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Chapter 6: Revelations, decisions, ideas and a hungry Kirk
In his diner Luke was serving the regular lunch crowd when Lorelai came in and took a seat at the counter smiling at him. He watched her while serving two costumers their burgers and her smile relieved him. Her and Rory seemed to have worked things out. He had never liked it when the two of them had fought. It rarely happened and when it did it was like a bomb exploding. The two of them cared so much for each other that they wouldn't fight on a regular basis, so when they did they ended up extremely hurt.
Luke was happy that they had worked it out so quickly this time. At least he thought so when he looked at Lorelai. Her face had regained his natural color and her eyes were as sparkling as before. Last night seemed to be a distant memory. All of her sadness seemed to have been washed away during the last hours since he had seen her this morning.
Slightly smiling himself he walked up to her and gave her a quick peck on the cheek before going back behind the counter to get her some coffee.
Lorelai had been smiling at him the whole time, but she didn't say anything.
"Hey, are you feeling better? Did you work things out with Rory?" Luke questioned her, but she was not about to get into that subject. She had something else on mind, something she had been thinking about all morning.
"I love you" she said, smiling at him, looking at him in glee.
Luke was stunned. Did she really just say that? An I love you coming out of Lorelai's mouth in the middle of the day in the middle of his crowded diner so casually. It had sounded casual but also sincere. Luke couldn't say anything. He just looked at her smiling back at him. He had always pictured himself being the first one to say it. Lorelai had never been the first to take steps forward and so he had thought, he would say it some time when she was ready for it. He had never thought that she would catch him by surprise and be the first one to say it after having only dated for two months.
"You know, "she continued without waiting for a reply "I figured it out this morning. You were always there, you are the one that makes me happy, I smile when I think about you which I do constantly, actually I can't get you off my mind, and I think I've been driving Sookie and Michel crazy with all my giddiness, you can be just as crazy as I am, you lift me up when I am down and you never let me down. But you know the biggest part ii why it is that you can do that and it's simple: I love you." Lorelai finished only making Luke even more stunned. Such a revelation without even having touched her coffee. Was he dreaming? But then again no, definitely not. Kirk was sitting over there waving at him frantically from a table because he wanted to order. And Cesar was behind him in the kitchen rummaging with things, dropping plates.
This was for real. Lorelai was there and she loved him. She loved him. 2 months ago he wouldn't even allow himself to think about it, it seemed so impossible. But it was happening, it was truly happening. The woman he had secretly loved for years finally loved him back.
"Okay" Lorelai said moving on with the regular procedure "I think I'll have a turkey melt today and a piece of your apple-pie please." She looked at him waiting for him to move and tell Cesar her order, but he didn't move an inch.
"I love you too you know" he said sincerely, meaning it with all his heart.
Lorelai's smile only grew wider. Considering how this day had started it had turned into a great one, possibly the best in the last week, but no, wait Friday had been the best, oh yeah, Friday had definitely been the best. "Dirty" she scolded herself silently."I know" she responded.
"Good, I'll get you your food" Luke said and got back to work. Everyone in the diner though noticed the two of them smiling, looking happier than they had looked in years. The guests solemnly agreed that the two of them made a great couple destined to be together. Why hadn't they figured it out sooner?
The only one in the diner who was not happy for them was Kirk. He had been in the diner for a while and he should have been the next customer to order, but once again Lorelai had gotten in between him and his food. A hungry Kirk was not a happy one. Damn Lorelai, he wanted a burger! Frustrated he got up and made a little scene while exiting the diner exclaiming dramatically "First I don't get my order and now I won't even be allowed to order. What kind of world is this?" No one really cared though. Lorelai shot him an amused grin. Kirk was Kirk.
When she turned back she found her food already in front of her. Luke was wiping his hands with a towel smiling at her before moving around the counter again. She smiled back at him, noting that it was almost 12:45 PM and Rory hadn't showed up. Lorelai however wouldn't allow herself to take it as a bad sign. Rory was probably just busy with other stuff. Yeah, that had to be it.
A few hours later in Hartford a young man was sitting in a diner looking at his money spread out in front of him on the table. Subtracting the money he needed for food today and the following morning he had exactly enough money left to pay for a bus ticket to New York. The second option was buying a ticket to Stars Hollow and have some money left over, but that would mean not being able to leave the little creepy town immediately. It was either Stars Hollow for at least a few days, or straight to New York and forget about it.
Tough choice. Remembering Stars Hollow, the small town with all its crazy town gatherings and people, it didn't sound so inviting but it was after all his only way out. He had left everything behind to go there. He knew he needed to start new and Stars Hollow was the only place he could do that. It scared him though. Going back there. He knew what he would face there. New York sounded much more inviting. There he could hide in the crowd, no one knew him, he would blend in. Life would be faceless there. He could go without even talking to people. Now Stars Hollow would be essentially different.
He sighed. New York. Stars Hollow. His two choices. He had been putting of the decision for so many days now. It had scared him. Making the final step scared him. He had only gotten as far as Hartford when he had chickened out. It was pathetic. He was afraid. And know he was left with one or the other.
He sighed again. The waitress came by to ask him if he wanted anything else. When he just said "nah" and didn't even look up she gave him a strange look he didn't see. She hated impolite costumers. Especially the kind like him. To wrapped up in his own thoughts to even notice the outside world.
Little did she know that inside this guy there was something like World War 3 going on. He fought himself. Part of him wanted to go to New York,live an easy life from day to day without commitments and without people. The other part of him wanted consistency, feelings, people to care about, a life with a sense, a real life like most people had. This was what Stars Hollow offered him.
It was all or nothing.
This was what it came down to.
He was either in with all or out. So fold, or play your cards?
He never was much of a poker player, but now he felt like one.
"Fuck it" He said, unaware that he'd said it out loud and that people stared it him. But he had never cared what other people thought about him. He collected his money, left enough to pay for the food he'd had and without looking back went out of the diner across the road into the travel agency.
There he got a ticket to Stars Hollow, immediately regretted his purchase but was kind of relieved when he saw he couldn't return the ticket. It was for tomorrow. The ticket was for tomorrow. He would go there tomorrow. No maybe. It was a yes. A yes.
Stars Hollow it would be.
He stood there on the side-walk oblivious to people walking by the bus ticket in hand. His decision in hand. He kept staring at it. STARS HOLLOW. In capital letters.
When he looked up he could see a man entering the diner on the other side of the street. The man looked familiar. He looked again. Was it…no it couldn't be…Kirk would never eat in any diner besides Luke's because he was afraid of even leaving Stars Hollow. Plus, eating elsewhere would put him in danger of being infected with germs of some way. After all Kirk had been calling people from the Public Health Department to make sure Luke's food was germ-free.
This couldn't be the maybe craziest resident of Stars Hollow? Wait, no, Taylor was even crazier. Hardly possible, but Taylor definitely was the top notch in this criteria.
So it was the second craziest citizen, but it definitely was him. It was Kirk.
He turned away eager to get away, before Kirk could see him. The last thing he wanted was people in Stars Hollow to know that he was there before he got the chance to take care of stuff.
So he left.
Inside the diner Kirk had sat down at a table. He got up real quickly though, when he saw an old paper-back book lying on the chair beside him. Somebody had forgotten it. It could be infected with anything. God knows what people had on their hands.
So Kirk rushed out of the diner determined to go back to Stars Hollow. Maybe Lorelai had left and he stood a chance of actually getting served at Luke's. And even if he didn't get food there: Anything, even hunger, was better, than Hartford with its dirty, germ-infested, bacteria-flooded diners.
At the Gilmore Girls' home Rory was sitting in her room, books, papers, stuffed animals and all kinds of stuff lying around her cluttering the floor. The spot she was sitting in was practically the only one not covered with stuff. Once she had gotten home, after a long time of convincing Taylor that she was alright and walking extra slow this time, she had decided that it was time for her to get rid of old stuff. Stuff she didn't need anymore. De-cluttering- The first step to finding yourself again. Get rid of all the garbage to have a clear view of things. She had even decided to throw out some books she didn't think were worth keeping.
Now she had gotten around to her closet. She had already gone through most of the clothes and had discarded a lot of old ones she and her mom wouldn't wear anymore. The only stuff left to de-clutter were the boxes stacked at the bottom of the closet. She pulled out a few noticing it was old school-stuff from Chilton. Knowing she didn't need any of this anymore she threw them all out at once. She had kept it thinking she might need some of that stuff at Yale, but as it turned out she didn't. There were only two boxes left. She pulled out the bigger one of the two and since she couldn't find anything written on it, she opened it.
She immediately knew what was in this box when she saw the things on top and why she hadn't written anything on it. Her heart made a deep thump. She sighed. Typical. Stuff like that to turn up in a moment of crisis.
No she didn't need this. Not now. She didn't want to think about it, or him, to be exact. So she simply put the box were it was, maybe pushing it even further into the back of the closet. She knew she wouldn't take it out for quite a while, at least she didn't feel inclined to.
Distracting herself from it she moved on to the other box. She shrugged when she saw 'Harvard' written on top of it. She didn't remember keeping it. She thought she had thrown it all away when she had decided to go to Yale. Obviously she had not. She had just put it away.
Without further ado she opened the box and started taking out leaflets. Before she knew she was looking at them, remembering why she had always wanted to go to Harvard. She sighed. Maybe things would have been different had she went there. Harvard had been her dream, but she had chosen Yale, because on her pro-con list it had been the clear winner. Last year she had been confident about that decision, but now she realized she was beginning to doubt it. Had Yale been the right choice? Should she have gone to Harvard instead?
All of a sudden she got hit with an idea. She dragged out her Yale-directory and looked up the number of the admission's office and the counsellor.
After making some calls and getting the information she needed, she looked up some more numbers and made some more calls. Not to New Haven this time, but to Boston.
"Harvard University general office" The friendly voice said on the other name "Who can I connect you with?"
Without further thought Rory answered: "Hello, I need to talk to someone who's in charge of transfers please".
On the other end she heard a nice little melody indicating that she was being connected.
It was just an idea, but maybe it was just what she needed.
A.N.: Okay, this is more light-hearted than the previous chapters. I think I like this one better than the last ones. Anyways, thanks so much for the reviews. It's always good to read them. Only way to know if people really read your stuff and really the only way to know if people like it! So if you like it, and also if you don't like it please review. I want to improve, you know! So help me out and review… Bye, I don't know how long I will take with the next chapter, but I promise I'll work on it, Janine