CHAPTER 5: AFTER THE INCIDENT

"Gordo! Gordo!"

Gordo cringed. Now who was yelling his name? Why were they always yelling that name? On the plus side, at least they weren't shouting "Shorto!"

Halfway to the bus stop outside the mall, Gordo turned and saw Miranda running towards him. "Hey, wait up!" she called. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going home," Gordo said flatly.

Miranda came to his side and caught her breath. "Are you okay, Gordo? Lizzie asked me to make sure you're okay."

"If Lizzie's so concerned about me, why are you here and not her?" Gordo said bitterly.

"Lizzie wanted to come, but she was too busy giving Brett an intense verbal thrashing."

"A thrashing?" Gordo questioned.

"It's one of my vocabulary words. It means—"

"I know what it means."

"She's telling him off. Big time."

"She is?"

"Yes! You don't think she would let anyone get away with treating you like that, do you?"

"I don't know," Gordo said glumly. "Sometimes I feel like I don't really know Lizzie at all anymore."

He came to the bus bench and plopped himself down, utterly dejected. "I'm done here."

Miranda looked at him. "I'm going with you," she announced. "I'm done here also. It's way too intense for me in there. Would you just wait here a minute, though? I want to run back and tell Lizzie—"

"Wait," Gordo said as he reached in his pocket. "I saw that girl Melissa using a cell phone. Do you know her number? You can call her on this."

"Gordo!" Miranda exclaimed, taking a cell phone from his outstretched hand. "When did you get this? Cool!"

"My parents gave it to me for my birthday last month," Gordo sighed. "They seem to feel I'm responsible enough now to carry a cell phone."

Miranda plopped down on the bench next to him, dialing Melissa's number. "That probably explains why my parents haven't bought one for me yet." she quipped as she waited for the ring tone.

"It's no big deal!" Brett insisted. "Your little friend is way too sensitive."

"No big deal?" Lizzie yelled back. "Brett! You've been nothing but rude to him since—"

"Hey! Lizzie! Don't you have that backwards? Who's been rude to who?"

"And where do you get off handling me like that? Like I'm some kind of commodity—"

"Commodity?" Brett questioned.

"Vocabulary word," Lizzie shot back impatiently. "It means—"

"I know what it means, and I was not treating you that way. I was just—"

Melissa's cell phone rang and she pulled it out of her purse. Lizzie and Brett continued arguing back and forth till Melissa cut in a few moments later, saying, "Hey, guys. That was Miranda. She found Dave outside and they're heading home together on the bus."

Lizzie looked at Melissa and made a decision. "Can I use your cell phone, Melissa?" she asked, holding back tears. She dialed her home number, turned away from the others, and squeaked, "Mom? Can you come pick me up? I'm ready to come home now."

Gordo and Miranda sat next to each other on the nearly empty bus, not talking. Gordo looked out the window at the familiar buildings passing by in the dark. Miranda looked at Gordo.

Finally she spoke. "You never answered his question, you know."

Gordo turned his head away from the dark safety of the outside world and faced Miranda. "What question?"

"About Lizzie. About whether or not you want her."

Gordo sighed. "And what would be the sense in answering that question?"

"Not for him," Miranda clarified. "I agree with you that Brett can be kind of a jerk sometimes—"

Gordo smirked. "Kind of? Sometimes?"

"But how you feel about Lizzie is something between you and Lizzie and really has nothing to do with him."

"How can it have nothing to do with him?" Gordo asked. "He's her freakin' boyfriend now—"

"Maybe not for long," Miranda said. "And that's not the point, anyway. You need to answer that question for yourself, Gordo. Do you want Lizzie? You need to answer that, and truthfully, and soon, and do something about it one way or the other."

"What am I gonna do about it, Miranda? For some reason I can't explain I can't seem to make myself do anything about it. I'm immobilized. I'm confused. I'm hopelessly pathetic."

"You are not!" Miranda said. "You're just in love, and maybe a little scared of being hurt and rejected."

Gordo blushed deeply and turned back to looking out the window. He hadn't even realized Miranda knew the secret he had tried so hard to hide. But now that it was out in the open, he decided to say, "You know Lizzie pretty good, Miranda. I'm sure you two talk about all kinds of girl stuff. What do you think? Would she reject me?"

Miranda thought for a moment then said, "Difficult to say. Lizzie's pretty confused about you too, I think. She told me how she kissed you in Italy, but then you never said or did anything about it. She was hoping you would."

"She was?" Gordo said, brightening. "She was hoping?"

"She was," Miranda confirmed. "But when you didn't, she thought maybe you didn't like her after all, and she felt foolish for kissing you in the first place. At least that's what she told me."

"Oh, man!" Gordo groaned, hating himself for being so stupid. "And how does she feel about me now?"

"Difficult to say," Miranda repeated. "Since Brett came on the scene, he's all I hear about. Look, Gordo. We all knew when we got to high school some things would change, we just didn't know which things and how much. If you really want to know how Lizzie feels about you now, why don't you just ask her?"

"I don't know, Miranda. Why don't I? Maybe I'm a little scared of being hurt and rejected?" Gordo said, throwing Miranda's own words back in her face.

"Gordo—"

"I don't want to talk about this anymore," he said, turning away from Miranda as he felt his heart growing as dark as the images that passed by beyond the bus window.

"Our first fight," Brett moaned, shuffling along beside Mike and Melissa through the mall. "And what was it about? That smart-ass Shorto! Shorto Dorko!"

Mike laughed. "Yeah!" he snorted. "Shorto Dorko!"

"Listen," Melissa said suddenly. "Do you want to be with Lizzie or not? Because if you do, Brett, you've got to stop insulting her friend. Not only that, you need to apologize, not only to Lizzie but also to him."

"I do want to be with Lizzie," Brett said. "And I will apologize to her, if that's what I have to do. But I will never apologize to Shorto Dorko. That kid has it coming, and I'm gonna—"

"You're gonna lose Lizzie unless you get yourself under control," Melissa said wisely. "Don't you know? She and Shor—she and Dave have been friends forever, like since the day they were born. That's never going to change. If you want to hang on to Lizzie, you'd better show some respect."

"That's right," Mike nodded. "Show some respect!"

Brett rolled his eyes, but he knew Melissa was right. A big-time apology was in order. To Lizzie. Not to Shorto. He would never apologize to that kid.

But he was going to keep a close eye on him.