Disclaimer: Gilmore Girls and all it's characters and situations are property of Amy Sherman-Palladino and The WB/The CW. I do not own anything and will not make any profit from this story.

A/N: Written in like half an hour. Hope you like it.

"I love you," he said, leaving her in a state of shock she'd never been in before. Words usually came quite easily to her. But now, she couldn't think. She was surprised, happy, but most of all, she was angry. How dare he come back after all this time and then tell her he loved her? And then just run off to his car? Nu uh. No way. She wouldn't stand for it. So she followed him.

"Jess!" She called, jogging slightly to catch up with him. "Don't go," she said simply.

"What?" He asked, obviously confused.

She closed her eyes for a second and sighed. "I need time… to digest this. I need time. Just- don't go. Stay."

He just nodded at her cryptic explanation and shut the door to his car again.

"I'm sure Luke won't mind," he said quietly before leaving.

Rory released a shaky breath and watched his retreating form before collapsing onto the sidewalk next to his car and breaking down.

God, she hated him!

But if she hated him so much, why was she always crying about him, over him, for him?

--

Rory woke up the next day with a feeling of dread. She hated confrontations. Especially if they came in the form of a tall, dark and handsome fellow with an amazing literary and musical taste. But now was not the time to think of that.

So she got up, quickly showered, dressed and ate a pop tart. Confrontation, much like drinking, should never be done on an empty stomach.

She headed over to the Diner at a normal pace, not wanting to rush this but not wanting to put it off any longer than needed be.

She swung open the door and before the eyes of Stars Hollow walked straight past the counter and up the stairs.

She didn't even bother to knock on the door. He didn't deserve her patience.

It was a good thing though that he was already up and dressed, because Jess in PJ's might bring back memories she had long shoved somewhere deep in the corners of her mind, only to be brought out on several occasions when she felt she could handle it.

Jess stood up quickly, abandoning his book on the couch. Hemmingway of course.

"Rory…" he trailed off, not quite knowing what to say, since she had asked him to stay.

But he could tell she was mad. Oh, she was mad. And she had no qualms about showing it either.

"God, Jess! What is your problem?! You come here after I dunno how long," even though she did know exactly how long, "and you tell me you love me! Then you wanna just drive off to God knows where, without giving me anytime at all to contemplate what the hell is going on!"

Her voice started to crack a little bit. "Why do you always have to leave? This would have been the third time, do you hate me that much?"

"I don't ha-" he started to say, but Rory just ignored him and continued talking.

"Did I do something to deserve this? You tore me apart, Jess! Did I earn this or something? I was practically begging for a chance to be let in. And all you did was lie to me. I didn't wanna believe you'd do that, but you were so dead set on proving me wrong," by now tears were forming in her eyes, "why didn't you go to school? Why did you lie to me? Why did you leave? And why won't you ever let me all the way in?!"

Jess didn't know what to do with himself," Rory…" he tried, but couldn't find the words to comfort her.

"Rory, you're in Yale, you're gonna be great someday, well, greater than you are now, and you don't need some high school dropout who works at Wal-Mart holding you back."

"No!" Rory said, shaking her head furiously, "no, no, no! You don't get to be all noble now. You're the one who took off, and broke my heart, and left me, again, and then you come back and you think that chasing me over town justifies telling me that you love me? It doesn't work that way, Jess."

"I know."

"You can't do this to me."

"I know."

"I can't handle it anymore," she said softly.

"I know," he replied, equally soft.

There was a few minutes silence.

"You could have at least told me," Rory said, breaking it and sitting down on the couch.

"I wasn't trying to hurt you," he replied, regret evident in his voice.

"Imagine if you tried," she looked up at him, no malice whatsoever in her voice. She just sounded tired, as if all of this had drained her physically as well as emotionally.

He joined her on the couch.

"I'm mad at you," she said softly. He nodded, as if what she said made all the sense in the world.

"Why is that so hard for me to say? I am mad at you."

"Because you don't know that I still care about you no matter what."

She nodded and after a minute stood up and headed for the door.

"Jess, do you have a job, wherever you are?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Do you need to be there tomorrow?"

"Well, it's not like the place'll go belly up without me," he answered, his sarcasm creeping back into his voice.

Rory nodded," mind staying one more night? I'd like to talk to you tomorrow. Just talk. No yelling."

He nodded," sure. No problem." He would have mentioned how much he liked that idea but didn't think it wise to voice that opinion. His punishment should be misery, her giving him what he wanted would be the exact opposite.

"Oh, and Rory. It's New York."

"New York," she repeated before heading out the door.

And he thought he saw the faintest trace of a smile on her face.

Please review!

I got Hayden and Milo to break up, didn't I? I deserve a review for that at the very least, don'tcha think?

xD