Work Text:
Jess was right. This wasn’t her. The D.A.R, living with her grandparents, dropping out of Yale. This wasn’t her. She stood there, staring into the space in which he had been standing just moments before, realizing that she had no idea who she was now. All she knew was that she had to fix this. Everyone had been telling her for months that she had to fix this, but she wouldn’t listen, then Jess showed up and yelled at her and suddenly the reality of the past few months came crashing down on her all at once. He always did have that effect on her. He knew her better than anyone after all.
Determined to set things right, she headed back into the bar with newfound confidence, ready to face the first obstacle - Logan. As soon as she re-entered the bar, he started rambling about the folk singer and Rory lost it. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
Logan looked surprised by her outburst for a second but quickly recovered, adopting a confused expression, “What are you talking about?”
It was one thing for him to be a jerk to Jess but then to act like he did nothing wrong just fuelled Rory’s rage even more, “Jess wrote a book. He wrote a book and you mocked him.”
“I did not mock him.”, Logan interrupted.
“He’s doing something.”, Rory continued, ignoring Logan's comment, “What am I doing? I’m living with my grandparents, I’ve joined the D.A.R, I’ve dropped out of school, I party every night. This isn’t me!”
“It’s not going to last forever. Calm down, have a drink.”
“You’re right. It’s not going to last forever, because I’m done, with all of it.”
“What do you mean all of it.”, he knew what she was saying, but he was pushing her to say it out loud.
“The D.A.R, my grandparents' house.”, she took a deep breath, preparing herself for the next part, “And this, us.” It felt like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders as soon as the words had left her mouth. She’d expected to feel at least a little bit of emotion about breaking up with Logan, but she didn’t. It wasn’t until that moment that she realized she didn’t really love him.
“Come on, Rory. You don’t mean that.”, he stood up and placed a hand on her arm, she shook it off, “You’re letting him get to you, you’re not thinking straight.”
“Don’t patronize me!”, she snapped, “I mean what I’m saying. This is the first thing I’ve really been sure about in a while.”
“Fine! Leave then.”, he yelled, “I don’t need this.”
She grabbed her purse and left the bar, and Logan, behind. She felt a small smile creep onto her face as she walked away. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.
***
She piled everything she needed into a bag, leaving behind all of the clothes her grandmother had bought her, they were just another tie to the high society life she had been living the past few months. She had no clue where she was going to go. She couldn’t go back to her mother, not yet, not until everything was fixed.
As she picked up Jess’ book, she took a minute to flip through the pages, the feeling of the paper brushing against her fingers bringing her a strange sense of calm. A small piece of paper fell from the book and into her lap. Hesitantly, she set down the book and picked up the small scrap of paper, written on it was a phone number. Before she even knew what she was doing she was dialing the number and it wasn’t until a familiar voice spoke that she came out of her daze.
“Hello?”
“You were right.”, she blurted out.
“Rory?”
“You were right. This isn’t me.”, she seemed unable to stop the words from tumbling from her lips now and she was talking so fast that she wasn’t even sure that any of it made sense, “I broke up with Logan after you left. And I’m leaving my grandparents' house.”
“Good. That’s good.”, he couldn’t help the smirk that formed on his face as he heard that she had broken up with the blonde jerk.
“It’s funny, everyone has been telling me for months that this is insane - my mom, Lane, Paris, Luke - but did I listen to any of them? No.”, she continued her ramble, “Then you show up and yell at me for a few minutes and suddenly I’ve snapped back to reality.”
“I wouldn’t exactly say I yelled.”, she could practically hear him smirking as he said this.
“Oh, you yelled.”, she laughed. It was the first time in a long time that she actually laughed. Her voice got quieter when she said the next part, “I don’t even know who I am anymore.”
Jess was quiet for a moment, and she started to think that he hadn’t heard her, but then he said, “Do you want me to help you find out?”
“Yeah?”, she asked, wanting to make sure he was serious.
“How does Philidelphia sound to you?”, his heart was practically beating out of his chest as he waited for her answer.
“It sounds perfect.” As she sat on the floor of her grandparents' house, grinning like an idiot, she realized that she was definitely still in love with Jess Mariano, and she couldn’t help but think that maybe, just maybe, this would work out okay.