Disclaimer: I do not own Life with Derek or its characters.
After the Inevitable Dumping
"Do you hate her?" Sam asked Emily. Kendra came back with the sodas and chips.
"Casey? No," Emily said, surprised. She popped a chip in her mouth and crunched thoughtfully. "She's my best friend. Did you hate Derek?"
"Nah," he said.
"I did," Kendra told them. "I hated them both. But they don't get it, you know? So there was no reason to keep hating them. Like, if they'd known, that would've been one thing."
Emily dipped her feet into her pool. "I sort of knew it wouldn't last," she admitted. "Derek's hot, and we're friends, and I've had a crush on him forever, but we'd gone out before and there was no chemistry. I really think he just wanted a date to the prom." She laughed. "Then he couldn't stand it when I was going to turn him down for Casey. Then she got back together with Truman and, well…" she shrugged.
"He needed a distraction, right?" Kendra said. "It's why I asked you, Sammy. I didn't want to be Derek's distraction again. Uh…no offense. You didn't like me or anything, did you?"
Sam grinned. "I kind of figured, Kendra. It's all good." He drank some soda. "It's different with Casey," he told them presently. "She doesn't need a distraction so much, you know? She liked me. She liked Max. She liked Truman. It's just, whenever Casey has a boyfriend, D's a nightmare. And Casey liking someone doesn't mean she still doesn't talk about D all the time. Doesn't mean she won't drop her boyfriend in half a second to be there for Derek."
"I'd think you could handle that, though," Emily pointed out. "Why'd the two of you really break up, anyway? She was better around you. You treated her better than the others."
Sam shrugged. "I didn't really mind all the crazy fighting and making up, whatever she said. Derek did. I didn't like her that much. And she didn't like me that much, either."
"Has she dumped Truman, yet?" Kendra wanted to know.
"Yeah, two days ago," Emily told her. "They're heading to different universities in the fall, and Casey hadn't forgiven him enough to try and make it work all summer. He was crushed." She kicked at the water vindictively, splashing it out. "Serves the jerk right," she concluded.
"And Derek dumped you the next day?" Kendra demanded, eyes wide. "Couldn't he at least wait a week? Talk about your jerks…"
Emily laughed, pushing past the fact that the timing did actually sting a little. "He's Derek," she said lightly. "It's not exactly news that he's a jerk, is it?"
"So do you hate him?" Sam asked.
Emily considered. "Nah," she said finally. "We're going to different universities, too, and he and Casey are going to the same one. Better now than later, right? I just wish he'd been honest with me."
"D's never honest," Sam said. "Especially with himself. It'll probably take him three more years to face up to what all of us know."
Emily snorted. "It'll take Casey even longer. Hope they don't take forever, though. They complement each other, you know? They're good together."
"Yeah, whatever," Kendra said. "Enough about Derek and Casey already. Let's just swim, 'kay?"
Emily hugged Kendra, glad that even if she didn't have a boyfriend anymore, she still had her friends. "Sure, Kendra," she said. "Let's swim."