𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐊𝐄𝐓 𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐄 ᵍⁱˡᵐᵒʳᵉ ᵍⁱʳˡˢ

𝘀𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻

"Lorelai, Molly was speaking."

"No, it's okay, it wasn't anything really." Molly forced a smile to her grandmother, digging at the tropical dish in front of her.

Molly couldn't bare to be the center of their dinner any longer, knowing she'd slip up and say something completely out of pocket. Rory had stayed silent through the majority of dinner, other than when she'd been spoken to. But Molly could still feel her sympathetic blue eyes staring at her as her head hung low. She hated that.

Molly almost didn't want the dinner to end, knowing Lorelai wouldn't be happy with bringing up her grounding to Emily. She only had until Monday for her grounding to be done, but she was tired of having to sneak around to see her friends.

After saying their goodbyes and the front door closed behind them, Molly expected to be yelled at. To hear from her mother how she'd humiliated her. Instead, Lorelai reached into her purse, taking out Molly's phone and handed it over without a word.

"What—"

"You're ungrounded, do whatever you want, I don't care." The passive aggressiveness of it made Molly keep her mouth closed, fearing if she spoke she'd wound up in more trouble.

The red head decided to climb into the back of the jeep, keeping quiet for the forty minute drive. Lorelai sat in the drivers seat humming along to whatever song came onto the radio. Rory had made few jokes during the drive, attempting to diffuse the tension and failing.

Molly knew her mother would continue to pretend to be fine until she snapped, but she had no idea how long it would take. She knew to prepare though, for the unusual outburst of frustration from the woman. All Molly could do was wait, possibly try and suck up to her. But now, it was the start of the weekend and she was free to do whatever she wanted.

When the car parked in the driveway, they all got out, Rory and Lorelai walking towards the house while Molly went the opposite direction.

"Where are you going?" Rory asked, Lorelai choosing to ignore her leaving.

"The diner, you can come if you want." Molly offered, it wasn't often Rory joined her but she never minded when she had.

Rory looked into the house for a moment, "I think I'll just stay home and watch a movie." Rory told her, the redhead nodded, throwing up a peace sign before making her way down the street.

The diner had already been closed for the night, nothing but dim string lights illuminating the inside. The door was locked and the closed sign flipped, but that didn't stop her from jumping up to reach the key on the top of the door. She quickly unlocked it, placing the key back where she'd found it and walked inside.

The bell above the door outed her to the two men upstairs, loud footsteps coming from the stairs. The curtain flew open and a half asleep Luke revealed with an scowl. His defenses fell when he saw the teen sat at one of the stools, a pastry in her hand.

"How the hell did you—y'know what? Wyatt!" Luke yelled as he turned back to the stairs and disappeared into the loft.

Wyatt came down not long after, "Molly, not tonight." He said, his usual smile was vacant, replaced by red eyes and an unreadable expression.

"I'm ungrounded."

"That's great, but I'm not really up for anything tonight." He said, keep himself under the dark doorway not letting her see the tears that stained his cheeks. Molly knew something was up, there wasn't a minute that went by where Wyatt wasn't prepared to do anything.

"Is everything okay?" She asked, setting her pastry on a napkin as she tried to make out his features in the dark. Wyatt stayed silent, the only noise coming from him being a quiet sniffle. "WD, what's—"