CHERRY. [JESS MARIANO]

People Suck

"So, Janie Fertman's trying to be my friend again." Lane says as the three of us walk down the streets of Stars Hollow.

Beside me, Rory grimaces. "Yikes. What kind of vibe are you giving her?"

"My patented Keith Richards circa 1969 'don't mess with me' vibe," she starts with a thoughtful look on her face. "With a thousand yard Asian stare," she finalises with a proud grin.

I pat her shoulder in agreement. "That should do it."

As we round the corner, the sounds of police sirens become apparent to us. The three of us stop in our tracks as we took in the scene before us.

In front of Doose's Market was a police cruiser along with a fire truck. The siren and lights on both vehicles flashing red and blue. A crowd of people had gathered to inspect what was going on at our local market.

"What's going on up there?" Rory asks in shock.

I shrug. "Maybe Luke finally snapped and killed Taylor," I joke, trying to cover up my knowledge -and credit- for the prank. Both girls simply stare at me. "Geez, tough crowd." I mutter under my breath.

The sound of a police officers voice became louder to us as we pushed our way to the front of the forming crowd.

A lady wearing the sheriffs uniform was standing in front of Taylor with a frown on her face. "Just try to calm down, Taylor."

Taylor looked at the woman with panic in his eyes. "Calm down? Why should I calm down!" He shouts, his hands moving wildly as he speaks. He looked as red as anyone could get without being a tomato.

"Yeah, why should he?" Bootsie asked from behind Taylor in solidarity.

Taylor ignores him and continued to whine. "I want action, not words!" He points his finger at the sheriff accusingly. She just rolls her eyes at his dramatics and crosses her arms.

"Action, not words!" Bootsie repeats again.

Taylor -finally taking notice, turns around to face him. "Don't you have to get back to your news stand?" He hopes with a glare.

Bootsie pats Taylor's shoulder proudly. "No buddy, I'm all yours."

"We'll get to the bottom of this, I promise." The sheriff tries to reason with Taylor.

"A crime was committed right in front of my store!"

Ignoring their argument I turn my attention to Rory and Dean.

"Hey, what's going on?" Rory asks her boyfriend.

Dean shrugs at her question. "Don't know," he starts before saying a quick 'hi' to me and Lane. "I got here, this is what I found."

Well, we had hoped Taylor would find it and completely freak. But I guess Dean was still a good victim. I turned to him with fake interest as he continued to speak.

"I told him it looked fake, he didn't believe me."

"And you have such an honest face," Rory pouts at him.

"He must not love me as much as you do."

Lane and I both gag at them. "You two are officially sickening," Lane comments before leaving.

Deciding that I didn't want to be left alone with those two, I make my way out of the crowd. I didn't want to be here when they figured out it was all a prank.

I was leaning against the street light and watching everything unfold when I felt a presence next to me. I looked up to see Jess standing there with a book in his hand.