✧✧✧
AS THE WEEKS went on, the more and more Marley began to see of Jess simply by her own free will.
She sought him out at school (when he was there, that was), she spent time with him after closing hours (usually editing his most recent work), and she'd found herself in Luke's apartment twice (once was talking about some stupid thing she couldn't bother to remember. The other had occurred when Marley had forgotten her wallet at the diner and had returned to grab it from the apartment and saw that Luke and Jess had Spaceballs on and there was no way she wasn't staying for that). It was a subtle change that the two of them barely noticed, as Jess had begun doing the same. However, it wasn't subtle to the people around them. Everyone else had noticed. Everyone else was only a little more freaked out than when they realized they were getting along.
It seemed as though when Jess wasn't with Rory or when Marley wasn't with Courtney or her family, the two of them were together in some way. It was a new sort of experience for both of them. Jess hadn't had many reliable friends back in New York and while Marley had a pretty good number of friends at school, she hadn't formed a connection like this with anyone since she'd met Courtney in elementary school. It was a change that was welcomed with open arms and proved beneficial for every party involved.
Marley had become gradually become less obsessed with keeping to her schedule. While she still stressed herself out about school (to unnecessary levels, Jess would say), she found herself taking just a little bit more time for herself. She was sleeping more, she was eating better, and she was happier. Jacob was very happy to see this change, as was her mother.
Jess, for the most part, was kept out of trouble. Between being with Rory, work, and now befriending Marley, he was almost too busy to cause destruction to the town. Even though the Wal-Mart thing still proved to be a controversial topic, he was doing better. He too was happier. The two people he liked in this town seemed to make everything just a little better.
Things, in general, were better. Especially now that Marley had confronted Ryan about the rumor. After some harsh words and quiet threats, Ryan eventually came forward and admitted the truth. Or his version of the truth. Marley knew he would never admit to the real reason they'd broken up, but she was pleased enough now that she wasn't known as a cheater.
Things were a better version of normal and that was all she could ask for.
Luke's had been busy the entire week, and this shift was no exception. She had a moment to breathe when Luke sent her up to the apartment to get some of the new utensils that had been shipped to the diner. She sighed as she went to go pick up the boxes, attempting to figure out how she was going to carry all of them down the stairs.
She jumped as the bathroom door to the right of her swung open. Marley put a hand over her heart and glared at Jess as he exited, ready to curse him out for scaring her. This look changed when she noticed that he had a black eye accompanied by a small gash on his cheekbone.
"Well, hey there, Hilary Swank." While the teasing in her voice was evident, there was an undertone of concern.
Jess wasn't having it. "Not in the mood."
"So it wouldn't me appropriate for me to get everyone downstairs to chant 'Mo Cuishle' when you walk down?"
"You really think you're funny, don't you?"
Marley was taken back by the bite behind his words. She stared at him for a moment before quickly crossed her arms over her chest. As Jess walked around the apartment, looking for something, she leaned her hip against the table in the kitchen.
"So," she drew out. "What happened?"
He whipped around to face her. "I didn't get into a fight," he barked.
"Woah!" she said, throwing her hands up in defense. Marley didn't like the way he was talking to her. "I didn't ask if you got into a fight. I asked what happened."
Jess' expression softened the tiniest amount, but he still scoffed. "Yeah, but you were thinking it."
"I mean, it crossed my mind when I first saw it, but it wasn't my immediate thought."
"Then what was?"
"Exactly what I asked," Marley said. Jess knew once he heard the firmness in her tone that she was no longer having it. "So, are you going to tell me what happened or are you going to yell at me for no reason?"
Jess looked at her, and for a second, it looked like he was actually going to come clean. Instead, he shook his head and moved past her to grab some of the boxes on the table. "You wouldn't believe me."
Marley frowned at this. She hurriedly grabbed the remaining boxes and followed him down the stairs. "Are you going to make me guess?"
"I'd rather you not."
"Okay, so, yes." Marley looked at him as she placed the boxes down on the counter. "I once got a black eye from yo-yo-ing too hard." This made Jess actually stop and look at her. There was a small smile on his face as if he were going to laugh at her. "Don't laugh. I was nine. I had to wear an eyepatch."
Before Jess could say anything in response to that, Luke entered the conversation. He pointed at Jess' eye in confusion. "What is that?" he asked his nephew.
As if he didn't know what Luke was talking about, Jess responded, "What is what?"
"You're Petey the Dog."
Jess frowned. "I'd prefer to not talk about this."
"I already made my Million Dollar Baby reference. He didn't like that one either," Marley said to Luke as she began unboxing from the other side of the counter.
Luke rolled his eyes at her, turning back to Jess. "Is that why you snuck in last night?"
"I didn't sneak in," Jess replied. "Now, could we get back to work here?"
"Fine, start clearing some stuff."
When Jess went to do as he was told, Luke glanced at Marley. The girl shook her head at her boss. While this told Luke it wasn't worth it, it didn't seem to stop him from asking the question Marley knew Jess didn't want to be asked.
"So, when'd you get into a fight with Dean?" Luke asked. Marley braced for impact.
Jess pointed at him. "It wasn't a fight with Dean!"
"Hey! Where's that coming from, I just asked."
"What's with everybody making assumptions? I'm sick of it."
Luke's voice was hesitant but accepting. "So it wasn't Dean."
"No," Jess muttered.
"When did it happen, yesterday?"
"Yes."
"You went to Rory's grandmother's yesterday. She punch you?"
Jess dropped the mugs he had cleared in the tray. "Oh, stop."
Luke threw his hands up. "So where'd you get it?"
"Santa Claus."
"So you're not going to tell me?"
Jess nodded. "That's right."
The diner phone then rang. Marley quietly observed as she unpacked the boxes, laying out the new utensils on the counter. She watched as Luke answered the phone, told Jess that it was Rory, and then Jess request that Luke tell Rory that he wasn't here. Though he was confused, Luke abided by his wishes.
Luke hung up the phone, then turned to Marley. He told her that she was in charge for a minute, then grabbed Jess by his shirt and pulled him into the back room.
Marley continued to unpack and unwrap the utensils, checking the front door every now and then. She could hear muffled arguing coming from the back room, but she couldn't make out much. All she knew is that at one point or another, Luke had laughed.
It wasn't long until Jess came marching out of the back room, made eye contact with Marley (and his gaze held so much determination that it threw her off a little), grabbed the ladle she'd just unpacked and walked out the door.
Luke came back moments after, sighing as he realized what had been taken. "Jess, not the new ladle," he groaned. As the door slammed, Luke looked at Marley whose face was contorted in confusion. "Stay here," he told her.
He didn't give her any time to object. He was chasing after Jess before she could get a word out.
✧
THE DAY OF the black eye had come and gone, and everything had gone back to normal. Jess had apologized (yes, actually apologized. Marley wished she had a tape recorder with her) for the way he'd spoken to her, Luke seemed a little bit lighter on his feet than he had been, and their closing hours had gone back to their less busy ways.
This was especially good news for the two tonight, as Luke had left the diner in the hands of the teenagers and Caesar, for he had a date with some lawyer he'd been seeing. They told Caesar to go home and that they'd take care of closing. They'd done it so many times by now that they could do it in their sleep. Caesar immediately agreed and left as soon as the clock struck ten.
Luke Danes returned to the diner an hour later expecting to see it completely dark and empty. Instead, he found something different.
"What the hell are you two doing?" Luke's voice carried over from the front door of the diner to his two teenage employees sitting at the counter before him.
"I ordered pizza," Marley said, swirling around in her chair to face her boss. "He's leeching off me."
"I tipped the guy, I'm not leeching," Jess argued through a mouth full of pepperoni.
"Only reason I'm not complaining about it because I feel bad he has a boo-boo."
"You ordered pizza?" Luke asked as he walked toward them. "We have plenty of food here."
Marley spun back to the counter. "Yeah, but it's Friday night."
"So?"
"It's like, a universal law that Friday nights are pizza nights. You don't have pizza. I'm pretty sure that's a sin, by the way."
Luke rolled his eyes. "I'll head to confession next week," he said, reaching over her shoulder and grabbing a piece. He put it in his mouth before Marley could object. "Goodnight."
"My god, the two of you are related," Marley muttered.
"You'll get over yourself," Luke threw over his shoulder.
Marley pouted. "You should tell Reverend Nichols to make God forgive you for being a jerk, too." If Luke had heard what she said, he didn't reply. Marley continued moping, grabbing one more slice from the box.
"This pizza sucks, by the way," Jess said. "If I haven't mentioned that yet."
He had. Twice.
"I'm sure New York will forgive you for eating shitty pizza," Marley said, taking a bite of her piece. "And this isn't that bad. You're just a snob."
Jess huffed. "You can't call me a snob until you've met The Gilmores."
Marley chuckled lowly under her breath, grabbing a napkin from the dispenser and placing her pizza on it. "It was that bad, huh?"
"That bad. But I think I ended up making it worse for myself," he admitted, shrugging. "I wasn't exactly the most amiable guest."
"Is that why Rory's grandmother punched you?" she asked.
Jess narrowed his eyes at her. "I told you to let it go, Miss Marple."
"I'm sorry!" she said as she laughed. "But you've literally told me nothing about how you actually got it. I only heard Luke laughing about something and saw you grab a ladle looking like you just received orders from HQ."
Jess stared her down, moving his mouth to the side. Marley sat before him, waiting for him to speak. She didn't understand why he didn't want to tell her. Whatever it was, it couldn't be worse than the yo-yo story.
"Fine," he ground out. When Marley smiled, he pointed at her. "But if you make fun of me, or you laugh, or you do whatever the hell it is you do, I'm done and you're closing by yourself."
Marley threw her hands up. "I won't. I promise."
Jess sighed. It was long and heavy and only made Marley more excited. He gripped the edges of the counter, looking more uncomfortable than ever. Marley loved every second of it.
"I was, uh--" Another sigh. He rolled his eyes. "I was attacked."
Marley's brow furrowed and she straightened up in her seat. "What?" she asked. "By who?"
"By a, uh..." he trailed off, unable to look at her. "By a swan."
He turned back, ready to gauge her reaction. Marley only blinked at him. "Like... the bird?"
"Yeah. The bird."
Marley was silent for a moment before she bit the inside of her cheek. There was humor in her eyes and Jess hated every ounce of it. She went to speak then quickly shut her mouth, pressing her lips together. Jess glared at her, knowing exactly what was coming next.
She sucked her teeth, holding in her laughter. "How--" She coughed, attempting to look very serious. "How did this happen?"
"I was walking by Larson's Dock and it just came out of nowhere and beaked me."
"It what?"
Jess wanted to die, seeing how humored she was. "It beaked me."
"Did you threaten Huey, Dewey, and Louie or something?"
The look on Jess' face was what set Marley off. She placed her hand over her mouth after she let out a loud laugh, fully accepting the fact that she may be closing alone tonight. She didn't care. It was worth it.
"Enough," he groaned.
"I think you might have beaten my yo-yo story. I'm almost proud. I didn't think anybody could."
"Me getting attacked by a swan doesn't beat the fact that, at some point in your life, you were stupid enough not to know how the hell a yo-yo worked."
"Bold of you to assume that I know now."
"There's some irony in the fact that you want to go to Penn and have no idea how to work a yo-yo."
Marley rolled her eyes as she went to pick up her pizza again. "Penn isn't going to ask me to send in my yo-yo stats along with my SATs." She shrugged. "Who knows, maybe I'll teach myself and then write my essay about how I overcame my struggles."
Jess chuckled. Marley watched as he leaned back on the opposite counter, arms crossed over his chest. "You have any idea what you're actually going to write about?"
She found herself shrugging again. She peeled a piece of pepperoni off her pizza and dropped it in her mouth. "I'll have to look at whatever the prompts are. It'll probably end up being about my mom or dad." After a moment of silence, Marley looked up at him. Hesitantly, she said, "I think there's like a week or so before Regular Decision deadlines. You could still--"
"We're not getting into this again. You know what I'm going to say."
"I know," she said. There was slight frown gracing her features. "It's just a thought. I'll drop it."
"I don't believe you," he replied.
Marley smiled a bit. "Smart boy." Jess chuckled despite the fact he was rolling his eyes. "I'll drop it for now," she said.
They were quiet again. Marley could hear everything. Luke's TV playing some hockey game upstairs. A single car passing the diner. The dishwasher in the back. She could practically hear Jess thinking. She'd only remained quiet because he'd looked as though he had something to say.
It came a second later. His voice was soft. "You know you were the only one who didn't immediately accuse me of getting into a fight with Dean?"
Marley raised her brows. "Really? Even Rory?"
Jess nodded. He chuckled humorlessly. "She didn't believe me when she said I didn't. She went right to him to ask." He shrugged, then added, "Not that I blame her."
"You tell her what actually happened?"
"Absolutely not."
Marley looked puzzled. "Why not? You told me."
"Yeah," he said, as if the answer was obvious. "I got nothing to lose with you, Acosta. You already have an arsenal of shit to take me out with. I can't have her firing at me too."
She snickered at this. Marley thought there was some type of compliment in there, but she didn't comment on it.
However, talking about Rory did remind her of something. She held her finger up at him and scurried to the back where she kept her backpack. Jess heard various things being zipped and unzipped before Marley returned with an envelope in her hands. She slid the envelope to him.
"Courtney gave me these, like, two months ago," she said as he opened the envelope.
His eyes flicked to hers in surprise. "Concert tickets?" When he read the name on the tickets, he looked at her again. "Distillers?"
Marley grinned. "Yeah. They're playing at a super small venue in Hartford. Courtney has an uncle who does business with the venue and he gave them to her," she explained. "She's not a Distillers fan so she gave them to me."
"She has no taste, that doesn't surprise me," he muttered. Marley snorted, quietly telling him to be nice. Jess glanced at her. "Are you asking me to go with you?"
"I'm giving them to you," she said. Jess seemed taken back by this. "I'm going to see my Grandmother in Boston tomorrow. I'm pissed that I can't go. But I figured that you and Rory could go, or something. I didn't want to waste them."
When he hadn't replied, Marley looked at him. Jess nodded as soon as he saw her smiling. "Yeah. Yeah. These are awesome. She's going to love them," he said. "Thanks."
She waved him off. "'Course. I was going to give them to Ryan for his birthday, but... y'know. His eye still hasn't healed yet, by the way."
"That's really too bad."
"You guys are like twins now," she said, smirking. "I mean, except for the fact that he got punched and you were, uh, beaked."
"I can guarantee you mine is worse."
"Do you think you're going to get like, Vietnam flashbacks because of this?" Marley stopped herself, gasped, and then looked at Jess with wide eyes. "Vietswan Flashbacks."
Jess didn't seem to find it as genius as she had. "You're hilarious. Don't forget to invite me when you do five nights at The Apollo."
"Don't worry, you'll be front row," she said, smiling. Marley glanced at the clock on the wall and grimaced when she saw the time. She got up and began to pick up where she left off on the tables. "We should probably finish closing. I'm leaving early tomorrow. You probably have shit to do." As soon as the words left her mouth, she gasped. "Holy shit, didn't you have plans with Rory tonight?"
"A tentative plan. Nothing was certain. Don't worry about it."
"A tentative plan is still a plan, Mariano," she said. "I can't believe I made you miss your date."
Jess shook his head. "You didn't make me do anything. And we didn't have a plan."
"Why do I feel worse about you missing your plans than you do?"
"Because you aren't listening to me when I said we didn't have a plan," he said. "Seriously. Don't worry about it. I'm sure she's fine. I had a decent night. Everything's good."
Marley facepalmed. "Dear God, you really know nothing about being in a relationship, do you?"
"Not a clue."
"You're the worst," she said as she finished clearing off the tables. "Call her after this and apologize, jackass. Tell her you're taking her to The Distillers tomorrow to make up for it."
"I will, I will," he said, waving her off. "By the way, I didn't know you liked The Distillers."
Marley's scoff echoed from the back. "Why? Because I don't listen to Bad Religion and hate the world like you do?"
"Exactly," he replied.
"Jacob got me into them a couple of years ago. He's a closeted punk-rock fan." As she exited the kitchen, wiping her hands she caught his eye. "Don't tell him I told you that. But yeah. I'm mad I can't go. I hope you guys have fun though."
"Yeah," Jess said. "We will."
Marley gave him a smile, then turned to stack the chairs on top of the tables. Jess put the tickets back in the envelope and sighed. He sent one last glance to the back of Marley's head before taking the tray of dirtied mugs to the sink.
The diner was quiet for the rest of the night. Marley finished a little earlier than he had and she shouted her goodbye before she walked out the door. Jess was left with a counter to clean and an envelope with tickets in it.
He couldn't explain the sudden rush of disappointment he felt when he looked at it.
✧✧✧
author's note: hello this is going to be a short note but i just want to say that the next chapter is going to be better i pinky swear and thank u so much for all of your recent feedback i don't deserve y'all at all
also i know my ducktales reference was lame and about ducks but a swans and ducks are apart of the same family so imma roll with it
ok love you all tons!
-mags