(hello! i never update this early! what a change! you know what hasn't changed? the fact that i'm lazy and haven't edited this yet. hope you enjoy! love u all tons! -mags)

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THEY'RE IN THE same city, but only one of them knows it.

They haven't spoken since the night of the fight. Marley sent him her essay the Wednesday of her second week at Penn. Jess sent her the excerpt from The Subsect the day before he moved to Philadelphia.

Neither of them know that his letter never got to her. Jess' drugged-out ex-roommate saw the envelope with Jess' chicken scratch stuffed back inside his mailbox with the words 'RETURN TO SENDER' written on the side and tossed it out before the garbage truck came that day. Todd hadn't even given it a second thought.

They both know it's ridiculous that it's gone on for this long, but it takes other people scolding them for it to really sink in.

For Jess, it's a whispered conversation with Rory at Emily and Richard Gilmore's house. It happens when Rory asks where he's living. He tells her he's in Philly, to which Rory asks, "With Marley?"

He feels foolish when he says no.

He feels even more foolish when Rory looks at him in disbelief, the frown on her face getting deeper as he gives her the CliffsNotes of the fight. Her brow is drawn, stern. As if she can't believe he's dumping yet another relationship down the drain. "But she's at Penn, right?"

Yes.

"And you don't see her? You haven't tried to make up with her?"

No.

"Oh, Jess..."

It's the disappointment in her voice that hits him. The realization of it all comes in a tidal wave and crashes on top of him so quickly that he has to change the subject to keep from drowning. Stupid. God, so stupid. What had he been doing for two years? What had they been doing for two years?

For Marley, it's five words that Luke says to her over the phone. They're five words she's heard him say many, many times before (especially the first year that Jess was in Stars Hollow), but for some reason, they held a different meaning now.

Much to the chagrin of her boss, Marley had promised weekly calls to the diner and in almost two years, she'd only broken the promise once. Luke was obviously exasperated when he picked up the phone and became even more so when he realized it was Marley that was calling him. He asks her what she wants and she replies with some smart, snark answer that makes Luke sigh and glance to the outside window where Jess' clunker is parked.

"Jess is here."

Her blood runs cold. She says nothing.

"Do you want to talk to him?"

No.

Luke sighs and that's when Marley starts to feel the guilt build up in her stomach. It's then that Luke says (with a type of disappointment that he's never expressed before), "I'll never understand you two," when Marley feels her eyes start to burn. She cries when Luke hangs up the phone.

They've been in the same place more than once, they just haven't known it. There's a bar two blocks from Jess' apartment that Marley and her friends frequent because her friend Lauren knows the bouncer. Jess and his new business partners Christopher and Matthew made the layout for Truncheon Books in that bar the same night Marley met Bartender Ben, someone who reminded her so much of Jess she started crying in the bathroom fives minutes after talking with him.

(Bartender Ben is now a very good friend of Marley's, but that's beside the point.)

There's a coffee shop just off campus that Jess goes to on the way to work every Friday. Marley passes it every day walking from her dorm to get to class. They both share the same affinity for the apple cinnamon scones sold there and know never to order a no-foam cappuccino unless you want to be on the shitlist of every barista. Marley was there early one Friday morning doing some last-minute studying for a test when Jess walked in and ordered his usual. Neither of them saw the other and the world continued to spin.

They're in the same place tonight, too. Again, only Jess knows it. She hasn't seen him yet.

He knew he'd see her eventually. Jess didn't realize it'd be tonight. And that rattles him in a way he hadn't been expecting it to.

He's been in the barely liveable bathroom for the last five minutes attempting to collect his thoughts. He doesn't know whether or not to go up to her, ignore her, or just leave altogether. The third option seems the most appealing to him. He hadn't even wanted to go out tonight, anyway. He hated frat parties.

Jess should have been surprised that they were even able to get in, but he wasn't. Christopher knew every single person on this campus and could probably talk his way into the Pentagon if he tried hard enough. It also helped that he was dating the sister of the guy manning the door. The sister also happened to be Marley's friend Lauren.

He always figured it'd come down to some 'small world' scenario. They wouldn't run into each other on the street or sit next to each other at a restaurant, the stupid fucking universe would force them into a situation that neither of them would be able to get out of. This was fate's way of punishing him for being a blundering dumbass.

A pounding on the bathroom door takes Jess out of his thoughts. Over the volume of the music outside, he can hear some girls yelling at him to get out of the bathroom. Their words are slurred enough to give away the fact that they're drunk.

Jess looked at himself in the mirror one last time before sighing. It's now or never, he figured.

He opened the door and sidestepped the girls filing into the bathroom before moving back into the overcrowded house. He scanned the area, pushing past people in an attempt to find the group he'd come into the party with.

Luckily, Christopher was tall enough to see over everyone. There was a look of recognition that flashed over his face as he saw Jess swimming upstream and he called him over to the circle of people he was in.

He turned back to the people he was talking to and grinned at Lauren and her friend (whose name Christopher couldn't quite remember due to the number of shots he'd taken). "You guys have to meet my friend," he yelled over the music. "You're gonna love him."

"The same way I loved Kyle?" Lauren asked. She looked doubtful and Christopher rolled his eyes.

"That wasn't my fault! That shitshow Matthew's fault!"

Matthew pointed a finger at Christopher that wasn't holding a cup. "Fuck you all! That night was fun and so was Kyle!"

Lauren gaped at him. "He almost robbed a Denny's! Then he harassed a police officer when the cops came!"

"Fuck the police! Down with law enforcement!"

Jess finally made it to the group in time to see Marley standing next to Matthew, putting a hand on his arm to calm him down. "There are people here that will legitimately gun you for saying that!" she yelled loud enough for Jess to hear.

Matthew raised his now empty cup. "Then I shall die a martyr!"

It's then that Jess sees her laugh for the first time in two years and his stomach churns in a way that it only had when he'd seen Rory for the first time after leaving. He's nervous and he hates everything about the feeling. He wants to run out of the house and never step foot on the Penn campus ever again.

But it's too late. Because Marley's already seen him. And she's wearing the same expression she wore the night he'd stepped out of the cop car when he came back to Stars Hollow.

"Guys, this is Jess!" Christopher yelled, throwing an arm over his shoulder and pulling him into the circle. Jess' eyes hadn't left Marley's and she was still looking at him, dumbfounded. "Jess, this is my girlfriend Lauren, and her friend--" Christopher trailed off as he'd forgotten her name, but Jess was there to finish.

"Marley," he said. He flashed him a quick, nervous smile, then looked at Marley. "Acosta."

Christopher's eyes widened and Lauren looked at Marley in shock. "Holy shit!" Christopher yelled, whacking Jess on the shoulder. "You guys know each other?"

As Christopher went off on a tangent about how great that is, Lauren turned Marley to her, who still looked as though she'd seen a ghost. "Wait-- that's Jess?" she asked. It was hard to hear her over the music, and Marley's fogged up brain didn't make it any easier to understand her. "Like, Jess, Jess?"

Marley's eyes slowly moved from Jess to Lauren, as if her entire body was lagging. Unable to form words, Marley simply nodded her head. Lauren's eyes narrowed as she turned back to look at Jess. When it looked as though Lauren was about to confront him, she grabbed her arm.

Marley shook her head. "No," she said. She turned to Jess, almost taken back by how timid he was. Almost. "No," she repeated, this time to him. "This isn't happening."

She heard people calling her name as she left the group, pushing past her classmates in an attempt to leave the party. She heard Jess' voice following her as she moved through the crowd and she could feel her chest getting tighter every time he said it. She couldn't breathe. She had to get out of here.

Of course he was in Philadelphia. Of course he was friends with Christopher. Of course she had to see him tonight. It was just her goddamn luck.

Why was he here? Why was he at Penn? How long had he been here?

Marley could feel the alcohol coming up her throat at the thought of Jess actually living in Philadelphia without her knowing it.

She took a gasping breath when she finally stumbled outside, now completely sober thanks to whatever the hell happened in the party and the January air. She could see her breath as she heaved, one hand on the side of the house, unbothered by the eyes on her. She could only focus on one thing; Jess was here. After two years, he was here.

Marley heard his footsteps atop the frozen grass before she heard his voice. "You alright?" he asked.

"Fuck you," she said, not bothering to face him.

She heard him sigh. "Marley--"

Marley whipped around to look at him. "Can you just--" She took in another deep breath, shaking her head as she turned back around. "--give me a minute? Just shut up and let me catch my breath, okay? Please?"

She took his lack of response as an 'okay.' Marley gripped the brick of the house tighter as she shut her eyes. Holy shit, she thought, this is happening.

She'd thought about this moment so many times. What she'd say to him, the lines she'd give him that'd leave him speechless, that'd hurt him in the way he'd hurt her, and the closure this moment would give her. How she'd walk away with her head held high, how she'd tell him to fuck off (for real this time) and how she'd finally get that weight off her shoulders that'd been there for years.

She hadn't factored this feeling into the equation. This heart attack like feeling that made her second guess everything she'd prepared. She hadn't factored in the heartbroken way he'd be looking at her, his apprehensive nature, and how much gentler his features had gotten.

Marley took one last breath before leaning back against the house, tilting her head up to look at the barely visible stars. Her voice was only slightly louder than the muted music when she asked him, "What the hell are you doing here?"

She felt his eyes on the side of her face. "I'm at a party."

Jess nearly winced at the venom in her gaze as she moved off the wall. "Don't do that," she said, voice low. "I'm seriously three seconds away from--"

"I live here," he interjected.

Marley blinked at him slowly. Was he kidding?  He had to be kidding. "You live here?"

"Yes."

"In Philadelphia."

"Yes."

"You live in Philadelphia?" she questioned.

Jess chuckled hesitantly. "My answer's still going to be yes."

"You fucking live here, you asshole?" Marley's expression was one of pure rage and Jess took a step back from her. "And w-w-what? You didn't care to tell me that you lived, what? A couple of blocks from me? And you just expected to cross your fingers and hope that this city was big enough for us to avoid each other?" Marley laughed mirthlessly, putting her face in her hands at how ridiculous she found this all. "You sure that I'm the fucked up one, Jess?"

Jess swiped his hand over his mouth, getting slightly sick of biting his tongue. "You made it pretty clear that you didn't want to see me ever again. Forgive me for thinking that it wouldn't be a good idea to call you up."

"Jesus, Jess. I used to think you were smart. Now I realize that you're the world's largest single-celled organism."

"The hell is that supposed to mean?"

She ignored his question and instead gave him a new one. "How long have you been here?"

"What?" he asked.

"How long have you lived here?"

Jess' expression grew weary as he sighed. "Almost a year and a half."

Marley's mouth dropped slightly as she stared at him. She watched as he averted his gaze to the people standing outside behind her in hopes to not meet her eyes. She curled her fingers into fists and shook her head.

Jess watched as she blew past him and out of the frat's yard. He shut his eyes and sighed once more before turning around and calling her name. When she didn't stop, he called her again, ignoring the shouts of the brothers tell him to be quiet.

He finally caught up to her at the end of the house's driveway, catching her wrist in his grasp. She yanked it away with him, glaring at him. "Do you get off on being an idiot?" she asked, voice louder than it probably should have been. "Because it's the only explanation I can think of for all this."

Jess looked at her incredulously. "For fuck's sake Marley, stop putting this all on me!" He pointed a finger at her. "You could have picked up your phone and called too."

"I sent you a letter with my college essay I fucking wrote about you two years ago," she hissed. "And I didn't get a response. I made my move. It was your turn to reciprocate."

"What are you talking about?" he yelled. "The ball was in your court. I sent you a piece from my book that I wrote the night before I moved down here!"

Marley's expression dropped and contorted into one of confusion. "You what?"

Jess furrowed his brow at the look on her face. Before he could question it, they were interrupted by one of the frat boys that had been outside manning the door. Marley was able to tell how drunk he was by the way he fumbled to put on his glasses. "Can you two shut the fuck up and leave already? You're gonna get our party shut down!"

Marley wasn't having it. She wasn't about to let Justin from Kappa Alpha stop her and Jess from finally getting to the crux of their issues. "Oh, go put some more vodka in your weak-ass bucket, you four-eyed failure," she replied.

He turned to Jess who was biting the inside of his cheek in order to keep from laughing. He'd forgotten how hard she could snap if she were put into the right mood. Jess shook his head at the boy, grabbing Marley's forearm and starting to lead her down the street. "Relax, we're leaving," Jess said to him, pushing her forward as she swore at him under her breath.

"Get off me," she said. "I can walk."

"I'm fully aware of that. I'm just scared you're going to curb stomp him as the cops bust their party."

"I wouldn't worry about him. You, however? That I can get behind."

"Christ, Marley," Jess said, throwing his hands up in the air. "What do you want me to say right now?"

"I want you to explain to me why you thought it was okay to say that shit to me two years ago!" she replied. Jess wanted to back up as she got closer to him, but he forced himself to stand his ground. "I opened up to you more than anyone else in my life and the second we started fighting, you thought your only defense was to go for my jugular." She shook her head. "I asked you for one thing! One thing during the entirety of our relationship and you decided that it wasn't important enough to listen to me."

"Don't act like you did nothing wrong," he scoffed. "You weren't sitting there silent that night."

"No, you're right," she agreed. However, her tone was less than agreeable. "I wasn't. I'm not proud of the shit I said to you, Jess, I'm really not. But I didn't mean it. What you were saying came from a place deep within you." Jess looked at her incredulously. "I saw the look on your face after you said it. It was like you'd been waiting for years to say that and use it against me, and at the first sign of conflict, you did."

Jess sighed, running a hand down his face. He was quiet for a second, leaving Marley to watch him carefully, arms folded over her chest. When he did speak, it was calmer than before. "Listen," he began, eyes on the pavement below them. "Did I mean it when I said that your previous boyfriends were assholes? Yeah, I did. Because they are. I think you know that now." Marley didn't reply. "I've noticed how much you hate disappointing people since the day I met you. It's obvious how much you hate fighting and conflict. So, yeah, I meant that too. But I swear, I didn't mean anything I said about your dad." His voice was sincere and even quieter now. "You've got a horrible sense of humor, a terrible taste in almost everything, and are one of the weirdest goddamn people I've met in my entire life, but none of that is from your dad." He finally looked at her and when he met her eyes, he saw that she was on the verge of tears. "You're not fucked up, Marley. You're the farthest thing from it. I need you to believe me when I say that."

Marley was silent, as expected. She bit her lip and looked away from him, hugging her arms closer to her body. She forced herself to blink away the tears. No crying tonight. None.

Jess wasn't sure what the next words out of her mouth were going to be, but he sure didn't expect an apology. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm really sorry."

"What are you apologizing for?" he asked.

"I've just- I've hated myself since I said all that to you. Especially because I didn't mean any of it." She huffed, wiping at her nose. "I'm sorry that I let this go on for so long. I should have called you or something--"

"Are you kidding? I shouldn't have left that night without resolving it," he said. "I should have laid on my horn and not stopped until you agreed to open your door or something."

"I think I would have punched you if you'd done that."

"Hypocrite."

Marley pushed him lightly on the shoulder, fighting a smile as she heard him chuckle under his breath. She forgot how easy this was. How easy it was with him.

"But seriously," he said to her. "I want you to know how sorry I am for that. For everything. It was completely out of line. So was not telling you that I was here. I'm sorry."

Marley nodded, silently accepting his apology. The silence between them came again. The music from the party could still be heard, but, like the tension, it'd become quieter. Neither of them knew what to do or say next.

Marley tried her best when she asked, "You want to explain how you know Christopher?" she asked. "Because I genuinely didn't expect him to be your type."

Jess looked down at his feet and licked his lips. "He's a, uh, friend from work."

"Work?" Marley's eyes were like saucers. "Get the fuck out. You don't work at Truncheon."

"I help run Truncheon."

"You," Marley said. Jess nodded. "You run a publishing company."

"Chris, Matthew and I do."

"Fine. You, Chris and Matthew, run a publishing company?"

"I actually got the job because they published my book."

Marley stared at him in shock, a laugh of disbelief echoing around them. "I need to sit down."

"It's not that big of a deal," he tried, turning as Marley passed him to sit on the concrete curb behind him. He sat beside her, watching her carefully.

Marley's jaw dropped again. "Not that big—" She hit him lightly on the arm. "Jess," she said, lips stretching into the beginnings of a grin. "You finished it."

He rolled his eyes. "Don't do that," he said dismissively, fighting the urge to smile as she did.

"You actually finished it and got it fucking published. You, Jess Mariano, high school drop out, actually did it."

"Oh, stop it."

"You, Jess Mariano, I-Wish-Death-Upon-Everyone-And-Everything-That-Is-Not-Rory-Gilmore wrote a book."

"You done yet?"

"Absolutely not. You, Jess Mariano, Walmart Employee of the month, are working at your own publishing company?" she stated, a smile creeping up on her. "This is so big."

"You're making it into something that it's not," he told her, shrugging. "They started it like, two years ago. I've only been working with them for a couple of months. We're super small. We put out like three books a month."

"Stop trying to be humble about this, it doesn't work for you," she said. bumping her knee against his.

Marley couldn't help but feel an overwhelming amount of pride for the boy sitting next to her. It was so strange to go from being blinded with rage to feeling like this. He'd finished it. He'd gotten it published. He'd actually done it.

Jess Mariano, who'd never tried hard enough at anything besides getting Rory Gilmore to date him (and possibly become friends with Marley) had put his mind to something and done it. And for that, he was rewarded.

It was in that moment that Marley realized she was no longer sitting next to the boy she'd bitched about training that day she'd walked into Luke's. He had been no longer forced to mature due to the circumstances of his life. He'd chosen to grow up and turn into a person he could be proud of. And there was so much to be proud of.

Jess ducked his head and laughed, shaking his head at her. "I'm not being humble, I'm being honest. You'll see me throwing money in your face when the book starts selling like King's and we start pumping out books like Scholastic."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I vaguely remember you throwing a fit a couple years ago about Stephen King being a hack."

"Yeah, he's a hack, but he's a hack with money. I'd kill to be a hack right now."

"I don't know. Play your starving artist card right and you could go home with any girl in this city."

Jess groaned, standing up from the curb and shaking his head again, this time with a smile. She was back. "Oh, I am so not talking about this with you right now."

Marley grabbed the hand he had held out to her, using her other to point at him. "We haven't talked in two years. You're getting my shit tonight whether you like it or not."

He chuckled, eyes locked on the pavement below them. "Somehow, I think I'm okay with that," he said.

It was then that they finally seemed to absorb the situation they were in. He was here. She was here. They'd found one another again. There was a calm beneath those thoughts.

When the quiet had gone on for too long, Marley found herself squeezing Jess' hand. "Hey," she said. He met her gaze. "I'm proud of you."

He didn't speak for a moment. His response was quiet. Soft, even. His voice had gotten softer since she'd last seen him, she noted. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Marley answered. She could feel herself starting to get choked up. She cleared her throat, a genuine, earnest smile taking over her entire face. "I'm so fucking proud of you."

Jess only broke eye contact when he noticed the way her voice broke on the last syllable of her words. He wanted to brush it off and look at her in faux disbelief, acting as though the way she was reacting wasn't causing some sort of twinge in his chest. He wanted to tell her to stop and to 'actually read the damn thing' before she started saying all this shit. He wanted to do so many things that his sixteen-year-old self would have done to reject any sort of emotion from entering his life.

However, now, at twenty-one, Jess was working on taking down the walls he'd built over the years. The brick by brick demolition had begun with the girl standing in front of him and it was not about to be repaired by her.

All walls were down for Marley, he told himself. All walls were down for her.

So, instead of doing all the things the back of his mind was telling him to, he tugged her into his chest and let go of her hand to wrap his arms around her. His fingers forked through her hair as he clutched the back of her neck, his other arm squeezed around her middle. He heard her sigh into him, eventually moving to grip him tighter than ever. Jess placed his chin on her head before he dipped down to her ear.

"You know you made this all possible, right?" he asked her. Marley bit her lip, hard. No. No crying, you fucking baby. Stop it. Her jaw wobbled as he continued. "This wouldn't have happened without you."

She shook her head against his chest. "Yes, it would have—"

"No, Marley. It wouldn't have. You pushed me. You helped me. You edited it, took notes-- things that I wouldn't have ever thought about if it wasn't for you." He scoffed lightly. "Hell, I could have given you writing credits for how much shit you did."

"But you didn't," Marley ribbed, attempting to hide her sniffling with a joke, "because you're an asshole."

Jess chuckled into her hair as he moved from her shoulder and his chin on the top of her head. "Yeah. You can sue me for everything I'm worth."

"Twenty bucks and a whole lot of books?"

"Worse. Ten bucks, some books and an Oasis CD."

Jess felt her body rumble as she began to laugh. "You're listening to Oasis?" she cackled, placing her forehead on his chest. "Dear God, Philly has changed you."

"It's not even mine. I stole it from Chris."

"Well, that's reassuring. At least you didn't pay for it." She pulled away from his chest to see him smiling down at her. She returned it as she wiped at her eyes. "Speaking of Chris, I should probably tell Lauren that there's no blood."

"You're going to go back in there after you called that kid a four-eyed failure?" Jess asked dubiously.

Marley deflated. "Good point."

"I'll text Matthew that we're leaving," he said to her, pulling his phone out of his pocket.

"We're leaving? What, without them? Isn't that, like, mean?" she asked.

"I just got you back, Acosta. I get to be a little selfish."

Marley's stomach warmed at his words, smiling as her last name finally left his lips without any sort of hesitation. She rolled her eyes, but the look on her face was anything but annoyed.

"Tell them where we're going at least," Marley said as she watched him type away. Jess rolled his eyes but nodded nonetheless. "Where are we going?"

Jess shut his phone and slid it back in his pocket. "Wherever."

"That's not going to work for Lauren."

"Tragic."

"She's going to kill me."

Jess grinned at her. "Well, I hope I'm worthy of your last night on earth."

He held his hand out to her with a look that read 'Am I?' and Marley sighed. She glanced back to the house, biting the inside of her cheek. When she turned to face him once more, she saw that his brows were raised.

Marley took his hand, shaking her head as Jess' smile stretched into something much more real. "You better be worth it, Mariano."

He squeezed her hand in response, chuckling quietly under his breath. Marley joined in as they started to walk, the both of them now fully knowing that one thing was certain;

They'd always be worth it to each other.

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author's note: yeah the ending was fluffed and cheesy but i felt as though it was deserved after the 2 chapters of angst.

also if you're reading as closely as i do when i write, i promise that a conversation will be had about the letter with the subsect chapter that marley never got. just wait. yay!

hope y'all enjoyed this one. love you all tons!
-mags