THANKSTAKING WITH IMPRESSIVE WINGSPANS

Chapter Three: Roast Potatoes are burning my skin

 Here I am driving down to my mothers house for thanksgiving – a successful reporter driving a top of the range Porsche, with my luxurious white fluffy cat purring softly in the passenger seat…

I wish.

Honestly: here I am driving to my mothers house (on pain of death) for thanksgiving – a failed reporter (who spends her time having to broadcast mind-numbingly boring stories, a.k.a local news) driving a bottom of the range ’84 Honda Pro-City ( a tiny little red two-seater car which highly resembles that of Postman Pat’s Van.) with my scraggly little great dane puppy (who looks eerily like ‘scrappy-doo’…) fondly named ‘bukowski’- or bukky-  gnawing at my ‘back seat’. I say ‘back seat’ in inverted commas because as mentioned before I’m travelling In my 2-seater car! Therefore no back seat.

Rory sighed deeply.

What am I even doing, it’s not like I want to go to thanksgiving.

I hate thanksgiving.

I have nothing to be thankful for.

Okay so I have a job.

It may suck but at least I have a good time making fun of the local yokels.

And alright, so I have a nice apartment.

But that’s only because Sarah has been seeing Tristan since college and he insisted on buying her an apartment and SHE insisted I move in with her – rent free… but I manage to transfer some money into her bank account.

And so maybe I have good friends, and family I don’t see all that much…

But I don’t have what I want.

Wanted.

No… still want.

…

Rory pushed her sunglasses up her nose and ran a hand through her hair.

I hate Thanksgiving.

I hate the idea of it..

I hate the parade.

I hate the anti-climax…

And I HATE the food.

It usually turns up that way once you see a whole thanksgiving dinner come up backwards.

---flashback---

All Rory could do was stare.

The whole table was looking at her, waiting to see how she would react.

Oh god…

She stood up, the chair scraping the ground, and ran outside the house.

Jess put his glass down,

“shit!”

and chased her.

He found her sitting underneath the old chuppa, rocking herself slowly…

How could he do this to me? Why would he want to go without me? What is going on? I don’t understand… How could he do this to me? Why would he want to go without me? What is going on? I don’t understand…How could he do this to me? Why would he want to go without me? What is going on? I don’t understand..

“Rory..?” jess said, softly.

How could he do this to me? Why would he want to go without me? What is going on? I don’t understand...

Jess heard her sob, then whisper, “go away!”

He didn’t retreat – but moved closer and put his hand on her shoulder.

She jumped up and screamed, “I said GO AWAY!”

How could he do this to me? Why would he want to go without me? What is going on? I don’t understand...

“Rory, please…”

Looking at his face, Rory could see it was pained.

So suffer… you brought this on yourself.

“No. you said you were leaving. So why don’t you just go away? it’d do us all a favour!” She said, bitterly.

He slammed his eyes shut and took a deep breath,

“Rory, just let me –“

“NO! How could you do this to me?! Why would you want to go without me?! What is going on!? Why are you doing this?! Don’t you love me anymo-“

Before she could finish her last question, he was kissing her.

Kissing her wish all the emotions he had inside him.

She melted in his arms…

Why would he want to throw this all away… why… he can’t just… no…no… NO…

“NO!” She pushed him away from her, tears flowing freely from her eyes.

Through her blurred vision she couldn’t see that his tears were flowing too…

“Rory, please, just –“

“why, jess? Don’t you love me anymore?”

He winced, but moved closer. He clasped her hands in his, and brought them to his chest,

“Someday, you’ll know.”

He kissed her softly and walked off into the darkness…

Someday, I’ll know?...

She fell on the ground and threw up.

---end flashback---

She was pulling into Stars’ Hollow now.

Man, I could really use some coffee…

She pulled up outside Luke’s and walked up to the door.

It was locked.

Locked? Luke’s locked!?

She then saw the sign on the door saying they opened at 9, she looked at her watch.

7.30???

wow, I must have driven faster than I thought…

She was about to turn away when she saw someone scrubbing the floor.

She knocked on the door,

“hello? I’m really sorry – but I’m absolutely dying for some coffee!...”

The girl on the floor stopped, looked at her, then resumed scrubbing,

“oh come on! Please?? Who knows what I’ll do if I don’t get coffee!”

there has to be something that will get her to give me my drink…

aha!

“please! I’m a Gilmore, you know!”

The girl on the floor jumped up so fast she looked like a blur- two seconds later, the door was flung open and rory was presented with a bowl of coffee.

She grinned, “thanks!”

The girl glared at her, and resumed scrubbing.

This place hasn’t changed one bit…

A Gilmore can still get what she wants!

She surveyed the diner and spotted a man wiping the windows,

“Luk-“ she started to say, but the man turned to reveal he was younger than herself and definitely not luke.

She pretended to cough, to cover her mistake, and looked at the two workers.

There is something weird going on here.

Both dressed in black.

Both dyed black hair.

Both loads of piercings and heavy eye make up…

“um.. I know it’s a stupid question – but do you two work here?”

The girl on the floor laughed at her.

At me. Not with me.

While the man just nodded.

Suddenly, luke came bounding through the front door.

“HAYDEN! EMMA! Did you two stay here again last night?!”

The two workers looked at eachother, then luke.

They both nodded.

“Sorry. We drank all the coke at home and went on a caffeine high –we couldn’t sleep - so we figured we’d make ourselved useful and come here to clean.”

Luke looked at them both skeptically,

“yeah, well, you better not have given me a reason to re-mop the floors…”

he shuddered as the two workers laughed, “why do I always hire rebellious teens…?”

Rory frowned, remembering who the last one was…

“Rory?”

She jumped, Luke had seen her!

Well, durrrrr, Rory! You’re sitting at the counter – not hiding behind it!

“Hey, luke!”

Luke looked as if he wanted to hug her, but thought better of it.

“I see you found your way here, alright?” she nodded, “how did you get in?”

Emma stood up and walked over, “she claimed she was a Gilmore – I didn’t want to risk it…”

Luke laughed, “yeah – she’s Lorelai’s daughter.”

Emma looked horrified, “no…”

Hayden walked over, “yeah she does look sorta like her…”

Uhuh well, we do ‘sorta’ share the same genes and all… sheesh.

Luke started and turned to Rory, “these are my new employee’s…Emma and Hayden Campbell. Caesar left – so we needed a new cook, and Jess –“

He stopped and blushed, while Emma and Hayden walked off into the kitchen…Luke jumped and followed,

“HEY! You two – not in the kitchen!! don’t make me get the health department on my back again!”

Rory frowned.

---flashback---

Rory had been on school holidays for …

Oooh say…15 hours?

And she was already bored.

She was sitting in the diner, watching Jess watching her watching him.

Ahhh… sigh.

She grinned as he nodded at her, then walked into the storeroom.

She jumped out of her chair and followed him in.

They shut the door.

Minutes later, the Health inspector marched into the diner for his annual June 15th ‘surprise visit’. He greeted luke and insisted on a tour of the diner.

Luke showed him the upstairs office/apartment, then the kitchen, then the counter, then the dining areas… then he opened the door to the storeroom.

Rory was lying on the floor with jess on top of her.

Both teens froze and turned their heads towards the door.

Its amazing the different colors peoples faces can go… Jess’ is pink, mine is red, luke’s is purple and the health inspector’s is white… wait a minute… the HEALTH INSPECTOR!?

Jess cursed, and they both jumped up and ran out of the diner – not stopping until they were at their bridge, doubled up with laughter…

--- end flashback ---