So Chapter four is up and it's too freaking hot to do anything! Hope you all are having a great summer because I can't stand the heat! Dad's b-day was nice. I got him an AC/DC shirt which he wore today for work Enough of this! I'll let you read…
NotAWriter16: Thank you and I'm not sure how many times she'll ask. I'm debating if I should do nine chapters. It's kind of like how he wont let her hug him in the episodes, so it'll probably be a while.
ZenNoMai: why thank you! And I know how you feel, but think of it this way; the longer it takes for an update, the longer the chapter!
Disclaimer: I do not own Life With Derek…but I wish I did.
ooo
The fourth time she asks, he stares at her for a moment before flicking her forehead and replying with a simple 'no'. It was after he revealed that two-timing coach of Lizzie's soccer team. He didn't know entirely why he had to let Casey find out, apart from the bastard being, well, a bastard. Derek knew it was wrong. Hell, he doesn't even dip in those waters. But it was mainly the fact that the idiot did it to Casey, his annoying ass BLIND stepsister. The way he saw it, cheating on someone you know can't see it, is a very low thing to do.
Derek doesn't even know how the hell Casey found out that he was the one to intentionally tell her through Marti's dialog about Lizzie's playboy coach. But she did and now she was following him up the stairs (slowly he will add) and barging into his room.
"Do you ever knock?" he said from his seated position on the desk chair, headphones around his neck.
"What? Afraid I'm gonna see you naked? Besides, you never knock when you enter my room, I'm the one who can't see," she retorted, her eyes on his computer. The corner of his lips turned up in a smirk as she spoke. True, he had barged into her room a few times to try and catch her in a state of undress (he's not gonna lie, she has a nice body). But she didn't need to know that, nor will he ever admit it.
"What to you want," he continued, moving out of his chair and removing the headphones to walk around the desk.
"Well first, to thank you. I know it was you who told Marti to say those things about Scott," she started as her blue orbs moved towards his bed next to them. If there's one thing Derek knows how to do well other than lying, is to deny deny deny.
"I don't know what you're talking about Space Case," he objected, folding his arms against his chest and staring intently at her features.
"Oh really? Well does ' Out of all the girls Scott is going out with, I like you the best Casey' or ' Scott is a Mr. Stinky Poop Head that kicks girls around like he does a soccer ball' ring a bell? I'm not stupid Derek. I think I've grown to know that Marti only listens to you," she explained, crossing her arms over her chest as well, her pupil-less eyes focusing on his right shoulder. " Besides, after my accident I've learned to pay attention to sound and personality through voice. And the way Marti talks is different from what she said about Scott," she finished, eyebrow rising in the process.
Great, more reasons to kick his own ass.
"That's nice keener, but what's the real reason why you're here?" he exclaimed, directing the conversation away from that touchy family moment she was going towards. No way in hell was she his family (come on really, Casey his sister? I think not.)
She sighed, her cool breath hitting his throat that left the hairs on the back of his neck stand. She wasn't supposed to do that to him, make his body do things like that. Derek quickly brought a hand to rub the back of his neck, removing the evidence.
"I wanted to ask if I could see you. It's been months already and I have no clue what you look like," Casey said, her body language shifting from confident to unsure. Her milky gray- blue orbs moved lower to his chest. He stared at her. Not entirely sure what to do. Part of him wanted to let her, she was pleading with him to do so by the way she stood before him. But there was another part of him that said not yet, the part that told him to wait till he's able to control himself.
He wished he could strangle both parts; they're giving him a headache.
Coming out of his thoughts, Derek blinked for a few seconds before lifting his right hand and flicking Casey's forehead with his middle finger.
"No," he simply stated, turning around to lie on his bed. Casey, startled by his actions, quickly lifted her hands to rub the spot on her forehead (which he fights to label adorable).
"Why!" she exclaims, palm pressed to her forehead as the other reaches out for the bed. Her knees hit the edge and she stumbles a bit to gain her balance. Derek watches her in fascination.
"Because you're looking for a family moment and you and I are not family," he half lies, pulling out a magazine from the covers.
"Is that why you won't let me see you? Because you don't want me in your family?" she asked. Her eyes were shifting from a point on the bed to his ankle.
"That's not what I said," he began, dropping the magazine on his lap to look at her. Casey turned her head in his direction as her eyes landed on his right shoulder.
"Then what did you say?" her fingers twitched at her sides and for a brief moment, he wondered if she was aching to hit him. He has been told, numerously by her, that sometimes his actions made people want to smack him upside the head.
"Listen Case, what I want to do with my body is my decision. AND before you say that that sounds wrong," he raises his voice slightly a he watched her open her mouth to interrupt. "I choose not to let you touch me. Other than the occasional guide me here and there thing you need," he finished before lifting the magazine back up and reading where he left off. It was quiet for a moment, allowing him to read two lines from the article in his hands. But nothing stays quiet when Casey is in the room. With him and her combined, it's not pleasant. Especially with the lungs she has. Everyone seems to scatter when one or the other enters the room, like a black hole will form and swallow them if they stay too long.
"But what if something happens and I need to identify you? Or you go missing or locked up in jail!" Casey suddenly protests as her arms wave about before falling to her sides.
"I mean think about it Derek..." he tunes her out and sighs deeply.
"Oh for the love of..." Derek drops the magazine, flings his legs over the edge of the bed and stands up. She's still yammering and when he ducks down, shoulder to her stomach, arm around her thighs, and hand wrapped around her wrist to hoist her up, she shrieks. He carries her out of his room as her small fists beat his back, occasionally pressing themselves to his thoracolumbar fascia muscle to push herself up. She's yelling at him, throwing in a few 'put me down!' s after a couple of sentences.
"You insufferable, arrogant, idiotic ass!" she screams as he enters her room.
"Casey!" he barks and sets her down with a bounce in front of him.
"What!" she snaps. It was then that he realized how close he was. The small hands resting on his shoulders were noted as well as her tiny frame being pressed to his while his left arm curled around her lower back. They stood there in silence for a moment in what felt like hours but only lasted a few seconds. He watched her facial expressions. She was just as surprised as he was, lips parting at the realization of his proximity. Derek's brown orbs gravitated towards those ample lips that never seemed to stop moving. And he was so close. But once his gaze shifted to her eyes, which were big and round and fixated on his chin, he knew this was wrong.
"So you going for a new look or something because let me tell you, that mustache suits you," he spouts suddenly to change the atmosphere of the room. He's not sure, but he might have seen disappointment in her eyes. Yet even if there was, he would have missed it because her features quickly twist into a scowl as Casey pushes him away and feels her way to her desk. He totters back a bit, muttering an 'ow' as he rubs his left shoulder. The girl had an arm. And when they wrestle for the remote, (she likes to listen to talks shows and documentaries) he struggles to remove it from her grip. The strength thing must be genetic because Lizzie has it and Edwin has a few bruises to prove it. And Nora, well, she could open jars without the help of his father. She's one strong mama bear.
"You're a pain in the ass, Derek," Casey mutters, turning on her computer. The screen light appeared as a mechanical voice delivered a greeting. Casey's fingers hovered over the Braille keyboard as the screen reader software Nora installed guided her through the electronic device. He hated that thing because it wouldn't shut up whenever he tried to snoop around. And the volume would only lower to a certain limit.
"Tell me something I don't know, Princess," Derek replied as he plopped onto her bed, head in his hands. Casey turned towards him in her chair and smirked. Her eyes lingered at the edge of her comforter, conveniently close to his head.
"You're a pain in the ass, but you have a heart," Casey finished, the smirk on her face growing into a smile. She draped her arm over the back of the desk chair and flexed her fingers.
"Hey!" Derek protested as he lifted himself up onto his elbows and shot her a dirty look. " That's cold, McDonald," he continued to glare in her direction, eyes watching hers roll towards the ceiling. But the smile remained on her lips, a sight he couldn't help but find warming. He didn't like to admit hat he had a heart, let alone allow it to show, but with her (and Marti of course) he's been bringing it out to breathe.
"You and your rep," Casey mutters, turning back to the computer. "What are you still doing here anyway? Don't you have some poor defenseless bug to burn?" she asked as she hit a few Braille imprinted keys while the computer vocalized the letters. He could pick up that she was working on the English assignment. The one he had yet to start.
"You are the bug," he stated, smirking at the back of her head. Casey spun back around, but stopped too short and ended up facing the window a few feet away from his head.
"Go find another bug. This one's all burned out," she countered, her blue orbs staring at the wall adjacent to him. If only she knew that the metaphor was not accurate. Because to him, he was the bug. And if he was the bug and God was the kid, then Casey must be the magnifying glass.
Before he could say anything else, Marti appeared at the doorway, Sir Munks-A-Lot in hand.
"Smerek? There you are!" the little girl stomped into the room like a mother on a mission and hopped onto the bed next to him. "Can you tell me a bed time story now, please! You promised me you would if I..." she began, bouncing on her knees with each word. Casey had fully turned herself to face the two as her eyes focused off towards her nightstand when Derek interrupted his little sister.
"Alright, alright! Let's go get your bed ready then, Smarti," he replied, sitting up on the bed as Marti crawled behind him to climb his back.
"Thump, thump" Casey mimicked the beating of a heart, smirk forming on her lips. Derek turned to face her as he shifted Marti higher up his back, the stuffed monkey banging against his chest. Bending down to Casey's level, Derek filled his lungs with air and blew it out in her ear. She yelped and jerked to the side away from him.
"Der-rek!" she protested as Marti giggled behind him. He just laughed and made his way out the room, Marti shouting a goodnight to Casey who returned the favor.
Ooo
Thanks for reading! I'll work on the next chapter and hopefully have it up before I start my class!