"𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐋𝐔𝐊𝐄, 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐊𝐒 for the care package you sent home" my mom smiles gratefully at him.
We're sitting in front of the counter taking sips of our coffees, when he turns around with a frown on his face.
"What?" Luke replies confused.
"You sent a care package last Saturday, full of burgers and fries etcetera..." I try to remind him.
"No, I didn't..."
"Hey, Luke, I think they hit the waterline again" Jess walks in with the second book of the Harry Potter saga in his hands.
During this week I finished 'The Old Man and The Sea' so he lent me another book and I lent him 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'.
"Oh, my God! You're dead Tom! Did you hear me? Dead!" he shouts stomping aggressively upstairs.
"Hey," he greets me leaving the book on the counter.
"Hey, you wanna know something interesting?"
"I'm all ears."
"Luke didn't know a thing about the care package..."
"You're here to pay, right?"
"That proves my hypothesis, you used it to come over!"
"Two coffees and a doughnut...that'll be six dollars and fifty cents."
"Admit it!"
"Cash or card?"
"You're squirming, I've never seen you squirming... it's entertaining."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah." I smile as he raises his eyebrows at me "Anyways, here's the money."
"Thank you very much, come back soon!"
I stand near the door waiting for my mom to finish her conversation with Babette, in the meanwhile the diner's phone starts ringing and Luke comes down running.
"What? That can't be." he says looking saddened "I can't believe it...well, don't worry I'll take care of it all." he says nodding with sureness.
A few minutes pass and he hangs up "My uncle died" he says still incredulous.
"Oh my God, Luke, I'm so sorry" my mother runs behind the counter to hug him.
"The thing is I'll have to take care of his funeral and everything, I can't work at the diner and do this all at once!"
"I'll help!" I offer with a soft grin.
"Yes! And I'll help too, let me give Lorelai and Rory a call and I'm sure they'll be willing to cooperate!"
"Thanks, I'd appreciate it...a lot" he nods to express his gratitude.
After school, we all gather up to work for the diner and cover for Luke.
"It's sad that he's gotta do this all alone..." I say with a light pout.
"Yeah, I assume that Jess'll help in the diner."
"That's the least he can do..."
"Yeah..." Rory pushes the door to enter the diner and we notice Lorelai with an hysterical smile on her face.
"Hi!" Lorelai shows us a toothy grin.
"Hey! How's it going?" Rory throws her backpack onto the floor.
"Wonderfully! I'm a great diner runner, I've come up with some cool expressions, look" she shows us an order she just took.
"Put Romeo and Juliet on a toast and wreck them? What's that supposed to mean?" I squeeze my eyes as I try to check if I read correctly.
"Scrambled eggs on a toast!" she says theatrically.
"Oh! I got it!" I nod proud of myself "But wasn't it Adam and Eve on a raft?"
"Romeo and Juliet had more of a tragical story, though."
"Ohh, you're right!"
"I still don't get it..." Rory pouts.
"I'll explain it to you later, now put on your aprons!" Lorelai commands us.
"Hey, where the hell is Jess?" I ask with the apron in my hand.
"Can you go ten minutes without mentioning him?" Rory whispers trying to mock me.
"Yes, I can, I'm just thinking that he's not here and he should help in the diner!"
"He's upstairs, he didn't bother to ask if I could use some help but that's okay," Lorelai replies.
"I'll go call him," I say leaving the room.
"Oh, she's whipped," Rory says whispering.
"Yes, she is." Lorelai nods grinning.
As I arrive upstairs Jess's music becomes louder with every step I take. How could he be so nonchalant when his uncle has to ask for help to run the diner?
I knock as loudly as I can and he groans over the music, the song stops and the door opens.
"What?"
"What?" I mock his voice "The diner's a mess, Luke is loaded with the work for the funeral, and you're lounging on the couch reading something with some guy screaming from the stereo?"
"Lorelai's downstairs, everything's fine!"
"Everything's not fine, quite the opposite actually! We need help, get downstairs or I'll come again and push you down the stairs!" I threaten him.
"Fine...I'll be there in ten."
"Five maximum, bye!"
When I get down everything's full of even more people, it's suffocating!
"So? Did you talk your Romeo into coming down and helping?" Rory asks as she smiles teasingly.
"Stop this. Right. Now." I try to threaten her.
"I believe there's a little something you should discuss that you didn't tell me about last night..."
"What?"
"Something about him bringing food to 'his girl' maybe..."
"Where did you hear that?"
"Dean does talk, you know...even though he didn't say it in the friendliest way possible..."
"Oh God, no one was supposed to know about that!"
"Know about what?" Lorelai peeps from behind me.
"Nothing, it's already bad that Rory knows about it..."
"Will I know in a further future eventually?"
"I hope you will."
"Good...then stop talking about it and work it!"
As I walk back and forth from the counter, Jess comes from behind the counter.
"I think I twisted my ankle coming downstairs."
"That's fine, we need your arm," I say with an annoying grin as I hand him the coffee pot.
"Despot" he mutters as he walks off.
All kinds of orders get taken from us, some more creative than others since Lorelai's excessive creativity.
I just hope this is the first and last day working here like this.
✧✧✧
𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓 the last day we worked without Luke because of the whole funeral thing.
Indeed, this thing went on the next day and we're currently wrecking our backs today too. And of course when I say "we" Jess is not included, I've been hunting him everywhere so that he helps in the diner.
"God, there's too much crowd, I'm really crossing the line between feeling busy and feeling overloaded by the work." I sigh as I refill a ketchup bottle.
"Well, we could really use a spare pair of hands..." Lorelai admits, laying on the counter.
"I'll go check where he is..." I give up walking away.
I stomp angrily upstairs again, nearly punching the door open.
"Jess! Open up right now!" I yell but I get no reply "I know you're in there!"
When he finally opens the door I try to glare at him, despite how good he looks today, I just hate when he doesn't care about stuff.
"What the hell do you want?"
"You downstairs helping since we're swamped with work!"
"Aren't we all sparkly-eyed and joyful today..."
"Downstairs. Now!"
"Can't, I'm busy."
"Doing what?"
"Homework."
"Don't take this the wrong way but how do you expect me to believe this?"
"Ok now you're just being rude!" he complains.
"You are coming with me," I say grabbing his brown shirt's sleeve and dragging him all the way to the dining room.
I push him down the stairs and give him a little push to make him actually step into the diner, that's when he gets dramatic.
"She pushed me!" he points out facing Lorelai.
"Sue me," I say pinching more tightly his shirt and forcing him to walk.
"Watch the shirt!"
"Work it!"
"He is so whipped..." Lorelai thinks aloud as Rory flanks her.
"Yes, he is" her daughter replies with a proud toothy grin.
When our work shift is finally done, there's a great show expecting us. The town meeting.
I honestly can't wait, from what I heard Taylor is terribly mad at some guy that used to compete with our town's troubadour.
Apparently, this man started selling vegetables right in front of Doose's market...so now Taylor's losing clients I guess...
"I bet there'll be a fight!" Lorelai quips excitedly.
"You're a sadist...I love it." I reply grinning.
"I think Taylor will complain so much that the vegetable man's head will explode!" Rory bets satisfied with her creativity.
"I think it's gonna be the first time in years that Luke and Taylor won't be fighting during a town meeting." I ponder aloud.
"Oh, my God! You're right!" Rory smiles at the thought.
"Hey! Sorry I'm a little late..." my mom approaches us circling me with an arm.
"Hi!" I peck her cheek quickly "Don't worry, we're late too"
"Let's go in then!"
As we slide the door open, the first thing we notice is Taylor's face contorted in anger. "To summer this up, you can't sell what I sell in front of my shop! It's against the town rules!"
"Since when?" the troubadour guy asks.
"Since I am this town's supervisor! I am sure there's a rule in my—" Taylor stops "Well, well...late again, are we?" he glares at us as we take our seats.
"Hey, we just got off work!" Lorelai frowns offended.
"Hi Quinn" Jess whispers peeping behind Luke's back.
"Hi," I smile slightly, then turn back to Taylor and back to Jess again "Why are you here?"
"Well, I wanted to have the whole Stars Hollow experience so here I am."
"Yeah, there you are..."
"I banged the meeting in thirty minutes ago!" Taylor scolds us.
"Ooh, dirty!" Lorelai comments taking her seat.
"Well, we should continue..." Taylor says facing the troubadour guy "Do you have a license to sell vegetables?"
"Does such a thing even exist?" I whisper in my mother's ear.
"I wanna say 'no'... but I think that if Taylor mentioned it then it exists," she whispers back.
"Well, if you don't have it you can't sell stuff! Especially if you sell it on a truck!" Taylor shouts.
"It's not a truck, it's a van, and I'm not selling vegetables on it. It's where I keep it."
"That's even worse! Inside that van, there can be dirt, bugs, viruses!"
"What? You think I don't clean that thing?"
"I surely do, hence, I forbid you to sell vegetables in front of my market!"
"You can't forbid me! What—"
My attention is drawn away by the dark-haired boy sitting in front of me.
"Psst, Quinn" he whispers lightly twisting his head.
"What do you want?"
"Have you got the next book?" he lays his arm on the seat-back.
"Of what?"
"The next Harry Potter book..."
"You finished it?" I widen my mouth proud of me for making him read them.
"Almost, it's quite fluent..."
"So...you're liking so far?"
"Have you got it or not?" he sighs tired of my attempts to force him to admit it.
"Depends..." I bite my lower lip thinking...should I admit it or not?
"On what? I swear if you ask me again if I liked it..."
"It depends on whether you've got another Hemingway for me or not."
"So...you're liking it so far?"
"Are you liking Harry Potter?"
"Sadly...yes, you're right it's not for kids" he gives up "What about you?"
"Let's just say Hemingway was drunken, but he was a very smart drunken."
"Finally! Complimenting Hemingway is like complimenting me!"
"Well, in that case..." I try to reply with something witty.
Taylor fakes a cough, trying to win our attention back.
"I usually appreciate young people in love, but not when they talk over me."
"We're not-" I try to be precise but Taylor cuts me off.
"I don't care, shut your mouths!" he says quite aggressively "So, there's another topic to discuss...we might like this but the town rats won't!" he changes his tone back to a monotonous one.
And my mind starts divagating again as his words become muffled sounds and don't sound like actual sentences anymore.
Minutes pass, my sight is fixated on one spot and a soft whisper calls my attention.
"Quinn" Jess sings whispering.
"Shush, Taylor's talking."
"Like you care about a word he says!" he complains.
"Shhh!"
"C'mon! I'm bored!" he whines like a little boy.
"Then you shouldn't have come to the town meeting!"
"I came here hoping you would actually talk to me..."
Damn it...Jess wins, and Liv loses. He makes me feel all hazy when he says such things, it's awful.
"Talk to me then..."
"Amber, Luke! Can you please keep your offsprings under control? They're disturbing." Taylor calls my mom and Luke out.
"Under control?" Mom asks chuckling.
"Offsprings?" Luke repeats this word frowning.
"I guess I'll talk to you later..." Jess turns back around to pay attention.
An hour later when it's finally done, I can't even feel my jaw from all the yawning.
"God! I feel like I've spent the last ten years here."
"You've spent ten, I've spent twenty" Jess replies as he rubs his eyes.
"So...about the book thing..."
"Yeah, what about it?"
"I'll bring it to you tomorrow, okay?"
"Yeah, fine by me..."
"Let's go, Jess, I've got something in the morning" Luke shouts as if Jess is a child in a playground.
"Coming!" he shouts back "See ya tomorrow...night Quinn."
"Night Jess..." I smile lightly.
"Oh, they're both so whipped," Lorelai repeats.
"What? What're you talking about?" my mum frowns at her sentence.
"Whipped like whipped cream!" Rory continues.
"What are you talking about?" Mum asks exasperated.
✧✧✧
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐒 swamped with people tonight, it's surprising how many people changed their minds.
Tonight was supposed to be Luke's uncle's funeral, but apparently, nobody came...it was just him, Lorelai, and my mother there.
But when I got out of my house to walk a little bit around, I saw lots of people moving stuff around Luke's.
When I entered Patty explained it to me, it was a wake for Luke's uncle.
"Sugar make sure we have enough fries for everyone, will ya?" Babette asks me kindly.
"Sure! I'll go make some more right now!"
"So...how do you think that this thing got pulled together?" Rory comes beside me to help in the kitchen.
"I don't have a clue..." I lie, I know that the only one here was Jess.
"Too bad...I would love to know who did this."
"Stop it, please!"
"What? Why? What am I doing?" she acts dumb.
"You know who did this!"
"And you do too!"
"Yes, I do! I just don't wanna talk about him all the time..." I justify my lie.
"Alright, sorry..."
"Don't apologize...I just can't stand the fact that liking him is becoming my main conversation topic."
Does it make sense? Usually, girls love to talk about their crushes or their boyfriends...
"It's a fair point... from now on you'll bring him up when you wanna talk about him."
"Fair enough..."
When the fries I cooked are on a plate steaming, I hear the bell ring since Luke came back with my mother and Lor.
I glance across the room and notice how purely Luke's smiling, he really really needed this...I'll never be grateful enough to Jess for this evening.
"Hey! Here are some more fries!" I announce laying the plates on the counter.
"Hey! Where's Jess?" Mom approaches me.
"Not a clue, I'm assuming he's upstairs though."
"Then go and call him! He should be down here."
"I don't know..."
"Go!" she exhorts me nearly screaming.
"Fine!" I try to walk away as fast as possible, hoping not to get spotted by Rory.
"Where are you going?" she calls me out with a mocking tone.
"Upstairs..." I admit.
"Ah! To be young and in love..." she sighs dramatically.
"You are young and in love..." I point out "Whatever, I'm going" I walk away from her while she's trying to bug me making kissing noises.
When I'm in front of their apartment's door I notice an unusual quietness. I knock a few times "Jess? Are you in there?"
When he opens the door he's rubbing his sleepy eyes, but when he acknowledges it's me who knocked at the door he widens his eyes and shows me one of his tiny smiles.
"Hey Quinn, what's going on?"
"I'm just wondering why you're not down there."
"Why should I be? I was asleep."
"Why not? Come on! It's fun!"
"You think a wake it's fun? Jeez, Quinn, I wonder how much fun you have at parties then."
"I never said it was a wake..." I make him notice how he just admitted what he did.
"You're good..." he smirks laying on the doorframe.
"And you did this!"
"No, I didn't."
"Yes! Yes, you did!"
"It wasn't my idea, the crazy ballet lady asked me if I could keep the door unlocked after closing. I woke up, unlocked the door, and went back to sleep."
"You helped to put it together! If you didn't unlock the door this wouldn't be happening!"
"I'll let you think whatever you want."
"You are now an integral part of this town!"
"Stop it!"
"Now you've got the whole Stars Hollow experience!" I jump excitedly.
"I'm going back to sleep..." he says threatening as he points to what's behind on the other side of the door.
"No, you're coming down with me!"
"Only if you stop!"
"I'll stop! I promise!"
When we get down, most of the pairs of eyes lay on us, observing creepily and wondering what I said to him to make him come downstairs.
After a few minutes, we sit at a table and start chatting a bit, unaware of all the glances fixated on us.
"She's got him whipped," Lorelai repeats once again talking to Rory.
They're both laying on the counter, staring at us in awe.
"Whipped like cream!" she replies grinning, her glance is fixated on us while we talk.
"Hey, speaking of which, did someone bring cupcakes?" she asks placing her hand on her stomach, thinking about how hungry she is.
"I don't think so..." Rory shakes her head scanning all the food on the counter.
"Damn it..." she sighs and gets back to looking at us.
✧✧✧
hiiii
i'm going crazy because i can't continue a chapter from the second act and i'm stuck, also school's killing me (especially my ancient greek teacher)
also i'm sad bc my friend is doing an exchange in Germany for school and i'm gonna be alone this week:,)
how're y'all doing? i hope you're good<3
i'm bored bc my italian teacher is boring and i wanted to publish something:)
hope you liked this🫶🏻
love y'all tons!!
-sof