The grandparents were in Europe this Friday, so the Gilmore girls were free to do whatever they wanted. When they found out, they got immediately happy. It was a Wednesday night and they were jumping around to the feeling of freedom. However, they had no plans, no ideas, nothing in their minds, because it had been a long time before they didn't go to dinner with the grandparents on Friday. They sat on the couch thinking about what to do for a good half an hour, until Lorelai had a suggestion.
"Why don't you go out with Tristan?"
"But I thought we were going to do something together, the three of us. I won't lie, that was my first thought, but... I kind of want to be with you."
"It's a Friday night, you should be with your boyfriend, not your mother and sister." Rory added.
It was the first time Tristan was called boyfriend inside the house.
"But you're my best friends!"
"And you're my daughter and I demand you to call your boyfriend right now!"
"I don't know... What about Mr. Medina, I mean, Max?" Lorelai made a 'let's not talk about that' face. Rory grabbed the phone and handed it to her. Emma wasn't sure yet. "What if I invite him here? He has never been to Stars Hollow."
"The last tour you gave to someone didn't go so well." Rory reminded her.
"I don't think Tristan will have a mental breakdown after seeing a tool shed." Lorelai made the observation. "Actually, I think it's a great idea. You said he really wants to meet Taylor."
"Yeah, he thinks I'm lying every time I talk about the cinematic experience that is the town meetings. He needs the Stars Hollow experience, maybe that'll wash the stuck-upness away." Emma looks at the phone. "I'm going to call him."
✯✯✯
Tristan arrived in the small town a few hours ago. Right now, he was holding Emma's hand as they walked to the town meeting. Lorelai and Rory walked a few meters behind.
"Am I finally meeting Taylor?" He asked excitedly.
"Yes. Prepare to be amazed."
They entered Miss Patty's dance studio, the place where the town meetings were taken.
"Enough of this arguing! It's time to put this to a vote!" Taylor's voice filled the room. Everybody quieted down the noise after it. "Alright, now, let' see a show of hands. All those in favor..."
"Oh rats. It started already!" Lorelai said as the four people walked in.
"All those opposed..."
Lorelai raised her hand.
"Lorelai, you don't even know what we're voting on." Taylor complains.
"Yeah, but I'm agin' it!" She does an accent as she speaks. Everybody on those wooden chairs laughed.
"Alright, the nays have it. Let the record reflect it." Taylor accepted surrender. Tristan and the Gilmore found empty seats. "Lorelai, I hope that's not food in those bags. Food is not allowed in town meetings."
"No, Taylor. It's, hum.. diapers for the little ones."
"The what?"
"Dorsal fins and Cucamonga."
"What did she say?" Taylor turned to Miss Patty trapped by confusion.
"She confuses him until he loses his train of thought, then he moves on." Emma whispers an explanation to Tristan.
"Uh." He adds in a amused tone.
"Hot Dog?" Rory started taking the food out of the bags as the meeting is back on tracks:
"I'd like to continue the meeting with miscellaneous issues."
"I have an issue." A man next to his guitar raises his hand.
"Who are you?"
"The town troubadour."
"The what?" Taylor's most used words.
"You've seen him, Taylor, with his guitar." Babette offered her help.
"Right, the guitar" Taylor and his cardigan spoke in a very judging tone.
"You've seen him. He plays on all the street corners." Miss Patty adds.
"He loiters on street corners." It was Luke speaking. For visual context, he was seating in the same row as Tristan and the Gilmores, but with the walkway in between.
"We are two peas in a pod."
"Scary thought, Taylor."
"Taylor and Luke agreeing on something!" Emma gasped.
"A one in a lifetime event." Lorelai says. "Fries?"
"Go on, honey." Babette tries to help the poor troubadour again.
"Thank you." The man continues to talk. "I've been the town troubadour for six months now and I think I've done a pretty good job. But then..." He points at the other man with a guitar. "...he shows up."
Everybody looked at the man.
"Hi." He felt forced to speak.
"I'm so invested." Tristan commented and that made Emma smile even more. It was somewhat validating.
"There's no room for a second troubadour in Stars Hollow."
"Clearly!" Morey protests.
"This is the silliest thing I have ever heard."
"Hear them out, Taylor. It can't hurt." It was Lorelai speaking. Taylor looks at the fries in her hand. "These are not fries. They are Fajrvenugen Soogan Dugan."
Tristan sips his drink trying to contain his laugh. Emma and Rory choose the flawed method of covering their mouths.
"I opened the floor for issues of substance. This does not qualify!"
"Don't be uncool, Taylor." Morey protests again. "Music is substance."
"Period." Emma speaks up.
"All I'm asking is to The Town Troubadour Laws be enforced."
"There are no town troubadour laws!"
"There ought to be something..." Miss Patty says in a thinking way.
"I've got the town handbook right here." Kirk shows the handbook in the air.
"Is that... Kirk?" Tristan inquires in a whisper.
"In the flesh." Emma answers back and takes in his smile.
"I don't get this." Taylor complains, again. "This man is practically a vagrant. I mean, where do you live? What do you do for a living?"
"I don't want people to know those things!" He screams.
"Why not?" Taylor and his ignorance, again.
"Because that's a part of being a troubadour."
"What is a part of being a troubadour?"
"The mystique."
"This is absolutely ridiculous!"
"Yes, it is!" Tristan's voice appears unexpectedly. "It's absolutely ridiculous to not let the man be!"
"Who are you?" Taylor asked.
Everybody in there looked at him. Tristan had his arm around Emma which made questions and curiosity feed the fasting gossip. Luke noticed it. His parental protection towards the twins activated. He prepared himself to be calm and interrogate Lorelai, later on.
"Oh." The blond boy noticed what he did. "Can't say. It's all about the mystique."
The Gilmores laugh and Taylor looses his temper, turning his fury to the poor troubadour.
"What's your scam?"
"My scam?" He was indignant.
"If you are using the fine people of Stars Hollow to make a quick buck-"
"No, Taylor. He doesn't accept money." Miss Patty interrupts. "I know, I tried."
"He may not now, but he will." Taylor catches his breath from all the shouting. "This troubadour act is a moneymaking scheme. Why else would he be doing it?"
The troubadour sits down and Rory stands up:
"Because sometimes you need to say something, but you can't. For various reasons. The words may not come out or you are afraid of people and what they think of you and if that will change if, one day, eventually, you find the words to say that thing, the thing that you really want to say, the thing that you truly feel, that haunts you at night. People get scared. Music helps fear. If I could write a song and sing it with my heart and soul, like a troubadour or even like my sister, then I could actually say what I want and need to say. I can't be a songwriter! Not I, I'm sorry. Him. Her. Them. Not everybody has the talent or the courage or the whatever to be a songwriter!" Silence creeps in. She looks around in despair before taking her place in the wooden chair. "Hypothetically."
"Give this guy a license!" Lorelai chants to break the silence. The applause fills the room. Emma begged for Rory's attention with her eyes and, when she got it, she muttered the mostly meaningless words of 'Are you okay?'. Rory nods. I mean, Rory lies. Because who answers the truth to that question? Who says 'No, I'm not. I'm awful. I'm actually dying inside. I have this raging voice inside my body and a dagger up my throat!' Who the fuck has the courage to say what they feel? Probably songwriters.
"In the interest of not talking about this subject ever again, I hereby designate... Mystique Guy over here the official town troubadour." The other troubadour, which, I may point, didn't say a word in his defence the whole meeting, grabbed his guitar and left. People start leaving too. The meeting ended.
"Hey." Luke's voice called for Lorelai. She turned around.
"Hi, Luke. How's the... ketchup and mayonnaise?"
"They're fine." The interrogation was coming. "Who's the hormonal teenage boy with a punchable face?
"One second." She turned to Tristan and her daughters. "Why don't you go see if Lane can sneak out. Let's go for ice-cream!" She was making sure that no one presented the following conversation with Luke
"Yeah, sure." And the three evolving people leave. Luke coughs.
"His name is Tristan. He goes to Chilton, that's where they met." Luke makes a judging face. "What?"
"Do you allow this?"
"Yes, of course. Why wouldn't I?"
"Are you out of your mind?" He wasn't as calm as he hoped for.
"No. Why wouldn't I allow the happiness of my daughter?" She wasn't as calm as she hoped for.
"Doesn't it bug you? The hand? The look?"
"A little. I'm not used to my daughter having a love life. It was hard in the beginning, I won't lie. The idea of somebody having the power to break her heart. The idea of..." She took a deep breath. "... of it all. It is still hard."
"Does he treat her right?" At this point, Luke was comforting Lorelai more than interrogating her.
"Yes. He's so gentle and sweet with her. And respectful!"
"That's not easy to hate."
"Yep." She acknowledges how close he is to her, she remembers Max and their broken relationship for a second, and creates distance.
"If-" Luke stutters. "If he ever hurts her in any way, shape or form, do I have the permission to punch him?"
"Only after me." Lorelai looks into Luke's eyes with gratitude and playfulness. "He really does have a punchable face."
✯✯✯
The four people sat in a park bench at night with ice-cream cones in their hands. Lane couldn't come. Mrs. Kim made it extra difficult for her to escape tonight.
"Ice-cream in cold weather hits different." Rory commented.
"Agree." Emma spoke as she stained her shirt with ice-cream. "Shit."
"Do you want me to go grab some napkins?" Tristan asked immediately.
"Yes, please."
He entered the store. The little bell on top of the door made a welcoming sound, however, the cashier didn't have as much as a welcoming look. It wasn't the same cashier that sold them the ice-creams, it was Adam Snivellus.
"Never thought I'd see you again." The son of a bitch stopped fixing up the pyramid made of ice-cream paper cups.
"Can I get a couple napkins, please?" Tristan asked politely, swallowing all the anger inside him.
"Here." Adam put the napkin disposer on the counter. "So, man, just between two guys, how does she feel?"
Tristan was extremely disgusted.
"You truly are a piece of shit." That was the nicest thing that was going through his mind.
"What did you just say?" For some reason, Adam felt so attacked by that tiny insult.
"I could've asked the same."
"You don't know who you're messing with, dude. You should be thankful that I didn't hit you back that day."
"I should be thankful?" Tristan just laughed, making fun of him. "Thankful for what? For your firery muscles and murderous fury?"
"The rich boy has some attitude, I see." Adam wasn't behind the counter anymore, he was right in front of Tristan.
"I wouldn't call it 'attitude'. I prefer the word 'charm'." Adam stood still. Tristan wanted to step on the wound a little more. "Hit me. Come on. I've been told I have a very punchable face." He took a step even closer. "Hit me."
Even though Adam was ready to do 'damage', Tristan was quicker and punched him in the stomach, making the brunette guy in the apron groan in pain.
"You're so dead." Adam was trying his best to sound intimidating, but his voice wasn't even scaring the flies on the wall.
"If you say so."
Adam arranged his posture and swung at Tristan with his clenched wrist. He missed the target. Adam tried again and, this time, he actually hit the target. His fist found Tristan's shoulder. It hurt. Tristan, with the napkins in one hand, he grabbed the napkin disposer with the other.
"What are you doing with that?" Adam asked anticipating the worst.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to hit you with this. It wouldn't be fair." And he didn't. He softly throwed that thing into the perfectly constructed ice-cream paper cups pyramid. Without looking at it, always looking at Adam. "I'm sorry. I'm such a clutz."
"What did you do that for?"
"I don't know. I just..." It was a distraction for him to let his guard down, giving Tristan a better shot at punching him in the face. Adam fell on the trap. Tristan punched him and Adam's back hit the table that was behind him. He found the ground. "Upps."
"This is... not... the end..." He managed to say between pain. Very dramatic, may I add.
"That would be a shame, wouldn't it?!" Tristan walked out. "One more thing." He turned back. "A little piece of advice, just between two guys, slutshaming and bodyshaming women is not the best way to show interest."
Tristan arrived at that park bench.
"That took you a while." Emma said as she accepted the napkins.
"I'm sorry. The cashier was trauma dumping about her ex-husband again."
"Poor Julia." Lorelai spoke. "We were thinking on renting a movie. At what time do you have to get back home?"
"Before my parents wake up."
"Really?" Lorelai asked thinking of the hypothesis that it could be a joke. "Mr. and Mrs. Dugray aren't overprotective and controlling whatsoever?"
"They are adepts of the freedom of youth."
"What's the trick?" She knew what the rich Hartford parents' type was.
"Youth ends at college. The university of Colombia to be more precise."
"Ah. I knew it sounded too good." Lorelai added. "I was going to pull the feminist card and say 'It must be great to be a man and your mother not being scared of you whoring around and getting pregnant'."
"Grandma was kind of right about that one." Rory commented. Lorelai looked personally attacked. "What? We're the prove."
"Anyways..." Emma interfered. "What's the big plan for the ideal heir of the Dugray family?"
"Basically... to be the clone of my father and follow his exact footsteps. First, go to Colombia to study business and math stuff or just get a diploma. Secondly, start an internship at the family company, which means doing the bare minimum and taking other people's places, people with way more experience and knowledge and, you know, the need to bring food to the table every night. After that comes finding a respectable wife from a respectable family. I'm half way there." He joked looking at Emma briefly. "Marry. Have kids to, you know, have an 'heir' for the 'kingdom'. According to my parents' timeline, that leaves around five years until my father's retirement and my 'coronation'. Long live the king." He pronounced the words with no enthusiasm to be found.
"What's the company's... purpose?" Rory asked.
"It's a plastic company. They make everything plastic, from cups, to bottles, to barbies... My 'ancestors' bought the rights to Leo Baekeland's empire that was dying during WWII, he was the guy that invented the first synthetic plastic in 1907, a Belgian chemist. Anyways, you do not want to know The History of Plastic."
"How do you know that?" Emma asked.
"My father gave me a three hour presentation when I was eleven, with a twenty page test the next day. He would repeat the presentation until I got every question of the one hundred and fifty right."
"That must've been horrible. I thought my mother was psychotic." Lorelai started telling one of her childhood memories. "One time she did a similar thing. Although, not as bad. My mother payed an etiquette tutor to teach 'the proper way to be a woman'. Multiple tutors actually. Thirteen, I think. Her excuse was that I still had no manners whatsoever. Of course I didn't have manners! I was seven years old! The only thing I wanted was to eat pie, play with my dolls and do angels in the snow! I tried to tell her. She never listened. She still doesn't." Lorelai had never opened up like that, in a serious way, outside of Sookie and her daughters.
"They never do. I stopped trying to tell my father anything two years ago. It was the best choice I could've made."
"What happened two years ago?" Emma asked. The twins didn't know what having parents like that was like. They only had a mother, a Lorelai. So, they felt a little strange and very much surround by the need to comfort them, and try to understand.
"I read an article from a Swedish company that was in my father's office. It talked about plastic's effect on earth. The chaos, the pollution, the numbers were scary. I asked my father a few simple questions like 'what are you going to do about this?'. He snapped. Told me it was bullshit, that those people were making up lies and that plastic doesn't have to be recycled. I researched about the topic and tried to tell him that it wasn't just the Swedish that had this opinion. A bunch of companies all over the world, including the U.S., were talking about it. He didn't snap. He... was very silent, but not very immobile."
"Oh." Emma held him by the arm.
"It's okay. My grandpa gave him a lecture and a literal punching bag."
"One thing I'm glad about is that my father wasn't violent. My mother slapped me once or twice, but nothing out of the ordinary. My father's problem was that he wasn't anything. Just a business man. Never a father or a husband or a friend." She looked at her daughters. "But I know he's trying his best to be a grandfather."
"He's not doing a bad job, I think." Rory confessed.
"Yeah."
"Yeah."
✯✯✯
The park bench transformed into a couch. The ice-cream transformed into popcorn. The town's square transformed into the Gilmore's living room. They were watching the movie 'Billy Jack', because:
"You can't see a Billy Jack movie too many times." It was Rory's argument.
The four of them were watching the movie. Rory was curled up in the chair. Lorelai was laying in the ground covered by pillows and blankets and popcorn. Emma and Tristan were in the couch, cuddling.
In the middle of the movie Lorelai looks at the young lovers and sees two people watching each other more than watching the movie itself. Every time one of them caught the other looking they'd blush and whisper cute things into each other's ears. Lorelai stood up and spoke:
"Rory, can you help me with something in the kitchen?"
"What thing?" Lorelai leaned her head into the couch's direction. "Oh, okay."
No one needed help, just a little privacy. Lorelai and Rory sat on the kitchen table eating popcorn while Tristan and Emma enjoyed each other's presence obliviously.
"They're cute." Rory said.
"Yeah, they are." Lorelai confessed, disassociating after it.
Tristan reminded her of Christopher. She felt like she was walking on eggshells around that realization.
Lorelai didn't want Emma to have her 'Christopher', her useless anchor that makes her sink, her siren song, her bipolar wave. No one deserves to be tied emotionally to someone who isn't there. Lorelai didn't want that for Emma, not even a little bit, not even at all. However, the similarities were there: the banter, the prestigious status that would eventually be flushed away, the smirk, the tall figure that felt like a knight in shining armour, the potential that would eventually turn into a rebellious departure. Her mind was messing with her. The memories were haunting her.
The only thing that gave Lorelai hope was the fact that Emma was much more than her mother's child. Emma wouldn't let herself be glued to the ghost of someone who's alive and well, but far way. At least she desperately hoped so.