A/N – "Thoughts"

Chapter 15 – A Long Forty Eight Hours

It was Saturday morning and Gordo was fighting with his body to stay asleep. The longer he stayed asleep, the longer he didn't have to face the real world. This was the weekend that he was supposed to spend with Kate, together in an empty house for the weekend.

But all that changed after Friday morning. Kate spent the rest of the day in her own world and trying to avoid Gordo. The only time she talked to him was to leave a message on his voicemail saying due to what happened, she needed sometime alone this weekend.

Gordo heard his door open and footsteps. He burrowed deeper under his covers, hoping whoever it was would just leave.

He had thought it was his mom since his father was working today, but knew it wasn't when the person took one of his pillows and slugged him over the head with it.

"Time to wake up Gordo," Miranda's laughing voice called.

"Go away," Gordo mumbled as he put his remaining pillow over his head.

"Not gonna happen kid," she teased. "Your mom's making breakfast for us and then we're going out." Miranda hit him again with the pillow and then pulled the blankets off him. "Damn, you sleep in shorts," she said sarcastically.

Gordo rolled his eyes as he removed the pillow and sat up. "Us?" he asked rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Who do you think?"

Gordo snickered, "I'll be down in a minute."

"You better be or I'll eat all the sausage."

Smiling a little, he watched her leave before getting out of bed. Changing into a pair of jeans and throwing on a pair of socks, he grabbed a t-shirt and headed for the bathroom.

Ten minutes later, Gordo was sitting in his kitchen, flanked by Lizzie and Miranda, eating French toast and sausage.

"So what do you want to do?" Lizzie asked him as she sipped her orange juice.

"Rollerblading," Miranda mumbled with a piece of french toast in her mouth. Lizzie glared at her. "What?" Miranda asked innocently.

"We're supposed to let Gordo decide what we're going to do," she told her.

"Its alright," Gordo said, "I don't really care."

"Gordo," Lizzie said turning to Gordo.

"Come on," he said gulping his remain coffee. "I'll drive you girls home to grab your blades."

About fifteen minutes later, the three of them were rollerblading through the park. As Miranda sped up a little bit, Lizzie hung back with Gordo.

"You ok?"

Gordo just shrugged as he glided along.

"You're serious about her aren't you," Lizzie said as she glided next to him.

He nodded. "At first, I wasn't too sure about her but it was better than spending the summer alone. Then the more time we spent together, it was like she started letting her guard down, and I found myself having fun with her."

Lizzie stayed silent for a moment and then looked at him. "How did you two hook up?"

"4th of July we were on the rooftop of her dad's apartment building. We were going to watch the fireworks the city was going to shoot over the bay," he told her. "She found out Gretchen was trying to get her off the cheerleading squad and she also found out her mother was getting remarried."

Lizzie winced, "Her mom's getting remarried?"

"Got remarried. Over the summer," Gordo corrected. "I think she just reached her limit and she got upset. She kicked a lawn chair and hurt her ankle." He paused for a moment, unsure if he should continue. Lizzie and him weren't together anymore but he didn't want to throw it in her face. "But she asked."

"After she hurt her ankle, she tripped and I caught her. When I caught her, she just kinda fell apart, so I just held her." "That's enough, I don't want to rub her face in it."

"What happened after you caught her?"

Gordo glanced at her, "You sure you wanna know?" he asked and Lizzie nodded. "She asked me about second chances and told me she was going to take one." He paused for a moment, taking a deep breath. "That's when she kissed me."

They both stayed quiet as the bladed for a few minutes. Lizzie reached out and taking Gordo's hand, gave it a squeeze. "I just want you to be happy, and if it's with Kate, than so be it."

Grinning a little, Gordo gave her hand a squeeze back. "Thanks…and I want you to be happy too."

Their little moment was interrupted by a crash. Both looked ahead and saw Miranda lying on her back. She had tried to grind along a curb but tripped and crashed onto her back.

Lizzie rushed forward to check on her but when Gordo saw her sit up and look back at them with a sheepish grin. He just continued gliding towards her.

As he did, Gordo reached into his pocket and fished out his cell phone. He quickly checked his voicemail and sighed a little when it said no new messages. Stuffing it back in his pocket, he bladed over to Miranda and Lizzie.

Saturday night, Gordo was sitting in the McGuire's kitchen playing poker with Lizzie and Miranda. As Lizzie was deciding how many cards to discard, Miranda looked over at Gordo.

She watched him absentmindedly shuffle his cards over and over and every few minutes, he'd glanced quickly at his cell phone laying on the table.

Sighing softly, Miranda looked at the bowl they had used for chips and saw that it was almost empty. "Lizzie, how many cards do you want?" she asked annoyed. Lizzie had been trying to decide for the past five minutes.

"Three," Lizzie said. Miranda rolled her eyes and dealt the three cards. Lizzie laid down her cards, "A pair of jacks."

"Three fives," Miranda said with a grin as she laid her cards down. "Gordo?" Both girls looked over at him and noted the far away look in his eyes. "Gordo!"

Gordo snapped back to reality when Miranda called his name again. "Uh?" he asked not really sure what they wanted.

"Your cards," Lizzie said.

He noticed their cards down on the table. "Oh. Nothing, king high," Gordo mumbled.

Miranda shook her head slightly, "I gotta talk to him." "Lizzie, you deal next. I'm gonna get some more chips, Gordo can you give me a hand in the kitchen."

"Sure," Gordo said as he got up and Lizzie collected all the cards to shuffle them.

As Miranda grabbed the bag of chips and walked towards the island, "Grab some more soda." Gordo nodded and went to the fridge as she empty some more chips into the bowl. "Gordo."

Gordo put three cans of soda down on the island and looked at her. Miranda closed the bag and turned to him, "Do you really believe that Kate likes you?" she asked him.

"Yea I do," he told her. "I know you have no reason to believe me that she's changed but I really believe that she wants to change and that she really does care about me. I'm just worried that now the safety net of being miles away from everything is gone and the relationship is out in the open, she's not going to want to be together anymore."

Miranda stayed quiet for a moment, looking at him. "Gordo," she said softly, "I may not trust her or understand how you could possibly like her so much, but she'd have to be stupid to give a guy like you up." she told him and gave him a small hug. "And if Kate hurts him, I'll snap her in two."

Sunday afternoon, Gordo was sitting in the Digital Bean and absentmindedly picking at the basket of curly fries in front of him. Miranda had to baby-sit her sister for a few hours and Lizzie had to do some family thing. They both made him promise that he'd come over to the McGuire's later for dinner.

For as much as he appreciate the concern, they were smothering him a little. He couldn't make a move without one of them or both looking over his shoulder. Even though it gave him time to think about Kate, he was enjoying his time alone.

Hearing someone clear the throat in front of him, he slowly looked up and was surprised to see who it was in front of him. "Claire." he said, almost choking on a mouthful of French fry.

"Can I sit down?" she asked as she slowly looked around. Gordo shrugged and Claire sat down opposite him. "Look, I'm not gonna beat around the bush. I don't know what is going on between you and Kate and seriously, I'm not sure I want to know," she said grimacing a little.

Gordo's eyes narrowed, "Is there a point or are you just taking free shots at me?"

Claire rolled her eyes but tried to keep the bitchiness out of her voice. "All I know is that you make Kate happy, happier than I've seen her in a long time." Biting her lip a little, she tried to pick the right words. "Just don't give up on her if she makes the wrong choice. As much as I hate to admit it, you're good for her."

The two of them looked at each other for a few minutes, both unsure what to say. Then Claire smirked a little, "Doesn't mean I'm gonna be nice to you from now on," she told him sarcastically.

Gordo snickered, "Oh, we wouldn't want that now, would we. I don't even think you know how." For a brief moment, they grinned at each other.

As Claire stood up to leave, she took one last look at Gordo. "Just remember what I said. Kate likes you, a lot. Don't give up on her."

Gordo nodded and then watched her leave. "I defiantly don't give Claire enough credit. She may be a pain in the ass but turns out she's not completely heartless," he thought as he popped another French fry into his mouth.