so ive recently re-discovered fanfiction and i thought i migth just try to tie this up since the "incomplete" fanfiction thing is just eating away at me.

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Gordo pushed the heavy plexiglass door and sucked in his palm with a deep breath. He could hear screaming at all opposites of the hall, saw an unruly man being strapped to a gurney, and knew that Miranda was somewhere in the midst of all this. He approached the front desk and asked for "Miranda Sanchez." The clerk smiled at the awkward-looking teenager and said, "Uh... let's see... room 217, but she has visitors right now. I'll let you know when they leave." He reflected her smile and sat to the side in a poly-plastic seat.

How did this happen to Miranda? She had done nothing wrong- at least from what he knew. She was just a victim of the same familial hardship. Now she was being...treated for it.

"What do you mean she's being committed?"

"Gordo... I think you should go home," Mrs. Maguire instructed.

He looked from a shocked and mute Miranda to her steady-eyed mother. "No-"

"Gordo, leave!" Mrs. Sanchez shrieked. "Just leave."

He looked to his old friend for confirmation. He couldn't leave her.

"Mom, I still can't believe it!" a familiar voice pipped past him. He hadn't seen her in months, but he could never forget the back of her. It had walked passed her much too often. The blonde tresses whipped across her neck as she turned to her mother. "Some people just don't react well to hard times, Lizzie," commented Mrs. Maguire.

"Yeah, you're tellin' me- ripping apart her entire family."

"Hey!" Gordo found himself screaming after them.

Lizzie gasped in surprise and half-suppressed a laugh. "Gordo? What are you doing here?"

"I came to see Miranda, who, by the way, didn't tear her family apart," he defended, rumpling the hair on one side of his head.

"Gordo, Miranda is in an extreme state. You can't really take her word for it," Mrs. Maguire added. Lizzie whispered to her mother and Gordo watched as Mrs. Maguire left the hospital and Lizzie approached him. "Wow... you look different," she said.

"Yeah...so do you."

"You look pretty bad."

"Yeah..." he said, shuffling his feet. "Look, it's not Miranda's fault."

"Well, that's not where the evidence is pointing," Lizzie said with a chuckle.

"What evidence is there?"

"Mrs. Sanchez's word, for one, the broken glass, the missing father. Why are you sticking up for her? You don't even talk anymore. You don't know her!"

"So you think that it's okay for her mother to just ship her off to an asylum?"

"She didn't 'ship her off' Gordo. Miranda needed help."

"No more than you do, Lizzie."

"What's the supposed to mean?"

"You destroyed us, Lizzie. You destroyed me. You left me behind so that you could demean me. You traipse around the neighborhood leaving behind everything you know for everything you want! If this whole thing with Miranda is true, then you and her are the same. She destroyed everything she knew for what she wanted: attention, a mother focused on her, whatever the hell you think is the real deal here! Don't you criticize her!"

"Hey! Can you keep it down? You're not helping!" Yelled an attendant.

Lizzie scoffed again. "Well you know, it's funny that I still don't regret any of it," she hissed. Gordo saw her back again as she left the hospital.

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He tapped on the jarred door with his knuckle. "Hey, can I come in?"

She turned around from her spot on the window's ledge and his heart warmed to see her smile at him. "Sure." When he sat down in an arm chair, she asked, "Where've you been? It's been like a week?"

"It took me a while to find out where they'd taken you. You're not that easy to locate," Gordo said, trying to smile in between words.

"Especially when my family is trying to cover all traces of me," Miranda remarked bitterly, evoking a pause. She moved to edge of the bed to be near him and asked, "Gordo... do you think I'm crazy?"

"What?"

"I didn't make it up, Gordo. She cheated on him and he left because of her. I would never sabotage her health. I never force my father to leave," she justified.

"Miranda, calm down. I believe you," Gordo assured.

"You do?"

He tried not to blush as he nodded. "Yeah, well... we were getting closer and I know how you must feel... well, to some degree." He noticed the look of relief on Miranda's face. "Why would I think that you're crazy?"

"Because everyone else does, Gordo. They treat me like some rash psycho looking for attention. I'm in here with schizophrenics and sociopaths, and my mother is roaming free. There's a girl down the hall who's bulemic. She has new nurses buy her snacks from the vending machines, vomits on her hospital food, and leaves the food for the nurses at the end of the day. In the middle of the week, she came in and switched my plate with hers."

"So I guess it's not as great in here as it looks."

She chuckled, "No, Gord, it sucks."

"Has your mom been to visit you?"

Miranda twisted her mouth. "Yeah. She usually comes everyday with Mrs. Maguire." Gordo turned his face away at the mention. "She pats me on the head and fixes my flowers and sits beside Lizzie's mom who puts words in my mouth and diagnoses me with one thing after another- borderline personality disorder, agrophobia..."

Gordo gawked, "You're on medication?"

"Don't look so horrified. I don't take it."

"Miranda... what are you going to do?"

She sighed, "I don't know, Gordo. Last week, I never saw any of this coming. I just wanted everything to go back to normal. Now I want my father back and revenge on my mother."

"Has your dad been to see you?"

Miranda bit her lip. "Not yet."

"I'm sure he's coming."

"Yeah."

"Really."

"Yeah."

"Really," he asserted, putting his hand on hers.

"Really. Gordo, pity is not a pretty color on you." They smiled and he moved in to hug her.

"Gordo," pronounced a voice from the door.

The two faced it. "Hello, Mrs. Sanchez," Gordo greeted and rose from the chair.

"What are you doing here?" she asked as she replaced Miranda's flowers.

"I just thought Miranda could use some company."

"Oh, well Lizzie was here earlier."

"Yeah, I saw," Gordo mumbled. Miranda's head snapped up. "You saw her?" she asked.

"Uh, well... just for a second. I saw her leave," Gordo answered. Miranda busied herself with the floor tiles at Gordo's reply.

"Well, I'm assuming you're all caught up. Gordo you can home now," Mrs. Sanchez said matter-of-factly.

"Mom-"

"Goodbye, Gordo."

"Mom! Stop it, okay? He's hear to talk to me, okay? To visit me."

"And what's that supposed to mean, young lady?"

"It means, that you've been plugging for sympathy since Dad left you and I'm sick of it! I'm here because of some sick jealousy you have!"

Her mother was mortified. "What did you say?"

"Please let him stay," Miranda pleaded.

"Not after that outburst," she snipped. "Gordo, may I speak to you out in the hall?" Gordo looked to Miranda as he walked into the corridor with her mother.

"David, I would appreciate it if you stopped visiting Miranda."

"Uh-"

"It's not you. You haven't done anything wrong, but I think Miranda is developing a liking toward you, and I would prefer that you didn't invite it."

"But Mrs. Sanchez, Miranda and I are just friends and I think she needs me now. I don't want to leave her."

"Trust me, Gordo. She would recover from all of this sooner if you weren't around. I think your presence is only satisfying her need for attention. I'm just thinking of what's best for her."

Gordo took a breath and bit his lip as Mrs. Sanchez closed the door behind her and left him in the hall.

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Gordo paced his room. Was it true? Could Miranda be attracted to him? For so long he had been in love with Lizzie. She was his constant motivation to get up in the morning, to make movies. Now she's in some other realm of existence and he's attracted to Miranda. Was he just switching off? Did he really like her? Did she really like him?

Gordo lay back on his bed and listened to his mother park the car and make her way through the house. He cursed this monotony. He felt like a dependent at home and a background for everyone at school. But with Miranda... he felt like "Gordo" again. Back in the hospital, he had found himself covering up every trace of Lizzie for Miranda. He didn't want her to think that he had any feelings for their old best friend. He just wanted to lie down and laugh with her for as long as she would let him.

He went out his window and climbed down the side and made his way down the block.

"Hey, Matt!" he whispered, throwing pebbles at a window of the Maguire house. "Matt!"

The chopped hair appeared in the window. "Hey, there, Gordo. What do yuh need?"

"Miranda's number at the hospital."

"Uno momento, amigo." Matt retreated inside the house and Gordo waited below. When Matt reappeared, he climbed up the railings of the Maguire house and took the number from Mrs. Maguire's data planner. "Matt, I owe you."

"What's that now? Two?"

"Thanks, man."