Gordo almost yelled. When he realized he had gotten the attention of nearly everyone in the room, he lowered his voice down to a soft but stern whisper. Listen, I do not like Lizzie. But the truth was, he could feel his heart pounding in his chest 1000 beats a second. It wasn't like he had never dealed with this sort of thing. Miranda had always slyly and oh-so-cleverly slipped the subject of Lizzie into their conversations, hoping to catch him off guard. But he was in too deep to forget and surrender so soon. He quickly glanced up at Carly, who was giving him a blank, vague stare. She couldn't have been more nebulous. I mean, not like that. We're just...you know...friends.

Carly's blank stare quickly turned into amusement. Who is this, Miranda's clone? She was grinning like the Chesire Cat, and...biting her fingernails? Gordo had never seen her bite her fingernails before. In fact, her nails looked perfectly manicured most of the time. Wow, Gordon, you really notice some weird stuff.

Sorry to break it to you, Zephyr, but you know, there aren't many boys and girls our age who are just friends', she said, smirking. But not wanting to embarrass him, she corrected herself. But I'm sure you could pull it off.

Gordo was laughing, mostly at himself for acting so nervous, so much that Carly's last comment caught him off guard. Gordo, who probably should've been in the Guiness Book for having the longest attention span and the ability to concentrate on everything a person was saying, wasn't expecting that. Carly was the sort of girl who goofed on her friends, and even though you knew she didn't mean it, she never formally apologized for it. But he didn't know how to take that. Was she serious? Everyone in his life had always pushed for him to take a chance with Lizzie, but for the first time, someone had supported his choice to stay friends with her. And that sort of meant something.

I, um...I'm sorry, I've got this...thing to do like...right now. So um, see you tomorrow, kay, Zephyr? she rushed, her face looking flustered and overwhelmed.

See you, Xaviera, he said, inattentively, completely ignoring the fact that Carly looked like she was having a panic attack as she grabbed her jacket and ran frantically out of the Digital Bean.

~~~~~~~

Gordo sat stiffly in his chair, concentrating on his trigonometry, the jumbled masses of sines, cosines, tangents. But just like most things, it was routine. To him, homework was something you did without question. You couldn't help but have doubts about the validity of the junk they're teaching you in school. But that, too, was part of life, and another thought not to be debated.

He must've been so wrapped up in his little trigonometric fantasy world that he didn't hear the phone ringing or he could've seen the Caller ID and picked up. Instead, they had to do it the old-fashioned way.'

David, phone's for you! a voice from the kitchen screamed upstairs. There seemed to be something intriguing about a phone call. He remembered back to the days when the only person to ever call him was Lizzie, because Kate was practically scared of phones, and Miranda's mom deemed talking to boys at 11:00 at night . I guess Mrs. Sanchez didn't realize we weren't talking about a boy, we were talking about Gordo. Lizzie would always say.

DA-VID! TELEPHONE! the voice screeched again. Who could it be? Probably Lizzie, calling to see if things are okay between us. Which they aren't.

Gordo sprinted to the phone and picked it up as fast as possible. Flopping down on his bed, he said,

What's up, Gordo? Miranda asked, very casually. Almost too casually.

Okay, what now? he said. Something's up, as usual.

I haven't a clue what you are talking about, David Gordon. He shuddered when she used his name like that. I am your friend and I am just wondering how you are doing.

I may be a little oblivious at times, but I'm not stupid, Miranda. Personally, I'm insulted that you would even think I could fall for that little scheme of yours.

I keep forgetting that we're in high school now, and that we're maturing, and that...

If I had a dollar for every time you say we're in high school now', I'd be filthy rich.

Well, sorr-ee! You said it yourself: you're a little oblivious at times. If I don't point these things out, you would never realize. Same with Lizzie.

Speaking of me and Lizzie, how much longer do you plan on being friends with us? He didn't mean to sound so...blunt.

I give us two weeks, she joked. But do you seriously think I could ditch you guys? I've known you for too long. Our 10 year anniversary is coming up.

And 15 years with Lizzie, he said with a sigh.

Wow, you guys are always going to be together, she said, dreamily. It was a simple comment, but something about it riled Gordo up.

What are you saying? he said, quizzically.

Well, I, um...I just...like, you guys are always gonna be friends, she said, rushing her words. That Miranda's a slick one.

Yeah, I guess, he said, dryly. He couldn't say he hoped so because she would get ideas. But he couldn't deny it either, because he knew she'd call his bluff.

Don't get too excited now, she said sarcastically.

Well...I've known practically since birth that Lizzie McGuire and I were going to be friends...you know, for a long time. And nothing, and no one, could change that. He noticed he was giving away too much, and shut his mouth. But he probably didn't shut it soon enough.

Miranda said, in that same dreamy, airy way as before.

What now? he sighed.

she said in a tone of voice that obviously said I know something you don't know.' There was short pause before he remembered something.

What did you call about, anyway?

I'll tell you another day, Gordo. He could hear the grin in her voice. The usual for tomorrow, right? Digital Bean at 4:00?

he said, sadly.

See you tomorrow.

he spit out.



We're always going to be friends, too. Right?

She paused.

Yeah. We will. He smiled. Things are going to be okay.

-------------------------

[A/N: Is that not totally sappy? I like it, though. Because I love Miranda, and I could never see her and Gordo fighting. Awww. (But then again, I'm spontaneous, so remember: never assume).

I was in Virginia when I wrote this, at my Aunt Marianne's house. The people there: me, my mom, my dad, my 2 brothers Reid and Craig, Aunt Marianne, Uncle Graham, my cousins Christian and David, and my Aunt Diane. So yeah, I have no girl cousins and all the adults socialized and it was really boring. I'm so glad I brought my laptop. Except it ran out of power when I was there.

Ahh, FF.net is evil. I meant to post this on like, Tuesday. And now it's Friday. Yes, I am an AOL user so yes, I could not get on the website for 4 days. So I haven't even been on here since Sunday. I have a lot of catching up (in regards to READING stories) to do. Next chapter of will be up, probably, tomorrow.

I'm babbling. Let me know what you think of the story. Did this chapter seem kinda filler-ish? If you think it did. sorry about that. Yes, please review. Thanks!]