Tuesday morning I was stuck at school until lunchtime. It was our
rehearsal for graduation. We paid for and received our caps and gowns in
our homerooms, then ventured down to the south gym, where all the seniors
would crowd on to the bleachers. We get the joy of listening to our fellow
students give speeches about how these last four years have changed them. I
was just thankful that I wasn't one of "the chosen ones" to give a speech.
I entered the gym and accepted the bright yellow flyer that was being given out at the door, found a seat in the first row and got ready for an incredibly boring three hours.
I looked down at the sheet of paper in my hands and read it once over. It mainly just consisted of good-byes from the faculty, you know, how our class changed the school and how we would be missed greatly. I skimmed over the names of students who would be speaking, Kate Saunders, Larry Tudgemen, Brooke Baker, Ethan Craft, Margaret Chan, and David Gordon. huh? Gordo? I figured it was just a misprint until two hours into our rehearsal when he took the stage.
"Well, we've been stuck in the over-crowded school for the last four years, we've battled each other in the hallways between classes, and elbow checked our fellow students on our way to the cafeteria, so we could get lunch. well what they call lunch. We've pulled our hair out of our scalps trying to understand that formula in math class, and we all questioned whether high school is really worth all this stress. We've gone home to our parents and listened to them ramble on about how we're wasting our potential, and how we'll probably end up flipping burgers for the rest of our lives. We've all been through this. And somehow through it all, there have been few fatalities." Gordo stopped and look around into the audience, probably some sort of approval, but he need not look. The class was silent; waiting to hear what Gordo had to say.
"High school began badly for me; I came to this school feeling very alone. Even now as I stand before all of you, I feel alone. My time here has had its up's and down's. I've made friends, but also lost a few very important ones." He hung his head down, bring on the water works, I know what's coming.
"Miranda was one of my best friends, she was a wonderful person. Quirky personality, she was the best friend side kick of any sitcom show. She had all the bubblyness of the lead but something didn't quite make her that girl. just before I came to this school she moved to Mexico. So many of you didn't have the chance to get to know her, so take my word, she was an angel. Unfortunately she was taken from us two years ago. I won't go into detail since this is supposed to be a happy time for everyone, I just wanted to mention her, because it goes with how I'm going to finish this very short speech." He stopped again, but this time looked directly at me. I wiped away the few tears that had found their way out, and nodded, as if urging him to go forward.
"You know how people always tell you to take each day, day by day, because you might not have tomorrow? Ignore that. It's pointless if you only think of today, you won't see tomorrow coming. If you think of how at this moment you'd like to stick heroin in your body, stop to think of how it will affect you tomorrow. Living day by day is the wrong way to go. It will bring you more problems then imaginable. I'm not saying don't live for today, I'm saying think of tomorrow at the same time. Be spontaneous but in a sensible manner. You don't know what will become of you, but you can give yourself the direction you need.
I hope, in ten years when we're crowded into this gym again, I will see all your faces once more, and hopefully nothing bad has become of any of you." He turned to other speakers, "Even you Kate." he laughed and stepped down.
I felt like I should wait to go talk to him, you know stay and listen to what everyone else had to say, but I couldn't. I shifted in my seat, I just couldn't get comfortable. I needed to talk to him, why did I need to talk to him? I'm not sure but that speech made me nervous. if nervous is the right word.
I bolted up from my seat and ran from the gym, hoping Gordo would notice me and follow me out to the hallway, when he hadn't shown up 10 minutes later I slipped backwards onto the wall behind me and let it guide my body down to the floor. I put my head down on my knees and started to cry.
I didn't see him come up to me, nor did I see him slide down the wall to join me on the floor. I did notice when someone put their arm around my shoulders and bring me in closer to them, but I didn't bother to bring my head up, or find out who it was that was trying to comfort me.
"I'm sorry hun," my comforter said to me, immediately I knew who it was.
"Gordo; I miss her so much."
"I know you do sweetie, I do too." He stroked my arm as I cried into his chest. Leaning down he kissed the top of my head.
"I've missed you too" I softly said, secretly hoping he hadn't heard what I said. I just wanted to say it so it was out there, floating around. I felt him smile and pull me closer.
"Why don't we get out of here? Spend the day together again, beside I wanted to talk to you about Prom but right now isn't the best time." I nodded, knowing he would feel the movement on his chest.
The two of us bolted from the school hoping none of the facility had noticed us. We ran over to his car and jumped in, he immediately started the engine and drove off, and we didn't need a destination we just wanted to get out of there. With the wind blowing in our hair we drove down the highway, listening to pop tunes on the radio as I sung aloud.
"Hey Liz" Gordo said so quietly I almost didn't hear him over the music and my own voice. I turned and looked at him,
"Yah Gordo?"
"I missed you too." I smiled to myself and continued to sing along with the radio. It felt so good just to be with him at that moment, I never wanted it to end, the wind in my hair with my best friend beside and nothing stopping us but the traffic ahead of us.
"Gordo?" he nodded to signal I should continue even without his vocal response, "what was it about prom that you had wanted to ask me?" he pulled over to the side of the road and parked the car.
"Remember yesterday when you asked e about prom?" I bobbed my head slightly "Well I'm still unsure if I'm going to go or not. Yesterday what I should've said was that I wouldn't want to go to the prom with anyone but the one I've loved my entire life. You see Lizzie high school wasn't very good for me. For anything in my life to be good it has to include you, and well I want prom to be good. no I want prom to great but the only that's going to happen is if you'd agree to go with me." I smiled softly to myself.
"I couldn't imagine going to the prom with anyone else. hey Gordo? I know this is very uncharacteristic of me, but can we skip the limo and all that sappy stuff that goes with pre-prom preparation?" I asked quietly.
"Of course, you know I don't like that stuff anyway." I leaned in and gave him a light kiss. He pulled away after a moment, "hey Liz, while we're on the subject of doing things that are uncharacteristic there's a party happening tonight that I wanted to go to, would you care to join me?"
"I'd love to, I'm sure you've heard of my love for parties. Your parents are out of town for some conference right?" he looked at me very confused and I suppose my love of parties and his parents being out of town are two very different subjects. "Well, here start driving back to my house so I can get ready and I'll explain on the way." He did as he was told and once we had been driving for a few minutes I started my explanation.
"Ever since Miranda. well you know, my parents have been against my partying. Since I didn't want to give up going to parties we came to an arrangement. I could continue to go out and do as I please as long as I have a safe place to stay afterwards and that safe place is not to be my house."
"I don't think I understand."
I sighed "apparently it's partying that caused Miranda's death, according to my parents anyway, me I know different. But since my parents are so convinced that partying was what lead Miranda to an early grave they don't want to see me after a party. I don't really understand it either but it's their choice and I honestly don't like seeing my parents after a party anyway, so it's best for everyone this way."
"Okay." he said still clearly confused but not wanting to push the matter any further.
"So if I go to this party with you, I'd want to crash at your place afterwards."
"Oh, okay. Yah my parents are out of town, and you're welcome to spend the night."
At my house, I showered while he sat in my room going through boring magazines and such, I entered my room forgetting he was there after my shower in my towel and began to go threw my closet looking for something sleek to wear.
"You know Lizzie, that wet look is good for you" he walked up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist and nuzzled his face into my neck. I turned around so my face was hardly an inch from his.
"You think so?" he traced my curves, teasing me.
"I do think so McGuire." He placed his lips by my ear and in a husky whisper he said "I think you'd look great in a skirt tonight" his fingers caressed my upper stomach and up to my breast, I left out a soft moan and he kissed my ear, before using that whispering in my ear "I think I'll wait for you downstairs. Hurry now."
I let my fingers trace the button over his fly on his jeans, "You Gordo are a tease." He smiled and let go of me and started to walk out of my room, before completely exiting my room he turned to say,
"Yah but you like it. Don't even try to deny that." And with that he headed downstairs leaving me to get ready.
A couple hours of blatant flirting and teasing on both side we walked into the party. It was normal end of a high school career party, people everywhere, along with alcohol of many types. I immediately went for the beer, Gordo followed me not letting go of my hand.
"So beer is the beverage of choice for my lady?"
"Indeed, but if you want to drink let me know and I'll be the sober driver. After all coming to this party was your idea."
"Well my reason for inviting you to this party was to spend more time with you, so if you want to drink that's cool. I mean I can have my beer when we get back to my house." I smiled, he was so sweet, even if he was just offering to be the sober, and I loved him all the more for doing it.
"How about we don't stay here long, a couple round of saying hi to people, maybe one dirty dance and a couple sessions of PDA and we'll go back to your place before I rip your clothes off here?" He stared at me shocked, and then I realized what I had said. I didn't mean for that last part to come out. It was merely a thought. not a suggestion.
"Did my sweet, innocent, blush-when-a-guy-looks-her-way Lizzie just tell me she wants to rip my clothes off?"
I smiled, "must be the beer talking"
"You haven't opened your beer yet." I blushed, he caught me. "You know, I say screw the party, let's just head back to my place. I have beer there, lets see what you'll say when you've actually opened your drink." I gave him a light, teasing kiss to let him know I was in complete agreement with going to his house.
We ran silently out of the house and jumped back into his car, and quickly drove to his house. As he fiddled with his key in the lock, I fiddled with his jacket. then shirt. the pants. until finally the door flew open behind me, causing me to trip backwards falling with Gordo on top of me. He immediately took the opportunity and started kissing me deeply. I wrapped myself around him and kissed back.
I felt his hand slip up my skirt and begin to stroke my thigh. I was about to completely strip him naked when I felt a draft, I broke the kiss to see the door was wide open.
"Gordo why don't we go get those beers you were talking about?"
"You're kidding me?" I shook my head no. He let out an aspirated sigh, "Now who's the tease McGuire?"
We ended up drinking ourselves tipsy and falling asleep on the couch in each other's arms, but honestly, it was perfect. Of course while we were drinking there was some heavy petting, and a lot of nudity, but mainly it was just Gordo and Lizzie, back to the way things used to be. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Tuesday night was indeed a magical one for me.
I entered the gym and accepted the bright yellow flyer that was being given out at the door, found a seat in the first row and got ready for an incredibly boring three hours.
I looked down at the sheet of paper in my hands and read it once over. It mainly just consisted of good-byes from the faculty, you know, how our class changed the school and how we would be missed greatly. I skimmed over the names of students who would be speaking, Kate Saunders, Larry Tudgemen, Brooke Baker, Ethan Craft, Margaret Chan, and David Gordon. huh? Gordo? I figured it was just a misprint until two hours into our rehearsal when he took the stage.
"Well, we've been stuck in the over-crowded school for the last four years, we've battled each other in the hallways between classes, and elbow checked our fellow students on our way to the cafeteria, so we could get lunch. well what they call lunch. We've pulled our hair out of our scalps trying to understand that formula in math class, and we all questioned whether high school is really worth all this stress. We've gone home to our parents and listened to them ramble on about how we're wasting our potential, and how we'll probably end up flipping burgers for the rest of our lives. We've all been through this. And somehow through it all, there have been few fatalities." Gordo stopped and look around into the audience, probably some sort of approval, but he need not look. The class was silent; waiting to hear what Gordo had to say.
"High school began badly for me; I came to this school feeling very alone. Even now as I stand before all of you, I feel alone. My time here has had its up's and down's. I've made friends, but also lost a few very important ones." He hung his head down, bring on the water works, I know what's coming.
"Miranda was one of my best friends, she was a wonderful person. Quirky personality, she was the best friend side kick of any sitcom show. She had all the bubblyness of the lead but something didn't quite make her that girl. just before I came to this school she moved to Mexico. So many of you didn't have the chance to get to know her, so take my word, she was an angel. Unfortunately she was taken from us two years ago. I won't go into detail since this is supposed to be a happy time for everyone, I just wanted to mention her, because it goes with how I'm going to finish this very short speech." He stopped again, but this time looked directly at me. I wiped away the few tears that had found their way out, and nodded, as if urging him to go forward.
"You know how people always tell you to take each day, day by day, because you might not have tomorrow? Ignore that. It's pointless if you only think of today, you won't see tomorrow coming. If you think of how at this moment you'd like to stick heroin in your body, stop to think of how it will affect you tomorrow. Living day by day is the wrong way to go. It will bring you more problems then imaginable. I'm not saying don't live for today, I'm saying think of tomorrow at the same time. Be spontaneous but in a sensible manner. You don't know what will become of you, but you can give yourself the direction you need.
I hope, in ten years when we're crowded into this gym again, I will see all your faces once more, and hopefully nothing bad has become of any of you." He turned to other speakers, "Even you Kate." he laughed and stepped down.
I felt like I should wait to go talk to him, you know stay and listen to what everyone else had to say, but I couldn't. I shifted in my seat, I just couldn't get comfortable. I needed to talk to him, why did I need to talk to him? I'm not sure but that speech made me nervous. if nervous is the right word.
I bolted up from my seat and ran from the gym, hoping Gordo would notice me and follow me out to the hallway, when he hadn't shown up 10 minutes later I slipped backwards onto the wall behind me and let it guide my body down to the floor. I put my head down on my knees and started to cry.
I didn't see him come up to me, nor did I see him slide down the wall to join me on the floor. I did notice when someone put their arm around my shoulders and bring me in closer to them, but I didn't bother to bring my head up, or find out who it was that was trying to comfort me.
"I'm sorry hun," my comforter said to me, immediately I knew who it was.
"Gordo; I miss her so much."
"I know you do sweetie, I do too." He stroked my arm as I cried into his chest. Leaning down he kissed the top of my head.
"I've missed you too" I softly said, secretly hoping he hadn't heard what I said. I just wanted to say it so it was out there, floating around. I felt him smile and pull me closer.
"Why don't we get out of here? Spend the day together again, beside I wanted to talk to you about Prom but right now isn't the best time." I nodded, knowing he would feel the movement on his chest.
The two of us bolted from the school hoping none of the facility had noticed us. We ran over to his car and jumped in, he immediately started the engine and drove off, and we didn't need a destination we just wanted to get out of there. With the wind blowing in our hair we drove down the highway, listening to pop tunes on the radio as I sung aloud.
"Hey Liz" Gordo said so quietly I almost didn't hear him over the music and my own voice. I turned and looked at him,
"Yah Gordo?"
"I missed you too." I smiled to myself and continued to sing along with the radio. It felt so good just to be with him at that moment, I never wanted it to end, the wind in my hair with my best friend beside and nothing stopping us but the traffic ahead of us.
"Gordo?" he nodded to signal I should continue even without his vocal response, "what was it about prom that you had wanted to ask me?" he pulled over to the side of the road and parked the car.
"Remember yesterday when you asked e about prom?" I bobbed my head slightly "Well I'm still unsure if I'm going to go or not. Yesterday what I should've said was that I wouldn't want to go to the prom with anyone but the one I've loved my entire life. You see Lizzie high school wasn't very good for me. For anything in my life to be good it has to include you, and well I want prom to be good. no I want prom to great but the only that's going to happen is if you'd agree to go with me." I smiled softly to myself.
"I couldn't imagine going to the prom with anyone else. hey Gordo? I know this is very uncharacteristic of me, but can we skip the limo and all that sappy stuff that goes with pre-prom preparation?" I asked quietly.
"Of course, you know I don't like that stuff anyway." I leaned in and gave him a light kiss. He pulled away after a moment, "hey Liz, while we're on the subject of doing things that are uncharacteristic there's a party happening tonight that I wanted to go to, would you care to join me?"
"I'd love to, I'm sure you've heard of my love for parties. Your parents are out of town for some conference right?" he looked at me very confused and I suppose my love of parties and his parents being out of town are two very different subjects. "Well, here start driving back to my house so I can get ready and I'll explain on the way." He did as he was told and once we had been driving for a few minutes I started my explanation.
"Ever since Miranda. well you know, my parents have been against my partying. Since I didn't want to give up going to parties we came to an arrangement. I could continue to go out and do as I please as long as I have a safe place to stay afterwards and that safe place is not to be my house."
"I don't think I understand."
I sighed "apparently it's partying that caused Miranda's death, according to my parents anyway, me I know different. But since my parents are so convinced that partying was what lead Miranda to an early grave they don't want to see me after a party. I don't really understand it either but it's their choice and I honestly don't like seeing my parents after a party anyway, so it's best for everyone this way."
"Okay." he said still clearly confused but not wanting to push the matter any further.
"So if I go to this party with you, I'd want to crash at your place afterwards."
"Oh, okay. Yah my parents are out of town, and you're welcome to spend the night."
At my house, I showered while he sat in my room going through boring magazines and such, I entered my room forgetting he was there after my shower in my towel and began to go threw my closet looking for something sleek to wear.
"You know Lizzie, that wet look is good for you" he walked up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist and nuzzled his face into my neck. I turned around so my face was hardly an inch from his.
"You think so?" he traced my curves, teasing me.
"I do think so McGuire." He placed his lips by my ear and in a husky whisper he said "I think you'd look great in a skirt tonight" his fingers caressed my upper stomach and up to my breast, I left out a soft moan and he kissed my ear, before using that whispering in my ear "I think I'll wait for you downstairs. Hurry now."
I let my fingers trace the button over his fly on his jeans, "You Gordo are a tease." He smiled and let go of me and started to walk out of my room, before completely exiting my room he turned to say,
"Yah but you like it. Don't even try to deny that." And with that he headed downstairs leaving me to get ready.
A couple hours of blatant flirting and teasing on both side we walked into the party. It was normal end of a high school career party, people everywhere, along with alcohol of many types. I immediately went for the beer, Gordo followed me not letting go of my hand.
"So beer is the beverage of choice for my lady?"
"Indeed, but if you want to drink let me know and I'll be the sober driver. After all coming to this party was your idea."
"Well my reason for inviting you to this party was to spend more time with you, so if you want to drink that's cool. I mean I can have my beer when we get back to my house." I smiled, he was so sweet, even if he was just offering to be the sober, and I loved him all the more for doing it.
"How about we don't stay here long, a couple round of saying hi to people, maybe one dirty dance and a couple sessions of PDA and we'll go back to your place before I rip your clothes off here?" He stared at me shocked, and then I realized what I had said. I didn't mean for that last part to come out. It was merely a thought. not a suggestion.
"Did my sweet, innocent, blush-when-a-guy-looks-her-way Lizzie just tell me she wants to rip my clothes off?"
I smiled, "must be the beer talking"
"You haven't opened your beer yet." I blushed, he caught me. "You know, I say screw the party, let's just head back to my place. I have beer there, lets see what you'll say when you've actually opened your drink." I gave him a light, teasing kiss to let him know I was in complete agreement with going to his house.
We ran silently out of the house and jumped back into his car, and quickly drove to his house. As he fiddled with his key in the lock, I fiddled with his jacket. then shirt. the pants. until finally the door flew open behind me, causing me to trip backwards falling with Gordo on top of me. He immediately took the opportunity and started kissing me deeply. I wrapped myself around him and kissed back.
I felt his hand slip up my skirt and begin to stroke my thigh. I was about to completely strip him naked when I felt a draft, I broke the kiss to see the door was wide open.
"Gordo why don't we go get those beers you were talking about?"
"You're kidding me?" I shook my head no. He let out an aspirated sigh, "Now who's the tease McGuire?"
We ended up drinking ourselves tipsy and falling asleep on the couch in each other's arms, but honestly, it was perfect. Of course while we were drinking there was some heavy petting, and a lot of nudity, but mainly it was just Gordo and Lizzie, back to the way things used to be. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Tuesday night was indeed a magical one for me.