A/N: Alright, this will be the last chapter in which they are at the beach. That means that this story is almost over. Alright, Not really. It will probably have about twenty chapters. I will be gone for another week. I'm really sorry about not being able to update very often at all, but I am trying. Thanks for reading, and to all my reviewers, you are so great!

Gordo comes out of the bathroom and surprisingly finds Lizzie awake and awaiting her turn for the bathroom. "Wow. I'm surprised you're awake." Lizzie just pushes past him into the bathroom and slams the door, sticking her tongue out at him on the way.

A few minutes later she walks out and Gordo is making his bed just so his parents don't question him. Lizzie fidgets with her bracelet as she waits on Gordo. Gordo glances up at Lizzie and does a double take. He quickly adverts his eyes when Lizzie meets his stare. He thinks, "You've seen Lizzie in a swim suit a thousand times, Gordo. Come on, no need to be nervous."

Lizzie usually would be oblivious to what had just happened, but since she had started paying much more attention to Gordo, she notices the look. She hopes that his look is because of some sort of attraction to her, and not because she looks bad or anything.

They both walk to the beach and decide to walk a short ways down the coast. "Listen, I'm sorry about last night. I mean, I know nothing happened between us and nothing would, but somehow I still feel like I may have freaked you out a bit," Gordo explains.

Lizzie halts and grabs onto his arm and steps in front of him. "Hey, you didn't do anything wrong. I couldn't get to sleep, and you helped me with that. If anyone should be sorry, it's me. I was the one who ended up practically using you as a mattress!"

Gordo smiles his half grin. "True. Very true." Gordo's smile fades as he notices Lizzie's worried expression about something behind him. "What's wrong?"

"It's those guys again," she answers.

Gordo glances over his shoulder and spots the three guys quite a ways down the beach. He smiles and asks Lizzie, "Do you have your lipstick with you?"

"Gordo!" Lizzie explaims. "This is serious! I do not want to be anywhere near them."

"Don't worry. We'll just start walking the other way."

However, it's not long before the guys notice the couple in front of them and run to catch up. "Well, if it isn't our pucker partners," Brad says, coming up beside Lizzie. Ray and Daniel stop a few paces behind. "Ya know, we're having another party tonight if you two want to come."

"No thanks. I don't think I ever want to come to another one of your parties," Lizzie answers him.

Daniel comes up beside Gordo. "You wanna come, though, right? I mean, you had a good time, didn't you?" He raises his eyebrows and grins at Gordo.

"You didn't enjoy the party? I figured you of all people would have a great time! Are you gay or something? Nothin's wrong with this babe here," Brad says, wrapping an arm around Lizzie.

"Look, we did what we had to do to get out of there. Now, would you please leave us alone?" Gordo states.

Lizzie removes Brad's arm from her shoulder. Brad replaces it again this time around her waist and pulls her into him. "Let go of me!" Lizzie shouts at him, pushing him away.

"No one rejects me," He shouts back, grabbing her wrist hard. Suddenly he finds himself on the sand with a bloody nose. "What the.." he starts, until he realizes that Gordo had just punched him hard in the face.

Gordo finds himself immediately toppled to the sand by Daniel. Gordo takes a few hits in the stomach and face before Daniel finds himself having to throw off a blond who had just flown at him with irrepressible anger. Ray holds Lizzie back as Daniel attempts to continue with the punches. Daniel and Ray, however, soon are held back by two lifeguards who happened to be manning their stations at the time. Brad gets to his feet. Lizzie, released from Ray, runs flying toward Brad, but one of the lifeguards catches her and holds her back. "You'll never be anything but a rapist and a dirk!" she shouts out at him. Not exactly the best riposte, but it'll do.

Lizzie is released as Brad and his friends are told to go home and not come back for awhile. She rushes over to Gordo who is sitting up in the sand. Kneeling down by him and placing her hands on his face, she says "Gordo! Oh my gosh, look at you! Are you okay? How many fingers am I holding up?"

Gordo smiles, despite his pain. "Lizzie, I'm beat up, not blind."

Lizzie smiles back at him and thinks, "Kiss him! Just kiss him right now! He just defended you! He got beat up for you! Kiss him! He deserves that much at least!" Lizzie's smile fades as she begins to lean closer to him.

Gordo clutches his side and attempts to get up, having not noticed Lizzie's endeavor to kiss him. Lizzie snaps out of her world and helps him up. Soon, a lifeguard is asking Gordo what happened and if he is alright. He also explains that they often have problems with that group of college guys every summer.

Lizzie helps Gordo to the hotel room, after he rejects to have any hospital help at all. Lizzie helps him sit down and gets him a glass of water. "Gordo, why did you do that?"

He smiles and says, "I guess I'm just a man who will fight for your honor."

Lizzie blushes. "I, I guess I better get you some ice for your eye."

Gordo gets up and looks in the mirror on the bathroom wall while Lizzie is out of the room getting ice. His eye is quite swollen, his nose is bleeding, his hair is tangled and covered with sand, and he is almost positive that his whole body would turn purple before morning. "Wow, I look like crap," he says outloud.

"You don't look like crap. Besides, some girls like the scoffed up look," Lizzie comments, taking his hand and leading him back to his seat. She sits on her knees beside the chair. "Come on, put this over your eye." She hands him a washrag with ice in it and places his hand over his eye. "There you go. Oops! Forgot one thing!" She removes his hand from his eye and kisses the eyebrow above his swollen eye.

Gordo can feel her hair falling into his face, and a chill runs up his spine. "Oh, come on Gordo! You can do it! Tell her! Tell her how much you care about her! No, just lean over and kiss her! Then you don't have to speak!" his subconscious says. Finally, he gets the nerve. "Lizzie, I need to tell you something."

Lizzie bites her lip and moves slightly closer to him. "Um?"

"I, like, um, I, uh, like your nurse skills."

Lizzie stands up to her feet. She takes in the situation and what Gordo had just spoken. Blinking back tears, she replies, "Thanks. I'll be right back." She runs into the bathroom before he sees her start crying. Had he meant to tell her he still had feelings for her? The way it looks, to Lizzie at least, is that Gordo's feelings had deteriorated. She knows he couldn't be chicken. He did ask her to the dance in front of everyone! What had happened to his assertiveness? In Lizzie's mind, Gordo had simply lost interest in her. "Figures," she says outloud, "I haven't ever been able to keep a guy interested for more than a few days. What is wrong with me!" she shouts, not realizing it.

A knock is heard on the door. "Lizzie, are you okay?"

Lizzie wipes her tears, though she knows it can't fool Gordo, and opens the door. "Yeah, everything's fine."

Gordo raises his eyebrows to her and gives her the look. "What's up?"

"It's just, sometimes I feel like such a loser."

"Why?"

"Cause I just do, okay, Gordo?" she says, tearing up again. Everything seems to come full force to her; how Gordo doesn't seem to like her like her anymore, how she could have been raped, how she seemed to do everything wrong and everyone knew. She starts to close the bathroom door but Gordo stops it.

"Hey, come here," he says gently, seizing her waist and pulling her into a hug. He wraps his arms tight around her and she resists, but only for a slight second. "You're not a loser, Lizzie. Far from it." She no longer tries to hold in the tears and let's them flow.

"Here he is, the guy who has just been beaten up for defending me, now letting me cry on his shoulder," Lizzie thinks.

She buries her face in his shoulder as her sobs slowly dry to a few tears. He let's go of her and holds her at arms length, looking into her eyes. "Feel better?"

She nods. "Except now I look like a red balloon!" And with that, the dam bursts again. He pulls her back into a hug, despite the pain increasing in his side from the fight, and rubs her back.

"I love you, Gordo," she says. She had told him before, but only meant it in a friendship way until now.

Gordo, figuring she meant it in a friendship way, just answers, "I know."

Lizzie pulls back. She had finally gotten the courage to tell him that she loved him, and meant it in a more than a platonic way, and that was his answer? She gives him a questioning look, before gaining the strength to bitterly say, "I'm gonna leave you alone and let you rest some."

Gordo watches as she runs out of the hotel room without even re-applying her makeup. "I love you, McGuire," He says, too late for her to hear.

Lizzie starts to walk to the beach, but realizes that she is fed up of it. She walks along the road to the pier. She left her purse in the hotel room, so she had no money on her to pay the two dollar toll. "It's a pier! Why do I have to pay just to walk out on it? It doesn't make sense!" Lizzie exclaims through tears, after the toll booth worker refuses to let her go. Someone comes up to the booth and places four dollars on the desk.

"Two, please. Come along, Elizabeth."

Mrs. Gordon leads Lizzie unto the pier. "Now, why are you crying? Did my son do something wrong? If he's anything like his father, then he,"

"No, Mrs. Gordon. I'll be fine," Lizzie tries to convince her, though her bottom lip quivers the whole time.

"Sit down." Mrs. Gordon takes a seat on a bench and Lizzie sits beside her. Lizzie starts to cry again as she remembers her and Gordo sitting on the same bench talking a day before. "This has something to do with David, I know it. You kids may think I'm oblivious, but I know more than you think."

Lizzie gives her a questioning look. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Gordon, but you're not making any sense to me."

"Oh, I'm sure I am. My husband hid his feelings from me for six years simply because he believed that he wasn't good enough to deserve attention from the girl of his dreams." Lizzie still gives her a questioning look, and she smiles, continuing, "David reminds me a lot of his father, in more ways than one."

Lizzie stares at her in disbelief as Gordo's mother stands up and walks to the end of the pier. Lizzie soon walks to the edge of the pier and peers over it. The ocean waves, shimmering blue and teal, splash against the columns of the pier. Minutes go by before she realizes someone standing beside her. She glances down at the hands grasping the railing and recognizes them as Gordo's. She raises her eyes to his face and discovers that he is looking straight into her. "So, did you rest any?"

Gordo doesn't loosen his stare. "No. I've been worried."

Lizzie stares back down at his hands. "About me?"

"Yeah."

She meets his gaze. "I'll be okay. Come on, we should probably get a corndog or something."