Diclaimer: I do not own Life With Derek.
Chapter Two
"You and Crystal have fun in Florida?" Derek's eyes looked up from the books he tried to balance unsuccessfully in his hands. His friend, Michael, a tall, muscular, blonde was standing in front of him, occassionally slapping his back. Michael was a bit, perverted, for lack of a better word. He emphasized the word fun and gave Derek a very noticable wink. "Eh, my good man?"
Derek rolled his eyes and stood up, facing his friend. "Yes, me and Crystal had an excellent time," Derek replied with a sarcastic, mocking tone. Michael nodded, and did a pelvic thrust, obviously pleased with his friend's answer.
"I envy you, man," Michael groaned, sitting Derek down rather forcefully and then plopping down on the couch next to him. "You're star of the hockey team, dude, you even got here on a scholarship. You're basically head of our fraternity, have the hottest girlfriend ever. Men want Crystal so bad and Derek, V-Man, you've tapped that!" Michael hit his back again, this time with more force. It made Derek wince a bit, but he couldn't help but laugh.
"All that glitters isn't gold," Derek muttered. If only Michael knew, if only anyone did, that his life wasn't exactly perfect. He leaned back into the couch, it was soft, but torn with wore, yet it gave him a sense, a taste of feeling home in such an akward place. Such a place that college only throws you into, sitting on a cheap couch with the biggest pervert on campus. Maybe Derek was like that once, back in high school.
"What man? Isn't that from a song or something?" Michael gave him a confused look and tilted his head. He looked like a puppy that had just been scolded and didn't quite understand.
Derek chuckled. "Its a saying, I'm not sure where from, but a girl I knew used to say it often." He paused, seeming lost in thought for a split second. "When she said it, though, she gave it so much sense, meaning."
Michael laughed and punched Derek's shoulder. "This girl another one of your hott ex-girlfriends?"
Derek shook his head. "No, but one could wish. She wasn't hott, she was beautiful. She wasn't sexy, she was gorgeous. She had a sparkle in her eye that made it seem like anything could be perfect." Derek wrung his hands together nervously. "That's enough though." He dug into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. From the emerging wads of cash that crowded the wallet's money pocket, a small picture stuck out from the crumpled bills. He pulled it out gently, as if it was more important than the money itself. He handed the picture to his friend, taking all the precautions in the world. "Hold the edges, be careful. I'm not sure what I would do if I lose this."
It was the most perfect thing in the world, even to Michael's eyes. Two young teenagers were holding eachother. The boy had his arms wrapped around the girl's waist. Long, brown hair seemed to cascade in curls around her shoulders, outlining her heart shaped face, and making her hazel colored eyes pop. Derek was right, there was sparkle. Michael shifted his eyes over to the boy in the picture, he recgonized him as Derek. The two looked so happy, but there was an invisible wall between them, some sort of distance. Maybe for once in his life, Michael was completely speechless. He handed the picture back to Derek. "You were right man, she does seem like a special girl." Derek looked down at the picture before quickly stuffing it into his wallet and then his wallet back into his jean's pocket.
"Derek?" he turned around. There was Casey in all her glory, standing before him like some angel who'd just got her wings. Her hands were on her hips, her bottom lip jutted out in a form of pout. Derek froze in place. He looked her over, a cream cami and purple pajama bottoms, not that he was surprised. "Why are you in my room at," she glanced over at the clock on her nightstand, "two thirty-six in the morning?"
"I was looking for your diary," he lied. "you wouldn't possibly see me coming while you were sleeping." He saw her raise a delicate eyebrow. Derek jumped at her, and did a mock karate move, lifting his arms and a leg obnoxiously in the air. "Sneak ninja attack!" then he ran out of her room in a hurry. He snickered a bit because his actions made Casey jump, but also because she was none the wiser.
Casey groaned and walked over to crawl back into her warm bed. She glanced over at her desk, under two books lay her diary. If one looked carefully, it was in plain site. She did a quick jog over to the desk, reaching it in four jog steps, and she picked it up and placed it in one of the desk drawers. If Derek was stupid enough to not look on the desk, maybe he was stupid enough to not look in one of the drawers. She walked over to her bed once again and sank into the warm, comforting sheets. "She was," the words tumbled out of his mouth as he swallowed a thick, sickening lump in his throat.
"What happened to her?" Michael inquired, his gaze didn't leave Derek's now spacing out eyes.
"She's just gone, that's all," Derek said, he seemed to take a bit of offence to the subject. He grabbed his books and began to stalk off.
"Derek!" Michael shouted out to him, but nothing. His friend didn't turn around, or even seem to hear his call. There was something strange, something alluring about the girl in the photo, something that didn't quite make sense. Sure she was a past love of Derek's. There just seemed so much more to the story, but it had to be left for another time.
Derek walked out to his car, a shiny black BMW sitting in the student parking lot of the Fraternity building. He saw a pretty, brunette, tall and slender walk quickly by, she winked at him. He sighed, and ran his fingers throug his hair as he pulled out his car keys from his back pocket and clicked the unlock button. The car beeped a few times and Derek opened the door and slid into the cold, leather seats. He placed the keys in the ignition and the car whirled to life, a heavy metal band played loudly out of the car speaker. Derek quickly covered his ears before he turned the volume down to silent.
He pulled down the mirror in his car and looked at his reflection. "Derek," he whispered, "how can you live with this?" He chewed on his bottom lip before falling back into the seat.
"What would they do...?"
