lovely | jess mariano

chapter five

victoria really did consider lorelai's suggestion of sliding down the bannister to get to the bottom of the ridiculously large staircase. 

she was beyond nervous and felt like she was going to vomit all over the front tables.

(and that would definitely get a laugh out of lorelai if not anyone else.)

chris was escorting both vee and rory at the same time, which meant they were getting presented side by side. 

so, she didn't slide down the bannister because she was side by side with rory maybe if she had been on her own she wouldn't have minded making a spectacle of the whole thing (which she still thought was stupid but rory wanted to do it, so she did it).

making a spectacle of the entire event would have been fine for her to do alone because it was no secret that emily and richard were more there for rory than her. it would have been expected. victoria was too much like lorelai for them to trust her to integrate into their lifestyle. 

and victoria knew that. she was proud of that. she loved her mother and was happy to be her daughter. 

so, she didn't do the thing that her mother had encouraged. she decided her sister being happy was more important than her proving a point that didn't need much proving. 

(plus their grandparents had been fighting the entire time and she didn't want to make the night spoilt anymore than it had already been. she had been the one to tell them to cut it out because rory was about to walk down the stairs, but rory didn't need to know that.)

their name was called out and she had to take part in the fan dance.

"god, this is stupid," she muttered when she linked up with jess to do their couples dance.

"then why'd you do it?"

"because rory was excited about it. we're twins, it's what we do. we do things for each other."

he nodded and didn't say anything else about it. 

---

relief. that was all victoria felt when she was walking to luke's, lagging behind the others as rory explained that chris was considered a hot dad to the other girls 'coming out'. 

"thank you again," she muttered, turning to jess. "and thanks for not laughing during the fan dance."

"it was a challenge."

she nudged him, "it was. i almost broke."

the group (minus jess) said their goodbye's to dean, and then to chris who was leaving to go to bed early. they walked ahead of lorelai to luke's, jess getting out of his tux almost straight away and into new clothes to work the rest of the evening. 

rory and tori ordered before lorelai managed to get back and because they were the only customers in, it didn't take luke long to bring out their meals. both were biting into a burger when their mom joined them. 

she gasped as she entered the diner, "hey!"

"what?" rory asked, moving the burger away from her open mouth. 

she sat down, "after all you've both been through tonight and i come in here and find you eating like that?" 

both twins stared at her, placing their pinkies up in sync. 

"there you go."

"being a lady is hard," rory replied.

"so tonight? what's the consensus?"

rory placed her burger down, "the fan dance as humiliating. i'm never doing a curtsy again. but having dad around was great."

"yeah it was. tori? what about you?"

"the evening was ridiculous. but i'm glad i did it because now i can back up my claims when i say the rich are stuck up," she responded. 

lorelai didn't say anything about the younger twin not mentioning their dad or how it was good having him around. she knew where she stood and there was no swaying her. she was stubborn, like her mother. and that was just part of victoria gilmore. lorelai wasn't going to make her feel bad for it. 

and seeing lorelai's reaction to sherrie, their dad's new girlfriend, did nothing to help her view of the man. 

her mood was lifted by the fact she had food and the fact that jess had exited the apartment upstairs in identical clothing to luke. he was wearing a backwards baseball cap, a flannel and jeans. 

lorelai pointed it out, and luke moved towards the boy, "what do you think you're doing?"

"working."

"so you think this is funny, huh?"

"i'm sorry, i thought this was the uniform."

"okay, you know what? that's fine have your little joke. doesn't bother me at all. you just go over there and clean off that table." he began walking away. "i'm ignoring you. you do not exist."

"okay."

vee watched him move the salt and peppers to carefully clean the table. she smiled at him as he made eye contact with her. 

seconds later, luke was already backtracking on his words, "that's it. get upstairs and change."

"whatever you say uncle luke," he smiled at vee in return. 

"it's luke - just luke. mr luke. in fact, don't address me at all."

he went back upstairs and although he didn't say it out loud and even if vee was oblivious to it, he had done it for her. he had seen how she hated the evening they had, how she had only done it to make rory happy, and he saw how she needed something to brighten her evening. so, he put on the clothes and hoped he could hear her laugh or at least see her smile.

so, he was successful. 

and that was enough for the both of them. she did feel better, even if she didn't know the show was for her.