Just a Fairytale
-Derek realizes that Casey isn't the same girl he knew back in High School. A one-shot about a transformation in their relationship in college.
Derek crept quietly into Casey's room searching for her paper she had written last term for British Literature 101. He felt an increase of adrenaline because not only would Casey want to kill him if she found out he had snuck into her dorm room, but he might get in trouble with the school as well. Finally, after searching through her desk draws and closet, he found the textbooks from last year with a bunch of papers stuffed in it. Assuming that they were her notes and papers on the course, Derek shoved them into his bag and left in a hurry.
Arriving with a few minutes to spare, Derek began sorting through the papers outside of his Literature class, looking for one on Beowulf. To his disappointment however, there were none; just pages and pages of untitled printed lines of text. Defeated, the all powerful Derek Venturi dragged his feet slowly into his Lit. class thinking that possibly, just possibly, he could not conquer college like he had hoped.
That night Derek showed up as Casey's apartment ready to drop off the papers discreetly when he realized that she was home already eating Chinese food on the couch with a roommate and another guy. Unable to make a quick escape, Casey saw him at the door and invited him in with a weird expression on her face.
'Great!' Derek thought sarcastically as his mind envisioned a Casey free apartment where he would be able to slip the papers back into the textbook secretly. However, at the moment just casually strolling into her room was not discreet at all and overall, suspicious to say the least.
"Hey." Casey said eyeing him closely. "Guys, this is Derek; my stepbrother."
Casey cringed at the word 'stepbrother' , but continued on. "And this is my friend Annette and her boyfriend Simon."
"Hey." Derek waved shyly to the two of them as he leaned against Casey's counter in her mini kitchen.
"Do you want some?" Casey asked motioning to the food.
"Nah." Derek said waving her down. "I just... wanted to return this pen I took from you the other day." He said mentally necking himself while handing over the plain ball point pen.
With slight confusion, Casey accepted the return not even sure if it was her pen and went back to the couch.
"Can I use your bathroom?" Derek asked pointing to the one connected to Casey's room.
Casey looked grieved but complied. "Sure."
"Great." Derek said heading down the hall to the small room flooded with hair supplies and make-up.
Once in there, Derek decided to wait till the group had moved out of view, then he'd slipped across the hall and quickly slide her papers back into the textbook. As he gathered them up in his hands and set his backpack down, his eyes slowly glanced over the words and immediately, some of them started to stick out; ones he didn't notice earlier when he was in a rush.
These weren't notes, Derek sensed as he read on. 'Casey reads erotica?' Derek asked himself as his brain went through mental loops. 'Innocent, keener Casey reads girl porn!' It was all too much for Derek as his world seemed to shift. 'What else do I know is wrong?'
Not able to refrain from his breakdown, Derek shuffled across the hall not looking to see if the group out there noticed and crammed the obscene papers back into Casey's Lit. book.
'It's all a lie!' Derek's brain continued to yell as he grabbed his backpack from the bathroom and walked out into the central area again as the three looked unfazed.
"Everything alright?" Casey asked. "You look like you just saw a monster hiding behind the shower curtain."
"Worse." Derek breathed under his breath.
Casey nodded slowly giving Derek one of those 'Okay, Mr. Crazy' looks and returned to eating her Mu Shu Pork.
"What else have you been shoving down your throat!" Derek shouted abruptly before running out of the room with his backpack bouncing around on his back behind him.
Casey stared in awe at her two friends until a thought hit her that scared her even more than it scared Derek. The innocent and naive Casey was no longer a reality to Derek; it was and forever would be, a fairytale.