Disclaimer: I don't own LWD or any of its characters.

Author's Note: Thank you so, so much for your positive reviews! You guys are the best! As some of you might have connected, the title of this story partially comes from Derek's ringtone (TiK ToK by Kesha). However, the title also refers to something else..which you shall know soon ;). And yes, I agree with all of you who said Demily gets in the way of Dasey..no worries, Demily won't stick around forever! Anyway, thanks for reading! I'd really appreciate your reviews :)

11:57 P.M.

Derek glared at the clock.

11:58 P.M.

He tapped his pencil impatiently.

11:59 P.M.

Tick tock, on the clock, But the party don't stop—

"Hello?"

"DEREK MY BOY!"

"Dad," Derek acknowledged. "Cutting it a little close aren't we?"

"It's not midnight yet!" Edwin called out.

"Am I on speaker phone?" Derek demanded.

"It's the only way we can all say…HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" everyone shouted.

Derek held the phone away from his ear, but grinned. "So who finally remembered?"

"Hey I remembered," George protested.

"Sure you did," Derek laughed.

"Okay, okay." His dad admitted, "Maybe it was Liz and Ed."

"Ed? Really?"

"Actually it was more just me," Lizzie's voice said.

"Well thank you Liz," Derek replied, grinning. "And thanks everyone for calling."

"You're welcome, Derek," Nora said. "Oh and we've sent you a gift in the mail. Did you get it yet?"

"No…"

"Well that's great, Nora. Now you've ruined the surprise," Edwin complained.

Nora laughed, "Well he still doesn't know what it is…"

"Who are you guys talking to?" a small voice suddenly interrupted sleepily.

Derek felt a smile on his face. "Marti!"

"Marti, honey, you're supposed to be sleeping—" Nora said.

"Is that Smerek?"

"You know it," Derek answered, grinning.

"Smerek! Today's your birthday, isn't it?"

"Why yes it is. Wish I could be there was a special Smarti hug," Derek said, actually wishing he was there.

"Me too," Marti responded, and he could just see her cute little pout. "Happy Birthday!" she shouted, blowing a horn or something loudly.

"Aw thanks Smarts," Derek called back. "But now you gotta go back to bed, okay?"

"Okay," Marti agreed. "Bye Smerek."

"Bye Derek!" the rest of the family called out.

"Bye." Derek hung up, feeling a lot happier than he had in days.

He glanced at the clock. 12:10 P.M. His birthday was officially over. She really hadn't called.

Derek slowly got into bed, looking over at his roommate's empty bed. The good thing about having a roommate who had a girlfriend, you ask? That said girlfriend had her own apartment. So basically Derek lived in a single, which was perfectly fine with him. His roommate (from about the 2 seconds he'd seen him over the course of the year) did not look like the type of person Derek would get along with.

What type of person is that, you ask? Well, for starters, Derek did not like football players. His roommate was a football player. Enough said.

Derek sighed and closed his eyes, drifting almost immediately into a dream-fueled sleep. Running, had to keep running. Derek looked frantically over his shoulder. They couldn't have it back! Not when he hadn't fixed anything yet. Someone screamed behind him and Derek tripped over a tree branch. An object flew out his hand and landed a few feet away. Derek reached over and gasped. No! It couldn't be broken! "I wasn't done yet!" he shouted---

Don't stop, make it pop

DJ, blow my speakers up

Tonight, Imma fight

Till we see the sunlight

Tick tock, on the clock

But the party don't stop—

"Ugh," Derek groaned, trying to hit the snooze button. He blearily opened his eyes to a pitch-black room. What time was it anyway? He grabbed his cell phone. 2 AM?? What on earth? He hadn't set an alarm for 2 AM…

After a couple seconds of gathering his wits, he realized that it was probably someone calling him and not his alarm. Feeling a strange surge of hope, he quickly searched for the missed call screen. Hmm. Not a number he recognized. Meaning it wasn't Casey. Well that was slightly disappointing.

With a sigh, he hit redial.

"Queens mail center, how may we help you?" a cheery voice startled him.

"Um, you guys just called me…?"

"Oh, is this Derek Venturi?"

"That would be me," Derek yawned.

"Sorry to bother you, but we received a package for you."

"Couldn't this wait till the morning?" Derek demanded.

"It—it said deliver immediately," the girl said hesitantly. "We'll send it right up!" she hung up.

"Wait—" Derek groaned, hanging up. Great. He flipped on the T.V. for something to watch while he waited. A hockey game was on. He immediately turned it off. His grueling 5 AM hockey practices had made him somewhat despise the game.

At that second, there was a knock on the door. "Finally," Derek muttered to himself.

He swung it open.

There was no one there.

Derek frowned, looking up and down the silent hallway. What now?

As he was closing the door, he happened to glance down. He stopped short, staring at the small square box sitting at his door. He carefully picked it up and once again looked up and down the hallway. Silence.

Shrugging, he closed the door, turning the package around in his hands.

There was a small note attached to it and he extracted it. To Derek. May this bring you true happiness. Happy Birthday!

Derek rolled his eyes. True happiness? His family was so lame.

He opened up the package, and inside was a smaller, purple velvet box. Curiously, he opened it and peered at what was inside.