STINGER ▹ lang

18 » who you gonna call?

"Oh Godzilla..." Gordo groaned, rolling his eyes up at the ceiling, "It's you, you moron!"

Laurie's smirk immediately disappeared and she just stared at her best friend with wide eyes and a gawking mouth.

"Dude..."

"I've been in love with you since we were kids, Laurie. I still remember that day in first grade when you told all of the other kids on the playground that ring—around—the—rosie was actually about the Black Plague and it just, like, just hit me, you know."

"Gordo..." Laurie whispered slowly, her eyes widening and her stomach twisting.

"Wait, wait, please just let me get this out before I lose my courage, okay?"

The boy laughed shyly, giving her his stupid grin and his stupid floppy hair falling over his stupid forehead.

"I have loved you since the day I met you. And I don't care if that sounds cheesy or embarrassing or unrealistic because God, it's true, man. You're the one I want, Laurie. You're the only one I've ever wanted. I love you. It's always been you."

Laurie opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

But Gordo didn't stop, panicking when he saw her pause, "And—and I—I know I'm not half good enough for you, and I don't really have much to offer, except me... And the fact that I love you and I won't leave you... is that cool with you?"

Laurie couldn't say anything, she wanted to, she wanted to so badly, but she was stunned.

"Please..." The boy whispered, "Say something."

"Gordo, I—I do love you—," Laurie let out a heavy breath, "But I just... don't."

The world sort of stopped, then.

The ground fell out from below.

And reality came crashing down.

"You don't love me..." Gordo whispered to himself, as if just realizing it, as if this was what he feared the most.

"I do!" Laurie was the one who panicked now, "I really do! You know I do!"

Something stung in her eyes and Laurie realized that it was tears.

She was crying.

She didn't cry.

Oh God, she was crying.

"I depend on you, you know that I totally rely on you; I just... don't love you like that! I don't feel that about anyone like that. Not now. Not when I'm still figuring life out with my dad and Hope and Hank, and now that I—I'm different... Gordo, I'm a mess, a disaster, an even freakier freak than before and I'm still trying to deal with me and now you're coming to me with this—,"

"What? I'm sorry, does how I feel inconvenience you?"

"No! That's not what I meant," Laurie groaned, yanking her hands through her hair, "Com'on, Gordo, I don't want things to change. I thought we agreed to never grow up, right? I thought we agreed to just stay kids forever! We can't be in love. I'm not the type of person that falls in love!"

"You think you aren't..." Gordo's deep dark eyes sparkled and shone with tears, "But you are. You always said I knew you better than you knew yourself."

"Gordo..." Laurie whispered, panickedly reaching out for his hands.

But her best friend pulled away, scrunching his lips to keep in his tears, "One day you'll find him, that guy who is to you what you are to me. And I hope he breaks your heart."