it doesn’t matter anymore, though, because I’m moving in with him next year.”
Emily paled, and Rory cringed at her own words. “You’ve had sex with him, haven’t you?” she asked, her voice sounding small and bitter.
“Yes,” Rory stated proudly, glad to have Jess’s arms around her.
“Not that it’s any of your business,” Lorelai burst in.
“You’re going to turn out just like her…” Emily spat, staring at Lorelai in contempt.
“Come on, Rory… we’re leaving,” Lorelai told her, putting a hand on her shoulder and steering her out of the house.
“Don’t you dare leave this house!” Emily shouted, following them with, yet another, drink in her hand. “If you leave, so help me, don’t come back.”
Rory paused, thinking of what that could potentially mean for her future. She bit her lip, biting back tears, and walked to the door. Her hands grasped the handle and she pulled it open.
“Rory…” Lorelai objected quietly. She looked up at the three other people in the room. Lorelai looking worried, sad and helpless, Jess looking angry and confused and her grandmother looking superior and controlling.
“I wanted to like you… I wanted to make you happy,” Rory whispered, but her voice still carried. “I guess it wasn’t enough.” She turned and walked out the door. Jess followed after her without another thought, but her mother hovered behind them.
The second that the night air was in her lungs, she started sobbing. Jess held her to her, not understanding what was going on. His hands ran through her hair comfortingly, teasing out knots and creating new ones. She collapsed against him as sobs wracked her body. In one moment, in one stupid moment, she’d lost everything. Yale wouldn’t offer her financial aid, and now her only form of money had been cut off. She wasn’t going to Yale, she wasn’t going to Harvard, and she wasn’t even going to Princeton.
Blackness surrounded here, she felt so tired. It took her a few seconds to realize that she was in Jess’s car again, and that they were already on their way back to Stars Hollow. Blinking her eyes, she looked up at him. His shirt was still stained with her tears and mascara and his eyes were cold and hard.
“Jess?” she asked, wanting to know what had happened.
“Hey,” he said, attempting to keep his tone light, but it was obvious that he was tense.
“What happened?” she asked, shuffling in the seat in an attempt to get comfortable.
“Let’s just say that Lorelai and I finally have something in common. A hatred of your grandparents,” he replied with a shrug, but she could see every line of his body was tighter than a spring.
“What happened?” she repeated, feeling exhausted and terrified that her dreams had been destroyed.
“You were crying so hard you fell asleep, Lorelai came out of the house and told me that your grandmother is revoking their agreement of dinners for Yale money,” he explained, and her heart clenched painfully. “Your mother’s going to sell the inn.”
“She can’t do that,” Rory said resolutely.
“She’s on her way to Sookie’s right now,” he shrugged, but it was obvious that he wasn’t happy in the situation.
“Let’s get there first,” she demanded, and he looked at her out of the corner of his eye.
“I’m not doing that,” he stated after a few seconds of silence.
“Why not?” she bit out.
“Because this is your dream. You already screwed over one dream for me, I’m not going to allow you to fuck up another one,” he explained bitterly.
“What do you mean?” she blinked, already knowing but feeling her heart dropping again.
“I’ll buy your dress, but we’re going to have to cut out the limo unless Lane can chip in. I don’t have the money for it. I have a few thousand saved away, it’s not much, but it’s yours… for Yale,” he went on.
“No, Jess, you have to go to college,” she objected, but was silenced with a look.
“No, Rory. You have to go to college. You, not me. I’m going to reenroll at the high school,” he said, and it was obvious what pain this was causing him.
“You can’t do that,” she pleaded, knowing how much he’d hated this last year.
“You can’t stop me,” he shrugged, his eyes glued onto the road.
“But… we were going to move in together,” she attempted to point out, and she saw a little bit of his anger deflate.
“Some things don’t work out,” he replied.
“But some things do,” she reminded him, grabbing his hand. “Thank you.”
“You deserve better than me, but if I’m what you want, then I’m going to make sure you don’t have to sacrifice your dreams to get it,” he proclaimed, his fingers wrapping around hers on the shift stick.
“You’re what I want,” she agreed, and she was happy to see the slightest hint of a smirk on his face.
“Glad to hear it,” he sighed with a nod, and she saw the last little bit of anger deflate out of his body. Now he just looked tired. The ‘Welcome to Stars Hollow’ sign flickered past them. Her eyes lingered on it for a few minutes before she turned back to him. Their eyes caught for a second before he had to look back to the road, and in that moment, she really, truly believed that everything was going to work out alright.
“We’re meeting your mom and Sookie at Luke’s. We need to discuss a few things,” he informed her gently as they turned onto Main Street.
“Okay,” she agreed, but her mouth was dry and her stomach felt like it had been run through a blender. She really didn’t want to have to face them right now.
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