IDLE TOWN, jess mariano

¹⁵fictitious murder

「 chapter fifteen 」
❝ I guess the next thing for him to take is lives „

this chapter contains: very ooc jess, I apologize

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FOR SOME REASON, THE DOOR TO THE DINER was locked and Luke was nowhere to be found. Jess was inside, leaning against the counter and reading but not caring as Aries continuously knocked on the door, trying to get his attention.

She shook her head to herself before picking the lock. Before opening it and entering though, she banged hard on the door to get Jess's attention.

Jess finally looked up, hesitating before sighing exasperatedly, setting his book down, and walking over to open the door for her. Right as he got to the door and reached for the doorknob, she opened it from her end, causing Jess to step back so as to not get hit by the door.

"And you've already got it," he said, walking back to the counter.

"Yup."

He walked back to his spot leaning against the back counter, though he didn't bother picking up his book.

"Morning, Plath."

"Hey, Kerouac."

Aries whipped her head around, looking around the empty diner; in the process of doing so, the pencil tucked behind her ear fell to the floor and she bent down to pick up, twiddling it in between her fingers as she stood back up, eyebrows furrowed at Jess.

"Where's Luke?" she asked. "Aren't we supposed to be open?"

He shrugged. "Luke's upstairs."

"And we're not open because ...?"

"We are now," said Jess, nodding his head towards the now unlocked door.

"Why is Luke upstairs while you're downstairs?"

"Luke sent me downstairs to open."

Aries furrowed her eyebrows, retucking her pencil behind her ear. "Okay, but you didn't until I picked the lock to get in."

"No point in opening when there's no one here."

"There's no one here because you didn't open."

"Huh."

Aries rolled her eyes and started setting up, taking down and placing the chairs around the table, stools around the counter, and placing everything on the tables.

"Everyone's probably at church anyways," said Jess, not really bothering to help.

"Did anyone come by and try to get in?" she asked. "We still get the occasional early risers on Sundays."

"No one that I know of."

"Right, well I was knocking for quite a while before having to all but shatter the glass to get your attention," she said.

"Oh, no. No Luke's for one morning? How will they survive?" Jess deadpanned.

"They obviously won't," said Aries.

"Oops, what a shame."

"Enticing," said Aries, walking back towards the counter and leaning forward on it, resting on her forearms on the opposite side of Jess. "A new guy moves from New York to the small town of Stars Hollow and immediately takes the role of town loner; one Sunday morning, he poisons the food at the local diner, killing dozens of innocent civilians."