A/N: Disney owns the characters and the backdrop. I only own the angst. So there. Also this is sort of a spin off of my last fic "Denial", and is set within "Other Side of the Story" by Black Knight 03, which is excellent. Go check out BK03's profile and see for yourself, as well as all the other great stories. BK03 wrote a nice review for "Denial" and suggested a story like this. I hope to make this into three parts. Anyway, short story long…

For Black Knight 03

If there are ever plans to make a statue made of "David Gordon, The Early Years", the scene in front of me is what I'm going to submit as a suggestion. I will even go so far as to learn how to draw in order to make it happen. Because the way he's sitting here at lunch sums it up so perfectly.

Shoulders forward.

Eyes squinting in determination.

Hands writing quickly, purposefully.

And the Gordo (soon to be) trademarked tongue sticking out slightly from one side of the mouth.

It's good to see him like this again. Makes me wonder why Lizzie and I were worried about the Parker "He's too short" incident. Too worried as usual. Every time a Gordo problem comes up, Gordo is usually the one to fix it. Sometimes he needs a nudge (from Lizzie), sometimes he needs a shove (yours truly). But he is the one that makes it right again.

And not just with his problems, but with mine on occasion, and with Lizzie's practically every other day.

But let's get one thing straight; Lizzie appreciates it more than most people know.

My proof? Her near meltdown in the girl's locker room when she realized that his birthday is two weeks away and we've done zero planning for a party or even a couple of gifts. Funny how whenever I say (sincerely) that I really loved the gift she got me or the party she threw me, she sighs in relief and is all happy and sunshine.

When Gordo says the same thing with the same sincerity, she'll swear he's having an awful time and won't know what to do with the gift we got him. She's proven wrong eventually, because he'll be using/wearing/bragging about the gift sometime later. But I just know we're going to go through this again in two weeks.

The funny part is that Gordo will probably forget that it's his birthday like he always does. With the exception of last year, he forgets every year. Last year was his Bar Mitzvah, so Hebrew school and all of his relatives calling in to confirm their attendance made it impossible for him to forget.

But this year, I know he will forget once again. It's just another example about how he's always putting himself second. There is just no way I can forget my birthday. I'm just not built like that. Being the oldest daughter has certain expectations, and awesome birthdays are just the first of a very long list.

"I wish she would cut that crap out!" Lizzie says exasperated, snapping me out of my mental birthday wish list. She was just loud enough for Gordo to remove his MP3 player headphones to see what was up.

"Who's doing what now?" Gordo asked curiously, although not actually stopping to look up from his paper.

"Parker, giving you the eye, its…unsettling" she says softening up a little and looking down at her lunch.

"Its just seller's remorse, Lizzie, let it be," I say without thinking as I sip my coke.

"Careful Miranda, that almost sounded like a compliment," Gordo says with smile.

"I'm just telling you how Parker feels. Personally, I don't think you're all that and a bag of chips," I say casually taking a sip from my coke.

"Deny, deny, deny. We'll never be happy unless we stop this fake hostility and start making out," he says and the urge to laugh causes me to spit out the coke I just sipped.

"You got me. That was good," I say as we both laugh while I wipe off my mouth.

Gordo finally looks over to see Parker still staring at him. She's not even looking away in any embarrassment. Any normal guy would be trying to decide between giving her a fake smile and an even faker wave hello, or better yet a very sincere middle finger.

Of course Gordo didn't do any of these things. The only sincere thing happening here is the smile Gordo is giving her. Not one of interest, mind you, more like one of forgiveness. Parker takes it happily, until of course she sees Lizzie giving her the death glare. I notice she's managed to snap her plastic fork in half because she's clenching her fist so tightly.

"Ease up, Lizzie, your chance to throw down with McKenzie was in the locker room," I say without thinking, as usual.

"Excuse me?" Gordo's interest has now actually been completely drawn away from the paper in front of him.

"Miranda!" Lizzie is giving me the death glare now. Guess I violated the cone of silence again. Damage control time.

"Oh, just something that almost happened last period in the locker room. No biggie," I say casually knowing that Gordo won't accept this explanation.

"Miranda, there is no such thing as 'no biggie' when we're talking about near throw downs in the girl's locker room. In fact, pretty much anything that happened in the girl's locker room should be first on the topic list at lunch," he says smiling, trying to be skuzzy, but really just looking goofy.

"Really? Okay then, this one time I was on my period and…." I started to say.

"Okay, okay, okay. I get it. I stand corrected," he says about to put on his headphones.

"Actually you're sitting corrected," Lizzie jumps in, almost reading my mind.

Gordo pauses looking at each of us back and forth, realizing for the millionth time that he's not going to win when Lizzie and I are ganging up on him. He puts his headphones back on with a smile and presses a couple of buttons on the player. If I know him as well as I think I do, he switched it to Less than Jake or Millencolin. 'Cool bands that don't moan about girls all the time,' as he calls them.

A long time ago I asked him if he ever seriously wished he had more guy friends. He considered it for a moment, then said since he never had siblings, that having two girls for best friends was the closest thing he would know to having sisters. And that he's grateful for that, even though Lizzie and I are 'total pains in the ass' sometimes.

Something weird happened between us a couple of weeks ago. I almost did something very un-sisterly with him.

We were about to kiss. Or I was about to force him to kiss me, and had there not been an adult lurking, something more.

I've been so bipolar about it too.

Obviously on the one hand I feel guilty about it, especially when Lizzie talks to me, even more when she talks to me about Gordo. Which is a lot. Pretty weird how Lizzie was the one feeling guilty about taking the Ronnie thing to the psycho obsession level and trying to win back our friendship. Now I'm the one feeling guilty for being a lousy friend and almost kissing her soul mate, and she doesn't even know anything happened.

But that's the other side of it. Nothing really did happen, and I'm kind of pissed about it. Because even now I still wanted something to happen. Even now I'm thinking of an excuse to go to Gordo's house on my own and make another move. I'm not even going to bother describing what was going through my mind during that sex ed video in science class.

I still can't believe Lizzie was about to fight Parker in the locker room. It all started because Kate bizarrely brought up the lack of quality boys at Hillridge. Then Gordo's name came up and how he was like the perfect potential boyfriend, except that Lizzie has him on a short leash. Tough to argue that point. But Parker just stood there listening in and smiling, totally pissing Kate off in the process.

And when I looked around, Kate wasn't the only person pissed at Parker. Lizzie took an angry step forward, eyes locked on McKenzie.

I stepped in front only for a second. I totally expected to follow Lizzie into a catfight. I was already guessing I'd have to duke it out with Veruca. Which would suck, because her days of getting bullied have made her tough. But also, I don't have anything against Veruca. This is really between Parker and Lizzie. Or actually, it's between Parker and Lizzie's brain. Which won't admit that it's totally jealous of Parker.

But there's another side to it. As Gordo says, there's always another side to it.

First off, you've always got to back your crazy impulsive friend. Even when you know the fight isn't going to solve anything. Better to lose the fight and keep your friend than keep out of it and lose the friend.

Secondly, Lizzie has a good reason to not give into jealousy and go for Gordo. She has so much more to lose than Parker. To Parker, Gordo is a casual acquaintance turn possible crush. They start going out and it fails? No big deal, they go back to just saying hi in the hallways. To Lizzie, Gordo is the moon to her earth. The closest thing in her orbit, sets her moods like the tides. Yadda yadda yadda.

If anybody had a real reason to punch anybody, I should have clocked Kate for implying that I had a thing for Gordo. This act has been hard enough to put up without her making it that much harder by throwing out wild (even if they might be sort of true) accusations. What could she possibly know anyway?

I didn't mean to feel this way, and had Lizzie never said what she did, this would've never happened right?

I'd like to think that, except it feels like a total cop out.

More and more I'm starting to think that this was something that was always there that I didn't even know about. And it took something completely out of leftfield to make me realize it.

But it could never work right?

His destiny with Lizzie aside, we just don't fit. He's too passive where I'm too aggressive. We argue about everything we disagree on. And the only time we agree on something is after we've gone around in circles arguing about it for at least ten minutes until realizing we're both making the same point. Lizzie actually worries about leaving us in the same room alone since she thinks we'll be at each other's throats in seconds.

But we haven't been like that since that fateful afternoon. I'm a complete head case around him now. Nervous that I'm staring too long or not making enough eye contact. Talking to him a bit closer when Lizzie's not around. Talking to him practically from another area code when she is around, even though the whole time we're doing this weird fake flirting thing. Practically agreeing with everything he says, even though more than half the time I know he's wrong, wrong, wrong.

But I don't think about that when I'm alone.

All I can think about is how right it would have felt. How unbelievably right it would have felt to kiss him. Slow at first, and just before he can try to rationalize why "we shouldn't be doing this", kiss him again. Faster, harder, letting him know I don't have any doubts about what I'm doing. And that for once he's going to see things my way without having to debate me on it for ten minutes.

A couple of weeks ago, he was my other best friend.

A couple of weeks later, I'm staring at him and wondering how I went from 'other best friend' to 'completely hopeless crush'.

I'll admit I'm confused, but I won't admit I'm in love.