Chapter Text
DUMP HIM
Rory glared at her window, wishing she could shoot laser beams out of her eyes. Some one had taken their finger and dragged it across the frost on her bedroom window, spelling out DUMP HIM in an untidy scrawl. Some one was really testing her patience. Some one was gonna get his butt kicked.
Jess Mariano had been a thorn in her side practically since he’d stepped off that bus. Rory had tried to befriend him, she really had! He was just….rude. Abrasive. Determined to get under people’s skin. He had been pestering her for weeks to dump Dean, her wonderful, amazing boyfriend. Dean didn’t steal anything that wasn’t nailed down. Dean was nice to her mom. Dean was pleasant to be around. Everything that Jess wasn’t, wrapped up in one taller-than-average teenage boy. Rory loved him, she really did. But, more and more, she found herself thinking about Jess. About what it would be like to kiss him. About how nice it would be to date someone who read the way she did, someone who really got the way her brain worked. Because that was the thing about Jess: terrible as he was, he understood Rory in ways that she didn’t even understand herself. Weird, huh?
“Kid, you coming or what?” Lorelai, her wonderful scatterbrain of a mother, yelled from the living room. “If we wait any longer, Luke will think something terrible happened to us in the night!” Rory could hear her mom’s voice getting closer and closer. “Like murder!” Lorelai exclaimed, appearing in her doorway. “Ooh, or an alien invasion!” her eyes widened excitedly.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming!” Rory grinned, shrugging on her coat. “Aliens, huh?”
“I think the aliens could learn a lot by studying my brain.”
“Yeah, about every pop culture fad of the 80s.”
“Hey, that’s important stuff! You think the aliens are gonna invade before they know all the words to Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go?”
“You’re right. The only way they could lull us into submission would be with the dulcet tones of George Michael and….the other guy from Wham.”
“I feel so bad for that guy, everyone forgets his name.”
They continued to ruminate on aliens and 80s supergroups as they walked to Luke’s. There was a light dusting of snow on the ground and Stars Hollow looked just like a Christmas card.
Lorelia wrenched open the door to the diner, yelling to Luke before she was even fully in the door.
“Coffee, please, before our alien overlords come to enslave us all!”
Luke, as always, was standing behind the counter, his expression a healthy mix between “bemused” and “exasperated.”
“Just sit down,” he waved his hand at them, already grabbing the coffee pot and two cups. Rory smiled, following her mother to their usual table in the back, right next to the big picture window.
“Do you think one day he’s gonna tire of my sparkling wit and eccentric one-liners?” Lorelia wiggled her eyebrows.
“I think the only reason Luke still lets you in the building is because he knows it’s the only way I’ll get a nutritious meal.”
“She’s right,” Luke interjected, setting their coffee on the table. Lorelai opened her mouth to respond, when her phone rang. “Outside,” Luke pointed.
“Alright, alright,” Lorelai rolled her eyes and shoved her chair back. “Sheesh, you come to a restaurant as a paying customer, you expect to get treated with a little respect!”
Rory snickered as Luke practically shoved Lorelai out the door. She started to drink her coffee, staring out the window at the familiar faces going by, when some one interrupted her peaceful Saturday morning.
“Snowy, huh?”
And there he was: dark t-shirt and flannel, hole in the knee of his jeans, and hair that looked like he’d stuck a fork in an electrical socket: Jess Mariano, in the flesh. His trademark smirk was already creeping onto his face and Rory hadn’t even said anything yet. He was maddening .
“Yeah, that usually happens in December,” Rory rolled her eyes, turning to look out the window again.
“Frost on all the windows,” Jess continued, plopping himself down in the seat that Lorelai had vacated. “It’s just so...picturesquely puke-worthy, am I right?”
“If you think it’s so dumb, then why did you use it to write a creepy message in serial-killer handwriting on my window?” Rory hissed, turning her gaze on him and his stupid smirk. I REALLY wish I had laser beam eyes right now.
“What?” Jess’ mouth popped open in faux-surprise. “Me? I would never -
“Jess, get up and bus tables,” Luke called. “You work here, remember?”
“How could I forget?” Jess yelled back, exasperatedly running a hand through his hair. He stood up, then turned to look back at Rory, a satisfied grin on his face. “You really should dump him, though.”
Rory’s mouth snapped open, ready to berate him, but he was already halfway across the diner before she could think of a suitable burn.
“Alright, I’m back,” Lorelai dropped into the chair that Jess had been sitting in. “Back to the impending alien invasion thing….”
Rory tuned her mom out, her eyes following Jess as he grabbed plates and argued with Luke. He was so…..so….so annoying! I mean, he was outside her window! Probably while she slept! And he wrote some creepy message on her window! He’s lucky I’m not going to the police!
At that moment, Jess caught her staring. He didn’t just smirk this time; no, his face split into a full-on smile. And, as infuriated with him as Rory was, she couldn’t help it: her heart started beating faster. Jess Mariano is the WORST.