Chapter Text
“We were broken up, Rory.” Logan corrected her like it was a fact.
His hands gesturing in the air firmly whilst she furrowed her brows harsher and harsher. She wanted to scream at him almost. She wanted to stop him from spouting all this nonsense about being faithful and whatnot when she knew what he had done the moment they had their first big fight. Scoffing bitterly at his words and letting him watch her, she thought of how bad he had been since that fight —how he had put Jess down in just the same way he had done with Marty when they had first met, of how he insisted when she wanted him to leave, of how he tried anything to get her back and of how he was talking of those bridesmaids as if they were much different than she was when their relationship wasn’t exclusive yet.
And she almost wanted to believe him and forgive him but how?
He asked, pursing his lips tiredly. “What?”
“How can you say we were broken up when you were the one that told me that you only said that we were to shut Honor up? Don’t you remember that?” Rory countered back, her fingers sinking deep and rough into her crossed arms. She bit her tongue and continued to say, not letting him form even a sentence. “Maybe you didn’t cheat in your head, Logan, but it still hurts and I hate this, okay?!”
“I know, I understand you’re ups—”
“—I’m not upset!” She yelled hastily, cutting him off and throwing her hands in the air now. Frustrated, she let out a sigh, smiling sullenly at herself with fingers brushing over her face before she added. “It’s not about being upset, Logan! It’s about the fact that you couldn’t even think to reach out to me? To tell me that you thought we were broken up? To actually apologize about the way you treated Jess that night? You never said anything about it, like it was normal to downgrade an old friend of mine just because we used to date or something! You yelled at me in public and you keep talking about how you’ve got only one door and you’re being pushed through it but you could just create another door with all the money you’ve got, Logan!”
“What are you talking about?”
“About the fact you continue to think you’re such a victim of wealth just because you’ve got your dad planning your future!”
“Last time I checked you also come from wealth, Rory,”
She licked her lips at that, breathing in deeply. “You’re right but I don’t have every door open to me. My grandparents aren’t there waiting for the day I get out of college to fix me up with a great job or something!”
Logan rolled his eyes, getting antsy. “What does this have to do with our situation now?” He stared fixedly into the brunette’s blues and turned his face into the sweet, loving guy she had made love with so many times and that brought her up that ladder and made him jump off in a once and a lifetime experience. But is that really all their relationship was? A thrill? “Rory, if you believe that I thought we were broken up, then do you believe me when I say I didn’t cheat on you? Do you believe that?” He added again more firmly, insisting on his version of the story.
The girl breathed out. “I don’t know what to believe, Logan.”
“But—”
“I’m tired of this, okay?” She finally said with hands scratching the back of her neck. “I don’t even know if I care about the bridesmaids anymo—”
“You shouldn’t! They’re just a bunch of viper—”
“If they’re vipers, then what was I when we were still casual?” She bit back bluntly. “I was just the same as them so why are you continuing to call them that? You’re really getting to me now, you know?”
“I’m sorry. I-I didn’t mean that, Rory—”
“I don’t care!” She screamed into that crappy hallway. “I’m still going to pick up my stuff tomorrow.” Rory shut his parting lips with that and flashed her hair around to get to the door before she caught what was happening in there. She widened her eyes and turned around, with Logan catching her hesitant look in her eye and opening his mouth to probably ask to stay with him that night because of Doyle and Paris’ make-up but she was faster.
She sighed, got inside enough to grab her jacket and her car keys. Then, she slid away from his surroundings and down staircase she went. The blonde’s eyes never leaving her distressed visage even for a moment but she didn’t care.
She went back home, to Stars Hollow.
She unlocked the door to her mother’s house quietly into the night and yelled that she was home to the highest pitch of her voice she could manage with all the drowsiness of the day overcoming her. When she checked every room of the house to see that her mom was probably off at Luke’s apartment, she sighed out of relief but then, started sobbing when she sat down on the living room’s couch.
Her hands wrapped around her shoulders and tears falling down her cheeks like she had suddenly become a waterfall of emotions. Of emotions she hadn’t yet had the time to process. That Logan didn’t even give her the time to.
Rory felt sick thinking that he really did cheat on her —of course, she couldn’t lie to herself and say they were 100% together when it happened but it still hurt. And that’s all that mattered to her brain, to her watered eyes and to her turbulent stomach. And she found herself wallowing like that night when she and Dean had first broken up, after that Chilton party, or like how she had cried hard into her pillows in some European hostel about Jess when her mom had turned the lights off that summer.
Because of that, she felt just like a stupid teenage girl that always gets in the wrong relationships. Into the bad ones, because for how much she could say Dean was nice at the beginning, it did start getting downhill fast after their first Harvard fight or the first times he got mad that Jess was around, with Paris present mind you. He wasn’t that bad, sure, and he was still a great first boyfriend but in the end, he left like everybody else. He left and he let her become the other woman for how much he loved her. For how much he loved her, he humiliated her in in front of the whole town at that Dance Marathon and then, manipulated her into getting into bed with him when she didn’t know if truly he and Lindsay were about to divorce for good. And Jess had been a jerk almost every time they fought and even before they were together, he was always annoying her and pushing her limits when it came to her and Dean. He was nice only when he wanted to, he was weird that night at Kyle’s and then, he was gone. And Logan, man! He was so nice at the beginning, sweet and caring. A bit reckless, sure, but...
Actually if she thought about it, their relationship was a bit weird from the start.
The moment they got together, Honor roped her into going to her parents’ house to soothe the Huntzburgers. Then, his mother said those awful things about Rory like she wasn’t right there and Mitchum only made everything worse with his stupid ass internship that brought her to almost quit Yale for good. It was all wrong. And Logan did nothing help her floundering state, to be honest —not that he had to but still, why did he let her? He knew how much she loved school and journalism, and he never tried to question what the hell she was doing.
He accepted it. He accepted stealing a yacht and getting no repercussions for it. He accepted her dropping Yale because at least she’d be out drinking with him every night.
For how much she doesn’t want to write Jess as the good guy here (because of everything he did when they were together), he wasn’t wrong. Logan was just the kind of guy they used to make fun of and she was a mess when she was with him.
She cried harder at that thought and fell asleep sometime in between.
“Ah! Who’s there?!” A high-pitched yell resounded into the living room that morning. Rory mumbled out a sound, her eyes still closed, and barely recognised her mother’s voice. She rubbed her pupils open and waved a hand in the air just as Lorelai caught her daughter’s scrambled appearance, slouching uncomfortably in their couch. “Oh, it’s you, Rory. God, I was almost about to call your grandmother and tell her she can finally watch me die in front of her very own eyes.”
“I doubt Grandma would want to see that.”
“You never know, Hon,” She grinned cunningly at her and then, turned sweetly to her kid. Caressing her hair and sitting beside as the girl recomposed herself on the couch and smiled tightly at her. Rory knew her mother could see it —the worry growing in her brows, the way she crossed her arms even when she was around or how she stood silent. And it wasn’t that much longer until she asked. “Why are you here? I thought you were living with Paris now.”
“I am.” She nodded, devouring the ground though. “But she was off making up with her boyfriend and I didn’t want to put on a Deftones album just to not listen to them, so.”
“Of course,” Lorelai smiled warmly at her. “I didn’t even know you ventured into the realm of metal, my friend, but I am glad you’ve not been killing your ears off all night.” She chuckled awkwardly, peering into her tired eyes, and then, asked. “Are you sure that’s all, Hon? Did something else happen? Weren’t you at Logan’s sister’s wedding yesterday? She got you sad or something?”
“Mom.”
“Or did she punch you?”
“Mom.”
“Wait, I’m getting to good guesses now.” She dismissed her with a hand in the air. “Was it Logan’s parents? Did Mitchum tell you something, did he do something again? ‘Cause if he did I am going to kill him this time, I swea—”
Rory blurted out. “It wasn’t his family. It was him.”
“What? Why, what happened?”
The brunette sniffed and breathed out, starting to explain. “You know, I never told you that when I was still living with Grandma and Grandpa, Jess came to visit.”
“Jess?” She narrowed her brows harshly. “What does he have anything to do with this?”
“Well, apparently he wrote a book and he was there to thank me for inspiring him or something.” Rory stood up, gesturing her hands around as she spoke. Her mother looking deeply into her eyes, worriedly, but she let her continue anyway. “And then, he asked if we could catch up and when we did, Logan showed up and we went out together all three of us which was such a bad idea. He was so condescending to Jess and then, I went after him for a moment and he...”
“He... what? Don’t leave your mama hanging like that, Rory.”
“He confronted me about everything that was happening. Why I had dropped out of Yale and why I was going out with a guy like Logan. And after that, I went back to the bar and Logan and I started fighting out there. Publicly. And he was such an asshole so we took some time apart whilst I did everything to get back to Yale, because of what Jess said.”
“Damn it, I can’t hate the guy one hundred percent anymore!” Her mother cursed under her breath.
Rory grinned at that but continued her story. “So, Logan and I were apart for a while. Maybe too much but he broke up with me through his sister, you remember I told you that? And for me we had just been on a break or something. Not broken up. And yesterday I found out that he had slept with a bunch of girls whilst we were supposedly ‘broken up’. So, yeah. He tried to get me to forgive him but I’m just so fed up with everything that’s been going on lately. About the fact that we only go out drinking, the whole family drama that happened, Mitchum’s internship and how he sees himself as like a victim of wealth or something —I don’t know! I’m tired of it. So, that’s over with it now.”
“I’m so sorry, honey,” She stood up and hugged her daughter tightly. “You didn’t deserve that.”
“I don’t know, maybe it’s karma getting back to me.” Rory mumbled into her mother’s shoulders. “For the whole Dean and Lindsay situation. Maybe I do deserve it.”
“Don’t say that, ever again!” Lorelai countered back, inching a bit away from the hug to stare some sense into the brunette’s azure eyes. She smiled warmly at her and then, consoled her a lot more before she had to flee to the inn. Rory went with her, fact checking articles and waiting anxiously for the timespan to go and get her things from the apartment.
Good thing that Paris offered to accompany her, at least she had more hands to spare and another heart to comfort her broken one. And no way of forgiving him if he did show up —that was the most important thing there and then actually. For that, she really had to thank her.