PROLOGUE

It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.

Rory Gilmore caught a tear with the back of her hand.  A small gust of wind blew into her form, as if to intensify the desolate feeling lurching inside her chest.  She could do nothing as her eyes followed his figure walk away from her.  

Suddenly, he stopped. 

She bit her lip, praying for him to come back. 

“Please,” she whispered as the moment of anticipation grew.

“Rory?” he called icily.

“What?”

“Do us both a favor.  Forget about me, okay?”  Jess Mariano looked back and stonily waited for an answer.

Rory never gave him one.

“Just forget I ever existed.”

She mustered all her strength and looked straight into his eyes, saying nothing.  She wasn’t going to give up that easy.

As soon as they made eye contact, she saw Jess’ expression soften.  His shoulders drooped and his stance became less rigid.  He slowly nodded in defeat, and gently spoke, “Okay.  Don’t, then.”

And he was gone.

Rory took a deep breath and turned around.  Dean Forester sadly stared at her, waiting for an answer as well.  He took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair.

“Rory, whatever that kiss meant…”

“Let’s just forget it, Dean.  Let’s just forget.”

She hugged herself and pushed past Dean with her shoulder.  He tried to stop her by grabbing her arm, “Rory.”

“No.  Just go, Dean.  I can’t do this anymore.”

Rory faced him and showed him the tears that formed in her eyes. 

He let her go.

She walked away.

And just like that, everything shattered.

Lorelai Gilmore greeted her daughter at home with a giant smile.

“So, how was that coffee thing with Dean?  You guys friends yet?  When can he change our water bottles again?”

One look at Rory’s face gave her all the information she needed.  Rory collapsed into her mother’s arms and cried.  The cotton in Lorelai’s shirt felt rough against her cheek as it absorbed her sadness.  Things were never going to be the same again.

“He’s gone.”

“Dean’s gone?”

Rory sniffed, “Jess.”

It hurt just to say his name.

Lorelai stroked Rory’s hair and led her to the couch where they curled up together.

“Dean and I kissed.  He saw.  I didn’t mean to kiss him.  It just happened.  I didn’t…”

Lorelai embraced her little girl as she wept.

“Don’t worry about it.  Things will work out.  You’ll see.  Give Jess some time to cool off, then talk to him.  You’ll see.”

Rory buried her head against Lorelai’s shoulder.  She furrowed her eyebrows and just held her.

“You’ll see.”

“Hey, Luke.  Where’s Jess?”

Luke Danes looked up to see Lorelai Gilmore staring at him expectantly.  He took a rag from behind and started wiping the counter.  Chipping a glob of something with his fingernail, he spoke softly.

“He’s gone.”

“What?  Gone where?”

“Away.”

Lorelai dropped her hand against the counter.

Luke flinched as it thumped with a dead sound.  He stared at its lifelessness and heard Lorelai’s voice break though.

“He’s not coming back, is he?”

He cleared his throat and looked away.

Jess had come and gone again, like a flash.  He intended to stay.  Luke knew that.  But love always changed things. 

Heartbreak just made it impossible to fix.

“I don’t know.”