Chapter 3

Gordo was sitting at the bar in the Digital Bean, on a Friday afternoon. Beside him, were three empty cups that were filled with strawberry smoothie before Gordo drank them.

"Can you believe them?" Gordo asked. "I mean it was just Monday when they were praising me for my idea, telling me this is a great opportunity and all, and the next they're storming out yelling at me, telling me I'm a bad friend. Come on now, its pretty obvious they were wrong. Do you know where I'm coming from?"

"No." The waiter replied. "Do you have $6.50 or not."

Gordo felt embarrassed, "Oh, yeah. Sorry about that." He pulled out his wallet and handed the waiter a ten-dollar bill. He sat there in confusion as he waited for his change.

- - - - - - - - - -

"Come on now, it's pretty obvious he was wrong." Miranda spat out as she walked back and forth across the yard. "Best friends aren't back stabbers."

Lizzie held a look of confusion on her face as she sat in a lawn chair in Miranda's backyard. She knew where each of her best friends were coming from, but didn't want to have to choose a side. "Best friends aren't hypocrites either. If you think about it, neither of you are right."

"What?" Miranda questioned.

"And--neither of you are wrong." Lizzie replied.

"You're taking his side, aren't you?"

"Uh, no. I'm not taking anyone's side." Lizzie answered back. "Gordo was wrong for evading people's privacy. We were wrong for thinking it was alright for him to do it to other people, and wrong for him to do so to us."

Miranda stopped moving back and forth and sat next to Lizzie in a chair. "But Lizzie, he's going to show the whole school."

Lizzie rolled her eyes. "Come on Miranda, this is Gordo we're talking about here. That's like one of the last things he would do."

Mirada had a look of doubt on her face. "You think so?" She asked in a serious tone.

Lizzie smiled. "I don't think so--I know so." She sat half way up, and started gathering her things that were around the chair and placed them in her book bag. "Anyways, I think I'm going to go. It's almost six and I told my mom I'd be home for dinner." She paused and looked at Miranda one last time. "Just--just don't worry about it, okay?"

Miranda nodded. Lizzie began to get up from her chair, but collapsed back into her seat holding her head with her hand. "Um, Lizzie, are you okay?" Miranda asked while helping her sit up.

"Um, I think so." Lizzie answered still hold her head. "I feel kind of faint and dizzy. I think the sun got to me." She slowly started to stand back up, before Miranda stopped her.

"Wait, Lizzie, you're bleeding." She grabbed the towel that was on the back of the chair, and placed it on Lizzie's nose.

"I thought Gordo was the only one who got nose bleeds on hot days." Lizzie said while holding the towel on her nose absorbing up the fresh red blood that fell from her nostril.

"Uh, Lizzie, it's 60 degrees out. I wouldn't call it a hot day." Miranda said.

There was a moment of silence. "I don't know, but I really have to leave."

- - - - - - - - - -

Meanwhile, Gordo was at home flipping through the channels with his remote control. "Four hundred and fifty channels, and not one good sci-fi flick on. What has this world come to?" He asked himself. He turned the television off and tossed the controller onto the other couch. While doing so, he caught a glimpse of his video recorder and stared at it in silence while thinking.

"Oh just give it up Gordo." He thought out loudly. "It's not going anywhere." His eyes remained on the video as he questioned is thoughts in silence. "Oh what the heck."

He got up from the couch, hooked his camcorder up to the television, and turned it back on. He fast-forwarded it for a few minutes passing up wedgie digging, armpit smelling, trips, slips, falls, and a lot of other footage he had caught the previous week. He continued fast forwarding until he saw something that he had never seen before.

"What's this?" He asked himself. He stopped the tape, rewound it, and then turned up the volume on the television.

Before, he could sit down and watch it the doorbell rang. He turned the film off, went to the door, and opened it.

"Lizzie?" He seemed surprised as the blonde headed girl smiled at him from the other side of the door. "What are you doing here? I thought you were at Miranda's."

"Well I was, but I left and walked to my house to find no one home, and the door locked." Lizzie answered.

"Do you want to come in?" Gordo asked opening the door wide enough for her to enter.

Lizzie smiled and walked in the door.

They began to walk into the living room. "I thought you and Miranda were mad at me." Gordo stated. Lizzie turned around to face Gordo and sat on the couch. Gordo sat down as well.

"That's sort of why I'm here." She answered. "I was talking to Miranda and I realized we were wrong just as much as you."

"That's a first." Gordo said.

"Well I came to tell you that I'm sorry for calling you a selfish jerk when I was acting like one myself."

"Apology accepted, and I'm sorry as well, but uh, Lizzie? You never called me a selfish jerk." Gordo looked puzzled.

"Oh." Lizzie laughed with a slight hesitation. "I must of, uh, I must have been thinking it then." Lizzie laughed some more, and Gordo joined in.

"Watch it McGuire." He joked as the laughter faded.

"Is it alright if I use your bathroom?" Lizzie asked. Gordo nodded, and she left the room.

Gordo decided to turn on his videotape once more while Lizzie was in the bathroom. As he turned it on, a blonde headed girl, and a dark haired girl sat at a lunch table outside of the school cafeteria. It was Lizzie and Miranda.

"So, are we still on for tomorrow?" Miranda asked Lizzie as she shoved a frie into her mouth.

"What's tomorrow?" Lizzie replied with a question to Miranda's question.

Miranda swallowed her food. "The dollar movies. Remember? Brad Pitts big screen debut. Ring a bell?"

"I know that. I meant what's the date."

"Oh, it's the… 14th I think." Miranda answered unsurely.

"The 14th?" Lizzie paused and thought. "There was something happening on the 14th."

"Uh, you going to the dollar movies with me to see Brad Pitts big screen debut?" Miranda said looking confused.

Lizzie slightly jumped as she figured it out. "Oh yeah, that's right. It's the four-month anniversary of when Gordo's grandmother died. He asked us to go with him to her grave, remember?"

Miranda frowned. "I forgot about that." She paused. "I still can't believe she died. She was so full of joy."

"I know. It's sad isn't it?" Lizzie agreed. "But, at least this one died of a natural cause, unlike the other one."

Miranda stopped and looked at Lizzie strangely. "You still remember that? That was like, three years ago. "

Lizzie walked into the room wiping her wet hands on her jeans. She started to open her mouth to let Gordo know his Mom forgot to put clean towels for hand drying in the downstairs bathroom when she caught of glimpse of the television.

"How could I forget?" Lizzie asked and then continued. "I mean, Gordo's grandmother was murdered, by some guy she didn't even know." Gordo's mouth dropped in confusion as he continued watching the tape. "It still gets to me when I think about it."

"I still can't believe no one ever told Gordo about it." A smaller version of Miranda spoke through the television.

Lizzie stared in confusion at the TV and couldn't help but wonder what all Gordo heard, and what was going on in his mind. Gordo paused the tape looking dumbfounded, and stared at the screen in shock.

Lizzie didn't want to say anything. She felt she said enough in the tape, even if she only heard a few things, but her mouth opened on it's own. "Gordo…" She whispered, waiting for him to turn around, which he did.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Gordo spoke as if his body was cold and shivering.

"I-" Lizzie started, but was stopped at the sound of Gordo's voice once again.

"If you knew this whole time, why didn't you tell me?" He asked the same question, but Lizzie still didn't answer.

"I'm sorry." Lizzie said and ran to the door and left.

[A/N]: If you think that's all there is to this story, keep thinking, because it's barley beginning. Plus, something is still going on with Lizzie, and nobody knows what… well maybe someone does.