No Time to Waste
by TheRealXenocide
`
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, settings, or anything else you recognize from the show Lizzie McGuire. The plot, at it's base, has been around since Homer, and this variant since Henry Ford. However, this is the first I've seen it applied to Lizzie.
`
Chapter 49
Revelations
`
After all the congratulations were finished, the McGuire parents arranged a time to pick-up their children later in the day, then headed back home. Matt and Miranda eventually went to change into their outfits. When they got back downstairs, most of the others had a hard time hiding the chuckles cased by the way they were walking. While neither pair of jeans were really too tight, they were tighter than either was accustomed to, so they were walking . . . carefully.
They loaded into the Sanchez's van with Gordo and his more extensive casts in the front with Daniella. Lizzie and her plaster got one of the two captain's chairs in the middle. Matt took the other one, so Lily's car seat could share the back bench seat between Miranda and Reggie.
On the way to the mall, Miranda was still looking at her ring. The was gold, with the top half designed like loosely woven rope. On top was a design she had seen before, but couldn't place. It had a heart, held thumb-and-forefinger by two hands, wearing a crown.
Before she could ask about it, Lily asked to see it, and asked immediately. "What's that?" She was pointing to the design.
"I'm not sure." Miranda admitted, her own curiosity coming clear in her voice.
"I didn't know until I looked it up." Matt answered. He then raised his own hand, bearing his matching ring, so Miranda, Lily, and anyone else who wanted to look, could see. "It's a Celtic design called a Claddagh. The heart represents love, the hands friendship, and the crown loyalty. There's an old legend that goes with it, but I'd have to look again before I try to repeat it."
Gordo smiled to himself. He knew two different versions of the Claddagh legend. But he decided to let Matt tell Miranda himself. "So this is the surprise I've heard about. But why today?"
"Two reasons. First, this is our one month anniversary." The reactions to that, while subtle, were clearly divided by gender. Miranda, Lizzie, Daniella, and even Lily all had their versions of the 'Aw, how sweet' noise and smile. Gordo and Reggie looked at him like noting anniversaries by the month was the weirdest thing they ever heard of. "Second, we're making our public debut today, and the added symbolism might help this go smoothly."
"I hope it does." Lizzie had to stop herself before she added the tag 'baby brother'. Those rings, that speech. If nothing else this past month had proven that he was no baby anymore, those did. She turned her attention to her own life-mate. "Our one month anniversary is in a couple of days. Got any ideas?"
Gordo winced at that. "Thanks, Matt."
"Uh, oh, you're in trouble." Lily teased in a sing-song voice. That caused everyone, even Gordo, to laugh.
~~~~~~~~
The mall they were going to was a roughly T shaped. It had an anchor store on each end of the long axis. The shorter axis projected from the longer one about two-thirds of the way down, with a food court at the end. Opposite the short axis was a third anchor store.
Their plan was to drop off Matt and Miranda at the end of the mall farthest from the food court, then Daniella would park as close as possible to the Food Court, where they would sit and wait for the couple to make their way to them.
The stroll itself would be a slow, leisurely one, making sure to be seen holding hands and holding each other. While they weren't going to plan it, they had no doubt that, with this being the first time they didn't have to be careful, there would be at least one stop for kissing. Add to all that possible stops from people who would see them together and have to ask, and they had no doubt the others would be waiting on them, no matter how busy to parking was.
As could be expected on a summer holiday, the mall was busy. But, as could also be expected on a summer holiday, many of the people there weren't shopping. They were meeting friends, enjoying the live entertainment, and generally burning time. This, of course, includes people-watching. So when Matt and Miranda started walking together hand-in-hand, they were noticed almost immediately.
Their classmates that saw this were surprised, and in some cases disbelieving. The disbelievers were, for the most part, shocked out of that the first time the couple stopped and kissed. Some who had been watching them caught glints from their fingers, and were amazed when they realize that the glints were cased by rings. The first to talk to the couple, three girls from Miranda's school, were among the ones that noticed the rings. They politely gave a short, carefully censured version of how they became a couple, and a shortened version of the story behind the rings. This group carefully edged around the age question, so Matt and Miranda didn't see the need to answer it more than the story of their becoming a couple already did.
This pattern repeated itself twice more times. First for a mixed-gender group from Matt's school, then a similar group from Miranda's. Matt had to fight his amusement at Miranda's shift in body language when the girls from Matt's school were near, only to catch himself doing the same thing when the boys from her school came close.
Each time, the body language read loud and clear 'This one's taken, so hands off!'.
The fourth time they were stopped, however, was not as pleasant. They stopped when Miranda heard a slimy-smooth voice she knew all too well. "I guess the convent relaxed the dress code."
The male voice that said that was one that boiled Miranda's blood the instant she heard it. "So, Brett, did the doctor's say you'd still have kids, or did I do the world a favor?" Miranda turned around slowly as she said that, so it wasn't until she finished that she saw the girl on his arm. When she thought about it, though, it was the one girl she expected would move his speed. "Clair."
The sound of the boy's name caused a flare of anger in Matt. This Brett was the slime who had sweet-talked his way into Miranda's shirt. This Brett was the bastard who had try to go farther than Miranda was ready for. And, he reminded himself in an attempt to maintain control, he was the one she dumped, on the spot, in a particularly painful manner.
"Trust me, Sanchez, he's VERY functional." The look on Clair's face was pure malice. "Well, well. This little scene explains a few things. So Sanchez, I guess you had to go to pre-school to find a boy your speed."
Miranda found the spirit to fire right back. "And where did Brett find the girl his speed, a brothel?"
"Now, now, Sister Miranda. Just because she doesn't have a baby's view of sex doesn't mean she's from a brothel." Brett replied, adding sweet venom to the word Sister.
"From what Kate's told us about Clair," Matt returned, having regained some control, "I doubt a brothel would have her."
Clair couldn't believe he'd dared to say that about her. "Why you little worm . . ."
"Now there's an idea. But should it be worms in the salad, or maybe a bucket of mud and worms on the head?"
"You wouldn't dare . . ." Brett was trying to sound and look menacing.
He didn't expect the younger boy to stand his ground. So when he saw not fear, but growing anger, in the boy's eyes, it made him nervous. The ice in the voice was even more unsettling. "Make trouble for Miranda, and you'd be lucky if that's all I do."
Bullies don't always act as they do in the fable that parents tell their children. Often, standing up to a bully only serves to have the bully live up to their claims. Brett, however, wasn't that strong-willed. He preferred to work on 'soft' prey, and the fire burning in the young boy's eyes made him decide that Matt didn't qualify. "Comeon, Clair."
`
When the pair left, Matt finally let himself look beyond the confrontation. It was then he noticed was that they had gained a small audience that was now dispersing. He was brought back to the small picture when he heard Miranda. "Are you okay?"
He'd been so stuck in his own mental loop that his hadn't realized she'd gotten closer until he felt her arms sliding over his shoulders from behind him. Her touch was a sedative to his anger, and as she enveloped him, it melted away. "I'm getting there." He debated if he shouldn't tell her, but something inside him made him. Softly, so nobody else could hear. "Miranda, if he hadn't backed off . . . even before he did, I wanted to. Knowing what he'd tried, I wanted to . . ."
"And you didn't."
"But I WANTED to."
She understood. "I know it's still strange for you, because it's strange for me, too. But the fact is you controlled yourself enough to not do anything like that, just like you controlled yourself at the park. Please focus on that."
He had to admit, she had a point. He had a nagging question in his mind, but it melted away in her arms. Standing there like that, her front pressing against his back, caused him to feel much more pleasant feelings. He also noticed something for the first time today. "I get the feeling you've got plans for me later." He put a sly emphasis on the word feeling, as what he felt against his back made it obvious that, as she had that day three weeks ago, she had worn no bra with this shirt.
She caught what he meant. "Took you long enough to notice. But that's not the reason." He looked at her doubtfully. "Okay, not the whole reason. I did it because when I saw that you had picked out this shirt, I knew YOU were thinking about that day, so it just made sense to me to repeat that detail." Then she giggled. "Besides, you're good enough now that it's not an issue anymore."
~~~~
When they got to the food court in time to see Reggie return with small drinks for four, needing a styrofoam drink carrier to do it. It was the second round, as there were four empty small drink cups in the middle of their pushed-together tables. Lily was still on what appeared to be her first. Two more drinks, wet with condensation, were in front of the two empty seats. "I guess that stroll took longer than we thought." Miranda joked. As they sat down, they realized that all eyes were on them. "What, did a seam split?" she asked.
"When they say 'news travels fast', they weren't joking." Lizzie replied. She seamed nervous about something. "Word of you two got here before you did."
"Oh, really?" Matt asked. "And what do the rumors say?"
"It's easier to tell what they don't say." Gordo answered. He got quieter. "They haven't figured out anything we don't want them to know." He picked up his voice back to normal. "Some have you married, some say engaged. They've got both ways of one playing the other for a fool, as well as you playing each other at the same time. The only constant is the assumption that you two have gone all the way."
"All the way where?" Lily asked Gordo. Before anyone answered, then she turned to Miranda. "Does it haf to do with the fight?"
Miranda and Matt sank in their seats. "What really happened?" Daniella more ordered than asked that.
"It wasn't a fight, but . . . we were stopped by Brett." Miranda answered.
Everyone, with the exception of Reggie, reacted to the name. If Lily hadn't been there, the combination of words used would have made a sailor blush. But she was there, thus causing everyone else to censor themselves. "What did that . . . jerk want?" Gordo finally asked, after editing out a half dozen words he thought were far more accurate.
"To harass me, of course. And get this, he had Clair on his arm."
That rang a memory for Reggie. "Wasn't she the one that crashed the park party?"
"That's her."
"There's one pairing you don't have to guess a lot about." Lizzie quipped. "What happened?"
Miranda glanced at Lily, trying to convey silently that she didn't want to say it in front of the little girl.
"Hey Lily, want an ice cream cone?" Reggie asked once he caught on.
She wanted to know what happened, but she loved ice cream. "Yeah!" She turned to her mother. "Can I?"
"I'll buy." Reggie offered.
Daniella knew why he offered just then, and was glad of it. "Okay. But only a small one."
Lily put her little hand in Reggie's, and almost dragged him to the ice cream counter. After they were out of earshot, Miranda told the rest what happened. About halfway through the telling, Miranda realized that, other than one question, Matt had been very quiet the whole time they'd been sitting there. When she finished, she turned to him. "Matt, what's wrong?"
The nagging question had returned to him. "I just realized something. If he had attacked, I don't think I would have . . . I wanted to, knowing what he'd tried to do to you. But I think I could have kept himself from killing him." His face and voice showed his mix of emotions. It was good to think he could have controlled himself, but the fact that he could seriously want other person dead still scared him.
In the silence that followed, Gordo looked to the ice cream place. The line was long, and Reggie and Lily were still a couple of people away from the counter. He turned back to Matt. He decided that it was time to admit something he'd hid, even from Lizzie. "You want to know something, Matt?" He didn't care about the answer, only about getting his attention. Once he had it, he continued. "The first time I saw Ronnie after he dumped Lizzie, all I could think of was how callously he dumped her, and how she cried over him. For a moment, I was angrier than I've ever been." The look Matt gave him asked the obvious question. "No, I didn't want to kill him. But the things I wanted to do . . . death would have been a kindness."
"WHAT?!?" Lizzie reacted first. "Gordo, you can't be serious."
"Yes I can. We can all feel like that, even level-headed me. That's my point." He turned back from Lizzie to Matt. "I didn't act on those feelings. And neither did you."
While Gordo's point wasn't new, for Dr. Gordon and Dr. Hyde had both said pretty much the same thing, the story was news. Somehow, having that personal connection made it easier for him to believe in it. While he was considering this new information, he felt an arm reach around him at the shoulders.
Miranda had scooted close without him realizing it, and now her seat was touching his, and she was holding him as close as she could without being in the same chair. This earned them some looks, but she didn't care. She spoke in a calm voice. "See, just because you have thoughts doesn't make you as dangerous as you like to think. Not if even Mahatma Gordo can have those thoughts."
Everyone got a chuckle at her remark. Even Matt snorted. For the second time today, he felt all the negative drain from him at her touch. 'Yeah,' he thought, 'maybe I'm not so different from everyone else.' His eye caught a glint off of Miranda's ring. 'Well, maybe not in a bad way.'
~
The rest of the day was an increasingly pleasant experience. When the group finished with their drinks, they spread out into two groups, the two couples in one group, Daniella, Lily, and Reggie in the other. However, these groups would change from time-to-time as they met and separated again. The only constant was that Lily stayed with her mother.
`
As the initial shock of seeing Matt and Miranda as a couple wore of, the reason for their outfits began to be met. The first time was when Miranda and Lizzie went into a clothing store while the three boys went off to the video arcade. They were looking through a rack near the aisle when a boy she didn't recognize started flirting with her. Once she realized that he wasn't talking to Lizzie, because she was on the other side of the tall rack and out of view, Miranda was surprised. Boys didn't often just come up to her like that. She tried to be nice in getting him to leave her alone, but he seemed to think she was playing hard to get. So she finally put her ring at eye level and told him she was already taken, and very happy. He looked like Christmas had been cancelled. She felt sorry for him, until, after she returned her attention to the rack, she saw him, out of the corner of her eye, turn around for one last look at her. Or rather, the part of her emphasized by her jeans. She shot him a glare, and he shuffled off.
Lizzie had seen it from the ring display to the last glare, and when Miranda turned, she just smiled and said. "Gordo and I spend all this time trying to convince you you're beautiful, and all it took were a pair of tight jeans."
Miranda just rolled her eyes at that. However, she began to notice other boys checking her out, too. And in situations when it couldn't be anyone else. This got her wondering.
`
Meanwhile, the boys were having no luck at the arcade. It seemed to them that many of the teenagers in this holiday crowd had the same idea they had, and at the same time. This made it difficult to move, especially for Gordo, and the waits for games were ridiculously long, so the soon left. As they were looking for someplace else to go and wait for the rest of their company, Matt noticed a pair of girls looking their way. He turned a cockeyed grin to Reggie. "Looks like your fans have found you." It was a running joke with them, from back when Reggie was the only one of the boys in their crowd who welcomed female attention.
Reggie's practiced eye had already seen them, but he'd come to another conclusion. "Man, it ain't me they're looking at."
"Of course they are. They always do."
"Tell ya what. I'll go and talk to them. If it is me they're interested in, I'll be pleasantly surprised." He took another quick look at the blonde. "Very pleasantly."
Reggie broke off from the other two, and walked casually, but directly, to the two girls in question. Both looked to be his age, maybe a year older. Matt watched as Reggie introduced himself. A brief exchange followed. Then, after Reggie said something, the brunette looked . . . disappointed? That was the only way Matt could describe it. The blonde, however, looked like she didn't believe whatever Reggie had said. Reggie said something else. Then, to Matt's complete surprise, she came to him. "Is what that guy," she threw her thumb over her shoulder to indicate Reggie, "said true?" Her voice made it clear she hadn't bought a word of it.
"What did he say?"
"That you already have a girlfriend you're devoted to?" She said 'devoted' like it was bathed in concentrated lemon extract.
Matt was more than a little surprised by the question, and annoyed with her tone. But he shook himself out of it and brought his ring up between them. Not so as to stick it in her face, but to be sure she couldn't miss it. "She wears this ring's mate, and we've talked about getting married more than once. So yes, we're serious." Now it was her turn to be shocked. "But my friend," he indicated Reggie, "is unattached."
She turned sharply, as if offended by the suggestion, and stormed away from him. Her companion, who had still been talking to Reggie, had to run to catch her.
Gordo had been standing near Matt for the whole thing. "Does that happen often to you?"
Matt looked at him like he were crazy. "Often? Try never. It's always Reggie that the girls are after, not me."
"Well, I think I know the reason for that." Reggie had rejoined them. "Most girls I know don't go after a guy with a girl hovering over him, especially if that girl could beat-up most boys our age."
Gordo snickered at the obvious allusion. "Melina does have an air about her."
"There was something else." Reggie looked like he was going to enjoy telling Matt this. "When the brunette asked about you, she called you, and I quote." He slipped into a falsetto. "'Your friend with the cute butt.'" He returned to normal voice, and looked at Gordo. "No offence, but I assumed that the pants your cast makes you wear ruled you out."
"She said THAT!?!" Matt was sure Reggie was having fun with him. A couple more similar incidents when Miranda wasn't around, however, started him wondering. 'Has everyone lost their minds today?'
~~~~
They gathered again at the food court for the trip home. The two couples met at the top of the T, and walked together the rest of the way. When they got there, they were greeted with a sight both cute and comical. Lily had spent much of the day on a sugar buzz from the various treats she had talked them all into getting her.
But with every high, there is a crash.
Lily looked to be out cold . . . while clinging to a very uncertain Reggie. Daniella might have been annoyed if his face weren't a comical mix of confusion, consternation, apology, and resigned acceptance.
"It figures." Matt joked quietly. "You never seem to leave the mall without a girl draped all over you."
The look on Reggie's face was priceless.
~~~~~~~~
A/N: I thought I'd end this chapter with an awww moment. Next chapter: What, if any, repercussions from today's events will Matt and Miranda face tonight? And later, the tests. Stay tuned.
by TheRealXenocide
`
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, settings, or anything else you recognize from the show Lizzie McGuire. The plot, at it's base, has been around since Homer, and this variant since Henry Ford. However, this is the first I've seen it applied to Lizzie.
`
Chapter 49
Revelations
`
After all the congratulations were finished, the McGuire parents arranged a time to pick-up their children later in the day, then headed back home. Matt and Miranda eventually went to change into their outfits. When they got back downstairs, most of the others had a hard time hiding the chuckles cased by the way they were walking. While neither pair of jeans were really too tight, they were tighter than either was accustomed to, so they were walking . . . carefully.
They loaded into the Sanchez's van with Gordo and his more extensive casts in the front with Daniella. Lizzie and her plaster got one of the two captain's chairs in the middle. Matt took the other one, so Lily's car seat could share the back bench seat between Miranda and Reggie.
On the way to the mall, Miranda was still looking at her ring. The was gold, with the top half designed like loosely woven rope. On top was a design she had seen before, but couldn't place. It had a heart, held thumb-and-forefinger by two hands, wearing a crown.
Before she could ask about it, Lily asked to see it, and asked immediately. "What's that?" She was pointing to the design.
"I'm not sure." Miranda admitted, her own curiosity coming clear in her voice.
"I didn't know until I looked it up." Matt answered. He then raised his own hand, bearing his matching ring, so Miranda, Lily, and anyone else who wanted to look, could see. "It's a Celtic design called a Claddagh. The heart represents love, the hands friendship, and the crown loyalty. There's an old legend that goes with it, but I'd have to look again before I try to repeat it."
Gordo smiled to himself. He knew two different versions of the Claddagh legend. But he decided to let Matt tell Miranda himself. "So this is the surprise I've heard about. But why today?"
"Two reasons. First, this is our one month anniversary." The reactions to that, while subtle, were clearly divided by gender. Miranda, Lizzie, Daniella, and even Lily all had their versions of the 'Aw, how sweet' noise and smile. Gordo and Reggie looked at him like noting anniversaries by the month was the weirdest thing they ever heard of. "Second, we're making our public debut today, and the added symbolism might help this go smoothly."
"I hope it does." Lizzie had to stop herself before she added the tag 'baby brother'. Those rings, that speech. If nothing else this past month had proven that he was no baby anymore, those did. She turned her attention to her own life-mate. "Our one month anniversary is in a couple of days. Got any ideas?"
Gordo winced at that. "Thanks, Matt."
"Uh, oh, you're in trouble." Lily teased in a sing-song voice. That caused everyone, even Gordo, to laugh.
~~~~~~~~
The mall they were going to was a roughly T shaped. It had an anchor store on each end of the long axis. The shorter axis projected from the longer one about two-thirds of the way down, with a food court at the end. Opposite the short axis was a third anchor store.
Their plan was to drop off Matt and Miranda at the end of the mall farthest from the food court, then Daniella would park as close as possible to the Food Court, where they would sit and wait for the couple to make their way to them.
The stroll itself would be a slow, leisurely one, making sure to be seen holding hands and holding each other. While they weren't going to plan it, they had no doubt that, with this being the first time they didn't have to be careful, there would be at least one stop for kissing. Add to all that possible stops from people who would see them together and have to ask, and they had no doubt the others would be waiting on them, no matter how busy to parking was.
As could be expected on a summer holiday, the mall was busy. But, as could also be expected on a summer holiday, many of the people there weren't shopping. They were meeting friends, enjoying the live entertainment, and generally burning time. This, of course, includes people-watching. So when Matt and Miranda started walking together hand-in-hand, they were noticed almost immediately.
Their classmates that saw this were surprised, and in some cases disbelieving. The disbelievers were, for the most part, shocked out of that the first time the couple stopped and kissed. Some who had been watching them caught glints from their fingers, and were amazed when they realize that the glints were cased by rings. The first to talk to the couple, three girls from Miranda's school, were among the ones that noticed the rings. They politely gave a short, carefully censured version of how they became a couple, and a shortened version of the story behind the rings. This group carefully edged around the age question, so Matt and Miranda didn't see the need to answer it more than the story of their becoming a couple already did.
This pattern repeated itself twice more times. First for a mixed-gender group from Matt's school, then a similar group from Miranda's. Matt had to fight his amusement at Miranda's shift in body language when the girls from Matt's school were near, only to catch himself doing the same thing when the boys from her school came close.
Each time, the body language read loud and clear 'This one's taken, so hands off!'.
The fourth time they were stopped, however, was not as pleasant. They stopped when Miranda heard a slimy-smooth voice she knew all too well. "I guess the convent relaxed the dress code."
The male voice that said that was one that boiled Miranda's blood the instant she heard it. "So, Brett, did the doctor's say you'd still have kids, or did I do the world a favor?" Miranda turned around slowly as she said that, so it wasn't until she finished that she saw the girl on his arm. When she thought about it, though, it was the one girl she expected would move his speed. "Clair."
The sound of the boy's name caused a flare of anger in Matt. This Brett was the slime who had sweet-talked his way into Miranda's shirt. This Brett was the bastard who had try to go farther than Miranda was ready for. And, he reminded himself in an attempt to maintain control, he was the one she dumped, on the spot, in a particularly painful manner.
"Trust me, Sanchez, he's VERY functional." The look on Clair's face was pure malice. "Well, well. This little scene explains a few things. So Sanchez, I guess you had to go to pre-school to find a boy your speed."
Miranda found the spirit to fire right back. "And where did Brett find the girl his speed, a brothel?"
"Now, now, Sister Miranda. Just because she doesn't have a baby's view of sex doesn't mean she's from a brothel." Brett replied, adding sweet venom to the word Sister.
"From what Kate's told us about Clair," Matt returned, having regained some control, "I doubt a brothel would have her."
Clair couldn't believe he'd dared to say that about her. "Why you little worm . . ."
"Now there's an idea. But should it be worms in the salad, or maybe a bucket of mud and worms on the head?"
"You wouldn't dare . . ." Brett was trying to sound and look menacing.
He didn't expect the younger boy to stand his ground. So when he saw not fear, but growing anger, in the boy's eyes, it made him nervous. The ice in the voice was even more unsettling. "Make trouble for Miranda, and you'd be lucky if that's all I do."
Bullies don't always act as they do in the fable that parents tell their children. Often, standing up to a bully only serves to have the bully live up to their claims. Brett, however, wasn't that strong-willed. He preferred to work on 'soft' prey, and the fire burning in the young boy's eyes made him decide that Matt didn't qualify. "Comeon, Clair."
`
When the pair left, Matt finally let himself look beyond the confrontation. It was then he noticed was that they had gained a small audience that was now dispersing. He was brought back to the small picture when he heard Miranda. "Are you okay?"
He'd been so stuck in his own mental loop that his hadn't realized she'd gotten closer until he felt her arms sliding over his shoulders from behind him. Her touch was a sedative to his anger, and as she enveloped him, it melted away. "I'm getting there." He debated if he shouldn't tell her, but something inside him made him. Softly, so nobody else could hear. "Miranda, if he hadn't backed off . . . even before he did, I wanted to. Knowing what he'd tried, I wanted to . . ."
"And you didn't."
"But I WANTED to."
She understood. "I know it's still strange for you, because it's strange for me, too. But the fact is you controlled yourself enough to not do anything like that, just like you controlled yourself at the park. Please focus on that."
He had to admit, she had a point. He had a nagging question in his mind, but it melted away in her arms. Standing there like that, her front pressing against his back, caused him to feel much more pleasant feelings. He also noticed something for the first time today. "I get the feeling you've got plans for me later." He put a sly emphasis on the word feeling, as what he felt against his back made it obvious that, as she had that day three weeks ago, she had worn no bra with this shirt.
She caught what he meant. "Took you long enough to notice. But that's not the reason." He looked at her doubtfully. "Okay, not the whole reason. I did it because when I saw that you had picked out this shirt, I knew YOU were thinking about that day, so it just made sense to me to repeat that detail." Then she giggled. "Besides, you're good enough now that it's not an issue anymore."
~~~~
When they got to the food court in time to see Reggie return with small drinks for four, needing a styrofoam drink carrier to do it. It was the second round, as there were four empty small drink cups in the middle of their pushed-together tables. Lily was still on what appeared to be her first. Two more drinks, wet with condensation, were in front of the two empty seats. "I guess that stroll took longer than we thought." Miranda joked. As they sat down, they realized that all eyes were on them. "What, did a seam split?" she asked.
"When they say 'news travels fast', they weren't joking." Lizzie replied. She seamed nervous about something. "Word of you two got here before you did."
"Oh, really?" Matt asked. "And what do the rumors say?"
"It's easier to tell what they don't say." Gordo answered. He got quieter. "They haven't figured out anything we don't want them to know." He picked up his voice back to normal. "Some have you married, some say engaged. They've got both ways of one playing the other for a fool, as well as you playing each other at the same time. The only constant is the assumption that you two have gone all the way."
"All the way where?" Lily asked Gordo. Before anyone answered, then she turned to Miranda. "Does it haf to do with the fight?"
Miranda and Matt sank in their seats. "What really happened?" Daniella more ordered than asked that.
"It wasn't a fight, but . . . we were stopped by Brett." Miranda answered.
Everyone, with the exception of Reggie, reacted to the name. If Lily hadn't been there, the combination of words used would have made a sailor blush. But she was there, thus causing everyone else to censor themselves. "What did that . . . jerk want?" Gordo finally asked, after editing out a half dozen words he thought were far more accurate.
"To harass me, of course. And get this, he had Clair on his arm."
That rang a memory for Reggie. "Wasn't she the one that crashed the park party?"
"That's her."
"There's one pairing you don't have to guess a lot about." Lizzie quipped. "What happened?"
Miranda glanced at Lily, trying to convey silently that she didn't want to say it in front of the little girl.
"Hey Lily, want an ice cream cone?" Reggie asked once he caught on.
She wanted to know what happened, but she loved ice cream. "Yeah!" She turned to her mother. "Can I?"
"I'll buy." Reggie offered.
Daniella knew why he offered just then, and was glad of it. "Okay. But only a small one."
Lily put her little hand in Reggie's, and almost dragged him to the ice cream counter. After they were out of earshot, Miranda told the rest what happened. About halfway through the telling, Miranda realized that, other than one question, Matt had been very quiet the whole time they'd been sitting there. When she finished, she turned to him. "Matt, what's wrong?"
The nagging question had returned to him. "I just realized something. If he had attacked, I don't think I would have . . . I wanted to, knowing what he'd tried to do to you. But I think I could have kept himself from killing him." His face and voice showed his mix of emotions. It was good to think he could have controlled himself, but the fact that he could seriously want other person dead still scared him.
In the silence that followed, Gordo looked to the ice cream place. The line was long, and Reggie and Lily were still a couple of people away from the counter. He turned back to Matt. He decided that it was time to admit something he'd hid, even from Lizzie. "You want to know something, Matt?" He didn't care about the answer, only about getting his attention. Once he had it, he continued. "The first time I saw Ronnie after he dumped Lizzie, all I could think of was how callously he dumped her, and how she cried over him. For a moment, I was angrier than I've ever been." The look Matt gave him asked the obvious question. "No, I didn't want to kill him. But the things I wanted to do . . . death would have been a kindness."
"WHAT?!?" Lizzie reacted first. "Gordo, you can't be serious."
"Yes I can. We can all feel like that, even level-headed me. That's my point." He turned back from Lizzie to Matt. "I didn't act on those feelings. And neither did you."
While Gordo's point wasn't new, for Dr. Gordon and Dr. Hyde had both said pretty much the same thing, the story was news. Somehow, having that personal connection made it easier for him to believe in it. While he was considering this new information, he felt an arm reach around him at the shoulders.
Miranda had scooted close without him realizing it, and now her seat was touching his, and she was holding him as close as she could without being in the same chair. This earned them some looks, but she didn't care. She spoke in a calm voice. "See, just because you have thoughts doesn't make you as dangerous as you like to think. Not if even Mahatma Gordo can have those thoughts."
Everyone got a chuckle at her remark. Even Matt snorted. For the second time today, he felt all the negative drain from him at her touch. 'Yeah,' he thought, 'maybe I'm not so different from everyone else.' His eye caught a glint off of Miranda's ring. 'Well, maybe not in a bad way.'
~
The rest of the day was an increasingly pleasant experience. When the group finished with their drinks, they spread out into two groups, the two couples in one group, Daniella, Lily, and Reggie in the other. However, these groups would change from time-to-time as they met and separated again. The only constant was that Lily stayed with her mother.
`
As the initial shock of seeing Matt and Miranda as a couple wore of, the reason for their outfits began to be met. The first time was when Miranda and Lizzie went into a clothing store while the three boys went off to the video arcade. They were looking through a rack near the aisle when a boy she didn't recognize started flirting with her. Once she realized that he wasn't talking to Lizzie, because she was on the other side of the tall rack and out of view, Miranda was surprised. Boys didn't often just come up to her like that. She tried to be nice in getting him to leave her alone, but he seemed to think she was playing hard to get. So she finally put her ring at eye level and told him she was already taken, and very happy. He looked like Christmas had been cancelled. She felt sorry for him, until, after she returned her attention to the rack, she saw him, out of the corner of her eye, turn around for one last look at her. Or rather, the part of her emphasized by her jeans. She shot him a glare, and he shuffled off.
Lizzie had seen it from the ring display to the last glare, and when Miranda turned, she just smiled and said. "Gordo and I spend all this time trying to convince you you're beautiful, and all it took were a pair of tight jeans."
Miranda just rolled her eyes at that. However, she began to notice other boys checking her out, too. And in situations when it couldn't be anyone else. This got her wondering.
`
Meanwhile, the boys were having no luck at the arcade. It seemed to them that many of the teenagers in this holiday crowd had the same idea they had, and at the same time. This made it difficult to move, especially for Gordo, and the waits for games were ridiculously long, so the soon left. As they were looking for someplace else to go and wait for the rest of their company, Matt noticed a pair of girls looking their way. He turned a cockeyed grin to Reggie. "Looks like your fans have found you." It was a running joke with them, from back when Reggie was the only one of the boys in their crowd who welcomed female attention.
Reggie's practiced eye had already seen them, but he'd come to another conclusion. "Man, it ain't me they're looking at."
"Of course they are. They always do."
"Tell ya what. I'll go and talk to them. If it is me they're interested in, I'll be pleasantly surprised." He took another quick look at the blonde. "Very pleasantly."
Reggie broke off from the other two, and walked casually, but directly, to the two girls in question. Both looked to be his age, maybe a year older. Matt watched as Reggie introduced himself. A brief exchange followed. Then, after Reggie said something, the brunette looked . . . disappointed? That was the only way Matt could describe it. The blonde, however, looked like she didn't believe whatever Reggie had said. Reggie said something else. Then, to Matt's complete surprise, she came to him. "Is what that guy," she threw her thumb over her shoulder to indicate Reggie, "said true?" Her voice made it clear she hadn't bought a word of it.
"What did he say?"
"That you already have a girlfriend you're devoted to?" She said 'devoted' like it was bathed in concentrated lemon extract.
Matt was more than a little surprised by the question, and annoyed with her tone. But he shook himself out of it and brought his ring up between them. Not so as to stick it in her face, but to be sure she couldn't miss it. "She wears this ring's mate, and we've talked about getting married more than once. So yes, we're serious." Now it was her turn to be shocked. "But my friend," he indicated Reggie, "is unattached."
She turned sharply, as if offended by the suggestion, and stormed away from him. Her companion, who had still been talking to Reggie, had to run to catch her.
Gordo had been standing near Matt for the whole thing. "Does that happen often to you?"
Matt looked at him like he were crazy. "Often? Try never. It's always Reggie that the girls are after, not me."
"Well, I think I know the reason for that." Reggie had rejoined them. "Most girls I know don't go after a guy with a girl hovering over him, especially if that girl could beat-up most boys our age."
Gordo snickered at the obvious allusion. "Melina does have an air about her."
"There was something else." Reggie looked like he was going to enjoy telling Matt this. "When the brunette asked about you, she called you, and I quote." He slipped into a falsetto. "'Your friend with the cute butt.'" He returned to normal voice, and looked at Gordo. "No offence, but I assumed that the pants your cast makes you wear ruled you out."
"She said THAT!?!" Matt was sure Reggie was having fun with him. A couple more similar incidents when Miranda wasn't around, however, started him wondering. 'Has everyone lost their minds today?'
~~~~
They gathered again at the food court for the trip home. The two couples met at the top of the T, and walked together the rest of the way. When they got there, they were greeted with a sight both cute and comical. Lily had spent much of the day on a sugar buzz from the various treats she had talked them all into getting her.
But with every high, there is a crash.
Lily looked to be out cold . . . while clinging to a very uncertain Reggie. Daniella might have been annoyed if his face weren't a comical mix of confusion, consternation, apology, and resigned acceptance.
"It figures." Matt joked quietly. "You never seem to leave the mall without a girl draped all over you."
The look on Reggie's face was priceless.
~~~~~~~~
A/N: I thought I'd end this chapter with an awww moment. Next chapter: What, if any, repercussions from today's events will Matt and Miranda face tonight? And later, the tests. Stay tuned.