DISCO NIGHTS !
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
TWILIGHT RENDEZVOUS
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INTERRUPTING MAEVE AND Flynn's conversation, Rory and Lorelai's voices cut through the crowded diner.
"Okay, well, I'm probably gonna have dinner with Dean, so..." Rory purposely let her voice trail off as her mother sent her a wide grin.
"Maeve, get back to work!" Luke commanded as he caught Maeve's attention from his position at the register.
"Okay, relax, old man." Maeve widened her eyes as she sent Flynn a small, regretful tight-lipped smile before standing up.
"Any day now, kid!" Luke called again.
"Would you just calm down?" Maeve widened her eyes at the man as she went towards the counter to grab two plates of food. "Don't have a heart attack."
"I'll have the house to myself tonight," Lorelai knowingly nodded as she was still caught up with Rory. "Life's funny, isn't it?"
"I simply cannot stop laughing," Rory sarcastically chirped as she stood up and approached the register, where Luke and Jess were residing. "I'll get the check."
"Thanks, hon," Lorelai stated as she then grinned at Maeve, who walked past her table. "Luke's hounding you today, huh, Maeve?"
"I'm used to it," Maeve just shrugged as she grabbed a spare rag and wiped down a free table, which Kirk was now speeding over to secure. "Kirk, you have approximately three seconds to back away and let me clean this table before I throw a mug at your head."
"But I'm hungry." Kirk complained as he tried to pull out one of the chairs, to which Maeve gently slapped his hand away from.
"Kirk," Maeve warned as she shot him a brief glare before purposefully slowing down her movements. "I'm seriously going to throw that mug."
"Okay, now you're just mocking me." Kirk furrowed his eyebrows as he just blew out a sigh and looked away.
"Hey, Luke." Rory started as she arrived at the register, Maeve finally giving Kirk the satisfaction of taking the free table after a few agonisingly long seconds and approaching the counter again.
"What, you find a nail in your food? I swear to god-" Luke panicked, the man shooting Tom a harsh glare from his position. "Tom, you are dead! You hear me?! Dead!"
Jess stifled an entertained smirk from his position behind Luke, Maeve huffing a chuckle at the man's reaction as she took a few minutes to refill the coffee vat.
"There's nothing wrong with the food, Luke." Rory raised her eyebrows, a little weirded-out by his sudden burst of irritation, though simultaneously not surprised as an entertained smile graced her features.
"Oh," Luke dejectedly replied, the man cringing at his own behaviour. "Sorry, Tom!"
"I just wanted to thank you." Rory continued, catching Maeve's attention as the girl raised her eyebrows knowingly, eyes briefly flickering over to Jess as she internally figured out, on her own, that Jess had set the whole thing up just to spend time with Rory.
"Yeah? For what?" Luke unknowingly inquired, eyes squinting slightly.
"For the care package," Rory's eyebrows furrowed at Luke's unaware nature. "That was really sweet of you."
"What care package?" Luke's confusion only grew at the answer, and Jess' head snapped up to panically look between his uncle and Rory, and he quickly interrupted their conversation before his true motivations could be revealed.
"Hey, Luke, I think they hit the water line again." Jess pointed to the side.
"Oh, what?" Luke furiously gritted out as he began to irritatedly hurry over to the construction site. "Tom, you are dead. You hear me? Dead!"
Maeve let out a wholly entertained laugh at Luke's frustration, and she decided to let him do his thing as she continued refilling the coffee vat, Rory suspiciously facing Jess. "Huh. Interesting."
"Hey, you wanna pay?" Jess diverted the conversation as he flipped open his notepad.
"Smooth, Casanova." Maeve teasingly murmured, loud enough so only Jess could hear the callback, and the boy in question just clenched his jaw to avoid firing a comeback in response.
"I don't think Luke knew anything about the food last night." Rory narrowed her eyes at Jess.
"That'll be twelve fifty." Jess attempted to change the subject once more, again, failing miserably.
"Which means you lied about why you came over." Rory casually explained as she pulled out a wad of cash to pay for her and Lorelai's meals.
"I don't have any quarters, I'm gonna have to give you nickels." Jess opened the register to fish out her change.
"Now, why would you lie about something like that?" Rory tauntingly smirked at the boy, only causing Maeve to, again, murmur under her breath, though this time, only she knew what she said.
"You're supposed to be smart." Maeve itched her cheek, her hushed words concealed by the palm of her hand.
Jess just dropped Rory's change in the palm of her hand as he, once more, attempted to reroute their conversation. "Here's your change. Come again soon."
"You wanted to come over." Rory finally came to the sensical conclusion.
"There you go, you finally got there." Maeve unnoticeably mumbled again as she grabbed the handle of the coffee vat and approached another customer.
"I have to get back to work." Jess averted his gaze as he noticed Maeve slip into friendly conversation with Lorelai while she refilled another customer's coffee.
"You're squirming, I've never seen you squirm," Rory smiled teasingly, the girl wholly entertained as she now had something to hold against him. "It's entertaining."
Jess' eyebrows quirked upwards. "Oh, yeah?"
"Yeah." Rory hummed cockily.
A defeated, yet amused, smile spread across Jess' face as he accepted that he finally got outsmarted by someone other than Maeve.
•
Maeve placed her book down on her bedside table before turning her lamp light off, then making herself comfortable in bed as she pulled the covers over her body and gently closed her eyes.
Not even five minutes later, the sound of light tapping sounded across Maeve's room, the girl's eyes snapping open and her eyebrows furrowing in confusion as she waited a moment to hear the sound again.
A few seconds went by and the tapping sounded again, this time, resulting in Maeve sitting up in her bed and turning to face her bedroom window.
Curious expression shifting into one of pointedness at the sight of Jess at her window, Maeve blew out a contemplative breath as she weighed the decision to entertain his antics before just pushing the covers off her body a few seconds later, getting out of her bed, and approaching the window, regardless.
Unlatching and pulling up the frame, Maeve knelt down to meet Jess' gaze, raising her eyebrows as a small, faux-polite, tight-lipped smile appeared on her face. "Evening, Jess. Can I just ask, what are you doing?"
"What am I doing? What are you doing? It's 11 o'clock." Jess scoffed as he gestured to her bed, referring to the fact that Maeve was about to go to sleep.
"It's called beauty sleep, you've clearly never heard of it," Maeve countered with a slight tilt of her head. "What's up, Mariano? Came to say a quick hello? Give me a mixtape or something? Both can wait until tomorrow, because I'm about this close to shutting my window and going back to bed."
"You done yet?" Jess' eyebrows pointedly raised, conveying his lack of amusement with her words, and when Maeve just crossed her arms over her chest and shot him a 'go on' look, the boy casually continued. "Come on, let's do something."
Maeve's eyes darted to the sides before resettling on Jess' face. "Do what?"
"I don't know, something. You've lived here your whole life, you tell me," Jess gestured to the girl as his tone fell sardonic. "We're teenagers, we'll figure it out. Get 'rowdy' or whatever."
Maeve just huffed out a chuckle as she briefly redirected her gaze to her wall and shook her head. "This is Stars Hollow, the most 'rowdy' we can get is breaking into Doose's to steal a tomato that costs a buck twenty five."
"Okay, so we'll break into Doose's and steal a tomato," Jess joked in response, his tone matching hers to convey the ridiculousness of her claim. "C'mon, we'll just walk around for a bit, smoke on the dock."
Maeve incredulously raised her eyebrows at him. "Are you seriously trying to convince me to sneak out?"
Jess offhandedly scoffed. "What, you've never snuck out before? I knew you were boring, but I didn't think you were that boring."
"Oh, I've snuck out before, I'm just referring to the fact that Jess Mariano is trying to convince me to do something, let alone trying to convince anyone at all to do anything," Maeve countered, furrowing her eyebrows as she gestured to the boy and ignored his second statement. "You usually would've given up five sentences ago, by this point."
Jess' previously teasingly sardonic tone dropped into an exasperated one as he ignored her taunt, already knowing that he had managed to persuade her. "Just bring a jacket, let's go."
"Only if you promise to have me home by 3am at the latest, sweetie." Maeve joked, purposely emphasising the last word as she grabbed a jacket from the back of her desk chair and climbed out the window.
"Shut up." Jess deadpanned, though not making a strenuous effort to hide his entertained smirk as he watched Maeve close her bedroom window once she joined him outside, shrugging her jacket on and zipping it up once she finished.
Maeve nudged his waist with her elbow as she grinned, continuing her joke as she implemented a country accent to the bit, the pair now beginning to walk away from Maeve's house. "I'm serious, my daddy will be oh-so worried if I'm not home by the crack of dawn."
Jess widened his eyes in bewilderment at the girl, although his words didn't meet his expression as the same, amused smirk was still gracing his face. "Do you realise how insane you sound right now?"
"Why, are you embarrassed?" Maeve's previously satirical voice was now back to normal, and her eyebrows lifted as she met his gaze, which was filled with playful absurdity.
"A little, yeah," Jess huffed out a chuckle at her idea of comedy as his eyes flickered between her face and the town in front of him. "And immediately regretting every decision that led me to this point in time, because now I'm forced to listen to whatever cracked joke this is."
"Who said I was joking?" Maeve's face fell serious as she observed Jess' reaction, the boy rolling his eyes at her and causing the girl to let out an involuntary laugh. "Relax, Jess, I'm just having fun."
Jess offhandedly scoffed. "At my expense."
Maeve's eyes darted to the sides, and she answered as if her following words were the most obvious in the world. "So, the best kind of fun."
Jess slightly narrowed his eyes at her as the pair were now approaching the centre of town. "Are you always this annoyingly chipper at 11pm, or is all of it just for me?"
"Bold of you to assume I'd do anything for you," Maeve shot him a brief, pointed glare. "And you did interrupt my routine, so technically, this is my form of payback."
Jess raised his eyebrows. "A horrible bit is a little underwhelming for payback, don't you think?"
"A hilarious bit." Maeve corrected almost-immediately, but stopped once she noticed Taylor leaving his shop—very odd for the man at this time of night—, the girl keeping her eyes on Taylor as she watched him lock the doors, and grabbing Jess' forearm to stop him from continuing to walk forward.
"What?" Jess furrowed his eyebrows in confusion as he glanced at Maeve in question.
Maeve's eyebrows quirked upwards as she gestured to Taylor with a nod of her head, who was now walking back to his house, unbeknownst to the presence of the teens now watching him from a distance. "Still want that tomato?"
Jess redirected his attention to where Maeve had just gestured to, mischievous smirk tugging at the corners of his lips.
Once Taylor was out of eye and ear-shot, Maeve and Jess headed towards the market, Jess searching for a stick or something heavy to knock the lock off with his eyes for a brief moment before Maeve protested with a shake of her head, and pulled out a bobby pin from her jacket pocket, the girl beginning to jimmy the lock undone.
Jess watched her movements in pure surprise, not expecting Maeve to be so acquainted with petty criminal activity. "I did not expect you to have 'breaking and entering' on your resume, Davis."
"Yeah, well, you learn something new every day," Maeve nonchalantly shrugged as she soon finished her efforts, grinning in accomplishment at the boy as she pushed the, now unlocked, door open. "After you."
Jess huffed out an impressed breath as his eyebrows, just barely, quirked upwards, the boy walking into the market and holding the door open so she could follow after him.
•
AUTHOR'S NOTE
this chapter is so 'perfect' by one direction!
© voidvaleska