Eeep! An update. It took me a while to become inspired for this chapter, and I am still completely incapable for a mapping out a plan for this story, so I'm just going with the flow, hoping that whatever comes from this chapter will inspire the next, and so on. This is probably the story that should be most frustrating for me, but for some reason, I can't help but love it. (:

Enjoy!

x—x

After walking for a good five minutes, Derek realized that he had no idea where he was headed, exactly. He looked at his surroundings, and considered turning around and going home.

The thing with Casey didn't have to mean anything. He could just pretend that it was nothing, and then she would as well, and they could go back to screaming and fighting; what they were good at.

Or I could just kiss her. Derek thought.

Immediately Derek's jaw dropped at his own thought.

How, he wondered, could such a ridiculous thing even run through my head? The whole kissing thing isn't a problem. It was just heat of the moment. Once I decide to go back home, it'll have blown over. She may not even think we almost kissed.

Of course, he knew that it was obvious. They both knew what had almost happened. And it most definitely was an almost-kiss.

He decided that he was not ready to go home, even if Casey kept herself holed up in her room. It was just too awkward a notion to deal with then. So he kept walking. Seconds later, he realized that the obvious place to go, would be Sam's place. So that's where he set his sights while he kept walking. Which was why it was a surprise when he watched Sam round the corner and begin walking down the street toward him, a moment later.

"Hey," Sam said, when they got a little closer. Both stopped walking.

"What are you doing?" Sam asked.

"I was actually heading to your place. Where are you going?" Derek asked.

"I was going to your place-"

"Oh, cool, now we can just skip the whole houses thing, and go somewhere to hang." Derek nodded.

"Um, actually, I was going to your place because Casey called and asked if I wanted to hang out." Sam said, bashfully shoving his hands into his pockets.

Derek faltered, "Oh."

They stood in silence for a moment, until Derek heard himself say,

"I thought you guys had ended it. For real."

That's what I say? Why would I even care? I never wanted him dating her in the first place. Wait, that sounds protective of Casey. I meant that I never wanted my best friend dating my annoying Casey. I mean annoying step-sister. Oh, God, did I seriously just think 'my annoying Casey'? Putting 'My' and 'Casey' in the same sentence?

Derek wanted to smack his palm to his forehead, he was making himself feel like such an idiot.

"Um, yeah, we did-"

"Then why did she ask you over?" Derek asked. He noticed that he sounded a bit defensive, and didn't know where it had come from.

Stop talking. Now.

"We're still friends." Sam said.

"Do you still like her?" Derek pressed.

Someone please shoot me. Shoot me now.

"Dude, are you okay? You're acting kind of weird." Sam asked, looking slightly concerned.

And you're avoiding my question. Derek thought. He was able to control himself enough to not say it out loud, but he couldn't keep the annoyance from his face. Although he had no idea where the annoyance had come from. It was Sam. Sam definitely hadn't done anything particularly annoying. And yet, here he was, beginning to feel frustrated.

"I'm fine." Derek tried to tone down his snappish tone.

He had a feeling Sam still didn't believe him, but didn't know what was wrong. But, it would have been weird if he had. Known what was wrong. Because Derek had no clue.

x—x

When Casey heard a knock on the front door, she sighed with relief. Hanging out with Sam was sure to clear her mind. She quickly went to the door and opened it.

"Hey, Sam. Come on in." Casey smiled, and let Sam pass her.

But her smile quickly vanished and was replaced by her mouth opening slightly,once Sam came in the house, and Casey could see that there had been someone standing behind him. Derek smiled at her in an annoying way that made her want to slam the door on him, and lock it.

Derek must have sensed this, since he grabbed a hold of the door, and quickly entered the house.

"What are you doing here?" Casey hissed, momentarily forgetting that she felt awkward around him right then, because she was too annoyed. What was he doing here? He had left. Why hadn't he kept going?

You know, until he reached Delaware, or something.

"Last time I checked, I lived here." Derek said.

Casey's eyes became slits as she stared at him. "You left."

"And then I came back." Derek pointed out, speaking slowly as if talking to someone hard of hearing.

Casey rolled her eyes, and looked at him like he was the most disgusting thing on Earth.

"You two alright?" Sam appeared.

"We're fine." Casey smiled sweetly at Sam before she turned to give Derek a scowl of loathing. Then she walked past Sam and into the living room.

Sam glanced curiously at Derek before following Casey into the room.

Derek idled for a moment.

What am I doing? He wondered.

He hadn't planned on following Sam back to the house, but it seemed that before his mind could reach his mouth, his mouth had already decided for him and was saying, "Well, let's go, then."

"What?" Sam had asked.

"To my house. Let's go to my house. Might as well. I have nothing better to do."

Nothing better to do than oversee Casey and Sam's date? Because that's what it feels like I'm doing. But that's crazy. Derek thought to himself. It's not even a date. They're friends. FRIENDS. So what am I doing?

He could have turned around and walked back out the front door. Casey would have been delighted, and Sam probably wouldn't have noticed. Or he could have gone up the stairs and into his room. Casey wouldn't have been as delighted as she would have been had he left, but she would be plenty satisfied. And Sam, well, probably wouldn't have noticed. But when he heard Casey's giggle bubble from the next room, Derek walked away from the front door, and past the stairs, into the living room.

Her hand was placed on his chest, and she was laughing about something.

Dude, you can't be that funny. She's obviously pushing you away, and laughing out of courtesy. She's nice like that to everyone. Well. Except for me, of course.

But then Derek realized that a lot of the girls in his 'Derek Venturi Fan Club' laughed lamely at his non humorous jokes, and placed a hand on his chest as well. Usually as a blatant flirting tactic, and as a way to touch him.

Which meant...

"Oh, hey! What's so funny?" Derek asked loudly stepping full into the room.

What's so funny that you had to touch him?

Sam bashfully backed away from Casey a bit, who dropped her hand to her side.

"Nothing." Sam said.

Something.

Casey then placed her palm on the small of Sam's back -again with the touching- and led him to the couch, where Sam settled down by the arm, and Casey sat next to him.

"We're going to watch a movie." Casey said, glaring at Derek with the, Go-far-far-away-this-minute-before-I-have-to-resort-to-bodily-harm, look.

"Oh, fun." Derek said, sarcastically, but he plopped down on the couch next to Casey. "What are we watching?"

Casey continued to glare, even more intensely, as he had decided to come in such close proximity of her, and Sam continued to sit, apparently oblivious to the glares, sarcasm, and tension.

"Um, I don't know. What are we watching, Casey?" Sam asked.

Casey snapped her look to Sam. "Let's just see what's on t.v." She suggested.

She grabbed the remote, and began flipping through the channels. After a moment, she stopped.

"Oh, cool, I've wanted to see this forever." Casey said.

She had stopped on a channel with a really clichéd, stupid, boring chick flick slash teenage high school movie. Derek grimaced at the screen. Casey knew he hated movies like that, just as well as he knew that she hated movies like that.

"You mind?" Casey asked, directing her question to Sam.

"Uh, no. This is fine." Sam said.

Stupid Sam. A hot girl talks to him, and suddenly, he's got no opinion.

Wait a second. Casey's not hot.

Well, she is... NO.

Okay, I really shouldn't lie to myself, but..

Seriously, what am I doing? I'm going crazy.

Derek cleared his throat, and Casey looked at him.

"Oh. Do you- Do you not want to watch this?" Casey asked, acting like she cared.

"Well, actually-"

"Great! This will be fun!" Casey said, settling into her seat.

"This'll be fun!" Derek mocked, murmuring under his breath.

Casey ignored Derek and stared at the screen. She also ignored that Derek kept glancing at her. But after a while she stopped thinking of Derek, as she was too busy focusing on the movie. Derek glanced at Casey again, and saw her grimace at the screen during a particularly dumb scene. He couldn't help but chuckle. Casey's gaze snapped at him.

"Don't like the movie?" Derek asked sweetly. Sam looked over at them.

"Of course I like the movie." Casey said, her eyes turned to slits from glaring at Derek.

"Really, because it just seems like, well, you don't." Derek grinned, although he didn't feel much like grinning.

"I-"

"Are you not having fun? Because I'd hate to think that you're not having fun in Sam's company." Derek said, cutting Casey off.

Casey quickly glanced at Sam, who looked as though he didn't quite know what was going on. Then Casey turned back to Derek.

"Can you come with me to get something from the kitchen, Derek?" Casey said through clenched teeth.

"Ah, I'm sure you can do it yourself. Or perhaps Sam-" Derek waved Casey off, but she grabbed a hold of his arm and yanked him out of his seat, by which time Derek had enough sense to follow willingly as to not be drug into the kitchen by Casey.

"You're unnaturally strong, you know that?" Derek said, rubbing his arm where Casey's claw-like grip had been.

Casey ignored him as she stepped toward him, causing him to hastily step backward.

"Whoa, calm. Calm, Mighty Chia-Pet. Calm." Derek said, raising his hands in front of him.

"A Chia-Pet is a shape that has grass growing out of it." Casey seethed.

"Yeah, well you see, when you get angry, your hair just kind of poofs," Derek said, accentuating his words by making a small 'poof' noise, "And it just starts to look like a-"

"What is your problem?" Casey asked angrily, taking another violent step toward the already cornered Derek.

"Currently my problem is that you're cornering me, looking like you're going to rip my throat out." Derek said.

"Cut the crap, Derek!" Casey said.

"I have no crap to cut." Derek replied smoothly.

"Why are you doing this?"

"It's not like you and Sam are on a date or something." Derek said.

"How do you know?" Casey asked.

Derek felt an odd and unpleasant flipping sensation in his gut. He stared down at Casey.

"Are you?" He asked.

Casey looked up at him to reply, but after a moment realized that they were quite close in the kitchen, again. And she stumbled backwards.

"Whoa." Derek said, stepping toward her, "You okay?"

Casey didn't answer. Instead she just narrowed her eyes at him, quickly grabbed a bag of chips from the counter, and hurried from the kitchen, leaving Derek standing there. And once he realized the position they had once again been in, he slunk upstairs, and into his room, instead of rejoining Casey and Sam in the living room.

x—x

Okay, so this is a somewhat good-length filler chapter. I liked how it turned out, because it gives me base ground to begin the next chapter on. Also, I will be able to start off the next chapter with a Diary entry from Casey, since this one lacked one. I know that there should have been one since the entries are the basis of the whole story-line, but I couldn't comfortably find a place to put one in this chapter. So there will definitely be one in the next chapter, which will hopefully be produced sooner than this one was!

Review, loves.

-Tarryn