CHERRY. [JESS MARIANO]

Six Months Later

The next six months passed by in a blur of all nighters and loud music at three in the morning. College was a lot harder than they made it seem in the movies, I'll give em' that. I felt like my brain was going to explode from all the assignments and cases I had to memorise. But I knew that in the end, I wouldn't change a thing.

I got up groggily from my bed as I shut off the alarm clock on the beside table. Pulling myself out of bed, I rubbed at my eyes tiredly as I went out into the kitchen. Through my tried eyes I managed to see Zayna packing a duffel bag full of clothes. Her hair hung in wet curls down her back as she wore a baggy sweater.

"Why do you have a bag full of clothes? You planning to run away?" I joked as I walked over to sit on a stool at the counter. "Also, why are you up so early?"

She sighs as she zips up the bag, "I'm going to stay at Benjamin's place tonight, remember?" Her words flipped a switch in my brain, jump starting my memory. "Why're you up? Usually on Sunday's you aren't up till twelve, and that's only cause you have a shift at one."

"I took an earlier shift today," I explained to her. "I could always do with a little extra cash." I had recently gotten a job at a vintage bookstore down at 2246 Broadway. Which also happened to be the same bookstore where I ran into Jess when I came to visit him here. It was like everything I did Jess was just there in the back of my mind, much to my dismay.

I inspected our broken coffee machine with a frown. "It's still broken," I whined as I heard Zayna scoff from behind me. The damn coffee machine had been broken for three days, signifying in no coffee for me for the past three days.

"Well, it wasn't gonna magically fix itself since you have no intention of doing it." She remarked as she stood next to me. "I'm not gonna fix it so you have to."

"But I don't know how," I protested as we both stared at the broken machine. "I'm hopeless with stuff like this."

"Then call your mum," Zayna told me exasperatedly. "She gave it to you, so she can help."

I shake my head at her suggestion, "She's not gonna come all the way down here just so we can stare at the thing till it's fixed."

"You're not Matilda," Zayna told me slowly as if speaking to a child. "Fix it the normal person way."

"Nah," I retreated back to sit on my stool. I placed my head in my hands, "I'll just buy coffee on the way and maybe a bagel too."

"Um, hello?" Zayna waved her hand in front of my face. "We're college students, we're broke."

I nod my head in agreement, "Right."

~~~

"How're things going?" I asked Rory through the cellphone in my hand as I walked the busy streets of New York City. My shift had ended at four, along with my two hour break between. I walked back toward the university as I bumped into various people around me.

Rory and I still kept up both ends of our agreement to call every Sunday. Even when we didn't it was because we were both back in Stars Hollow. That was probably one of the only times I used my Jeep. Since I usually walked in New York. Everything was so close by it would be a waste of gas and time to find parking.

"Nothing much," Rory responded on the other line. "It sounds pretty busy over there, where are you?"

I look around as I tell Rory, "Just walking down the street, I'm heading back from my shift. There's people everywhere."

I heard her gasp on the other line. "Oh cool!" She exclaims. "You're like a proper New Yorker, waking down the street while on your phone! Tell me you have a cup of coffee in your hand, it would complete your look."

I let out a slight laugh at her words. "No, no coffee. Sadly," I tell her, "How's everything with Logan? He treating you okay?"

"Logan is away in business yet again." Logan was Rory's new boyfriend. I'd never met him but from what Rory told me, he sounded a lot like Benjamin. Don't know what she saw in the guy, but at least he made her happy.

I sidestepped a man walking with hot coffee in my direction as I answered her. "How is Paris?" Occasionally I spoke to the Geller girl when she was around but other than that I haven't seen her often.

"She's alright," Rory said. "She's running the Yale Daily News. She's got them all terrified of her."

"She's making me proud," I said into the phone. I heard the sound of the door opening on the other line along with Paris' voice.

"Is that Cassie?" I heard her familiar voice say faintly on the other line.

"Yeah, you can talk to her later- Wait, Paris!" There was a muffled yelp and some grunting but soon enough Paris was on the line.

I frowned as I heard some yelling in the background. "Hey, Cassie" I heard Paris greet into the phone.

"She snatched the phone from me!" I heard Rory protest in the background but it was quickly quieted with some shouting from Paris. There was also the vague sound of a pillow hitting a body but I ignored it. Rory may be held hostage but all I wanted to do right now was talk to Paris.

"How're you doing Paris?" I asked her with a smirk.

"Great!" She exclaims into the phone a bit too loudly, making me grimace and pull my ear away. "College is amazing! I'm having so much sex!"

I looked around worriedly as I stepped into a shade next to the wall of a office building, scared that someone may have heard what Paris said. "What?" I asked her confused.

"Doyle, my boyfriend, and I are-" I quickly pickled the phone away from my ear, not wanting to hear the rest. I waited for a couple of moments until I was sure it was safe. "I bet I'm having more sex than Rory!" I hear her turn around and say something away from the phone to, I'm guessing, Rory something that sounded like, "Hah! Beat that Gilmore!"

I lean against the building and put my hand up to my forehead. "Thats- that's great, Paris." I didn't really know what else to say to that. The next ten minutes consisted of Paris and Rory handing the phone back and forth between the two as we spoke about our past exams and upcoming spring break.

Once we had all said our goodbyes, I put my phone back in my pocket and made my way back to my dorm. I headed up the stairs in our building as I looked through my bag for my keys.

The dorm was the first room right by the stairs so I didn't even look up from my bag as I stood in front of the stairs. When I finally found my keys, I looked up to my door and nearly jumped off the steps.

I walked a few steps closer to him to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me. Standing there in the same leather jacket he had on the first day I met him, was Jess Mariano.

He just stared at me and I simply stared back. I didn't know what to do. So I took in how much different he looked. His hair had grown out so that it was touching the collar of his jacket. But he also looked taller, and more tan. Probably from California.

But I didn't say any of this out loud. In fact, I didn't say anything and neither did he. Maybe he was doing what I was doing, just observing. Finally he made the first move to speak.