A/N: Hope you're all enjoying the story. I love writing Dasey stories and I love to read them. If I had my way I'd be a writer for the show, and guess what I'd have happen? :P
Chapter 3
Ralph
"And that's when I totally dodged the baseball!" Ralph exclaimed, grinning at his best friends. Sam returned the grin and high-fived him
"Nice, man," he said. Ralph turned to Derek, but his other friend didn't seem to be listening.
"Earth to Derek," he said, snapping his fingers in front of Derek's face. "You in there, buddy?"
"Huh?" said Derek, blinking and looking vaguely confused. "What?"
"Checking out the competition again?" Sam grinned at Derek, and Ralph was confused at the knowing look on Sam's face. He followed their gazes and saw Derek's step-sister chatting with her no-good boyfriend, Truman.
"Aw, man, I hate that guy," Ralph complained. "It's too bad your step-sis has to be dating him. She could do so much better." Derek didn't rip his gaze off of the couple. "She could be dating me!" Ralph joked.
"Dude," Sam said, laying a hand on Ralph's shoulder. "Not a good time."
"Wha—?" Ralph asked, looking from Sam to Derek to the couple. Derek looked oddly concerned as he watched Casey and Truman laughing together. Ralph wondered why Derek would be upset about Casey's boyfriend. If Truman was off the market, it made things that much easier for Derek. Unless…
"OHH!" Ralph cried, grinning that he'd figured it out. "You're jealous, D!"
Derek turned his eyes to Ralph and snapped, "Wha—me? Jealous?" He laughed nervously… a little too nervously, and added, "Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Casey's laughter drifted over to them, and Derek made a face. Then he slammed his locker shut and stalked away.
Ralph scratched his head. "Dude, what's up with him?"
Sam just shook his head. "Derek's in denial. And he's going to make the rest of us suffer until that Truman guy gets out of the picture."
"Riiight," Ralph said, nodding. "So… got a plan?"
"As a matter of fact, I do. Derek's not the only one who can come of with a scheme." Sam smiled mischievously. "If you're willing to help out, that is."
Ralph just grinned.
Casey
"So you really like Virginia Woolf?" Truman was asking, leaning against the locker next to hers.
Casey laughed. "Of course. And you really don't like reading… at all?"
Truman didn't reply, only leaned down to kiss her. "I like you," he said.
Grinning into the kiss, Casey opened her mouth to deepen it. That was when she felt a tap on her shoulder.
"What?" she asked.
"Casey, can you give me a hand?" Ralph asked her, wearing a worried expression on his face.
Casey huffed. "Can't you ask the wonderful Derek for help?" she queried sarcastically.
Ralph shook his head and said, "That's the problem. Derek's in a bad mood, and Sam seems to have disappeared."
"Fine," Casey replied and turned to follow Ralph. "See you later!" she told Truman. He just wiggled his eyebrows.
As Casey followed Ralph down the hall, she thought she saw Sam's form rush by her in the direction of Truman. How odd….
"Derek's in here," Ralph told her, approaching the boy's bathroom.
"I can't go in there," Casey said, coming up short. "I am a girl in case you haven't noticed."
Ralph grinned at her. "Oh, I've noticed, Casey. But Derek needs your help."
Casey let out an exasperated groan. "All right, all right." She went inside.
There was no one there. "Ralph?" she asked, turning around. "I don't see—"
Ralph was gone. "Ralph!" Casey cried, going to the door. It wouldn't open. If Casey didn't know better, she would've guessed that Ralph was holding it closed.
"Truman? Is that you?" a soft voice asked. Casey froze, her entire body tensing up at the intimate way that the feminine voice called Truman's name. As if they were supposed to meet here. On a regular basis.
"What's going—Oh!!" a tall blond with gorgeous curly hair and perfect features had exited a bathroom stall, but at the sight of Casey she had halted. "You're not Truman," she said stupidly. "You're—oh my God."
"Who are you?" Casey choked out, although she already knew.
"I'm—I'm no one. I think I went into the wrong bathroom. Isn't this the boy's bathroom?" she laughed nervously. "Whoops, my mistake. I'll just be leaving now." She tried the door, but it held fast. Ralph was stronger than Casey gave him credit for.
"Are you in here to meet Truman?" Casey demanded bluntly.
The girl didn't turn around from where she was attempting to open the door, but Casey saw her entire body freeze at the accusation.
"You are!" cried Casey, feeling more anger than betrayal. She couldn't believe it. Not that Truman would cheat on her, but that she—the rational, intelligent Casey McDonald—could have become so stupid as to think that Truman was a decent guy. How wrong she'd been. And what a waste of time the last two months had been.
Shoving past the blonde, Casey banged on the door. "Ralph, I get it," she yelled, feeling tears of self-hatred well up in her eyes. "I'm dumping Truman as soon as you let me out."
The door opened. For the first time in her life, Casey saw that Ralph looked sad. "I'm sorry, Casey," he told her, squeezing her shoulder in sympathy. Next to him, Sam stood clutching a wide-eyed and fearful-looking Truman.
"The culprit," said Sam, shoving Truman forward. Casey could barely stand to look at him.
"You bastard," she hissed at him, and shoved him back into the boy's bathroom with the unnamed blonde. "You don't deserve me." Yanking the door closed, she slid a broom between the door handles, locking Truman and the blonde in. "Now you can have all the fun you want together and no one will interrupt you!" she bellowed, before starting to cry.
She felt two, strong sets of arms wrap around her. It only made her cry more to know how supportive Sam and Ralph were. If he'd chosen such great people for his friends, he couldn't be so bad after all. She was past denying it now. She definitely had a thing for her step-brother. She just wished he felt the same way.
Emily
"Casey, sweetie, you really need to stop beating yourself up over this," Emily said, stroking Casey's hair. They were in Casey's room, and Casey's head was resting on a pillow in Emily's lap. Kleenexes were strewn all over and there were pieces of half-eaten chocolates lying in their wrappers on her bed. Emily had never been happier to learn that Casey had broken up with Mr. Dumbass, but she still hated to see her best friend so sad.
"It's not—hic—that I miss Truman. It's that I'm just so—hic—frustrated with myself." Casey wiped away her tears and sat up, eating a piece of chocolate. "Ew," she cried a moment later. "I hate coconut!" This only seemed to bring on a new bout of tears. Emily quickly removed all the coconut flavored truffles from Casey's grasp.
"Casey, you shouldn't blame yourself for this. You had no idea that Truman was such a douche bag. It's not your fault."
Shaking her head, Casey sniffled. "But I was so stupid to ever want to—hic—date him in the first place!"
Emily made a face; she couldn't disagree with Casey there. But she simply shushed her friend and put in another movie into Casey's laptop. It was Clueless, one of Casey's favorite movies.
They mostly watched it in silence, until the end. The male lead, Josh, endearingly admitted his affection for his step-sister, Cher. As they leaned in for their adorable first kiss, Emily felt Casey start shuddering all over again. By the time the credits were rolling, the tears were flowing freely.
"Casey, what's wrong?" cried Emily, concerned. This movie had always made Casey feel better about everything.
"Why couldn't he be as nice as Josh?" Casey snuffled.
Emily furrowed her brow. "What? Who?" she asked.
"I asked why Derek couldn't have been as nice as Josh."
Emily glanced down at her best friend in confusion. Maybe that coconut truffle had done something to her head….
"Thanks, Emily," Casey said suddenly, sitting up. "I feel much better now."
Although she was incredibly confused, Emily nodded, smiling. "That's great, Casey. I was only happy to hang out with you." It had been almost ten hours of her Saturday, but Emily knew that Casey would do the same for her if their situations had been reversed.
"I should probably do a little homework," Casey said, and glanced around her at all the wrappers and Kleenexes as though for the first time. "And a little cleaning, apparently." They both laughed, and Emily hugged her.
As she let herself out the front door, Emily couldn't help but wonder what Casey meant by her ambiguous comment about the movie and step-brothers and being nice.
Derek
Sam and Ralph had broken the news to him. Although Derek had known nothing about Truman's cheating, he found that he wasn't very surprised. The only thing that shocked him was that the scumbag would want to cheat on Casey. True, he wasn't… personally… attracted… to her (or anything like that). But he had to admit that to any other guy, she was probably a pretty decent girlfriend.
She'd been in her room all day with Emily, and from time to time he heard her crying, but Emily had left a half an hour ago and Derek felt compelled to check on Casey. After all, she was his step-sister. It was his… duty.
He knocked on her door, something that he rarely did. "Come in," he heard her say. Upon entering, he raised his eyebrows to see how organized and neat the room looked compared to Casey herself. She looked forlorn. Almost… lost. It was uncomfortable to see her so out of sorts (and not due to his own teasing).
"Uh… you ok?" he asked, clearing the awkwardness from his throat.
She didn't look at him. "If you've come to rub things in," she said, "then go away." She was rearranging her desk supplies.
Derek was thoughtful for a moment, wondering what was going on in her head. "What're you doing?" he questioned at last.
"If you insist on knowing, I'm redoing my room. I don't like the person in me that ever decided that dating Truman was a good idea." She chucked a picture frame of her and Truman into a box on her floor. "Cleaning the clutter out of my room is my way of cleaning my mistakes out of myself."
"Oh." He swallowed, looking down at the box, stuffed with things that he could only assume reminded her of Truman… or the Casey that had wanted to date him.
"Do you… need anything?" he wondered. "A sedative? A ticket to a mental institution? What's with this bout of insanity you've got going on?"
"Nothing. I'm fine," she replied, taking down a stuffed giraffe from her shelf and shoving it in the box in front of him. After she'd given it an extra push, she stood upright, and their eyes met. Derek was surprised to see that her eyes were dry and not red-rimmed or swollen.
"You sure you're all right?" he asked, skeptical, as he stared down into her blue eyes. "You look… different." He had to look away, though, before his breath caught from how beautiful her eyes looked. What was the matter with him, anyway?
"I'm fine," she said again. "And what do you mean by 'different'?"
Derek rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. "I only mean that you seem… older and more… confident or something. It's not a bad thing."
"Really?" he heard her ask, and he lifted his eyes to her face once more. She looked hopeful, and a small smile strained at her lips.
"Yeah," he replied, continuing to stare at how inviting those pink lips looked.
"Hey kids!" his dad's voice called from downstairs. "Dinner's ready!"
Startled, Casey took a quick breath in and lowered her gaze to the box at her feet. "Well, this is all going out to the trash. I'll see you in a jiffy, I guess."
"Ok," he said, and turned around to head down for dinner. His body felt both numb and tingly, and his blood was pounding in his ears. Derek shook his head to clear the confusion from his brain, wondering why it had suddenly stopped working.
What was going on with him?
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