For the rest of the day, Gordo kept himself busy. He cleaned his room, reorganized his closet, and did just about anything to keep his mind off of the thought of Lizzie and Miranda lying cold and lifeless on a table in a morgue somewhere with some strange guy prodding at their bodies like they were just another dead human being
Gordo squeezed his eyes tightly shut. He had paused for just a minute to think and his thoughts quickly went to Lizzie and Miranda. He wanted to focus his mind on other things, but they overpowered his mind, even as it pained him so. He loved them and wanted nothing more than just to have them there to tell them that just once more before they passed away. He had missed his chance. He left them at 16 years old, angry at them for being unsupportive.
Gordo still had the last letter they had sent him. He dug through the top drawer until he found it. It was in Lizzie's handwriting, and it read:
Dear Gordo,
Hey again! It's us (as usual)! How are things going with you? I hope this Mr. Scott character isn't being too mean to you because if he is, he better realize that when he has a beef with David Gordon, he's got a beef with Lizzie McGuire and Miranda Sanchez, too! Okay, I'm getting kinda scared now because Miranda's reading this letter next to me and now she's making weird, gorilla-like grunting noises.
Summer break is almost here! Can you believe this? Graduation is in a few days! That's insane! I'm really hoping we don't have a repeat on 8th grade graduation. But knowing my luck, we probably will, except on a much larger scale, since Kate's a lot meaner and the curtain in the high school gym is a LOT bigger. Oh, wait, we never did tell Miranda about that, did we?
Not to get all "Remember Way Back When?"-ish or anything, but hey, remember way back when Kate wasn't popular? And Miranda and I actually wanted to be popular, but you told us otherwise? And when you liked Frank Sinatra? What's that, Gordo? You still do?! Oh. Um. Oops.
You know we're just kidding. We miss you so much and can't wait until you get home! We're having a surprise "Welcome Back!" party! We love you so much! Have a safe trip home!
Love,
Lizzie + Miranda
PS- Miranda says, "LYLAB! Make sure you write that that means love you like a brother' for the acronym-impaired. Lizzie, what are you doing? Lizzie, you're not supposed to be writing this! Lizz---"
Gordo swallowed back bittersweet tears that welled up in his eyes. He tried so hard to laugh at Lizzie's jokes in the letter, but just remembering this was the last thing they had ever sent him made him choke up a bit. It was too hard, too painful to even think of it.
He took the letter and shoved it into the back of the drawer, and left it there, as he silently promised himself never to look at it again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
At around 7:30 that night, faint knocking came through Gordo's closed door.
"Honey, there's someone here who'd like to see you," his mother said daintily.
Visitors. Just what I need. Visitors who'd offer me great loads of pity and make me feel like a wimp for even accepting their stupid pity. Well, they can take their pity and go shove it down someone else's throat. I don't need it.
"Yo, Gordon," Ethan said softly as he quietly stepped over towards Gordo's chair. Just by the way he said those two words, I know he's here to give me pity. Well, like I said before "I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry about anything I said in the past two days that might've hurt you. I've realized that some things I said were really insensitive."
"Yeah, they were," he agreed with a sneer on his face.
"And you probably think I'm here to offer you pity." Ethan looked Gordo straight in the eye as he said, "I'm not. I'm here to offer you sympathy. Even though you'll never believe me when I say this, I do know what you're going through." He swallowed a lump in throat and looked down at his hands. "This isn't the first time I've lost a friend, you know."
Gordo rolled his eyes. Right. You lost your great-uncle that you'd never met or you lost your pet dog Coco. I'm sure that really cut deep, too.
"You know what," Ethan started up again. "You really are the most selfish jerk I've ever met." He stood up. "Goodbye." And he walked out the door.
But Gordo wasn't even remotely affected by Ethan's words. Because in his mind, Ethan didn't understood. Ethan was only there to offer his pity because that's what everyone thought you were supposed to do. But it was sympathy, not pity, that should be given. This concept must've been far too complicated for everyone. Everyone, that is, except Gordo.
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[A/N: Holy frickin' cow, it's an update. I mean, yowzaaa. I don't know what sparked me to write another chapter but something did and I'm so glad. I can't believe chapter 9 was put up right after "Dear Lizzie" premiered. I mean, YOWZA. But here I am, almost 12 days until "The Lizzie McGuire Movie". Probably won't be another update before then.
Sooo, lemme know what you think, as usual: please review. Thanks!]
