Thanks to the people who reviewed! You're all awesome! Hopefully this chapter will clear up a few questions for y'all. It ended up being longer than I anticipated (yay!), so let me know what you think!
Disclaimer: I don't own Lizzie McGuire, people, places, etc…don't sue me.
"This is a boarding call for rows 16 through 24 on Flight 116 to LAX. Rows 16 through 24, you may now board."
The announcement broke through Lizzie's thoughts and she shook herself out of her memories. She'd have plenty of time to think on the plane. She grabbed her carry-on and her boarding pass and made her way to the gate. Five minutes later, she was settled into her window seat and staring out the window at the swirling snow.
"I can't believe this is happening." Lizzie shook her head, still unable to believe the past several hours.
"I know," Gordo agreed, his voice sounding much closer than New York, "you never really think about this stuff happening. Especially to someone we know."
"Yeah." Lizzie agreed, her whole body feeling numb from shock. "I– hang on Gordo, there's something on the news. Turn to MSNBC." Lizzie grabbed the TV remote and turned up the volume in time the hear the newscaster saying, "…and injuring the three passengers. After the vehicle went off the road, it rolled two and a half times and slid two hundred feet before coming to a stop nearly five hundred feet from the road. The two-backseat passengers, Dean Sampson and Karine Le Baron were ejected through the back windshield. Both remain in stable condition at a local hospital. The front passenger, Ethan Craft and the driver, Ellie Hart were air lifted to the hospital, where Craft is in critical condition. Hart was pronounced dead on arrival from a drug overdose."
"Wow." Lizzie murmured.
"Jonathon Brower is on the scene. Jon?"
"Thanks, Amy. Police, rescue officers and crime scene analysts have been here since just after the crash early this morning, trying to piece together what may have happened. The amount of accurate information we have doesn't tell us much. Here are the facts we do know. The group of four had just left a private party given by fellow print model Andy Hart, Ellie's brother. At this time, Ellie had a significant amount of drugs and alcohol in her system. Why she was behind the wheel, we don't know. Doctors report that none of the other three passengers were under the influence of alcohol or drugs. They left the party around 4:30 this morning, presumably to go home. The vehicle was traveling about 60 miles an hour when it rounded the curve you see behind me, nearly hit a semi truck, struck the barrier and flew off the road. As you can see…"
Lizzie started to feel nauseous. "Gordo…?" she put her hand on the arm of the couch in an attempt to keep her head from spinning.
"I know…" Gordo said softly.
"I think I'm gonna be sick…" Lizzie dropped the phone, clapped one hand to her mouth, the other to her stomach, and ran to the bathroom.
Five minutes later, Lizzie opened the bathroom door. She picked up the phone from where she had dropped it and was about to press the "off" button.
"Lizzie?" Gordo's voice startled her and she dropped the phone again.
"Gordo?" she asked picking up the phone.
"Yeah, I'm still here. Are you feeling better?" he asked.
"Yeah. A little. I can't believe they showed all that on the news. I didn't need to see that. Or here exactly what happened." Lizzie sat down on the floor as her head began to spin again.
"None of us did." Gordo answered. There was a long pause on his end.
"Gordo? You still there?"
"I wanna know why he did it." Gordo answered, sounding angry. "Ethan may not be the brightest person out there, but we all know he'd know enough to not get into a car…" he trailed off.
"And he was doing so well." Lizzie added. "Why would he want to jeopardize that?"
"Well…" Gordo began, but Lizzie cut him off.
"Look, Gordo, I know you think modeling promotes following the trends and materialism and negative self-image and all that. But Ethan was happy doing that. And he deserves to be happy. He always tried to make everyone else happy."
"I guess you're right." Gordo admitted. "Remember the time he fed his sandwich to a pigeon?"
Lizzie grinned. "How could I forget! I don't think he expected all of California's pigeon population to want in on it. And do you remember at the homecoming dance junior year when he blew off his friends and danced with Miranda when her date dumped her in the middle of the dance?"
"Yeah," Lizzie could hear Gordo smiling, "he may be pretty clueless sometimes, but he's a good guy."
"I can't believe he's…" Lizzie trailed off when she glanced at the clock. "Oh my gosh Gordo, it's two in the morning!"
"Auuh-Huh?" Gordo asked mid-yawn. "No…it's four in the morning. We've been talking for five hours. Who's bright idea was this?"
"Oh, I'm sorry Gordo. I guess I was so shocked about Ethan and then the news and…"
"Lizzie, it's ok. I understand. We're all a little shaken and it's good to be able to talk about it. However we probably picked a really bad time to talk so late. Don't you have another final this morning?" he asked.
"Yeah, it's at eleven though, so I'll be able to sleep a bit. What about you, do you have anything important?"
"I've got to spend some time finishing my final cut for film class, but it shouldn't be too bad. Listen, get some sleep, ok? I'll call you later today to see how're you're holding up."
"Thanks Gordo." Lizzie smiled sleepily. She crawled onto the couch and pulled a blanket up to her shoulders. The last thing she remembered thinking was how lucky she was to have Gordo to talk to.
So…? R/R!!!