everlasting • gilmore girls

𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑛

"What's the point of having a voice if you're gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn't be?" — Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give

◯ ◯ ◯ ◯

Jo, Lane, and Rory walked around town square as they talked about boyfriends, crushes, and school. However, Jo really never entertained the first two topics before she was more focused on the last. So she, unfortunately, focused on the heaviness of her boot.

She huffed and walking over to the steps of the gazebo. "Can we take a break on the walking part? This thing is getting heavier by the second" She asked as she took a seat on the steps, sighing in relief.

Rory laughed at her friend and nodded. She was just happy that she agreed to hang out with them again so it didn't matter what they did. "When are you getting it off?" She asked leaning on the railing as Lane leaned on the other.

"Tomorrow, thank god! One more week in this and I will go crazy." She said running her fingers through her hair, knowing she was being slightly dramatic.

Rory's eyes brighten with excitement. "That's good news. It means that you will not be wearing that at Sookie's wedding." Rory said smiling.

"I don't know if I'm going. I have my student body president debate that morning and I think Luke and I will celebrate my win."

"Confidence, I like it." Rory said nodding in approval.

Lane looked at her a questioning look. "Are you sure you don't want to come because I overhead Janie Fertman that she's planning on asking Nathan to be her date?"

Jo frowned slightly as her body involuntarily tensed. "Well, I will pray for him to endure her two-dimensional personality for an evening."

Rory and Lane both gave her a dumbfounded and disbelief look. "That's it?" Rory asked, her mouth gaping as if she had witnessed the biggest let down of the century.

"What else do you want me to say?" Jo shrugged. She didn't like the fact that Nathan might agree to be Janie's date or anyone else for that matter but Nathan is his own person so she can't stop him.

"That you don't want him to go with her!" Lane said in a 'duh' like tone.

"And why would I? He can make his own decisions. He has before I moved here and he sure still can."

Rory raised a brow, doubtful that Jo actually felt okay with this. "So it won't bother you at all if he agreed to be Janie's date? You know what a skank she is and she has been trying to get her long fake claws into him for a while now."

Jo sighed, "I didn't say that it wouldn't bother me." She said rolling her eyes. "Of course I don't like the idea of him hanging out with my nemesis. How will you like it if that one puff girl was hanging out with Dean?"

"Francine? But the difference between the two is that Dean is my boyfriend. And that lets us know that you see Nathan more than a friend." She said smirkingly.

"I do not!" Jo scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

"So you wouldn't care if Nathan gets a girlfriend?" Lane asked. Jo opened her mouth but closed it again not wanting to admit it.

"Yes! I knew it!" Rory said and both her and Lane clapped their hands and jumped in happiness.

Crushes, boyfriends, dating are not things that Jo excelled at. Trigonometry, Latin, and philosophy, Jo understands. But dating... Jo doesn't understand. She never had a boyfriend and her crushes never past the realm of fictional characters besides her second-grade crush with a boy that called her a know-it-all when she would correct him. She didn't know how to comprehend the feeling that she felt. Her mother never had conversations about these things with her.