In The Dust

A/N: I'm bad at committing to things. Especially writing for FF. Haha. I gave it up once things piled up, but now I'm back, seeing as I need some writing practice and CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM. So please, don't be stingy with the comments, eh?

Chapter Seven: Come Fly with Me… Or Maybe Not

"Lizzie! Wait!" I ran after her, just like the leading guy in some sappy romantic drama would, except I was sort of smiling. I'm not trying to be offensive, but Lizzie runs like a girl. Obviously, I caught up to her in three seconds flat. What can I say, I work out. (Sometimes…)

I grabbed her arm and she turned around. I saw her face and my bottom lip began to quiver. Her mascara (or was it eyeliner?) had smeared, making her have black tears. She was gasping for breath in between sobs, and I could tell she seemed embarrassed about what she had just done. The look in her eyes was a mixture of love and regret and shock, all at once. She must have seen my expression of surprise as well, because she tried to wriggle her arm out of my grasp.

"Lizzie. I want you to come with me." That seemed to stop her in her tracks. I saw the corners of her lips slightly curl upwards, and her eyes sort of sparkled. But the look of reality shone in her face about two seconds later.

"I can't…I'm sorry." She tried to leave me again. I squeezed her arm again and she turned around again.

"Why not? Think about it: six months away from your parents and Matt, just me and you in LA, having the time of our lives." I made it sound pretty good. Too bad I left out the part about me having to work 24/7 and leaving her to do who-knows-what.

"But this is your big shot. I don't want you to hold back on it just because I'm there. And anyways, how rational is it for me to miss six whole months of school and be in LA without a parent in supervision? I'd flunk, Gordo." Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about that. I guess I took 'seize the moment' too seriously.

"I guess you have a point. I'll definitely miss you." Except I'll be thinking about her twenty-four hours a day. I'll be imagining every move she makes.

"Promise me something before you go." Tears had begun to stream down her face again.

"Anything."

"Promise me that you'll… you'll remember me." She bit her lip and turned, ready to leave without hearing my response. But of course I won't allow that. I let her go and stepped in front of her.

"Lizzie, how in the world could I forget you? You're the most amazing person I've ever met." She slightly smiled and looked at me. This was it. I needed to do what I needed to do.

"I love you, Lizzie." And with that, she smiled this goofy smile and said, "Oh!" in a very shocked way. I brushed a strand of hair from her face and looked into her eyes. And I kissed her. It was the most amazing feeling. Yeah, sure; I had just done this about three minutes ago. But this was different. This was the real thing. We were in love. It's just the most fulfilling feeling a guy could ever feel: to love and be loved in return. She pulled away and smiled at me.

"I love you, too." We stood there for a while, still holding each other, and just smiled.

"This is kind of surreal. It feels like… a movie," Lizzie said.

"Oh God. Don't say the word 'movie' in front of me for another six months. It makes me feel like a pile of crap." Oops. Wrong thing to say. Her facial expression dropped and she started to tear up again.

"No, don't cry, Lizzie. Please, do anything but cry!" I hated to see her cry.

"What am I supposed to do? One minute we're all lovey-dovey and the next you're LEAVING for Hollywood."

"But you know I don't want to leave. If I didn't have to leave…. Wait a second. I don't have to leave. I can stay with you here, and do this stupid assistant director thing later on in my life." Since when did I turn into sappy-guy-who-does-anything-for-the-girl-he-loves? I guess when Lizzie came into the picture, I transformed.

"This is the most important thing in your life right now, Gordo! You can't give this up for me!" True that, Liz. (JOKING!)

"You don't understand… you are the most important thing in my life!" That's what I wish I had said. Instead, I walked away from her after saying goodbye, and boarded Southwest Airlines flight 207 to Los Angeles.

E/N: Yeah. Took me a while to finish since interruptions. Sorry if it kinda lost its integrity . Hope it was worth it!