Everything comes back to you -J.MARIANO

[1.03]

ꪶike usual, Taryn sat in her reserved seat at the counter of Luke's with her head in a textbook. She liked the seat on the end the most, as it gave her the most space to spread out papers, and always sat there without fail. Patrons of the diner even knew to avoid the seat after three in the afternoon and usually Luke would place her textbooks atop the table anyway, saving the seat for her. She kept a few of the heavier books on a hidden shelf under the counter top as lugging them around all day quickly became something she often complained about. Another item that lived on this shelf was a particular blanket from upstairs. Taryn often ran cold, Luke just got so used to her asking for a blanket that he kept one on her shelf.

As a particular chill swept through her bones due to the door being opened by a hustling Lorelai Gilmore, Taryn finally decided to bite the bullet and removed herself from her studies. She walked around the counter and crouched down to her shelf, frowning when the blanket could not be found. She stood and went into the kitchen to find Luke, pouring a cup of coffee for Lorelai. "My blankets gone?" she asked, leaning on the door frame with her feet just outside the threshold of the kitchen. After a certain incident, she had been banned from entering the area so profusely that Luke had even made a sign (that was soon torn down.)

"I washed it," he called from the grill, making sure to look in her direction as he responded.

She smiled at the gesture before replying, "Can I go grab another from upstairs?"

"Yeah yeah go ahead," he responded quickly, as the slightly blackened eggs in the pan required instant assistance (he would proceed to throw up his hands and throw the pan into the sink in frustration.) Whilst it did cross her mind to ask him what had caused such a grievance - as she knew it wasn't just the eggs fault - Taryn ultimately decided it wouldn't be the bestest idea. Sometimes Luke just needed to be in his own head and this looked to be one of those moments.

Taryn climbed the stairs two at a time, having memorised the depth of them long ago. She slipped into the apartment with ease, heading directly towards the linen cupboard without so much as glancing at her surroundings. Nothing ever changed in Luke's apartment and she was too within a thought to care. She opened the cupboard and pulled out the first blanket she saw, instantly wrapping it over her shoulders. As she turned, a certain person caused her to freeze all movements. She recognised him but couldn't quite remember where from, she merely assumed she must have just seen him in passing. "Sorry I didn't know you were up here, would have knocked otherwise," she apologized quickly, adding a smile she hoped would emphasize the point.

"It's fine," he responded sincerely, yet she read something different within his body language. She couldn't quite pinpoint it though, reading new people like that was often difficult. "Taryn, right?"

She nodded and smiled softly, "Did Luke tell you?"

"I heard it in school. Your friends loud."

"Oh yeah he is," Taryn laughed, having a rather vivid image of Tas in school yelling her name down a corridor to catch her attention. He knew she would hear him that way and could not pretend she hadn't, like she often did with teachers or people she simply just didn't want to talk to. "Sorry Luke never told me your name. Or who you are..."

"Jess," he introduced with a slight pause as he gritted his teeth. Within his pause, she took a second to stray away from reading his lips and looked him up and down. The first thing that caught her eye was his shirt, Metallica. Good band, crappy t-shirt, she thought as she flicked up to his hair. He had spiked it up with gel and she had to admit, it suited his general energy. The thing that intrigued her the most though, was his eyes. Deepest of browns but filled with such pain and hatred that she found herself drawn to him. Not because she wanted to fix him or anything but because she often saw the same thing reflected back in the mirror on the days that weren't so good. "His nephew."

"I like your shirt Jess," she complimented with a smile before walking past him and out of the apartment, gently closing the door behind herself. When Taryn returned to her papers, she found a new cup of coffee opposite her. She signed her thanks to Luke, who was chatting to Lorelai about who was upstairs, before getting back to work and completely immersing herself in the world of mathematics. A world which she loathed entirely.

-

Taryn entered her bedroom fifteen minutes later than she had originally planned to and just about made it to her desk before the textbooks and various papers in hand spilled from her grip. She sighed, dumped her bag in its usual spot by her dresser, then went to turn on her light. She turned and jumped out of her skin, "Jesus Christ!"

"No Tassilo Roth," he laughed, rather glad that his plan to scare her had been as effective as he had wanted.

"Screw you Tas," she grumbled whilst rolling her eyes, annoyance showing clearly in her furrowed brow. "Why were you sitting in the dark?"

"Figured I could scare you better this way," he shrugged, laughter dwindling as she kicked off her shoes. "You're late."

"I know, sorry. I got caught up at Luke's, talking to his nephew."

Tas' brow cocked in intrigue, "Nephew?"

"Yeah Jess...He's staying with him because his Mom thinks it's necessary or something," she shrugged before turning her back on him to go to her closet. She pulled out an old shirt and threw it to him, not knowing whether he caught it or not as she had delved into her fabric stash. Tas had requested that when she make him a piece of clothing, like she was now, that he would wear an old undershirt to avoid running his nice clothes by pins or accidental cuts from scissors. He had forgotten said shirt so many times that it just made sense for her to keep it. She planned to make him a new fancy dinner jacket for a specific rich people event in Hartford that he had coming up. He could afford to get a nice, expensive tailor made suit jacket but preferred and wanted the one she would make more. It would probably be better quality anyway. Plus wearing such a garment could get her contacts and he wanted nothing more than for his best friend's work to finally get seen so she could afford to buy an actual dress maker's mannequin.

"Interesting guy?" he asked once she had located the fabric, placing it down on the bed next to the two of them.

She shrugged and turned around as Tas took off his shirt to replace it with the old one. "He seems okay."

He chuckled softly, "What's that in your voice?"

Taryn turned back around and frowned instantly, fingertips rolling over the top of all the pins on the cushion attached to her arm. "What do you mean?"

"What are you hiding?"

"Hiding?" she repeated, beginning to lay the fabric on top of the shirt whilst pinning it into place. "Tas, I'm not hiding anything. Stay still."

He chuckled, completely ignoring her request, "You so are. What, do you think he's cute or something? Love at first sight moment?"

"Absolutely not. You know I don't believe in that, I hate it in books," she responded with soft laughter before stopping herself. She placed a pin between her teeth whilst creating a fold in a necessary place with her fingers. "He just looked... I don't know, like he's going to cause havoc."

"Good, we need some fun around here."

Taryn laughed and rolled her eyes once more, accidentally on purpose sticking him with a pin. "Now shut up and be a good human mannequin."

"Yes ma'am."