Chapter 2

Gil slammed is bag on the bed of their room of the B&B. He had barley said a word to Jim since the, "You need to get laid, you know that don't you, dude?" thing. He didn't understand Jim sometimes—no scratch that, he didn't understand how they became friends, they are the polar opposites of each other.

"Gil?" That was Jim's pathetic calling to him.

Gil realized that he might as well say something. His friend didn't mean any harm. He turned around and looked at his best friend, "Yeah?"

"Are you mad at me?"

"No, no Jim and am not mad at you, okay?" He turned around and started unpacking more and more furiously with each word. "I'm just…I don't know, all I really care about is school, my mom, my bugs and my friends…and you bring me here and I think that maybe it'll be fun, you know but I'm hear now and all I can think about are the million and one things I have to do at home and I just…"

"STOP! God, I need a drink now. Put the clothes down before you rip them, we'll go and grab a beer and watch the surf, okay?"

Catherine, Natalie, Caela and Carlisle are all walking out of the water. They have just finished their surf. They walk up the beach and start walking up the wooden steps.

"Did you guys see me? I went in that tube…I must have ridden it for like 5 minutes."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Oh my gosh you guys…look over there." Natalie points to where two guys are standing talking.

"I like the shorter one," whispers Carlisle.

Natalie and Caela agree. Catherine doesn't though she thinks the taller guy is cuter… even though she can barely see the shorter guy's face.

They all stop and watch the guys giggling as they do so. The taller guy motions to his friend and the two guys turn and look at them and the girls burst out laughing.

Natalie, Caela and Carlisle walk over to the shorter guy and he starts talking to them. Catherine stands there and looks at the taller guy. "Hey." 'Nice work, Cath', she thinks to herself, 'real smooth' and tries to look at anything but him.

But to her surprise the guy answers back, "Hi, I'm Gil. Gil Grissom."

Her head snaps up and she gives him her best smile…even though she's standing half-naked in front of a guy she hasn't even known for a minute. "Catherine Flynn."

"So…are you a local?"

Catherine could sense his nervousness and that made her feel a lot more confident, "Oh, yeah, yeah…I've lived here for like ever, so…but you're not from here, right?"

"How'd you know?"

"There's like 1200 people in this town…everybody knows everybody."

That got a smile out of him. "So, I, um, saw you surfing…you were…pretty good."

She smiled shyly at him. "You probably were lookin at one of them," she pointed to her friends.

"Oh no, no. I saw it was you."

"Well…thanks," she moved and sat down on the wooden bench and looked back at Gil's friend being the center of attention of her friends, "who's your friend?"

"Oh, that's Jim. And those girls?"

"That's Natalie and the other two are Caela and Carlisle. We've been friends for like…ever. So where are you staying?"

"Right over there," Gil said, pointed at the B&B behind them.

"Really!? Oh my gosh! I'm gonna be working there over the summer."

"Really?"

"Yeah!" suddenly realization hit her, she grabs Gil's arm to look at his watch and suddenly gets up. "Holy truck driver's mother! I'm gonna be late!"

"Late…late for what?"

"Work."

"Catherine, you work at a B&B—that stands for bed and BREAKFAST."

"We also serve dinner—just not lunch." She starts running up the stairs towards the B&B. "Bye Gil, Nat, Caela, Carlisle, Jim."

"Bye."

All of a sudden she rushes back, red as a beetroot. "I forgot my board." She grabs it and runs off, feeling totally and completely STUPID!

Gil and Jim are sitting at the table of their B&B the next morning. Gil couldn't stop thinking about Catherine all night. Her smile, her ditzyness, he really wanted to get to know her better. What am I thinking!!!! She can't be a day over 16 and I'm 23!! She's probably got a boyfriend. He caught a glimpse of her when they came back from the beach, but she had just spilt a drink on some guy and trying to advert her eyes from her teacher/boss, so she didn't see him…and Gil couldn't really blame her.

"Gil!?"

"What…" he snapped out of his day dream and looked at his friend and put on a genuinely fake smile. "Hello."

"Order your breakfast, man."

"I can't Jim. I can't stop thinking about that girl from yesterday."

"Which one?" Gil looked at him like he had two heads. "Oh…right. The one with the three hot friends…yeah, I remember."

"Yeah, her." Gil had gotten past taking anything Jim said too seriously. "I really like her."

"Umm…it'll pass."

"No, seriously Jim. I think you, know I might wanna…

"Hi, guys!"

Gil's head snapped up…her knew that bright and happy voice anywhere. "Catherine… hi! What are you doing here?" Gil felt his cheeks burn the second the words came out of his mouth.

Catherine smiles at him, "I work here…remember?"

Gil sinks further into his chair, maybe he should just go under the table, you know pretend he dropped his fork or something…to obvious.

Jim chuckles over his coffee cup as he watches this situation of his poor friend before him—all you can do is laugh.

"So…what would you guys like to eat?"

"I'll have the…bacon and eggs," replied Jim.

"Sure…and you Gil."

Gil looked at his unopened menu and then at Catherine, "Um…surprise me."

Catherine smiles at him, "I intend to."

Catherine was clearing away the last of the breakfast plates. She was exhausted, hadn't stopped thinking about Gil the whole night, she wanted to spend more time with him… but she knew that with all the work she was going to do, and even if she wasn't working she didn't know for sure if Gil really likes her.

"Maybe I should just ask him out," she said to herself.

"But where's the fun in that for me."

Catherine lets out a small scream and whips her head up to see a smug Gil Grissom. "Gil...hi. I was just…"

"It's okay…but…don't you know that talking to yourself is the first sign of madness."

"No, I, um…didn't know that. And how did you know I was talking about you anyways?"

"Well…were you?"

"No, yes, maybe." Gil gives her one of his famous looks. "Okay, fine I was. So what!?

"Well, I'd like to ask you out."

"I barely know you."

"Okay, as you know my name is Gil Grissom, I'm 23 and my best friend Jim and I have come here on vacation for the summer and then we'll go back to California where I'm studying to be a coroner." At Catherine's questioning look, he adds, "yes working with dead people… but there's more to it…it's helping the family and friends of the victim get some closure. My mom also lives in California, I enjoy reading just about anything, I have quiet an impressive bug collection back home. I share an apartment with Jim…but what's more important to me is that…I really, really like you. And I know that you are 16 and I know that there is a 7 year age difference, but for once in my life I don't care about technicalities. So I'm asking you…Catherine Flynn if you would like to go out with me…sometime?"

Catherine just stands there speechless…what can she say? "Um…wow. Okay." She smiles. "My turn, my name is Catherine Flynn, I'm 16 and I have just finished the 11th grade and I love surfing, it's my life, I also love skateboarding, my friends are my life and I love them. I live with my mom, Lily and my little sister Nancy, she can be really annoying but I really love her…and if you ask me which one I'm talking about, I don't know." Gil has to laugh at that. "I don't care about our age difference 'cause I really like you too. And yes…yes I would love to go out with you sometime." She smiles at him.

"Um…okay, great. When?"

Catherine pulls off her apron and throws it on the nearby table and smiles, "Right now!"