Madeline
Chapter Six - In Front Of Me
Lizzie
"What time was her flight supposed to be in again?" I knew I was starting to annoy Gordo, and I knew the plane arrived as scheduled around noon today, but still I had nothing else to ask and I needed to do something other than just pace back and forth in Gordo's living room.
"Lizzie, calm down. I'm sure they're both fine and there is a perfectly good reason they aren't answering her home or cell phone. Maybe they stopped off somewhere to eat and catch up or something. Just calm down." His words made since, of course they would want some time to talk and catch up with each other. They were in love, well at least had been. I knew Matt was still consumed with Miranda and no one else, I just hoped for my little brother's sake that no one else was in Miranda's heart.
"How long do they need to talk! It's after five!" My impatience and anxiety were getting the best of me. If I didn't do something or something didn't happen soon I felt likeI was just going to scream. "Let's just drive over to her apartment and see if she's there and if she knows where Matt is."
"Lizzie. . .fine." What ever argument Gordo had been about to make got lost in his desire to just shut me up. I smiled to myself, thankful that some things never change, annoy him long enough and he'll eventually give in. It was something Miranda and I had figured out early in our friendship with him. "You get Madeline in the car and ready to go, I'll let Gabriel know where we're going so she can tell them if they call. Okay?"
"Thanks Gordo, that's why I love you." I kissed his cheek and turned to retrieve Madeline from her place on the couch where she'd been entertaining herself while I had paced. I noticed the way he tensed at my words, but decided to worry about it later and made my way to my car with my daughter in tow.
I had her strapped in and the car running before Gordo finally emerged from the house and climbed into the passenger seat next to me. He threw a quick smile to his daughter while he strapped on his seatbelt, then we were off.
"You'll want to take this left up here and then the next right." His voice startled me a little as he hadn't spoke since getting in the car. "If they're there we'll be able to see my car parked outside her apartment building."
I nodded my understanding and eagerly searched the area after making the second turn and almost screamed when I noticed Gordo's car. "Got ya!" I stuck my tongue out in response to the weird look Gordo threw me and parked next to his car.
"What exactly are you planning on doing now? You can't just drop in. There has to be a reason they're still not answering her phones." I caught the meaning in his words and my eyes grew big. I hadn't thought of that being a possible reason no one had picked up and answered.
"You don't think they're. . .but, they haven't seen each other in six years!"
"All the more reason, don't you think?" My mouth dropped as I thought his last comment out. His face began to blush as the possible double connection was made in his own mind. "Not that I was thinking of the same thing when I, well actually I was, but after finding out about Madeline, I've had other things on my mind." I did my best to act shocked, but my mind started bringing up all the dreams and fantasies of the past six years, especially since deciding to move back to Hillridge.
"Well, try to call again." I didn't know where else to go from where we were so I just went with the first thing that came to mind. Gordo pulled his cellular phone from his pocket and said 'Miranda'. He then handed me the phone when it started to ring. "Hello? Miranda! Oh my God, how have you been!"
Gordo recoiled slightly from my screeching and Madeline started to giggle in the backseat like she always does when I get excited about something. "Couldn't you wait to do that until you saw her? Then I could have been prepared for it." I rolled my eyes at the boy next to me.
"Actually we're right outside your apartment in my car. I was getting too anxious to just sit around and wait and I was worried about you two." I waved up at her window when she looked out it. "Okay, we can give you guys five minutes, but we're breaking the door down if you don't answer this time." I hung up the phone and handed it back to Gordo, smiling big. "We have to wait a bit. Apparently Matt's having trouble finding where stuff landed." I snickered at Gordo's reaction and turned on the radio to pass the time. After listening half way through a second song I was ready to call it close enough and opened my door.
"Lizzie, why don't you go up alone and I'll follow you in a few minutes with Madeline. It'll give you a chance to talk everything out and let her get used to the idea." I smiled at him as my heart warmed again with love for him.
"You're just too sweet, David Gordon." I took a big breath and made a face at Madeline before standing up straight and going in through the first door which led into a small lobby and climbing the stairs I found there. I looked around at the eight doors there and realized I hadn't asked what her apartment number was. I was just about to start knocking until I found her when a door opened and she was standing there smiling at me.
"Technically we still have a minute, but I knew you would never wait that long. Where's Gordo, I thought he was with you." I rushed to her as she spoke and we hugged tightly.
"I've missed you so much, Miranda. You have no idea how much I've needed my best friend over the last six years. I'm sorry." I looked her in the face and smiled my sincerity to her before answering her question. "Gordo's following me up in a minute, he had an important call to make or something."
"Yeah, well, you should be sorry. But, you weren't the only one that never called." I looked behind her and saw Matt standing shirtless in the small hall/entry way blushing hard.
"So, I'm guessing you forgave Matt too?" Miranda let go of me and turned with a smile that was steadily growing, to look into my brother's eyes.
"Let's just say he has his ways." I made a face then slapped my brother on the back of his head as we walked by and into a cozy living room to sit down. "Okay, now Matt told me all about the family stuff, but I can tell there's something he's keeping. He almost slipped a few times when we were talking, but he's definitely gotten better at beating the McGuire 'tell all gene'."
"There is something big that happened in my life right before our parents moved us away." I swallowed and took a steadying breath before looking back into her face. "Do you remember homecoming night of our Senior year?"
"Of course! It was the first real date you and Gordo had ever been on and it was the first time we all actually got away with going to an parent free party." I could see all the memories playing across her eyes and I smiled at a few of my own. It had been quite a night.
"Well, Gordo and I snuck off into one of the rooms and. . ." I noticed Matt looking very uncomfortable sitting next to Miranda on her couch. "I'll let it go at that. Anyway, it wasn't the first time, and I was on the pill so we didn't worry about anything else and I had just started an antibiotic a few days before and forgot." I watched her face, hoping she would figure this out without me having to actually say it, but Miranda seemed unable to make the connection any quicker than I remembered from high school. "And I found out right before we moved that I was. . ."
A knock at the door stopped me from saying the last word. I sighed in frustration then stood up before Miranda could leave the room and stopped her. "Maybe I should get the door, I think I know who it is." Matt moved around us and went to the door. Miranda looked confused as hell at me but seemed unable to speak.
"Pregnant. I found out I was pregnant." The confusion left her face to be replaced by a blank stare and a few tears before she threw her arms around me and started crying in my shoulder.
"Oh, Lizzie! Why didn't you let me know! You needed me, I needed to be there. I wanted to be there, not even knowing this! Did Gordo know?" She stood up and looked me in the eyes, tears gone but the evidence they had been there was not. "If he knew and never told me I'll kill him."
"That's not a very nice thing to say!" The small voice brought a smile to my face when I caught sight of my daughter with her hands on her hips using her best reprimanding face and voice.
"Ahhh! You are so cute!" Before Madeline could react, Miranda had her in a hug and was swinging her around in circles. Gordo, Matt and I started laughing as the tiny girl in our friends arms looked around for any source of help. Finally, Miranda sat her down on the couch she'd been sitting in moments before and looked up at me and Gordo. "She's just gorgeous. She looks just like Gordo when we were little, but with Lizzie's eyes."
"Miranda, this is Madeline Zephyr McGuire. My daughter that I just found out about a few days ago. There's no way I could have kept this from you. If I had known I would have walked to Oklahoma to be there for my girls." I smiled at Gordo's words, figuring that there was some automatic programming that went into affect when a guy became a dad that made him say the weirdest things sometimes. 'My girls' was most definitely something my father would have said many years ago when he actually cared, not something a man in his twenties would make a habit of saying, unless he had a kid.
"Gordo, don't you start talking like a parent too! Lizzie started that as soon as Mads was born and its driven me crazy for years. I was enjoying talking to a normal person, not a parent for once!" I slapped Matt's head again playfully but didn't even try to deny it. The last time I did Matt had recorded me and played it back. I didn't remember saying those things, but it had definitely been my voice. My mother's words, but my voice.
"Matt, I guess you just don't understand yet how much I really love the idea of being a parent. I figured that hearing me drone on about it all week would have clued you in." Matt shook his head and Gordo, then went and sat beside Miranda after ruffling Madeline's hair.
"Maybe someday I will." I watched his gaze drift andI thought about our conversation the night Gordo met our daughter and hoped for us both that someday was coming soon for us all. He took Miranda's hand in his and kissed it lightly.
We all four sat and stood where we were for a few minutes just watching Madeline fiddling with her hands to keep from being bored before Gordo spoke. "So. . .anybody else ready for some food? I know I'm starving." I smiled my thanks to him for breaking the silence and watched his eyes light up when Madeline screamed happily and ran to his leg which she clamped herself around excitedly.
"I'm ready! Let's go people! Move it, move it, move it!" We all got up and followed Gordo with Madeline in his arms out to the cars with smiles on our faces and laughter in her hearts. As I sat next to Gordo on the way to the Digital Bean, for old times sake, I couldn't help but think that things were going the way they should. Me and Gordo with our daughter and Matt and Miranda together. If life could get better than I would be surprised, of course with those words I knocked my knuckles against my dashboard after finding no actual wood and deciding it was close enough and received a look from Gordo as he drove, couldn't be too careful.
