In answer to a question posed by Black Knight, this story is rated M for later chapters. It occurs to me that I have never really written about the gang past high school (except for Rosebud, which was kind of a silly story, almost a farce, and doesn't really count), but I suspect as "twenty-somethings" Lizzie and Gordo might find themselves doing more than just kissing. So, this might get a little sexy, but I am also trying to hold to what I call the "sweetness."

Once again: I own a black wool coat which I bought for the amazing price of only five dollars at the local thrift store, and it has served me well this past winter, but Disney owns Lizzie McGuire. Be that as it may, I hope you will enjoy this next chapter.

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They sat across from each other in a comfortably upholstered booth of an upper East Side diner. The restaurant had been Liz's choice. She told David she sometimes came here with her agent, when she was in town for a photoshoot. David, a resident of mid-Manhattan, had never known till this day that the place existed.

They sat for several hours across from each other, first only sipping coffee, then ordering several slices of cheesecake when the waitress began to give them nasty looks. The cheesecake had long since been consumed, and all their common acquaintances discussed in detail. Miranda, Ethan, Kate, Kim, Eric, Veruca, and even Liz's pesky little brother Matt. Lizzie reported that Mr. Dig was now the Assistant Principal at the new Hillridge High West. David found this highly amusing. And so, they were both totally "caught up," and yet somehow neither seemed willing to make the first move towards leaving the table.

Outside, the afternoon drifted into early evening. Soon the dinner crowd would begin shuffling in. David shuffled in his seat. He remembered Lizzie saying she had a meeting with a producer. He didn't want her to be late, but he also did not want her to leave. These hours were magical to him, bringing back so many buried emotions from only a few short years ago. How much had changed….and yet, surprisingly, how much had not changed at all.

Liz was beaming at David across the table. How easy it was to talk to him! How delightful simply being in his presence, listening to his jokes, watching his bright blue eyes. What a fool she'd been all these years! Such sadness, such regret….and yet she beamed, just to be with him at this moment.

Liz was not thinking about her appointment with Alex Paige. It had completely slipped her mind. Until suddenly her cell phone rang, and she jumped.

"Oooh!" she cried, recognizing the special ringtone she had assigned his office. "Oh my God, David! I have to take this!"

A few "uh-hu's" later, Lizzie snapped her cell phone shut and announced, "Well, guess what? My meeting's been moved forward to tomorrow. Alex has some….charity thing to go to, something like that. Last minute. So I'll be meeting with him in the morning, instead."

David breathed a sigh of relief. "Good! That's good….right?"

"Yes!" Liz agreed brightly. "That's excellent, don't you think?"

"Yes, I do. I mean, now….if you like….you and I could order some dinner, if you're still hungry after all that cheescake, and that would surely get that waitress to stop giving us the evil eye."

Liz giggled. "We really ought to. But I'm not much hungry, are you?"

"No," David said. "No, not at all. I'm just….I feel good. I mean, just being here with you…."

Liz smiled. "I know," she said quietly. "I know what you mean."

After this, there was no further discussion of dinner. In fact, for a few moments, there was no discussion at all. They sat quietly, staring at the table, but then both looked up at the same moment, catching each other's eye. Sad smiles were exchanged.

Liz sighed heavily. "Oh, Gordo," she lamented, sitting forward with her chin in her palm, looking directly at him across the table. "What happened to us?"

David shifted uneasily. "What do you mean, exactly?"

"I mean…us! What happened to us? Once upon a time we were such good friends, remember? Back in junior high. You, me and Miranda. The Three Musketeers. Inseparable, friends forever. What happened to 'forever'?"

David bit his lip. He knew the answer, but they were having such a good time, he didn't want to spoil everything. Yet, one more look at Liz, and already he could see their time together had been spoiled. He couldn't remember ever seeing such melancholy in her eyes.

"It was…you," he said, with a deep, careful breath. "Don't you remember, Lizzie? Almost as soon as we got into high school, you went out for cheerleading, and before you knew it, you were one of the popular girls, and after that….well, Miranda and I didn't see much of you after that, did we?"

"Oh…" Lizzie moaned. "Was I that bad? Really?"

David nodded, painfully. "Yeah," he said slowly. "You more or less dropped us both like a couple of hot potatoes."

Liz crunched a fist against her forehead. "I know. I did. I know I must have. But somehow…at the time…Gordo….oh, Gordo…I'm so sorry…"

"Hey!" he said suddenly, reaching across the table to take her hand. "Listen to me, Lizzie. Don't cry about it. There's no sense in crying about it now. Spilt milk and all that. What's done is done. And we all survived---"

"Yeah, survived," she repeated bitterly, "but to what end? What good did it do us?"

"It did us all good," David said. "We all got what we wanted. You got to be popular, and somehow---I don't know how, but somehow, you actually got even prettier than you already were, and of course that led to your modeling career, so it's been good for you. And once you were out of the picture, Miranda and I….well, our relationship changed."

Liz sniffed. "I know. I saw you. Even though I really didn't talk to you guys anymore, I always watched you in the hall. You looked so happy together. And I was so jealous of Miranda. So jealous."

"Jealous?" David asked in surprise.

"Yes, of course jealous!" Lizzie confirmed. "Miranda was never supposed to get you as a boyfriend! You were my boyfriend."

"Lizzie," David reminded quietly, "I was never your boyfriend."

"That's right, you never were. But you were supposed to be. Don't you remember? All through eighth grade…and then what about Italy? When I kissed you on the hotel rooftop….Gordo! For such a brain-iack, you certainly were dense about that!"

"I---I---" David objected, but of course there was nothing he could say in his defense.

"I was trying to tell you something with that kiss. I was trying to make you see that I was beginning to realize that you and I….well, it seemed so clear to me that summer, all summer while I was grounded, stuck in my house, and not even allowed to talk to you on the phone. And then, on the first day of school, I wanted to tell you, I wanted to corner you and kiss you again, but…but Tudgeman and that other nerd, Jeffrey Gellar, got to you first, about that Countywide Jeopardy Competition, I heard them talking to you about it. You were so excited about it, so I never got to talk to that day, and the next day it was something else, and then something else, and then…well, eventually, it was just too late. Know what I mean?"

"You mean your feelings about me changed. That quickly?"

Liz nodded, but just barely. "I'm sorry, Gordo. I should have held on a little longer, I should have had more faith in you…more faith in us. But also," she went on, "on the first day of school, I couldn't believe what else was happening to me! Kate and Ethan were telling everyone, even all the new kids, about what had happened in Italy with Paolo and me singing at the awards, and everybody wanted to talk to me, everybody wanted to hang out with me, and really soon Kate actually became my friend again, and of course….God! Ethan Craft! You know?"

David winced. Yeah, he knew. He remembered that part of his junior high and high school experience all too well.

"So anyway," Liz went on, "suddenly I was moving in circles I had only dreamed about before. Finally I was…..popular, so I just kind of…well, I kind of forgot about you. I mean, I figured you would always be there for me, right? Good old Gordo, always there for me. I mean, look what you did for me in Italy, how you saved my ass! And by the way, did I ever get to really thank you for that?"

"No, not really," Gordo replied.

"I know!" Liz exclaimed. "I was such a snob, wasn't I! And so self-centered. I made this assumption that whenever I wanted to, I could just come running back to you, tell you how I felt, and you would be there for me.

"But a funny thing happened, something unexpected. Well, two funny things, actually. First, Miranda got back from Mexico, a few weeks later, and you and her started getting really chummy, and then I saw you two kissing in the hall and….aaargh! I can't believe how much this hurts, even now, just remembering how I felt, seeing you two like that."

"Lizzie…" David said in awe. This was all news to him. If only he had known! Well, really, what would he have done? If he had to choose….Miranda….or Lizzie? He couldn't even consider such a thing now, his head was spinning so wildly from everything Lizzie was saying.

But there was nothing to consider, because as Liz went on with her story, she revealed, "And then there was that other thing, that other reason why, eventually, I decided, I could never tell you how I felt about you. It happened over a period of time, actually, but I remember the moment I realized all hope was lost. It was that Jeopardy competition. I went to see it, you know. Kate and Ashley and I went to 'cheer' on our 'team.' And you were so smart up there, Gordo. So smart, and so brilliant, and I was so proud of you. But at the same time that I was proud of you, I was also realizing that…that you could never possibly be interested in me---"

"Lizzie!" he exclaimed, as the revelations kept coming.

"I mean, you could never be interested in the girl I had become. Miss Popularity… Miss Airhead Cheerleader…"

"Lizzie, you were never an airhead."

"But I felt like one, compared to you," she insisted. "And as time went on, it only got worse. You were Captain of the Debate Team, Editor of the School Newspaper. For crying out loud, you and Tudge went to the State Science Fair together! It was even on the News, I watched you on the News! And again, I was so….incredibly proud of you, but feeling so unworthy in comparison. I mean, it got to the point where literally, I was afraid to even talk to you anymore, I was so in awe of how smart you had become, how accomplished, and I was so afraid that I….I just couldn't live up."

"Oh my God! Lizzie! Is that why you stopped talking to me Junior and Senior year?"

Liz hung her head, nodding slowly. "I know it sounds stupid."

"Lizzie, it is stupid. That's just about the stupidest thing I ever heard."

"But…but…" Liz objected, "I didn't see how you could possibly respect me anymore. I had totally sold out. I was so…frivolous! You know all those jokes about dumb blondes? Well, that was me, through and through, and I didn't even care. I was so busy with cheering and fashion and my endless string of boyfriends, and I didn't have an original thought to call my own, I only knew and believed what everybody else was saying. Well, not everybody else. I only paid attention to what the other cheerleaders and jocks were saying. If they weren't talking about it, then I didn't know about it. And I knew that if somehow you and I were to sit down together for two minutes---no! Not even two minutes! One minute!--- you would see right through me, what a big phony I was. If you didn't have me pegged already, Gordo. Which I'm sure you did."

Liz stopped talking and caught her breath. As they sat together, silently, for a moment, they both became aware of their surroundings once again. Now the restaurant was buzzing with conversation and the clinking of glasses and dishes. The waitress appeared, towering over their table, and very pointedly inquired, "Can I get you anything else?"

David glanced at Liz, to see if she wanted to order anything, but she was looking down at the table, and he had a strong suspicion she was crying, or at the very least, about to cry.

"No. No thank you," David told the waitress.

"Well then, I'll just get you your bill---oh wait! Here it is! It seems you already have your bill! Well, imagine that! Whenever you're ready---"

"Yeah, yeah," David said absently. "Give us a moment. Okay?"

"Of course…sir!"

David looked back at Liz, who still seemed distraught. He reached for his wallet and put a twenty dollar bill on the table. "Come on," he said quietly. "Let's get out of here."

Liz nodded, and a moment later, David was holding her hand, pulling her through the restaurant out on to the now darkened city street. Here the air felt cooler, and thinner, and in the comparative quiet, David heard Liz sniffle.

"I'm so sorry," she said mournfully. "Can you believe me, Gordo, what a dope I am? I mean, what a dope I was, and what a dope I still am. Well, you know what? You've been so good, putting up with me, but I think I've taken up more than enough of your time now, so I guess it would be best if---"

"Don't you dare," David said, grabbing her hand before she could slip away. "You have to at least give me the chance to apologize first."

"Apologize? For what?" she sniffled again.

"For calling you 'stupid' just now."

"But it's true!" Liz insisted. "I am stupid."

"No, you're not," David replied. "Not at all. At least no more stupid that I am."

"What do you mean?" Liz asked in absolute confusion.

"There are two sides to every story, Lizzie, and I'm not going to let you go until you hear my side of this story. Then maybe you won't feel so stupid. Will you walk with me?"

Liz nodded. "Where are we going?"

"I don't know," David said. "It doesn't much matter. I just want to walk with you, because when I tell you what I'm about to tell you, I don't want you to be looking at me. I don't know how I could ever tell you this, if you were looking at me. I would feel way too embarrassed. So would you walk with me?"

"Yes," Liz said, taking his hand in hers as she felt a shiver run up her spine. "Okay, Gordo. Let's walk."

Next: Sharing Fantasies