Small Town Girl

Small Town Girl

Rory Gilmore sat in the middle of the square on a bench in Stars Hollow, her hometown, reading a book. She never glanced up to see what was going on around her. The trees rustled as the wind came through on the early September morning. Subconsciously Rory pulled her light jean jacket tighter around her.

"Rory!"

"Dean!" Rory called back to her boyfriend as she stood up and wrapped herself in his arms. She gave him a small kiss on the lips and they started walking down the sidewalk together arm in arm.

"So, anything exciting going on?" Dean asked Rory.

"No, I have to meet my mom at Luke's later today, which is good because I need some coffee and let's face it that is the best coffee ever made, but I really don't want to see Jess today so hopefully he's not there. But other than that it's a plain old boring day in Stars Hollow," Rory finally finishes as she rambles on again.

Dean's eyes drifted to the sidewalk at the mention of Jess. He knew that Rory had an odd sense of attraction to Luke's nephew and he felt a sense of jealousy come over him every time she talked about him or looked at him.

"You okay?" Rory asks her boyfriend.

Dean looks at her and sighs, "Why do you have to talk about him?"

"Who Jess?"

"Yeah."

"Dean, you know there's nothing going on between us."

"Do I?"

"You are being totally unfair."

"Am I?" Dean asks looking at Rory again.

"What do we suddenly have a talking problem?"

"You know, I don't need to take this today, I'll catch you later," Dean says walking away without a second glance back at Rory.

Rory sighed as she walked across the street and entered Luke's diner. The bell above the door rang loudly announcing her entrance. Luke and Jess were behind the counter and they glanced up as they heard her enter. Rory turned quickly and took a seat next to her mom, Lorelai.

"Hey sweets, you look unhappy," Lorelai said.

"Dean and I just had a fight," Rory said as she stared at the table.

"You and loverboy having problems?" Jess asked sarcastically as he approached with the coffee and two coffee cups.

"You know what, mind your own business," Rory said looking up at him as he poured the coffee for them.

"Ah, did I hit a nerve?" Jess asks.

"Get lost."

"Gladly," Jess says as he walked away.

"Woah, did I miss something?" Lorelai asks her daughter.

"I don't want to talk about it," Rory says avoiding eye contact with her mom.

"Rory..." Lorelai says as she guides her daughter's head around to look her in the eyes. "What is going on with you?"

Rory sighs, "Dean and I argued over Jess again."

Lorelai sits back in her chair "Rory, baby, you have to stop this. You can't keep doing this to Dean."

"Oh, so now you're taking his side."

"You know I'm not. Do you want to date Jess?"

"No...yes...I don't know what I want anymore," Rory says with a sigh.

"Rory you have to make up your mind. It's not fair to Dean or Jess."

"I haven't done anything to Jess."

"Yet, but he's probably listening to our entire conversation."

Rory glances up quickly and sees Jess standing just a short ways away looking at her.

"Thanks a lot," she says to her mom as she gets up quickly and leaves the diner.

Jess stared after her for a minute before heading back behind the counter and putting the coffee pot down. "Has she always been this complicated?" he asks Luke.

"She takes after her mom so the answer is yes," Luke replies.

Lorelai walked up to the counter then, "I heard that."

"Well it's the truth," Luke said as Lorelai and him exchanged quick smiles.

Jess walks up next to Luke and says, "Maybe you should just sleep with her, at least it would be a lot quicker."

"Jess!" Luke screams after his nephew as he disappears up the stairs to their apartment. "Uh, I'm very sorry..." Luke says as he turns back to Lorelai.

Lorelai avoided eye contact, "Not your fault, gotta go," she left Luke staring after her. He sighed and went up to the apartment to talk to Jess.

"You do not speak to my friends like that." Luke says as he storms in on Jess laying in his bed reading.

"Friend, right."

"That's right friend."

"Man you are pathetic. You don't see how pathetic you are? Everyone can see right through the two of you. You need to just ask her out."

"Maybe you should take your own advice?"

"What?" Jess asks.

"Rory..."

"What about Rory, she can't stand me. Plus she has a boyfriend," he mutters under his breath.

"Jess..."

"Just butt out, my life is my life," Jess slams the door behind him as he storms out of the apartment and the diner.
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He watched her sitting on the dock. Her feet dangled just above the water. The trees provided a lot of shade but enough light for her to be able to read. She sat intensely studying the book that laid loosely in her hands. He approached her slowly, his shoes making a quiet sound on the dock as he got closer.

Rory frowned at her book and then looked up to see who was interrupting her thoughts. Her frown deepened when she saw who it was. "What do you want?"

"You're in my spot."

"Excuse me?"

Jess avoided eye contact as he tried to explain to her, "I come out here often to think and to read," he says as he shows her the book he had in his hands. "I haven't seen you over here before."

Rory's frown disappears and she looks back down at her book before responding. "I didn't really feel like being around people right now. This is the last place I expected to run into you."

"So you were avoiding me?"

"Kind of."

Jess sits down next to her on the dock and sets his book down next to him.

"I didn't mean for you to hear me," Rory says.

"I figured. Look Rory I like you."

Rory looked up quickly and locked eyes with Jess. Once she was there she wasn't able to move them until she forcefully looked straight out into the water.

"Now would be a good time for you to say something," Jess said

"I have a boyfriend."

"So?"

Rory locks eyes with Jess again. This time she was drawn to him. She leans closer but pulls away quickly before she locked lips with him. "I have to go," Rory stands up and Jess watches her walk down the dock again. She turns around briefly to look back at Jess and she ended up tripping over her feet. She couldn't catch herself and she fell head first into the lake.

Jess immediately dove in after her, not knowing if she knew how to swim. His fears subsided when he saw her break the surface of the water again. She brushed her hair back with her hand and it clung to her head. She was shivering but she started to laugh. Jess came up next to her, "You okay?"

Rory couldn't stop laughing but she managed to nod as she climbed out of the lake with Jess right behind her. She was visibly shaking from the cold of the water.

"You're going to catch a cold," Jess said as he walked up behind her and ran his hands up and down her arms to try to keep her warm.

Rory leaned back into Jess' arms savoring the feeling of being that close to him. Jess responded by wrapping his arms around her body. Then she looked forward and saw Dean standing there with an angry expression on his face.

"I should have known you'd be with him," Dean said as he stormed off.

"Dean, wait!" Rory yelled after her boyfriend as she breaks loose of Jess' arms to run after him. She catches up to him and grabs his arm, "Dean, can we talk?"

"About what?" he asks as he avoided eye contact with her.

"It's not what it looked like."

"Then what was it?" Dean asks, his anger not subsiding.

"I fell in the lake and Jess jumped in after me to make sure I was okay, and then he didn't want me to catch a cold so he just tried to warm me up."

"That's the best you can do?"

"It's the truth Dean!" Rory said desperately trying to get him to understand.

"You know Rory, I've seen it all along, but I guess I was trying to believe it wasn't true. I stood there the entire time watching you two. You haven't been like that with me in months, and I saw how you liked it when he held you. You feel back into his arms. You haven't let me do that to you in months. I can't ignore it any longer Rory, you want him. He's all you talk about now, so it's over. Goodbye," Dean walked away from her. Rory stood there too stunned to do anything. She received looks from everyone passing by because she was still dripping wet. Finally she turned around and started to run home.
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"What the hell happened to you?" Luke asks Jess when he walks back into the diner soaking wet.

"Nothing."

"That sure doesn't look like nothing to me."

"It's a long story that I don't want to get into now," Jess says as he walks upstairs to the apartment to get changed.

Luke shook his head and then looked out the window of the diner and saw Rory running towards her house, and she also was soaked from head to toe. He heads upstairs to the apartment.

"If you hurt that girl..." Luke says to his nephew.

"What are you talking about?"

"Rory, if you hurt her...so help me God."

"She fell into the lake, I went in after her, end of story. I'm going out," Jess finishes as he leaves the apartment again.
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Rory walked into her house quietly, hoping that no one heard her come home.

Lorelai sat on the couch watching the television. When she heard the door open she saw Rory come in slowly, completely wet.

"What the hell happened to you?" she asked her daughter.

Rory sighed, "It involves a lake, Dean, and Jess, I'll tell you more once I'm not completely freezing."

When Rory came back out of her room she was in dry clothes and her hair was back in a ponytail to keep it out of her face. She sat down next to her mother on the couch and began the story of the day.

"...And in the end, Dean broke up with me."

"Can you blame him?"

Rory looks up at her mom with hurt on her face, "I thought you'd be more understanding."

"Rory, it's obvious that you have a thing for Jess..."

"I do not have a thing for him."

"You do have a thing."

"There is no thing," Rory argues.

"Really? Then what was the frolicking in the lake about."

"We did not frolic in the lake. I fell in."

"He went after you, you shared a moment on that dock. Honey, I'm not saying that it wasn't good, because you're old enough to make your own decisions about guys, but Dean saw the whole thing, and it wasn't fair to ask him to keep seeing you, when you'd rather be on the dock with Jess."

Rory glanced at her mother and then at the floor, "I'm going to bed."

"Okay, meet me at Luke's in the morning."

Rory nods as she sneezes once and then heads off to her room.
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Rory woke up and glanced over at her clock. It was 8:38, so she climbed out of bed. She sneezed twice and then grabbed a tissue to blow her nose. She couldn't breathe out of her nose because it was so stuffed. Her throat felt completely full and she had trouble hearing out of her ears. "Oh great," she mumbled to herself since she knew that she had caught a cold.

She arrived at Luke's just before 9:00 and her mom was already inside. She joined her at the table and put her head in her hands.

"Hey, you okay?" Lorelai asks her daughter.

"I wish I was," Rory says with a sigh. "A cold," she finishes.

Lorelai rubs her back gently as Luke comes over to the table. "Someone looks like they need some coffee this morning," he says glancing at Rory.

Lorelai responds for her daughter, "she has a cold."

Luke nods and says, "Oh, too much fun in the lake yesterday?"

Rory couldn't even find the energy to respond to that statement, so she just keeps her head on the table.

"Well, if it makes you feel better, Jess has a cold too, although I don't think it's as bad as yours. He'll be down in a few minutes."

Rory knew she needed to get out of there before he came down but she couldn't move. Then she waited too long and she saw Jess over talking to Luke. Then he glanced over at Rory before taking his things and walking out of the diner.

Somehow Rory managed to get up and run after him. Both Luke and Lorelai watched the two of them get into a heated argument.
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"Jess, wait!" Rory said when she caught up to him.

"What?" Jess asked turning around to face her.

"What's your problem?"

"My problem is you."

"What did I do to you? I thought the only person that deserved to treat me like this was Dean."

"You know you and your boyfriend can go off and be happy together, I don't need you."

"Dean and I broke up?"

Jess finally looks at her, "What's that got to do with me?"

"So why are you so upset?"

"You're a player."

"What?"

"You're happy when you're in my arms at the lake and then you see Dean and suddenly I'm not good enough for you."

"Jess, it's not like that."

"You were caught, so suddenly I'm out of the picture, I thought we shared a moment there."

"We did share a moment there..."

Jess looks at her.

"I liked it Jess, I really did..."

Jess stares at her and then he approaches her slowly.

"What are you doing?" Rory asks

"What I've wanted to do for months."

He takes her hand in his and pulls her closer to him. She felt his body heat radiate against her and she locked eyes with him. He leaned closer and she closed her eyes as his lips brushed against hers.

Luke and Lorelai stood in the diner staring out the window.

"Did we miss something?" Lorelai asked.

Luke looked over at Lorelai and their eyes met for a brief minute.

To Be Continued...

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