Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
***
"Shopping for school supplies - party." Dani muttered angrily, scuffing her shoes along the ground. It was morning, the two Lorelai's should have known that she would be in a bad mood when they forced her awake off the air mattress to take her into town. Not even the promise of breakfast from Luke's had wiped the frown off her face.
"Nobody made you come." Rory answered, looking a bit hurt.
Dani scoffed, "Are you kidding? I was being yelled at this morning because of this."
"Fine, go and wait in Luke's then." Lorelai sighed, confused at her daughter's bad mood, she had thought they had started to get along better.
"Thank god." Dani mumbled, stomping off to the diner.
"Right, what's first on the list?" Lorelai smiled at her younger daughter, trying to cheer her up. However, Dani found that sitting at a diner, occasionally sipping at a coffee was probably more boring than going shopping with her family, but she would rather sit alone than trail along after Lorelai and Rory who would be joking around and being a real family. Memories washed over her suddenly and the regret with it, she should have fought harder to stay in Boston, asked to go to New York, stay with Jess.
Jess. God how she missed him, so much it hurt. To all the noise and wildness, all the chaos and drunkenness, Jess Mariano was calm. He brought her silence and thoughtfulness and a lull of tranquility when she needed it the most, made her think when her recklessness took control, made her breathe when her lungs were seized and her heart was racing.
***
The bus was better than she expected, she was sat next to a boy a few years older than her and he blushed with every other word spoken to her, as they talked for the entire journey. When they got out, she took a deep breath of the city air which felt so natural to her and gave the boy the number to Al's Pancake World when he asked, leaving him by the bus stop. She walked slowly for a while down the busy streets, taking it in, relishing in the fact that here, amid the bustling Saturday morning crowds that she was just a stranger.
But she was ready to see Jess. She had to stop herself from grinning like an idiot at the thought of her seeing him after so many months, so many weeks just filled with phone calls where sometimes they couldn't even bring themselves to talk. She went to the bench in Washington Square Park where they had first met and brought her phone out, dialing his number by instinct.
"Hey Jess." She smiled down the phone, fiddling with her sleeve.
"Hi Ella." He was smiling too, she could hear it, picture it.
"Guess where I am." She told him, teasing tone lacing her words making him sit up from his place slouched on his bed, reading and trying to avoid any contact whatsoever with his mother's boyfriend.
