CHERRY. [JESS MARIANO]

I Think You're Full Of Shit

Rory points her finger at me. "What about what you said on the bus-" I quickly shut her up with a kick under the table.

Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough. "What did you say on the bus?" My mum inquired with a raised eyebrow.

Before I could answer, Jess came up to our table with a pot of coffee in his hand. "Coffee?" He asks as everyone nods.
When he was filling up my mug he begins to say something. "You know, I still owe you another Hemingway."

"You finished Prisoner of Azkaban?" I look up at him. Our deal was that once he finished one book form the Harry Potter series he gave me another Hemingway.

"Yeah, but Harry annoyed me."

"Harry annoys everyone," I agree.

When he was done filling up all our mugs, he looks at me expectantly. "If you stop by when I'm cleaning their gutters, I'll give you a Hemingway and you can give me the next book." He nods his head toward Rory when he mentions their gutters.

"Sure," I nod my head at him before he sends me one last smile and leaves.

When I turn back towards the table, Rory and my mum were raising they're eyebrows at me.

"What?" I ask for the second time that day.

"He just invited you over to my house. My house." Rory says excitedly.

I roll my eyes at her. "Calm down, he just wants to borrow my book."

"He likes you," my mum says suggestively.

"I think you're delusional," I retort.

"And I think you're full of shit." Rory fires back just as Lorelai and Luke come down the stairs.

She sits back down in her seat. "Alright what did I miss?"

~~~

"Have you seen our new alarm clock?" Was the first thing Lorelai asked me when she opened her front door.

"Unless I have superpowers and can be at two places at once, then no I have not seen your alarm clock." I reply as I hang my coat on one of the pegs by the door. I kept the book that I was supposed to give Jess in my arms.

Rory greeted me from the couch as I took a seat next to her. "Run while you can," she mutters to me.

"Look!" Lorelai exclaims happily from her seat next to me. She presses a button on the grey alarm clock that was on the table before us.

It started spewing out animal noises that ranged from a pig squealing to a horse neighing. I thought my eardrums were going to burst at it's loud volume. It just repeated the animal noises until Lorelai pressed a button to stop it.

"Isn't it great?" She says excitedly as she throws her hands in the air.

Rory had her head in her hands. "It was great the first ten times you showed me," she grumbled.

"Well Grumpy, aren't you supposed to meet with Dean?" Lorelai remarks.

"Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me." Rory jumps out of her seat and heads into her room.

Lorelai turns to me. "And you," she begins giving me a pointed look. "Loverboy is outside."

"Ugh, Rory told you?"

She pats my cheek affectionately. "Rory tells me everything."

"Rory!" I yell in the direction of her room. I hear a faint 'what' in reply. "I hate you!"

"I love you too!"

I get up from my seat on the couch and make my way to the kitchen. I grab a soda out from their fridge. "I'm heading out!" I call out to the two Gilmores. Before I could head out however, I got stopped by Rory calling me into her room.

"Yeah?" I ask as I lean on her doorframe. Her room looked the same as it usually did. Her head nearly made, her homework and school notes out on her desk. Last, but definitely not least, her collection of books on the shelves.

"There's a book sale in town today," she tells me as she puts a hairband in her hair.

I cross my arms in front of myself. "And why am I only hearing about this now?" I tried to recall if I ever saw anything of the sorts but I came up short when I realised the bookstore was not on my way here.

"Merritt may have told me to tell you yesterday but I forgot," she says sheepishly.

I wave my hand at her. "It's fine," I say dismissively. "I'm going outside for a bit."

Rory gives me a few teasing words as I head out the back door. I look around hoping to see Jess somewhere but all I saw were a few gloves and pipes. There were a few trash bags scattered around from being blown by the wind.

On the porch steps I saw a copy of The Sun Also Rises. No doubt Jess' copy for me. The copy was weathered and worn as if it's been thrown in the sea. I picked it up in my hand carefully. I skimmed through the pages. There wasn't a single page where I didn't find any notes in the margins.

"That's a good one."

I look up to see Jess kneeling on the roof of the house. He had on his usual pair of jeans that looked dirty from all the grime. The sleeves of his black t-shirt was rolled up to his elbows. He looked down on me with a smirk.

"You say that about every book," I reply. I hold up the copy of Goblet of Fire to him. "I'll put it down on the porch." He shouts back an 'okay' before he continues to hack at the gutters with whatever tool he had in his hand.

"Did you change your hair?" He asks suddenly.

Suddenly growing self conscious I bring a hand up to my hair. "Um, no. Why?"

He shrugs. "It just looks different than just now."

"Good different or bad different?" I ask curiously.

Before he could answer me, Lorelai came out with a jacket around her shoulders. "You wanna join us for lunch?" She asks me with a smile.

"Nah, I gotta get to the bookstore. Rory probably cleared everything out." I tell her.

She makes a move to go back inside but I drop her. "Why don't you invite Jess?" I suggest quietly while she makes a face.

"Do I have to?" She whines with a pout.

"Would it kill you to be nice?" I add with my arms in my pockets.

She sighs before looking at me. "Fine, but can I at least call him Tess?"

I nod at her words. "You could call him Jessie too." I say a quick goodbye to Jess and Lorelai before heading into town.