( 𝘨𝘪𝘧: 𝘫𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘵 𝘳𝘰𝘳𝘺'𝘴 )

When Cherry walked into Luke's Dinner, the last thing she expected was to see half of the ceiling missing, with plastic sheets hanging from the walls. But that's exactly what she saw that morning. Confused, she managed to dodge a piece of concrete falling from the ceiling before taking her usual place on the counter. 

"You don't want to sit there. Four people have been nailed on the head already." Luke said as he approached Cherry, pouring her a mug of coffee.

"You better move, Cherry. If you get anymore brain damage, you won't have any brain cells left." Jess drawled as he approached the dinner with a construction hat to protect his head before handing the blonde an umbrella. 

Cherry grabbed it, pushing it open. "Conflicted between saying thank you for the umbrella or insulting you back."

Jess leaned on the counter, raising an eyebrow. "Don't try and insult me, you're going to make me loose my cool and my reputation." he drawled sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Can't loose what you never had." Cherry retorted, wincing when a piece of the ceiling bounced off her umbrella. Jess glared at Luke when he snorted in laughter at Cherry's comment, agreeing with her.

As Jess walked by annoyed, Luke ignored Cherry's high five, who shrugged before downing her coffee and heading towards school. 

∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎ ∎

Finally, school day was over. Cherry had the house all to herself. Her mother and grandfather were working. ABBA on full volume on the speaker. The Pride and Prejudice novel in her hand. Delivery pizza on its way. Basic heaven.

As she was about to turn the TV on to rewatch some episodes from Friends, the telephone rang. Groaning, she considered not picking up. But it could be the pizza delivery store. Stretching her limbs, Cherry pulled herself to the phone and picked it up, rubbing her eyes tiredly. "Yes?"

"Cherry? It's me, Rory." Cherry frowned, not expecting the blue-eyed girl who was dating her best friend Dean to be calling the Doose household. "Listen, I know it's a huge favour to ask but can you come over?"

"Rory? Why-"

"Paris is here. She's asking for you to come over. You see, we have a test and she's really stressed and she likes you, apparently-"

"I'm not stressed!" a muffled voice shouted from the other side of the line.

Cherry scratched her curls. "Paris?"

"Do you remember her? I brought her to Luke's Diner and she assaulted him with questions about having girls upstairs."

"Oh, Paris! I like her, she's cool."

"She thinks I'm cool?" the muffled voice said again. That must be Paris.

Rory sighed, adjusting the phone again. "So, can you come over? We've ordered some food."

"I'll be right over."

It didn't take Cherry long to reach the Gilmore's house; Stars Hollow was only a small town. One could take four lefts and end up back at the centre of the town. Opening the front door without knocking, Cherry found the two girls in the living room. Rory was reading a book outloud from the couch as Paris paced around. "Given that those are the reactions ocurring in two half-cells,  what do you do next?"

"If we add them together, doubling the coefficients, we get the equation for the complete reaction." Paris recited perfectly.

"Wow, I did not understand a thing you just said. Why did you need my help again?" Cherry joked, taking off her coat as she scared the two girls.

Paris rushed to her side, a grin on her face. "You came!"

Not another second passed before the doorbell rang again, making the trio frown. Cherry offered to get it, and as she opened the door, she raised her eyebrows. "Jess, what the- what are you doing here?"

The teenage boy frowned. "What are you doing here?"

Cherry leaned her hand on her waist. "Well, I was invited over. They needed help studying."

Jess scoffed. "You? Helping two private school girls study?" Cherry rolled her eyes, and went to slam the door on his face. But Jess managed to wedge his foot between the door and went inside. "I've got a food delivery. Luke sent it over because Rory was supposed to be alone." Jess pushed passed, heading straight towards the kitchen to leave the food. Cherry followed, half angry half confused.

"Cherry, what's he doing here?"

"Food delivery?" Cherry answered before joining the kitchen with Jess. "Geez,  all this food could feed twelve people."

"Well, I've seen you eat. I'm sure you'll manage."

Cherry clenched her jaw, drumming her fingers on the table. "You know what, Jess? I know you think that being a jerk is, like, your only personality trait, which fair enough, but sometimes you go too far. If you're done being an ass, there's the door. I'm sure no one will object." Jess looked up, and a few beats of awkward silence followed as they stared at each other, daring each other to battle. "You're still here."

"You didn't give me a tip." Cherry rolled her eyes, but as soon as she turned, Jess grabbed her wrist. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? I went too far." when she didn't answer, Jess frowned. "You happy now?"

"That was the lamest apology I've ever heard." but the corner of her lips that pulled upwards betrayed her thoughts, making Jess grin and shrug off his jacket before taking a seat. "Wait, you're staying for dinner?"

"He can if he wants." Rory pipped up, entering the kitchen as she was followed by Paris. The four took seats around the table and started to dig into the food. There were moments in which Jess and Cherry's knees brushed, but none of the two took much notice as they argued.

"I have to agree with Jess here. What a tragic waste of paper." Paris added, pointing a french fry at Cherry. Jess fistbumped Paris before sticking his tongue out at Cherry. "I mean, Nicholas Sparks? I'm sorry Cherry, but my respect for you as decreased."

"What? What as everyone got against him? His books are good!"

Jess shook his head. "His books expose you to a world of stereotypes and make you believe in this world that simply doesn't exist."

"Maybe, but doesn't it give you hope? For humanity." Rory added, chuckling at Paris' look of utter betrayal when she sided with Cherry.

"God forbid you read anything by Jane Austen."

Cherry gasped, pointing her french fry at Paris. "Actually, I have read Jane Austen!" when the trio looked unconvinced, Cherry pouted. "I have! I always tell the truth. Even when I lie."

Jess rolled his eyes at her reference. "You would quote Al Pacino." he muttered, grabbing the plate of french fries from Cherry.

The curly blonde haired stared confused. "What are you doing?"

"Putting salt and pepper. It's the only way to eat french fries. It's fast food gospel." Jess grabbed one of them and offered it to Cherry. When she looked at it weirdly, not wanting to try it, Jess got closer and Cherry wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Jess, get your face away from mine! I can smell your dog-like breath from here."

He cackled as he leaned back, eating the french fry himself as Rory smiled. "But you love dogs, Cher."

Cherry imediately glared at her as Jess wiggled his eyebrows. "Shut up, Rory." Jess continued to stuff his face with food, putting hot sauce and different weird combinations into his mouth without a stop. "Will you not stop eating?"

"What? I have an empty hole in my stomach and I'm trying to fill it." 

Cherry smirked. "Wanky."

Paris leaned towards Rory, watching the two. "God, they're just like Eddie and Shaunie from Baywatch." Cherry and Jess swivelled around and shook their heads at Paris. The blonde glanced down at her watch, standing up. "I think we should get going, leave Rory be. It's already nearing seven."

Grabbing their jackets, the four stumbled outside as they continued their debate about books, accompanied by Rory who was going to say goodbye from the door. But leaving the house meant they came face to face with a bothered looking Dean. Rory stumbled forward, a guilty look on her face as she glanced at her friends, who kept quiet.

"Dean, they just brought me some food."

Before the boy could reply to his girlfriend, who else to butt into the conversation but Jess. "But I see that you brought ice cream too. Just big enough for two. Are you going to feed each other? That's so darn cute!" he drawled sarcastically, ignoring how Cherry pulled on his sleeve to back down. Dean slowly approached, anger radiating off him as Cherry looked at Rory with worry. "Oops. You're doing that whole towering-over-me thing again."

"You said you were doing your laundry. And now you're here with Jess." Dean addressed Rory, completely ignoring Jess.

"And me and Paris." Cherry added, hoping it would difuse the situation by adding there was three girls. Dean glanced at her, and Cherry squirmed under his intense gaze. It was clear that her best friend was not happy with that. "We should get going . . . see you tomorrow, Rory. Dean."

Cherry pulled Jess away from the house, who went with her reluctantly, and kept looking back. As they walked down the road, they could still hear the loud voices of the couple arguing in the Gilmore household. Paris had to go take the bus back home, which left Cherry and Jess alone as they proceeded home in Stars Hollows. 

"Is he always like that?" Jess asked mockingly, earning a glare from Cherry.

"It doesn't help that you keep sliding comments to degrade him." she retorted, but she couldn't help but smile. Knowing Jess, it was just harmless fun, and surely he didn't think of getting between Dean and Rory.

Right?

thank you for 1k! i loved writing this chapter haah it's so fun and dynamic.