Chapter 8 : Goodbye To You

"Yes? Go on," Rory urged.

Jess raised his eyes and focused on something behind her. "Your boyfriend's coming."

"Oh." She didn't process the news at first; she just sighed. Then her eyes widened. "Oh...Oh!"

Dean walked over and glared at them.

"Dean--hi," Rory said lamely.

"Rory, we need to talk."

"That can't be good," Jess remarked.

Rory gave him a look, following Dean a few feet away.

"Dean, I know what you're going to--"

"Let me talk, okay?"

Rory reeled back at his tone. "Go ahead."

"Every time I see you, you're with Jess." Rory started to say something, but he just talked over her. "I saw you with him at the movies, when earlier you had been trying to make excuses for getting me to not go with you. Now I know why."

"You were spying on me?" Rory cried. Her immediate thought: 'Did he see the kiss?'

"No, I decided that since I wanted to spend time with you, I could sit through a movie for a few hours, and--"

"I don't want you to just sit through the movie. Then you would be sighing and complaining, and I would feel bad. I don't want to feel bad."

"Kind of like how I felt seeing you with Jess?"

Rory lowered her head. "I know, but I just saw him there, and--"

"You know what, that's okay. I'm sick of always wondering whether you're with him, or thinking about him."

"What are you saying?" Rory asked.

"I don't know. I think I'm going to go home and cool off. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"But--"

"I'm done, that's it."

"Fine, bye," Rory said. She walked off, tears welling up in her eyes. She was tired of dealing with this. She almost hoped that Dean broke up with her when they 'talked' the next day.

She wasn't even aware that Jess had caught up to her and was leading her to the diner.

They went into the diner and Rory, now fully alert of her surroundings, looking around.

"Why am I here? I just want to lay down."

"We can go upstairs. I don't think we got to finish talking earlier, anyway."

Rory reluctantly nodded, slightly out of it. "I don't think going upstairs with you after arguing with Dean that I spend too much time with you, is the best idea right now, but--"

"Take a breath," Jess said. He demonstrated for her. "It's okay."

"I hope so," Rory replied, following him upstairs. Luke watched them from behind the counter, a thoughtful expression on his face. He almost called after them, but decided not to at the last second. He shook his head, going back to wiping the counter.

"Can I check my e-mail real quick?" Rory asked, gazing at his computer. "I haven't been on in awhile, and I'm kind of expecting something."

Expecting something? "Uh, yeah sure. Go right ahead."

Jess hurried over to the computer and signed on under guest before she had a chance to notice his screen name. He typed in her screen name and moved back to let her by so she could sit down and enter her password.

She glanced at the screen. "How...how do you know my screen name?" she asked.

Because I'm the one you've been talking to! he wanted to tell her. And I know that if you're hoping to find an e-mail from NYer02, you will be disappointed.

"Because you told it to me, remember?" he asked lightly. Chicken.

"Oh, right," Rory laughed. "How else would you know it, right?" She typed in her password and hit the enter key. The familiar 'Welcome!' and 'You've got mail!' sounded, and she glanced at her buddy list as it popped up. "No one's on," she observed.

Jess peered over her shoulder. "Looks like you only have one buddy, anyway. Lane?" He knew perfectly well it was him. Too bad she didn't.

"No, just...no."

"Okay. So did you get what you wanted?"

Rory checked her mail. Junk, junk, something from her mom, junk...

"Nope."

"Maybe later?"

"Maybe," Rory said, signing offline. She walked over to him and fell onto his bed, practically bouncing him onto the floor from the edge where he was sitting. She stretched across the bed and sighed.

"I just want to go to sleep..."

"Actually, the whole reason I brought you up here was to talk."

Rory tensed. "I didn't mean--"

Jess smiled. "I know. So..."

"So."

"So about what almost happened at the movie theater."

"I'm sorry," they said together.

"You're sorry?"

Rory nodded. "Sorry I just, I don't know, acted that way, I guess."

"Sorry I..."

"It's fine. Dean didn't see."

Jess made a face and Rory instantly regretted her words. "Oh. Dean didn't see, so it's okay. Everything's fine, nothing's changed."

"Don't be like that. That's not what I--"

"Maybe we should just talk later."

Rory stood up, fighting back the tears that threatened to take over for the second time that day.

"Alright. We'll talk later," she agreed.

She led the way downstairs and froze when she saw Dean look up from his stool by the counter.

"Uh oh," Jess said as Dean walked over.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" Dean asked, his eyes narrowed.

"No, not really," Rory replied, walking past him and asking Luke for some coffee.

"What?" Dean demanded, following her.

"Calm down, we didn't do anything, geez."

"You so need to shut up right now," Dean said, holding up a hand for Jess to back off.

He went over to Rory and placed a hand on her shoulder. She visibly tensed and shrugged him off. He sighed, defeated, and left the diner. Once outside, he looked back once, but Rory didn't look up. He sighed again and walked off.

Rory sipped her coffee and glanced up as her mother entered the diner and sat on the stool beside her.

"Rory!"

"Hey," Rory greeted, laughing as Lorelai threw her arms around her in a hug.

"It feels like I haven't seen you in ages!" Lorelai gushed. "It's been such a long day. What's up with you?"

Rory looked up and watched Jess head back upstairs. She focused on Lorelai again and gave her the reader's digest version of what had gone on that day.

When she was finished, Lorelai recapped her own day, and not long after, they headed home.

Rory lay in bed, unable to sleep. She sat up and punched her pillow, falling back again. It hadn't helped. She rolled over and nearly fell off the bed. Oops. She hadn't realized how close to the edge she had been.

Sighing, she got out of bed and headed to the kitchen for a glass of water. She paused in her doorway, however, and found her gaze shifting down the hall, to the computer in the living room. Almost as if drawn to it, she floated into the room and turned it on.

Even before she signed online, she knew NYer02 was on. He had to be. Once her buddy list popped up, she wasn't disappointed. There he was.

She opened an IM and started to type a greeting, but he beat her to it.

NYer02: you're finally on.

CoffeeJunkie02: right back at ya. I couldn't sleep, how about you?

NYer02: same.

CoffeeJunkie02: insomniac?

NYer02: no, just got things on my mind.

CoffeeJunkie02: more girl troubles?

NYer02: I guess you could say that.

CoffeeJunkie02: spill. I need to hear someone else's problems for a change. And you never know, I just might be able to help.

NYer02: like Dr. Laura?

CoffeeJunkie02: sure, why not.

NYer02: huh.

Rory tilted her head at the computer. 'Huh'? She didn't know very many people that could get away with beginning and ending a thought with 'huh'. Just as she was about to say something to that effect to her 'NYer' buddy, the sound of the IM broke into her thoughts.

NYer02: It's worth a shot.

CoffeeJunkie02: it couldn't hurt.

NYer02: well, this girl I like, see, she's a smart girl. But she sure can be really dumb sometimes, ya know?

CoffeeJunkie02: she still doesn’t know you like her?

NYer02: I hadn't come right out and said it, no. But knowing is a different thing.

CoffeeJunkie02: and the boyfriend is still there?

NYer02: no, no I think the boyfriend is just about gone.

CoffeeJunkie02: oh, now it's starting to sound like my problem.

NYer02: is it really? huh.

Rory let out a small laugh. If she didn't know any better, she'd think she was talking to...Nah, it couldn't be possible. But with all the 'huh's, and the girl troubles, and the other weird, freakish coincidences...

CoffeeJunkie02: do you think we know each other well enough to tell each other our real first names yet, Dodger?

NYer02: what's the matter, 'Cathy' not workin' for ya?

CoffeeJunkie02: you could say that.

Rory smiled, repeating the phrase he had told her earlier.

NYer02: I'm sticking with Dodger. I've adopted that as my new name.

CoffeeJunkie02: interesting. and your old name was...

NYer02: not so...colorful. Dodger expresses me better.

'There he goes, dodging my question again,' Rory thought. She grinned. Dodger dodging the question, how funny.

CoffeeJunkie02: Fair enough. Well, Dodger, I'm off to bed. I'm finally tired.

NYer02: I tend to do that to people. Don't worry, I don't take offense.

Rory laughed. 'That's good', she typed. She said goodbye and signed off, making her way back to her room.

She lay back down, forgetting all about the water she had originally planned to get.

About ten minutes later, she sat back up, frustrated. 'What's wrong with me?' she wondered. Usually when she couldn't sleep, she read. But for some reason, tonight she didn't feel like it. She felt...like a walk.

She got back out of bed, left her room, and quietly opened the front door, grabbing her coat as she walked outside. She found herself walking toward the diner, which, of course, was closed. It was, after all, very late. She still wasn't exactly sure why she had come in the first place.

Her eyes raised to the small window above the diner. Biting her lip, she thought about throwing something at the window to maybe wake up Jess and get him to come to the window. Of course, there was the off chance she would break the window...or wake Luke instead of Jess, but...

She decided to try calling him first.

"Jess."

'You're going to have to call him louder than that,' she told herself.

"Jess!" she hissed.

'Ah, what the hell.'

Rory reached down and grabbed a pebble by her foot and aimed at the wall by the window and threw it. It hit where she had aimed, but it barely made any noise at all as it bounced back and landed in front of her. She picked up a fairly larger stone and aimed again, tossing the rock a bit harder this time. This one made a loud noise, and Rory gasped. With her luck, she'd wake up the entire neighborhood before she woke up--

Jess?

She squinted as the window she had been staring at opened and thanked god when Jess stuck his head out. He squinted back at her, but Rory couldn't tell if he was narrowing his eyes at her for waking him, or actually squinting at her through the darkness to make sure it was her.

"Rory?" he called in a whisper.

"Yeah."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I couldn't sleep," she called back.

"Alright," he sighed. "I'll be down in a second."