I have always planned on creating a third part to this story, it was more of a question of when and if I could find the time to actually write it. But when FF's new rule made me change Part 1, I wasn't sure I wanted to continue this. My muse had other ideas though, and the past few weeks, I got inspired to write this final part. Hope you like it.

I've also started a LiveJournal, my homepage link on my profile page, to post rants, writing updates, random stuff, whatever strikes me. If you've got a question about something or just want talk, you can find me there or you can still email me. Also, if your going to leave a comment about something being confusing or something, leave me a way to contact you and maybe I can explain it for you. Had this happen in a review for A New Fairytale.

Jennifer10 – Thanks for the help. What was supposed to be just one new part is now looking like three. Thanks a lot, lol.

A/N – "Thoughts"

Part 3 – Past Comes Calling

Lizzie grinned a little as she stood with Gordo on the same rooftop they did almost two years ago. It had been a long time, close to two years, since she had seen her best friends. Sure they frequently emailed each other, occasionally IMed, and rarely talked on the phone but it just wasn't the same as being in person.

Getting a small break in her schedule, Lizzie set up a trip to have Miranda and Gordo come visit her in Rome while they were on summer vacation. So the second week of summer vacation, Miranda and Gordo flew out for their two week visit. While she did miss her old friends, it wasn't the entire reason she had asked them to come, or at least for Gordo to come.

The summer she left, things were confusing between Gordo and her. They were standing at the line that separated them from being best friends and a couple. Gordo was giving her mixed signals and when she had kissed him, he said thank you. She didn't know what to make of it. Then when she got the offer to record in Rome, the first person she had talked to about was Gordo.

She remembered his advise, "Follow your heart and no matter what or where you are, I got your back." Lizzie had spent a moment looking at him, "If he did have feelings for me, wouldn't he have said that he wanted me to stay? But then again, this is Gordo, he'd never stop me from taking a chance of a life time like this. Why are boys so confusing?"

After a lot of deliberation, she took the offer. In hindsight, she knew something was bothering Gordo; she should've seen all the tell tale signs. But she was too busy getting ready and too excited to focus on anything outside of Rome.

As time went on, she began to miss the small things but convinced herself that her hard work would pay off. Still, it was hard because she felt like she was by herself. While her mother was with her almost constantly, her father and brother were back in Hill Ridge along with her friends. Most of her time was spent either with school work from her tutor or in singing lessons and the little free time she had was spent hanging out in her new apartment. It took her awhile to get used to her new lifestyle but Lizzie soon got comfortable with her schedule and started going out more. Of course, always under her mother's watchful eye.

It was in the beginning of November, she started noticing that her best friends emails started talking about the other friend a lot more. It wasn't that they were hanging out together more without her around, they had become better friends during Junior High, but some of the stuff they did and talked about, sounded awfully a lot like a couple.

Around the same time, Lizzie had been at an industry party, bored out of her mind, when she met another struggling performer and the plus was, he spoke english. Lizzie was still working on her italian, she had a good knowledge but it wasn't perfect, and was a little self conscious using it. So it was easier and much more comfortable talking to him in english than trying to talk to the business people in a mix of english and italian. They exchanged emails and when their schedules matched, they would hang out. Nothing had really happened yet, aside from a little flirting, but it made her feel better after reading how close Miranda and Gordo were getting.

Around Thanksgiving, in one of his emails, Gordo mentioned something changing between Miranda and him, them getting closer. Something stirred in her, the same thing that always stirred in her when another girl came between her and Gordo. Unfortunately this time, they were an ocean apart and the other girl was her closest female friend. Letting it cloud her judgment, she wrote back to Gordo, saying how she was having a wonderful time and meeting incredible new people, in particular, the boy she had been hanging out with. She wasn't sure why she told Gordo this, maybe she was jealous or maybe she wanted to make sure he knew that she had a life outside him. Whatever the reason, she feared his reaction.

A few days after New Year's, she got an email from Gordo. It told her that Miranda and him were together, and he revealed everything, their pool side talk and New Year's party to name a few.

Every time, one of them emailed and talked about them, together, Lizzie felt a little hurt. She never fully realized that while she knew Gordo liked her, that she liked him back just as much. She never took the time to explore her own feelings, only focusing on trying to figure out his.

As the year came to a close, it had become easier to handle Gordo and Miranda together, mainly cause she didn't have to actually see them together and her life in Italy was growing. Around Easter of her second year, she started getting the idea of having them come to visit her, couple or not, but then she started getting messages that Miranda and Gordo were fighting. "No big surprise, they were always bickering about something."

This time, however, it seemed to be worse. They were fighting most of the time they were together and about stupid stuff as well. By the end of May, they broke up, both saying they did it before they ended up hating each other and to save their friendship, which was far more important.

It was the idea of a free Gordo, that made really her throw together the plan to have them come visit. She wasn't going to let a second chance slip through her fingers. Lizzie was going to flirt, charm, and do whatever it took to get Gordo's interest and ask him to stay with her. While in reality, the plan had many flaws, in her head, where it mattered, everything made perfect sense.

Tonight was the night she was going to ask him to stay with her. While at first, Gordo had been a bit cold to her attempts he had slowly warmed up.

"Beautiful night, isn't it?" she said, walking up to him.

Gordo grunted as he continued to stare out at the skyline. Lizzie could tell his mind was somewhere else but she intended on bringing him back here.

"Gordo," Lizzie said softly reaching out and trailing her fingers down his arm to his hand.

"Do you think I try to analyze things too much?" Gordo asked suddenly.

Jerking her hand back, Lizzie titled her head and looked at him confused. "What?"

Stuffing his hands into his pant's pockets, "Miranda says I try to analyze things too much. Rationalize everything. Like this happened cause of that and not just let stuff happen." He looked over at her, "Ya think that's why she doesn't like me anymore?"

Lizzie stood there with an almost stunned and dumbfounded look on her face, "He's thinking about Miranda?" Studying him for a moment, she quickly recovered and countered with, "Maybe you're just too similar. Both need to be the dominant one, high drives to succeed. You two have been banging heads since you were like six." Moving so she was in front him, "I think you need someone who'll compliment you, not challenge," she said as she reached out and took his hands in hers.

Now Gordo was starting to realize what was going on around him, "Lizzie?" he asked her confused.

She smiled softly at him, "I made a mistake letting you go once, I'm not gonna do it again."

"What are you trying to say?"

Stepping closer to him, "I've miss you Gordo. When you told me to listen to my heart, I didn't. At least completely. I thought I did but I didn't really listen to what it was saying. But I want to fix that right now." Lizzie took a deep breath and then moved so her face was inches in front of his, "I want you to stay in Rome with me." She then lowered her lips to his but instead of a kiss, as soon as he felt her lips, Gordo pulled back and quickly got out of Lizzie's grip.

"Lizzie stop," Gordo told her as he saw the look of confusion and a little hurt cross over her face, "We can't."

"What?" she asked softly, barely getting the words out. "Why?"

Gordo looked at her for a moment, trying to recover from the automatic, guilty feeling he felt and also trying to pick his words just right. "You honestly expect me to give up everything back home, just so I can follow you around," Gordo said and when Lizzie looked down, a little ashamed, he knew she was starting to realize what she was asking him to do. "You came here to follow a dream, your dream. If I stayed with you, no matter how tempting it actually is, its just…not my dream."

Lizzie slowly nodded, still refusing to meet his eyes. "I know," she said and then finally looked up, "I had to try." Gordo swallowed and bit his lip at seeing Lizzie's eyes. "I'm not gonna cry, especially not in front of Gordo."

Taking a shaky, steadying breath, "I guess we missed our chance."

Gordo shrugged slightly, "At least for now."

Lizzie shook her head, "No Gordo, we did. I waited too long to realize my feelings. By the time I did, you had fallen for someone else and she was smart not waiting to snatch you up. You're one of the few good guys."

Now Gordo really felt like an ass, here he was turning her down and she was still complementing him. "But me and her," he started to say.

"Gordo, you two may not be together right now but the first words out of your mouth up here…made me realize, you're still crazy about her." Lizzie rubbed the back of her hand underneath her nose, trying very hard to keep herself together, "I got to let him go. Its not fair to anybody. Its so obvious and I was too caught up in my plan to realize it."

"Lizzie, I," he started to say but Lizzie shook her head from side to side.

Slowly backing away from him, and trying not to just run in tears, Lizzie barely kept herself together, "I'm, I'm…uh…gonna go, back downstairs."

Gordo just watched her quickly spin around and walk quickly to the roof stairwell that would lead down a floor to the elevator. Turning back to the skyline, Gordo ran a hand through his hair as he added something else to his list of things to think about.

A few seconds later, as she road down in the elevator, Lizzie closed her eyes and leaned back against the wall. "Maybe this was for the best. Its time to let him go and move on, he obviously as." She took a deep breath to try and steady herself, "He's right, it was stupid to ask him to give up everything. I've got to stop using him as my safety net, it's time for me to stand on my own two feet. I've done a good job so far. A few new friends, my career is starting to gain momentum." Softly biting her lip, "Than why does it still hurt?"