love letters- jess mariano

9. the way i loved you

we were sat at the table for friday night dinner and nobody was speaking. the silence made me want to leave it was so incredibly awkward.

rory and i looked at each other, as she cleared her throat to get both of our moms attention and i used my hands, subtly, to initiate for them to start speaking.

they slowly nodded getting the idea, as they both came up with something to say. "what are your travel plans dad?"

"is this new china, mom?"

each of them asked at the same time, causing me and rory to both shoot looks at them.

"uh, yeah dad what are your travel plans?" my mom nodded deciding to stick with lorelai's question.

"huh?"

"you and mom always go out of town around this time of year." lorelai elaborated with a smile on her face.

"last year was the bahamas." i smiled trying to involve myself, i couldn't sit in silence any longer i had to say something.

"yes, that's right, it was." grandpa nodded bluntly.

"i remember you had fun too." lorelai smiled.

"yeah, you said the bahamians were real nice," mom added. "the bahamites?" she questioned with furrowed eyebrows unsure how to say it. "the bahamamamanians?"

"the bahamians." rory corrected.

"yes, they were nice." she nodded.

"they were nice." grandma quickly said.

"so, what are your plans?" lorelai asked again.

"we're not going anywhere this year." grandma informed us.

"why not?" i asked her, as she nodded her head at grandpa who was sat cutting up his food.

"oh, well yeah," i nodded. "it can be good to stay home sometimes because you do fun things that you wouldn't normally have time for."

"yeah," mom smiled and nodded. "like playing charades." she suggested.

"or getting out the slip n slide." lorelai added, causing me to let out a small chuckle under my breath.

"we'll see." grandpa bluntly said.

"yes, we'll see." grandma agreed.

the amount of tension in the room was indescribable. they seemed like they hated each other. i couldn't understand what was going on, they never acted like this. at least not in front of us.

"would you all excuse me? i have to make some calls." grandpa stated, before standing up and leaving the dinner table. "say goodbye before you leave will you?"

"yeah." lorelai nodded.

"sure, dad." mom said with an awkward smile.

we watched him slowly walk away into his study. i was shocked to be honest, i didn't expect him to get up and walk off like that.

"when is the awfulness with work gonna resolve itself?" lorelai asked grandma.

"i don't know," grandma stated shaking her head. "the man is so sensitive. he reads so much into every single perceived slight."

"yeah." mom agreed with a small nod. "i remember one time when we were kids, dad had put on some weight and he bought a new suit to try to cover it up." she began explaining, as she looked over at lorelai.

"oh yeah and then he wore it for us and asked how he looked and we both told him he looked fat." lorelai finished with a smile on both their faces speaking of childhood memories with each other.