The Maine Event

Chapter 22

Rory continued to walk, muttering "Hell no!" under her breath only to realize after a few minutes that she was in fact walking the wrong way and would end up taking a major detour to get back to Odette's place, or home, as they called it. Her pace had been a quick one, catching Lorelai off guard and other than the first "Rory!" from her, she hadn't heard a word from behind her nor had she looked back. She continued to walk, despite the wrong direction, checking her phone as it rang. It was Paris.

"Rory, I know you feel like running right now," Paris began. "But hear me out, okay?" she added. 

"Fine," Rory muttered in response, "just so so you know I am angry at you too!" Rory reminded her, sternly.

"I know all about horrible mothers, Rory. Lorelai may be childish and overbearing and whatever else you want to label her, do that, but she doesn't mean it... Just talk to her, let her try. She really promised to try to make amends. I wouldn't have told her where you'd be, if she hadn't sound sincere," Paris explained. 

Over the years Lorelai had been like a second mother to Paris, perhaps more even than her real mother. She had been the one to actually listen to what she had to say. Paris just hope Lorelai would do the same for Rory now. Paris figured it was easier for Lorelai with her, as she didn't remind her of herself, while Rory did in so many ways.

Rory reluctantly lowered her pace, but didn't turn around. Seeing a playground up front, she opened the gate and took a seat in the far corner observing the kid playing with the hippo statues. If her mother were to follow her there, let her. If she didn't,  so be it - she thought.

"Suddenly a big fan of hippos?" the weak, panting, voice asked a minute later. Lorelai wasn't sure if banter and jokes were a way to go here, but that was all she knew. It was her defence mechanism, even if it felt a little out of place.

Rory still didn't feel like talking, and she kept staring at a spot in front of her, where someone had cut a name into a tree trunk - the name was 'Sam'. A common name, nonetheless it reminded her of the loss she'd experienced and that still stung.

"Can I sit?" Lorelai asked carefully, wanting to add that she wished she had worn better shoes for that half-marathon. 

"It's a free country," Rory muttered quietly.

"Rory, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I didn't listen to you, I'm sorry I said those things," she blurted. "At the time I thought I only had your best interest in mind, but clearly I shouldn't have said anything, I should've just let you be you. I became my mother, I see that now. I don't want it to be like this between us," Lorelai pleaded. Getting that far in the realization process had taken her six therapy sessions, which she'd been very sceptical of at first thanks to her previous experiences. But she'd done it.

"I was really in a bad place, mom. And you didn't help any of it! You hurt me when I needed you the most!" Rory accused her, getting emotional.

"Oh, honey," Lorelai sighed, regretfully. "I'm so sorry," she added. She just wanted to hug her, but she could detect that Rory's body language was still defensive, so she held off.

"I got help though. Dad paid for it. Logan helped, Paris..," Rory described. She wasn't sure if she knew the whole story, but she sort of assumed Paris had told her about the marriage.

"And now you're back in New York?" Lorelai tried to piece together the picture for herself.

"We are. We are just looking for a place of our own, we should be able to move in a month or so when Odette calls this thing off," Rory added. She wasn't sure if she wanted to continue. That alone was a lot of information to share and going further into the details concerning Odette felt like playing with fire. Surely her mother would have an opinion on the three of them living together along with various 'Sister Wives'-style jokes. She knew her mother so well.