Disclaimer / Author's Note:

This is a sequel to my first story, "A Casual Comment." However, I don't think that you have to read that story to enjoy this one. Flashbacks will be in italics.

Oh, and I still don't own Life with Derek.

Chapter 1—His "Other Roommate"

Jake Wilson sat on his bed reading a magazine while his roommate hid a pile of dirty laundry in the closet and his "other roommate" dusted off a family portrait on the desk. Honestly, she slept in their room as much as Jake did, so he'd basically come to see her as someone who lived with them.

Of course, it wasn't like he objected to it. About once every two weeks she'd get fed up and basically clean his roommate's half of the room. He half suspected that his roommate let it get so messy on purpose—either because he knew that she'd break down and clean it for him or just because he seemed to enjoy pushing her buttons. But then, as much as she yelled at him about it, she kind of seemed to enjoy the whole cleaning thing. Hey, whatever worked for them . . .

It was unusual for Jake to be there on a Friday afternoon. Typically around this time he'd already be off with some girl. Unfortunately, as it was parents' weekend at the university, most of the hot ones were off with their families. Plus, he'd made the mistake of hitting on his latest girlfriend's little sister that morning and Jess still wasn't talking to him. Nor was the sister. Who knew that they were related?

In any case, he thought, it wasn't really a bad day to be around the room. His roommate's family was arriving in about an hour and he was kind of interested in seeing how it would all play out.

You see Jake was one of the few people on campus who knew that his roommate was sort of related to the girl he was dating. It wasn't like they actively hid it, but it also wasn't something they'd bring up in casual conversation. They seemed to think that explaining the whole thing was simply too much trouble . . .

Jake himself didn't find out about their family until he'd already lived with the guy for nearly two months. Sure, he'd thought that it was a little weird that the girl who his roommate was sleeping with was in his roommate's family portrait, but she seemed like such a keener that Jake just assumed that his roommate's parents must have been thrilled when he brought her home with him. Later, he realized that they sort of had to love her—because she happened to be their daughter.

He distinctly remembered the morning that he found out about it . . . It was a Sunday and Jake had just come back from a night with Marie, the hot French chick who lived down the hall. He had been unsurprised to find the two of them arguing . . .

"Der-ek!" yelled Casey. "Why did you take down the poster I put up?!"

"Gee, I don't know, Case," he said sarcastically, "maybe because this is MY room!"

"Yeah, well, if your not going to let me sleep in my own room, then I should probably have some say in how this place is decorated!" she yelled.

"Hey, Jake," she greeted, acknowledging his presence.

They had these "discussions" in front of him often enough that they seemed to have no shame about the matter anymore. Not they had much to begin with . . .

"Jake, man, back me up here. It was way out of line to put up the ballet poster right?" Derek asked him.

Honestly, he wasn't completely sure. While he certainly didn't want any posters of ballerinas in his room and he would never be pressured into putting one up by a girl, Casey did kind of have a point. Often Derek would practically force her to stay—even on nights when Jake was there and all they could do was sleep. It was like the guy was addicted to her or something . . .

Even if Jake had had a strong opinion about the matter, he wasn't about to get into the middle of their fight. He shrugged at them and opened his sociology book, pretending to read.

"I don't enjoy waking up to your stupid action movie posters every morning!" Casey was saying.

"Okay, a) those movies are NOT stupid and b) IT'S MY ROOM!" retorted Derek.

"Besides," he said smirking, "you know you come here for the action."

"You disgust me!" she said angrily.

"Look, Case," Derek yelled, "if you had taken my advice when you filled out your housing form and put 'frequently out at night' at the most important characteristic in a potential roommate, then maybe we could spend more nights at your place!"

"Well excuse me for not making sex my highest priority when describing who I wanted to live with my freshman year of college!" yelled Casey, sitting down on the bed and turning away from him.

"Come on, Case," he said rubbing her shoulders, "you don't really want to stay mad at me, do you?"

Jake saw her expression soften just a bit; perhaps Derek almost had her this time.

But then he really screwed up.

"I mean, that ballerina is hot," said Derek, "but you really don't expect me to have a ballet poster in my room, do you?"

"She's hot! Did you just say the ballerina was hot?!" Casey yelled.

"Of course," said Derek, looking amused, "but you're the only fru-fru dancer I want staring back at me at night."

"That's it," said Casey, "just forget it!"

Derek smirked a bit, looking highly satisfied with himself. But his expression quickly changed when she continued her thought.

"I'll just sleep in my own room tonight! God forbid we surround ourselves with a little culture!" she said, getting up and opening the door.

"Casey!" he said, grabbing her wrist.

"Yes?" she asked curtly.

"The street with all the colors," he said mumbling, and looking away from her.

"What was that?" she asked.

"You can put up that poster of the street with all the colors," he said, continuing to look away. "You know, the one with the little restaurant?"

"Café at Night by Van Gogh?" she asked.

"I guess," he mumbled, "I don't' completely hate that one."

"Thank you, Derek," she said excitedly, throwing her arms around him and kissing him.

"Um . . . I'm gonna to go," said Jake, knowing that they'd almost reached that part of the "discussion" where Derek flung his girlfriend on the bed.

"No stay," said Casey, smiling at him brightly, "I'm going to go get the poster!"

She practically skipped out of the room in excitement.

"Man, Derek," said Jake smiling, "can you say whipped!"

"I am NOT whipped," said Derek, defensively. ". . .Besides, it's a pretty okay poster."

Jake just shook his head and smiled. In most ways, his roommate was an awesome guy. Supremely cool and shared a lot of his interests. But although Derek could have had almost any girl he wanted, he seemed to make some of his decisions based on the feeling that one bossy girl who had just left the room. Jake had to admit that dude was whipped.

"Perhaps," he said, looking amused, "I should just call you Mr. McDonald. Or better yet, Mr. McDonald-Venturi. Casey strikes me as the type of girl who will wanna hyphenate your names."

Derek just rolled eyes at this; Jake knew that he and Derek just didn't see eye-to-eye on the whole commitment thing.

"Ah, there's the lovely Mrs. McDonald-Venturi now," said Jake, as Casey walked back into the room.

"Oh please," she said casually, unrolling the poster she was carrying, "Mrs. McDonald-Venturi is my mother."

Then she looked up, realizing what she'd just said. And Derek let out a sigh as Jake raised his eyebrows in surprise.

That's when the whole story of Derek and Casey had been explained to him, Jake recalled. It wasn't that they'd seemed particularly ashamed of it; it just struck him that they saw it as rather long and tedious to tell.

Jake had actually found the whole thing kind of interesting. Especially the part about how they got together . . . (Shameless plug; read "A Casual Comment" the prequel to this story.)

Jake couldn't wait to meet the rest of the McDonald-Venturi clan, who would now be arriving any minute. That's why both of them (not just Casey this time) were frantically cleaning the room.

Of course, Jake knew that they'd want him to leave when it came time for Casey to give her PowerPoint presentation . . .

Author's Random Trivia: Read the Wikipedia article on "Life with Derek" for more on that ballerina poster.