I don't own anything! And a few people have asked me for longer chapters, so I'm going to try to make them a little longer. REVIEW PLEASE! : )
ON THE WAY DOWN
Chapter 8
Lizzie and Gordo spent the remainder of the morning catching up on lost years. The power outage seemed to slip away from their minds as the man and woman spoke of recent and childhood times past. Gordo had yet to tell her about his financial situation, because if Lizzie was still the same person, she'd dive into a pity party for him and that was the last thing he wanted.
"I saw one of your movies a few weeks ago."
Gordo had been looking around the dark room, but he turned back to Lizzie so quickly that he swore he heard (not to mention felt!) his neck snap. "Ow… you did?!" he asked incredulously.
Lizzie nodded. "Yeah. 'Randa and I were having a movie night and when I went to Publix to get munchies, I almost ran over this little guy with curly hair like yours… and then I kept thinking about how much I missed seeing you, and I asked the chick at Blockbuster if they had any of your movies… she said yes, so I went and got it."
Gordo could feel his face redden, and was glad she couldn't see him very well in the dark. If only she knew… "Ah, cool. What movie?" he responded.
"Fair Trade," Lizzie answered. Gordo winced.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"It was awful, huh? I can't believe I even directed that piece of crap," he said. Lizzie looked at him in surprise.
"I actually enjoyed it very much." She was very indignant about it. Gordo smiled. He had felt very poor this morning, but now that he had Lizzie back, he might as well be the richest man in the world. His childhood feelings came rushing back to the surface right at that point, and all the memories started to whirl around in his head.Flashback:
Lizzie was sitting in the library, crying. Gordo went to her, and she told him Ronnie broke up with her. 'That jerk!' Gordo thought. 'How dare he hurt her.'
"Lizzie, I…"
"What, Gordo?"
"Uh… nothing." He chickened out again.
End Flashback.
"Lizzie, I-" Without realizing it at first, he started to blurt out that he loved her. Granted, he hadn't seen her in years upon years, but he'd always loved her, and the moment he saw her that morning, he'd promptly fallen in deeper.
"You what, Gordo?" Lizzie looked at him. 'Geez, doesn't this seem familiar?' Gordo thought. "Oh, I just wanted to say… it's so good to see you again. It's hard to keep friends in the entertainment business, and it's good to know that you're still there," he said. 'Good save!'
"Come on, Gordo. You know I'll be there for you until… well, until forever. You're my best friend." [AN: Aww, sappy cheesy moment! Sorry LOL]
Both got quiet for a moment, and Lizzie noted that the storm outside had calmed down noticeably. It was still quite dark, but the thunder had stopped, and she hadn't noticed any flashes of lightning lately. The rain seemed to be letting up a bit, too. She got up and crossed the living room to peer out of the curtains.
It was much lighter outside than before, and Lizzie could see the neighborhood again. She noticed the beat up black Honda on the side of the road a few houses down and laughed. "Gordo, don't EVEN try to tell me that you kept that old beat-up car from high school," she giggled.
Gordo froze. What could he tell her? He couldn't say he was a wash-up, that his films sucked, that he was being evicted because he couldn't afford his tiny apartment that was the size of her bathroom.
"That car's been good to me. Besides – it was my very first car. It's special," Gordo said, hoping that was a good save.
"Yeah, but… it's like what, 15 years old?" Lizzie asked, glancing out the window again.
"That's a pretty good car to still be running after 15 years, don't you think?"
"Well, what I think is that it's obviously NOT running, or you wouldn't be broke down and sitting in my living room in the middle of what might have been a damn hurricane," Lizzie responded.
Gordo laughed at that. "Yeah, I suppose. I love that car, though. I'd rather get it fixed and continue to have it run, than to get rid of it," he said. It was true; the car had seen him through everything that had happened to him, and considering the fact that it was older than the hills, it was still in pretty good shape. Well, except for the whole part about the engine not working. He grimaced. That was going to be a beast to fix.
Gordo then realized he was in a very bad place. He didn't want Lizzie to have pity on him, but what was he going to do? He knew no one else around, and the notice had said to have all of his stuff out of the apartment by Friday. It was now Wednesday. He had no job, and his car was broke down.
All of a sudden, everything hit Gordo at once, and he felt the tears spring to his eyes before he had a chance to stop them. 'Why can't someone just assure me that it'll be okay?' he thought. As if on cue, the power came back on.
