(hi friends! there's a lot going on in this one, so strap in. hope you enjoy. also this is kind of edited kind of not. will fix. love you all tons. -mags)

✧✧✧

MOVE-IN WEEK arrived quicker than anyone expected, but to the surprise of nobody, Marley had a plan. A plan that was slowly falling apart at the seams, but a plan nonetheless.

The plan began to fall apart with something Marley truly couldn't complain about. Her mother had just been promoted to head nurse, a linear move that they'd been expecting for months, but they were never sure when it was going to actually happen. Sure enough, three weeks before Marley was to leave for Philly, her mother got the call. Everyone was ecstatic and she was so proud of her mom because of how much she deserved it, but it did mean she was going to get more hours and have a bit more responsibility. Her mother couldn't take a couple of days off to move her in three weeks after getting the job, and Marley completely understood this. She was actually the one who told her mom that.

So, instead, Marley had enlisted Luke, who seemed more than willing to get out of Stars Hollow for a couple of days. The town had gone a bit crazy at the idea of him and Lorelai breaking up and he couldn't handle the questions anymore. And Luke would never admit it, but if he had to see Christopher Hayden's face one more time in his town, he was going to close up the diner and never return.

Marley was grateful that Luke had said yes because she knew that there was no way in hell her own father was going to help them out. He was currently doing business in Japan or Norway or some other country she couldn't care to keep track of. However, he had emailed her to tell her that he had bought her a couple of things for the apartment, including a couch and kitchen table, both of which Marley and Jess were hesitant yet grateful to accept.

The plan continued to fall apart as the moving company taking the majority of Marley's things informed them that because they had so many clients, they'd overbooked themselves, and they wouldn't be able to get her furniture to their apartment until about a day after they moved in. Unfortunately, Marley's bed was apart of that furniture, but fortunately, air mattresses were a thing, and Luke had one that Jess lived on for months. The Acostas had owned one at some point in time this year, but Jacob, being the lovely boy that he was, decided it'd be a good idea to use it to go rafting in the lake a month ago while drunk with some of his friends.

Their mother was pissed that they no longer had an air mattress. Marley was pissed none of them got pictures.

The final nail in the coffin for Marley was not necessarily moving related, but it brought an unwanted amount of stress onto her shoulders, which was something of which she really didn't need right now. Marley had planned on taking a semester off from her school's paper, as her friend Allison had told her to do, seeing as she had gotten the Harperch internship which they knew would probably take up all of her time. This was before Allison had been promoted to editor of the paper. Now, she was beginning what Marley knew would turn into a vicious cycle of Allision asking for her help with articles. And Marley, being who she was, couldn't say no.

Courtney simply laughed at this when Marley told her on her shift at the diner. Courtney was here for her daily visit, and had been listening to Marley stress about everything for the last twenty minutes.

"Stop laughing at me," Marley groaned. "I'm about to die."

Courtney smiled. "I'm sorry. You're just predictable."

"How the hell was any of that predictable?"

"I knew you weren't out of the whole paper bullshit as soon as you told me that Allison girl had been made editor," Courtney told her, rolling her eyes as she mixed cream into her coffee. "She seems like kind of a mess, by the way. I knew she was going to need your help."

"She is a mess. But she's a functioning mess."

"Okay, me too."

"And how did you know that I was going to say yes to helping her?" Marley asked.

Courtney gave her a blank look. "Dude, I've known you for basically all your life. You're, like, allergic to saying no."

"I am not."

"Please," Courtney said. "Can you say it for shit that doesn't matter? Yeah. But you think that if you disappoint someone the entire world will explode." She shrugged. "It's not a bad thing. It just makes you predictable."

Marley scowled at Courtney, but was unable to say anything to her as she heard Caesar shout the to-go order Lane had placed for Lorelai about a half an hour ago. Marley had found this to be a little strange but honestly hadn't paid too much attention to it with everything going around in her head.

"Anyway," Courtney said, changing the subject slightly, "are you ever going to actually write anything for the paper? Or are you just going to play Grammar Nazi for someone who clearly doesn't appreciate you enough?"

"Allison appreciates me, she just has her own way of doing it." Marley then sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "And I don't know about the whole writing thing. I've written a couple of smaller articles but I didn't think any of them were all that great. I'm good at editing, so that's what I stick to, y'know?"

"Have you asked anyone for their opinion on your writing?"

Marley almost laughed in her face. "People don't give opinions. They give you half-assed compliments that you immediately know are lies or tell you to 'workshop it a little more.' If you're lucky you get one or two pieces of actual constructive criticism," she said. "It doesn't make anyone better or help them because you don't want to hurt their feelings and you don't want them to hurt your feelings when it's time for your work to get feedback. It's an endless cycle."

"Interesting. And nobody you can think of that knows anything about journalism would give you any legitimate feedback?" Courtney asked.

"If you're implying that Jess knows anything about journalism, you are grossly mistaken."

Courtney snorted into her mug. "Not who I was thinking of. But he might not be a bad plan B."

"Then who?" Marley asked, eyes flashing to the window as she saw Lorelai Gilmore approaching the diner. She looked slightly sheepish and kind of looked as though she were talking to herself as a way to hype herself up to go inside. Marley chuckled under her breath.

"Maybe, I don't know, that rich newspaper boy who works with your dad," Courtney said as the door opened and Marley exited from the back with Lorelai's food. "You guys are friends, right?"

"I feel like friends is an overstatement," she said, smiling at Lorelai as she brought her over to the register to ring her up. "I see him at parties that our fathers throw and we bond over how much we hate them."

"Don't you guys talk on, like, a regular basis?"

Marley sighed as she told Lorelai what her total was. "I mean, yeah. But I can't just call him and be like, 'hey Logan, read this thing I wrote at two a.m and then tear it apart for me.' Besides, he's in London and got a ton of stuff on his plate—"

"I'm sorry," Lorelai suddenly interrupted, eyebrows raised and a small smile on her face. "I don't mean to barge into this conversation, but I happened to hear rich newspaper boy, London and Logan. You wouldn't happen to be talking about Logan Huntzberger would you?"

Marley blinked at her, taking a lot longer than she was proud of to be able to put two and two together. Rory. Oh boy.

"We are, actually," Marley chuckled, shaking her head. "I'm out of it today. I totally forgot that you know him."

"I know him a little too well, I think," Lorelai said with a knowing sort of smile. "How do you know him?"

Marley opened her mouth to speak but quickly closed it, knowing that she didn't have time to get into about twenty years of trauma to be able to explain everything. "My, uh, father just got into business with Mitchum. They're partnering up for some sort of empire, as capitalists do."

Lorelai snickered at this but made a face at the mention of Mitchum. "Lovely guy."

"I didn't get to know him all too well, but if he's willing to be my dad's business partner, I feel like I can get a pretty good read on him."

"He's basically the Stalin of the newspaper world," Lorelai said, handing Marley the money to pay for her food. "He was a jerk to Rory."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Marley replied. "She seems to be doing pretty well now, though."

Lorelai nodded, smiling softly at the thought of her daughter. "Yeah, she's been good. I think she's missing Logan a little bit, but everything else is good."

"I can imagine it's hard for them with the whole London thing," Marley said, giving Lorelai her change and finally handing her her food. "Long-distance is a bitch."

"You're telling me. They're figuring it out though."

"Rory always does."

Lorelai grinned at her, clutching the bag of food in her hand. "Listen, I'd love to stay and chat, but I've got a guy coming to the Inn at four."

"Of course, don't let me keep you," Marley said. "Good luck!"

Lorelai thanked her and ran out of the diner, throwing her food into the passenger seat of her car and pulling her phone out of her pocket to dial a number. Marley glanced at Courtney who was watching the scene, amused.

"You know she's calling Rory to tell her that you know Logan, right?" Courtney said, taking a sip from her mug.

Marley sighed, leaning back against the counter and crossing her arms over her chest. "Yeah, I know. I'm sure Logan told her, though."

(He had not.)

Courtney nodded. "I would hope so. It's been like two weeks, right?"

(It had been three. Logan Huntzberger was a distracted little shit.)

"Right," Marley said. "I don't feel like it should be that big of a deal."

(It would be. But not for the reasons she thought.)

Marley shook her head at the thought, plastering a smile on her face as a group of three construction workers entered the diner and sat at one of the tables by the window. As she told them that she'd be with them momentarily, she noticed how light her voice sounded and frowned.

She'd be fine. It would all be fine.

(It would be. Eventually.)

✧

MARLEY WAS JUST about to start closing when Rory Gilmore entered Luke's with a hesitant look on her face and fire in her eyes.

"Hey," she said with a tight smile on her face, "are you guys still open?"

Marley glances at the clock on the wall. "For the next five minutes, yeah." Her brows drew together and she watched Rory's eyes darting around the diner. "Can I get you something?"

Rory suddenly looked surprised, as if she had forgotten that serving people was part of Marley's job, and that people usually ordered when they walked into a diner. "Yeah, yeah. Can I get a cup of coffee to go? Medium. Black."

"You got it."

There was a palpable tension in the diner and Marley knew exactly what was creating it. Years had passed and she still could read Rory better than she'd ever imagined. Marley was simply waiting for her to say something, just as she had with Jess ages ago.

As Marley began to fill up a to-go cup, she heard Rory shift from behind her. She withheld her sigh as she heard Rory begin to speak. "How, uh-- my mom called me today. She told me that you know my boyfriend. Logan."

Marley nodded, turning around with Rory's cup that now had a lid on it. "My dad and Mitchum just got into business with one another. My dad wants my brother and I back in his life for some reason, so we go to company parties now. Logan kind of came along with it," she told her.

"So, you guys are friends?" she asked. There was an edge that rang true in her friendly tone that made Marley want to roll her eyes.

"I don't know if that's what you'd call it, but—"

"My mom said that she heard Courtney say that you guys talk on the phone pretty regularly," Rory interrupted. "I feel like that's pretty friend-y to me."

Marley's expression changed completely as she looked at her in confusion. "Did I do something wrong?"

"I just think it's interesting how you've become friends with all of my boyfriends," Rory stated innocently. "And that you've somehow managed to become close to all of them. That's all."

Marley gaped at her, resisting the urge to laugh in her face. Where was this coming from? "Rory, for your sake, I truly hope you're not accusing me of what I think you are."

"I just felt the need to say something—"

"Well, then say less," Marley said, tone firmer than Rory had ever heard it, eyes widening at the sound. "Because if you're mad about the fact that Dean practically lived in my brother's room in high school, that Jess and I worked here and became friends, and that mine and Logan's fathers now work together, I'm going to need to tell you to get over yourself."

Rory clenched her jaw, shaking her head at her words. "Don't tell me to get over myself. I just feel like every time I get into a relationship, you suddenly appear with it."

Marley couldn't help herself. She let out a humorless bark of a laugh, looking at Rory as if she were insane. "Jesus Christ. Grow the fuck up."

"Excuse me?"

"You don't get to walk in here and insinuate that I'm trying to steal your boyfriends away from you," Marley said, narrowing her eyes at her. "I'm terribly sorry that I'm friends with all of them and I'm sorry if you feel as though I've been the reason for your relationship issues. But until I homewreck one of them, you don't get to blame that shit on me, okay? It's insulting."

"I'm not blaming you for my relationship issues!"

"Then what the hell are you doing?"

"I just don't trust you, Marley!" The way Rory spoke sounded as if it took a lot for her to say. "You're talking to my boyfriend more than I am, you knew more about Jess just by working with him than I ever did dating him, and I just... I don't understand. I don't understand, why them?" Her voice was strained now, filled with an anger Marley wasn't used to. "Why you? Are you, like, trying to be me, or something?"

Marley laughed again, this time in disbelief. "Rory, if I were trying to be you, I would have slept with Logan already."

Rory looked as though Marley had fatally wounded her. "That's not fair—"

"Not fair?" Marley cut herself off, shaking her head. "You want to know what's not fair? What's not fair is you blaming me for your own insecurities. Just because you can't take responsibility for anything in your life that isn't going your way doesn't mean that suddenly I'm the reason because it makes sense to you at the moment. I have my own fuckin' problems, Rory. More than you could possibly comprehend. I don't need you coming in here and dumping your shit on me because your own house isn't in check right now."

Rory was fuming, but Marley didn't care. All she wanted right now was to be done with this conversation. It seemed that Rory felt the same way as she said, "Whatever. Just let me know when you're ready to have your own life and want to stop living mine, okay?"

And with that, she walked out of the diner, slamming the door, and leaving her coffee cup on the counter sitting before Marley.

Marley stood there for a moment, watching Rory walk off from the window, unable to process what exactly had just happened. She couldn't say that this is what she expected to have happened to her at 10 p.m on a Wednesday.

Before Marley could get back to work, she noticed that Rory had stopped in the middle of the road. Marley furrowed her brow at this, only getting more confused as Rory turned around and began heading for the diner once more.

As soon as she had left, Rory Gilmore returned to Luke's. She had a strange look on her face as the door shut behind her. She stayed still in her spot, eyes on the floor, avoiding eye contact with Marley. Marley just stared at her.

"You forgot your coffee," Marley muttered.

Rory glanced up at her, shutting her eyes as they met gazes. "I'm sorry. That... was completely uncalled for, and I'm sorry. I-I don't know what that was."

Marley's shoulders dropped, looking at Rory and the way she was practically cowering in front of her. The way she'd returned with her tail between her legs told Marley there was a little bit more to the impromptu attack she'd just received. She sighed heavily. Oh, what the hell.

Marley pursed her lips and pushed them to the side, grabbing the to-go cup and emptying into the soda machine drain. She threw the cup away and turned around to grab fresh coffee grounds from below the counter.

"Sit down," Marley said to her quietly. When she heard no movement, Marley glanced over her shoulder to see Rory staring at her in surprise. "You've obviously got some shit to get off your chest. Might as well drink coffee that isn't a day old."

Rory's footsteps were quiet and hesitant, but Marley chuckled softly when she finally heard her sit down at the counter. "I don't know what's wrong with me," Rory said. "That wasn't me."

Marley snorted. "Please," she said, turning to look at her with a wry smile on her face. "I vaguely remember a story about you bitching out that Shane girl Jess was hooking up with at her place of work too."

Rory opened her mouth, ready to defend herself, but folded completely and covered her face with her hands. There was a laugh beneath her words as she said, "I can't believe you know about that."

"I mean, Jess tells me everything and I'm best friends with Courtney Burke who's, like, omnipotent when it comes to Stars Hollow gossip, so word got to me pretty quickly."

"Shane feels like forever ago," Rory said.

Marley smiled softly and she the sound of the coffee drizzling into the pot. "She was. I heard she's in Miami now. Or Tampa. I can't remember which one."

"I could definitely see her in Miami."

"Her family comes in here sometimes. It's kinda scary how similar she and her mom are."

"I've never seen her mom. Do they look alike?"

"I mean, yeah. I was talking more about the fact that they both have the IQ of a brillo pad."

Rory snorted at this, finally easing up for the first time all night. Her shoulders relaxed as she watched Marley turn around to grab the coffee pot and began to pour Rory a cup of coffee. "I... I really am sorry about what I said, Marley. I didn't mean it. I want you to know that," she told her.

Marley nodded slowly as she placed the mug in front of Rory, stepping away from the counter to lean on the one behind her. "You meant some of it."

"No, I—"

"C'mon Rory, that didn't just come out of nowhere," she said. "There was some truth behind it. Something happened to make you say it. What was it?"

Rory stared at her for a moment before sighing. She set her elbows on the table and put her face into her hands, shaking her head as she moved to speak. "I can't do long distance," she muttered, as if she were ashamed to say it. "I thought I could. I thought I could be that supportive girlfriend whose boyfriend got a huge job in a foreign country and can just deal with talking to him on the phone, but I didn't realize how disconnected we were going to be."

"You're trying to make it work. You can't blame yourself for trying," Marley said.

Rory shrugged in exasperation. "I just didn't realize what this job would mean. I knew it'd take up a lot of his time, but I didn't think that it meant that I wouldn't get to talk to him. It's weird to go from living with someone to only talking to them once a week if you're lucky. I haven't talked to him for more than five minutes in weeks." Rory averted her eyes from Marley, staring down at the coffee in her mug. "So... when my mom called me and told me that you were not only friends with Logan but were talking to him regularly I just..."

"Lost it?"

"Yeah."

It was Marley's turn to sigh. She looked at Rory and the way she was hunched over her mug, eyes hidden behind her bangs. Marley knew Rory wasn't proud of what had happened.

Marley stood up straighter, moving closer to the counter. "I get it."

Rory's head shot up, brows furrowed and mouth slightly parted. "What?"

"I mean, I wouldn't have handled it in the way you did, but I can understand the whole jealousy thing."

Rory's expression didn't change. "Why?"

Marley shrugged. "I don't know. I think I just have the jealousy complex of an eleven-year-old or something, but—"

"No," Rory said, shaking her head. "Why are you being so nice to me? I was just a total jerk to you and now you're serving me coffee and empathizing with me to make me feel less insane."

Marley let out a deep breath, crossing her arms over her chest. There was a chuckle that escaped her lips as she thought about the correct way to phrase what she wanted to say. "Because," she began, a hint of a humorless smile appearing, "when you're like me and you've spent twenty years of your life angry and resentful towards someone who deserves it, you tend to learn who doesn't." The smile on her face grew a bit more sincere. "Being a bitch about whatever the hell just happened isn't going to fix anything. Besides, I had a feeling as soon as you walked in here that all that nothing that you were gonna talk about was actually about me."

Rory exhaled at her words, grinning in a way that matched hers. "Good. Seriously, good." She laughed to herself, fingers gripping her mug. "I really was scared you were going to hate me forever or hold a grudge or something."

"Please. Grudges aren't my thing." Marley took a moment to evaluate her words, immediately knowing they were false as soon as they come out of her mouth. "That was a lie. I'm actually very good at holding grudges. I held a grudge against Jess for two years, but he deserved it. Asshole."

"How is he, by the way?" Rory asked, snickering at the faux distaste in Marley's voice as she spoke about Jess. "I haven't talked to him in months."

Marley smiled softly. "He's good. Truncheon just signed an author they think is going to get things going for them, so he's been pretty busy with all that stuff. I'm going back to Philly next week to move into an apartment with him and get everything situated before I start my internship."

"You guys are living together?" Rory asked, eyes lighting up.

"Yeah, I decided Residence Life wasn't my calling anymore," Marley said. "My friend Lauren is moving in with her boyfriend and Jess was basically our third roommate last year, so I figured it made sense. He was a pain in the ass about it but I got him to cave."

"He'd cave for you if you asked him to burn all his books."

Marley raised her brows. "I think you and I both know that's a line that he simply can't cross."

Rory laughed but shook her head at her comment. "I think you underestimate how much you mean to him," she said. "Even when he was here, you got him in a way that nobody else seemed to. He talked to you about things that he'd never tell me. I always kind of... envied it. But looking back, I know that there's no way that I can be mad about that anymore."

Marley took a moment to take this all in, thinking back to her high school days when she and Jess would verbally spar in as they passed each other during dinner rushes, knowing that everyone in the diner was watching them in some way. How they used to find a way to talk (or argue) about anything and everything and still, somehow find a way to write each other notes to talk more. How nobody could quite understand anything that was going on there but them.

"He really did love you, Rory." Marley was quiet. "It was just hard for him to show. It was easier for him to pretend he didn't care as much as he did." She huffed a laugh as she looked at her again. "Logan loves you too."

Rory blushed at the mention of her boyfriend, bowing her head. "Yeah. I know."

"He never said your name the night that we met, but you could tell by the way he talked about you," she said. "I also gave him shit for the cane and the whole Costa Rica thing and he talked about how lethal we'd be against his friends."

"Who, Colin and Finn?" Rory asked, rolling her eyes. Logan hadn't mentioned their names, so Marley simply shrugged. "Anyone who passed first grade could be lethal against them," she said. "They're decent guys, really. They just have no direction. I don't know how they're going to survive after college."

"Relatable."

"Oh, c'mon. You said you had an internship lined up already? That's pretty good!" she said. "Where are you interning?"

Marley chuckled, bracing for the impact of what she was about to say. "I got the Harperch internship."

Rory's eyes widened, her mouth dropping open. "You got the Harperch internship as a junior?" She smiled at her in slight disbelief. "That's... amazing, Marley. Seriously. I thought they only gave it to graduating seniors?"

"I did too," Marley said. "But my advisor told me to apply basically just for shits and giggles and as soon as I got past the first round of applications, I decided why not try to go all the way?" Marley laughed to herself, not wanting to go as in-depth of the process as she had with Logan the night of the gala. "But, yeah. Somehow I ended up getting it."

"My friend Paris applied for their summer internship. Didn't go over well."

"She's the really intense one, right? Accused Luke of pimp activities?"

"Yup," Rory chuckled. "I'll let her know that her competition was pretty tough."

Marley grinned at this, eyes casting downward to look at the floor she most definitely had to clean. She could hear a clock ticking on the diner wall as they both went quiet, a lull peacefully making its way into the conversation. She heard a car roll through the red light outside the diner, snickering as she saw police lights flash over the diner, ready to pull whoever it was over.

"I've never tried to be you." Marley saw Rory's head turn to her at her words. "On paper, I know we're way similar than I think either of us care to realize, but I've never tried to be you. I don't want you to ever have that impression of me."

"I don't, I promise you," she replied. Her voice was soft. "It just... gets weird sometimes when I look at you. Like, I know that we're similar, but sometimes I feel like I look at you and I see this, I don't know, enhanced version of me?" Rory let the next word leave her lips with a labored breath. "And it's hard not to get jealous of that."

Marley put her hand out in front of her to stop Rory. "Woah, woah, woah. You're jealous of me?" Marley asked. "Rory, are you kidding? You've got this incredible family who adores you, you've got a boyfriend and friends who love you, you're out of this world smart, you went to Chilton, you're the editor of the newspaper at Yale— you go to Yale!" Marley was practically shouting at this point, smiling as Rory began to laugh. "Dude, you're Rory fucking Gilmore and you're jealous of me? Are you kidding?"

"I don't know!" Rory said through an embarrassed sort of laughter. "You're just... you're you, Marley. Everyone who knows you loves you, you're not afraid of anyone, you're funny, you're able to be nice to anyone— you sat me down for coffee after I was a bitch to you!" She shrugged. "I know that you're not trying to be me. That was so stupid to say. I just got a little intimidated when I heard that you knew Logan."

"Okay, can we talk about how crazy that is?" Marley asked, throwing her hands up in the air. "Like, what are the odds that my dad's business partner's son is your boyfriend? How does that happen to us?"

And with that, Marley and Rory were launched into a completely new conversation, speaking as though they'd never gotten into an argument in the first place. It continued for an hour, talking about Logan, about her internship, about things that they never seemed to get to in high school. It was nice. It really was.

It was even nicer when Rory asked if she could help Marley close up the diner about fifteen minutes in. They continued to talk as they stacked the chairs, swept the floors and cleaned the glasses, Rory asking all about the days of her and Jess working here and how the hell they actually became friends. Marley truly didn't have an answer for her, but tried to explain everything the best that she could.

It wasn't until the end of the night, when Marley ended up driving Rory home, waving at Lorelai through the window (who wore an expression that was way too confused not to be funny to the both of them), that everything seemed to become worth it.

"Thank you," Rory said after the laughter died down. "Thank you for everything tonight. I was expecting it to go a totally different way, so... thank you."

"I honestly wasn't expecting my night to go this way either, but I'm glad it did."

"And I'm sorry again, I—"

"Rory, if I hear you apologize one more time, I'm never going to talk to you again," Marley told her, a smile breaking through despite her attempt to look serious. "We got everything out tonight. Let's just leave it at that."

Rory nodded in agreement. "Sounds good," she replied. "Thanks for listening to me tonight, too. Lane's been so busy with work and, uh, other stuff and my mom's got so much on her plate that I haven't really been able to talk to anyone about it. Jess always said you were a good listener."

Marley's grin turned a bit more fond. "He did?"

"Yeah. I remember him mentioning it when you guys really started to become friends." Rory smiled at the memory of Jess talking to her about Marley during some movie they lost interest in immediately. "He talked about you a lot."

"I'm sure half of it was while throwing knives at a dartboard with a picture of my face in the middle."

"Oh, please," Rory laughed. "You guys never actually hated each other. You guys were just able to argue like nobody I've ever met in my life. You became friends way before you guys admitted it."

Marley didn't say anything to argue her point. She knew it was true, as did Jess. If only she and Jess knew what their relationship would become.

"I never thanked you for that, by the way," Rory said, breaking Marley from her thoughts. She drew her brows together at Rory's words. "For being his friend. I know he made it hard, but you never gave up on him. I know it meant a lot to him."

Marley could feel her throat tightening up. "Yeah," she said, "he's found a bunch of ways to make it up to me."

Rory smiled at her, grabbing her things which included the leftover doughnuts Marley had given her, as she knew the Gilmores would finish them in a night. "If I don't see you before you head back to Philadephia, good luck this year," she said, opening the car door. "Especially with Harperch. Let me know how it goes."

Marley rolled down the window as Rory shut the door, nodding at her as she put the car in reverse. "Definitely. And thank you. Tell your mom I say hi."

"Will do. See you around, Marley."

Marley bid Rory goodbye, turning around in their driveway to leave the Gilmore residence. Rory smiled as she watched Marley's car leave, turning to walk up to her house where her mother was standing by the door, with her ear on the glass.

She wasn't looking forward to hearing her mother make fun of her for feeling threatened by Marley for the next week.

✧

THE WEEK CAME and went and before anyone knew it, Marley was standing in an apartment at nine at night with four of her closest friends and Luke Danes.

There were boxed scattered everywhere in what was supposed to be their living room, only made somewhat obvious by the couch Marley's dad had left. Everything that hadn't been left for the moving company at Marley's house had been moved into the apartment and Jess had just finished moving in everything of his. He and Luke had successfully completed moving his mattress and bed frame and had managed to keep the bickering to a minimum, something of which Marley was unbelievably proud of them for.

"Yup. It won't fit that way, we've got to flip it," Luke had said, five minutes after trying to make the bed frame fit through the door in the wrong way.

Jess's scoff had been slightly labored, most of the weight in his arms now. "Oh, so now you agree with me."

"I didn't disagree with you, I just wanted to try my way first."

"And it worked out great."

"Just shut up and lift."

Christopher and Lauren were attempting to finish their work on putting together a nightstand for Marley, and Matthew had fallen asleep on the couch like all of them were expecting him to. They'd refrained from saying anything about it out of the courtesy of his feelings, as he was having some relationship troubles with Jenna, it that didn't stop Christopher and Lauren from wrapping him into the couch with leftover bubble wrap.

Luke and Jess arrived back into the apartment shortly after the nightstand had been finished just as Marley was beginning to hang some posters and pictures on her walls. Marley heard Luke call her name from the living room as she finished taping the last corner of her Smith's poster that she'd decided would fit nicely beneath the line of photos and keepsakes she had hung and clothespinned to the top perimeter of her room.

Marley moved down from her step ladder and was greeted by a smile from Luke as she entered the room. He had the keys to his truck in his hand and Marley furrowed her brow. "Where are you going?" she asked.

"I think I'm gonna head out. I'll be back in the morning when your stuff gets here," he replied.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay here?" Marley glanced over to Matthew who was snoring quietly on the couch. "I will gladly kick Matthew out if you want the couch. It's really comfortable, I swear."

Luke shook his head. "I got a room at a hotel down the street."

"You can sleep in Jess's bed. You did most of the work with that anyway."

"He spent five minutes trying to make a six-foot bed frame fit through a four-foot door," Jess argued, offended by the implication that he did nothing to help.

Luke chuckled at them and shook his head once more. "I'll be fine at the hotel. I drove by it today, it looks nice."

Marley frowned. "I just feel bad making you drive all the way out here, work for five hours and then make you pay for a hotel."

"Marley, I'm fine. I was gonna volunteer to help you guys out before you asked me," he replied, reaching out to bump her shoulder softly. Marley gave him a small smile. "I'll be back in the morning."

"I'll walk you out," Jess said, walking with Luke to the door.

"Drive safe," Marley called after him.

The door shut and Marley turned back around to see Christopher and Lauren also getting ready to leave. The nightstand stood on its own now, only looking the slightest bit crooked. Marley didn't mind.

Lauren grinned at her as she looked around the apartment, telling her just how much they all were going to be hanging out here during this year. Marley nodded as Christopher planned out their 'future housewarming party', smiling softly as he ranted about where the bar was going to be, where the games were going to be played, and how everything else was going to go down. He walked over to the couch and sat on Matthew as he talked about the movie nights they were going to have, the bubble wrap popping beneath him.

Matthew shouted in surprise as he awoke, attempting to hit Christopher off of him, but was blocked by the bubble wrap. Lauren rolled her eyes as the two boys began fighting, pulling Christopher off of Matthew and dragging him out of the apartment. Lauren and Christopher bid Marley goodbye, Matthew following in suit as he finally got all the bubble wrap all of him.

It was quiet in the apartment for the first time and it suddenly all became real to Marley. She was on her own. She and Jess were on their own. The thought of it made her smile.

She moved into her room with that same smile on her face, continuing to clothespin her photos and favorite things to the string she'd hung. The smile on her face grew fonder as she picked the signed ABBA postcard that Jess had sent to her years ago out of her box of things.

"I can't believe you still have that." Marley jumped at the sound of Jess's voice from behind her. He was leaning on the door frame, looking at her with a smile that Marley could only describe as fond. She turned around to face him, seeing that he'd changed out of the clothes he'd been in, grinning down at the card in her hands.

"Of course I still have it," she said. "It was the only thing that let know me you were alive when you were out Kerouac-ing after you left. It's signed too, so that's pretty cool."

"Sap."

Marley raised her brows at him. "You still have my necklace on your rearview mirror."

"That's different," Jess said nonchalantly. "You put that there."

"Yeah, but you kept it there."

"Because I forget about it."

Marley nodded at him slowly, turning around as he sat on her blown up air mattress, the rubber creaking as he laid down on it. "Fine," she said. "I'll just take it back, then. I've actually been missing that necklace."

"No, you won't."

Marley suppressed a smile, getting off of the step ladder, the postcard now hung up. "It's a nice necklace and if you're just going to—"

Jess didn't open his eyes, but his voice was firm. "The fuckin' necklace is staying in my car."

Marley laughed at his words and shook her head, quietly surrendering to him. She crossed her arms over her chest as she watched him lay on what was supposed to be her bed for the night, looking like he was about to fall asleep. "You're not sleeping on my bed. Luke would kill you if he found out that you guys did all that work just for you to sleep on an air mattress tonight."

"I'm not going to fall asleep."

"If you do I'm sleeping in your bed."

Jess finally opened his eyes, looking at her unamused. "I'm not going to fall asleep."

"Mmhmm."

He used one of his arms to prop himself up, holding the other one out for her to grab. "I won't. Just help me up." Marley looked at him suspiciously, a scowl turning at her lips. Jess put his hand over his heart. "Scout's honor."

Marley snorted, finally giving in and grabbing Jess's hand. She wobbled slightly as she realized Jess that wasn't planning on going anywhere and instead was pulling her downwards. She swore at him, laughing despite the anger in her voice. She planted her feet and pulled in the opposite direction to no avail.

Jess gave one last tug and it sent Marley flying into him, the air mattress making a terrible sound as she landed. Marley gasped through her laughter, moving away from him to make sure that the mattress hadn't popped. "You idiot!" she yelled, only hearing Jess laugh in response. "If you popped this thing, I swear to God—"

"This thing could get thrown into a woodchipper and it still wouldn't pop," Jess said. "It's been through some shit."

"Oh God," she said. Marley whipped her head around to look at him. "You didn't like, hook up with Shane on this thing, did you?"

Jess rolled his eyes at her. "No, I actually had a bed by then. You're safe."

"Are you sure? There weren't any other girls before her, were there? I just need to know if I need to sanitize my entire body."

"Geez, you're annoying," Jess said, laying his head back on the mattress.

"I had to ask to make sure. You came off as kind of a whore before Rory."

"Don't slut-shame me."

"Speaking of Rory," she said, moving her body to face him. "I forgot to tell you about this, but she came into the diner on Wednesday and accused me of homewrecking her and Logan's relationship."

Marley watched Jess's expression as he processed what she was saying, then laughed to himself softly. "I'm sure you took that well."

"I took it with elegance and grace as always."

"How the hell did that come up anyway?"

Marley sighed. "Lorelai came in to pick up food when Courtney and I were talking about Logan and basically tattled on us to Rory, who had no idea that I even knew Logan because he's an asshole and didn't tell her."

"He is an asshole."

"Hey," Marley warned, giving him a look. "But yeah, Rory found out that somehow I had been talking with Logan more than she had and kinda just went off on me about every grievance she's ever had with me how involved I am with the boys in her life. We're all good now, though. She apologized almost immediately, I made her some coffee and hyped her up. I actually think we're friends now."

Jess was looking at her with an expression that resembled disbelief but had something else in it that Marley couldn't define. "What did she mean by how involved you are with the guys in her life?"

Marley shrugged. "It boiled down to me being more in touch with Logan than she was. But it was just about like, Dean and Jacob being friends and then you and me being friends. She admitted to being jealous of how you could talk to me about anything."

"Huh."

It was quiet between them for a moment, the silence only being broken by the squeaking of the mattress as Marley laid down next to him. Her voice was quiet as she said, "Can I ask you something?"

Jess glanced over at her. "Shoot."

"I know I've asked you this before, but like, why me? Why was I the person you could tell things to?" Before Jess could answer, Marley cut him off. "And I know that I was able to get some things that she couldn't relate to or whatever, and it's what we do. But... I don't know. Why me?"

Jess was quiet, as Marley expected him to me. She turned on her side to look as him and watched as he tried to piece his thoughts together. He bit the inside of his cheek and blinked up at the ceiling.

The softness in his voice was something that Marley wasn't expecting when he spoke, but she was able to hear every word as he asked her, "Remember the night you told me about your dad?"

"Yeah."

"That was the night where things started to change for me," he said. Marley's brow creased. "I kind of started to realize that I never actually hated you. You were annoying as hell and a pain in the ass, but I didn't actually hate you." He swallowed harshly, shaking his head. "You just felt... familiar to me and I didn't know why, but it freaked me out in this way that I couldn't explain."

"So we fought because I felt familiar to you?" Marley asked.

Jess shook his head and a smile began to twist at his lips. "No, we fought because you had terrible opinions and didn't know how to back down from a fight."

Marley simply laughed at the hypocrisy of that statement and hit Jess on the arm.

"The night you told me about your dad, everything seemed to click for me. I got why you felt familiar," he said, getting back on track to what he was saying. "I started to see so much of myself in you and I understood why it made feel the way it did. And then you started baring your soul to me and it all just kind of started to make sense. I figured that if you could be open with me, I could start trying it with you."

Jess finally looked at her, seeing that he'd rendered his friend speechless. There was the tiniest smile on her face and she was looking back at him in a way that him feel seen, just as he'd felt the very first time Marley had shown him her notes for The Subsect.

He looked away from her, attempting to shrug what he said off. "You read the book, too. A lot of the things said about Katherine and what happened were nonfiction." Jess glanced at her once more. "Except for the thing about her being funny without ever being mean. You're brutal sometimes. Especially when we first met."

"Yeah," Marley said, clearing her throat as her voice came out chopped. "But, I'm funny. Even seventeen-year-old Jess could admit that."

"He would have never admitted anything to you. Especially a compliment."

Marley chuckled, shifting her body again so that she was facing the ceiling. "Do you think that they would've ever imagined we'd be here?"

"Who? Me and you back then?" he asked, snorting as Marley nodded. "Absolutely not. If you'd told me that I'd be eventually moving in with someone who listened to Fountains of Wayne, I would have questioned my morals."

"God, the CDs. Those feel like forever ago."

"They were. We're old, Acosta. You're almost twenty-one."

"Legality is within reach." She shut her eyes and laughed to herself. "Don't remind Chris of my birthday. He doesn't need another party to plan here."

"It's not until October. He's got time," Jess said.

Marley gasped. "You remembered my birthday. We really are friends."

"As if living together wasn't proof enough."

Marley turned her head to look at him, finding that Jess did the same as he heard her move. There was a wide smile on her face as they locked eyes, laughing as she shook her head, moving to stare up at the ceiling once more. "We have an apartment. We're living together."

"We're living together," Jess repeated. Marley could hear the smile in his voice.

"That's crazy. Who let us do this?"

"You peer pressured me into it."

Marley ignored Jess's words and instead flipped her body over completely to lay on her stomach with her chin on top of her arms. She stared at Jess expectantly. "We should get a cat," she said with a wide grin on her face.

Jess didn't even blink before he responded, "We're not getting a cat."

"There's a shelter a couple of blocks from here that's like, filled with cats. I did service hours there once for one of my classes and it's—"

"We're not getting a cat."

"Oh, c'mon, please? You can name it. I know you're a cat guy deep down."

"I'm not having this conversation with you right now," he chuckled, closing his eyes.

Marley scowled at him. "Well, open your eyes and get out of my room because you're not sleeping here."

Jess ignored her, a ghost of a smile on his face as he pretended to snore into the air mattress, completely disregarding Marley's protests. He grabbed Marley's wrist but remained stationary as she tried to roll him off the bed, holding his ground successfully. She began muttering things under her breath and continued to find ways to move him, as the thing was barely big enough for the both of them.

Marley felt him squeeze her wrist and she stopped, awaiting whatever it was he had to say. There was a certain rasp in his voice that caught Marley off-guard when he asked, "If I say maybe to the cat, will you leave me alone?"

All efforts were thrown out the window as Marley agreed, taking her wrist out of his hand and grabbing the blankets and pillow she'd left out for herself. Jess took the blankets from her, throwing it over himself and Marley before flopping back into the air mattress.

"Your room is literally thirty feet away from mine," Marley noted, putting her pillow down.

"I don't feel like moving. I'm tired."

"Lazy."

"Call it what you want. I'm not moving. You can sleep in my bed if you want."

Marley sighed but said nothing, reaching over to turn off the lamp sitting by itself in the corner. She snuggled into her pillow, reaching over to take some of the blankets Jess was hogging. She heard him grunt in agitation, turning over on his side to face her.

He muttered something about her being terrible at sharing a bed, to which he got a swift retort about how he didn't have to be here. Jess simply huffed moved closer to her, trying to grab more of the blanket.

Things settled between them, the sounds of the city outside quietly filling the room. Marley turned on her side in order to get more comfortable, staring at Jess and watching as his breathing became a little slower and more steady.

"You have something to say or are you just going to stare at me like a freak?" Jess suddenly asked. His words were a little slurred, almost sounding as if he were drunk.

Marley shook her head but smiled at him. "I'm just really happy we're roommates."

She watched as his lips quirked up, one eye slowly opening to look at her. His arm came out from underneath the blankets and wrapped around Marley, pulling her into his chest to hug her. She was taken back by this action momentarily but quickly eased into it, placing her head on his chest. "I'm not too mad about it either," he said.

Marley smiled into his chest. "It's kind of weird, though."

Jess shook his head, hesitantly pressing his lips to her hair. "No," he whispered. "It's already starting to feel like home to me."

Marley couldn't hold back the smile on her face as she pulled away from him. "Good," she replied, volume of her voice matching his. She raised her brows at him. "It'd feel more like home if we got a cat."

Jess's eyes weren't open, but Marley was sure he'd rolled them. "Goodnight, Acosta."

Marley groaned as he flipped the other way, falling asleep within minutes. She followed shortly after, hearing his snores against the honking of the horns and bustle of the city outside.

The only word she could find to describe how she was feeling was content.

✧

MARLEY AWOKE TO Jess's snoring against her ear. She blinked slowly against the light that was streaming through her window and reached over to grab her phone that was laying beside the air mattress to check the time. The moving company would be there in an hour.

Marley sighed, turning back to lay down for a little bit longer. She chuckled as she realized Jess had moved onto her pillow and was practically cuddled into her. She moved from his grip, the mattress creaking beneath her as she got off of it. Jess shifted and turned back over, taking all the blankets with him.

She wouldn't mention it to him when he woke up.

The only thing that was said when he left her room a couple minutes later was, "Don't tell Luke that I slept in there instead of on my bed. He'll kill me."

Marley only nodded, giving him a smile, ignoring whatever it was in her chest that had seemed to settle in there overnight.

✧✧✧

author's note: hello! happy saturday!! hope it's going as well as it possibly can in these circumstances.

hope you enjoyed this one! i'm not sure how i feel about it, but i'm excited for what's to come in the next couple of chapters. hope y'all are too.

also, i watched a couple of episodes of heroes during this quarantine period, so i'm putting it into canon that this is what jess looks like in this era. so. something to think about:

love you all tons!!
-mags