DISCO NIGHTS !
CHAPTER TWENTY
CAFFEINE IS YOUR FUEL

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JESS SLIPPED PAST Maeve on his way to the coffee vat, the boy uttering a sarcastic statement on the way as he grabbed the handle of it and approached Marjorie's table to refill her coffee. "How was your conversation with Uriah Heep last night, Davis?"

Maeve narrowed her eyes at him as she ignored the insult. "Don't you have to go steal candy from a baby or something?"

Jess finished pouring Marjorie and Delaney coffee as he snapped his fingers and pointed at Maeve for added effect. "Right, that's what I forgot to do this morning, thanks for the reminder."

"Thanks, hon." Marjorie interjected politely as she sent Jess an appreciative nod and took a sip of the fresh coffee.

"Finally, you're actually doing something." Delaney murmured into her coffee cup, and she smirked when Marjorie let out a small chuckle.

Maeve just rolled her eyes at Jess as she crossed her arms over her chest defensively from her position standing behind the counter. "If you must know, our conversation was great. As usual."

"Don't care." Jess quipped as he approached the counter again to put the coffee vat back in its place.

"We talked about books." Maeve continued, seeking to irk him as she kept her challenging eyes focused entirely on him.

"Again, don't care." Jess stated nonchalantly as he went around the counter again.

"I recommended some classics," Maeve began to follow after him, purposely trying to get under his skin as she persisted in her quest. "I told him how much you love feminist literature."

Jess finally shot her an exasperated glare as he briefly turned around to face her, the boy ignoring the evident taunt as he decided not to give her the satisfaction of revealing his disagreement and sped up his pace slightly to get her off his trail. "I'm surprised he can even read at all."

"Oh, he doesn't have to read when we're together, Jess." Maeve suggestively hinted with a raise her eyebrows as she kept following after him, earning herself deeply furrowed eyebrows from Jess in utter disgust.

"Don't say my name if you're using it in that context." Jess scoffed at her, accompanying his previous disgruntled look with the words, Delaney smirking in amusement at their back-and-forth.

"Who can't read?" A familiar voice questioned from the door, coaxing the pair to stop in their tracks and face the person.

"Flynn, hey." A happy smile spread across Maeve's features as she rerouted her previous coarse and bounced over to him, only to fall into her boyfriend's arms as he engulfed her into a tight hug and pulled her close to his chest.

"Hey, what's all this excitement about?" Flynn answered between entertained chuckles as he lifted her off the ground mid-hug for a squeeze before allowing her to plant her feet back on the ground securely a moment later.

"Hello, Flynn." Marjorie slightly lowered her glasses down her nose as she looked at the boy.

"Hey, man." Delaney lightheartedly chimed in.

The sound of their voices coaxed the pair to separate, Maeve now beside Flynn and placing her hand on his chest, Flynn's arm still secured around her waist.

"Hi." Flynn waved at them.

"Just the fact that you're here, that's all." Maeve grinned at her boyfriend as she answered his previous inquiry, butterflies wildly flurrying around her stomach when he flashed her a charming smile in response.

Delaney grinned at the two proudly as she stood up and made her way over to the magazine stand in the corner, the girl then beginning to search for a magazine that she knew Marjorie hadn't read yet.

Jess cringed at Maeve's googly-eyed assertion and he made his way over to Delaney as he momentarily glanced at Maeve's best friend. "How does she not get tired of doing that all day?"

Delaney shrugged as she met his revolted gaze during her movements. "She likes him. She's liked him since...well, forever."

"Why?" Jess just furrowed his eyebrows as he redirected his attention back to the couple and crossed his arms over his chest, the two now approaching the counter, with Maeve casually laughing at a bad joke that Flynn told, and Flynn's hand wrapped around her waist tightly as he guided her to the counter.

Delaney just shrugged as she shifted her attention to the duo. "Without going into too much detail, she thinks he's cute, nice and funny."

"Yeah, well, 'cute, nice and funny' only takes you so far when you've got an IQ of less than 70," Jess glanced at Delaney again briefly. "Does she just ignore that, by the way?"

Delaney shot him a pointed glare at the words as she then went back to her previous magazine search right after. "He might not be smartest person in the world, but Maeve likes him, and he's actually a cool guy, so that's all that matters. Besides, she teaches him stuff, he teaches her stuff, it's kind of a mutually beneficial relationship."

Jess scoffed out a disbelieving breath at the familiarity of the whole situation—another Rory and Dean. "Yeah, I'm sure he teaches her all kinds of things. Next time I want to know what colour red and blue makes when they're combined, I'll ask him first."

Delaney swiped a magazine from the back of the shelf right as she shot Jess disapproving daggers, signifying that his comment was rude, and she lightly hit his arm with the magazine as she began to make her way back to the table. "God, you really are Luke's twin."

"Hey," Jess furrowed his eyebrows at her as he watched her leave, then calling out a little louder when he received no response from Delaney. "Hey, I'm not Luke's twin!"

"Yeah, I'm sure as hell glad you're not." Luke suspiciously frowned at Jess as he came down from his apartment at the most convenient time.

"Hey, Jess, how was your little errand yesterday?" Maeve called out sarcastically as she walked past the boy holding two plates of food. "Make a few lousy bucks cleaning the Gilmore's gutters?"

"You're saying his name now?" Luke narrowed his eyes perplexedly at Maeve as he stopped in his tracks.

"Yeah, I think I've punished him long enough," Maeve shrugged as her eyebrows then furrowed. "Saying his name feels weird though."

"Punished him for what, dear?" Marjorie chimed in with an entertained laugh.

"Existing." Maeve stated at the same time as Delaney chirped in with, "Does she need a reason?"

Jess shot the two a collective, unamused look before he sardonically quipped back a response to Maeve's previous taunting inquiry, his eyes then redirecting towards the door of the diner, where Rory was now approaching. "I had some of that new lemon coke."

"Ooo, freaky." Maeve briefly widened her eyes on her way to Marjorie and Delaney's table, where Flynn was now sitting at.

"I thought so." Jess hummed as he walked around the counter and watched Rory enter the diner.

"Hey, Jess." Rory started politely as she approached the counter and sat on one of the counter chairs.

"Hey." Jess answered as he met her intent gaze.

Rory's attention was stolen from Jess' face as she suddenly noticed Maeve's picture behind him, and she praised the image. "That picture's so pretty, where did that come from?"

Jess turned to face the picture, eyes lingering on the image for a few extra seconds before he turned back to Rory, absentmindedly shrugged, and averted his eyes to the register. "Don't know."

"Mariano doesn't care about anything, so you shouldn't ask him, but if he did care, he would know that it's mine." Maeve added as she walked around the counter and caught Rory's attention, the girl grabbing another two plates of food from Caesar, Rory's eyes following her movements.

"Oh, you still take photos?" Rory's voice was filled with surprise.

"I do." Maeve affirmed as she walked around the counter to hand customers their food.

"That's so cool," Rory praised again. "Can I see some?"

Maeve was slightly taken aback by Rory's sudden interest in her personal life and hobbies, and as she swiftly, and unnoticeably, recovered from her momentary halt in her own movements, she just shrugged in acceptance, though not before sharing a quick glance with Delaney as she knew her best friend thought of the same thing. "Uh, yeah, sure. I have a few pictures in the back room, I can show you them later."

"That would be great," Rory softly smiled at the girl before twisting in her seat and redirecting her attention to Jess again. "How did you know my bracelet was in my room?"

Jess shrugged as he met her eyes. "Like I said, people usually miss things that are right in front of them."

Maeve snorted from her position refilling a customer's coffee, and without even uttering a word, Jess knew exactly what she was thinking. Wow, how inspirational.

•

The next few days had passed slowly, the diner now fully under construction as Luke's aim was to expand his and Jess' apartment.

"Here you go," Luke started as he handed two men their orders, though simultaneously, concrete from the roof had now effectively crumbled onto their plates. "Jeez! Oh, sorry, folks, uh, here- there you go. Free coffee all around. Might want to put your hand over that."

"Just tell people to bring helmets or something, Luke. Or do only takeaway orders until this is done." Maeve placed her hand on her hip as she leaned her other hand against the counter, safety helmet secured on her head to prevent any possible injury.

Delaney was sitting at the counter in front of Maeve, the girl huffing out an amused chuckle as she watched the interaction.

"Maeve, don't drive away business," Luke pointedly glared at the girl as he lowered his voice and walked towards the counter to speak to Tom. "Tom, what the hell is goin' on up there?"

"We're redoing your apartment, what do you think is goin' on?" Tom fired back before the two then engaged in a petty dispute over the disruption that all of the construction was causing for the diner's patrons.

"Why do you keep going to the back room? Nothing in there is interesting in the slightest." Maeve narrowed her eyes at Jess as he made his way around to counter to grab the coffee pot handle.

"That's none of your business, Davis." Jess stubbornly stated as he earned himself rolled eyes from the girl before she grabbed plates from Caesar and wordlessly made her way over to the customers who ordered them.

"She moved her photos, by the way." Delaney started quietly once Maeve was on the other side of the diner.

Jess' eyebrows furrowed in confusion at the sudden words, and he just blinked at her. "Okay. Cool."

At his cluelessness, Delaney just shot him a direct look. "Come on, Jess, I know what you're doing."

Jess just condescendingly scoffed as all of his puzzlement was now whisked away. "What am I doing, Delaney?"

Delaney tilted her head as her following words were utterly filled with self-assurance. "You pinned her photo up there, likely to humiliate her, but I bet you didn't expect Luke to actually keep it up. Now you're trying to find her other photos to, what, stab pins in them or throw them in the dryer? No, no, no, let me guess, you'll probably pour ketchup on them because, to you, they're just awful."

Jess bewilderingly stared at her with slightly widened eyes as he took a few seconds to absorb her wild propositions. "How did you know?"

"You think you're so funny." Delaney narrowed her eyes at him.

Jess sent her a final, lingeringly disturbed look before getting back to work. "I wouldn't say I'm Charlie Chaplin, but I've been told I'm just hilarious."

"Oh, shut up." Delaney scoffed offhandedly.

The group were so caught up in their minor drama that they didn't realise that Lorelai and Rory had now walked in and sat down at a table, Lorelai leaving the diner for a short time to take a phone call, while Rory stayed sitting down.

Jess walked past with an umbrella he found from the back room, the boy then flipping it open and handing it to Rory with a small nod of his head, a hint of an entertained smirk tugging at the corners of his lips when Luke irritatedly interjected from his position at the counter. "Oh, you are really funny, you and Tom should put an act together."

Focusing on Rory as she bewilderingly held the umbrella up, Luke then added seriously. "I'd leave it open."

As if on cue, a chunk of drywall catapulted onto the umbrella's surface, causing Rory to jump in minor fright.

•

"Jess." Maeve started determinedly as the phone line finally stopped ringing.

Their, once stagnant and rare, phone calls had now become a regular occurrence, with the pair starting their calls with notes on each other's mixtapes before they delved into whatever literary debate they could think of.

"Maeve."

The unexpected, teasingly drawn-out response from the boy prompted utter surprise to flood Maeve's body, and she could practically see his usually taunting smirk adorn his features once she knew that he knew that he successfully achieved temporary shock from her. "Oh, so you can say my name. Got it."

"I thought it was time I stopped punishing you."

Maeve rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest, one hand holding her bedroom's telephone to her ear. "Okay, enough with the whole repeating my insults thing, think of your own."

"This is more fun, actually."

The lightheartedness that remained in his tone from the second he answered to this current period of time only irked Maeve further. "What are you doing right now? I have more notes."

"Okay, enough with your whole notes thing."

"Stop doing that." Maeve irritatedly snapped, small frown overtaking her features at how he continued to use her words against her.

"Fine princess, but one day you'll miss my teasing. I'm actually about to head off."

"No I won't, and you have plans?" Maeve's eyebrows quirked upwards in interest.

"Luke wants me to deliver food to Rory since she's home alone tonight. Hey, you should crash."

"Okay, there's so much to unpack there," Maeve's eyebrows then furrowed once more. "Why would I want to 'crash' your little date with Rory?"

"It's not a date."

"Uh, yeah, it kind of is," Maeve slowly replied in an obvious manner. "What does Dean think about all this?"

"It's not a date, Davis. If it was a date, I wouldn't ask you to come."

"Right, because you're just so smooth, Casanova," Maeve cynically jested. "I'm sure you could steal Rory from Dean in a heartbeat."

"Are you coming or not?"

"Why do you want me there so badly?" Maeve's eyebrows creased further inwards in wonderment, and the girl was so unprepared for the direction this conversation steadfastly went in that she failed to allow herself to conceptualise the reason for Jess wanting her there.

"Because I have a lot of food that I need to get rid of."

"I thought Luke wanted you to deliver it." Maeve's tone shifted into one of suspicion as she didn't miss this particular point.

Again, Jess diverted the conversation before she could grill him further. "I guess I won't save you any."

Maeve internally took note of Jess' aversion to this particular topic, and she just matter-of-factly proposed an offer instead. "Okay, first of all, Rory and Lorelai have otherworldly eating habits, Rory will finish all of that by herself, and second, all I request is coffee."

"Fine, I'll bring you coffee. Not that you need more, caffeine's your fuel."

"You've got yourself a deal, Mariano." Maeve grinned.

"You brought up the deal."

"And now you've got it," Maeve raised her eyebrows in amusement as she then sat up, the girl about to change into clothes that weren't the ones she was about to sleep in. "I'll meet you there in five."

•

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