Part 4 - Getting to It
Rory sat in the passenger seat of the Jeep, the book on her lap, her hands never leaving the worn leather binding. She couldn't stop staring, couldn't stop touching it. She had received many great things in her life, but there was something so incredibly special and romantic about this gift that Rory was beside herself.
"If I could tear you away from the book for a minute..." Lorelai quickly looked at Rory and looked back at the road. "Since the day Rory can do whatever she wants is over and all discussion of boys was put off yesterday, we're doing it today."
"Mom..."
"Don't mom me, Rory. We are going to talk about this." Lorelai pulled the Jeep into their drive way. Each got out of the Jeep and walked to the front. Lorelai put a hand on her hip, the other on the hood of the vehicle. Rory hugged her newest prized possession to her chest.
"How long has this been going on? And don't you dare repeat the question, asking what. I know that trick. I played that card many times."
"You never asked if I heard from him."
"So, you decided to say nothing at all? That's not like you, Rory. You used to tell me everything and now...and now nothing!"
"Okay, we kept in touch over the summer. If you had asked, I would have told you. But you purposefully didn't ask just as I purposefully didn't tell you. I didn't want to get into this all over again."
"Well, we're about to so that brilliant plan didn't work out," Lorelai snapped.
"We wrote, talked a few times on the phone, he sent me some CDs, I sent him a couple of rare imports. It's noth-"
"Don't say it's nothing, Rory," Lorelai interrupted. "It is so obvious it is something. You're walk yesterday to see what you missed...did you go to see him?"
"Yes." Rory looked at the ground. She couldn't handle the look in Lorelai's eyes, the terseness of her mouth.
"Rory, this is not happening again. Do you understand me? We are not doing this again this year!"
"So leave it be, Mom! You're the one who is making it into this big deal when it's...okay, it's not nothing but I don't even know what the something is yet and I want to know. I need to know!" Rory walked around her mother, making her way to the house. She blinked quickly, trying to keep her tears at bay. She refused to cry over this. She refused to let her mother ruin what had, so far, been a great day.
"Hey, missy," Lorelai said, gently grabbing Rory's arm, spinning her around. Lorelai put her other hand on Rory's other arm and kept her there. "I wasn't finished. If you weren't so quick to think I had turned into my mother, I had something to say."
"What?" Rory asked, with a bit of sadness and defeat in her voice.
"Geez, Sylvia, it's not that bad. I may actually surprise you as much as your new boyfriend did."
"He's not my boy-"
"Okay, your friend who is a boy who surprised you with that book you're holding like it was the Cup of Life." Lorelai looked at Rory, her heart breaking a tiny bit as she said, "I'm not going to interfere with this. If this is what you want, if this is what is going to make you happy, I will...well, I'll try to say nothing."
"Really?" Rory asked, hopeful.
"Yes, really. But and this is a huge but so listen to me as closely as you would listen to one of those scary teachers at your scary school." Rory nodded and Lorelai continued, "At any time I see you starting to falter at school, any time I see you less than chipper, any time you come home with so much as a scratch, we're having the talk. The in big, bold, blinking neon lights the. Got it?"
"Got it," Rory said, grinning from ear to ear. She grabbed her mother and hugged her. Lorelai smiled and knew she made the right decision but at the same time, she could feel Rory slipping away from her, even as she held her.
"So I suppose this means I'll have to be nice to the little twert now," Lorelai commented, sighing. Rory chuckled, nodding her head and continued to hold onto her mother.
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"What do you think?"
"It's pink," Jess said, dryly.
"I know, it's awful. It's like a big bottle of Pepto-Bismol, but...it's $400 a month, which hello? Four hundred dollars? This place is more whacked than I originally thought. They didn't even want first, last and security. It's crazy." Sarah sighed, putting the last box on the floor.
"So what about the pink? I could help you paint it..."
"No, you will be too busy studying your heiny off to help me do anything. I'll just buy some wall-coverings." She started looking through some of the boxes. "Oh, here we go. Lookie what I found."
She threw the book to Jess, who saw that it was Oh, the Places You will Go. It was first book anyone had bought him. It was the first time he had been in a bookstore. He had been six at that time and he knew that it was home.
"Wow, I can't believe you have this still," Jess said, flipping through the book, grinning to himself.
"Of course I still have it, silly. A) It was the first book you wrote notes on the pages and b) you gave it to me when my mom died. It was...it really helped."
Sarah looked at Jess and couldn't believe the person she saw in front of her. Some things were still the same. Those large, curious eyes, that tuft-y hair, that smile that got her to do anything for him. She shook her head in amazement. But the innocence that he had just two years ago when she saw him last was gone. There was hardness to him now that she didn't like to see.
"So you ready to get to it?" Sarah asked. Jess looked at her, questions in his eyes. "The girl, the book, the whole flunking who knows how many classes, the entire bad Rebel Without a Cause impersonation you've got going on."
"Oh, that."
"'Oh, that'," Sarah teased. "Don't cork up on me now, Jess. You asked for my help and I'm here but you are going to tell me what's going on with you. I'm not here to hang-out. I'm here to make sure you graduate from high school, which we both know you could do without any help from me."
"So, then I guess you are here to hang out," Jess joked. Sarah shot him a dirty look and he took a deep breath and sat on the floor, leaning his head against the wall. He pulled out a cigarette, lit it, inhaled, exhaled and closed his eyes.
"Those things will kill you," Sarah said as she grabbed a cigarette for herself and an ashtray and sat down next to Jess. Together they sat and smoked, both collecting their thoughts. Both enjoying the comfortable silence that they had always shared since the first day she babysat him. Jess had never really felt comfortable with anyone until Sarah came into his life twelve years before. He never thought he'd find it with anyone else until he had met Rory. Thinking of her, made him smile and it didn't go by Sarah unnoticed.
"Her name, please? I want to be able to tease you accurately."
"Rory," Jess said, smiling again, and Sarah saw some of the hardness melt away as he said her name.
"My god, do you hear the theme song from Love Story every time you say her name?"
"You know what? I've changed my mind. You can go home now."
"Oh, too bad, hon. You're stuck with me. I've leased my apartment, I've rented this pink palace and I've told everyone that I'm out in the sticks, saving a lost little boy from himself...Oh yeah, I'm expecting a big parade when I get home."
"Did you see her?"
"I more saw you seeing her. You don't keep things very well hid, kid."
"But I did. For months...I had to. She had this Neanderthal boyfriend...she wouldn't give in...drove me even more insane."
"Ah, the oldest trick in the book," Sarah commented with a knowing smile.
"No, it's not like that. She doesn't operate like that. She would never know that she was doing that. She thought she was doing the right thing..."
"So when did she decide to stop doing what everyone else thought was the right thing and did what she wanted?"
Jess shook his head in awe. The great and horrible thing about Sarah was that she always seemed to know without ever being told. It became clear to Jess at an early age that it was fruitless to try and keep anything from her.
"Probably starting the night of the accident...why I went back to New York." Jess took another deep breath, still feeling the deep pangs of guilt over that night. "But I think she started to give when she came to visit me. I mean not saying goodbye to someone has to be the lamest excuse for coming to see someone."
"But?"
"But...it wasn't like that wasn't the truth. With Rory, everything she does, says...everything is sincere. It's all so pure and so...different."
"And then the infamous kiss happened and she leaves for D.C.," Sarah stated and Jess nodded. "Well, at least your off to this grand romantic start. Secret trips, stolen kisses, etcetera, etcetera...Oh and lest I forget the second edition Oliver Twist book. You are so done, my friend."
"Yeah," Jess grumbled, with a slight smile.
"So how does it feel?" Sarah asked, eyebrow raised.
"Not so bad."