Mariano Twins

Sneaking, Smoking & Snowman

Jo's POV 

Dinner was lovely. A few people stayed in the dinning room after to talk, but the three of us went to our room. 

Jess and I sprawled out across our bed, reading. Luke comes out of the bathroom in his pajamas.

"Did you have fun tonight?" he asks.

"Yes," I say, looking up at him, Jess ignores him.

"I'm glad," he replies.

"You two need to get to bed soon," he tells us.

"Uh huh," Jess mumbles.

"Okay," I reply.

He turns the light off before climbing into bed, leaving the lap on so we can still read. I'm already in my pajamas, so I put my book down and get under the covers.

I'm not really tired, and I'm not planning on going to sleep any time soon, but I need to wait for Luke to fall asleep. 

Apparently Jess and I have the same idea because when we hear Luke start snoring, Jess gets up and leaves the room.

I'm not far behind him, but first I go to my bag and get the pack of cigarettes from Jess' bag. I pull on my coat, boots and grab the room key, that Jess forgot.

I go outside and don't see him there. I stand there smoking, not caring if I get caught. I'm cold. I forgot my gloves. After about an hour Jess comes back.

"Look at that. My little troublemaker. Following in my footsteps I see," he says.

"What can I say? I've always looked up to my big brother," I reply.

"What are you doing out here?" he asks.

I quark my eyebrow and hold up the cigarette in my hand. I'm halfway through my third.

"Ah," he replies.

He walks up to me, reaches into my pocket and pulls out the pack. On his way up I saw him toss the butt of another one, so like me this wasn't his first of the night.

I also hand him the lighter I have. He looks at it and then at me.

"You take these from my bag?"

He easily recognized his lighter. Jess started smoking at 13, I started at 15. For christmas I earned money doing odd jobs and was able to get enough to buy us both something.

I got us both silver Zippo lighters with our initials on them. The one in his hand clearly read JWM in the bottom right corner instead of JLM. We both had other cheap lighters, but these were special.

"Luke took my pack and I don't have more. I've been stealing yours."

"I thought some were missing."

He lights his cigarette, takes a drag, and happens to look down. He sees my other butts on the ground. He looks me in the eyes.

"What's up?"

"Nothing."

"Well, since when are you a chain smoker?"

"Since when do you go after girls with boyfriends?" 

"I don't know what you're talking about," he replies.

"Oh, really. You don't know what I'm talking about?"

We both take a drag, me staring him down as he looks anywhere but me.

"Jesse, I love you man. I know you better than anyone in the world. No matter how hard we try, I can't lie to you and you can't lie to me."

He glares at the ground.

"I don't know what you've got planned, but I sure as hell hope you don't get your ass kicked because of it," I tell him.

He lets out a breathy laugh.

"What? You're not going to try and stop me?" he asks.

"Is there any way in hell you'd listen to me?" I question.

He smirks at me and shakes his head no. He finishes his cigarette, mine being long gone.

"So where'd you go?" I ask.

"No where."

"Really? What did you do?"

"Bjork is going to win," he says.

I give him a confused look before it clicks in my head.

"The snowman contest."

He nods.

"He is no more," Jess says.

"You killed him?"

He nods again, making me laugh. We start walking back in.

"Snowman slaughterer," I joke. 

We laugh again and head upstairs, he changes, and we both go to sleep.

--

The next morning we get all of our stuff and tell Lorelai and Rory goodbye before leaving. As Dean leaves I see him look at Rory.

He realizes Rory's eyes are fixed on Jess, and Jess' on her. The poor guy clearly knows what's going on.

We leave and get back to the diner. With the view of the square from the diner I can tell Jess wasn't lying. Among all the snowmen there sat a pile of snow where a masterpiece once stood. 

\\ AN // -- All grammar, punctuation, and spelling corrections are helpful, encouraged, and greatly appreciated. 

Thank you 

-- Izzy