𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘-𝐎𝐍𝐄. . . 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘐𝘤𝘦 𝘊𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴
❝ I like to live life on the edge. ❞

  IT WASN'T THAT Charlie Gilmore didn't enjoy spending time with her boyfriend. It was that Jess was simply refusing to study. Just over an hour, and the duo managed to get through one textbook page.

  "Jess," Charlie groaned, throwing her head back, "You know this stuff."

  "Exactly, so why are we going over it when we could be doing more productive things with our time?" Jess smirked, but it melted with a glare from Charlie, "Or not."

  "I told Luke I'd help." The girl frowned, twirling her pencil lazily, "Plus there's no New York if you can't get through high school."

  "That's cold," Jess placed a hand over his heart. "Think I won't graduate?"

  "You can't if you never show up or do work." The playful mood slipped from Jess once those words came out, "I'm sorry—"

  "Don't apologize, you're right," Jess sighed, leaning back in his seat, "So, where do we start?"

  Charlie wouldn't admit it, but she would've rather been doing anything else other than tutoring Jess. There was hardly a point, Jess just needed to know where the classes had gone whilst he was out, but the big thing that bothered Charlie was how backward it felt.

  She knew she wasn't a genius. The only reason Charlotte Gilmore had gotten straight A's was because Stars Hollow High wasn't a top-notch school, and she could memorize things found in a textbook.

  Jess was smarter than her, despite not showing that in school, and it was a simple fact. He'd picked up on her growing annoyance, he started off asking questions about everything and it took the boy no time at all to realize Charlie didn't have the answers.

  And that made him feel like a piece of shit.

  "This isn't Shakespeare." Charlie's eyes scanned over the notebook page that Jess had filled, he was supposed to be annotating a poem. He did not. "This is a Van-Halen song."

  "Yes, but which one?" Jess grinned.

  "Jess—"

  "Ten seconds."

  "This—"

  "9."

  "We're—"

  "8."

  "When It's Love." Charlie rolled her eyes, "Which is so far from Shakespeare."

  Jess frowned when the girl rested her forehead on the textbook, it seemed studying had taken more out of Charlie than out of him. The boy grabbed the leg of her seat and pulled her closer to him, ultimately shocking Charlie.

  "What are you doing?"

  "Nothing." Jess sighed, wrapping an arm around her and tugging her closer, "Was it the song or the band? Cause I almost did The Clash, would that have been better?"

  "It wasn't either," Charlie laughed, "I'm just stressed out, I'm sorry."

  "Well, if you're stressed do you wanna get out of here?"

  "And go where?"

  "Get ice cream."

  "We're leaving a diner to get food."

  "This diner is missing a vital thing."

  "The cones," Charlie nodded in agreement. "Can you drive?"

  "Since when do you have a car?"

  "Since Rory let me borrow her car."

  "You and Rory are good now?"

  "Rory's trying to make it better by doing things like buying me food and. . ."

  "Lending you her car."

  "Exactly."

⌁

  "I can't believe people eat ice cream in anything other than a cone."

  "It's blasphemy."

  "That's a big word for a guy who's failing English." Jess rolled his eyes at Charlie, attempting to eat his ice cream while driving.

  "Oh, take the wheel."

  "This isn't very safe," Charlie grumbled but took the wheel nonetheless.

  "I like to live life on the edge," Jess explained through a mouthful of ice cream, dusting his hands off before taking the wheel back from Charlie, "Look, no harm done."

  "Yeah, yeah." The couple sat in comfortable silence for a little while, before the question Charlie had been holding in clawed it's way out of her throat, "Why are you failing?"

  "What?"

  "You're smart," Charlie shrugged, "That school is easy A's, and you're failing. Why?"

  "It's complicated." Jess turned his head to Charlie for a moment, finding an expectant expression, "Alright, I'm not going to college so what's the point?"

  "Don't want to keep your options open?" Charlie wondered, "Just in case you change your mind."

  "Trust me, I'm not going to college."

  "Why not?"

  "Ask my Mother. She could give you a couple reasons. Oh and I'm sure Principle Merton can chime in with a few good ones. In fact, ask your Mother. She doesn't know me all that well but I'm sure she could improvise."

  Charlie fell into silence, Jess' momentary spike in anger fell after seeing the thoughtful look on her face. He reached a hand over, resting it on her thigh and squeezing it lightly as if reassuring her the anger wasn't directed at her.

  "I get it," Charlie finally found her voice, "When it feels like the whole world is trying to kick you when you're down cause you started life with the short straw." The girl rested her head back, eyes trained on Jess, "But you don't have to let them."

  "You should be a motivational speaker."

  "I'm being serious."

  "I am too!" Jess smiled when Charlie rolled her eyes, "Look, we already have a plan. You and me in New York, we'll figure everything else out. If you want to go to college, where we can work, stay, everything."

  "Where we can stay?"

  "What, you aren't backing out on me now, are you?" Jess looked to her, "Just because we changed doesn't mean anything else has to."

  "I like our plan."

  "Good," Jess nodded, "Me too."

  "So, are we shooting for the city or just the state?"

  "City, if you think you can handle it."

  "Of course I can," Charlie scoffed, "If I'm with you, I got it."

◃▹

  "Mom?"

  "Hey, sweets," Lorelai grinned, holding the home phone between her ear and her shoulder, "I'm cleaning out the take out drawer, what's the—"

  "Mom."

  "Charlie."

  "Can you promise me that you'll stay calm?"

  "No, no I can't," Lorelai set down the menus, "What's wrong?"

  "I'm completely alright, just remember that."

  "Charlie."

  "I got into an accident."

  "What?" Lorelai stood, panic bubbling in her stomach, "Where, what happened—?"

  "Jess and I went to get ice cream, I saw a dog or really big possum and swerved, but I'm fine and he's fine and the animal is fine, Rory's car not so fine—"

  "You were driving?"

  "I was driving."

  "Where are you?"

  Charlie knew the second she hung up, her Mother was already on the way so she had a very small window of opportunity to act.

  "Luke?"

  "Hey, Pea. Where are you and Jess?"

  "Can you do me a favor?" Charlie's voice was suddenly terrifyingly quiet, "Please?"

  "Sure, sure, what is it?"

  "Can you go to the bridge?" Luke furrowed his brows, "You'll understand when you get there. I'm really sorry. . . and. . . don't tell my Mom."

  Lorelai was in a panic, she'd made the doctors do extra tests on Charlie and given her daughter a thorough lecture on driving. The teen left the hospital with a bright purple cast that she hated, but it beat out orange or lime green.

  The thing she was unaware of, was that when she woke up in the morning she'd be dealing with far more than what color her cast was.

( AUTHOR'S NOTE. )
okay, so I need opinions. In the
original, Jess does end up going
to New York, but I'm trying to
decide if  I want to keep that,
or if I want to keep all this drama
and angst in Stars Hollow. Like,
re-writing it, it seems super quick
to make them get together and then
have Jess leave, but this drama
is kinda unavoidable for character
development so. . . drama in Stars
Hollow, or having Jess leave like
he does in canonically?