All You Wanted [Lizzie McGuire]

chapter 13: an evening in paris

"Did you ask Zack yet?" Gordo asked Lizzie during lunch in the outside seating.

Lizzie stirred around her spaghetti with a plastic fork. She swallowed the noodles in her mouth and said, "I mean, I don't think it's necessary since were already a thing."

Gordo looked down at his slice of Hawaiian pizza, but his stomach lost appetite and he met Lizzie's eyes again. "Aren't you the one who romanticizes everything?"

Gordo picked at the crust, his eyebrows squished and his mouth a straight line.

"I know, but I like it when the guy makes the first gesture."

He arched a brow. "Isn't that a bit old fashion?"

Lizzie shrugged before taking a swig of soda.

"Or are you just too scared to ask a guy?" Gordo almost smirked, but he changed his mind last minute. Though the feeling of smirking at her was on his mind still.

"As if you're any less scared," Lizzie shot back.

Gordo's appetite rushed back and he started to devour the pizza. "No. There's just no one good to ask."

Okay, that was lie, sort of. Lizzie was the only person he ever considered asking to a dance but of obviously he lost his chance. And it's not like he could have asked if she wasn't with Zack because it was girls ask boys. Gordo had scarfed down the whole pizza and he moved on to his giant cookie.

Lizzie dabbed her lips with a napkin and then she crumpled it into a ball. "Did you consider what I said?" she asked. "At the Dgital Bean?"

Gordo shook his head as he bit a chunk of the of the cookie. "Nah."

"I think you should."

Gordo moved the cookie away from his face. "Why?"

Lizzie didn't say anything but she gestured behind Gordo and he twisted his neck to see. About a yard away, next to the statue of Hillridge's old Principal, Miranda was talking to Ethan. He noticed her eyes were flirty and tinkly and she was sharing the smile she gave Gordo the night before to Ethan.

"And your point is?" Gordo said when he faced Lizzie again.

"Miranda told me she might ask Ethan to the Spring Formal."

Gordo's stomach lost appetite again and it felt like someone ripped out his heart. He stared at Miranda and Ethan again, unable to remove his eyes off of them. She was giggling, extra loud but he couldn't tell what Ethan was saying that made her laugh so much. He actually looked like he wasn't saying anything. Miranda took a step forward, making the gap between them much smaller. She touched his arm gently and Gordo winced. If what Lizzie said was true and she really was asking Ethan, then what was last night all about? All that "everything you need was right here? She seemed adamant being his date so her changing her mind and asking Ethan felt like betrayal. Maybe all that she'd told him was just a ruse to make him feel better.

Gordo turned around, his face hard and stiff. "Whatever," he grumbled. "She can go with whoever she wants. I'm not going anyway."

He shoved the lunch tray aside, putting his arms on the table and then resting his chin on them.

Lizzie dropped her hands under the table. "Gordo, I know you're trying not to care, but it's not working."

"I don't care." His eyebrows squiggled down even more and he tilted his head, looking the opposite direction of Miranda and Ethan.

Lizzie pursed her lips. "Gordo, come on. I know you really wanted to take her."

His eyes fixed on another table where a group of three friends, one boy and two girls, much like Gordo, Lizzie and Miranda, were laughing hysterically about who knows what. Their happiness and joy made Gordo nauseated. Did he really sound like that with Lizzie and Miranda? He felt sorry for all his peers having to witness that.