Inbetween Days (Jess Mariano x Reader)

Chapter 7

Do you have the time to listen to me whine

About nothing and everything all at once?

I am one of those

Melodramatic fools

Neurotic to the bone

No doubt about it

Spring had a variety of meanings in Stars Hollow. For some, it meant remembering to do their taxes before the cut off date and making sure the lawn was mowed before it hit the length forbidden by Taylor Doose. For others, it meant leaving the school building during free periods to enjoy the weather, not just to get away from people. But for my mother, it meant ensuring that all of her children participated in the Stars Hollow Bid-A-Basket Fundraiser, even though one of them would rather crawl in a hole and die. At least I had Lane to share my pain with, since  she had to produce a decoy cousin just to get a date with Henry. I had to admit that, while I was psyched for her to finally have a boyfriend of her choosing, she was being pretty ridiculous about him. But I knew where she was coming from. If my mom liked my boyfriend more than I did, I'd probably start to hate him, too. Given that Henry was exactly the type of guy Mrs. Kim had been trying to find for her daughter for way too many years, that seemed like the most likely outcome. So, I bought her a packet of temporary tattoos to choose from and a glitter lip gloss with little holographic stars in it.

"Just maybe put it on after lunch, because I don't know what'll happen if you accidentally eat these things. But it looked cool and therefore reminded me of you." I handed her the bag from the beauty supply store. She promptly removed the contraband and hid it in the pocket she had made by carefully undoing the seam of the lining in her jacket. Handing me the bag and the remaining tattoos, she thanked me and ran up the street to hand her basket off to Lorelai.

My siblings had spent the day cooking, baking, putting finishing touches on their perfect little baskets. I selected the smallest, most nondescript basket in existence and spent the day going around town ordering my favorite foods to fill it with: Orange and Kung Pao chicken with fried rice, Weston's berry strudel, and burgers and coffee from Luke's. I got a severely quirked eyebrow from Luke as he filled my little green Thermos straight from the pot.

"I just want to make sure that whoever gets saddled with my presence at least gets decent coffee." I watched the charms on my bracelet dangle over the countertop as I held the Thermos aloft.

"I still don't get why you're doing this at all."

"Mom's making me. She makes all of us, I just require a lot more force."

"This is completely stupid. It's like something outta that movie."

"There've been a lot of those these past few years."

"Seven Brides for Seven Brothers! That's the one."

"Luke, when did you watch Seven Brides for Seven Brothers?"

He looked down at the floor with a smile and - oh God! - a blush. Lorelai. I wrinkled my nose.

Jess bounded down the stairs not long after. He looked awfully chipper, which admittedly made me suspicious.

"Payday, Uncle Luke." He sidled up beside him at the register and started wiping down the space in front of him without so much as a glance at me.

"Yeah, yeah. Hang on."

Jess hovered there until the register was open and Luke had counted out several twenties into his hand.

"You're awful eager," said Luke, "You got big plans or something?"

"Something like that," Jess shrugged.

Luke squinted at his nephew out of the corner of his eye but let it slide. Caesar placed two wrapped cheeseburgers in the window and rang the bell for Luke to serve them. I held out my basket so he could put them right in, and departed, trying hard to maintain the lack of eye contact Jess had instigated. My plan instantly failed, however, since my natural clumsiness seemed hell-bent on getting the best of me. I somehow tripped on the perfectly smooth sidewalk, sending my relic of a Thermos careening onto the asphalt. The handle flew off into the gutter and when I retrieved it, I realized that the plastic itself had broken. I had no way of reattaching it, so I crammed the mug and handle into the basket and set off for the gazebo.

At the auction, I sat on the grass to watch the drama and wait for whoever won the honor of my company. There was drama to spare, but bidders. . .

Eventually, it seemed like my basket would be one of the last. Lane had set off with her cousin already, so I was in it for the long haul. I watched as the blonde behind Taylor held up a tiny purple basket, just a bit smaller than mine. When Dean Forester bid on it, I knew it must be Rory's. Everyone else seemed to find it fairly obvious, too, so I was surprised when a familiar voice called out an opposing bid, less surprised when I recognized whose voice it was. I had a peculiar feeling all over my body, like all my internal organs had been harvested and the earth had vanished from under me, leaving only a hollow shell of flesh floating on a jacket over an abysmal hole in the ground. Extreme, I know. Eventually, Jess won, shelling out most of his new paycheck with a smirk. If I thought I was upset, I had nothing on Dean, though in my opinion he was a bit too outwardly melodramatic for my comfort. After a long argument between the lovebirds, Jess and Rory set off with the basket, and the strange feeling returned with another twinge when I realized they were headed for the bridge.

Half an hour later, my basket was finally won by none other than Brian Fuller, whose mother also made him participate in this ridiculous shindig. So, I introduced myself to his mom with a smile, and she said it was nice to meet the "groupie for Brian's little band." Before I could object to the word "groupie" she had handed Brian his sweater and waved us off with a heavily lipsticked smile. Turns out, he was allergic to the peanuts in the Kung Pao chicken, and decided to beg off all the Chinese food in case they had used peanut oil to fry the rice. I gave him the entire strudel as consolation, even though it was huge and I had bought it to split. While we were eating, I saw Lane with somebody else's cellphone, and tried to wave her over to introduce her to Brian and see what was wrong, but she took off crying and was inside her house before I could even stand up, her mother greeted her at the door and started screaming at her from the front lawn.

"You can go check on your friend if you want, I'll watch your stuff," Brian offered.

"Once Mrs. Kim gets involved, it's best to stay far away." I sat back down, picked the Thermos up by the handle, and poured more coffee into my Styrofoam mug.

"Oh." Brian's brow knitted together in worry.

"She won't hurt her or anything, she just gets scarier with interference," I assured him.

"Oh, I hear that," he snorted, taking another bite of his burger.

The next day, I called Lane and Mrs. Kim handed the phone right over like nothing had happened the night before. Lane told me she had told her mom all about Henry and, as expected, she would have been fine with them seeing each other, but Henry was at the end of his rope and was now ancient history. She had heard all about Rory's lunch with Jess and kindly spared me the inside scoop as we watched all of Titanic and polished off a couple pints of fudge swirl ice cream at my house.

After Lane left, I finally got around to cleaning out the basket, since the dirty food packaging had already been thrown away after lunch. When I pulled out the Thermos, I realized that the handle had been snugly superglued back on. Thinking back, it had been repaired the whole time Brian and I were using it, I had just been too upset to notice. 

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Song at the beginning is "Basket Case" by Green Day (yes, I think I'm funny)

Hope that wasn't too short, it's my favorite episode and I didn't want to try to rewrite it or make any changes. I just watched it so it would be fresh in my memory, and I highly recommend doing the same if you can. Thanks for reading!