Casey sighed, looking around her room. It looks so empty, and yet so full at the same time, she thought taking in the now bare shelves and the floor filled with boxes. Sitting on the edge of her bed, she took one last glace around to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything, noticing as she did a small brown corner sticking up from behind her desk.
Walking over, she pulled it up, grinning when she realized what it was. Well now, isn't this something? I haven't seen it since... well, since Derek and Sally broke up. Taking it back over to the bed, she sat down, remembering the day she had been forced to realize -- Don't think about it, she reprimanded herself. However, her mind refused to listen.
--
"Have you seen Derek?" Sally asked from the doorway.
"No, I haven't," Casey replied, not bothering to turn around. "Last I heard he was in his room, cursing about something."
"Well, he's not in there now," the other women replied, stepping into the room. "I don't know what to do. When we first started going out, everything was great, he was great. But now all of the sudden it's like he's changed. He's never willing to do what I ask, and what's that?"
It took Casey as second to catch onto the sudden change of subject. Looking down, she said "Oh, it's a project Paul has me on."
"Paul?"
"He's my guidance councilor. He seems to think I have suppressed feelings, and told me to tell my friends about the whole thing, and ask them to give me pictures to add to it, and then I was to put them together in a collage. Then I was to hang it somewhere I could see it every day, and hopefully come to terms with the situation," Casey replied, sticking a pin through another image. "I've had it for a few months now."
"Wow, those are a lot of pictures," Sally replied, coming to stand next to Casey. "Although, why are most of them of you and Derek?"
"No idea. That's just what everyone's given me to put on this thing," she replied, sitting down at her desk. Sally continued to stare at the cork board, eyes darting from image to image.
"Where'd this one come from?" She asked, pointing to a picture of Casey paretically sitting on Derek's lap on the stairs.
"Oh wow, that's an old one. My mom took that back when we first moved into the house. She thought maybe if she had a picture of us acting like we got along, it might encourage us to do so. Of course, she didn't take into account the headache she got from even trying to get us into the position she wanted. She finally settled for that one there," Casey replied grinning.
"What about this one?" Sally inquired, pointing to another image.
"Oh wow, that was a nightmare. See, I had volunteered to be a councilor at Marti's summer camp, and I thought it would be tons of fun to do learning activities. I think though I ended up being the most hated person those little kids knew. At least, until Derek showed up and made this really awesome obstacle course for the kids to run." Casey didn't fail to notice the way Sally's eyes had narrowed slightly, nor the way she was frowning.
"And this?" She asked, voice quavering. "What's all over you two?"
Casey laughed when she saw the image Sally was pointing to. "Wow, that's one I still can't even believe was taken. My mom and dad went out of town for some reason and Derek decided to have this huge party. We ended up getting locked into the bathroom together because the door broke. Then we got into this huge fight, and ended up pouring all of the shampoo and junk we could get our hands on. Actually, that picture came from Sam who said he had originally planned to use it as blackmail to get Derek to do something. I don't know why he never did."
"Casey, do you even hear yourself?" Sally demanded, turning to face her. "Can you even hear yourself?"
"What do you mean?" Casey replied, looking confused.
"Oh my gosh, you're impossible. I think I know why Derek's been so different recently. You two are going out, aren't you?"
"What?!" Casey yelped, eyes widening in surprise. "We- he- I- no. Just, no."
"Whatever, I'm leaving. If Derek ever gets his mind off of you long enough to wonder where I am, tell him I said it was over." Sally said, storming through the house. Casey was able to hear the door slamming behind her even up in her room. Turning back to the cork board behind her desk, she thought about what Sally had just said. Shaking it off as just Sally's insecurities exerting themselves again, she tried to focus on her homework. However every time she looked at the images, her gut flipped. After an hour she got feed up and took the board down, shoving it behind her desk where she wouldn't have to see it again.
--
Funny enough it had taken Derek a couple of week to realize his girlfriend hadn't been coming around nearly as often as she had before. Since he had quit working at Smelly Nellie's the month before, it had amazed Casey that he took that long. "I just assumed she was busy with school work and junk," he explained when she asked him about it.
However Sally had put an idea into Casey's head that night that she still couldn't get rid of.
Shaking her head to avoid that line of thought, she continued to examine the photos. Here was the one of the family they had taken the year she and Derek had been juniors, there was the one Emily had taken during her attempt at photography.
--
"I have to take a photo of ten emotions," Emily explained, dragging Derek down the halls.
"So what does that have to do with me?" Derek asked, attempting to pull away.
"Simple," she replied as they reached the lunch room where Casey was waiting. She could hear their entire conversation where she sat. "I couldn't think of two people who better display feelings of dislike then you and Casey."
"You got that right," he replied darkly. "Alright, what do you want me to do?"
"Just stand back to back and look like you hate each other," Emily commanded, bringing the camera to her face. She snapped a few shots at different angles, throwing out suggestions as she did. Finally she said, "Okay, I think at least one of those will work. Thanks Derek." He grumbled something in reply and sauntered out of the room.
--
As she took in each image, the smile on her face grew. She nearly laughed as she saw Derek singing his heart out. Oh, how she had been frustrated with him; he had a small part, yet he was still the star of the show. She cringed as she remembered her trip to the hospital on her 16th birthday, and the night they had tried to sneak out of the house.
Half of the images she hadn't even been aware of existing until her friends had given them to her, such as the one of her and Derek asleep which had been taken the summer of their senor year, or even the one from a the trip to the mall they had made because Derek had lost yet another bet, becoming her personal slave for the week.
As her eyes landed on one of the pictures in the lower left corner, she felt her stomach do flips. That was the day that everything changed, she thought to herself, running a hand over the image.
--
Casey sat on the bleachers, trying not to roll her eyes.
"What's wrong, Space Case? Wish you were down there dancing?" Derek asked, dropping down beside her.
"Hardly. I quit the cheer squad, and I'm not going back. But how can they call this dancing? It's more like they're throwing themselves out to be admired by the guys," Casey replied.
"Oh, jealous are we?" Derek asked, throwing her a look.
"Please! Max and I are so over. In fact ever since Sally-" She cut herself off, focusing on the dancers below them.
"Ever since Sally what?" Derek asked. Casey didn't reply, prompting Derek to add. "Don't try to claim you're interested in that. You just said yourself you weren't."
Casey sighed and leaned back, saying, "Really, it was nothing."
"If it was so much of nothing, why aren't you telling me?" Derek countered mirroring her position.
"All she said was that we were going out secretly, right? I mean, isn't that stupid?" Casey asked, hoping her cheeks weren't as red as they felt.
"Of course. If I did go out with you, I'd want everyone to know," Derek replied, grinning at her. Casey turned to reply, and found herself noticing the look in his eyes. "If I were to go out with you, I'd do something like this."
She watched as he leaned into her, unable to pull away. She felt like it was wrong, but as his lips pressed against her own, she couldn't find any logical reasons why.
The kiss was everything she had wanted. Soft, yet filled with emotions from both of them. As his arm snaked around her waist she found the feelings within herself growing in response to those she felt coming from Derek. When he pulled away, he said "There, now no one can doubt it," before he got up and sauntered out of the gym.
It was then that Casey noticed everyone's eyes were on her. Face aflame she followed Derek, trying to ignore the jeers that followed.
--
"Hey Babe, you almost ready? The movers are here to pick up our stuff," Derek asked, tapping lightly on her opened door.
"Yeah," Casey replied, looking up at him.
"Wow, I haven't seen that in forever," he said, sitting down next to her.
"I know, right?" Casey replied, setting it on her desk.
"Aren't you going to bring it?" Derek asked as he lifted one of the boxes from the floor.
"Why should I?" Casey replied, grabbing a box herself.
"'Cause it could be fun to have something around the house. Just because we're married doesn't mean we should just act like the past never happened," Derek replied, picking it up and setting it on top of his box.
"Hey Case," he said, pausing at the door. "Do you know how long I've known?"
"How long?" Casey asked, grinning at him.
"Since Paul first gave you the project. Kinda' funny that it helped me figure out, but not you."
"Well, I got the idea eventually," Casey said in defense leaning over to kiss her husband.
--
I was working on a wallpaper for someone when this idea came to me. So if you want your own copy of the corkboard, just check out my profile for the link.