( 𝘨𝘪𝘧: 𝘫𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 )

"Luke, I am your father . . . " that was the first thing Cherry said as she walked in Luke's Dinner, even attempting to impersonate Darth Vader's voice. Both Jess and Luke stared at her unimpressed with her impression as the blonde took a seat in the counter. 

"That's not even what he says."

Cherry frowned at Jess's words, trying to recall the Star Wars movie. "What? It's not what he says? I could've sworn . . . " she shrugged, shaking her head.

"What're you ordering?" Luke asked the girl, tho he had an inkling she would order her usual.

Jess scoffed, raising an eyebrow. "Why are you asking? She always has the same: a cup of cappucino with no sugar, plate of chocolate chipped pancakes with cream and caramel syrope. And I'm sure she'll order that tonight too, even if it's nearly nine pm."

"Well, he's right." Cherry said, slightly blushing. Luke stared at Jess as if attempting to figure him out before shrugging and going to the back to make her some pancakes. Jess avoided Cherry's gaze as he shuffled through a deck of cards, ignoring Cherry's inquisitive look. "So . . . you know my order by memory?"

Jess scratched the back of his head. "So what? You order the same thing, I was bound to learn it eventually." Cherry kept staring at him, not knowing exactly what the feeling she was experiencing was. She had never felt it before, especially near Jess. It made her . . . fluttery to know that Jess had memorised her order. "Stop looking at me like that."

Cherry looked down at her nails. "Like what? Just best friends looking at each other."

"We're not friends." Jess retorted, but the corners of his lips pulled upwards. He didn't know either what that feeling was he experienced with Cherry. It was completely different to what he felt around Rory, so he just assumed that it was the feeling one experienced when you found real friendship. But Cherry experienced that feeling with Dean, and she could say for sure that it was nothing like it. "By the way, I got you something."

"You got me something? Even tho we're not friends?" Cherry laughed when Jess glared at her. "Curious to see what you got me." Grabbing a cloth, Cherry raised her eyebrows as Jess did a magic trick, showing there was nothing behind the cloth before pulling out a book. "Am I supposed to be impressed? You do know that there's nothing more uncool than magic tricks."

Jess ignored her comment as he handed her the book. She grabbed it curiously, flicking through the pages to see that he had written loads of notes in the margins. "Wait . . . you actually read a Nicholas Sparks book?"

"You were going on and on about it so I decided to give it a go." Jess said nonchalant, as if it were no big deal. "It was terrible, by the way, like I expected."

"But you read it." there was awe in her voice, making Jess's cheeks slightly heat up. "Even if you didn't like it. Positivity isn't in your language."

"Neither is good taste in yours." Jess was quick to answer, and Cherry stuck out her tongue at him. 

The clock struck half nine, and Luke approached the two, handing Jess a dirty cloth. "Hey, Cherry, would you mind giving Jess here a hand to close up? And then he can go and study with his tutor."

"Sure. Only if he tells me about this tutoring." Jess groaned, rolling his eyes. Luke nodded at her gratefully before heading out, putting the close sign on the glass door, leaving Jess and Cherry alone as they tidied up in silence, cleaning the counters and leaving the dishes in the dishwasher. 

When Cherry threw a dirty wipe in Jess's face, he glared at her. "I'm going to kill you one of these days."

"Sure." she scoffed. "If you were, your life would be so dull and lonely." the front door suddenly swung open, revealing a bashful Rory. Cherry's smile slightly faded, looking between Jess and Rory. "Hey Rory."

"Hey Cherry. Jess, you ready for our tutoring session?"

Rory took a seat at one of the tables, and when Cherry turned to stare at Jess with an amused look, Jess pressed his finger on her lips. "Don't you dare say anything."

Cherry lifted her arms in defence. "Don't know what you mean." she grabbed her jacket and pulled it on. "See you around, Jess. Later Rory."

And as Cherry left the dinner and passed through the window, she couldn't help but glance back, frowning at the sight of Jess and Rory sitting closely together, laughing over something the teenage boy had said as they poured over a text book.

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Cherry searched around Stars Hollow for half an hour before she eventually found Jess sat on her porch. She stopped slightly, exhaling angrily before she stomped towards him. She, with the rest of the town, had found out about the accident between him and Rory, and she had been plagued with worry. Sure, Rory was fine, but Jess was nowhere to be found, and it made Cherry feel slightly scared.

His eyes followed her as she stood in front of him, a cigarette hanging from his lip as worry and guilt clouded his face. Jess stared at her confused when Cherry reached out her hand. "The cigarette. I need a puff before I start screaming at you."

Hesitantly, Jess gave her his cigarette, and Cherry inhaled the smoke before blowing it right out, and throwing it away. "What the hell were you thinking, Jess?"

"I made sure she was okay." he whispered, looking at the ground.

"So, you could've gotten yourself killed!" Jess looked up, surprised at the topic of conversation. He had been sure Cherry was mad for putting at Rory at risk, like everyone else, because who could ever care about Jess? "I worried myself sick when you were nowhere to be found, and no one knew where you were, or if you were okay. Is this some sort of sick joke to you? You have to grow the hell up."

"Cherry, it's not like that-"

He stood up, which made Cherry take a few steps back. "I know that you believe that no one cares about you, but Luke does, Rory does. I do. We're friends. And friends don't scare each other like that. Do you even know how worried I was, that something had happened and you were lying injured somewhere?"

"I wasn't."

"But you could've been!" she shouted. Jess gulped, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "And you play this teenager that's so misunderstood, Kurt Cobain style, and push everyone away because no one could ever want to be around you."

Jess started to feel overwhelmed with the multiple feelings of knowing people cared about him and the accident, that he wasn't sure what he was saying. "Maybe you should see that as a sign."

Cherry frowned. "What?"

"If I push you away from me, maybe it's because I don't want you near me." as soon as those words fell from Jess's lips, he regretted them. Cherry stared at him crestfallen, pressing her lips together as she nodded.

"Okay." she whispered, her voice cracking slightly. "I'm glad you're doing okay. See you around, Jess."

And as she walked away, Jess found himself self sabotaging another thing in his life.