Never Thought

Never Thought

Oneshot entry for suntry-princess' contest. Casey had a hunch she was being used from the very beginning. She just never thought this would've caused her to lock herself in a closet with her stepbrother. What ensued afterward? It would leave her breathless. Dasey.

A/N: This is my very first time in a contest, though not my first oneshot (as some of you may know). This idea has been jumping around in my head for awhile now, and contest or no contest it was coming on sooner or later.

On a side note: I was quite impressed by the "success" of my last oneshot, Fear Draws Her Near. I was very impressed at how much you guys liked it. So I was thinking about making it a two-shot, where the other chapter is a less-humorous though more-Dasey part, through either Casey or Derek's perspective. Thoughts?

Anyway, on with the show.

As Casey sat there on the floor with her legs pressed up against the wall and shelf, with the darkness eluding her, she wondered how she got here.

Not "here" as in life, she knew how that had happened. She wondered how she had ended up here in a dark closet – or, also known as the Games Closet – with her stepbrother inches away from her own body. The events of the last week seemed like a huge blur, and she could only remember snippets of the past events

She peered at Derek's form in front of her. They were so close that each time the other shifted they could feel the slight movement in the space between them, as the air molecules moved.

Derek let out a deep breath, and it gusted across her face. She paused and blinked away from his silhouette, staring at the light that poured through the crack under the door.

"Do you think they stopped looking for us?" Derek whispered. Casey's eyes snapped back to his face and her mouth fell open.

Who? Casey asked herself dumbly. Images flashed through her mind, and she instantly remembered who he was talking about.

"Yes… no, I don't know. But this is ridiculous. We're hiding in our house," Casey whispered back.

Derek leaned towards her, his brown eyes wide.

"We're hiding out of fear," he whispered harshly, throwing his arms up in despair. Casey settled back against the wall and crossed her arms, staring at him with her eyebrows perked up.

"But still, if we're so scared we should just kick them out of our home."

"Do you even remember who we're dealing with?" Casey paused as more events from the week prior flashed through her mind. She nodded her head slowly. Now she did. She remembered the group of four girls who had inexplicably shown up into her life just after Derek broke up with Sally…

Casey shivered, nodding her head over-and-over again.

"First and last time I'll ever be groped by a girl." Derek laughed at this before silence fell around them. In this time, Casey started at the beginning of the week, when all of this had started…

"Hey Case!" someone called. Casey spun around, half-expecting to find Emily standing behind her. Her surprise only rose to curiosity when she saw a short blond-girl standing there, freckles lining her cheekbones.

"It's Casey, actually. The only people who call me 'Case' are Derek and –,"

"But don't friends call each other nicknames?" The girl asked, pouting out her bottom lip as her blue eyes grew wide.

"We're not –,"

"Aww, c'mon Case! We've known each other since… whenever! You probably forgot me. I'm Shawnee, remember?" The girl, Shawnee, looked up at Casey hopefully as she threw an arm around her shoulders.

"Listen Shawnee, I don't know who you are or what your deal is, but –,"

"Case, c'mon," Shawnee sighed, rolling her eyes as she hugged Casey closer to her body. "We may not be friends, but me not calling you 'Klutzilla' back when you first got here counts as something, right?" Casey stared at Shawnee as if she was insane, before carefully extracting her arm and stepping away.

"Shawnee, I'm flattered you want to be my friend –,"

"Aw, thanks Case," Shawnee said, smiling politely at her. Casey frowned, feeling anger run through her. Not only was it pissing her off that this girl kept cutting her off, but her insistence that they were 'friends' made it impossible to even like her. What was the absolute worst, though, was that she kept calling her 'Case'.

"Shawnee, we're not friends, so go talk to –,"

"Great, all the more reason for us to hang out! Why don't you come eat with us at lunch?"

Casey gulped hurriedly as she said, "'Us?'"

It turned out Emily wasn't even at school. As Casey slowly wandered over to the lunchroom, she pondered if this was a sign to give Shawnee and whoever else was with her a chance. Perhaps they were nice people. Shawnee came off a little strong, sure, but Casey could work passed that bump.

As soon as she walked into the lunchroom, however, she saw Shawnee waving like a maniac for Casey to join them. Reluctantly, she sat down beside Shawnee as the blond gestured hurriedly to the other three girls in front of her.

"This is Michaela, or Mickey," she said, pointing to an olive-skinned girl with curly brown hair and a set of rectangular glasses on her fine nose. She smiled timidly at Casey, before Shawnee moved on to the next girl.

"This is Chelsea," Shawnee added. The unnaturally red-haired girl smirked at Casey and stuck her fish-net gloved hand out towards Casey. She took it slowly, and then dropped it after one shake.

"And finally, this is Rhonda," Shawnee finished. Rhonda had cropped hair and tan skin. She grabbed Casey's hand hurriedly and shook it in quite a manly-way.

"Call me Ron," Rhonda added with a smile. Casey leaned slightly forward, examining the girl's smile. Was it her eyes, or did it seem… flirtatious?

"Uh… that's okay, I'd rather not," Casey replied slowly, pulling her hand away from Rhonda and shifting over, away from Shawnee.

Of all the girls, Michaela and Chelsea seemed the most 'normal'. Michaela was interested in reading, writing and dramatics. She was a 'grade-grubber' just like Casey, and wasn't ashamed of it.

Chelsea was odd, but enjoyed poetry, acting and playing her flute. She wasn't the nicest, and often said what was on her mind, but she was much more normal then Rhonda and Shawnee.

Finally, with lunch almost over, Casey realized if she pushed away her fear of these… interesting girls… she may be able to like them.

That was, until, Derek walked up.

"Casey!" he called, waltzing up to the table she sat up. Casey rolled her eyes, looking up at her stepbrother in annoyance. Everyone at the table hushed as he approached, and Derek gave them all a weary glance, as if debating whether or not to ask Casey why she was sitting with them.

"What is it, Derek?" Casey spat. He reached out his hand, holding something out to her. She held her own hand out and felt the metallic coolness of coins clatter to her palm.

"What… Derek, are you alright? You do realize you just gave me money, right?" she asked, perking a brow at him.

"Yeah, but I snuck into your room last night and took 50. I thought it'd only be right," he said, winking at her and turning to walk away. Casey growled and was about to chuck something at the back of his head, when the girls' blabbering got her attention.

"He's such a hottie!"

"Somebody turn the heat down!"

"I'd like to jump him any day." All three girls paused to stare at Rhonda, who looked alarmed and nodded her head in agreement.

"Yeah… hott."

Shawnee sat up rigidly, holding up a finger as if testing the wind.

"I say we have a vote if Casey should have a sleepover this Friday or not."

"What? But I never agreed –,"

"Aye!"

"Hell yeah!"

"Yes!"

"And I say yes, too," Shawnee agreed, slamming her fist down on the table. She took a moment or two to look at each girl's face, smiling slowly.

"So it's settled, Case, get the preparations done. We'll be at your house by five." With that the bell rang, and all four girls shuffled out of the cafeteria in one line, Rhonda being last and giving Casey a wink, which Casey tried to ignore as hard as she could.

The week had flown by, and each day Shawnee and the rest of her gang talked up Casey. And each time, Casey tried to insist she couldn't have a sleepover. Each time, though, Shawnee would cut her off until finally Casey realized she barely had a choice.

So Casey had bought a few choice snack items and cleaned her room. All she needed to do was live through one night with… them… and, during that time, she'd tell them she couldn't be their friends anymore. Simple and efficient. Luckily, on Friday night, every but Derek and her would be visiting Aunt Madge, so no one would have to know about her freak friends.

She wasn't expecting, though, that all four of 'them' would work her around like a dog on Friday night.

"Case, get me a glass of water?"

"Casey, go and get some salsa."

"Go get the cheese dip, Casey."

"Make me a sundae?"

Their requests made it so that she barely had time to catch her breath before she was hurried out of the room to get more food. Finally, when it seemed like all the contents of the fridge and cupboards were in her room and not in the kitchen, the four stopped ordering her around.

Fast forward two minutes to win Derek burst through the door, and Casey knew that had officially been the start of "hell at home".

"Casey?! There's no food in the fridge!" Derek hollered, ripping open her bedroom door and staring at her with wide, innocent and childish eyes. Casey's own eyes widened as the other four girls in the room all stopped talking, staring at Derek with complete adoration evident on their face.

"What the hell is this?!" Derek hollered as his eyes landed on the bags among bags of chips strewn all over the floor.

He blindly stepped over everything else on the floor before he snatched up the bag of chips and turned to leave, not waiting for an explanation.

"I have an idea!" Shawnee said quickly, fastening her hand around Derek's wrist and tugging him back into the room. "Let's play hide and seek… in the dark… around the house. Chelsea's it! Everyone run!" Shawnee squealed.

Casey didn't miss the fact that as Shawnee ran to her hiding spot, she tugged Derek along with her. Something inside her burned at the thought of them together, in a small, dark confine, but when the lights shut off, Casey stumbled to her feet and forgot all about Derek.

She tripped down the stairs and into the living room, racing through the kitchen and into the laundry room, where she ripped open the pantry-door where they kept their soap and detergent, and closed it behind her.

Her breath left her lips raggedly as she hunched over and gripped her knees, trying to control her breathing. She could hear footsteps in the kitchen, and she assumed it was Chelsea until the closet door ripped open and someone stumbled in.

Whoever it was pressed up close to Casey. She wearily looked over her shoulder at the person, when she felt a hand slide down her waist, going lower… and lower… until it rested on her –

"Ah! Ugh, get off me!" Casey screamed, slapping away the person's hands (though by now she guessed it was Rhonda).

"But… Casey…" Rhonda murmured. Her hand brushed against Casey's shoulder, but Casey had enough and ripped open the door, running as fast as she could out of the kitchen and back up the stairs.

She could see her room. She was so close… just a few more steps…

"Casey!" someone whispered, before she was grabbed by the shoulders, ripped out of her run and shoved against the wall. She could feel a body press against hers as she breathed raggedly.

"What kind of sick people do you have for friends?!" Derek cried. Casey's breathing turned frantic as she gripped Derek's arms.

"I don't know! I wouldn't have invited them over if I'd known one of them would crop a feel!"

"What?" Derek gasped. Casey could now tell he was panting for air, too. She was about to say something when they heard the faint calling of someone in Edwin's room.

Derek and Casey whipped their heads to look at each other, breathing heavily against one another's faces.

"The Games Closet!" They both whispered, before dragging each other down the hall and locking the door shut behind them.

"So… what happened to you? I thought you'd be happy to get into a small space with a girl," Casey said slowly, meeting Derek's gaze carefully.

"No… she's not my type."

"Hm," was all Casey said in reply, rolling her eyes in the darkness. They saw more lights flick on on the other side of the door, but luckily none of them thought to check in the Games closet. Not like they'd actually get in, as it was locked. But it was still nice to know four freaks didn't know you're hiding place.

Derek let out one gust of air and rested a hand through his hair.

"This is all your fault, you know." Casey was about to shoot back a retort, but fought against it. It was her fault, after all, and she didn't want her closet-mate to turn against her, or for them to break out into a fight.

"Yeah, it is. It's just… they wouldn't take 'no' for an answer and… I'm kind of scared of them," Casey admitted as she fiddled with one of the boxes on the shelf.

"Yeah, can't disagree with you there."

"So…" Casey's eyes met Derek's hesitantly, "Why weren't you happy you were thrusted into a small space with a girl. And don't say, 'she wasn't my type', because anything with two legs and a female chromosome is your type."

"Well… we're in a small space, and I'm assuming you're a girl… and trust me, I'm happier here with you then I was with that freak. I just didn't like her." A smile tugged at Casey's lips and something deep inside her fluttered.

They sat in silence for a moment, before Derek spoke up again.

"Want to know the real reason why Sally and I broke up?" Casey peered at him, her eyes wide. He had never spoke to anyone about their break-up, not even Edwin, and Casey just assumed it was a lost cause.

Derek scooted closer to Casey, sitting right beside her so they were both squished against each other and the confines of the closet.

"Okay, but I hope it's nothing to do with –," Casey paused when his lips delicately touched hers. Her eyes involuntarily shut, and she let out a slight gasp at the spark that ignited with his actions.

Her hand reached up and fiddled with the hair at the nape of his neck, while one of his arms supported her back, the other resting on her arm.

She responded immediately, enveloping her lips with his. But, all too soon it ended, and Derek pulled back with a wide smile.

"She broke up with me because she didn't want to be second place to her boyfriend," Derek whispered, his lips millimetres from her own.

"I-I'm… first place?" Casey asked, pulling back an inch so she could see Derek's eyes. He nodded quickly and a wide smile broke out across Casey's face.

She pulled Derek against her and leaned her head on his chest.

"Never thought having a sleepover with four… interesting… people would bring this along," Casey said, laughing slightly.

"Yeah… and remind me to beat the crap out of that one who felt you up."

Author's Notes

Nooooooo! Noooooooooooo!

-bangs head against keyboard repeatedly-

I promised myself I wouldn't write one of these happy-sappy stories! Noooo! I'm sorry… I've failed you all as a writer. I shall commence suicide immediately.

As you can tell… Me No Happy 'Bout This Story! (I'm never happy about any of my stories…. Shhhh) Anyways, it's just too… meh. Not my type of thing.

Please go easy with the flames.