❝HAMMERS AND BONDS❞
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⋆𐙚₊˚⊹ chapter forty-one,
Gilmore Girls — Season Two

March 4th, 2002

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[ LUCY'S POV ]

❝WE'LL HOLD HANDS AND SKIP AFTERWARDS,❞ is what Luke Danes says to me and Jess after plunging a sledgehammer into the wall next to my bed. After he walks off, Jess and I stare at the hole, our mouths open in shock as drywall begins to crumble out of the giant hole that Dad created.

I hum, shrugging my shoulders and deciding I'm going to make some fun out of this. I step away from the wall and grab another hammer from the closet. It's not as big as the sledgehammer but it'll do some damage, I'm sure. Jess stares at me, confused, but then he quickly realises what I'm about to do. "Here's to living together." I then lift the hammer and hit the wall, leaving a matching hole next to the one my dad created. "We might as well help."

I hit the wall again and again, and then Jess lifts his sledgehammer and hits the wall along with me. We might as well indulge in the chaos. We are so going to create a bigger problem, but this is very, very fun.

We continue to smack and wreck the wall with the hammers, grinning and laughing manically. When Jess turns on some ridiculous rock music to make all this just a little more ridiculous, we continue to bash the wall until it's nearly destroyed. There's drywall, old paint and all kinds of crap on the floor, on the bed and on the dresser.

"We're creating a bigger problem," I realise, staring at our mess, and I rest the hammer against my shoulder. "A way bigger problem."

"This was your idea," Jess argues. "Clearly, you have some pent up anger."

I laugh in relief. "Yeah. You're the reason for this, but this feels good." I hit the hammer against the wall again, laughing stupidly, and then I kick a piece of the wall away before I slip over and break something. "What anger do you have?"

He shrugs. "Being here."

"Well aren't you joyful."

I nudge him just as he hits the hammer against a piece of wall that's been crumbling away for the past two minutes. Now, it's entirely destroyed and we're staring straight ahead into another room. "I can't believe that the wall was this thin. The owner probably moved out because of your crappy taste in music. I mean, seriously, what is this crap?" I gesture to the rock music playing, and he shakes his head, hitting the wall again. "Are you now picturing the wall is me?"

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, you're being rather aggressive now." He hits the wall again, his eyes on me, and I laugh loudly. "I thought we were bonding."

"You insulted my music."

"Well, it is crap," I iterate.

"Says you. I heard you listening to Billy Joel the other night," he bites back, and I whip my head over to him, my mouth agape. "Hurts, doesn't it?"

"You suck." I hit the wall with my hammer as hard as I possibly can.

"Pretending the wall is me?" he mocks.

"I always was."

After Jess and I rip the wall down, causing more problems than solving them, Dad calls Tom and his team of contractors to turn the upstairs into a liveable space, using the upstairs of the building next door to create more room for us to live there. Yes, my dad bought the one-hundred thousand dollar building next door out of spite so Taylor won't buy it, but now we get to stay in our apartment and have more room.

However, because the apartment is being redone upstairs, the entire diner is under construction too, and has been for an entire week. We've been serving customers drywall all morning as the ceiling starts to chip away every time they start working. I don't even want to imagine what upstairs looks like if this is what it looks like downstairs.

     Tom actually told us off for destroying the wall, claiming we did a crap job, and he wasn't wrong. We've made more of a mess than we should've, but it was so worth it. Jess and I are probably the reason the work is taking longer than it should.

Dad grunts and groans all morning, apologises to his fourth customer of the morning and offers free coffee to anyone eating drywall with their food. "I thought Tom said there'd be minimal disruptions," I say to Dad as he passes by me.

"Apparently this is minimal disruptions." In what world is this minimal disruptions? "And you know that wall you and Jess broke?" I nod. "They found some pipes that shouldn't be there so they gotta move them."

I laugh at this insanity. "Move them where?"

"They don't know. They have to figure out what they do first." All this sounds too unbelievable to be true. "I'm giving them one more week and then they have to get out of here."

"Yeah, because I would really like to sleep one of these nights." I've been sleeping in Dad's bed while he sleeps on the floor and Jess sleeps on the sofa. I should be sleeping fine, but then in the night, a piece of wall will fall or the snores of Dad and Jess will wake me. Basically, I can't sleep.

     "You're the one who broke the wall."

     "You're the one who told us too," I argue back, defending myself because it was his insane idea to have us destroy the wall.

Lorelai and Rory walk in, and Dad rushes over to them as they sit at the danger table. Three people got nailed in the head earlier because they sat at that exact table, and we don't want Rory and Lorelai to be hit by anything, they're our most loyal customers. However, they're also stubborn and Lorelai just wants food so they stay at that table.

I then serve another customer, apologising when they tell me there's something in their coffee, and I grab them another cup. All the free food and drinks we're giving away makes all this not worth the time. We might as well close.

I walk by Rory's table and I see Jess holding an umbrella out to her and I laugh out loud. "Oh, you're funny. You and Tom should put an act together," Dad exaggerates, and I continue to laugh at how silly all this is. Our home is under construction, and we're having to duck and dive to avoid the freaking ceiling falling on us.

Jess walks off, and I look down at Rory. "I'd leave it open," I tell her, and now I think we should give all customers umbrellas.

     I step around the counter, picking up another plate of food to give to a customer. There are only some areas in the diner that are classed as, "danger zones", and the counter is pretty much free from any pieces of falling ceiling so I'm not surprised more people are sat right in front of us rather than at tables.

     Before I leave for school, I ask the builders if they need anything to drink or eat. Unsurprisingly, they all agree to coffee and I spend ten minutes filling their cups and hiding them somewhere where drywall won't fall in.

     "You're seriously giving them coffee?" Dad scowls at me, but I've been doing this all week. I'm a friendly person, and they're helping us so they can have all the coffee they want. Besides we're basically giving it out to everyone for free anyway. "They need to work."

     "Dad, you're the one who bought the building and decided not to close the diner." I smile, patting a hand against his shoulder. "Now, I have to get to school. Where's Jess?"

     "Already left." Yeah, right.

     "Okay, I'll see you after school."

I leave the diner, and I cross over the street to see Addy sitting on the steps of the gazebo with her head in a book. It's unusual to see her reading, but she seems to be interested in whatever she's reading, so I lift the book up to peer at the front cover, and I grin.

She peers up at me, and I give her a knowing look. "You're reading," I speak, taking a seat next to her. "You, Adelaide Sloane, are reading."

"Yes, I get that, Luciana. I'm reading."

"Do you know how much I've begged you to read?" Seriously, I've begged Addy for years to read all kinds of books from my shelves, but she hasn't. "And now you're reading Jane Austen. Where the heck did you get this? I could've loaned you my copy, you know?"

"Bought my own," she tells me casually like it's something she does a lot.

I chuckle. "Why?"

She shrugs. "Thought I'd give it a shot. You know, she loved to dance," Addy tells me like I don't know, but I smile because I like that she took the time to find that out.

     I stare down at the annotations on the pages, a little confused but pleased to see she's annotating. "Wow, annotations too. You're a Jane Austen fan, aren't you?"

    She hums loudly. "Yep."

"Well, if you want anymore books, let me know. I've got tons." I smile wildly, giving her a nudge as she corners the page and slips the book into her bag. "You ready for the test?"

We have a math test this morning, and I spent the previous night studying instead of sleeping because I struggled to even close my eyes. Some part of me was actually scared the freaking ceiling would fall on me, but that's bizarre, right?Anyway, I'm hoping to ace this test.

Addy sighs. "Not really."

"If you need tutoring, I can help you again," I offer because I know she needs help, but also because I want to spend more time with her. I feel like we haven't been around each other much, and I hate that.

Addy smiles. "That'd be great. Thanks."

"Now, come on." I hit my hand against her knee gently. "Time to get your math on."

"Never say that again."

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     JESS SHOWED UP LATE TO THE TEST. I knew he wasn't here when I arrived, but I didn't expect him to show up fifteen minutes before the test ends. I don't really see the point, but whatever. He doesn't seem interested in school anyway despite how smart he may be, and I'm not interested in helping him.

     He sits behind me which is annoying, but the only seat available is, in fact, behind me. When he starts to hiss at me, some part of me wishes he hadn't bothered showing up. "Lucy..." I don't respond or even turn my head. "Luuuuce," he drawls, and I'm seconds away from smacking him off his chair. "Hey, Luce."

     "Shh," I hiss back, my eyes peering forward to see the teacher is staring at her papers on her desk. I'm not getting kicked out this class for talking, not when Jess is the reason behind me talking.

     "I need a pencil," he tells me.

     "Good for you," I bite back, scribbling down the equation for the next question.

     "Give me one."

     "I don't have one." I do.

     "Then I need a pen." I stare over at the clock, noticing that he has very little time left so why should I bother helping him? Hell, the test isn't even on his desk. Why does he need a pen?

     "You only have fifteen minutes left, Jess."

     "Then I need the answers." Bastard.

     I sigh, admitting defeat. "There's a pen in my bag," I tell him, hoping he'll leave me alone.

     He doesn't leave me alone. "I can't go through your bag."

     "Yes, you can. I'm sure you've looked in many." I smile, even though he can't see me, and Jess chuckles.

     "You're funny." I know. "And my mother told me never go through a lady's bag... at least, not until you're a couple blocks away." I would laugh, but I'm currently in the middle of the test, and I would really like him to shut up. "I'm just kidding, she never said that. Though it sounds like pretty good advice, doesn't it?"

     I reach down, and when I feel a pen at my fingertips, I pull it from my bag and hold it over my shoulder. "Take it and shut up," I say, and when he takes the pen, I shuffle forward so he doesn't decide to kick my chair or something.

     "Well, I tell you, you sure are friendly when you want to be, Luce."

     I put my head down and focus on my test while Jess leans back in his chair, and uses my pen to scribble annotations in his book.

After the test ends, I hand it in and I literally run out of the classroom. Addy has a class elsewhere, and I have a free period so I'm considering going back to the diner to grab a bite to eat before I have to get back. However, as I'm leaving and considering my options, I hear someone calling my name behind me.

I don't turn my head because I know whose voice is calling me. "Hey, Luce." Jess walks next to me, following after me and I continue to walk straight, not even looking at him. "Here's your pen."

     "Thanks," I reply bluntly, snatching the pen from him. "So, I know you didn't do the test, so what did you do?"

     He pulls his book out his back pocket, handing it off to me, and I hum in surprise. "Ernest Hemingway," I read. "American ambulance driver has a burning passion for a beautiful English nurse."

     "You read it?"

     "Yeah. A few times." I flick through the pages, noticing that he's an avid annotator. "You a big Hemingway fan?"

     He shrugs. "Sure."

     Don't really know what that means, but okay.

     We begin to walk out of the school, and I don't even ask if Jess has another class. He probably does, but he won't go so I guess we're both heading back to the diner. I have another class in an hour, and I was hoping to be alone, but with my home being a construction site, I'm not sure how much peace and quiet I can get.

     The second we enter, I call out for Dad but don't find him. "Hey, Caesar." I peek my head into the kitchen. "Think you can make me some lunch when you get time?"

     "What you want?"

     "BLT," I reply with a sweet smile. "Thank you."

     I move away, Jess still following behind me like a lost puppy, and I'm just about to round the corner to take the steps up to the apartment when I hear, "Look out!"

     My arm is pulled, and I stumble backwards just as a giant piece of drywall falls from just above my head and hits the bottom step, surprising me. I turn to Jess, thanking him for saving me from being squished and killed by the ceiling. "I swear, one of these days, I'm going to suffocate under drywall and paint."

     "That'll be amusing." Ah, he's back.

     I groan, throwing my bag down on my desk and flinching when I hear a crash from behind me. I turn my head, finding Tom and his crew standing around the pipes on the floor— the pipes they don't know where to put.

     "You know, I get why Dad wants to do this, but this is a God awful idea." I throw myself down onto Dad's bed, kicking my shoes off in frustration. "Personally, I think you should just sleep on the floor and suffer."

     "That's not nice." Jess grabs a soda from the fridge, throwing me one. "What did I do?"

     "You existed," I bite back.

     "Ouch." He sits down on the sofa, stretching his legs out and opening his book again. "Hey, I read that document on your desk the other day. Wrote in it too." I lift my head up, staring over at him in surprise and annoyance.

     He did what?

     "Uh, what?" Jess moves off the sofa and retrieves the thirteen pages of words that Tristan gave to me a couple days ago.

     It's his first chapter of the book he's been working on, and I've read it repeatedly over the last few days, reading every word and smiling because wow. That boy has a way with words, and he doesn't even realise how talented he is. I kept it on my desk, but with how stressful everything has been, I moved it elsewhere and I guess Jess found it. Great.

     He throws the pages down in front of me. "It's pretty good," he tells me, shrugging his shoulders. "Needs a title, obviously, and there's some parts that don't need to be in there but it's good."

     "It's not mine," I tell him.

     "Yeah, I know." He scoffs, pointing to the obvious name at the top of the first page. "It's your boyfriend's. You don't scream "writer" to me, no offence."

     I roll my eyes, and I flick through the pages that have my notes on. Now there's more notes scribbled on the pages in red pen, indicating that Jess has decided to give his own thoughts. I should be annoyed, but I just find it strange that he would read this and actually understand it. It's nothing I thought he'd care about, but maybe he was just bored.

     "Why'd you do this?" I ask, flicking through and finding that he agrees with some of my comments.

     "Well, I think you're bias." Bitch. "And I was bored, so thought it'd fun to criticise someone I've never met."

     Should've known. "Is it friendly criticism?"

     He shrugs, humming for a second before saying, "Sure."

     I glare at him because I hate that word. "Great."

     "Give it to him. It's good advice, trust me." Trusting Jess... hmm. "Anyway, if he's serious about being a writer, he needs to learn how to take constructive criticism," he words it.

     "I guess you have a point," I reply, not choosing to argue with him on this. "I'll give it to him."

"Good."

Jess slouches back on the sofa, and I flick through the pages of Tristan's first chapter again, reading over every word and looking over Jess' notes. Every point he makes, I understand, and I realise I've been too friendly— bias. But I'm also not an editor, so what do I know? If Tristan wants to be serious about his future, he will get comments like this, and Jess sure knows how to dish out criticism.

While Tristan knows how to write, Jess knows how to correct it. Hell, he even crosses out some lines in the chapter and replaces them with different words. Hmm.

I peer over at Jess. "You know, you'd make a good writer," I tell him honestly, and I see him nod but he doesn't say a thing, he doesn't even look over at me. "Or critique," I add on quietly so he doesn't hear me.

Critique or writer, Jess Mariano will succeed.

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authors note:

so this chapter is lowkey crap... literally did not know what to do lol but you get a lil insight on lucy and jess' bond

also thankyou for 60k reads, i rlly appreciate you all for voting and commenting and keeping me motivated to continue. i rlly love this story, so thank you all!! :)

but anyway, hope u enjoyed!!!