Another new story. Classic remake of 'Last Week Fights, This Week Tights'. Had the idea rolling around for a while. Anyway, not much else to say, so please, please, please (begging you) review! And thank you so much for reading!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything affiliated with Gilmore Girls.
Chapter: 1
She couldn't believe this. How could he be here now? How did he even know which dorm was hers? It's not like he'd stuck around long enough to find out. She stared at him with a sneer, demanding an explanation for his rather unwelcome presence.
He looked more than a little nervous as he advanced down the hall, gesturing with his arms and staring at the floor. "I don't know. I just wanted to see you, talk to you. I just…" He managed to stutter out, his much longer hair falling across his forehead. His face was a series of lines, darting across his forehead and cheeks, transforming his skin into a portrait of distress. They deepened as he lifted his eyes toward her, partially opening his mouth and furrowing his brows.
"What?" She demanded, her voice heavy with bitter memories.
"Come with me." He blurted with a strained voice.
"What?" She repeated in a much different tone, her eyes narrowing in disbelief.
"Come with me." He took a step forward her. His eyes looked frantic, unusually dark and wide.
"Where?" Her voice held something in it that frightened her. It almost sounded…curious. She did not want to be curious. She wanted to use her pain as a justification for her anger, something she'd gotten awfully good at with each new 'Jess' encounter. Curiosity sparked interest, interest sparked friendship, friendship accompanied attraction, attraction became love, love became hurt, hurt morphed into hate, and with hate came anger, anger became denial, denial lead to avoidance, and avoidance lead to…curiosity? Wow, her thought process was majorly fucked.
"I don't know. Just…somewhere, away from Yale." He gestured toward the hall doors with his left hand. "C-come take a drive with me, anywhere, wherever, it doesn't matter."
"Are you crazy?" He might as well have said he loved her. Oops, too late.
"Probably. Do it. Come with me. For an hour, tops. Just…" He suddenly clenched his teeth and balled his hands into tight fists.
Rory turned and unlocked her door, pushing forcefully into her room with a disgusted shake of her head. "What are you even-" she started but he was in front of her, leaning closer than she would have liked.
"Ride with me. We can go wherever you want, I just wanna talk to you." He stared hard at her, tilting his head to catch her eye. "An hour, that's it. Whatever else happens, happens, but I just need…" He leaned away from her and turned his hard sharply.
"To talk." She finished with a sigh. It was a few minutes before she spoke. "One hour." She said sternly, not meeting his eyes.
"Okay." He said quietly. He stood by her awkwardly for a moment; the only sound resonating in the room was their tense breathing. He nodded his once before walking out of the room. As he walked down the hallway he turned his head slightly to ensure she was following. She had her arms crossed over her chest and was staring at the ground while chewing the inside of her cheek. He turned back around and let out a slow breath.
As he pushed through the doors he stood on the other side and held it for her while facing away. When she was through he released it and began walking to the left. He glanced at her and saw her moving towards the right so he gently reached his hand out and grabbed her elbow. She tensed and looked at him stonily. "I parked over here." He nodded his head to the left and dropped her arm. He turned around without waiting for a response. As he started walking he heard a soft 'oh' behind him.
She looked at his back as he walked. He looked thinner. It didn't appear to be a significant amount, but her eyes and hands had wandered across his torso enough times to notice a change. His walk was much the same, perhaps a little less swagger to it. It was odd, he appeared calmer, somewhat matured, but at the same time, filled with anxiety and doubt. He sure wasn't the smooth talker he once was. Or at least, the non-existent talker. Best to keep those bitter thoughts to a minimum, she thought wryly.
If it were a year ago she would have laughed at his hair. Probably mentioning something about it being 'Dean-esque', what with its almost non-existent cut and long limp style. 'Parted in the middle too' she would have quipped, giving him a devilish grin. He would have grumbled and glared at her with a scowl, utterly disturbed to be compared to Farmer John in any way, shape, or form. She would have laughed even more and maybe he would have kissed her if it were a good day. She would have run her hands through it, smiling against his mouth.
But it wasn't a year ago and she couldn't even begin to smile.
When they reached his car he wordlessly climbed into the driver's seat and sat with his hands on the wheel. She took her time climbing into the passenger seat, telling herself the hour began once her legs hit vinyl. She wasn't sure if that was good or bad.
She looked around the car. It looked unchanged, save for a few take-out wrappers on the dashboard. 'You should move those. They can make it hard to see out the windshield when it's sunny.' She wanted to say it but kept her mouth shut. His safety wasn't her concern anymore.
It was silent as they pulled out of the parking lot and onto the main road. She wanted to turn on the radio but didn't think it would be appropriate. After all, it wasn't her car and she wasn't his girlfriend anymore, the one thing that had entitled her partial radio rights in the first place. Oh, and that one other pesky thing. They were supposed to talk.
She slouched in her seat and pulled her knees up slightly so they rested against the glove compartment. She glanced to her left and saw him looking at her. She quickly dropped her feet to the mat and straightened up a bit, looking out the window. Her nostalgic pose coupled with his all too familiar stare had reminded her of things she'd rather forget, when riding in a car with him was a simple means of transportation for their seldom had 'dates' which usually ended in heavy kisses and experimental touches across the center console. She bit her lip and watched the trees go by.
He watched her settle into a relaxed position, slouching down and molding her back into the slightly tattered black vinyl. Her knees rested on the glove compartment and her hands lay in her lap, absentmindedly twisting the hem of her shirt. When she glanced at him he held his gaze, too far past giving a fuck to care if she caught him staring or not. She'd immediately shifted, dropping her feet and sitting taut against the seat, intensely staring out the passenger window. He looked away from her then and let out a sigh. He unzipped his jacket and pulled at the collar of his white shirt, feeling hot and stifled.
"Where do you want to go?" He asked. He cleared his throat afterwards, trying to fill the awkward silence.
"Doesn't matter." She replied casually, shrugging one shoulder. She looked out the front window and squinted. She tilted her head slightly from side to side, back and forth, and watched as the tail lights of each passing car stretched out in thin lines of red and danced against the night.
Jess looked at her lazily rolling her neck from side to side. He knew what she was doing. She'd explained this to him one of their first nights together. She said she'd started doing it as a child, by accident really. When her mother would drive them back from Hartford after they'd attended one of her grandmother's mandatory holiday parties she would drift in and out of consciousness in the Jeep passenger seat. Her head would roll and her eyes wide drift open and shut. She'd noticed that the smaller her eyes got, the larger the lights grew, stretching far into the sky. So she'd experimented, squinting her eyes in different ways and watching as the lines grew, pivoting back and forth with each movement of her head. She said it felt like they were dancing, a private show, just for her.
He cracked his window and lit a cigarette, inhaling slowly and flicking the ash off periodically. "Do you just wanna drive around or actually stop somewhere?"
"Shouldn't I be asking you that question? After all, you're the one who wanted to leave." She said icily while crossing her arms over her stomach. The double entendre wasn't lost on him.
"Are you hungry?" He asked nonchalantly, flicking the end of his cigarette.
"I didn't come out here to eat." She said with frustration while casting him a sidelong glare.
"That doesn't answer my question." He took one last drag before tossing his cigarette out the window. He opened the left side of his mouth to let the smoke drift out in a stream. He quickly opened the window a little wider to let some air circulate through the car and blow out any lingering smoke before rolling it back up. He knew Rory really hated the smell, she only tolerated it because it was a part of him.
"No, I'm not." She answered curtly. Her stomach gave a funny little jab as she remembered whom she had in fact had dinner with. She didn't want to think about that now.
"I guess we should just park then." He ran a hand down his face and sighed.
"Doesn't that defeat the entire purpose of driving? If we were just going to sit, we could have stayed at my dorm."
"Well, what the fuck do you want me to do Rory?" He squeezed the wheel and ground his teeth. "You won't give me a straightforward answer."
"Frustrating, isn't it?" She asked in a falsely sweet voice.
He swallowed hard. She'd obviously been working on her offense.
He saw an abandoned gas station and quickly turned into it, ignoring the large 'No Trespassing' signs. He drove until he was at the back of the lot and parked next to a chain link fence separating the cement from the grass.
He let the car idle a moment before he turned the key, killing the engine. He leaned back against his seat and closed his eyes.
"So did we just come here to sit in the dark listening to one another breathe? Or was there actually a point to this 'Crossroads' reenactment?"
"I can't believe you just referenced a movie starring Britney Spears."
"That is so not the point."
"Bet Kate Hudson's looking pretty good right about now."
"Jess, stop."
He opened his eyes at her forceful tone and saw that she was glaring at him furiously. Oh shit.
"I didn't agree to this so you could sit there and waste my time. If this is how you're going to act then you might as well take me back right now because this is ridiculous."
"I'm sorry." He stuttered out.
"Don't say things you don't mean. Or that you think I want to hear."
"I'm not." He turned in his seat and caught her eyes. "I didn't come out here to be an ass."
"Could've fooled me."
"Okay, could you stop with the bullshit? If you don't want me to waste your time then don't waste mine either." He gave her a pointed look and she rolled her eyes.
"Fine, I'll keep my comments to a minimum." She pulled her legs into a pretzel and turned in the seat so that she was directly facing him. It was somewhat tight and uncomfortable, but she could manage. She saw him glance down toward her lap and that's when she remembered she was wearing a skirt. She yanked on the fabric, trying to stretch it as far over her legs as possible. "Real mature, Bender."
"It was an accident, Claire."
"Whatever." She rolled her eyes for the second time but kept a firm hold on her skirt.
"I am sorry. For everything." He ran a hand through his hair. "I didn't mean for things to turn out this way."
"Oh, could you be a little more vague? I almost understood exactly what you were referring to." She said with scathing sarcasm.
"Us." Ah, that.
"There is no 'us'." She looked down at her hands, unable to meet his eyes.
"You think I don't know that?" His tone came out harsh and he immediately sighed in exasperation. "I'm not trying to sound so…"
"I get it." She said softly. Of course she got it. It was hurting her just as badly. "Where did you go?" She blurted out.
"California." He answered after a moment of hesitation. "I lived with my dad for a couple months."
"Oh." She said. "I didn't know you guys were that close." There was that oh-so-sweet bitter tone again.
"We weren't." He said with a humorless chuckle. "He uh…he showed up the day of Fran's funeral." He shook his head at the memory. "It was the first time I'd seen him."
Rory looked at the dashboard. She couldn't imagine having never met her father. It wasn't as if the times she'd had with him were all peachy keen but still…it was something.
"Was it just him?" She asked quietly.
"No, he lived with his girlfriend, Sasha. She was cool, I guess. Kinda eccentric in a 'collect random knick-knacks' sort of way but it was tolerable. And uh, there was her daughter, Lily. Also kind of eccentric but more in the 'you' sort of way." He glanced up and saw her puzzled expression. "Total bookworm. She had a thing for reading in closets."
"I never read in closets." She said defensively.
"You read in bathrooms, close enough."
"What else am I supposed to do while the shower is warming up?" Her cheeks were tinged pink as she played with her nails.
"Wait for it like a normal person?"
"That's so unoriginal."
"And you're such a trendsetter." It was silent for a moment as they both struggled with what to say next.
"You said it was only for a couple months." She stated factually. "You've been gone for more than a year."
"It was about six months. After that I just kind of moved around for a while, working my way back to the East Coast. Made it back to New York about five months ago. I live in this cramped apartment with a few other guys. It's not much, but the rent is manageable." He pulled out another cigarette and lit it. He blew out a smoke ring and watched as it slowly dispersed into a shapeless cloud.
"Where do you work?" She asked casually.
"Messenger." He said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his pager, waving it slightly as evidence of his honesty. "I've been looking for something that pays more but there aren't many options."
"Right." She picked at a thread on her skirt. "So, that accounts for ten months. That doesn't really explain what you've been doing the other five since you've been back."
"Well like I said, the messenger thing and the apartment. That took up about two months, you know, just finding a steady job and a place to live. Other than that there isn't much to tell."
"Is there a reason you've broken the five months into segments of two and three?" She asked curiously.
He cleared his throat and stared out the windshield. "The last time I was here was three months ago."
"Oh." Her mouth formed a small circle, which she held in place for a moment before letting her face slide into a stoic expression.
"Yeah, well." He took a much longer drag of his cigarette before stamping it out in the car ashtray. He didn't really feel like talking anymore.
"Did you mean it?" She asked in a whisper.
He pursed his lips and nodded tensely.
"Okay." She said quietly. She glanced up at him and stared at his face unabashedly.
Well that was a start. It wasn't a reciprocation but it wasn't a 'get the fuck away from me you flighty bastard' either. Maybe he could work with this.
The car filled with an unbearable silence. Rory shifted in the seat and her partially bare legs scratched against the torn vinyl. She glanced down at her watch. "It's been an hour."
He nodded wordlessly before turning in his seat and starting the car.
Five minutes down the road Rory unhesitatingly reached over and flipped on the radio. Jess didn't protest.
Back in the Yale parking lot she stood a few feet in front of him as he leaned against the driver's side door. He had one leg crossed over the other and his hands shoved in his jacket pockets.
"I should go." She said, gesturing with her thumb towards the nearly vacant school buildings.
"Okay." He nodded.
"Going back to New York I assume?" She blinked quickly.
"Gotta get back to work." He mumbled.
"Right." She shifted her stance, jutting her hip to the side as she rested her weight on her right leg.
He suddenly chuckled dryly. "This isn't exactly how I'd pictured our night would end."
Despite her best efforts, her heard beat a little faster. "What did you picture?"
"You wouldn't want to know." He shook his head.
She narrowed her eyes at him with a scoff.
He rolled his eyes at her. "You know, contrary to popular belief, not all men are pigs."
"Well then Cosmo certainly needs to change their image campaign."
He held up his hands. "No one's forcing you to read that trash."
"Point taken." She shuffled her feet. "So…"
"I thought you were leaving." He couldn't help but smirk a little.
"I could say the same." She threw him a somewhat playful glare.
Instead of answering he just turned around with a sigh and placed his hand on the door handle.
"Wait." He heard her say. He turned slowly and looked at her carefully.
"I don't…I don't want this to be the last time I ever see you." She was staring at him with a pained expression.
"Then it won't be." He said smoothly.
"Who are you, Miss Cleo?" She asked irritably.
"No. Things just seem to have a way of working themselves out." He said sagely with a casual shrug.
"How very philosophical of you." She gave him an odd look, trying to gauge how serious he was being.
"Or, you know, people have a way of working them out." He said it slowly with a husky voice. He was looking down at his feet but raised his face slightly, looking at her through his eyelashes.
They stared at each other openly, neither moving closer or farther away.
Rory swallowed hard before speaking. "I haven't forgiven you."
"I didn't expect you to."
"I still don't trust you."
"Maybe that will change." He leaned away from his car and took a step toward her.
"You live over two hours away." She folded her arms.
"They invented this new thing called a telephone…"
"Really? I didn't think you'd gotten that memo." She narrowed her eyes at him. "'Cause you've never used it before."
"Well I hear it works much better under circumstances like these." He was looking at her warmly.
"And what circumstances are those?"
"It's where I try this new thing called not being a self-absorbed asshole."
"Sounds like a good start." She grinned softly.
"So…I'll call you?" He asked gently. Rory could hear the hint of uncertainty in his voice.
"Yeah…you'll call me."
He smirked playfully but there was a hint of a smile in his eyes. He stepped closer and for a moment Rory thought he might kiss her. Oh god.
Instead he took her wrist gently between his fingers and turned it palm up, depositing a small scrap of paper into it. He pushed her hand closed around it and gave her fist a light squeeze before letting go.
"Bye Rory." He said quietly before getting into his car. He looked at her through the closed window and saw her mouth 'Bye Jess' before he drove out of the parking lot.
Rory stayed in the same spot until his car was completely out of sight. Once he was gone, she unclenched her fist and looked down at the scrap of paper.
'240-865-5321…I still don't believe in them'
She grinned. How responsible. He had a cell phone.
If Emily Gilmore could see him now…
Thank you so so so much for reading. Please let me know what you think, criticism, you hate it, whatever. Just let me know in a review. Thank you!