Love Me Softly - Gilmore Girls -

Chapter Nineteen

As the Hayden women drive home, the interior of Luke's is frozen in shock. No one moves or acknowledges what happens. Luke attempts to talk to Lorelai before she bolts out of the diner and heads to where Rory is supposed to be. The second she exits the diner erupts in chatter as Kirk approaches Luke for answers. No one knows who the women are but they know the red-headed girl is apparently a secret daughter.

Rory's POV:

I should have stayed. I should have stayed with Alice and Mrs. Hayden, it's not their fault I found out. I don't understand why Mom's so mad in the first place, I'm not the one who hid my sister.

The thoughts keep spinning around in my head as I make my way into the house. I quickly hide the purple album, scared Mom will try to take it away when she gets here. All I can do is pace around waiting for her to get here.

I hope Alice isn't mad I left. Or Mrs. Hayden. I don't want them to think I don't care. God, this is so messed up.

My spinning thoughts stop the second I hear the door open.

"Rory," Mom calls out, "can you come out here?" Well, she doesn't sound mad.

I take a deep breath, bracing myself for her reaction before going out to the living room.

"Hi Mom," I say quietly, "I'm sorry I didn't call to say I would be out late."

"Don't worry about that," she says, patting the seat on the sofa next to her, "come sit so we can talk."

Cautious, I take a seat next to her waiting for the shoe to drop, and hear her yell about me finding the photo album.

"Why didn't-" "I need yo-"

The silence that follows is deafening before Mom finally starts the conversation, "What's your question, Rory?"

I take a deep breath, playing with the end of my necklace before getting the courage to ask, "Why didn't you tell me I had a twin sister?"

"Okay," her tone shows an attempt at playfulness, hopefully, she's not too mad then, "not starting the conversation lightly, huh?" She laughs softly before approaching the topic of my question.

"Rory, I need you to try and understand this from my point of view. Okay?"

I nod, mainly because I need answers even if they don't fully make sense to me.

"You know the story about when you were born so I don't have to explain that it was much harder having two little girls to care for instead of one. Not only that but Alice never liked me. I know she was just a baby like yourself, but I could never get her to stop crying and screaming. Only your dad could, she was so attached to him. I couldn't bear the thought of taking her away from him, I could barely stand taking you away with me."

"So why not-" I start to ask but she senses where I'm going, "Rory, we've talked about why. We don't need to get back into that."

"I kept track of her as she got older. We were waiting for the right time to introduce the two of you. Before we could, I found out that she got in trouble a lot. She was not going to be a good influence on you. I was worried. I didn't know she went to Chilton, if I did I would have told you sooner."

"What do you mean she got into trouble?" I asked, Alice never seemed like the kind of person who would be a bad influence on anyone.

"She got caught shoplifting when she was younger," Mom answers, her nose scrunching in disgust before continuing, "and because of her social standing as a Hayden and Gilmore, she got away without punishment for what she did."

The silence wraps around us, not in the usual comfort of a silent library but more akin to the silence of a padded room. It stays this way for several minutes as my head swims with the new information. None of it makes sense. I have to ask Alice or Dad about this.

"When you found out she went to Chilton, why didn't you tell me then?" I asked the question that had been burning like a hot iron in my head since she first started explaining.

Her eyes widened, and the emotions behind her eyes were too complex to identify before she gathered herself to answer. "I didn't want to stress you out more than you were at this new school."

I can't stop myself from scoffing at her answer, the anger from before when I originally found out she was hiding Alice builds in my chest. The hard glare from Mom is what sets off my anger bomb.

"Didn't want me to stress? Please, like telling me before I started would have been worse than finding out on my own! What were you going to say if I didn't find out this weekend? What about at our shared birthday party next week?"

She goes to interrupt but I'm far from done.

"Mom, did you really think I wouldn't find out? And so what she shoplifted when she was little, has she done it since then? She's been nothing but nice and supportive since we started being friends. She didn't tell me we were sisters because she was asked not to, she's known this entire time so why did you keep this from me?"

My anger has turned its ugly head it's red hot tears streaming down my face. In the midst of my questions, I had gotten up and started walking to the hallway, Mom standing mere feet away.

"Lorelai Leigh Gilmore, you do not speak to me that way," Mom's voice is dangerously calm while her face is steaming red.

I roll my eyes and begin walking the rest of my way to my room, exhausted by today's discoveries and emotions.

"Do not walk away from me"

I turn and stare her down, waiting for an answer to any of the questions I asked. When I hear nothing, I enter my room and shut the door. As I hear her walk away, I take that moment and slide down to a seated position with my back against the door. The tears start without permission as everything hits me.

I reach for my phone on the dresser and send off a text to Alice.

'Can I swing by your place tomorrow?'

Within seconds a response pops up.

'Of course! We go to church and then out for brunch. I have a ton of church dresses if you want to borrow one.'

'What time?'

'10:00 a.m Want us to get you from Stars Hollow?'

Panic hits me at the idea of Mom seeing them pick me up tomorrow, I make a plan to say I'm going book shopping and meeting up with Lane.

'I'll take the bus if you can get me from there?'

'See you tomorrow at the bus stop then! Night, sis!'

'Goodnight, twin'

Tomorrow can't come quickly enough.