Dandelion- Jess Mariano

♡Chapter 28: Pack up and go♡

The truck rumbles as they pull up outside of the diner. Parker hops out of the back once Lorelei moves her seat. They walk up to the diner door, and Luke unlocks it. All of the curtains are down so you can't see inside.

Once they step inside the diner, Parker immediately sees Jess, sitting at the counter and eating a piece of pie, with his shirt on the seat next to him. She doesn't know exactly what she felt, she just knew that she was angry. A thousand thoughts were rushing through her head at once.

Thoughts about 'how could he' and 'did he miss it on purpose'. She was so angry that she didn't want to speak to him at all, so she walked straight past him and started going up the stairs. He follows her as she goes, seemingly trying to apologize.

"Parker come on, I'm sorry." He says, but she doesn't turn around. "I know how much this meant to you, I didn't mean to." His voice sounds as though he's begging her to turn around and believe him. Until he remembers something, and grabs her elbow.

"Wait, no please don't go upstairs." Jess says desperately, but when her eyes finally meet his, he doesn't see any emotion in them. All he sees is disappointment and anger. He immediately releases her arm and she keeps walking up the stairs.

Suddenly, she looks down and sees a shirt by her feet. She picks it up and realizes that it isn't one of his, and it isn't one of hers or Luke's either. Her mind immediately starts running over all of the possibilities, but nothing could have prepared her for what she saw when she walked into the room.

She sees pants and shoes and another shirt thrown around the room, seemingly leading towards Jess's bed. And when she sees his bed, she freezes in her tracks.

Rory is laying in his bed, in her underwear. She sits up, and yawns before speaking. "Oh hey Parker! How'd the court case go?" Parker doesn't respond, as she spins to look at Jess, but before she could realize that Jess looked just as shocked about this as she did, she stormed past him back down the stairs.

She storms past Lorelai and Luke, with them looking at her curiously. "Hey kid, hold on, what's wrong?" Lorelai asks her.

"Go upstairs and see for yourself." Parker growled. She stormed out of the diner, and started walking down the road. She was walking down the road, her shoulder bumps into someone else.

"Hey, whoa!" Dean says, picking up his pace to walk beside her. "You had court today right? Did it go okay?"

"Yes. We won." She says, in a short and angry voice.

"Okay then what's this angry parade for" he asked, a little worriedly. "Here, come sit."

Dean leads her over to a bench in the gazebo, and then raises his eyebrows, prompting her to talk.

"Jess didn't show up to court, and when we came home we found a mostly naked Rory in his bed, and him calmly eating pie as if nothing was wrong." She says to him, but noticing that she has tears starting to fall from her eyes.

"That idiot!" Dean exclaims. "I'm gonna fucking kill him!" He stands up, seemingly about to go find Jess. But Parker grabs his shirt sleeve and pulls him back down to sitting.

"Don't bother. I just have to talk to Luke, I know what I wanna do." She says, trying to wipe her eyes. Dean hands her a tissue before talking.

"Well, what DO you want to do?" He asks, furrowing his eyebrows, wondering how she could have a plan already.

"Well, because of the court case, I got my bank accounts back. And I got a debrief of their contents too. I have enough for an apartment for the rest of the school year, and then I can go off to college." She explains this all, and Dean tries to keep up as she talks fast. "I just don't know where to stay while I find an apartment, I definitely don't want to stay there."

Dean thinks for a moment. "Well I could talk to my mom, or Lindsey, and you could probably stay with one of us." He says.

"Really? You'd do that?" She asks him, and he nods.

"Yeah of course, and Lindsey would understand, she's great." He continues. Parker hugs him quickly, grateful for his hospitality. He then stands up and reaches out a hand to help her up and they walk off, down the street to Lindsey's house first.

Little did they know, across the street, Jess saw the end of this conversation. He had come looking for Parker, hoping to explain. But when he saw her with Dean, and saw her hug him before walking off, his anger got the better of him.

"Fuck this. Fuck this town, all of it." He mumbles under his breath and walks off back to the diner.

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"Of course she can stay with us!" Lindsey says. "Stay as long as you need! I'm so sorry for this." She continues.

"Thank you so much." Parker says, and follows her as she walks into the kitchen.

"Of course! Here let me give you a tour." She walks around, showing Parker each room, and designating the guest room for where she'll stay. They walk around for a while before they hear a knock on the door.

Parker follows Lindsey as she walks to go open it. When the door swings open, it reveals Luke.

"I found out from Lorelai who found out from Babette where you went." He starts, and before he can continue, Parker runs into his arms, hugging him. To give them some privacy, Lindsey closes the door, and goes inside.

After a moment, Luke hugs the girl back. "I think you should talk to Jess." He says, and Parker lets go of him.

"What? No! You saw what they did, and nothing any of you could say would change it." She says, and Luke knows that she meant it. She was stubborn, and he knew whatever he tried to say wouldn't be enough.

"Okay, so why are you here?" Luke asks. "I didn't know you and Lindsey were friends."

"We know eachother from school, and I'll be staying here." She explains. "Originally, I was going to find an apartment, but her mom said that since school is about to end anyway, I should just stay until I go off to college."

Luke thinks this over for a moment before nodding. "Okay. I'm going to miss you, but I get it." He thinks for a moment. "I'll pack up your stuff and bring it over tonight, if that's okay?"

Parker nods. "Yes that works. Thank you." She looks behind her. "I should probably go back inside, but I'll still come to work tomorrow."

"Okay. I love you kid, you can always call me, for anything." He says, before messing up her hair and waking away. Parker turned around, walking back inside, and Luke turned around one more time, feeling worried about her, and wishing he could do more.