A/N – "Thoughts"

Chapter 6 – The Beach

As Gordo drove down the road, he couldn't stop himself from smiling. Who would believe that for the past three weeks he'd be dating the most popular and hottest girl in school. As he thought about, Gordo laughed to himself. "Well it isn't exactly the same girl but this one is a lot better."

Glancing at the passenger seat, he watched Kate for a few seconds as she stared out the window. His smile grew wider as he looked at what she was wearing.

For the past few days it had been incredible hot and so they had decided to head to the beach for the day. When Kate came out of the building and into his car, Gordo could feel his jaw just drop. Over her blue and white-striped bikini, she was wearing a black mesh shirt, a pair of short jean shorts, and flip-flops. Of course, Kate had teased him about his drooling.

Just as he turned his attention back forward, he heard Kate snickering. "Keep your mind on the road."

Gordo laughed out loud, "Bite me."

As they drove into the parking lot, Kate frowned slightly. Even though it was warm enough, the wind was intense and making the ocean rough. Getting out, Kate watched as the large surf pounded the beach.

Taking their stuff out of his trunk, he took her hand. "Come on. We can still hang out on the beach."

After staking out a spot and putting their stuff out, Kate pulled off the mesh shirt and shorts and sat down in front of Gordo. Holding the bottle of sunscreen over her shoulder, she used her other hand to pull her hair over her shoulder. "Gordo, could you?"

Getting no response, she glanced over her shoulder. She saw the far away look in Gordo's eyes as he just stared at her and his clenched jaw twitch slightly. Trying to hold in her laughter, Gordo quickly came back to life. Embarrassed, he quickly grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to him. "Come here."

Tightly pressed against him, Kate suddenly felt Gordo start to kiss her neck. "Hmm." When they had started the more physical part of their relationship, Gordo quickly found one of Kate's weak points. Everyone had a certain area of their body that if touch or kissed just right, was a major turn on, and in Kate's case, it was her neck.

After a few minutes, Gordo sat back a few inches and grabbed the sunscreen. As he was applying it, Kate looked over her shoulder at him again. "Gordo?"

"Yea?"

"Umm...Have you ever...you know," Kate asked hesitantly. "Why am I acting so nervous about this? Its just a simple question." "Been with a girl?"

Gordo looked at her confused for a moment, his hands resting on her back. Suddenly it clicked, "You mean had sex?" he asked, not completely sure but it was the only thing he could think of that she meant.

"Ye...Yea," she said as she cursed herself for acting so childish about it. "Pull yourself together!"

"Why do you wanna know?" Gordo asked curiously. He knew about Kate's reputation, but he never put much stock in reputations built on rumors and plus this was a different Kate, his Kat.

"I was just thinking. I mean, I've been thinking about us and my reputation." Kate looked away in a mix of embarrassment and shame. "Five," she said softly.

"Five? Oh."

Kate took a deep breath and looked out at the ocean. "I've fooled around a lot but I've only had sex five times. Three boyfriends and twice as a fling at a party."

"Once," Gordo said as he wrapped his arms around Kate again and pulled her to him again.

"Lizzie?" she asked looking at him.

Gordo nodded in confirmation. "I don't care about your reputation," he told her.

Kate leaned back against him, "Its not really that, I just don't want to hide anything from you. Especially when we..." she trailed off as her face went red.

Gordo laughed softly but couldn't help but feel his ego being stroked. "You've thought about us together?"

"Of course. I mean I lov...I really like you." She wasn't quite ready to tell him what she was about to.

Gordo rested his chin on her shoulder. "Look, when or even if we do have sex, I can wait for you. It'll be the right place and the right time. I'm in no rush, I just like spending time with you." Gordo grinned as he watched Kate smile a little. "Kat?"

Kate's smile widened at the sound of his nickname for her. "Yea?"

"I really like you too."

Kate looked back at him and into his eyes. She knew by the look in his eyes, that he knew what she wasn't ready to tell him and that he felt the same way. "What did I do to deserve you?"

Gordo shrugged and kissed her cheek. "You let yourself be you," he whispered into her ear.

After talking some more and taking a walk along the water's edge, they decided to head back home as clouds started to roll in.

As they were packing and on the way home Kate had forced Gordo into playing twenty questions. For her, it was more of a matter of wanting to find out more about Gordo than it was really an attempt to kill time.

"Favorite color?"

Gordo rolled his eyes, "Blue."

"Wine red." Kate glared at Gordo as she heard him snicker over her exact shade of color. "Favorite movie?"

Gordo smiled, "I really don't have one favorite. I guess my favorites would be the classic Maltese Falcon, the first Indiana Jones, and Spiderman 2." Glancing over at her, "You?"

"Titanic," Kate told him and then slapped Gordo in the arm as he snickered at her again. "Book?"

"Three Musketeers." This time Kate snickered at Gordo. Gordo laughed, "Shut up. I like the story."

"Ivanhoe," Kate said suddenly.

After Gordo pulled up in front of apartment building, he looked at her, "You read Ivanhoe?"

Kate looked back at him, "Yea. I read it back in 8th grade, when we had Mr. Keith as a substitute in English. The female lead is cool. She's a woman but she's a good fighter and doesn't completely depend on Ivanhoe. I like fairytales and all but after awhile you just get sick of the females waiting to be saved by their prince."

"I'm impressed. I would've never guessed you were so deep back then."

"What about now?" Kate asked him with a smug grin.

"Now I'd believe anything is possible," he joked. "What do you wanna do now?"

"Let me go change and we'll go down to the connivance store down the block. We'll load up on junk food and watch some DVDs," she said getting out and grabbing her bag.

"Sounds good," Gordo said as he got out too and followed her inside the building.