3:15 P.M.

After the previous night's fettucini fiasco, Lizzie and Miranda had spent their Saturday listlessly lying around the McGuire house. Neither of them really had the energy to talk about what had happened the night before, but they had a mutual understanding that what had happened had been very bad. So far they hadn't heard anything from Gordo, and they were both too afraid to call him themselves for fear that it would only confirm what they were already dreading; that their tried and true trio had now officially become a down in the dumps duo.

In their mutual sadness over losing Gordo, they had also reached a whole new level of boredom. They had already watched all of the Saturday morning cartoon reruns, perused all the back issues of J-14 and Seventeen magazine that Lizzie had piled up in her room, and now they found themselves passing the time by laying upside-down on the McGuires' living room sofa and watching the hands tick on the standing clock in the corner. Somehow this disorienting, upside-down existence seemed more appropriate for how they were feeling than did any of their usual weekend activities - activities that typically would have included Gordo.

"You know, you girls are going to make yourselves dizzy letting the blood rush to your heads like that," came a cautioning voice from the entryway.

Lizzie craned her neck around to see her mom entering the living room with a big basket of laundry, her head bobbing slightly up and down as she approached them. It was weird to Lizzie how you only ever noticed things like that when you were upside-down. Jo set the basket down near the sofa and sat down next to Lizzie.

"But hey, while you're sitting here on the couch, do you want to help me fold some of this laundry?"

"No thanks." Lizzie said glumly, picking at her already chipped nail polish. Jo pursed her lips.

"Well, it's Saturday... you should at least be doing something. It's a beautiful day outside. Why don't you girls call up Gordo and go to the park?"

Lizzie winced at the sound of his name. She couldn't blame her mom for mentioning him though because she hadn't exactly been filling her in on what was going on. She hadn't told her about Gordo's relationship with Brooke, nor the fact that he'd been lying to her and Miranda about it, nor the fact that they had ruined his date last night and potentially also his life. But despite this, her mom still had this uncanny ability to pinpoint exactly what was wrong and then unwittingly force her to think about it again.

"How is Gordo, anyway? I noticed he hasn't been by the house much this past week." Jo continued obliviously as she picked up a pair of Sam's briefs and began folding. Still upside-down, Lizzie and Miranda exchanged knowing looks that it was time to make themselves scarce.

"That's OK. I think we'll just go hang out in the backyard…" Lizzie said as she and Miranda propped themselves upright and got up from the couch. Perplexed, Jo watched as the girls shuffled quietly out the patio door.

Outside, Lizzie took in a deep breath of fresh air as she and Miranda stepped out onto the patio. Her mom was right; it really was a nice day out. It was one of those types of days where she and her friends would have opted to walk to the mall versus having her mom drive them, and then swung by the Digital Bean on the way home for a cool treat. But Lizzie sensed that no amount of sunshine, fresh air, mall shopping or smoothies could shake the sinking feeling that had been building in her stomach since the night before.

She and Miranda sat on the patio steps in silence. Miranda was the first to break the ice.

"Lizzie… Do you think maybe your mom's right? Maybe we should call him…?"

"But...what would we even say?" Lizzie wondered aloud. "It just kind of feels like 'sorry' isn't going to cut it, you know? We should probably just...give him some space." Miranda couldn't really argue with that.

"Yeah… last night was pretty bad. And honestly, if I never see another meatball again, I'll be happy. Do you know how long it took to wash the smell of garlic off of my hair?"

Lizzie knew all too well and she appreciated Miranda for attempting to lighten the mood. But her thoughts immediately turned back to Gordo and their lack thereof.

"I guess it's just the two of us now. No more Gordo."

"No more Gordo." Miranda echoed.

"No more long lectures about how we care too much about what other people think about us…"

"No more useless information about stuff we never even care about in the first place…"

"No more packs of cupcakes to share…"

"No more cupca- wait, why not?" Miranda asked incredulously.

"'Cause they come in packs of threes! There's only two of us now." Lizzie said, pausing for a moment to contemplate the logistics of sharing a 3-pack of cupcakes with Miranda.

"I guess we could split the third one. No - it still wouldn't be the same." The thought of eating Gordo's cupcake quickly left her mind. She could never do that; the third cupcake would always be his.

And just at that moment, a familiar voice derailed her train of thought. It was Gordo.

"Hey."

Lizzie perked up, her heart rate suddenly increasing. Was he still mad at her? Had he come here to yell at them? Was he about to tell her that they couldn't be friends anymore? She had so many questions racing through her mind, but all that came out was a simple…

"Hi."

"What are you doing here?" Miranda asked innocently.

"Not that we don't want you here…"

"I guess I just didn't say everything to you that I wanted to last night." he said. Lizzie's palms began to sweat as she braced herself for the worst.

"Oh."

"Honestly, I can't believe you guys would go so far as to spy on me and Brooke." he continued. "That's just really really low. Especially for you." he said gesturing toward Lizzie. In an attempt to save face, she quickly deflected the blame.

"It was Miranda's idea!" she blurted out, which was… only partially true. Miranda scoffed.

"And I also can't believe that you guys spied on me." he said, repeating himself.

"You just said that, Gordo." Lizzie replied confused.

"I know… On the one hand, I'm really insulted. But on the other hand, I realize that you guys did it because you care a lot about me."

"Yeah, that's the one." Miranda added.

"Well, for your information, Brooke and I broke up." he then confessed.

Lizzie immediately panicked. Had she been such a terrible friend to Gordo that her antics had actually gotten him dumped? She would never forgive herself.

"What? Is it because of what we did last night? Gordo, I'm really sorry and you've got to get her back. If she won't listen to you, I'll try talking to her-" she urged. She wondered if she was overcompensating too much, but the damage had obviously been done and it was pretty clear that it had all been her fault. Or so she thought.

"Wait, wait. I broke up with her." he clarified.

Oh thank god, Lizzie thought quietly to herself. She could start to feel some of the guilt and tension drain from her body.

Gordo went on to explain how, despite all of the great things about Brooke, he had been feeling like he was under too much pressure in their relationship. Brooke had expected him to wait for her by her locker every day, pay for her lunches and transfer into her classes so they could spend more time together. It wasn't until that moment that Lizzie realized just how thoughtful Gordo was about his relationship and how serious things had been between him and Brooke. Well, serious for 7th grade, at least.

"I had no time for myself anymore," he continued. "I also had no time for you guys… and I really missed that part."

"So did we." Lizzie said sincerely. It felt good to know that he had been missing her just as much as she had missed him. Still, as she disembarked from the emotional rollercoaster she'd been on for the past week, she questioned some of the stray thoughts she'd been having.

Why had she become so concerned with the details of Gordo's relationship with Brooke? Had she really wanted to know what they talked about on their dates or whether Brooke was even smart enough to get his jokes? Should it have bothered her so much that he had a girlfriend in the first place? Was it normal to lose so much sleep over your best friend? And why did she keep thinking about how much she had missed seeing his smile? It was weird to Lizzie how she only ever noticed stuff like this when things were upside-down.

The mood now considerably lightened, they joked around for a bit about the ridiculousness of Miranda's get-up the night before and teased Gordo about his infamous lip-lock with Brooke at the Digital Bean. Lizzie felt kind of bad that things hadn't worked out between them. It seemed like Gordo and Brooke had genuinely liked each other, and she knew that her meddling hadn't helped matters. But Lizzie would have been lying to herself if she said that she wasn't glad that Gordo was once again flying solo. The truth was, she just wasn't ready for Gordo to have a new best friend yet, and at least now this meant she'd get to go back to hanging out with him on a regular basis. After not having seen him much that week, there was so much they needed to catch up on.

Wanting to make the most of the rest of their Saturday, Lizzie invited Gordo and Miranda to stay for dinner. But she paused for a minute as they headed back inside.

"I'm really glad you're back, Gordo." she said, throwing an arm around his shoulders. He flashed her a winsome smile, and she couldn't help but smile right back.

Boy, did it feel good to have him back.