Dandelion- Jess Mariano

♡Chapter 22: Carnival♡

Things had started going back to normal for Parker, as she started to fall back into a normal routine. Wake up, work in the diner, go to school, hang out with Jess (and force him to do homework), and work in the diner again.

And while some people might call it boring, she loved it. She couldn't say she totally loved living in Stars Hollow yet, but she certainly did love living with Luke and Jess.

Tomorrow is the town carnival, and she and Jess spent a lot of time making fun of the stupid town traditions that everyone else seemed to love. But secretly, she kind of wanted to go, to see what made everyone love it so much.

Parker walked up to Jess in the diner as he was wiping down tables, and decided to ask. "So, about that carnival." She says.

"Yeah, just a bunch of stupid town stuff, right?" Jess chuckles to himself.

"Haha.. yeah... Wanna go?" She asks, a bit awkwardly. He looks up at her and raises his eyebrows, wanting her to explain. "I just wanna know what the fuss is all about" she says.

"No. No way." He says, and gets up to walk to the counter. Parker follows and he keeps talking. "I never thought you'd be one to fall into the town insanity"

"Right. But come on, we could just sit and make fun of all of them making fools of themselves!" She sits on a chair in front of the counter, putting her hands together and giving him puppy dog eyes. "Please please pleaseee" she asks.

"Ugh that's not fair." Jess says as he looks towards her. "Fine."

"Ahhh thank you!" She says, excited. She bends across the counter and kisses him quickly on the lips before jogging out of the diner, leaving Jess behind in a frozen state, processing the kiss.

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Parker sits on the front steps of Luke's, with a cigarette in between her fingers, waiting for Jess. She turns around as she hears the bell of the door jingle.

"Done grooming your hair into the perfect swoop?" She asks him, smirking.

"Look. You convinced me to come, but it's thin ice between me going back upstairs and actually walking over there." He says, but she can see him trying to hold back a smile.

She stands up, and hands him the cigarette. "You know Luke still wants you to quit." He laughed, before putting it in his mouth.

"Yeah but he's not here, so we're good." She says back and Jess tosses an arm around her shoulders, and they walk towards the sparkling light of the gazebo.

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"Oh come on!" Parker yells, frustrated. She had been trying to knock down the bottles at the carnival game 4 times.

"Don't feel bad, not all of us can have good aim" Jess laughs, holding 4 stuffed animals, as she gives him a glare through her peripheral vision.

At that moment, Rory and her boyfriend walked up to them, followed by Dean's younger sister Clara. Rory doesn't even look at Parker, just locking eyes with Jess, who looks down.

"Jeez you guys won a lot" Clara said, gaping at the toys Jess held. "How'd you do that?"

"Well, Jess here has very good aim." Parker said, elbowing him with a laugh.

"Can you teach me how to do that?" Clara asked excitedly, bouncing up and down happily.

"No." Jess said shortly and her smile immediately fell.

"Come on Clara, I'll teach you how to play" Dean said, glaring at Jess as he walks away with Clara.

"So... Jess..." Rory started to say, and Parker raised her eyebrows at the flirty nature of her tone.

"Yeah?" He said, not totally paying attention to her, and counting the money in his pocket.

"Why don't you teach me how to play the game?" She said, fiddling with the shirt on his shoulder. Parker looked at her in disbelief, she was right there.

"No thanks." He said, pulling his shirt out of her hand. "Hey Parker let's go home, I'm bored here." He jerks his head to the side as if gesturing for them to leave.

"Are you guys going to Luke's?" Rory said, not giving up.

"Yeah" Jess said, starting to turn away from her. He throws an arm around Parker's shoulders, and she interlaces her fingers with his hand.

"Great! I'll come too." Rory says, starting to walk with them. Parker looks up at Jess, kind of asking him to fix this.

"Actually, it's closed right now, Luke wasn't feeling the greatest this morning so only we can get in" He lies on the spot.

"Oh... Okay." She says, and turns away, jogging over to Dean at the ring toss.

"God she really doesn't give up does she?" Parker mumbled frustratedly.

"What? You jealous?" Jess laughed, trying to cheer her up.

"What? No! No way!" She says defensively.

"Uh-huh, sure." He laughs. "Well you don't need to worry, I'm all yours" He says as they reach the door of Luke's diner. She turns to look at him with a smile, gives him a quick kiss and opens the door.

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"Thanks for going to the carnival today" Parker says as she walks out of the bathroom, struggling to unzip her dress.

"No problem." Jess said, before looking up. "Need some help?" He asks her.

"Oh yes please." She smiles gratefully. "It's this goddamn zipper, it always gets stuck!"

Jess walks over to her and places one hand on her shoulder for support. A shiver runs through her body at the touch. They touch all the time but something about this moment was different.

Jess grabbed the zipper on the back of the dress and in one swift movement, pulled it down. The zipper undid all the way down to the bottom of her lower back, and he froze for a second, before coughing awkwardly and stepping back.

"There. All done." He says, and goes back to sit on the bed. "There's a piece of string at the top that was holding it in place."

"Oh gotcha. Thanks!" She walks back into the bathroom, and Jess sits on his bed as he hears the water of the shower start running.

At this moment, Luke walks in. "Hey Jess, come on downstairs, Rory wants to see you"

"Nope." Jess says, not even bothering to look up.

"Come on, Rory's a nice girl, what's the harm in talking to her?" Luke says, grabbing Jess by his shirt and pulling him along.

"Fine fine, jeez." Jess walks downstairs and gets shoved towards Rory's table by Luke. "Hey!" He yells towards Luke after he gets shoved.

"Hi Jess." Rory smiles up at him, and Jess thought that maybe she could fly away, given how much wind was being created from the incessant batting of her eyelashes.

"Yeah hi." He says, uninterested.

"So I was wondering if maybe you'd want to go to the movies with me tomorrow night?" She asks him, and he looks up, confused.

"Why not just go with your boyfriend?" He asks her. "I'm pretty sure Dean wouldn't like you going to the movies with another guy"

"Oh he wouldn't mind..." She said.

"Thanks for the offer, but no." Jess said. "I'm pretty sure your boyfriend would hate that, and I'm already spending the day with Parker."

And as Rory starts to speak again, he turns around and starts walking back to the stairs. He turns to Luke before he goes up them. "Happy now?"

Luke gives him a 'yeah whatever' nod, and Jess jogs his way back upstairs.