Chapter 15

On Friday, Rory had just finished packing her bag for the trip to Stars Hollow, when the doorbell rang.

She gabbed her things and hurried to the door, throwing it open. She realized that she was almost disappointed that Shea stood there instead of Jess. He gave her a quick kiss, taking her bag from her.

Rory took a deep breath, turning around to lock the door behind her. Then she followed Shea outside to where Jess sat in his car waiting for them. The three of them were driving to Stars Hollow together. This was going to be an interesting ride...

"I’m bored," Rory announced after they had been driving for about half an hour.

"Sorry, I’d make funny faces to amuse you, but I’m driving," Jess said sarcastically.

"That’s okay. Your version of funny is probably mine of scary," she returned.

"Let’s play a car game," Shea suggested.

"Like?" Rory asked, wrinkling her nose. She leaned forward from the backseat. Were there any car games that didn’t totally suck?

She caught eyes with Jess in the rearview mirror and could tell he was thinking the same thing.

"I don’t know," Shea replied, interrupting her thoughts. "The license plate game, or I Spy, or—"

"You know, maybe we could just listen to the radio."

Jess nodded, turning up the volume as some hard rock song came on.

They stopped a few minutes later at a rest stop.

Rory hadn’t needed to go, so she stayed by the car, leaning against it while she waited.

The boys returned a minute later, and Jess stopped short when he saw Rory. He nodded at her hand.

"Nice bracelet."

Her eyes fell to her wrist, and she fiddled with her charm bracelet. "Yeah," she replied, catching his eye. He knew it was the bracelet he had given her.

"Hey, why don’t you ride up front with me the rest of the way?"

Rory glanced at Shea, who had remarkably started to resemble Dean in the past few minutes.

"Go right ahead. Gives me room to stretch out, anyway."

"Great. Then get in—we have a carnival to get to."

They all piled back into the car and Jess sped off.

"Are we there yet?" Rory asked, opening her eyes. She jumped, seeing as how Jess’s face was inches from hers. They nearly banged heads.

"Jess, what—"

"It’s okay, Shea went to pay for gas."

Rory swallowed, glancing out the window. Sure enough, they were parked next to a gas pump. Shea was inside paying; Rory spotted him standing in line.

Turning back to Jess, she closed her eyes and slowly leaned forward. Her lips met Jess’s in a soft-but-intense kiss. It didn’t last long, however, since they wanted to make sure that Shea didn’t come back and see them.

Rory sat up straight, smoothing her hair. She cleared her throat as Shea made his way back over to the car and got in.

"You okay?" Shea asked. "You look a little flushed."

Rory shook her head. "N-no...no, I’m fine," she assured him.

He nodded, fastening his seatbelt. Rory sank a little in her seat, her face burning.

"Rory!" Lorelai yelled as Jess pulled up at Luke’s and the three of them got out of the car.

Rory ran over to her mother. "Mom, hi!" She gave her a hug. "We passed the carnival on the way here—have you gone yet?"

"Nope, not yet. Hey guys," she greeted Jess and Shea.

"Hi. Um, happy birthday," Shea said.

Lorelai frowned in confusion, and Jess smirked. "Um, thanks?" Lorelai look at Rory.

An awkward silence followed, so Rory quickly spoke up.

"We’re gonna stop by the house and drop off my things, then come back here."

"Okay, that’s fine. See you in a bit."

"Bye."

Shea and Jess nodded at Lorelai as they walked back to the car.

Not long later, they were pulling into the driveway of Rory’s old house.

Rory hurried to the door, letting herself in. She left the door open for Shea and Jess, but didn’t wait for them. She headed straight to her room, setting her bag down.

"Sarah didn’t mind covering for us today at the Corner, did she?" Shea asked Jess, setting his bag down on the floor in the hallway.

Jess shook his head. "No, she’s got Jeff helping her. Besides," he added, "once I told her she’d be getting paid, she said that’s all she needed to know."

Jess went over to Rory’s room, standing in the doorway. Shea followed him and Rory looked up.

"Hey. So, um, are you guys staying here tonight? Because—"

"No, Luke’s."

"Oh." Rory smiled, trying to hide her relief. "So who’s hungry?"

At around seven o’clock, Rory, Jess, Shea, Lorelai, and Luke made their way to the carnival.

"Remember—dirty dance," Lorelai hissed, walking past Rory.

"What was that?" Jess asked, a smirk on his face.

"Nothing," Rory replied, glancing at her mother’s back. "Come on, I want cotton candy!"

"But you just ate," Shea exclaimed. He started listing all the foods she had eaten. "A hamburger, fries, two cups of coffee, pie—"

"That was fifteen minutes ago," Rory said, dismissing his words with a wave of her hand. He raised an eyebrow, so she continued, "Oh, Shea, there is so much about me that you don’t know. We’ll have to work on that. Come on, keep up!" She walked ahead of them.

Shea glanced at Jess, who had an unreadable expression on his face. He bet the fact that Rory seemed to have a bottomless pit in her stomach didn’t surprise Jess at all. He had probably known for years.

"Where to first?" Jess asked.

"I want to find Lane," Rory said distractedly, scanning the crowd of people for her friend. She had apparently forgotten all about the cotton candy. "She and Dave wanted to meet Shea."

"How about we go on the Ferris Wheel first, then? We could probably spot them from there," Jess suggested.

"Good idea, this way."

Rory led them to the ride, giving money to the person who was operating it.

She turned around. "Shea and I—" She stopped when she noticed that Shea was gone. "Shea?"

"Are you getting on?" the man behind them in line asked impatiently. He and his son stepped forward.

"Oh. Um, yeah. I guess," Rory muttered.

She and Jess sat down on the small Ferris Wheel chair, only inches apart from one another. Rory didn’t have a good feeling about this.

"You know, maybe we shouldn’t—" She began, starting to stand up.

However, the man operating the ride closed her in, securing the chair closed. Like it or not, she was riding on the Ferris Wheel right now. With Jess.

"Relax. We’ll find Shea from up here, too," Jess told her.

Rory sighed, sitting back as the ride started moving.

"I think we should talk again," Jess announced, looking at Rory.

"Do you see them?" she asked, leaning forward and searching for her friends.

Jess put a hand on her stomach, lightly pushing her until she leaned back in her seat. "Rory."

"What?" She tried to lean forward again, but he wrapped an arm around her waist and held her in place.

She glanced down at his hand resting on her hip. It was just resting there, casually, like it was the most natural place in the world for it to be.

"Jess—"

"Rory, please. For once, don’t think about everyone else. What they think, what they want. Think about what you want."

Rory licked her lips, her eyes slowly fluttering closed. That was all Jess needed. He leaned over and kissed her, again, this time for the whole world to see. Or, all of Stars Hollow, at least. Then the ride was over, and they were stopped at the top, waiting for their turn to get off the ride.

Too bad Rory and Jess were lost in themselves, because if they had looked down below, they would have found who they had been looking for. The reason they had gotten on the ride to begin with.

Shea, who had somehow managed to find Lane and Dave on his own, stood there, watching them. Watching his best friend and his girlfriend making out, for the whole town to see.

"I’m sure there’s a good explanation for that," Lane assured Shea, staring up at Rory and Jess. She nudged Dave.

"Yeah. Maybe, uh, he jumped her."

"Dave!" Lane cried, her eyes widening.

Dave held up his hands defensively. "I was joking."

Lane sighed, looking at Shea. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. But, um, I think I’m going to go. Where’s the closest hotel?"

"Well, there’s an inn not too far..." Lane told him about the Independence Inn.

"Thanks. Oh, it was nice meeting you."

"You too," Lane called after him. She leaned her head on Dave’s shoulder, watching Shea walk away. Dave kissed the top of her head.

"This isn’t looking good for Rory," Lane commented.

"I beg to differ. I think it’s just looking up," Dave told her as they turned their attention back to the Ferris Wheel. The ride had totally stopped, and the guy had to go over and tap Rory and Jess on the shoulder to tell them the ride was over.

Rory blushed furiously, hurrying from the ride. They spotted Lane and Dave and walked over.

"Hey! How long have you been here? We were looking for you," Rory told them.

"We’ve been here," Lane replied vaguely.

"Oh. Well are you having fun yet?"

"Not as much fun as you guys!" Dave laughed.

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"Maybe we should go on the Ferris Wheel," Dave suggested to Lane. "That looked like fun."

Lane smacked him. "Ror, Shea saw you guys. He went to your mom’s inn."

"Oh."

"Are you going after him?"

"I don’t know," Rory responded. "I mean, I know we were going out, but it was only for a few weeks—it’s not like we were engaged or something."

"Rory?"

"Yeah, I’m going," Rory sighed, heading to the parking lot.

"Jess? I don’t think you should go, too," Lane declared as he started after Rory.

"I drove. I have to at least give her the keys," he said.

She put a hand on his arm. "I’ll give her a ride."