Smushed Fries = Love
By: Michaela and Morgan

CHAPTER TWO:



“Lorelai! Oh my gosh, Lorelai!”

Sookie’s voice cut through the air, snapping the moment in half. We react in a way similar to shrapnel, springing apart before Sookie gets a clear shot of what was going on. What is going on? I don’t even know. My brain is so muddled I barely hear her as she tells me her and Jackson are engaged. Wait.. engaged?

“SOOKIE!” I shout. “This is incredible!”

“I know!” she squeals. I jump up and we grasp each others shoulders and do a happy dance before we both remember we are painfully un-athletic.

“When did this happen?” I asked excitedly. She smiled and told me the story, throughout which Luke sat quietly on the bench beside me, with the basket still between us. I half listened to Sookie and kept stealing glances at him, trying to figure out what was going on through his mind. Two minutes into Sookie’s tale, Cesar comes out of the diner, summoning Luke back to work. He got up and gave Sookie a friendly pat on the shoulder, congratulating her, and headed back to the diner without so much as a word to me.

9:00 (PM) rolls around and I’m sitting at home on my couch channel surfing. Rory has finally retreated to her room to study after I grill her about her date with Jess. Except it wasn’t a date, I correct myself. Because that would mean Luke and I were on a date. Oh yeah, and there’s Dean, her boyfriend. Oh my God, there really isn’t anything on TV tonight.

Ding dong.

Oh thank the Lord. Something interesting is happening. Setting down my pack of Red Vines, I walk over to the foyer and unlock the door. Luke’s standing there looking a little chilly. He’s wearing exactly the same thing as he was at lunch. I, myself, am wearing blue sweatpants and a Mary is My Home Girl tee-shirt.

“Oh..Luke. Hey.” I’m extremely surprised. One, it is way past Luke’s bedtime. Two, he has Rory’s bracelet. How he got it, I don’t know. I didn’t even know she was missing it.

“Hey. I was um, well. I was by the bridge, ya know? Yeah, of course you know the bridge. You’ve been there before. Anyway, umm, I was there and I saw this and I know it’s Rory’s from Dean so I figured she was probably looking for it and wants it back. So…here.” he said, handing me the bracelet. I was extremely aware that Luke spent a good 60 seconds babbling something that could have taken about 15, which made me increasingly nervous.

“Well.. umm. Thanks Luke. Rory’s gonna be thrilled, I’ll be sure to give it to her right away..you know. ‘Cause she’s missing it, I’m sure. It was from her boyfriend, Dean. But you know that because you just said that, and yeah. So Dean, you know him. That’s good. Really..good.” I nearly put my own hand over my mouth to stop my incessant chattering.

He was still standing there still holding the bracelet, slightly shifting from side to side. His nervous look unsettled me and I cracked my knuckles.

“Do you want to come in and give it to her yourself?” I said. My voice pitch was slightly higher than it had been, though I couldn’t put my finger on why. Luke hadn’t ever made me nervous before, though I will admit..something changed at lunch. It was one of the first times I’d sat down and talked to Luke. Oh come off it Lorelai, you were definitely about to kiss him. You like him. I do not. As my insides battled it out, Luke came inside.

“Rory!” I called out, “A man came bearing gifts!” A couple seconds went by with nothing.

“Rory..” I ventured. Luke and I both jump at the sound of what sounded like an extremely heavy book being thrown at the wall.

“I’m studying!” was all we heard. Hmm. Super.

“Okay well, I can take that for you.” I held out my hand. After a beat, Luke took the bracelet out of his pocket and handed it to me. My stomach did a tiny flip when he didn’t let go.

“I know this is a pretty, pretty piece of jewelry Luke, but it would look better on Rory.” He blushed (I made Luke blush?! How very surreal..) and let go of the bracelet.

“Soo..” he said. I jumped for a second time when a door slammed.

“How am I supposed to study the history of the Latin culture with you two shouting like a couple of barbaric cavemen?! Keep it DOWN!” Rory yelled. I was trying not to smile; this is just pure Rory, in study mode.

“Did she just call us barbaric cavemen?” Luke asked me, looking a little scared.

“Come on, let’s talk outside.”

I became slightly more nervous as we headed outside and sat on the porch step, and was very aware of Luke’s knee touching mine after we were sitting.

“Lu-“ I began.

“Lore-“ He started.

“You first,” We said at the same time. I laughed at the middle school-ness (that’s definitely not a word) of the situation. Luke smiles at me. Oh great, am I blushing? Hah. Please. I do not blush. I hope it’s too dark to notice..

A couple seconds go by and no one says anything. This is getting annoying. He’s characteristically silent, so I say the first thing I can think of.

“Isn’t it nice?”

“Um. Is what nice?” he asks.

“You know, having a boyfriend who’ll make you jewelry and get jealous of other boys who like you.”

“Oh yeah, I love it when my boyfriends make me bracelets.” He responds. I’m silent for one second before I start to laugh. Luke smiles at me in the dark, and if I’m not mistaken, which I never am, allows himself a small chuckle.

“I understand what you mean. It is nice. Relationships are nice.” He looks at me one second too long. I’m moving closer to him and he’s definitely moving closer to me. Our faces are so close I can see every detail of his face and my eyes are embarrassingly stuck on the curve of his lips. All I can hear is our breathing, also shown in short puffs coming from our mouths. His fingers travel to my face, brushing my obnoxious curls from my face. It’s one of the only times I’m having trouble forming words. All I’m focusing on is the rough feel of his hand stroking my cheek gently.

An eternity goes by with us staring at each other, painfully close. Luke removes his hands from my cheek and stares me directly in the eyes. At the same moment we fill up the space between and his lips are on mine. Two seconds later, it’s over and I realize what an uncomfortable position we were sitting in. Before I know what I’m doing, I take Luke’s hand pull him up. He puts his hands around my waist and my heart skips around for a little bit. Our mouths crash together at an impressive speed. Gently, I open my mouth enough for him to get the hint. Soon I can feel his tongue against my own. For several minutes I play with the curls in his hair and his hands wrap me tighter into his embrace as we share one long kiss on my front porch.

The need for air was overwhelming now and I gently push him back, slightly. We're both breathing heavily. I lean forward and give him one more lingering kiss before the front door opens with a crash.

“Could you two stomp on the front porch a little louder? I don’t think Taylor heard you all the way at Doose’s!” I smile when I realize that despite the fact I’m in fact in Luke’s arms and he has a pinkish lipstick on his mouth, Rory has no idea what she walked in on. I jump for the fourth time when the door crashes closed.


To be continued...