Chapter 4 : Love Should Be A Crime

Luke frowned, hanging up the phone.

Jess glanced up from his book. "Who was that?"

"I don't know. They didn't answer, and then they hung up."

"Huh," Jess said, going back to his book.

Luke went back downstairs, and the phone rang again. Jess stared at it until it was on it's third ring, then he shut his book and hurried over to the phone and picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Um, hi."

Jess fell onto his bed, smiling. "Hey, what's up?"

"Nothing."

"Did you call just a minute ago and hang up?"

"No," Rory lied.

Jess laughed. "Okay."

"I didn't," she insisted, not very convincingly. "Am I bothering you--are you busy?"

"Extremely."

"Oh, I--"

"Rory, I was joking. I was just joking."

She heaved a sigh of relief. "Me too," she replied.

"You don't call me much..." he said, trailing off.

"Oh, sorry."

Jess laughed again.

"You have our number, too, you know," Rory added lightly.

"So I do."

"Um...so what are you doing later?"

"I think thinking about going to see a movie or something. What about you?"

"Me too," she found herself saying. "Maybe I'll see you there."

"I'll look for you," he told her.

"Okay. But if we're both going, maybe--"

"Yeah?" Jess pressed, when she paused.

"Hold on, someone's at the door," Rory responded distractedly.

He could hear her walking to the door and opening it. "Oh!"

"Rory?" Jess asked, concerned. "What is it?"

"Hi," a voice greeted Rory.

"Oh," Jess sighed, rolling his eyes.

"Please don't slam the door in my face," Dean continued, smiling.

Rory held up a finger for him to hold on, then she walked a few feet away.

"Jess--"

"I'll talk to you later."

"Bye."

Rory hung up the phone, a tired look on her face. Dean walked over.

"Are you okay?"

"What are you doing here?" she demanded. That came out a little harsher than she had intended.

"Can't I just want to see you?" he asked, a hurt look on his face.

"Of course you can. But I'm kind of busy. I was about to go to Lane's."

Dean's face fell. "Well, okay...can we talk later?"

"I don't know, I'm going to the movies later."

"I'll go with you," he offered.

"Um..." Rory bit her lip. "Okay."

"Good. What are we going to see?"

"I was going to see 'Sweet Home Alabama'," she told him, knowing that he didn't like Reese Witherspoon.

Dean made a face but quickly recovered. "Don't you want to see--"

"That's what I'm seeing, take it or leave it."

He kissed her on the forehead. "I'll just talk to you later, okay?"

Rory nodded. "Tomorrow we'll do whatever you want," she promised. She watched him leave, sighing in exasperation and spinning on her heel as she shut the door.

"So you're going with Jess to the movies?"

Rory shook her head vigorously. "No. We might meet there, but we're not going together."

Lane smiled at her friend.

"We're not."

"You like Jess," Lane teased.

"I do not. I love Dean."

"Rory--"

Please don't start acting like my mother."

"Would you rather me act like mine?" Lane replied.

Rory grinned. "It doesn't even matter whether I like Jess or not, anyway," she mused. "I love Dean. That's all that matters."

Lane looked at Rory sympathetically. "You still like Jess, though," she said lightly.

Rory sighed in response and changed the subject.

Jess grabbed his jacket, hurrying down the stairs. He half-hoped that Rory was in the diner, so he wouldn't have to make the decision of either going to her house and picking her up, or just walking to the theater and hoping to see her there.

When he reached the diner, one quick glance around told him that she was not there. He decided to just cross his fingers [not literally, of course] and just go.

He walked to the movie theater, casually glancing around as he went. He didn't see her, but the theater was unusually crowded, so there was a good chance that she was there and he just didn't see her. He didn't even know what movie she had been planning to see.

Just when he was about to just go into a movie by himself, he spotted her. She was scanning the crowd, looking for him. At least, that's what he assumed. He watched her until she finally saw him, walking over.

"Hey."

"Hey," he replied.

"What...um what movie did you want to see?"

"Doesn't matter. Whatever you want."

"Swimfan?" she suggested hopefully.

Jess gave her a half-smile, nodding. They went to buy their tickets, and he paid for hers. She had her purse open and money in her hand all ready...She frowned when he got their tickets.

"You didn't have to pay for mine. I have money."

"So buy me a book after the movie and we're even."

Rory bit her lip, thinking about this. What if Dean saw her with Jess? How would she explain that?

Jess took her quietness the wrong way entirely. "Hey, I was just joking. I just wanted to go to the bookstore."

Rory let out a small laugh. "Oh, no, it's not that--" she started. She paused. "Sure we can go."

Rory glanced over at Jess, then turned back to the screen. Jess looked at her, and she caught his eye. They sat there like that, staring at each other, for a few minutes.

As if in slow motion, Jess leaned closer. Their faces were merely two inches apart. Rory's breathing slowed, and her heart started to race. She swallowed and licked her lips, glancing at his mouth.

He smiled and closed the distance between them. Their lips met in a brief kiss, but Rory quickly pulled away.

"Oh--god!" She wanted to get up and run from the movie theater, run from Jess, run from...her thoughts. But she didn't. She didn't want to make a scene, and she really had wanted to see this movie.

Once the movie was over, however, she couldn't get out of her chair fast enough. Jess led the way out of the theater. "Look, let's just go to the bookstore some other time."

Rory nodded. "That would probably be best," she replied dully.

They walked the rest of the way to Luke's in silence. Then Jess went inside and Rory kept walking to her house.

She felt weird. She didn't know how to act around Jess after what happened. Should she act like nothing happened? Would there be tension between them, or would he act like nothing happened? Would Jess tell Dean? She didn't think he would.

"Ugh!" she cried in frustration, hurrying up the walkway to her house and letting herself in.

Lorelai greeted her at the door.

"Hey sweets," she welcomed.

"Hey. Where are you going?"

"I have to go back to the inn for awhile," Lorelai responded as she put on her coat.

"Oh, okay. Um, see you later!"

"Bye hun," Lorelai called, then she left.

Rory went straight to the computer in the living room and logged on.

'Please be on, please be on...'

She relaxed when she saw his name--NYer02. She opened a new IM and started typing.

Jess was in the middle of writing his friend an e-mail, when an IM popped up on the screen.

CoffeeJunkie02: hey, can we talk?

NYer02: sure

CoffeeJunkie02: okay...good

When she didn't continue, Jess asked if she had anything specific in mind.

CoffeeJunkie02: I think I just cheated on my boyfriend.

NYer02: you think?

CoffeeJunkie02: well, yeah. I didn't do it intentially.

Nyer02: you accidentally cheated on him?

CoffeeJunkie02: something like that

NYer02: where are you from again?

CoffeeJunkie02: why?

NYer02: just wondering.

CoffeeJunkie02: Connecticut

Jess leaned back from his laptop. 'Woah...What are the odds--'

CoffeeJunkie02: you're from New York, right?

NYer02: sort of

CoffeeJunkie02: sort of? You're sort of from New York?

CoffeeJunkie02: how can you sort of be from New York?

NYer02: calm down. I used to live there, that's what I meant.

CoffeeJunkie02: oh. Where do you live now?

NYer02: around

CoffeeJunkie02: nice vague answer

NYer02: thanks.

Jess swallowed. He pressed Ctrl + G and a box came up asking for a screen name. He typed in 'CoffeeJunkie02' and pressed 'OK' and held his breath as he waited for a profile to appear. There is no profile for [CoffeeJunkie02]. Damn.

CoffeeJunkie02: what is there to do online other than go into chatrooms? Those got boring fast.

NYer02: talk to people.

CoffeeJunkie02: you're the only person I know online. How do I meet people?

NYer02: go to chatrooms

CoffeeJunkie02: what a vicious cycle

NYer02: think of it this way: if you hadn't gone into a chatroom, we probably would never have even met.

CoffeeJunkie02: hey, yeah.

NYer02: so what part of CT do you live in?

Jess waited for her response, rapidly tapping his fingers on the computer. It seemed like forever before she replied.

CoffeeJunkie02: why

NYer02: not this again--I'm just wondering. I wanted to know if you live by me or not.

CoffeeJunkie02: I probably don't. Where do you live?

NYer02: I asked first.