Last chapter! Brassai2, I hope you don't mind, I borrowed your "man hug" which I got such a kick out of in your story.
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Adam reached into the refrigerator and pulled out a can. "Pepsi okay?"
"Sure," Miranda said.
Adam popped open the can and handed it to Miranda. Then he leaned against the kitchen counter and watched her drink. After a moment he said, "Thanks, Miranda, for coming over. I wouldn't have felt comfortable leaving him here like this."
"Why? Where are you going?" Miranda asked.
"Berkeley. I've got to get back to school. I need to leave like…like now," he said, checking his watch.
"You can go, if you need to," Miranda said. "I've got it covered."
But Adam didn't go anywhere just yet. He continued leaning against the kitchen counter, watching Miranda drink her soda. Finally he said, "What is it with Lizzie, anyway?"
"You know about Lizzie?" Miranda questioned, her eyes getting big.
Adam laughed a little. "I know all about Lizzie."
"Then tell me this," Miranda said. "Is Gordo still hung up on her? I mean…after what happened between them..."
"You know about that?"
"I know everything," Miranda said. "Except…except how Gordo feels right now. Is that still an issue?"
Adam thought for a moment, then said, "He's still mad at her. He's still conflicted. But I think it's going to get better. Especially now, with this Nicole in the picture. Is she going to be good for him?"
"Oh, yeah," Miranda said, nodding. "She's going to be very good for him."
"Good," Adam said. "Because he deserves that."
"He does," Miranda agreed simply.
They stood silently for a moment. From the next room they could hear Gordo talking on the phone, but they couldn't make out what he was saying. They happened to look at each other at the same moment, and both smiled.
"Davey's lucky to have a friend like you," Adam said.
Miranda widened her grin. "I know."
Adam laughed. "Davey is definitely in good hands."
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Oh please, please, please let Nicole answer the phone and not her bratty little brother or senile old grandma, Gordo thought as he listened to the phone ring once, twice, thrice….Please, please, pl----
"Hello?"
"Hi!…Nicole?"
"Dave!" It was her, and she recognized his voice immediately. And she sounded so relieved. "Dave!" she said again.
"Nicole, I tried to call you," he said. "In fact, I called twice---"
"Yes, I know. I just got it out of my brother. I had to bribe him with an offer to do his chores. He wouldn't tell me on his own, the little brat."
Gordo smiled. So she was willing to do her brother's chores, just to find out that he had called? That had to be a good sign.
Gordo coughed, then said, "I…I…I'm sick…"
"I can hear it!" Nicole said. "You don't sound good. Poor baby! Will you be in school tomorrow?"
"Not tomorrow."
"Well, if you need the notes, you can copy mine. Just like you did for me when I was sick. That was so sweet! We could have lunch and I could explain the notes to you…in case you can't read my handwriting or anything."
"Yes, that would be nice," Gordo agreed. "Let's do that."
"Do you think you'll be in school Tuesday?"
"Probably by Tuesday," Gordo agreed, coughing again.
"Poor baby!" Nicole repeated. Gordo felt he should have been annoyed by the way she kept calling him a poor baby, but strangely it made him feel really good.
"Listen," Nicole said. "I'm not going to keep you on the phone while you're sick and all. I just wanted to hear your voice and know you're okay…I mean, know that everything is going to be okay…I mean…"
"It's okay," Gordo said. "I know what you mean."
There was a quiet moment during which they both felt there was so much that needed to be said, yet they both realized it didn't need to be said right now. There would be plenty of time for everything. There was no need to rush.
"Well then," Nicole said. "I hope you feel better, Dave. And I'll see you in class on Tuesday. And I'll have the notes. And I'll save you a seat. Okay?"
"Okay," he said, smiling.
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An hour had passed since Adam first opened the front door for Miranda, and now he had seen her out that same door, closing it behind her. He came back into the living room, and looked at his cousin, still lying on the couch, but appearing less pale.
"Woo!" Adam exclaimed, suddenly shaking his shoulders. "I feel all tingly inside!"
Gordo gave Adam a strange look, not because he didn't know what he was talking about, but because he knew precisely what he was talking about. "All tingly inside" was Adam's phrase for explaining his attraction to the opposite sex. It was a phrase Gordo himself had used on occasion. But was Adam really saying this about Miranda?
"Adam," Gordo said plainly. "There's a legal term for what you're thinking."
"I'm not thinking that," Adam said, sounding a little perturbed.
"You'd better not be," Gordo warned.
Adam looked at Gordo, noting the protective tone in his voice, but also noting there was not even a hint of jealousy. He had an idea…
"Well, you know me," Adam said. "I like them dark…and exotic."
Now Gordo gave him an even stranger look. "Miranda? Exotic?"
"Sure!" Adam said. "She's got that Hispanic thing going on with the big brown eyes, and that thick, gorgeous hair…with so many beautiful highlights…"
Gordo almost laughed. "And let's not forget she's fourteen years old…"
"I'm just saying that if I were a fourteen or fifteen year old boy living in this town, I would go for her."
Gordo "p-shaw"ed and rolled his eyes at the same time.
"What?" Adam insisted. "I'm not crazy. Miranda's cool. Don't you think she's cool? You should go for her. Why don't you go for her, Davey?"
"Yes, you are crazy!" Gordo replied. "I'm not interested in Miranda like that. She's my friend, one of my best friends. She had been for the longest time. For crying out loud, she's practically----"
Gordo stopped and listened to himself.
"Practically what?" Adam asked, but cousin Davey had rendered himself speechless. So Adam picked up for him. "She's practically a sister to you. Isn't that what you were about to say? The same way Lizzie told you that she thought of you as a brother?"
Gordo crossed his arms, his eyebrows knit together in annoyance. "Shut up," he said.
"No, I won't shut up," Adam said, sitting down on the other couch. "You have to think this through to its logical conclusion, Davey. You can't help the way you feel about Miranda any more than Lizzie can help the way she feels about you. We don't get to pick and choose who we like and who we don't like, who we are attracted to and who we're not. You can't blame someone for that, you can't be mad at them for that. You have to stop being mad at Lizzie for not loving you like that."
"I'm not mad at Lizzie," Gordo said.
"I think you are. Still. A little, anyway. It's okay. I know you were hurt, but you've got to move past it. It will be good for you, and it will be good for her."
"You've been spending too much time with my parents, the psychiatrists," Gordo sighed heavily.
"Maybe. But you know everything I'm saying is true, don't you? You're going to be starting something new now, Davey, with this girl Nicole. This is going to be a beautiful thing. Don't let it be soured by any leftover bad feelings about Lizzie. Forgive and forget. Live and let live."
"Now you sound like a corny self-help book," Gordo said. "Cut it out already! I get the point, okay?"
"Do you?"
Gordo lay back on the couch, taking a deep breath. Hey! He could breath through his nose again! He took another deep breath.
"Yeah," he said. "I get the point."
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A short time later Adam had the car packed and was about to leave. Gordo came outside for the first time in 36 hours, shielding his eyes against the brightness of the sun. His mother wasn't there, so it didn't matter that he was still in his pajamas.
Adam pulled him close in a "man-hug," half hug and half handshake, saying, "Later, dude. It's been real."
"Yeah, it's been real…something," Gordo said. "I'm not sure what. Sorry if I was a a drag on this visit."
"Not at all," Adam said. "It was a blast seeing you in your natural habitat, and meeting some of your friends. Especially Miranda."
"About that," Gordo said. "You were just kidding, right?"
"I tell you what," Adam pondered. "Why don't we revisit this question in about…four years? Okay? You and Miranda will be eighteen by then. You could drive up to Berkeley together to see me graduate. You think?"
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Tuesday in school, Gordo saw Lizzie in the hallway outside his second period History class, like he always did. He had had a lot of time to think over everything that had happened and all the good advice Adam had given him. He remembered how rude he had been to Lizzie the last time they met in this hallway, and he wanted to make amends. So he walked up to her and said, "Hi."
She looked at him cautiously. "Are we talking again, Gordo?" she asked in a small voice. "Because I hope we are. Because I can't stand it when you're mad at me."
"I'm not mad at you, Lizzie. I'm just…sorry about how everything turned out."
"Then…do you think…we can still be friends?" Lizzie asked hopefully.
Gordo hesitated, then nodded. "I think we can be. Sure."
"And maybe sometime we could do some things together, maybe hang out? Like we used to?"
Gordo considered and said, "I don't think anything will every again be like it used to. Maybe someday we might hang out again together. But let's just wait and see about that for a little while…'kay?"
"Because I've been thinking," Lizzie said, hugging her books close to her chest, "and maybe…maybe I was a bit hasty…you really threw me off balance, coming at me like that so soon after Brett. But everything's calmed down now, and when I think about it---"
"Don't," Gordo said. "Don't even go there, Lizzie. I know you feel bad about everything that happened and you want to make it right. You always want to make everything right for everybody, and that's one of the things I love about you. But this is not going to happen. Not now."
"But…" Lizzie said, biting her lip, "But….Gordo, my life's been so weird without you in it."
Well, whose fault is that? Gordo thought, realizing at once that there was still a good deal of bitterness left in him. But it didn't feel as bad as before. It didn't feel insurmountable. He was going to be able to get past this.
Yeah," he said. "I know what you mean. My life's been weird too. Weird. And different. But sometimes different is not always such a bad thing."
The second bell rang and the few students remaining in the hallway appeared to be sucked into their classroom doors. Gordo and Lizzie were alone.
"Listen, " Gordo said. "I'm always going to be your friend, Lizzie, no matter what. You know that, right?"
She nodded, looking down at her books. It seemed she might cry, and Gordo wanted so much to give her a hug and tell her everything was going to be all right, but he wasn't entirely sure he would be able to handle that yet, and anyway, he didn't want to give her the wrong impression.
"Hey," he said gently. "You're going to be late for class. You should get going. I'll see you around. Okay?"
Gordo turned and walked down the hallway towards his classroom. Lizzie stood there for a few more moments, watching him walk away, but he did not look back.
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"Mr. Gordon," Mr. Damion announced the moment Gordo appeared in the doorway. "It appears that you are late, sir."
"I am late," Gordo agreed. "But at least I'm here. And as Ben Franklin once said, 'Better late than never.'"
A light giggling ruffled the classroom.
"Thank you for that tidbit of history," Mr. Damion said dryly. "Now would you please find a seat and join the rest of the class?"
Gordo looked up, searching for Nicole. He saw her in the back of the class, where she usually sat. She was looking directly at him, her green eyes sparkling at him, her mouth set in a cute, crooked grin.
Gordo returned the smile. Her smile leaned to the left, his leaned to the right. Together, they formed one perfect smile.
"Hey…" Gordo whispered as he approached.
Nicole took the books off the empty desk beside her, which she had been saving for him. "Hey, Davey…" she whispered back.
Gordo sat down beside her. If he hadn't been feeling "all tingly inside" before this, he certainly was now. She had called him Davey. She had softened his name to that which only his closest family members called him, and it had sounded absolutely natural and unaffected. The fever of his sickness had long since left him, but this tingling sensation increased steadily and pleasantly as Nicole continued to smile at him, scooting her desk a little closer to his.
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Thus ends this chapter in David Gordon's life. I'm sure there's a lot more that could be written, but that's all I'm going to write for the moment.
But my next story will detail another event that takes place the summer after Gordo graduates from high school and will appropriately be called "The Graduate: A David Gordon Story" or something like that. Look for it with an M rating since as the characters get older some moments might earn more of an R rating in a movie rather than a PG13. This new story will be a bit different than anything you've read before, but hopefully I will be able to make you believe it and enjoy it.
By the way, thanks to everyone for all their great comments on Love Finds David Gordon. Your encouragement has meant so much to me!