-1Casey made her way firmly to the television set that was blasting a repeat of an old Leafs game. She let her finger graze over the buttons until she found the one she was looking for. She pressed it, and the second the TV went black, loud roars came from Derek's full-of-popcorn mouth.
"I told you I was having a friend over."
"Since when does that mean I can't watch the game?"
"First of all, you've watched this one a million times. You know how it ends," she pointed out matter-of-factly.
"It's a classic game! It's the Stanley--"
"I don't care about Stanley! Take him and your game somewhere else!" He stood up and shoved his half empty popcorn bowl into her chest.
"Stanley is a cup, not a person," he grunted and left her with his mess. She sighed and got to work cleaning up the living room. Before Derek could make it too far, the doorbell rang. "Got it," he said and opened the door. "Whatever you're selling--" He took a look at the person he was about to close the door on; a beautiful 16 year old girl stood in from of him. "I'll take it all…"
"Are you sure you want 400 cases of hemorrhoid cream?" She smiled.
"Hey, you can never have too much of the stuff, I always say." There was silence for a moment.
"Can I…" she motioned inward.
"Oh, yea, sorry." He stepped out of her way and closed the door behind her. "So you're not really selling hemorrhoid cream, are you?"
"No. I'm here to see Casey. I'm Peyton, from her old neighborhood. I went to a private art school and she went to--"
"Peyton?!" Casey, now in the entranceway with Derek, shrieked, causing Derek to retreat in fear of his life.
"Casey!" The two hugged and screamed.
Derek covered his ears as the two continued to squeal. Edwin appeared at the top of the stairs.
"What is that noise?"
"Teenage girl reunion. Only dogs and other girls can understand it," Derek explained. Edwin shrugged and returned to his room, making sure to shut the door behind him.
"That's your horrible step brother Derek?" Peyton asked Casey, who nodded in response. "He doesn't seem too bad."
"Wait till you have to eat a meal with him and share a bathroom with him. You'll see." Peyton looked over at Derek who was shaking his head.
"Hold on…share a bathroom? How long are you staying?"
"Two weeks," Peyton quickly returned.
"Why didn't Nora or Dad say anything?"
"They probably forgot. Typical," she told Peyton.
"Your mom? Forgot? She was the most organized person I had ever seen!"
"Yea, living in this house it's hard to be organized…" Casey looked around in disgust. She snapped back into the moment and said, "So where's your stuff?" A cab driver then emerged in the doorway with a duffel bag. "That's all? For two weeks?" Peyton nodded. Casey glared at Derek. He caught the reference, sighed, and picked up her bag and dragged it up to Casey's room.
"This'll be cozy," Derek stated.
"Yea, a little too cozy. I love you, but a twin bed is definitely not meant for two people."
"I'm gonna have to agree." The three stood in the doorway of Casey's room for a while before Casey shared her brilliant idea.
"Why don't you sleep in Derek's room?"
"What?!" the Derek and Peyton shrieked in unison.
"Yea, you have that huge bed, Derek. Unless someone else has reservations…" Casey teased.
"Well, I'm booked next weekend…" The girls weren't laughing. "Kidding. You can stay in my room if you want, Peyton." A smile widened across her face. Derek wanted to live in that smile. He stared at her and watched the smile he fell in love with only minutes earlier fade into a confused face. He looked at Casey, who was tapping her toe impatiently. "What?"
"Move?" Casey barked. He did so, and let the girls walk by into his room. Marti walked up to Derek and tugged on his pant leg.
"Smerek, aren't you taking me to Missy's house?"
"I would, Smarti, but Daddy said I can't drive the car. Ask Casey." The little girl toddled over to Casey and asked her if she would take her to her friend's house.
"Sure, Marti. Peyton, do you mind if I'm gone for 20 minutes or do you want to come with me?"
"No, I'll stay here." Casey nodded and took Marti. "I have blue walls in my room, too," Peyton shared, sitting on Derek's bed like she had been there a million times before. "It used to be my brother, Spencer's room. We switched rooms when I was 5 so he could have the bigger room. He didn't want a pink room so his got painted the same color blue, but my dad never got to painting mine." She looked at Derek, who was the only one left in the room with her. "Sorry. Random overshare."
"No, no problem."
"Nice poster," Peyton said sarcastically, referring to a half naked poster of a girl directly above his bed. "I really like her outfit. Where do you think she got it?" she laughed. He was relieved she wasn't offended by the poster like femme-Nazi Casey was.
"Sluts 'R' Us," he replied.
"How long have you been waiting to use that one?"
"Just made it up, actually. If you want to see the ones I'm saving, they're in a notebook under my bed. On second thought, don't look under my bed."
"Believe me, I wouldn't. Older brothers, remember? I've made that mistake before." Derek grimaced at that thought and joined her on his bed. She looked around the room and took in all the details, noticing the hockey trophies in particular. "You play hockey?"
"Play hockey? I live hockey."
"Sounds like my brothers. They both got full rides to U of T for hockey and got drafted when they were 20."
"Who'd they play for?"
"They never played professionally. Spencer is a doctor and Lucas is a professor."
"Wow. So what are you gonna be, an astronaut?"
"No," she laughed. "I'm in a band with a few guys."
"What kind of music do you play?"
"Kind of like if Blink-182 and Panic! At the Disco had a baby, it would be The Raiders."
"The Raiders?"
"Yup. It used to be The Raiders of the Lost Ark, after the--"
"The Indiana Jones movie…"
"Right. But people just started calling us 'The Raiders'. It stuck I guess." A moment or two of awkward silence passed before Peyton spoke up. "So…anything you wanna ask me? I am going to be sleeping in your bed, after all. Don't you want to know about my grotesque case of bacne?" Derek laughed. "What? It's a serious condition. I don't think it's contagious, but you might want to think about burning the sheets after I leave." The two of them laughed for what seemed like hours. They'd calm down, then one would do something to send the other into convulsing laughter. In the middle of their laugh-fest, they heard a knock on Derek's door.
"Yea?" he called to the knocker, wiping tears from his eyes. George opened the door and poked his head into the room.
"Everything o--hi. You are?" he said, referring, of course, to Peyton.
"Peyton Conrad. Casey's friend."
"Oh…yea. That was today, wasn't it?" Confused a little, George retreated from the room and continued down the hallway. Peyton and Derek looked at each other and shrugged. Derek's cell phone buzzed on his nightstand.
"Hello? Hey, Frank, what's up man? Tonight? Yea I…Of course I'll be there." He looked at Peyton, who was walking around the room, interested in everything. "Do you mind if I bring a friend? Ok, thanks bud. I'll be there. Bye." He tossed the phone back on the bed. "So, do you and Casey have any plans tonight?"
"Nope," she replied, reading a plaque Derek had received. "You were highest scoring player in 2001?"
"Yea, I was. Listen, I know Casey won't want to go, but my friend Frank is having a party tonight. Do you want to go with me?"
"I don't know…I came to see Casey. Wouldn't it be kinda rude to leave her here?"
"You have a whole two weeks to see her. What's one night?"
"Yea…"
"Come with me. It'll be fun, I promise." She looked into his puppy-dog eyes, trying to say no. It just wasn't an option.
"Fine," she said, giving in. "What time?"
"9-ish."
"Alright, I'm gonna shower and stuff." She grabbed a towel and her shower stuff and walked across the hall to the bathroom.
"God, she's hot," Derek said to himself, collapsing backwards onto his bed.
"Who is?" Edwin said, stepping into his older brother's room. Derek sat up harshly.
"When did you get home?"
"Just now. Who's hot?" he repeated.
"Uhh…I didn't say hot. I said a lot. It's like…it's slang for really, really nice." Edwin raised his eyebrows at his brother's attempted cover up.
"So who's hot?" Edwin said once again, letting Derek know he wasn't buying it.
"Peyton, Casey's friend. She's staying with us for 2 weeks and she's sleeping in my bed."
"So are you guys gonna do it?"
"What?!" Derek asked, shocked at the words coming out of Edwin's mouth.
"Y'know. It. The horizontal Macarena, the backseat mambo, clean her pipes. It." Derek's jaw was on the floor.
"Don't ever say any of those things ever again, got it?" Edwin nodded. "And no, we just met today."
"So how hot is she?" Just as the words came out of Edwin's mouth, Peyton returned, only in a towel, and tiptoed into Derek's room.
"Sorry to interrupt, I forgot shampoo." She grabbed a bottle out of her bag and walked back to the bathroom.
"That's how hot," Derek said, biting his lower lip.
"You've got yourself a regulation hottie, Derek. Gotta go."
"Where are you--" Before he could finish the sentence, Edwin was gone. Derek collapsed back onto his bed.
"Derek?" a soft voice said. "Derek?" He opened his eyes. "Wake up, sleepyhead." It was Peyton.
"Hi, pretty. Peyton. Hi, Peyton." He cringed, hoping she wouldn't notice. She laughed.
"Hi. Time for dinner," she informed him. Hr groggily sat up.
"I didn't even know I fell asleep."
"You did. And you snore, by the way. Really loud." Peyton giggled. Derek got out of bed and the two walked down to dinner together.
In the middle of dinner, which consisted of pizza expertly ordered by Nora, plans for the evening came up.
"So do you girls have anything planned for tonight?" Nora asked Peyton and Casey.
"Um…" Peyton started. "Derek actually invited me to go out with him, if that's okay with you Casey." Casey's face faded.
"I thought we'd catch up tonight, have a girls night in…But if you'd rather go out with Derek that's fine." A smile shot across Peyton's face.
"Thanks, Case. We'll hang out all day tomorrow, kay?"
"Sure." And that was the end of it.