"What's with the gloom and doom" Jess asks
"I'm supposed to be at my grandmas house sitting still for an oil portrait"
Jess just opens his mouth in shock, not knowing if it was appropriate to laugh or not
"Go ahead make fun, I think it's stupid too, I'll just have to face my grandmothers wrath later for bailing" Sabrina laughs
"Is that why you're sad, your grandma really that scary"
"No"
"Then what is it"
"It's complicated"
Jess and Sabrina sit on the Stars Hallow bridge in complete silence watching the sunset. It was the most comforting silence ever, just being in each other's company was enough. They both understood when to stop talking and when to start again. It was the perfect friendship.
——————————————————————————
Meanwhile Rory, Lorelai and Mia were all at the town hall meeting, where everyone was currently ganging up on Luke. The town all hated Jess and after the "murder" incident they wanted him gone. The town was sporadically yelling out things Jess has done to them as Luke desperately tried to defend him.
Luke and Bootsy were currently in a stand off, that got brought all the way back to 1st grade, when Luke apparently accused Bootsy of sabotaging his clay imprint. Taylor quickly shutting it down and getting to the point.
"Boys, please. The bottom line here is that there is a consensus among townspeople who are in agreement that Stars Hollow was a better place before Jess got here."
"So this half of the room gets the tar, and the other half gets the feathers?"
"Well, there hasn't been any talk of tar and feathers. Although-"
"Look, I've lived in this town my entire life, longer than most everybody here. I've never bothered anyone. I've kept to myself and I've done the best I could. I pay my taxes, and I help people when I can. I haven't pitched in on the decorative pageantry town stuff because it all seems insane to me, but I don't get in the way of that stuff either."
"What's your point, Luke?"
"His point is, do you mind?" Lorelai interrupts
"Be my guest." Luke sighs
"His point is, that if there's a problem-"
"And I'm not saying there's a problem."
"Right, he's not saying there is a problem, but if there is, give him time to deal with it before you storm his diner with torches and pitchforks."
"I didn't get that last part." Taylor responds
"Lay off him because what you're all doing stinks." Lorelai defends
"I'm done here. I'm done with all of you. Oh, and I was gonna stay open later in case anyone wanted to eat after the meeting. Forget that." Luke storms off
——————————————————————————
Later in the week Rory finds herself waiting outside of Doose Market for Dean to pick up his check but to her annoyance runs into Jess.
"Should you be standing here all alone? I hear this is a pretty dangerous corner." Jess sarcastically remarks, he only approached her to ask about Sabrina as he couldn't find her in any of her usual spots.
"I'm fine." Rory shortly responds
"Feeling succinct today?"
"Pretty much."
"Hmm. Did I do something to offend?" Half genuinely asking, Jess didn't really talk much to Rory so he had no idea what he could've possibly done.
"Me?"
"Yeah."
"No."
"Good."
But then Jess starts to overthink, he couldn't find Sabrina and her twin sister seemed annoyed at him. Did he do something to Sabrina? He really hoped not she was the only thing keeping him sane in this circus of a town.
"You might want to ask that same question to Luke though." Rory broke him out of his thoughts
"Meaning?"
"You've got this whole town down on him."
"Really? How did I do that?"
"You know how you did that."
"I'm not really familiar with the blue book laws in this town, so you can be talking about a lot of things. Dropping a gum wrapper, strolling arm in arm with a member of the opposite sеx on a Sunday."
Rory gestures to the nearly scrubbed up outlines, Jess nods in realization. Rory relays the town meeting and how they all ganged up on Luke. Jess only half listening to her ramblings about Taylor's lettuces losses and Luke being a pariah.
"What a shock you don't care about this" Rory concludes just as Jess actually starts to care.
"I didn't say that"
"Go. I'm tired of talking to you"
"Fine" Jess starts to walk away to continue his search for Sabrina
"You care nothing about Luke and his feelings!" Rory suddenly yells
"Got a second wind, huh?" Jess walks back over to her.
"All he does is stick up for you and all you do is make his life harder. I guess that's what you have to do when you're trying to be Holden Caulfield but I think it stinks. Luke has done a lot for my mom and a lot for me, and I don't like to see him attacked. Okay, second wind over."
"I didn't know they were coming down so hard on him."
"Funny, I never pegged you as clueless, my mistake."
Jess shyly looks up to meet Rory's eyes and practically mumbles out "Does your sister feel the same way"
Rory scrunches up her face, whatever was going on between Jess and Sabrina really bothered her and she had no idea why. She concluded it was because Jess would be a bad influence on her sister, and that Sabrina deserved someone well liked and respectable, someone like Dean. Besides their mom would hate the idea of Jess and Sabrina. She shook her head in disgust and continued the conversation.
"She wasn't at the town meeting, but she thought it was stupid"
"Funny stupid?"
"That is so not the point"
"Ah, so she did think it was funny"
Just then Dean walks out and after an awkward introduction from Rory, Jess walks off to find Sabrina.