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She was a divorcee.
Lorelai Gilmore was a divorcee.
Which felt weird because she had never actually felt married. Or she didn't feel the way she'd thought she would when she finally got married.
She had thought about marrying Chris when she was pregnant and that was what society expected her to do. She had thought about marrying Max when he proposed to her with a thousand yellow daisies. She'd spent so much time thinking about marrying Luke after she had realized he was the first man she's ever loved, he was what she needed and what she wanted.
But when she actually got married, it was not after a real thinking process. It was during a time in her life filled with denial. She was in Paris with Christopher. The man she was sure she was never going to get back together with. She was in Paris with him, forcing herself to not think about her ex fiance when the man who abondened her to raise their daughter on her own proposed to her. So, she didn't think. She got married on a whim.
Their divorce was not a surprise to anyone including her parents. But still she felt weird walking in her town knowing she had invited them all to her wedding with Luke and now she was a divorcee who just had a divorce with a totally different guy.
People in Stars Hollow were nosy, it was a fact. But they were not people who would bother her or upset her in a situation like this.
At least that was what she'd thought.
It was a sunny spring day in Stars Hollow. Flowers on trees and ground were just starting to bloom. Sweaters and coats were back to their old places in the wardrobes and dresses and shirts were back, putting their shows on.
It was a week after her divorce but it was still one of the biggest news in town. She saw people talk about it but whenever they saw her, they would start talking about another subject or just get quiet weirdly. It was okay, it was better than the ribbons on her first break up with Luke.
She was actually peaceful, knowing she'd made the right choice. People were not bothering her, her parents were not angry about it, her daughter was actually relieved and Chris was not hating her the way she'd thought he would. It was the best end she could think about her marriage to Chris.
She was working in Dragonfly when she saw Kirk getting in. He was wearing a white shirt and black fabric pants. He looked hilarious in a way that made her smile wide.
Kirk got closer to her and said hello in a formal way. "Miss Gilmore, I am here for an interview with you. I would like to inform you about the fact that everything you say will be published on Stars Hollow Gazette." He talked quickly but still formally.
Lorelai looked at him with a confused frown on her face, still with a smile. "I don't think interviews actually work this way, Kirk. You have to have my consent first." She explained with a calm voice.
"Ms. Gilmore sounded and looked really tense. She obviously didn't want to talk to our gazette and let people know the truth. You may see that she is not the best citizen." Kirk talked as he wrote the things he said to the notebook he holded in his hands.
"No, no. This is not what it is. I don't even know what you want to talk to me about, Kirk." She tried to correct him.
She liked Kirk but it didn't change the fact that he was great at pissing people off. Like he was doing at that moment.
"Oh," Kirk was silent for a few seconds before he started to talk again. "Well, I've seen this movie about a journalist who wrote about this woman who had lots of weddings but never actually married them-"
"Runaway Bride." Lorelai said quickly. She explained when she saw Kirk staring at her, confused. "It's the name of the movie. The journalist is Ike who loves to badmouth women and the woman is Maggie who I think has some real commitment issues. It's a great movie. Thanks to Julia Roberts of course. And her with Richard Gere is ten times better. Like Pretty Woman kind of better. But not quite similar. I really love that movie." She spoke excitedly, the way she always did when the conversation was about movies. Talk about movies distracted her from the real subject.
Kirk nodded with a pretend officialism. "Anyways, I thought what he was doing was brilliant and our town deserved that. So I joined to the gazette and started to think about my first piece. Which should be about you. Because you are the Runaway Bride of our town." He explained as he turned back to his notebook to write something else.
Lorelai looked at him in shock without saying anything for a while. She felt a lump in her throat. She knew Kirk was the last person in town who she needed to take serious but it didn't change the fact that the label was a really hurtful one. Maybe not a totally wrong one but a hurtful one.
"So," Kirk started to talk again as she kept her silence. "Ms. Gilmore, can you tell us about your wedding plans with Max Medina, please?"
"No, actually, I can't." Lorelai answered with a firm voice. "What I can do is kicking you out of here. It means that you should leave before I make you leave." She knew that it would not be really hard to kick him out.
Kirk looked frightened a bit but he didn't make a move to leave. He started to write again as he said what he wrote aloud. "Ms. Gilmore does not want to talk about Mr. Medina. It is pretty normal since she was the one who ran away and humiliated Mr. Medina. It must be a memory that you want to forget, is it true Ms. Gilmore?"
"You are the memory I want to forget, Kirk." Usually she was not a mean person, especially to Kirk who acted like a child most of the time. But it was one of the moments in her life that she understood why Luke just loved to kick him out of the diner.
"Okay, maybe you would like to talk to us about your proposal to Mr. Danes. It's known by the whole town that you were the one who proposed. What were you thinking at that moment? Was you being the one who proposed instead of the man who was supposed to do that about you wanting to get rid off your reputation as the woman who has lots of failed relationships?" Kirk asked.
"No, it was actually about the fact that morons like you thinking it's a man's job to decide when they should get married and propose and start a family like women don't have their opinions about these." Lorelai answered even though she didn't want to play into the hands of him.
"Ms. Gilmore refuses to answer our questions about her proposal too. But maybe you could tell us about your break up with Mr. Danes, Ms. Gilmore." Kirk was still writing to his notebook with his ridiculous hand writing.
"Winston!" Lorelai yelled as she stared at him with angry eyes. A muscular guy with brown hair and brown eyes was standing there just in seconds. Lorelai turned to him with a small smile. "Winston, can you help this guy to the door?"
Winston nodded and took a warning step to Kirk. Kirk was suddenly running out of the inn, as fast as wind.
Lorelai shook her head and took a deep breath. She should've gotten used to the craziness of this town of hers long time ago.
She got back to working after she thanked Winston who just shrugged with a smile. Kirk and his stupid piece was totally out of her mind for a long time.
A long time until she was reading the Stars Hollow Gazette of month as she was having her breakfast in the kitchen of her inn.
She didn't remember feeling that angry in a really long time period. The things that were written on the paper were even worse than the ones Kirk had said to her. The whole thing was mean and hurtful. It was attacking her personality with no shame.
There was a part about her wedding plans with Max. A whole paragraph about how she had broken Max's heart and left him.
"Man with a thousand yellow daisies clearly was not expecting such an end to his engagement to this beautiful, witty woman. Considering that day's circumstances, it was not possible for him to know about the runaway bride. Even though when we look back, we can see her rejecting the father of her kid lots of times, there is no proof of our infamous runaway bride leaving another poor man before the daisy guy." Thanks a lot Kirk, she thought.
And then there was a paragraph about her first break up with Luke, which wasn't even wedding related except the fact that it was during her parents' vow reneval. But unfortunately Kirk was informed about this fact and was not really ashamed as he'd written about her being so triggered by the idea of getting married that a basic vow reneval ended with a break up.
" 'As many of you know, the worst thing that could happen to a town is two business owners breaking up. And even though the dictator of the town warned the runaway bride and her new pray, there was no savior. Successfully grumpy diner owner and runaway bride had a really short relationship before their first break up. At this point, about the break up we have a guest to talk about it. Miss Patty is here to tell us about it. The mic is yours Miss Patty.'
'Hello, Kirk. Yes, I'm here to talk about Luke and Lorelai. Such a pretty woman our Lorelai is, isn't she? And Luke? Great but. That Lorelai was a lucky woman.'
'And about their first break up?'
'Oh that was a sad one. It was all Lorelai's mother's and ex's doing. It was during her parents' vow reneval.'
'Thank you, Miss Patty. As you can see, another break up during another wedding. Runaway Bride does not surprise.' "
Those words were enough for her to arson Kirk's house, Patty's place and the building of gazette. But there was even more to humiliate her.
As an everyday patron of Luke's diner, Kirk had a lot if insight about their second break up, she found out. He knew about her proposal. He knew that Luke was kind of ashamed that he was not the who proposed. He knew about April situation. He knew when they postponed the wedding. He was right there as she gave that embarrasing toast in Lane's wedding. And he was on the street as she begged Luke to elope with him.
Kirk was just there, all the time. And Lorelai wanted to strangle him so badly. The piece ended with the last paragraph that was about her 'loveless marriage' to Christopher as Kirk described it.
She tried to act like the gazette didn't mean anything. At the end, the town knew her. They've been there for all of it as much as Kirk was. But as she walked on the street, she couldn't help but feel awkward. She couldn't help but feel like everyone around was judging her. It was totally possible for them to see it all but not being able to connect the dots. It was normal for them to realize the truth right after reading the paper because even Lorelai's own opinion about herself was different after that.
She was pretty sure of herself as she requested a solution, a way to get rid off that gazette in the town meeting. Even though she knew Kirk was not exactly lying in his article, she wanted it to disappear.
"Stars Hollow Gazette is about our town and the people who live in it." Taylor talked as people watched him, bored. "Now, Ms. Gilmore here wants us to somehow ban the last piece of gazette. Which is unrealistic because almost all of you have it. And her reasoning being so personal-"
Lorelai standed up with fury. "My reasoning is personal because that crap Kirk wrote is personal, Taylor." Her voice was angry and her hands were shaking.
"She is right, Taylor. Kirk writing such thing about her is terrible, you should accept." Sookie who was sitting next to her agreed with her as she pulled Lorelai back to her seat to sit. Babette nodded quickly to show her support.
"The things written on it are not untrue though." Someone from the back seats talked. "Yeah, I mean she kinda loves to run away." Someone else agreed. "That guy with a thousand flowers was so romantic. I don't understand how she could run away from him." A blonde woman talked. "Her ex-husband was pretty handsome too." The redhead who was sitting next to the blonde woman talked with a smirk. "Oh please, like none of you had fever dreams about Luke." A woman who was sitting really far from them talked. Miss Patty chuckled at that.
Suddenly the room was filled with voices from different people about Lorelai's ex boyfriends. If she'd thought there was nothing more embarrasing than Kirk's crap, she was wrong. People she didn't even know the names of were talking about her relationships like she was a tv character. None of them seemed to care about her being there.
"Stop it!" She heard someone familiar say. "You all need to just shut the hell up and mind your own business!" Suddenly everyone in the room was silent and listening to him. "And Taylor you know damn well that that piece of crap Kirk wrote is a garbage. And if you don't get rid off that remember that I know some freakishly embarrasing memories of you." He shot a glance at Taylor before turning back to people. "You should look at yourselves before talking about someone else's relationships. You live in this town so you are not the most sane people either. And if you're gonna keep talking about her than I wish you well because her daughter is a writer who is way better than Kirk." He ranted and threatened people as Lorelai watched him with wide eyes.
He looked around in a weird way when his ranting was over. He seemed like him yelling at town's people was a reflex instead of a speech that he'd thought before. It reminded her of the town meeting about their relationship where Taylor tried to break them up and Luke shut them up.
Taylor looked around uncomfortably before sighing and talking. "Who here votes for the gazettes to get banned and called back in?" He asked with a gruff voice. He rolled his eyes when he saw all hands were raised.
Lorelai took a deep breath as she left the town meeting when they started to talk about something else. She walked to the gazebo with slow steps that showed how tired she was. She couldn't believe how her love life was such a significant thing in the town she lived in when the things she's been through, her attachment issues, the mistakes of her ex's didn't matter at all.
She sat and covered her face with her hands as she rested her elbows on her knees. She felt like crying but she didn't want to lose it right in the middle of the town. She wanted to hate the town for turning their backs to her in a situation like this until their lovely diner owner gave them a speech but she couldn't.
It was her crazy, nosy town. Sometimes people in it were insufferable but they were also the people who'd helped her raise her daughter. Still, she didn't see herself forgiving Kirk anytime soon.
She was trying not to cry when she heard his voice. "Hey..." He said as he sat down next to her.
She couldn't raise her head and look at him. She was too afraid of seeing his angelic face and losing it. However when one of his hands ended up on her back, lightly massaging she looked at him.
He was still wearing that black hat, she couldn't help but notice. She hated seeing him with that hat. She missed his old blue one that she had given him.
"You're okay?" He asked with a soft tone. It was not the soft distant tone he used after they broke up, she realized. It was the soft tone he used when they were together.
"Yeah..." She answered with a whisper. She expected him to stop touching her but his hand kept massaging her back.
Luke looked at her with worried eyes. "It was just Kirk being stupid and the town folk thinking they have a right to talk about other people's lives. You know that, right?" He tried to comfort her even though he knew it was not his business anymore. He just couldn't help.
Lorelai nodded. "I know." She said but her voice did not sound like she did.
Luke frowned. "You don't actually think he's got a point or something. Right?" He asked.
She closed her eyes and waited a few seconds before talking. "He'd written I've had many relationships that ended up with a marriage to ruin it. He was right. He'd written that I have broken too many hearts. He was right. He'd written how unfair I was to you, to Max, to Chris. He was right." She talked with a sad voice.
He flinched when he heard the name of the man she'd slept with the night they broke up. But he ignored the uncomfortable feeling and went back to answer her to soothe her. "You ran away from that teacher because you knew you didn't love him and you weren't going to be happy. It was better than you marrying him and then having a divorce. You said no to that jerk for a thousand times because you knew he was not the one for you. But he convinced you to marry him on a time of your life that you needed someone to be with you, someone to be your partner. And he knew what he was doing, Lorelai. He knew you were not ready to marry him. And I was as guilty as you were about our relationship ending. You know that. Stop being unfair to yourself. You're a strong, independent woman. Yes, you made some mistakes. But your mistakes are not your personality. You shouldn't spend a second worrying yourself about something Kirk says." He was talking as fast as he was yelling. Only difference was that his speech was to comfort the woman he loved instead of to yell at his crazy town people.
Lorelai looked at him with a soft smile on her face. Her hair was messy because of the wind. She was not wearing any makeup except her dark pink lipstick that had faded. She had a light blue tshirt and dark blue jeans on her. But as he looked at her, he thought she was the most beautiful person he'd ever seen this way. With no fancy clothes or make up.
He shook his head to focus and realized her smiling. "Why are you looking at me like that?" He asked. His voice was gruff and sounded nothing like it did as he was ranting.
"I just love 'ranting Luke'." She answered, remembering saying the same thing in the night of the magazine party.
Her eyes slowly closed as she leaned to Luke. She pressed her lips to Luke's softly. She didn't want to pressure him. She didn't want him to get mad at her or push her away. She just kissed him, knowing he was the one she wanted to be with forever. He was the one she was supposed to get married with.
Maggie from that movie's reason about her running away was the fact that men she was going to get married didn't really know her. They knew the version of her that was too perfect to be real. She was afraid that they would notice her flaws and would run away. So she ran away first.
Luke knew all of her mistakes and her flaws. He knew her past relationships, her friendships, her problems with her parents. He knew the imperfect version of her better than anyone and he still loved her.
Her lips formed a smile when she felt him kiss her back with passion.
Being the Runaway Bride didn't really bother her when she got the man she had no intention of running away from, she realized. She got her Luke.