Disclaimer: I don't Life with Derek.

For the AN take a look at my profile.

First Kiss

Part 1

Casey sat in her small college dorm room writing a paper for her Sophomore creative writing class when Derek busted through the door and jumped onto her bed.

"Hey there keener! Working on a paper?" He rolled on his side and propped his head on his hand.

"College hasn't made you any smarter has it?" Casey asked dryly keeping her eyes focused on the screen as she typed the last sentence.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Derek's confusion and annoyance evident.

"Stating the obvious." Casey was slightly frustrated at his stupidity.

"Huh?" Derek was really lost now.

Casey gave up and said in as calm a voice as she could muster, "Yes, I'm working on a paper for my creative writing class."

"What's it about?" His mood jovial again.

Casey sighed inwardly. "The assignment was to write about a first time experience." She explained as she turned her black desk chair to face him.

Derek interrupted with a smirk, "Writing about meeting me for the first time?"

"Hardly." Casey snorted with disdain. "I wanted to write about a pleasant experience."

His pride wounded, Derek grunted and lowered his gaze, "So what did you pick?"

"Well I pulled out my journals and started looking through them. I decided to write about my first kiss." Casey's face took on a dreamy look as her eyes glazed over.

"Uugg. I thought you said pleasant." Derek's face contorted in disgust but his chocolate eyes twinkled.

"It was pleasant Derek." Casey said tightly allowing him to push her buttons.

"Was it Sammy?" Derek pried.

"Nope." It was Casey's turn to smirk.

Derek missed a beat. Casey had a boyfriend before Sam? No, Sam was definitely her first boyfriend. She must have just kissed someone. Maybe Casey wasn't such a prude after all.

"Who?" Derek asked genuinely curious.

Casey sighed. This was not going to come out right. "I don't know."

Derek exploded. "What do you mean you don't know?" He said sitting up and leaning toward her.

Casey pushed her chair back a little and held up her hands. "Forget it Derek. Do you remember your first kiss?"

"Don't try to change the subject. I want to know how it is that you don't know who you kissed." Derek said roughly.

Casey ignored Derek's command and said too sweetly. "Tell me about your first kiss."

"Tell me your story first." Derek said with more force than he intended.

Casey shook her head, "No way." She continued smugly with a raised eyebrow, "I bet the first girl you kissed was fugly. That's why you won't tell me." She crossed her arms against her chest.

Derek was successfully redirected from their fight. "She was not fugly." He defended himself with hurt in his voice and sat up straighter.

"Tell me." Now Casey was giving the directives.

Derek leaned back on Casey's bed, his head on her pillows, and closed his eyes, smiling at the memory.

"It happened before Dad and Nora got together but only by a few months. It was at a party. The girl was turning fifteen. She lived in Melrose, but had just moved there. She was on Sam's sister Ruth's soccer team. I guess she wanted a co-ed party but didn't really know anyone so the girls on her soccer team helped her decide who to invite. Ruth invited Sam and I. Only Sam didn't end up going because he was sick, and I went with Ruth alone. The party was okay but the girl was really nervous. She had gone to an all-girls school before moving there. It was almost the end of the party when someone suggested we play seven minutes in heaven - only it wasn't really seven minutes. At least it seemed a lot shorter. Anyway, I was the third guy up. We drew numbers. Someone had separated us guys and girls and for some reason the girls were blind-folded. Anyway my turn came and I kissed the girl. After a couple minutes someone pounded on the door and pulled us out. I never did see who the girl was except I think she had brown hair, and she was shorter than me. I think she had on a pink or purple shirt, but I'm not sure. Sam's mom was upstairs waiting for us and that's why they pulled me out of the closet."

Casey was silent for a few seconds and so surprised that Derek had revealed something so personal, missed the opportunity to point out that Derek didn't know who he first kissed either. "Were you nervous?" She asked in a quiet voice.

Derek eyes popped open and he sat up a little, "Me? Nervous? No way." He denied unconvincingly with a shake of his head.

Casey persisted and leaned forward in her seat, "But you said it was your first kiss. How could you not be nervous?"

"I am never nervous when it comes to girls." Derek replied confidently as he lay back on the pillows.

Casey didn't believe him for one second but decided to let it slide. "So tell me what it was like when you kissed her." She tried to sound casual rather than curious.

"I don't know." Derek scrunched up his face. "It was like…a kiss." Derek answered unsure of what kind of response Casey expected.

"Der-ek." He could hear the irritation in her voice and didn't understand why it was so important to her, but he tried again.

"Well, let me think." Derek scrunched up his face again as if thinking was painful. "The closet was dark and we couldn't see anything. I remember taking her hands in mine and then we kissed." Derek said slowly and shrugged. He opened one eye to see if his answer satisfied Casey.

"What did her hands feel like?" Casey pushed.

Derek sighed and closed his eyes. He was thinking hard about the moment and was becoming lost in the memory as he responded in a soft voice, "They were soft and small."

"Did you say anything?" Casey whispered not wanting to break the spell.

"I said, 'Hi." She said, 'Hi.' Then I said, "So I guess I should…' And she interrupted me to say, 'Yeah.' Then I took her hands and bent forward and kissed her." His voice was quiet.

"What was the kiss like?" Casey murmured leaning ever closer to the bed.

"I don't know Case. I already told you it was like a kiss." Derek answered still frustrated that he couldn't seem to give Casey what she was looking for.

"What did her lips feel like?" Casey continued, and Derek closed his eyes. Why did it matter so much to Casey, and why did he feel so compelled to answer her?

He thought back. "Um, her lips were soft and tasted like strawberries. It must have been lip gloss. She smelled like vanilla too. It wasn't a strong smell or anything, but I noticed it." He smiled as he remembered.

"What else?" Casey said softly.

Derek's face scrunched up in concentration, and he spoke slowly. "Uh, well at first I just brushed my lips against hers. She didn't pull away, so I pressed my lips to hers. I was a bit surprised when she kissed me back." Derek unknowingly blushed as he spoke. "She squeezed my hands so I took that as a good sign, and I just kept kissing her until someone pounded on the door." Derek chuckled.

"So it was a good kiss?" Casey asked, and he could hear something more in her voice but couldn't place the emotion.

Derek rolled back onto his side and propped his head with his hand. He smirked and answered flippantly because the conversation had gotten too serious for him, "It was good enough to get me hooked on kissing."

Just then Derek's phone chirped and he read the text message from his friend Rob. "Gotta go Case. Meeting Rob to work on a project." He was out the door before Casey could say another word.

She sat in her seat stunned and slowly spun back to the laptop sitting on her desk. She looked at the words she had written with disbelief. Surely this could not have happened. Casey closed her eyes, laying her head down on her folded arms that rested on the desktop, and replayed the event in her mind.

Her friend Laura had moved from Toronto a few months before, but still invited her old friends for her fifteenth birthday party. Casey remembered being nervous as it was the first co-ed party she had been too since she was small. She didn't remember too much about the party activities except of course playing seven minutes in heaven. She had been really nervous and tried to back out, but she had drawn number three and the other girls harassed her until she agreed. They had told her that the guy was really cute, but she never saw him because they blind-folded her. Casey had no idea if this was normal or not, but had no choice but to agree. Her heart was in her throat by the time they shoved her into the closet. A few seconds later the boy entered. It was dark in the tight space and Casey could feel herself start to panic at the new situation.

"Um, hi," he said shyly and his voice cracked.

Instantly Casey felt her panic lessen. "Hi," she had said softly.

They stood in silence for a few seconds before he spoke again. "So I guess we should…"

Casey didn't let him finish, "Yeah."

His hands reached out and clumsily took hers. His hands were bigger and a little rough. She could tell he was just as nervous as she, because his hands were somewhat clammy, and she relaxed a bit more.

He brushed his lips against hers, and she felt a spark of warmth. Afraid to move, she silently pleaded for him to continue. She could smell his soap as his mouth hovered over hers. Finally, his lips captured hers again, and this time he pressed them into hers. She smiled and kissed him back as she squeezed his hands. He continued to kiss her, and she felt dizzy as his scent enveloped her. Warmth spread through her body and her stomach flipped over and over. He was gentle as his lips searched hers. Their hands intertwined, and Casey hoped the moment and feeling would last forever.

Suddenly, her friends were pounding on the door, and she sprang away from the boy. The door opened and someone pulled her out. She still had the blind fold on and by the time she ripped it off the boy was being herded upstairs. She saw his hair was a reddish brown color but that was all.

Casey opened her eyes as the memory ended and she raised her head not really seeing the room. Her breathing was shallow as she contemplated the similarities between her's and Derek's story.

To Be Continued...