Chapter Two: The Sympathy

Gordo's POV

I was in the middle of my history homework when I heard it. It was loud and clear, and at first I thought I was hearing things, but after a few seconds I knew that it was real, and that I wasn't just hallucinating. I didn't know where it was coming from. Just this loud banging. And then that's when I remembered that our doorbell was broken.

I walked to the door and opened it to find a very depressed looking Lizzie, with tears streaked all over her face, her mascara running down her cheeks, her lipgloss all messed up. It looked like she had been crying for hours... all alone.

"Lizzie?" I gasped. "What happened to you?"

He lower lip started to quiver, and soon she was crying silently on my porch.

I helped her in and we both sat down on the couch. Once we were settled in, I stared at her, wondering what could have possibly gone so wrong that Lizzie was this upset over.

"What's wrong?" I said.

"Ronnie...." She gulped, wiping away her tears, letting the new ones drip down. "Ronnie."

I almost slapped myself for asking such an obvious question. Of course! That loser Ronnie had dumped her. *Again.* How dare he! Lizzie was amazing... who in the right mind would dump someone like that? He was the luckiest man on the face of the earth to be going out with her... a million guys were next in line-including myself. And he just dumped her, as if she were worth nothing? I soon found myself ranting, raving, cursing Ronnie in my mind.

"That idiot dumped you *again*!?" I exclaimed, almost screaming.

Lizzie just sat and sobbed.

"Oh, Lizzie..." I said, a little more soothingly. "Tell me what happened."

She took a deep breath. "Well, I was joking around about making me some lemonade... but then he actually got up and made it for me... so I started being picky so he'd get bugged... but then he comes out, and starts telling me that he doesn't want to my boyfriend anymore." She burst out in tears again.

I didn't quite understand what she was trying to say, but it sounded like Ronnie was a big obnoxious creep. I was fuming now, but still looking into Lizzie's eyes deeply.

"Lizzie... he-he didn't deserve you anyway." I said, stretching my arms out for a hug.

She snuggled deep into me, and I embraced her. I couldn't believe this... Lizzie was madly in love with that Ronnie. He had no right to lead her on like that. Why would anyone even think of dumping her? She was so beautiful, so kind... my heart broke to see her so upset.

I stroked her hair, and I couldn't help but think that this felt good. She was breathing down my neck, and my shirt was stained from her tears. He arms were draped over my shoulders, and she was crying her heart out. I just wanted to lean down and kiss her...

"You think?" She asked. "You really think he doesn't deserve me?"

I shook my head and kissed the top of her head. "No guy who would dump you deserves you."

"Everyone hates me." She sobbed.

"I don't." I whispered.

"You don't count." She stopped crying and looked up into my eyes. I felt a chill run up my spine and hairs prick up on the back of my neck. "You're the one comforting me."

I chuckled. "No one hates you."

"Ronnie does."

"No, he doesn't."

"How do you know?"

"Because nobody could hate you."

She hugged me again. "Gordo, you're so good to me."

She was so, so close to me... breathing down my neck, and her cheek brushed against mine ever so slightly. She was under my power... mine, all mine. I almost smiled, but remembered that this was supposed be a 'depression moment' for her, so I erased it before it crept onto my face.

"I wish I never talked to him... then maybe this would've never happened." She pulled away from me and I frowned.

"Lizzie, forget about it... it's not your fault. It's his loss."

She smiled.

"Hey, you're smiling!" I grinned.

She laughed.. "I just miss him." She sighed heavily.

"Look, there'll be other guys... other Ronnies... you just have to find that special someone. And, knowing you, Lizzie McGuire, it won't take long to find him." I said, shocked by my own words. That didn't sound like me at all. It sounded like some love-stricken softie.

I was no love-stricken softie.

Lizzie kissed me on the cheek softly and I blushed. "That means a lot to me, you know?"

'Whoa, and that kiss meant a lot to me,' I thought silently, wishing she'd do it again.

"I know." I smiled and frowned again. Not again! Not another romantic sissy comment. I wasn't like that. The artificial guys were like that... like Ronnie. So fake. I was my own person... never pretending, always the truth, good or bad.

I wasn't a lovesick idiot.

I wasn't an artificial guy.

And even though I sounded like one, I really hoped that Lizzie soon found out that *I* was that special someone, standing so close that she couldn't see me. It was kind of like your nose... it was attached to you, but unless you really concentrated and crossed your eyes, you couldn't really see it as a nose. You now it's there, but it just looks like a giant bump.

I mean, who would love her and take care of her more than I would? Certainly not that obnoxious, selfish, moronic... I was running out of adjectives here... Ronnie who did exactly the opposite. I could imagine it, me and her together, fingers linked, sipping the same milkshake with different straws. Feeling that chill as she brushed her lips against mine, and the kiss deepened and deepened until-

"Thanks, Gordo, for helping me out here, and I feel a lot better now, but I have to go." Lizzie smiled and left my house without another word. It felt bad to see her go, but it gave me time to think.

So I collapsed onto the couch, wondering how many chances God was going to give me before I actually confessed my love to Lizzie.