CHERRY. [JESS MARIANO]

You're Tall

I was waiting for Rory at the school gate with a book in my hands as I leaned against the wall. Reading the Great Gatsby made me realise that Nick Carraway was the background character to his own life. I closed my book and looked around for Rory. Where was she?

"Waiting for Rory too?" I heard someone ask.

I push myself off the wall and walk toward Paris. She stood with her arms crossed and her long blonde hair pulled back by a clip. "Uh, yeah. Why're you waiting for her?"

"We're writing a paper on small town secrets. So Rory's going to bring me to see your town."

I push some wind blown hair out of my face. "But I thought that she's supposed to spend the day with her grandfather."

Paris stared at me for a moment. "Oh, I didn't know." She frowns "Is he dying?"

"No, not at all."

"Then she can bail on him," she ruthlessly states. "He can wait, the paper cant."

I was about to go on about how Paris probably should take a few days to collect back the scale of human emotion when Rory came up to us.

"Hey, so we ready to go?" She asks.

"Yup."

~~~

"I have a huge favour," Rory asks as we sit on the bus back to Stars Hollow.

I give her an apologetic glance. "I'm sorry, I can't help Lorelai with your grandfather."

Rory gives me a pout. "Please? You know he likes you," she begs.

"Rory, It's not that I don't want to," I begin. "I have to work at Luke's today."

Paris buts in the conversation by turning around in her seat in front of us. "What're you guys talking about? Got something you wanna hide?" She says, her eyes flashing at the thought that she finally got some dirt on our small town.

~~~

I went into Luke's after changing into some comfortable jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. I went behind the counter and grabbed a cup of coffee ready to serve any waiting customers.

"Cassie!" Luke called from the store room.

"Yeah?" I walked inside to see him crouching in front of one of the shelves.

He looks up at me, his backward baseball cap slightly askew on his head. "I need you to help me look for the burger buns."

I groan at his words. "You know I don't like looking around the shelves, I can't reach the top! And you guys don't have any stepladders" I protest as Luke stands up to his full height. "Why doesn't Jess do it?"

"Jess is upstairs and refusing to cooperate."

Gnawing on my lip, I think of how I can get out of this. "If I can get him to do this, can he help?" I suggested, hoping that he'll agree.

"Knock yourself out, kid."

Before his sentence was even finished I had bolted out the door and up the stairs. I stood in front of the door that read 'Williams Office' in big block letters despite it being an apartment.

Knocking on the door, I heard a quick 'come in'. I opened the door and stepped into the apartment.

It looked exactly the same as it's always been except that there was an inflated mattress in one corner of the room along with piles of clothes. Jess, was sitting on his mattress with a book in hand.

When he saw that it was me, he immediately put the book down and stood up. "Hey," he greeted.

"Hey," I said giving him a small smile.

"Thought you were Luke," he begins as he weaves his way around all the boxes to get toward me.

"Yeah, about that. He needs your help."

He cocked his head to side. "Huh, he needs my help, or you need my help?"

"Fine, I need you to help me look for burger buns in the store room."

"Why can't you do that?"

"Cause I can't reach the shelves," I grumble distastefully as Jess just laughs.

"So it's cause I'm tall?"

I cross my arms. "Are you gonna help me or not?"

"Only if you say I'm tall," he says with a smirk.

"What are you, five?" I roll my eyes at his childishness.

"Do you want my help or not?"

"Fine," I give in. "I need your help cause you're tall. You happy?"

He moves towards the door. "Yeah, I'm just dancing on the inside."

We walk down the stairs and brush past the curtain into Luke's diner. We were about to go into the store room when Paris' voice stopped us.

"Hey!" She exclaims, noticing Jess and I come out behind the curtain. She turns to Luke with an accusing finger at us."Where'd they come from? Cassie who's that?"

Rory sat beside her as if she wanted to fold in on herself. I sigh as I begin to answer her. "Paris-"

As per usual she cuts me off. "What's up there? What were you guys doing up there?" She accuses us.

"Man I think she caught us," he mock whispers to me. "You better give up now Uncle Luke," he joke to his uncle with a fake frown.

Luke turned to us with a scowl. "Don't add to this insanity."

Jess puts his arm around my shoulders as he brings us closer to Luke. "Innocent children like us should not have to work in an atmosphere like this," he exaggerates.

"There are child labour laws," I add with a nod of my head. I turn to Paris to see that she looked like she had found a pot of gold.

"Stop it," Luke snaps looking at us.

"I wanna be good, life's just not letting me," he comments, holding up his hands.

"Rory, you should get her out of here." I decide, not wanting Luke to go out out business.

"Yep," Rory agrees dragging Paris out of the diner.

Paris resists Rory's hold on her for a while. "Why do you need me to leave? What're you hiding?" She looks at me. "Cassie, you can tell me! I'm sure the cops will grant you immunity!"

Jess sends her a mocking wave as I smile at her. "Have fun!"

Once she was out the door Luke turned to the both of us. "You two better start working or I'll fire you."

Quickly, I pushed Jess towards the store room and we began the search for the buns.