Derek pushed his foot to the floor, spurring the car on to a dangerous speed. Beside him Casey's fingers dug into her seat nervously.
"Derek, do you think you could slow down? Please. I don't wan to be in an accident." She pleaded.
Thick rain thudded onto the windscreen and the deep threatening growls of thunder were immediately followed by flashing forks of lightning. Casey wasn't overly fond of storms but being in the car with dangerously driving Derek had Casey sweating with fear. The car skidded a bit on the almost flooded road and Casey screamed and clutched onto the dashboard.
Derek shouted at her to be quiet. She subsided whimpering slightly.
The storm was right over their heads as they sped towards their destination. They were going to a concert in a nearby town when they had been caught by the storm.
A tongue of lightning struck a tree nearby and Derek swerved to avoid the flaming branches as they poured onto the wet road. Casey screamed again as the car spun out of control and off the road. Derek screamed too as he tried to regain control but before they knew it they had crashed into a tree in the middle of a field.
A little while later.
"Derek? You dead?"
"Feels like it. How about you?"
"Remind me never to let you drive me anywhere ever again."
Despite their circumstances Derek started chuckling and then she also laughed.
"Why does this always happen to us?" Casey said still laughing.
"God knows."
"More than him I reckon." Casey watched as Derek tried to get the car started again. The engine failed to respond.
"Well, someone up there has it in for us." Derek complained, giving up.
"Let's phone for a tow truck to come and get us." Casey said, practical as always.
"No reception. How about you?" Derek said taking out his cell phone.
"No bars. Know if there are any payphones or houses around?"
"I don't know this area any better than you do. I guess we're stuck 'til morning."
Casey smiled grimly. "I guess we are."
"Do you know where we are?" Derek asked hopelessly, turning on the car light.
"Somewhere off route 40. At least that's what I reckon. I haven't exactly been following the map." Casey admitted picking the map off the floor. "I think we'll have to wait until morning to get help. At least until the storm stops."
"Good plan. I guess we just have to wait it out then." Derek chuckled a little humourlessly.
An hour later they were both really bored. The radio wasn't working and they had decided to get out their i-pods and swap.
"My god Casey, you really do listen to crap."
"Well it can't be any worse than the rubbish you have on this one." Casey fired back.
"Alright! Here's a decent song." Derek put one of the earphones in his ear and pushed play. "I didn't know you liked The Who."
"To be fair, you don't know what I like. You don't know me all that well."
"Fair point. Maybe we should swap music tastes."
"Alright." Casey smiled. "I'm into mostly pop, dance, blues, pop-rock, but sometimes I listen to classic rock."
"Nice. Never would have figured you for a Bon Jovi fan. I'm strictly a rock fan. Doesn't matter what kind, just so long as I can rock out to it."
"Maybe this is an opportunity to clear the air between us." Casey said uncertainly after a pause. "This could be the start of a good friendship."
"Don't get your hopes up. I still hate you."
"Is that true?"
Derek looked at her carefully. "Only sometimes. You annoy me that's all."
"What about you? You seem to delight in driving me round the bend."
"It's fun." Derek nodded.
"Derek, do you realise what a jerk you are?" Casey said coolly.
"Only because you tell me so every day that I've known you."
"Can I just ask, why do we fight so much?"
"I don't know why, we just do. I think we have unresolved issues."
"Unresolved issues? We didn't meet before the wedding of our parents." Casey laughed.
"That's not strictly true is it?"
Casey looked confused. "What?"
"You threw a party before the wedding, to blow off steam from planning the wedding. You were in charge of all planning; ceremony, reception, organisation. And naturally, being the drama queen you are, you got overstressed. You threw a little party a few days before the wedding which got a bit bigger. You drank a bit too much beer. And you behaved very out of character, although I didn't know about it at the time."
"You were there weren't you Derek?"
"I was. I didn't know you and you didn't know me. All I knew was that the girl throwing the party was a definite hottie and we both know what I'm like with hot girls. We spent the whole evening talking and I stuck around when everyone else had gone home."
"We didn't do anything did we?" Casey thought she knew what was coming.
"We did. We did quite a lot. I guess I'd had too much to drink too. Well, one thing led to another and we ended up sleeping together."
"What?!"
"I know. Don't get me wrong, it was great, and I was expecting to be dating you before long. Imagine my surprise when I saw you at the wedding and was told you would be my stepsister."
Casey buried her head in her hands and burst out laughing. Derek sent her a slightly reproving look. After a few minutes she stopped and looked at Derek. "And to think, I don't remember my first time."
"That was your first time?" Derek stared at her in shock.
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"Yeah. I went to an all girls school before they got married. It's no wonder I went a little wild."
"Wild is exactly how I would describe you that night." Derek smirked. "Do you mind that you can't remember your first time? And do you mind that you lost it to me?"
"Not really. Sex isn't as important to me as it is for a lot of people. I'm more interested in finding love than getting laid. Ideally I would love to have lost my virginity to the man I loved not drunk at a party with the guy who would later be my stepbrother and the bane of my life. Why didn't you tell me about all this Derek?"
"I was tempted to bring up the party after we became a family but since it was clear that you didn't remember anything about it I thought it was best to keep it quiet. That and the fact that we never stopped fighting."
"If you'd told me earlier something could have happened."
"Like what?" Derek asked.
"We'd have had to keep it hidden from everyone. Besides it's breaking all the rules. But when has that ever stopped you?" Casey smiled with a little twinkle in her eye.
"Are you saying what I think you're saying?"
"I don't know. What do you think I'm saying?" Casey said almost flirtatiously.
Derek noticed her flirtatiousness but said nothing, although a slight understanding dawned on him. "I think, what you're implying is that you would be interested in me…romantically."
"And you wouldn't?"
"After that night…yes I would." Derek paused and then seemed to be fighting with himself. Casey watched him carefully with something like hope burning in her eyes. Derek's mouth worked as though struggling to find the right words. As she watched him he seemed to come to a decision. "In fact…I already am." He said quietly and slowly, not daring to look at her.
"I don't understand." She said, although her eyes told a different story.
"Don't you? Maybe that's best." Derek sighed, apparently a little disappointed.
"Since we're being honest, I might as well come clean too. I've been trying not to have feelings for you but I just couldn't. Maybe I did remember you from that party, but I couldn't keep my eyes off you during the wedding. I knew you would be my stepbrother and so I knew nothing could ever happen. And if anything did happen we would have to keep it secret from our family, and having Lizzie and Edwin around wouldn't make things easy."
"They're going to start their own spy service for the neighbourhood. But wait, you have feelings for me?"
"As much as I am going to regret admitting this, yes I do. I was a lost cause before the priest pronounced George and mom man and wife."
Derek looked at her carefully. Almost subconsciously he turned off the light in the car.
"Derek? What's going on?" Casey asked and before she could say more Derek had reached over and pulled her close for a tender loving kiss. When he pulled away Casey kept him close. "What are you doing?" she breathed.
"Breaking the rules." He purred sexily, kissing her open smile.
All around them the storm raged on, but the two hormonal teenagers forgot all about it.