RTds9 – Thank you. Not only am I the King of non-L/Gs, I'm also the King of Sequels. Lol.

the gifted one – I can see how Miranda could be jealous of Gordo and Lizzie getting closer and maybe even deep down, subconsciously, wondering, why not me? That's why I like writing LM stories, with how they left the show, you can go in so many directions. I just wish more authors wrote non-L/Gs. I like L/Gs but its like that's all that gets written, M/Gs are rare and any other couple is like non-existent. I'd love to see someone else do a K/G chapter story. Can't wait for your next update.

nymphadora-era – You're welcome and I like your story too.

A/N – "Thoughts"

Chapter 8 – The Breakup No One Saw Coming

Miranda stood behind Samantha and watched as her daughter tried to stir the mixture in the bowl. Miranda was teaching Samantha how to bake, in this case, brownies. She grinned a little as she watched Sam struggle stirring but knew her daughter wouldn't accept any help.

Gordo often said she had her mother's stubbornness, to which Miranda would easily counter that she was daddy's little girl. As many of Miranda's mannerisms as Samantha had, as she got older, the more and more she reminded her of Gordo. Just the way should would talk or act in certain situations, she was defiantly her father's little girl.

Leaning against the back of the chair that Samantha was kneeling on, she snickered as Samantha blew her bangs out of her face in aggravation. Every time she tried to stir, the bowl would rock.

"Want some help?" Miranda asked, trying her hardest not to laugh at the irked expression on her daughter's face.

"Hold the bowl," Samantha ordered. As Miranda did as she was told, Sam grabbed the spoon with both hands and started stirring as hard as she could. After finally getting the ingredients mixed, Miranda helped Samantha pour the mixture into the baking pan.

"Mommy," Sam said softly as Miranda checked the oven and put the pan inside it. "Why are boys jerks?"

Closing the oven, Miranda looked at her with an arched eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Mark Turkolu was saying how girls can't play basketball."

"What did you do?" she asked a little warily.

Samantha smirked, "I chucked the ball into his face and gave him a bloody nose."

Miranda quickly fought back a smirk, "Don't smile, this is a bad thing. She shouldn't be throwing basketballs at people and hurting them." Taking a deep breath, "Honey."

"What?" Samantha asked innocently. "Daddy's said you punched a boy when he made fun of you. Gave him a black eye."

The smirk finally won out and appeared on Miranda's face, "Did Daddy also tell you, he had that black eye for almost a month," she said sarcastically and Samantha giggled.

"But Mark is always teasing me and I'm sick of it," Samantha whined.

Miranda laughed softly, "Maybe he likes you."

"Eww!" Samantha shouted and her face scrunched up in disgust; Miranda laughed harder.

"That's why I tease your father."

Samantha looked at her for a moment, "Mom, when did you know you really liked Daddy?"

Sitting down in the chair next to her, Miranda thought about it for a moment, "Well, there's always been something between me and your dad, we've been close since the day we met," Miranda smirked to herself as she thought about it more. "I guess I'd been fighting it for years but the summer between tenth and eleventh grades was when I finally started to realize I was fighting a losing battle."

-----

It had been a long couple of days for Miranda. The one couple everyone though was destined to be together forever was over.

After almost two years, Lizzie and Gordo had broken up. They told everyone they had drifted apart and to save their friendship, they had to do this. It was partially right; Miranda had noticed Lizzie and Gordo pulling apart and spending less time alone together. She wasn't exactly sure what happened, both were being tight lipped about it, but Miranda knew something had happened.

As Miranda slowly walked down the street, she started thinking about her own feelings about the breakup.

On one hand, she hated seeing her friends upset. While it had been hard feeling like a third wheel a lot of the time, fighting and hiding her own feelings, she had been kind of happy her friends had been happy together. After years of watching them kind of circle around it, they had finally gotten together and they were happy. That made at least a part of her happy.

They seemed like the perfect couple. They were touchy feely but not overly and usually in private. Constantly doing small romantic gestures for each other. If she hadn't been so close to it, maybe it wouldn't have made Miranda so sick to her stomach. But her own feelings aside, it was sweet and they really did love each other.

But it was still like torture for her. Watching them be a couple and doing things couples do, and trying to be happy for them, felt like someone was knocking the wind out of her. It was hard and lately, she felt like she was getting lost in the little act she had been putting on.

Then out of nowhere, Lizzie called her up at eleven at night, completely upset and in tears, telling her that Gordo and her had broken up. She had seen some warning signs but nothing that lead her to think they could break up. But then again, they were still only sixteen and normal teenage couples rarely lasted two months much less two years.

Miranda had spent the last few days talking with and comforting Lizzie. It was like walking a tight rope, she had to make Lizzie feel better and that someone else would come along and after a little while, that Gordo would come back to being her best friend again. After a few days of being with Lizzie, she started to wonder how Gordo was taking the breakup.

She hadn't really talked to her other best friend in awhile and only really saw him in passing at school. So she decided to check up on him. Calling his house to see if he was home, his mother told her he had come home from school and then after dropping his stuff off, went back out again. She had a pretty good idea where he went. When Gordo had a lot on his mind, he usually went out to a secluded part of the park and just sat there, thinking about whatever was bothering him.

Walking through the park, she found Gordo sitting on a large boulder, just staring off into space. "Hey goofball," she teased half-heartedly.

Gordo blinked a few times and slowly looked down at her. "Hey," he said softly.

Climbing up and sitting down next to him, "Whatya thinking about?"

He shrugged, "Lots of things," Gordo said softly. "School, life…Lizzie."

Miranda titled her head slightly and looked at him. "You ok with it?"

"I guess," Gordo told her. "I mean I kinda saw it coming, we were spending a lot of time apart, and it was like…we just weren't clicking anymore. It was mutual. We both wanted to go back to what we had before dating complicated everything."

Miranda watched Gordo pause and look away for a moment. "What?" she asked him.

After a few minutes, "I think I'm going to take accelerated classes and graduate next year," he said.

"Why?" Miranda asked surprised and caught completely off guard. "Is this because of Lizzie?"

Gordo shook his head no. "I just feel like this is the right thing for me to do. I'm not running away but I need a new challenge. Something that'll give me a new direction, outside of Lizzie. I feel, well lost. Its always been Lizzie and Gordo. Never just Gordo. I wanna see what that's like."

"Ok, I guess," she said slowly. Then trying to hide her surprise and sadness, she smirked at him, "Just don't forget us when you're breezing through college for your first doctorate." she said sarcastically.

Gordo grinned a little, "Miranda, you're impossible to forget," he shot back sarcastically. They both smiled at each other and started laughing softly.

As they sat there, Miranda started thinking about what'd be like not having Gordo around. She kept thinking, it'd feel like something was missing and she didn't like that feeling.

The conflicted emotions came flooding back. She was caught in the middle again; this time between her own feelings and dealing with her friends' breakup. Gordo's decision didn't make it any easier.

Sighing softly, she looked over at him. She liked him, really liked him but she was tied to not doing anything by the unwritten best friend code; you cannot date your best friend's ex. Even though these were special circumstances, there was no way Miranda was going to even approach the topic with either of them. Once again, circumstances were against her. She just had to go on keeping the feelings buried inside.

-----

When Miranda was finished, she sent Samantha to clean herself up while she cleaned up the kitchen.

As she was cleaning, Gordo's spoke from the kitchen doorway, "So you missed me more than you let on," he teased.

Without even looking, "Oh please. I enjoyed not having your annoying ass around."

Walking over, he wrapped his arms around her and started to gently kiss her earlobe. "Admit it, you missed me."

"How could I miss you? You were practically home almost every weekend," she continued to tease as she tried her hardest to not laugh out loud.

"You think there may have been a reason for that." Gently touching her chin, Gordo turned her head so he could look at her face. Giving her a lopsided grin, he looked into her eyes, "Miranda."

"Ok. Maybe I missed you a little. Alright?" she said softly as she leaned back into Gordo's chest. "If you had started dating one of those college sluts, I would've snapped their pretty little necks. Then I would've kicked your ass," she said as she turned around to face him.

"That's my girl," he teased and laughed when Miranda glared at him. "Sometimes I think you're more possessive than Lizzie ever was."

"Damn straight," Miranda said with a fake scowl, "After you two broke up, no one else was going to get in between us, not even Lizzie again. Your mine," she told him before giving him a deep, lingering kiss.

Pulling away, Miranda grinned at him and went back to cleaning the kitchen. Gordo chuckled softly as he watched her for a second before helping her.