Lucille in Stars Hollow

A unwanted visit (unedited)

"Hey kiddo!" Christopher laughed as Rory tackled him. I stayed back for a moment before slowly walking over.

He ran to me. "Hey, Luce."

"Hey, Dad," I said. If my relationship with Lorelai had been difficult when living in Hartford, Chris was a thousand times worse. I saw him once every year and a half or so. He always had more time for Rory.

"So what do you think?"

I looked up from making Chris's bed on the couch. "About what?"

"About Dad visiting. We haven't seen him in a while."

I haven't seen him in a while.

Possibly two years, if I'm going estimation.

"It's fine, I guess. It seems like he's gotten his act together. Maybe he has a permanent job," I claimed.

"Hey, you two," Lorelai greeted, "How are you?"

I was about to answer with a negative answer, but Rory interrupted.

"Great. I'm so happy he's here! How long is he staying for?" Lorelai sat down as Chris came down.

"That was probably the worst shower I've ever had. Remind me to fix the water pressure tomorrow," he announced.

"Hey, stay away from our showers. We like the pressure unpredictable," Lorelai argued. She handed him a coffee cup as Rory sat down and asked, "How's Diane?"

Chris fumbled for a moment, looked at Lorelai, then back at Rory.

"Well, Diane is ancient history."

"Really?" I asked. "I remember you saying during a phone call that she could be 'the one'." I had said that in a passive aggressive way. I didn't want him here and I wanted him to know that. Because every time he waltzes into my life unannounced, I end up getting hurt. So I had decided to never believe that he would stay. Clearly Rory didn't understand that.

"The one to be gone by Memorial Day," Chris sighed.

"You're worse than Mom," Rory chuckled.

Lorelai scoffed as Chris inquired, "Can't keep 'em happy?" Lorelai looked taken aback.

"Excuse me! For your information, I keep them very, very happy." Lorelai glared at Chris.

I had had enough of this and stood up. "I'm gonna go study now, if you'll excuse me."

"Study?" Chris blurted. "Tomorrow's Saturday."

"I know, I just need to get it finished so I don't have to do it over the weekend."

"Okay, well, if that's what you want," my father mumbled. I said bye to Rory and Lorelai and ran into my room. I took a deep breath and opened my window.

There's no way this visit could end well.

The next day, Rory and Chris had gone to Dean's softball game, which usually ended up with the two teams arguing and deciding that whoever got the next point won, but that was entertainment in this little town.

I decided to skip and I was walking around town. People gave me sympathetic looks, because no one was walking with me. My best friend was ghosting me and so was my boyfriend. At this point, I was as invisible as I was at my old school.

Then, the inevitable happened. I ran into Luke's and into Leo.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and gave a small smile, that now that I was thinking about it, Leo did not deserve.