Twenty three hours had now passed. Taylor was fully drunk, babbling nonsense to Miss Patty. There were only a few dancers left.
"Ow!" Lorelai stumbles a bit
"You okay?" Rory asks
"Oh no! My heel broke."
"What?"
"My heel just broke off. Damn, these are brand new shoes, too."
"They were made in 1943."
"Well, I just bought them Tuesday."
"I told you not to wear vintage shoes."
"But the lady at the store said that they hadn't been worn a lot."
"Yeah, but not a lot in sixty years is still a lot."
"I gotta fix them. I'll use my emergency card. I'll be right back."
"No, stop. If you leave, there's no way I'll be able to stand up on my own."
"Ten minutes."
"Nighty-night."
"Damn, what to do?" Lorelai looks around, and spots Dean still sitting and watching from the bleachers.
"Dean, come here! Dean!"
"What are you doing!?" Rory shockingly asks
"It's just for a few minutes, you can finally have an opportunity to talk, get him to apologize, and I'm sure Sabrina will understand once I tell her it was a fashion emergency"
"Is everything okay?" Dean walks over nervously looking at Lorelai
"Yeah, it's great. Stand here." Lorelai drapes Rory's arm across Dean.
"Whoa." Dean shockingly lets out.
"Look, I'll be back in ten minutes. Do not let her stop or lay down, do you understand me?"
"But I-"
Lorelai walks away before he could finish his sentence.
"So does this mean your mom knows about us now?" Dean asks
"No it's just some weird freaky coincidence, I'm really sorry about all of this"
"Yeah, uh, it's okay."
"Are you sure?" Rory snuggles closer into him
"Yeah. Actually, it's not bad at all." Dean tightens his hold around her body, snuggling his head into her neck.
"This will make it a lot easier to tell her though" Rory points out
Sabrina spins around and sees Rory now with Dean, she quickly dances Kirk over to Jess.
"Hey what happened?" Sabrina gestures over to Dean and Rory.
"I'm not too sure, I saw your mom run off with her emergency card though"
"Oh no, I wonder what happened, I mean she voluntarily got Dean involved it had to have been something bad"
Jess just shrugs, and Kirk dances them away to the other side of the gym
"He's still there." Rory scoffs a few minutes later
"What?"
"Jess. He's still there. I can't believe he's still there."
"Just ignore him."
"You know, this is a dance marathon. You're not supposed to come and sit and watch, you're supposed to dance. He's just trying to bug me, sitting there right in front of me, staring. Jerk."
"I think he's here for Sabrina, Rory, not you"
"Hey, you talking about me?" Jess sits up straighter
"No." Rory replies
"I heard you mention Sabrina."
"Sabrina isn't you." Rory rolls her eyes
"Sabrina concerns me."
"Whatever"
"You got a problem here?"
"Nope. Just a little sick of seeing you sitting there. If you're not gonna participate, then why don't you just leave?"
"No"
"Why not?"
"Because I'm not ready to go."
"Oh really?"
"Yes, really. I'm gonna sit here as long as I like, and I'm gonna do whatever I like, and if you don't like it, then just ignore me and pay attention to your boyfriend."
"Sorry, she can't. I'm not her boyfriend anymore." Dean chimes in breaking away from Rory
"What?" Rory looks up at him
"You know, I tried to ignore this. I really did, but I don't know what the hell I was thinking."
"What are you talking about?"
"You don't wanna be with me, Rory."
"Yes, I do." Rory stutters
Just then Sabrina breaks away from Kirk, and slowly walks over to listen to what was happening. Kirk continues dancing all by himself, holding up the emergency card.
"Oh, please! You've been into him since he got to town, and I have spent weeks months, actually trying to convince myself that it wasn't true, that everything was fine between us. But now I know that I was an idiot. I should've realized as soon as you wanted to get back with me after I hurt your sister, which by the way I'm so sorry Sabrina, what I did...was horrifying, I'm sorry"
Dean turns to Sabrina, and Jess gets up and stands next to her.
"I've felt guilty about it every since it happened, and I would've apologized sooner, but Rory came to me begging me not to apologize, and I was so in love with her, and still am, I agreed. And for that I'm sorry"
Dean turns back to Rory
"I don't know if you were jealous of them or trying to fill some weird void in your heart, but using me was stupid and wrong, and now I'm done, I'm tired and over it" Dean grabs his jacket off the bleachers and leaves.
Rory runs after him, and Sabrina runs after her, telling Jess to stay put.
——————————————————————————
Sabrina found Rory sitting on the bridge, she takes a seat next to her.
"Dean's a jerk. Yelling at you like that, breaking up in front of everybody. . .the guy's a total jerk." Sabrina says
"He's right though, I should've never gotten back with him after he hurt you, and I really don't know why I did. I care about you the most, and I just-"
"It's okay" Sabrina interrupts
"You have to know though, that he was lying, I never begged him to not apologize to you, it was the complete opposite. I don't-"
"Oh please it was so obvious he was lying" Sabrina laughs and waves her hand
"You don't believe him?"
"Of course not, even Taylor drunk out of his mind could've sniffed out his lies" the two girls share a laugh
"So, what now" Rory asked
"You're definitely broken up with Dean?"
"Yeah, I'm definitely broken up with Dean."
"Celebration cake?" Sabrina looks up and shrugs her shoulders. Rory laughs and takes her hand into hers
———————————————————————————
The twins return to the gym, only to find Jess now dancing with Kirk. There was only two couples left on the dance floor, and even though he looked miserable he was dancing nonetheless.
"Oh my god!" Sabrina slaps her hand over her mouth
"I can't believe what I'm seeing" Rory laughs
Suddenly the woman of the other couple falls to the floor.
"They're out! They're out! We won! We won!" Kirk hugs Jess, who quickly pushes him off, then runs over to Miss Patty to wake her up
"Oh, oh, oh. Taylor, wake up! It's over. Taylor, blow the horn." Miss Patty tries to shake Taylor awake
". . .a quarter right out of your ear." Taylor talks in his sleep
"Taylor, the horn. Oh, for Pete's Sake." Patty grabs the horn and blows it herself. "Okay, Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a winner!"
"Wait, what are you doing? I'm here, I'm standing, I used my yellow card!" Lorelai rushes in, still missing a shoe
"I win, I win! I win, I win, I win, I win!" Kirk spins around with his trophy
"You didn't win! I'm still here! Patty, where's Rory?"
"Oh, she ran off the floor a little while ago, honey."
"What? No!"
"Yes!" Kirk laughs
"For the fifth year in a row, ladies and gentlemen, the marathon winner is...Jess Mariano? and Kirk!" Miss Patty announces
Jess awkwardly walks over to Sabrina. And Kirk begins his victory laps around the gym.
"Hey"
"I can't believe you were dancing with Kirk! I mean why? How? What happened?"
"Oh it was nothing, the 10 minute emergency card was almost up, he was freaking out and I know how much this competition means to you, you wanted to win"
"Kirk wanted to win, but thank you Jess" Sabrina smiled and kissed him on the cheek.
"Promise you'll never bring this up again"
"Oh I'm bringing this up any chance I get, at our wedding it will be the main anecdote" Sabrina laughs
"What?" Jess' face drops
Sabrina didn't notice what she said or the impact it had on Jess, she just skipped away joining Kirk in his victory laps.