"Sam," Casey started slowly. "I'm sorry to do this, but it's over."

Sam just looked at Casey with his big blue eyes. Oh, those eyes. It almost made her want to take it back and be with him again—try again. But she knew that wasn't possible anymore.

"I get it," he said simply. "It's cool. That's only one year of my life that I'll never get back. But, hey, we can still be friends if you want."

"Yes," she pleaded. "Friends forever! Best friends!"

Now Sam was feeling a little bit dazed. A friend was one thing, but best friends? Something was definitely up, but he was too confused to delve deeper into the matter.

"You know," he said, changing the subject. "Derek just broke up with Emily this week, too. Kind of funny how that happens, isn't it?"

"Yes, funny." Casey was obviously distracted. "It's just really funny and strange how things work out." But she wasn't talking about the break-ups, which really weren't all that coincidental.

"Casey, is something going on?" Sam asked, genuinely concerned.

"No, I'm fine," Casey lied. "Just promise me that we're going to be really good friends, best friends." Goodness knew she needed a best friend, since Emily had almost become a complete stranger to her lately. Casey knew it was her fault; she had alienated Emily, but it had been an accident.

"Yeah," Sam said awkwardly. "Best friends then."

"Thanks so much," Casey said, meaning it. Without another word, she ran off to go back to her house.

The second she was inside, she ran up to Derek's room. He was smiling wider then she'd ever seen him smile before.

"You ended it with Sam?" He asked keenly.

She nodded slowly, knowing what was coming next.

"Great!" Derek practically yelled, and Casey was dreadfully worried that Edwin or Lizzie would come in, or worse George or Nora.

"We can tell everyone now," he said happily. "Finally…me and Emily are through now that you've finally let me dump her, and now you Sam are over and this can finally be official, and we can tell them, and our family!"

"No, Derek," Casey said, starting to cry. "We can't tell them. We can't ever tell them. They can never, ever know. I'm sorry. You know I wish we could, but they'd never understand. We have to keep our secret safe. I'm sorry, but think about our family. What would happen if we told them about us? Our family would be ruined forever. My mom's happier with your dad then she's been in a long time. Edwin and Lizzie are so happy that they finally have siblings their own age. And Marti…Marti has a mother again. We can't just take that all away with one confession. It's not fair."

"What's not fair, Casey, is that I've been waiting for months for you to let me end it with Emily and have you end it with Sam, and now you say it's still not okay? That's not fair, Casey." Derek fell onto the bed and into the pillow, sighing. Of course he wasn't actually crying.

"I'm sorry," Casey said honestly. "I love you, but we can't do this."

Derek sat up from the bed and kissed her, full on the lips. She enjoyed the moment they had together, since they never had much time. They both knew it was very dangerous, almost too dangerous. But they couldn't live without those moments.

Twenty minutes later, they were lying on the bed. Casey was wearing Derek's boxers and one of his t-shirts, and Derek was wearing a clean pair of boxers and no shirt. Their twenty minutes of passion was obvious; and they could only wish no one else was there to come in and quickly realize what had happened.

It had been like this for the past seven months. Before, Derek had been happily dating Emily, and Casey had been completely in love with Sam. But their feelings for each other had become obvious and one day they had started fooling around, ending up the way they were now. Derek had immediately wanted them both to dump the people they were dating, but Casey had said it was a bad idea and too obvious. She had finally given into it this week.

"See, Derek," Casey said at last. "This is what I mean by we can't do this. If these feelings catch us at the wrong moment, we're done. Our lives, our family, everything we ever knew, it would all be gone. I can't deal with that."

"I know," Derek said, and it was true. "It's a risk. But it's a necessary one. We have to do this Casey. I can't live without you. I need you, I live for these twenty minutes each week, or maybe not even that much. I don't know how to live if I don't have it."

"You had a life before me," Casey reminded him.

"A bad one," Derek insisted. "I wasn't happy back then. This is what makes me happy. You are what makes me happy."

"I feel the same way about you," Casey said. "But we just can't. Maybe one day, but not now."

"And in a year," Derek said sadly. "You'll say the exact same thing. The thing you said SEVEN MONTHS AGO. Casey, you always say that one day, we'll be able to be together without hiding, but we never are. You never keep your promise."

"It'll happen eventually," Casey promised again. "We just have to wait for the right time." For the past seven months, Derek had been sadly accepting that answer.

But he just couldn't do it anymore.