realist ━━ jess mariano

18| the secret history

    Rosie's eyes analysed the room for one quick moment. It wasn't as crowded as she had expected once she stepped in, but the place was a mess. The music was blasting, and she could practically feel the ground shake beneath her feet from its excessive noise. "Okay, it's not as bad as the last party Chuck threw, this is fixable. Call Lorelai." She turned back to Rory. "Tell her what happened, she won't be mad if you tell her now."

"I don't know..."

"I promise she'll understand, but in the meantime, kick people out. Stop the music, hide the food, lock the bathrooms, do whatever until they leave." She nodded nonchalantly. "You already locked our bedrooms, right?"

    Rory's eyes lit up at the reminder. "Well..."

    "It's fine, I'll do it. You stop the music, and tell Lane to start kicking people out."

    The two split. Rosie's first stop was upstairs, locking Lorelai's bedroom to begin with. She conveniently stepped in moments before a couple stripped naked right on the bed. She shuddered at the thought that someone could be downstairs, doing the same thing in her bedroom.

    Stepping into the bathroom to pick the key from the other side, she screeched at what she walked in on. "My god, people, seriously? In a bathroom?" She nearly yelled, cupping her hand up to block the image. "Unlocked, too?" She scrunched her nose in disgust, only hearing them quickly wear their clothes again.

    When the couple rushed out of the bathroom, she locked its door and went back downstairs. She glanced down at the living room, seeing Rory make her way around the speakers in search of a plug. Lane was in the kitchen attempting to get people out of the house, but no one seemed to listen.

     Rosie pushed through the crowd of teenagers to go to her bedroom. When she walked in, she had her eyes covered, slowly closing the door behind her. "Okay, listen, if there's someone naked on my bed right now, I swear to god—"

    "I'm confused, do you want there to be someone naked on your bed right now?"

She could recognise that voice anywhere. Her opened her eyes, seeing just who she suspected. "Jess?" He didn't offer her a greeting, he simply bobbed his head once then looked down at her bookshelf again.

    "Do you like The Sun Also Rises?"

    "What are you doing in my room?"

"I'll answer yours if you answer mine."

For a moment, Rosie forgot entirely about the situation happening outside of this room. "That's not how conversations work, you can't just trade questions." She said skeptically.

"But you can buy them?" He asked, a subtle reminder of the night they met. "I don't like crowds." He answered coolly after a second.

"Then you'd love to help me dismantle this party, come on."

    Jess didn't budge. He offered her one glance then said; "You didn't answer my question."

    Rosie thought about it for a brief moment. "It's a pretty loaded question. I like... analysing that book. I liked reading it, but I don't think I actually liked the book."

    "Rory doesn't either." He said crispily. "Did you know that?"

    There was a trick in his question. Rosie was caught off guard, and slowly turned to him. "Uh, yeah." She answered reluctantly. "I believe she used the word menace when describing his work, once. Didn't you?"

"No." He answered shortly. She expected him to elaborate on the question, but he did no such thing. Instead, he roamed around her room further, his fingers tracing the stacks of books. "Nice book collection."