Chapter Text
Chapter One: Spats and cigarettes
Dean is a great boyfriend. Wonderful even. He hits all the marks. He always calls when he says he’s going to, he told her he loves her, and her mom likes him. Rory would almost go so far as to say her mom loves him as a first boyfriend for her. Still, Rory isn’t so sure… She’s almost ashamed to think about her doubts, especially when Dean has been so kind. They are just so different… He doesn’t like reading as much as she does, and while Rory knows it’s stupid to get hung up on something as trivial as a hobby, she’s not sure what they do have in common. Rory aspires to become the next Christiane Amanpour, to travel the world, live out of a suitcase and follow her heart. Dean just wants what his parents have. A nice house here in Stars Hollow, a nuclear family, a wife to come home to after work who greets him with a kiss and dinner on the table. And maybe Rory is being overly critical. Doesn’t she love her life here in Stars Hollow? Doesn’t she enjoy the town meetings and breakfasts at Luke’s? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live so close to her mom? That their dreams are a little different wouldn’t even be a reason for doubt if Rory didn’t sometimes feel Dean wants her to become that housewife. A Donna Reed impersonation, who lives for her husband and her kids. But surely, that can’t be true. Her mom would never approve of Dean as much as she does if she felt he would be a negative influence. Lorelai even usually takes Dean’s side in their arguments of Rory’s, so it’s only logical that Rory is the issue here. Right? She really should try to be a better girlfriend. And she should try to pay attention to what her mom is saying…
Her mom, who is eating her eggs slower than Rory thought was possible for a Gilmore. Her mom knows they are running late…
‘How are the eggs?’, Rory asks. Maybe this will be direct enough to hurry Lorelai up.
A valiant effort, yet Lorelai only replies with, ‘Still good’. This is Rory’s first school day of the year! Surely her mom must know why being early is important. A new year means a new locker. She doesn’t know the quickest paths to class yet, and just thinking about it makes her stomach turn. She explains her logic thoroughly, but Lorelai only raises a single, challenging brow.
‘I’m just excited!’, Rory exclaims, without really being sure that the butterflies in her stomach are excitement and giddiness instead of dread.
A distracting interlude provided by Lane and her gigantic Mojo guidebook, and Taylor and his assembly of scouts later, Rory and Lorelai finally exit Luke’s Diner.
‘Did you hear Luke’s snarky comment about sisters?’, her mother asks while Rory almost pushes her down the sidewalk towards the bus stop.
‘What about it?’
‘I don’t know, it’s not like Luke to be cosplaying Oscar the Grouch this early in the day.’
‘Not like Luke? Grumpiness is part of his nature.’ Lorelai still doesn’t seem convinced, and shrugs.
‘Something is off, kid, I’m telling you.’ Rory laughs at that but startles when she sees the bus pull up at her bus stop down the street. She wouldn’t have drunk that last cup of coffee if she had known she would have to pull a sprint. Even a Gilmore girl can stomach only so much coffee without becoming nauseous when being forced to exercise.
‘I’ll see you later today mom! I love you!’
‘Love you too, kiddo!’
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When Luke is waiting for his nephew at the very same bus stop later that day, he truly doesn’t know what to expect. The last time that he truly spoke with the kid was when Jess was five and they went on a fishing trip together because Liz had fallen ill that week and dropped Jess on his doorstep without a warning. Luke has always questioned whether she actually was ill. Her behaviour had been eerily similar to all the times she had been hungover in high school. The situation wasn’t much different this time around, but Luke doubted if a fishing trip would still be enough to distract his nephew. It wasn’t that Luke hadn’t tried to keep in contact with his nephew; in fact, the opposite was true. He had tried to keep up with his sister changing addresses, and sending Jess cards and gifts for his birthday. Yet his sister had always kept him at arm’s length and wouldn’t let him visit her in New York. When he confronted Liz about that, however, she denied ever receiving any support from him. She begged him to help her this once and to take in Jess because he was becoming more than she could manage as a single mom. According to Liz, he was quite the troublemaker and never at home. When Luke asked her about his grades, she mentioned she wasn’t even sure Jess still attended school.
Luke continues to eye the door opening and immediately realizes that Jess isn’t a kid anymore as soon as he steps out of the bus. He certainly looks all grown up, with a scowl on his face and a camouflage printed shirt on. Huh. Maybe Jess would enjoy that fishing trip after all. Luke doesn’t know how to greet him and settles for a little nod with his head. Jess just copies him and observes the people around them. Luke starts feeling quite nervous and doesn’t stop feeling nervous until he’s shown Jess around half an hour later. Jess hasn’t said anything that contained more than two syllables, but could he truly have expected the kid to rejoice in his circumstances? After all, he had just dragged him away from everything he loved in New York.
Meanwhile, Jess is contemplating making a run for it. He has walked through the entirety of Stars Hollow twice and has settled for reading his book on a bench near Luke’s Diner. Even his love for literature can only distract him for so long. Jess doesn’t consider himself someone who is frightened easily, but this small everybody-knows-everybody type of town is his worst nightmare. He had felt trapped in New York on occasion, burdened by the care for his mother, so he could only imagine how bad it would get here in Stars Hollow, where everybody carefully watched him. Jess had overheard at least three groups of people discussing him, his book and his clothes in the half-hour he had been sitting on this damned bench. They had already decided he was a hoodlum because of his ‘attitude’, which left Jess wondering how anybody knew what kind of attitude he had without speaking with him. It didn’t matter anyhow; he was getting on the next bus out of this hellhole. He regretted leaving his clothes behind in Luke’s room, but he decided he would just adopt a more nihilistic and unmaterialistic lifestyle. Jess’ thoughts are interrupted when the bus pulls up at the stop. Jess is about to get on when he notices a pretty girl in a preppy school uniform getting out and heading towards Luke’s. Interesting. Maybe sticking around for a week or so wouldn’t be that bad. It would certainly allow him to rake up some cash and come up with a solid escape plan. He decided to go back to reading for now.
‘We are having a little gathering tomorrow night!’, Lorelai says while pacing down the sidewalk after having consumed her fifth cup of coffee at Luke’s today. When she explains the plan to make Jess feel more at home Rory’s curiosity gets overhand.
‘Did you meet him?’ She wonders if Luke’s nephew will be a carbon copy of Luke, grumpy but kind, or if he will be completely different.
‘Well, he’s not going to be subbing for the new Dodo on the Regis show anytime soon. Let’s put it like that.’ Rory is about to ask for some elaboration when her mom slows down and discreetly points to a guy reading on a bench.
‘That’s him, the little hoodlum. Don’t be lured in by his reading sweetheart, Babette and Patty told me he has a nasty attitude.’ Even with this warning, Rory can’t help but want to look closer at the guy. There’s no denying that he is absolutely gorgeous. His windswept dark hair, his strong jawline, the muscles visible through his top… Rory can’t help but feel like this Jess is what Mr Darcy must look like: a dark-haired, handsome and misunderstood individual.
Her mother seems to sense this and comments, ‘He does look rather Holden Caulfield-y, I must admit. I bet he’s not as tall as Dean though.’ Her mother winks at that. Rory swallows at that comment. Right, Dean…
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Rory can’t help but be excited for the gathering tonight. She’s quite disgusted by her animalistic nature which decides she likes this guy without having even spoken with him. If her mom is to be trusted, he’s quite the troublemaker, and her mom is always trustworthy. Yet, as she tries to focus on her schoolwork, she feels her heart skip a beat when the doorbell rings. She quickly redirects her attention to her computer, listening to Sookie and Jackson bicker in the kitchen. She barely manages to type more than three words when her mother calls her name. She turns around and there he is, more handsome up close than Rory had thought possible. He’s the James Dean, smoking a cigarette, wearing leather jackets, bad boy kind of hot.
She manages to croak out a ‘Hey’. He doesn’t seem to mind though, calmly replying with ‘I figured’ when she clarifies that she is in fact Rory, like that wasn’t clear already. Just when she thinks it’s about to get awkward he spots her bookshelf.
‘Wow, aren’t we hooked on phonics?’ Right, books! He likes reading!
‘I read a lot. Do you read?’ He’s got one of her favourites in his hand.
‘Not much.' She offers to loan him Howl, but he rejects her offer. He has already placed his attention on her bedroom windows.
‘Do these open?’, he asks. Rory replies with a step-by-step manual, feeling more uncomfortable with every second passed. Does he want to ditch the dinner party after all the effort Sookie put in? Turns out she was right, and he wants to take her with him. While some small, terrible part of her finds the whole ordeal quite charming, she scolds him for not appreciating the effort Sookie and Jackson put in instead of taking his offer. She promises him this will be fun, and he retorts that he doesn’t even know her.
She decides to be a little brave and remarks, ‘Don’t I look trustworthy?’. His ‘Maybe’ surprises her, and the fact that he follows her to the kitchen even more so.
‘For the record,’ he says, ‘I didn’t want to be here. I’m sure you’re charming company, but I’d rather be in the company of my friends, far away from this snow globe-esque town.’ She laughs a little at that.
‘It’s not so bad here. And if you hate this dinner that much, no one’s stopping you if you decide to leave early. At least give it a try.’ He seems to ponder her words but follows her to the living room.
He replies with, ‘Only because you do look trustworthy,’ and gives her a small lopsided smirk. When he leaves halfway through the dinner after a confrontation with her mom on the porch, she can’t fault him for it. He did try after all, and the combination of Sookie, Jackson and her mom can be quite a lot for her to take in, let alone a complete stranger trapped in a town he doesn’t want to be in.
What does come as a surprise is Luke yelling at her mom in the kitchen that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She steps closer to the kitchen, something she at once regrets when she hears Luke’s remark about her mom not being the expert she thinks she is because she got knocked up at sixteen, and ‘Hey, wasn’t that quite irresponsible?’ Rory feels like the wind got knocked out of her, and with her mom and Luke arguing in the kitchen, and Sookie and Jackson bickering in the living room, the only place left to go is outside.
She slams the door behind her and is about to run to Lane’s when she spots Jess sitting on the porch, smoking a cigarette and reading a book. She feels quite brave. ‘Those will kill you y’know.’ He jumps a little but then laughs at her comment, and she doesn’t understand why.
‘Loads of things could kill me. At least these bring me some enjoyment.’ She huffs at that.
‘They say you have a bad attitude. Chain-smoking isn’t helping your case.’ It’s his turn to make a dismissive noise, and he stands up, facing her.
‘That’s quite odd. I haven’t spoken to anyone besides you and Luke, yet the whole town claims to know me. I didn’t know this town was both loony and psychic.’ She falters a bit at that comment.
‘Maybe you should talk to them. Prove them wrong. This is a wonderful town if you get along with its inhabitants.’ He doesn’t even seem to consider it.
‘I’m not the conversation type.’
‘We’re having a conversation right now. It’s going quite well. You haven’t made any snarky comments insulting me yet. I can take the occasional diss on Stars Hollow, so you’re in the clear.’ He laughs at that, surprising her once more.
‘That’s because you have been nice to me so far and based on the books you read I’d wager you prefer to make up your own mind.’ She nods at that, proud he thinks her different from her gossipy neighbours. She doesn’t want to think about why his approval means that much to her.
‘It’s worth trying if people allow you to prove them wrong. Not that I understand why I have to prove them wrong, because I haven’t done anything yet.’ He shrugs and blows a puff of smoke into the cool evening air. Rory steps closer to him, feeling a kind of magnetic pull and the urge to prove him wrong, to make him enjoy his time here.
‘Well, keeping doing absolutely nothing of interest and they’ll come around. Exotic strangers scare them.’ He raises an eyebrow at the word exotic.
‘Exotic? I’m only half Italian.’ Rory blushes. Exotic hadn’t been the right word to choose.
‘That’s still fifty per cent more exotic than anybody else. Besides my friend Lane and her mom, there is nobody here that isn’t white as snow. The fact that you’re from New York is probably the more defining characteristic of your heritage. I like it though, someone who I haven’t known my whole life. You’re a welcome change.’ She’s full-on rambling now, her nerves coursing through her like an electric current. He just stares at her.
‘A welcome change, huh?’ He steps closer to her, keeping eye contact. His cigarette is long forgotten.
‘How welcome am I?’ Rory isn’t quite sure how to reply to that. Luckily she is saved from having to come up with a reply by Luke storming out of the front door. He grabs Jess’ wrist, forcing him to drop the cigarette, and stomping it out.
‘As long as you’re living with me you will not smoke, you understand? I don’t care what you went through, I’m not letting you go down a bad path! We’re going home and have a nice chat about putting a stop to all of this bad-boy behaviour.’ It’s only after this rant that Luke notices Rory.
‘Are you alright, Rory? Your mom and I got into a little spat, but I’ll still have your cup of coffee ready to go for you tomorrow. Just don’t bring your mom into my diner.’
Rory frowns at this, hoping that her mom and Luke would have already made up. She hates when they fight, it feels like she is stuck between the two people she loves the most. Alas, she sees this clumsy attempt for what it is: reassurance that Luke still cares about her.
‘Thanks, Luke, then I’ll see you tomorrow. Bye Jess.’
Luke and Jess take off, but Jess turns back and winks at Rory when he stuffs his pack of cigarettes into her mailbox when Luke’s not looking. He mouths, ‘See you tomorrow.’ When Rory checks the next morning, the cigarettes are gone. She figures she’ll give them back at Luke’s, scared to throw away this potential conversation starter.
But when Rory gets there, Jess has already left for school.
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‘Hey! How was school?’ Jess turns around to find his uncle waiting for him. Just what he was hoping for after an exciting day in Stars Hollow high school. School had been awful. The guys had all been sizing him up, girls asking him if he were single. The only one that hadn’t seemed to care about him one way or another had been Lane, the girl Rory had told him about. He isn’t going to tell Luke about this alienating experience, almost afraid he’ll have to have a touchy-feely conversation with his uncle. No thanks.
‘Great’, he answers Luke’s question. Luke isn’t convinced and fires off a second question.
‘You learn anything good?’ Jess doesn’t see the point in this conversation. Why pretend to care?
‘Oh, yeah, tons of things. I got a myriad of golden stars plastered over my forehead.’ He sees Luke take a second. Oh great, there probably was an ulterior motive for his sudden interest in escorting Jess to the dinner.
‘I got an interesting call today.’ Jess quickly wondered what it could be. Did his mom need any more money to pay off her dealer? Or has she decided he can come home? Luke doesn’t notice Jess’s brief moment of stress and continues his interrogation.
‘It was from Taylor Doose. Y’know, the guy who owns the market’. Jess does know who Luke means. The guy had tried to refuse him service this morning when Jess tried to stock up on some gum and nicotine patches after Luke’s no-smoking-or-drinking-or-drugs lecture. Something about not selling his wares to hoodlums, absolute bull.
‘He said you came in today.’ Well, that much was true. With a sigh, Jess replies honestly with a short ‘I did’. The words are barely out of his mouth or Luke is already speaking again. If one could still call this tone speaking, that is.
‘And he said you took some money out of a little donation cup to help repair the bridge. I told him that he was crazy. You wouldn’t do that - You weren’t a thief. That he was just trying to start trouble.’ Wow, another fact. Jess could feel himself getting angry.
‘And then I hung up on him.’ Smart decision on Luke’s end. Instead of giving a snarky comment, Jess makes a quick mental note to get out of this town as soon as possible. He doesn’t care if people think he is a hoodlum, but he will not sit idly by while being accused of criminal behaviour.
Luke still continues on. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy hanging up on Taylor, he’s crazy.’ Jess definitely agrees.
‘But I was wondering if maybe any of the other things he said were true.’ Great, so now even his uncle thinks he’s a thief. Absolutely fantastic.
‘What do you think?’
‘I think that if you tell me that what he’s saying is not true, then I’m gonna believe it’s not true.’ Jess doesn’t believe this, yet he still defends himself.
‘It’s not true.’
‘That doesn’t sound very convincing.’
‘What exactly do you want from me?’ Jess really doesn’t know at this point. Clearly, his uncle doesn’t trust him. ‘You bring me here to this place, you put me in a school that says the Pledge of Allegiance in six different languages – two of which I’ve never heard of before! You take me from my home, my friends, and now you want what from me?’ He realizes his anger has gotten the best of him, but it’s too late now.
‘I’m trying to help you!’ A bulging vein has popped up in Luke’s forehead.
‘Well, stop trying!’ Luke questions him if that’s what he wants, and for a moment Jess’ yes seems enough of an answer. Jess should have known that this wasn’t the end of the conversation. Suddenly Luke pushes him off of the stupid bridge he’s accused of stealing money from. When Jess resurfaces and tries to hoist himself up on the bridge, his uncle is long gone. The water was chilly, and he can feel the little beads of water dripping down his neck. He’s had a bit of luck though. His book had somehow fallen out of his pocket during his shouting match with Luke and lays dry on the bridge. The bridge and surrounding area are quiet, with no one around except some whistling birds. Jess contemplates his options and decides to airdry here on the beach. His hair will go curly, and it might be embarrassing to be found reading here while dripping wet when someone walks past, but Jess sure as hell isn’t going to walk through the town square like this. He sits down on the bridge, pulls his big wet lumpy grey sweater off, and starts reading his book.
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'Rory?!'
'Kitchen!' More specifically, in the middle of their small yellow kitchen, with her books, notebooks and flashcards spread around her in a circle, scribbling like crazy.
'Nowhere, in either Stars Hollow or surrounding counties, can you get a decent cup of coffee. I swear, it's like a big, stupid coffee conspiracy.'
Lorelai's already put three cups of coffee powder into the machine, and she's going in for a fourth.
'Why don't you put the water right into the bag?', Rory suggests. It was meant as a joke, but Lorelai seriously considers it. When she sees the look of horror on her daughter's face she decides against it.
'Oh, you jest, but believe me the thought has crossed my mind. It's looking better and better all the time.'
Rory walks into her room to grab her notes on the Max Medina interview.
'Where are you going? I'm not through complaining?'
'I just had to get some more notes I need.'
Rory steps back into the kitchen and sees her mom standing over her interview with Max.
'Oh, that's my... interview with Max.' 'What interview with Max?' 'The paper wanted to do an interview with the student's favourite teacher from the previous year and Paris assigned it to me when she got wind of the fact that...' 'Wow, nice kid that Paris Geller.' 'It wasn't that bad though, it gave us a chance to talk about some things.' 'Good.'
'Well, I'm going to buy a folder for it before the store closes.' Rory pulls on a sweater, getting ready to go outside.
'Okay, meet me in the town square when you're done, we'll go on the hunt for some decent take-out.'
'Why can't we just go to Luke's?' Lorelai sighs at this question.
'Well sweetie, because mommy and the big mean diner-owner are in a disagreement.' Rory sighs at that, even going as far as deliberately copying her mom’s posture to send her message home.
'You run along now, mommy will see you later.' Rory takes the high road and complies.
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Rory has just left when Lorelai hears a heavy knocking on the kitchen door. She opens the door and is surprised to find an agitated Luke behind it.
'I just pushed him in a lake. I pushed Jess in a lake.' He starts pacing around the kitchen.
'I got this call from Taylor that he thinks that Jess stole the bridge money. I went to confront him, and he was being impossible, and I just pushed him in the lake. This is bad.' Luke pinches his brow. Lorelai just laughs a little.
'That depends, can he swim?'
'He's fine. He's wet. I just - I lost it!' Lorelai raises her eyebrow. Luke sighs and admits, 'You were right. I don't know how to parent a grown-up Jess.' Lorelai embraces him. Luke looks like he needs it, and to be honest, fighting with him has taken a toll on her as well.
'I'll drop by the diner with Rory tonight and we'll come up with a plan,’ she murmurs into his ear. Of course, this is the moment Babette chooses to walk into the kitchen. Babette doesn’t react to the situation, perhaps too upset to properly notice.
‘Lorelai, have you seen Pierpont? He has disappeared!’ Luke’s frown reappears.
‘What or who is Pierpont?’, he asks.
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‘So, that was quite the disappearing act you pulled the other night.’
Jess looks up out of his book at the sound of Rory's voice. Just about his luck that she finds him here, looking like a drowned puppy. His hair is damp, filled with the curls he carefully styles out every morning. Still, he's happy to see her, and he smiles. She's a true vision in her jeans and a sweater, totally different from the schoolgirl outfit he normally sees her in. Jess has never had a thing for schoolgirl outfits, finding the fetishisation of them gross, but he can't deny that Rory in her Chilton outfit does something to him. Maybe it's just Rory, and the outfit is irrelevant. He's not quite sure he prefers that option.
'Potlucks and Tupperware parties aren't really my thing. '
She smiles back and sits down beside him.
'Too cool for school, huh?' Jess wonders if that's what she thinks of him but decides better against asking here.
'Yes, that is me.' He pulls a coin out of his pocket and shows her. He bets she'll like this magic trick, and it'll lighten the tension in the air a bit. She takes the bait.
'What are you doing?'
'Oh, this? Nothing. Just another little disappearing act.' At this, she scoffs a little, but she still laughs.
'Little tip?'
'Yeah?'
'If you ever want to talk to me again don't pull that out of my ear.' Tough crowd. Jess frowns dramatically to show his disappointment.
'So, I guess the nose is off-limits too?', he asks, his fingers hovering dangerously close to her nose. Rory doesn’t know if she’d rather scoot a little forward, into his touch, or back, creating a safe distance between her and this boy who has a strange hold over her. She does neither.
'Anyplace you wouldn't naturally find a coin.'
He replies with a 'Fair enough’ and scoots a little closer to her. Rory suddenly seems to notice the fact that his hair and clothes are damp.
'Why are you so wet?’ Rory realizes how provocative the question is as soon as she’s asked it, and of course, Jess realizes too. He decides to tease her a little.
'Oh my, miss Gilmore, that's quite a crass question. Here I was thinking you were a sweet angel, but I see I was wrong.' Rory blushes, leaving Jess feeling pleased with his antics. She sputters with indignation.
'Don't be gross. What happened? Fell in the lake?', she teases. Jess groans and tells her the truth.
'I was pushed in by Luke.' Rory's eyes widen quite comically at that.
'Luke pushed you in? Doesn't seem like something Luke would do.' Jess scoots a little closer again.
'Maybe I bring out the worst in him, maybe I'm a bad influence,' he jokes. 'Nah, we got into a discussion and Luke got so mad he pushed me in the lake. But I'm fine, a little water won't kill me.' Rory smiles, showing a cute dimple on her cheek. Jess doesn't even know the girl and he wants to kiss that dimple.
'Maybe I deserved it. I did egg him on. But he didn't believe me when I said I didn't steal the bridge money.'
'Luke thinks you stole the bridge money?'
'Yup. That whack-job Taylor called him about it.' Rory stammers a bit at that.
'But-but, you are innocent. Kyle did that.' Jess just rolls his eyes.
'Doesn't matter now. I'm the new town hoodlum.' Rory suddenly jumps up. She pats his head a little like you would do a dog. She isn't sure why she does it, she just wants to touch and comfort him.
'Don't worry Eeyore, I'll tell Luke the truth. I really have to go now, gotta go buy a folder before the store closes.' Jess can't help melting a little at the pat on his head.
'Alright, hurry up then. I think you have 10 minutes left before it closes.' Rory checks her watch, widens her eyes and runs off, leaving a laughing Jess in her wake.
Jess is sitting on his makeshift bed, smoking a cigarette. After two days of staying here in Stars Hollow, he had given up on his first urge to run far, far away. He had no money, no prospects, no diploma. He was stuck. The door swings open with a bang, revealing an incredibly red-in-the-face Luke. Luke swings a white plastic bag in front of Jess, already yelling about something.
'Okay. We got the patch, the gum, hypnosis tapes, Chinese herbs, self-help books and several pictures of diseased lungs to hang on the fridge. Pretty, huh?'
Jess takes another drag of his cigarette. He's not proud of the habit but it had been a means of escape when he first started. He won't lie, it helped him find in with the rougher crowds in New York that hung around his neighbourhood. And now, well, he had just become accustomed to it. His day started with a cigarette and ended with one, similar to Henry Chinaski's drinking addiction in Bukowski's Post Office. He knew he had to quit someday, he just hadn't had a reason to. Maybe Luke is reason enough. Luke certainly seems to think so, plucking the cigarette out of Jess' hands and throwing it out the window. 'Hey!', Jess exclaims.
'This is done! You will get up, you will go to school. You will come home. You'll work in the diner until closing, you do your homework, and then you will go to bed.'
'What?'
'You will do chores and selected pre-approved outings. You will not steal! You will return Pierpont to Babette'
'I did not- I do not steal! Yes, I smoke and believe me, yes, I drink, but I'm no thief. I did not steal that money, and I certainly did not take what the hell a Pierpont is. You can ask Rory!'
'Do not drag Rory into this! You will leave that girl alone, you hear me?' Jess does not think it's worth the fight. He gets up and walks to the door but cannot withhold from spitting out the last remark.
'You are not my dad, I don't have one, so don't act like you are. Don't act like you care when I haven't heard from you since I was five!' He slams the door and curses under his breath while he walks down the stairs. In his agitation, he knocks down a menu while walking to the exit of the diner. He feels the need to scream, but he opts for kicking the menu before picking it up and putting it back on the table. Slightly calmer he resumes his race to the door, relief flooding through him as he closes it behind him. The evening air is cold and slightly prickles his skin. He breathes it in and out, looking for a place to go.
Jess spots Rory again in the town square. Jess hasn’t been outside the diner for more than 30 seconds when he spots Rory walking out of the bookstore. He catches up with her.
‘Hey.’ Rory seems surprised to find him here.
‘Hey, yourself.’ Jess sees this as a sign she wants to continue the conversation.
‘What are you doing out here?’
‘I needed something for school. What about you?’ Well, it’s not like he can tell her the walls in Luke’s room felt like they were going to swallow him whole.
‘Oh yeah, same thing.’ She just hums as a response.
He runs to catch up with her, eager for another conversation.
'So, what are you doing now?' He hands her a copy of Howl. She looks at it questioningly.
'I have some homework to finish. You didn't have to buy that, I told you I'd lend you mine.'
'It is yours.' She stares at him but looks away when he returns the eye contact. It felt charged, too heavy, it made her uncomfortable. Instead, she focuses.
'You stole my book?!'
'No, I borrowed it.'
'That's called a felony.'
'I just wanted to put some notes in the margins for you.'
'You've read it before.'
'About 40 times.'
'I thought you said you didn't read much?' He laughs and shrugs.
'Wow, what is much? Goodnight Rory.' He turns around, walking back to the diner with his hands in his pockets. Suddenly, he hears Rory call out.
'Goodnight Dodger.' Jess whips around to look at her.
'Dodger?'
'Figure it out.' Now it’s her turn to walk away. The realisation follows quickly for Jess, and he shouts.
'Oliver Twist!'