COWBOY LIKE ME, jess mariano

three - oliver twist

Almost a whole day had passed since the eventful dinner. Meghan was leaving the store with some school supplies she had just purchased, when she heard a voice call out to her.

"Hey," Jess said, walking next to her.

"Hey yourself," She replied, slowing down then stopping.

"What are you doing out here?" He asked.

"Well, I needed some supplies for school. Can you believe this?" She started, pulling out the pink notebook from her shopping bag, "The only reasonably-priced notebook they had has fifty pictures of different colored unicorn cupcakes on it. That's Stars Hollow for you."

"What? Were they out of Cat in the Hat themed notebooks? That would have been perfect for you." He said, voice dripping in sarcasm.

She smiled, and then complained further, "Now I have to write an six paragraph essay in this notebook and turn it in tomorrow with a straight face."

"Tomorrow? Didn't peg you as a procrastinator."

She shrugged, "If you do it at the last minute, it only takes one minute." 

"Now that's some Confucius-kind logic." 

"Thanks. But I think we both know I make Confucius look like Johnny Cade." 

"One could argue Johnny Cade is, indeed, intelligent."

"One could." She agreed, even nodding. Then she realized the emphasis he placed on 'indeed'.

"Oh no. You heard me yesterday, didn't you." 

The corners of his lips twitched up slightly, one could even say to form a small smile.

"I guess I did. Do I sound smart now?"

"No. I guess some people can't be saved by even my advanced writing tricks." She sighed sarcastically.

"Got any other genius writing tricks?"

"Nope. Just use big words. I like to make them up sometimes when I talk to my English teacher. You know, to sound smart."

"Oh really, like what?"

"Carcolepting, claster, jointery, mortuity, and pactolian, come to mind. In elementary school I 'made up a language' with just swear words I had heard on tv and told everyone to use it in class so the teachers wouldn't know what we were saying. I'll never forget when that eight-year old kid yelled 'shit' in Mrs. Shannon's fourth grade class."

Jess laughed for the first time, which made her admittedly happy, even though it was very slight.

"So, that was quite a disappearing act you pulled the other night"

"Potlucks and Tupperware parties aren't really my thing."

"Understandable. Well, you didn't really miss anything. Everything was too sour from all the lemons Jackson had squeezed on it. You know, I should be mad at you."

"And why is that?"

"I've eaten leftovers from last night for breakfast, lunch, and soon dinner again too. Lorelai literally had us bring it to Luke's in the morning and bring it to school for lunch."

"How about I make it up to you. We can go grab a pizza." He offered.

"As great as that sounds, I would just have to the leftover leftovers tomorrow. Plus I have an essay to write in my spectacular new unicorn cupcake notebook."

"There's plenty of time for that. Come on, let's go eat." She considered his offer.

"Jesus. How long have we been out here." Meghan checked the time surprised to see she had been talking to him for so long. 

"Sorry I really should go. I'm sure Luke will microwave something great for dinner." She told him, but then noticed the coin in his hand. 

"What are you doing?" Meghan asked.

"Nothing. Just another little disappearing act."

"Little tip?" She offered.

"If you ever want to speak to me again, don't pull that out of my ear."

"So I assume the nose is off limits too?"

"Any place you wouldn't naturally find a coin, let's leave it that way. Anyway, I'll see you around." Meghan said, about to leave.

"Okay, then I'll leave you this last little trick." Jess stopped her, handing Meghan the book she had been reading the previous day.

"You bought a copy? Didn't I offer to lend you mine?" She furrowed her eyebrows. 

"It is yours."

"You stole my book."

"Nope, borrowed it."

"Okay, that's not called a trick, that's called a felony"

 " I just wanted to put some notes in the margins for you"

" What?" She said, flipping through the book. "You've read this before."

"About forty times"

"Writing in the margins, interesting."

"Yeah, you should try it."

"Huh. Doesn't it feel weird writing on a story that's already been written?"

"No. It's what makes the book yours. Seriously, try it."

"Maybe I will. Anyway, I thought you said you didn't read much."

"Well, what is much?"

"Oxford dictionary says: to a great extent, or great deal."

"Well I see the confusion. You see, I use the Merriam-Webster dictionary." She giggled, then he noticed her check her watch.

"Goodnight Meg." He said slowly backing away.

"Goodnight Dodger." 

"Dodger?"

"Figure it out!" she called out.

"Oliver Twist." He realized.

Meghan smiled and nodded.

"Oliver Twist indeed," he said, then walked away.

"Shut up!" She yelled at him. He turned around one last time and smirked, then they were both on their seperate ways.