She was crying on our porch steps when I found her. I'd like to blame it on that one small fact; the fact that I cannot stand to see a girl cry. However, as good an excuse as that is I don't think that that is the cause of my actions.

I had just gotten home from hockey practice and was walking towards the front door when I saw her sitting there. Not noticing her sad demeanor at first I sauntered past her "so I noticed Sam wasn't at practice today… Hot date?" I said smirking at her.

She didn't respond, no witty retort to my sarcasm, no tongue lashing about how her love life was none of my business, no evil glare before she stormed off to her room; she just sat there in silence. "Awww what's wrong Case? Hot date not go so well?" I said in a childlike voice in order to get a rise out of her. That's when I realized she was crying she never looked up at me she remained motionless staring at the crack in the bottom step when I heard her sniffle. Instantly I felt like an ass.

"Come on Casey I was only joking. I didn't mean to make you cry" I said halfheartedly

Nothing was heard but another muffled sniffle and then a heavy sigh. I dropped my hockey bag at the doorstep and walked back down the steps so that I was standing in front of her. " Casey?" I said waiting for her to reply. She had her arms wrapped tightly around her waist and just continued to stare at the ground. After moments of silence I gently lifted her chin to bring her eyes in contact with my own. It was then that I noticed the redness on her cheek. A welt was beginning to form in the shape of a handprint I was sure there would be a bruise there come morning.

"God Casey what happened to you?" I said instantly feeling a twinge of guilt for my earlier statements about her date with Sam "Did Sam do this?" I asked stroking the redness with my hand as softly as possible until she winced in pain. She sat there silently with tears running down her cheeks her eyes looking everywhere but my own. " Casey come on answer me before I go get Nora" I said my voice raising a little with concern.

"It was my fault" She said quietly as began making my way back up the steps to the house.

"What was your fault?" I said sighing and taking a seat next to her on the steps. It was dark out and was beginning to grow cold. I took off my leather jacket and placed it around her shoulders. She seemed to nestle into the warmth as the jacket surrounded her.

"I provoked him. I should have just kept my mouth shut." She said never taking her eyes of the leaf she was now crumbling beneath her feet.

"You provoked what? You mean Sam did hit you?" growing angry at the thought.

"He didn't hit me he just slapped me a little… you know to get the point across" She said now looking me in the eye

" Casey there are better ways to get your point across and I'm sorry but that does not look like he slapped you a little." I said pointing to the now fully swollen welt on her cheek.

"Oh shut up Derek since when do you care so much about me? Remember I'm klutzilla your annoying grade grubber step sister you never even wanted talking to your best friend much less dating him." she stood up shouting at me

"You know something, you're absolutely right! Why am I wasting my time out here with you when I could be doing better things? Truth is maybe you did deserve it maybe I should go call Sam and congratulate him for finding some way to shut you up. God knows nobody else can." I shouted back getting up and walking toward the door. I walked inside and threw my hockey gear against the wall in frustration. Why had I let her get to me so much? Why couldn't I just tell her how I really feel? I stormed into the kitchen and reached for a soda from the refrigerator when Lizzie came into the kitchen.

"Have you seen Casey? Mom and George took Marti to her back to school night and I'm supposed to tell her to order us a pizza or something for dinner and stay with Edwin and me until they get home at around 9:30 they will pick up something for themselves while they are out" She explained

"Uh I think she was outside talking to Emily I'll order the pizza and then I'll give her the message" I said picking up the phone and dialing.

I ordered the pizza and walked over to the freezer grabbing an ice pack from to door. After wrapping the icepack up in a towel I walked outside to find Casey sitting in the corner of the porch with her head resting against the railing looking up at the stars. I sighed and began walking towards her.

"So… Dad and Nora went to Marti's school and wanted you to order dinner for us and stay with Edwin and Liz until they get home" I said breaking the silence. She started to get up to go inside "I took care of dinner and told Lizzie that you were out here talking to Emily, She and Ed are in her room working on something for school." She sat back down as I said this while handing her the ice pack.

"Thanks" She mumbled quietly taking the ice pack from me and wincing as the cold came into contact with her swollen cheek.

"Look Casey I'm sorry about what I said before" I said sitting down next to her almost expecting her to hit me and tell me to leave her alone. When she didn't I took that as a good sign and made myself more comfortable next to her. "I was just trying to help you and you lashed out at me like that so I didn't know what to do and I reacted with anger but none of it was true" I said staring up at the stars. "So… You… Wanna tell me what happened?" I asked glancing at her.

She had started to cry again. "Why Derek? So you can use it against me? Princess Casey doesn't know how to keep her boyfriend happy perfect at everything but having a boyfriend. I can see your mind reeling with witty nicknames devised to humiliate me already" She rambled looking at me with sadness in her eyes.

I had never noticed how beautiful her crystal blue eyes were until that moment. The reflection of the moon shone in her eyes as she looked at me waiting for me to say something. Her face was lit up by the night sky; she looked so innocent sitting there curled up against the railing. Her hair was blowing gently in the cool night breeze. I couldn't help but notice how gorgeous she was, without even trying. What little makeup she had been wearing had been washed off by her tears and her eyes were rimmed with redness from crying however she still looked beautiful. How could I not have noticed how breathtaking she was before this moment? Guilt started to boil up in my stomach. The past month I had been getting this uneasy feeling in my gut whenever Casey would walk into the room. I would feel incredibly jealous for some reason at the mention of Sam's name, I wanted to be the guy Casey constantly talked about, the guy who got to hold her hand when we walked through the halls, the guy who got to kiss her goodnight after a Saturday night movie. Though I knew none of those things could ever happen. I shouldn't feel this way about my stepsister, although I had never really thought of her as a sister. I guess to be honest in the past month I discovered that somehow amongst all that hate I had actually fallen in love with Casey McDonald, my step-sister. Of course I was in no rush to tell her this since she would have called me a freak and slapped me before inevitably ratting me out to our parents. But when you look at the details which I have memorized in order to convince myself that these feelings are not completely wrong; I have only known Casey for about two years, I have never thought of her as related much less a sister, and she hates me anyway so there's no point in risking humiliation. Derek Venturi does not get humiliated and Derek Venturi does not get rejected; then again Derek Venturi does not fall in love either. It still somehow seemed wrong. Casey sniffled a little bringing my attention back to what she had just said.

"What makes you think I would hold this against you? I never mean anything I say about you seriously its just jokes you know all in fun like when you kept calling me Dereka for like 2 weeks after Sam told you about my nickname?" I nudged her trying to make her smile… unsuccessfully. Her face grew more depressed at the mention of his name. I sighed "Come on Case what happened? You never know I might be able to help" I said nudging her again.

"Yeah right you'll just agree with him. He was right." She said looking away from me and down at her feet as she hugged her knees to her chest.

"Well… You'll never know until you tell me… Come on can I guess?" I said leaning towards her "You had a fight about hockey? No you don't care about hockey… you had a fight about him not spending enough time with you? No he pretty much spends all his time with you… you had a fight about you hanging out with Emily? Come on Casey what was it I am out of ideas here" I said finally. Casey glanced at me before finally turning her face towards me.

"Fine I'll tell you. But you have to promise me you wont laugh at me" Casey said sighing.

"Cross my heart" I said motioning to my chest

" Sam and I went to the drive in tonight. We left the drive in and came home. We parked at the park down the street to talk and ummm… make out" Casey said turning red with embarrassment as she glanced at me "We started kissing and it became very clear that Sam wanted to do more than just make out. He started trying to take off my clothes and I pushed him off. So we started kissing again and he started trying to undress me again. I pushed him off again this time harder than before and he grew angry with me. He told me he was tired of me acting so prudish and innocent, we had been dating for over six months so he wanted to move to…the next step. I told him that I wasn't ready for the next step and he should respect that."

"So he slapped you because you didn't want to have sex?" I said looking at her in disbelief

"No, I got out of the car and sat down on the swings he followed me and we started arguing about it again. He told me that I was nothing but a spoiled princess who always had to have my way and I should be happy that he wants to have sex with me because I am such a frigid bitch that nobody else in their right mind would want me" She was now sobbing and gasping for breaths between her words. I sat there stunned by what she was telling me, an ache in my heart starting growing worse as I watched her cry unable to calm her pain.

" Casey… I'm" I started but was cut off by her continuing with her story

"He said that I should feel lucky that he wanted to be with me because he could get any girl in school since he hung out with you, and that he was tired of wasting his time with me for nothing…he said that you were right when you told him not to date me because I was a freak" Casey gasped for breath before continuing. "I told him that he didn't know what he was talking about and he couldn't get any other girls if his life depended on it because he was too much of a pussy to talk to them much less ask them out. I told him that it didn't matter if he was friends with you because he wouldn't as much as look at a girl without asking your permission. I told him he was a loser and he shouldn't be so proud of constantly walking in your shadow and that it was time he realized that as hard as he might try he could never be you… that's when he slapped me. He slapped me across the face and got in his car and left me to walk home from there" She broke down once more after finishing her story.

I didn't know what to do. A wave of anger rushed over me. I wanted so badly to drive as fast as I could to Sam's house and pummel him for saying those things to her, for making her feel this way, best friend or not; I wanted to kill him for laying his hand on her. I looked over at her small form shaking from sobbing. I slid closer to her and put my arms around her pulling her into me. She sobbed into my chest as I stroked her hair whispering to her "Shhhh it's okay, it'll be okay Casey"

After what seemed like forever, Casey finally calmed down. She hiccupped for air as I released my hold on her. "Why are you doing this? Why are you being so nice to me? You hate me" She said between hiccups as she slid away from my hold. I shivered instantly at the distance that was now between us.

"I guess… I mean… I don't hate you Casey" I said looking deep into her eyes, those beautiful blue eyes.

"Don't lie to me Derek, I know you hate me" She said beginning to take my jacket off of her shoulders and hand it to me. I waved it off motioning for her to keep it on.

"I don't hate you Casey… I just… Don't know how I feel about you" I said lying to her.

"Listen Casey for what it's worth Sam is an idiot; he's a moron for treating you that way. No guy should ever lay their hands on a girl; especially a girl like you. You're not the lucky one because he wanted to be with you, he's the lucky one because you wanted to be with him and if he's smart he'll come begging for your forgiveness and realize what an amazing person you really are I mean you're ridiculously gorgeous, you're too smart for your own good, you're caring, you deal his love for hockey and stupid video games, and seriously you're like the perfect girlfriend." I said averting my eyes from hers hoping that she wouldn't noticing I was blushing in embarrassment.

"You have to say those things because you're my step brother" She said dismissing my compliments

"Actually I shouldn't say those things… because I'm your step brother" I said finally looking her in the eyes

"Oh" she said breaking eye contact and looking up at the sky "But did you mean them? I mean You have never said one nice thing about me and now you say all these things that are so incredibly… sweet" she said softly as she brought her gaze back to my own. There they were those beautiful blues eyes burning into mine asking me for the truth, begging me to tell the truth. Then all of the sudden it happened. It was like a magnetic force was pulling me to her I couldn't stop it even if I wanted to which I didn't. All of the sudden I was kissing her gently and timidly; afraid of what she would do. I expected her to slap me, curse at me, anything but what she actually did. She kissed me back. it was soft and gentle but full of emotion. I was the first to pull away; eyes closed not wanting to open for fear that it had all been a dream. Slowly I opened my eyes watching her as she squirmed uncomfortably and looked at me in shock.