Author's Note: Sorry I haven't updated in like hella days, but I'm sooooo busy with color guard, yearbook, school, stuff you probably don't give a damn about. So why bother. Anywho, THANKS to all the kind people who reviewed! You RULE!

Special Note- This WILL be L/G, but not exactly in this story. There will be a sequel! But I'm getting ahead of myself too soon. To the person who asked if I could change Randy to something else, the answer is YES! What can I say I aim to please. So instead of Randy, how does Manda sound? Stupid? I can't think of any other nickname, suggestions please!

Disclaimers: I own jack crap, well actually not really. Jonathan Darvey is MINE all MINE! HEHEHE! Don't sue me because I own nothing, and you won't get a cent because I have no money! Thanks again to the people who reviewed!

What Almost Was

By: Ella Enchanted

Chapter 7: Party Over Here, Party Over There

The following Monday the school was all-abuzz. Kate Saunders was having a keggar that Friday night, and the word was everyone was invited. Even the little freshmen were invited. Kate had the parents that could give a tinker's fuck about what their daughter did. The only time they paid attention to her was when they needed a trophy daughter for their fancy cocktail parties. So little shock came from this news when it was reported. The word that was circulating around school was that Kate was only having this party to win over the votes for the 'Most Likely' section in the yearbook. Kate had a feeling that Clair would win every category, which was unacceptable being that it was their Senior year. Ever since her Sophomore year Kate and Claire had stopped talking, they were enemies now. They broke their friendship off over your typical teenage melodrama. Claire stole Kate's Senior boyfriend, Adam Petit. And the rest as one can tell is history.

"So, darling did you want to go to this party Friday night?" Jonathan pulled out the chair for her at the lunch table and sat down next to her.

"I don't know, maybe. Why? Did you want to go?" She was the sort of passive girlfriend who when asked to jump would say 'How high? And in what type of shoes?' It was that bad.

"Well, sort of. But if you don't want to go I'll understand," he was using the classic guilt trip to con her into getting his way, like always.

"No, it's fine. We'll go."

"Fantastic! I'll pick you up at Eight o'clock." He smiled as he bit into his pizza.

"Hey, what about me? Do I get to tag along too?" Miranda set her tray down across from Lizzie and opened her milk carton.

"Of course. How could we forget our sweet, little Manda," (how did that sound?) she reached across the table and pinched her cheek playfully.

"Hey now, don't go fucking up the makeup" she swatted Lizzie's hand away as if it were an annoying mosquito.

"Really Miranda. I can't abide these profane words you insist upon using in every sentence" Jonathan glared at the brunette as he took another bite of his pizza.  

"Oh excuse me Prince William, your grace. I didn't mean to offend your royal majesty in any way. I know his majesty detest fowl language so much that he wouldn't say 'shit' if he had a mouthful of it." Miranda got up and made a dramatic, sweeping bow towards Jonathan. Jonathan was about to retort with some snotty comment when Gordo, the savior of the day, came and sat down.

"Ok, let's all calm down here. Let's take a deep breath and all count to ten." Gordo was always such a peacemaker.

"Thank you Gordo," Lizzie smiled relieved, "Thank God, Gordo's here."

'That just sent my heart into spasms of joy. Oh wait I feel it coming on! It's a joygasm!' He smiled and said, "I know what would you do without me?"

"We all kill each other," Miranda gave a pointed look at Jonathan. "Anywho, are you going to Kate's party?"

"I don't know, maybe." Gordo poked and prodded at the mystery meat. He sighed and gave up trying to guess what today's flavor was.

"No, you have to go. Because if you don't I'll be all alone. Lizzie will be hanging out with John." Whining like a three year old she grabbed his arm and shook it all around.

"I'm still going to hang out with you Manda," Lizzie sounded all butt hurt.

"I know but we still need Gordo. It wouldn't be the Three Musketeers without him!"

"Ahem," Jonathan cleared his throat and corrected her, "Four Musketeers."

"Like I said 'it wouldn't be the Three Musketeers without Gordo'." Jonathan ignored the fact that he just got put down pretty badly.

"Alright, if you're going to whine about it. I'll go. Isn't Larry going?" Gordo raised an eyebrow as if to say 'You know you want him.'

"Unfortunately not. He has to go work at the theater." Miranda slightly blushed at the name of her potential boyfriend.

The rest of lunch was pretty boring to say the least. There was occasional talk about how they hated this teacher or how Government Economics was such a stupid class.

~*~*~*~*~

Friday night seemed to creep up on the trio, or foursome if you will, rather soon. Lizzie tore open her closet in search of her black cardigan. 'Damn it, where is it? I just saw it this morning.' She spent a couple of more minutes ransacking her closet before tearing up her dresser. And as fate would have it, the cardigan was in the last drawer, in the very back, underneath all her clothes.

She quickly threw on her favorite sandblasted hip huggers with her studded belt, a red tank top, the treasured cardigan and she was ready to go. She checked the clock and found that it was only 7:45 and that she did in fact have time to fix her hair properly. She decided to put it into two French braids instead of something fancy like curling it. She didn't really care. She found that since she had a boyfriend she felt that she didn't need to impress anybody. It was a good feeling and she reveled in it.

After inspecting herself in the mirror once more she felt that something was missing. But what? Aha, her black, velvet, angel choker. Clasping it around her neck, she heard the familiar chime of the doorbell. Grabbing her purse and cell phone she headed downstairs.

"Alright kids have fun," Jo McGuire smiled, "And remember; no smoking, no drugs, no violence, no sex, no problem. Got it?"

"Got it," Jonathan and Lizzie said in perfect unison.

"Good! And you're spending the night at Miranda's house, right?"

"Yeah. I'll be home at about noon. Bye mom." She tried to get out as quickly as possible.

"Bye sweetie. Take good care of my little baby girl," Jo called out to them as they climbed into the car.

"Mom!" Lizzie was now thoroughly embarrassed.

"Hehe. The joys of parenthood, you get to embarrass them whenever you want to." Jo laughed a silent and slightly evil laugh as she shut the front door.

~*~*~*~*~

After picking up Gordo and Miranda the four of them made their way into the already raging party. Upon entering the room Gordo scanned the place for a familiar face besides Lizzie and Miranda. He wasn't very successful in finding anybody to socialize with. He turned his attention back to his party of friends. Lizzie and Jonathan were already engaged in their own private conversation. It was moments like these that made Gordo envious of Jonathan. Moments where he could be seen with Lizzie as her boyfriend and not just her best friend. He would give anything if she would ever look at him the way she did with Jonathan. Lucky Bastard. Gordo came out of his thoughts when he heard Miranda's distant voice calling out to him, "Huh?"

"I said 'do you want to circulate and socialize with me?'" She rolled her eyes in dismissal at the fact that he hadn't been listening to her for the past two minutes.

" Um, I guess. I don't really know anybody here though," he said in a kind of panic stricken voice.

"Well that's why it's called socializing." She grabbed his arm and dragged him towards the center of the room. But Miranda stopped halfway when she saw Larry walk through the door. She tried to hold back her excitement, so as to look cool. She hadn't even lasted ten seconds before she bolted towards the door. "Oh that's okay. I'll just be over here talking to myself." He called out to her but she didn't hear him or made no sign if she had.

 'Great. Now what?' Gordo had deliberately avoided parties throughout his high school career. Up until now he had gotten really good at it. He hated everything that parties were made of. They were made of fake people, with fake laughs, fake friendships, and fake emotions. It was all a scam that was as transparent to him as crystal. He scanned the room for any sign of Lizzie. What he found was most displeasing to him. Lizzie was drinking.

You liky-likey? You want more? How's about reviewing then? Sounds like a plan to me! Go for it if you want!

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