IDLE TOWN, jess mariano

¹⁹a stupid jacket & a stupid decision

「 chapter nineteen 」
❝ good riddance to me, huh? „

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IT COULD BE ASSUMED THAT ARIES HAD NO WORK at Luke's since he had "gone fishing" so she headed over to Rory's during the time she would normally leave for Luke.

She walked up to the back door and knocked a few times before Rory opened the door for her pretty quickly. Rory gestured Aries in, and Aries sat down at the kitchen table as Rory set her phone back down.

"You summoned me?" Aries asked.

"Yeah," said Rory, taking a seat at the kitchen table as well. "Just wanted to see how you were doing with the whole you-know-who situation."

"We should really get a more convenient name for that," Aries muttered before clearing her throat and pointing to Rory's cast. "I should be the one asking you that."

"Yeah, but everything's fine with me and if not, the people in this town would be scrambling to try and fix it," she said. "I just figured since, you know, you and Jess were closer, you might be affected more by him leaving."

"You were the one in the accident."

Rory shrugged and scoffed playfully. "That's been taken care of; the doctors have said I'm okay and I feel okay."

"That's good."

"Right, but I knew what happened that night, but for you, him leaving without saying anything would be ... you know."

Aries hummed and nodded. She debated telling her about what happened that night. "If I tell you this, promise you won't freak out or tell anyone else?"

Rory nodded. "You have my word—I won't freak out nor will I tell anyone else."

Aries nodded before looking down at the table and back up to Rory. "After the accident, I'm assuming, Jess came by the inn and we talked for a little bit."

Rory raised her eyebrows and hummed. Aries furrowed her eyebrows at her, trying to gauge her reaction and Rory raised her hands in mock surrender. "Not freaking out."

Exhaling and nodded, Aries continued, "We didn't explicitly talk about the accident and he never mentioned skipping town afterward, but I can't say I was exactly surprised."

"What'd he say?"

"Um, just saying that he did something bad and he was concerningly quiet," she said. "Not like his normal apathetic, "I'd rather not be in this conversation" quiet, but something was obviously bugging him and I wasn't planning on prying. I probably should've tried and convince him to stay—"

"I'm sure you handled the situation as best as one could," said Rory. "Besides, I don't know if staying would've been the best decision."

"Why? Would you hate him if he did?"

Rory shook her head. "There are already enough people in town doing that, and lord knows what Mom would do if he was still here."

"Probably ship him off to New York herself."

Rory nodded.

"Sorry I didn't tell you about the conversation earlier."

"It's totally fine."

"I was just scared it would seem like I was siding with him over you."

"Relax," Rory said, "there are no sides to this."