Touch of Hellfire

☕️67☕️

I was lining up outside Starbucks, which I just found out from Andrea that was on our campus, waiting for the god damn line to move.

"Damn, who knew the students would be this desperate for caffeine," I mumbled. "Try being a senior," a girl behind me piped up. "What are you?"

"Sophomore," I told her. "I didn't know that freshmen weren't allowed in here."

"Well they aren't," she said. "It's crazy enough without them!"

Cole came out of Starbucks with not one but two coffees. "Latte, two sugars, with cinnamon," he handed me a cup. "Thank you," I smiled, taking the cup from him.

"How did you know I was in the line?" I asked him. "I saw you in it like twenty minutes ago so I thought I'd get your order for you," he told me. "It's on me so don't pay me back."

"Thank you so much," I sighed with relief and took a sip. "This is gorgeous, what did you get?"

"I got a cappuccino," he told me. "Black used to be my order in high school but I switched to latte halfway through freshman year," I told him.

"How's the roommate?" he asked me. "Well she and her class are doing a paper on a chosen serial killer," I told him. "She chose Bundy."

"Bundy?" he looked at me. "Yeah, he was a nut job," I grimaced. "Is she training to be a cop, lawyer or detective? I can never tell," Cole wondered.

"Well neither can I," I laughed.

***

I pulled into Grandma's driveway with Rory close behind me. I turned the engine off and jumped out of the car. "We have got to stop doing that."

"But I'm closer to here than you are, I was giving you a head start," Rory told me. "So when I called you, telling you that I was leaving, you waited an hour, then you left, you stalker," I laughed.

I rang the doorbell and Grandma let us in. We jumped once we saw this huge silver box thing. "Uh what is that?" I asked her.

"It's a panic room," Grandma told me. "And it's bulletproof."

I widened my eyes. "That would have been great for you in senior year," Rory laughed. "God, don't even mention it," I shuddered.

Grandma handed us sodas and Rory looked at the cart. "Did Grandpa get the big one?"

"Stole it," Grandma clarified. "There's no gin! Sarah look in the pantry for gin!"

"It's okay Mom I don't need a martini," Mom told her but Grandma ignored her once the maid came back. "Look in Mr Gilmore's study."

The maid left then came back thirty seconds later. "The door is locked," she told Grandma.

"HE LOCKED THE STUDY?!" she bellowed. "That's it!"

She grabbed keys and walked away from us. "Good thing Grandpa is on a business trip," Rory whispered to me.

Grandma went into the poolhouse and started rooting around. "I picked up the bottle of gin.

"OH MY GOD!" she gasped. She pulled out a gold sparkly vest. "Look at this!"

"It's..bright," Rory stuttered. "Tasteful," I added. "He has a glitter vest!" Grandma ranted. "Where would he wear this?! It's a party vest!"

"Devious man!" she muttered before Mom dragged her out.

"I have never seen Grandma so singularly obsessed with clothing," Rory laughed as the three of us ate our dessert in Luke's.

"I might check on Dean later," Rory said. "You could tell him to come over here," Mom told her. "Well, things a little weird here," Rory told her. "Between you two and Dean."

"I haven't spoken to him since I gave him the letter," I muttered, spooning brownie into my mouth.

"Well we want to avoid weirdness, how about all of us hook up? Me, you, Hezzy, Luke, Dean and Cole," Mom offered.

The minute Cole's name came up, I nearly choked on my brownie. "Cole?"

"Yes, call him," Mom told me.

***

Surprisingly, Cole said yes and used his GPS to come to Stars Hollow. "So this is your home town?" he asked me. "I didn't want to be a fifth wheel, sorry I dragged you into this," I sighed.

"It's okay," he reassured me. "So what are we doing?"

"Typical town stuff," I told him. "My mom will ask you some questions about your life and embarrass the hell out of me and my sister."

"Right," he nodded.

We walked into the town square. "Hey Hezberry," Mom hugged me. "Please don't call me that," I pouted. "Aka Grumpy," she joked.

"I'm Cole, Ms Gilmore," he held out his hand. "It's nice to meet you Cole, and you can call me Lorelai," she shook it.

"This is Luke, Luke this is Heather's boyfriend, Cole," Mom introduced us and we both turned red.

"Oh we're not together."

"We're not dating."

Rory and Dean came over to us and the awkward exchanges were exchanged. "We're going to the BWR Theatre tonight," Mom told us. "And getting Jojos."

Me and Cole sat on the floor in front of the big red sofa. "Welcome to the Black, White and Red Theatre," Kirk greeted us. "We have a series of graphic and violent driver's ed films or The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking."

"Pippi!" me, Rory and Mom squealed. "Isn't that a kids movie?" Luke asked us. "Pippi virgin!" Mom gasped.

One the movie started, the three of us sang along while the boys looked at us weirdly.

I lay my head on Cole's shoulder. The two of us had a bucket of popcorn between us and we were sitting together. "Is there tension between them?" he asked me. "Yeah," I nodded.

And then once we got back to the house, it just got weirder. "Drinks, shout them out," Mom ordered. "Soda," I piped up. "Soda," Cole added. "Water," Rory spoke up. "Beer," Luke said. "Beer," Dean requested.

Luke scoffed. "You're serious?"

"Yeah," Dean muttered. "Right, well you're not driving or twenty one," Luke said under his breath. "Then water," Dean said.

Me and Cole sat down. "So, are you in the same course together?" Luke asked me and Cole. "I'm in the year above," Cole told him. "I'm planning to work on animation."

"That's good, Heather's heading towards screenwriting and directing right?" Rory looked at me. "Yeah," I nodded.

"So, Heather tells me you're in Yale, how's that going?" Cole asked Rory. "It's good," she told him.

"We should get going," I muttered. "Cole said he'd help me with my assignment."

"Yeah, thanks Lorelai," Cole said and we split. "I take it your mom's boyfriend hates your sister's boyfriend?"

"That obvious huh?" I mumbled.

"I have an idea, you and me try the dating thing again, but try at least two successful ones this time, see how it goes from there," he offered.

I bit my lip. "Okay."