Disclaimer: no one mentioned belongs to me, I guarantee it.

~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~

"Listen, um, Lizzie..." he began, but past 'listen, Lizzie,' he had no other words.

Lizzie, still staring at her ceiling, said, "Gordo, tell me the truth. Please. You can't hide behind being Matt anymore."

He sighed. She was making it easy for him, but it was never more difficult. "Okay, you want the truth? Here's the truth. I like you, Lizzie. Like you as in the way you like Ethan. And the reason I've never told you, which I know is the next question you're going to ask--" Her silence confirmed this fact, "--is because I knew you'd react the way you're reacting now. Confused as hell. And I didn't want to do that to you, I didn't want to put our friendship in jeopardy. Can you blame me?"

"No," she said quietly.

"You can't hear this coming from Matt, can you," he said bluntly.

She shook her head against the pillows. "No."

"I can't fix this," Gordo said. "Isn't it the prime example of irony that when I finally get the courage to tell you the truth, I'm stuck in the wrong body. The worst body I could be in, all things considered." Courage? He was shaking in Matt's shoes. They both knew the only reason that he'd finally admitted it was because she'd demanded it of him.

"When I saw you --your body, that is-- kissing Miranda, I...well, I reacted," Lizzie said, her voice finally losing its dull edge.

"That's an understatement."

"Let me finish," she said sharply, and he nodded in compliance, even though nothing but the ceiling was in her line of vision. "At first I thought it was just hurt because my two best friends were hooking up behind my back in front of me, and I was being left out of the loop." She sighed, and sat up. She still wouldn't look at him, but it was an improvement nonetheless. "But I thought about it, and while I didn't really have much time to give it deep consideration, I knew, I *knew* that I was so upset because I was *jealous*."

~~~~~

Matt paced in his room, keeping his eyes on his carpet. Because if he looked up, he might catch sight of his reflection, and be reminded of how dire this situation was.

He couldn't restrain himself, could he? He'd been Gordo, and finally achieved that closeness with Miranda that he'd so wanted, and he'd gone a little --okay, a *lot*-- crazy.

But it had been good.

There was a knock on the door. "What," Matt barked, not sure he wanted to face anyone right now. The last thing he needed was for one of his parents to have seen the whole ordeal taking place in the backyard, and thinking that they need to intervene. Which they just might, even though neither Gordo nor Miranda were their kids.

The door opened tentatively, and a familiar brunette head poked in. "I thought you might be in here," Miranda said softly.

Matt relaxed completely, although his mind was still on guard. He'd been through way too much lately to be completely at ease anymore. "Oh, hey. Come in."

"Um...you're still Matt, right?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, then," she said, walking past him and sitting on the edge of his bed. "Listen, I've been thinking, and...you've been so nice lately...and not to say that Gordo's *not* nice, but it's just that...I don't know." She blew her bangs off her forehead in frustration. "I'm not making sense."

She wasn't, but Matt didn't voice his agreement.

"It's just that...okay, well, maybe, I like you, too. Like Matt, I mean. But you knew that. You pretty much pried it out of me." She smirked slightly. "Just like Matt, to use Gordo's body to his advantage and weasel himself into another sticky situation."

"The stickier, the better," Matt said.

"I...that was really you, kissing me, wasn't it," she said, finally daring to look at him, and the expression in her dark eyes Matt couldn't read, but he imagined it translated into something good for him. "I mean, if I kissed the *real* Gordo, in his own body...he wouldn't kiss me like that, is what I'm saying. That was really you."

"Yeah, yeah it was," Matt said, for once without any sort of snarky comeback. "Miranda, I...I really like you," he said.

"Listen...if you and Gordo...you know...switch back... You wanna maybe give *us* another try? I promise I won't be as wigged out this time," she said with a smile.

Matt couldn't erase his grin if he tried. "Sure, sounds great." And then, although his brain told him that this wasn't the best of ideas, all things considered, he leaned in to give her another kiss.

~~~~~

"You were jealous," Gordo echoed.

"Yeah," Lizzie said.

"Like you wanted me to be kissing *you* instead," Gordo elaborated.

"Well, I..." Lizzie frowned, having an internal debate. "No. Yeah. I mean, yeah, like I wanted you to be kissing me instead. I mean...maybe I have feelings for you, too. Maybe. I don't know. I want to...I want to give us a chance, I guess is what I'm saying. Give us a chance to find out if I really am feeling what I think I'm feeling."

Gordo fought hard to hide the grin that was threatening to split his face in two. He remained calm for Lizzie, however. She didn't need to know just how much he was dorking out, just how much that statement meant to him.

"Lizzie, I just wanted to apologize. I was using Matt's body to try and manipulate you, and that was a million different kinds of wrong. I'm really sorry about that. I...you mean a lot to me, Lizzie, friend or otherwise, and I don't want to hurt you, ever."

"I understand," she said, and added, "you're forgiven."

Finally, finally, finally she looked up at him, and there was a tear on her face, one that he wanted to wipe away but knew he couldn't because he was still Matt. There was confusion in her eyes, that was to be expected, but there was hope, too. And best of all, she was smiling.

And then the universe folded in.