NOW I have lost my phone and internet service at home, and Bell South says it could be as long as Nov 25 before I get it back. And just when I think the world is getting back to normal! Anyway, I'm posting this from outside the local Quizno's, which offers free internet service. Hey! Just out of curiousity: those of you from other parts, do you know what Quizno's is? Yum-yum!
Oh, and that reminds me, ck3cka, I wanted to let you know I so enjoyed your comment about Ethan and the cupcakes!
Also, BK03, I wanted to thank you for your last comment. It made me think a little, and I made some adjustments to this upcoming chapter, so I hope now it makes a little more sense, I hope I'm catching Gordo's spirit a little better. As I think I said before, the LGM in this story is not what you usually see, and of course I still love LGM, but I had to make them somewhat snobbish here in order to create some more conflict for poor Ethan and Veruca.
So, anyway, thanks for reading, and best wishes for everyone who is NaNo-ing!
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Taking his cue from Veruca, Ethan sat down next to Larry. Now they were six at the table, and it would have been awkward, but Larry suddenly went on, "You know what's my favorite film reference to Shakespeare? You know the one where the kid gets inside the movie with Arnold Schwarzennegger---"
All at once, Ethan, Veruca and Gordo were all smacking the table in agreement.
"Yes!" Gordo exclaimed. "I was talking about that movie the other day in class!"
"What is the name of that movie?" Veruca asked, turning slightly towards Gordo, realizing she and Ethan had never figured it out earlier in the evening.
"The Last Action Hero," Gordo said instantly.
Instantly, both Veruca and Ethan were shouting, "Oh, yes! Oh, man! Dude!" as they high-fived each other across the table.
The others gave them an odd look, though Larry was laughing a little. Veruca turned to Gordo and said, "Thanks, Gordo. We were trying to think of it earlier, and we couldn't. It was driving us crazy. So really, thanks."
"Sure," Gordo said, giving her a strange look.
Veruca felt a little butterflyish inside. Gordo had actually spoken to her! She felt encouraged, and decided she would be bold, going on, "I was telling Ethe about what you said in class the other day, how you mentioned the movie when we were discussing Hamlet."
"I was just mentioning," Gordo explained to his friends, "how ironic I thought it was that Schwarzenegger, probably the most contrived of all actors, would choose to make any kind of reference to William Shakespeare, who of course said, in Hamlet as a matter of fact, 'To thine own self be true---'"
"And it must follow, as the day the night,'" Larry completed, "'that thou canst not then be false to any man.'"
Everyone at the table sat up a little straighter, impressed. "Larry!" Miranda said. "I never knew you were such a fan of Shakespeare."
"I'm not really," Larry said. "But I do remember that quote. I heard it when I was a kid, and it's kind of stuck with me my whole life."
"Me too," Gordo said.
"Me too," Ethan said.
The three guys all looked at each other, and there was a tense moment until Lizzie asked, "Well, what exactly does it mean?"
Suddenly Miranda interjected, "Hey, Ethan, Veruca, aren't your friends going to miss you?" She nodded towards the corner of the restaurant, where the flock of black sheep was giving Parker a hard time as they placed their drink orders.
"Wait," Veruca said. "I want to hear Gordo explain the Shakespeare quote."
"Hey!" Gordo said. "Why does it fall to me?"
"Because you're the smartest one here," Veruca smiled. Now she was pouring it on! "And because you started it."
"Yeah, Gordon," Larry said. "You started it. So enlighten us, why don't you?"
Miranda laughed a little. "Professor Gordo…" she snickered.
Ethan also snickered, repeating, "Professor Gordo..." but not in the way a true friend would.
Gordo glared at him. That damn Ethan Craft! All through middle school he had had to listen to Lizzie and Miranda gushing about what a hunk he was. When Ethan went Goth, Gordo thought, At last some relief! Surely they won't be so ga-ga over him now. What he never counted on was Ethan developing a crush on Lizzie. Of course Gordo knew all about it. Everybody knew all about it. It wasn't that Gordo worried he might possibly lose Lizzie to Ethan at this point, but he did find Ethan's presence annoying and embarrassing whenever he injected himself into Lizzie's life, which was far too often for Gordo's liking.
Slowly easing up on the glare he was bestowing upon Ethan, Gordo turned back to the group, rolled his eyes and returned to the issue at hand. "Well, it's not that complicated, actually," he said. "When Shakespeare says to your own self be true, he means precisely that. He means that you shouldn't be a fake, a phony. And it means that being honest has to start with yourself. That you can't be honest with anyone else unless you are first honest with yourself."
"That's what I thought it meant," Lizzie said.
"I told you it wasn't that big a deal," Gordo replied.
"But it is a big deal!" Tudge insisted. "It's such a totally important concept. It's foundational. You could build your life on a foundation like that."
"Yeah, man, you could," Ethan agreed.
"You could," Gordo said sharply, his eyes settling on Ethan across the table. "You could, if you had any idea whatsoever who your true self actually was."
Ethan pushed back a strand of pale blue hair and narrowed his eyes at Gordo. Had he detected a hint of sarcasm in the little man's voice? He was not feeling the love. He really didn't want to start anything with Lizzie's boyfriend, but somehow he could not stop himself from staring directly into Gordo's eyes, repeating back at him, "Yeah, you could, Gor-don…if you had any idea who your true self actually was."
"Of course, a person who was confident in his true self," Gordo went on, eyes still locked with Ethan's, "wouldn't feel the need to hide behind a disguise…"
Ethan felt his lip quivering. Don't take the bait! he told himself, but in the next moment he heard himself saying, "And of course, a person who was confident in his true self, and with his significant other, wouldn't allow himself to be some pussy-whipped puppet who---"
"Hey!" Lizzie exclaimed, jumping to Gordo's defense.
Ethan glanced briefly at Lizzie, upset that she was upset. Though she certainly did look pretty when she was upset. He wanted so much to grab her in his arms and kiss her to make it all better, temporarily forgetting that he was the one that had upset her. For a moment, he could see nothing but Lizzie, and was aware of nothing except how much he wanted her.
But in the next moment, Gordo was retaliating, "That's what you'll never understand, Craft. The delicate balance between being 'pussy-whipped,' as you call it, and actually getting some, I mean really getting some."
Ethan felt himself steaming. Oh God! The thought of Lizzie with this heartless little prick---
But having established that he was sleeping with the beautiful Lizzie and Ethan was not, Gordo now returned to his original theme. "You're so wrapped up in yourself, Craft," he said, "so wrapped up in portraying a certain image, that I suppose in that twisted black mind of yours, you somehow imagine that…all this…this costume, this attitude, this façade, somehow makes you true to yourself…"
"Guys, guys!" Tudge said, putting his hands down on the table between them, careful not to spill the drinks. "We're all true to our own selves…in our own ways…"
"You think so?" Veruca challenged, anxious now to take the attention off Ethan, because she could see he was steaming, and she knew how he could get when he was angry. "And what about you, Tudgeman?" she challenged. "Are you true to yourself? Haven't you changed quite a bit?"
"Haven't you changed quite a bit?" Tudge shot back.
"I think we've all changed quite a bit," Miranda said. "After all, we're not in middle school anymore, are we?"
"No, we're not," Ethan said scathingly. "And yet, Miranda, you haven't changed at all, have you? You're still the mindless popularity junkie you've always been."
"Ethan!" Lizzie cried, now jumping to Miranda's defense.
Ethan looked at Lizzie again, desperately wondering why he felt compelled to insult her friends. And yet he went on. "Look at you, Randy! Since when are you interested in Tudge? Only since he's become a fuckin' jock!"
"Oh, that's not fair!" Miranda said. "I've always had a thing for Larry---"
"Yeah, but until he became a jock you wouldn't even piss on him if he were on fire---"
"God! You're disgusting!" Lizzie cried, folding her arms over her green sweater.
For a moment Ethan was wounded into silence, staring at Lizzie.
"You are disgusting," Gordo took up where his girlfriend left off. "Look at you, Craft! Look what you've become! And you too, Veruca! You think this is being true to yourself? You think just because you walk around like you don't give a crap what anybody thinks about you that gives you the right to do whatever the hell you want and call it honesty?"
Ethan jumped up from the table, rattling the glasses. "And you, Gordon! You think because you walk around pretending like you do give a crap about every fuckin' thing in the world, that makes you and Lizzie better people than me and Rookey? We want to change the world, not be absorbed by it. We seek revolution, not mindless compliance. We are the future. You've already got one foot in the stinkin' graveyard of comatose suburbia."
Gordo also jumped up from the table, which didn't make much of an impression, because he was nearly a foot shorter than Ethan, but he did boldly poke his opponent in the chest with one finger as he retaliated, "That's where you're wrong, Craft. You're dead wrong. Lizzie and I are going to end up with everything that makes life worth living and you…you?" Here he laughed derisively as he pronounced, "You'll be lucky if you can get a job where a hundred times a day you have to say 'Would you like fries with that?' You dream about anarchy and revolution, but the truth is you'll probably end up OD'ed in a small apartment somewhere, covered in roaches and your own feces."
Ethan felt so agitated by Gordo's finger poking his chest that he could barely keep himself from smacking him clear across the room. He wanted nothing more than to put the little creep in his place, but one glance at Lizzie's worried face stopped that thought dead in its track. He felt like he was boiling up inside, about to explode, but momentarily silenced by the certain knowledge that he had already hurt Lizzie enough for one night.
Best to walk away. Right now. Just walk away.
But he couldn't do it. He couldn't let this smug bastard have the last word. So he had the last word. Actually, it was two words, a very eloquent, "Fuck you!" as at the same time his hand, which had been on it's way to Gordo's face diverted itself to the top of the table, spilling all the drinks in every direction.
Everyone screamed, Lizzie loudest of all, as cherry cola splattered all over her beautiful green sweater. Ethan felt his heart breaking as he saw her look of absolute mortification. He knew everyone had been hit, but he didn't see them and he didn't care. He could only see Lizzie, and then he saw nothing as he stormed out of the restaurant into the dark night, alone.