A/N: Flashbacks are in italics. This isn't beta-ed.

Disclaimer: I own nothing involved with LWD.

OOOOOOOO

Tony and Lauren watched their mother intently, impatience clearly etched on their faces. Emily had called a 'mini intermission' about ten minutes earlier; apparently she needed a cup of ice tea and a couple of windmill cookies before she could continue her story.

Tony couldn't take it anymore, this story was too important to his family for his mother to be taking breaks. Setting down his own cookie, he gave an obviously fake cough.

His second coughing fit was loud enough to take Emily's attention away from her self-inflicted foot rub.

"Do you need something? Water? A cough drop?" she asked, clearly annoyed.

"No, what I need is for you to continue the story."

"You try wearing stiletto pumps all day," she said, defending her break.

"No, thanks," he snipped.

Emily put on her 'I'm your mother, so don't sass me' face, but Lauren stepped in before her mother got so off track that they never got to hear the rest of the story.

"Come on mom, please tell us how you and Derek first got together, please," she pleaded.

Emily glanced at her neglected feet before sighing. "Fine. But, it's not even that interesting."

Hearing Dimi's trademark knock on her bedroom door, Emily yelled, "I'm busy," without even looking up from filing her nails.

Disregarding her words, Dimi let himself in.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" she asked him, irritated.

"Filing your nails," he answered simply.

Emily rolled her eyes. "If you knew, why'd you ask?"

Dimi ignored her question, choosing instead to rifle through the stuff on her dresser. Finding a blank DVD case, he held it up. "What movie is this?"

"It's not a movie," her voice was laced with the kind of know-it-all superiority that only an older sister can possess. "It's this new innovative workout program."

"Why do you need to workout?"

Emily's face softened at his unwitting compliment, before answering. "My butt's fat," she admitted, after all, it was only her brother.

"Oh," he said, before returning to going through her things.

Emily was about to tell him to leave her stuff alone, when she noticed something bulging out of his jacket. "Hey, what's in your pocket?"

"The telephone," he responded lazily, as if carrying around the house phone in his pocket was the most normal thing in the world.

"Okay . . . why is the phone in your pocket?"

"'Cause, I was bringing it to you."

"Why?" she asked, voice strained, wishing he would get to the point.

Dimi looked at her as if she was stupid. "Because, you got a call," he said slowly. "Some boy's on the phone for you."

Emily sprung up from her seat. "But, I didn't hear it ring."

"It didn't ring, Dad clicked over while he was talking to Aunt Tina," he explained.

"Whatever, just give me the phone and get out!" she said, simultaneously snatching the phone and pushing him out the door.

"Hello," she greeted, as she inwardly prayed that whoever was on the phone hadn't heard her and Dimi's conversation. 'How embarrassing would that be?'

"Hello?" she repeated, taking a seat on her bed.

"Hey Emily, it's Derek."

She dropped the phone in surprise. Derek hadn't called her since that week in eighth grade when he needed her to bring him his assignments because he had mono. She felt dangerously close to fainting, but she pulled it together enough to drop down to the floor and scramble to pick up the phone.

"Derek?" She was praying that he was still there.

"Yeah, I'm here. What happened?"

"Oh, I uh dropped the phone," she mumbled sheepishly. "Anyways, what's up?" she asked, trying to sound cool.

"Nothing. I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out or something."

There went her phone again.

Picking up the phone, she took a calming breath before speaking. "Really? Like, when?"

"I don't know, how about now," he suggested.

"Oh, okay," she said, attempting to sound nonchalant. "I'll be over in a few."

"Cool. See ya soon."

"Yeah, see ya," she said, before clicking off the phone.

Emily threw the phone on her bed and stood stock still for a minute. All of a sudden she jumped on her bed and started doing the cabbage patch.

Hearing the commotion, Dimi let himself back into her room.

"I don't get it, how does moving your arms like that make your butt smaller?"

Rather than answer, Emily leaped off her bed and wrapped her brother up in a bear hug.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing me the phone."

"Uh, you're welcome," he mumbled against her shoulder.

Setting him down, Emily glanced in the mirror, ran a hand though her hair, and then bolted out the door.

"Hey, where are you going?" Dimi shouted.

"I have a date with destiny," she called back, already halfway down the steps.

"Oh. Wait, who's Destiny?"

OOOOOOOO

"Hey Derek," Emily greeted, when he opened the door.

"Hey. You got here quick; I like that," he said, with the same flirty voice he always used with girls, but never with Emily.

The phone call, the flirting, this was shaping up to be the best day of Emily's life. But, her happy thoughts were interrupted by another, more unexpected greeting.

"Hey Em," Casey greeted, as she and Sam came down the stairs. "Were we supposed to hand out tonight," she asked, clearly confused as to why Emily was at her house.

"Actually, I invited her over," Derek answered for Emily while tossing a casual arm around her shoulders.

Derek and Casey stared at each other for a tense moment, while Sam and Emily looked on in confusion.

Casey was the first to break eye contact. Turning her attention to Emily, she said, "Em, I need to—

"So, what are you two doing tonight?" Emily interrupted her, hoping to avoid a lecture on Derek's evils and a warning that he was just using her again. The fact was, Emily didn't care if he was using her. This may be her only chance to win him over and nobody was going to ruin it for her, not even Casey.

"We were just gonna watch a movie," Sam responded.

"What a coincidence, so are we," Derek said.

"We are?" Emily questioned, eyebrows drawing together in puzzlement.

"You are?" Casey echoed, eyes narrowing. "My, that is a coincidence," she agreed mockingly.

"That's cool, me and Casey can go hang at my house instead."

"No!" Derek snapped.

When Sam and Emily eyed him strangely, he shrugged, regaining his composure.

"I mean, we're all friends, right? We can just watch a movie together."

Sam looked like he wanted to protest, but a look from Derek had his shoulders slumping in defeat. Grabbing Casey by the hand, he led her over to the couch and they sat down. Derek and Emily soon followed suit.

When five minutes passed in silence without anyone speaking, or moving, for that matter, Emily rolled her eyes. "Why does this feel familiar?"

"Are one of you gonna put a movie in, or what?" Sam questioned, looking back and forth between Derek and Casey.

Casey cut her eyes at Derek, who just smirked in return.

"Okay," Sam said, noticing their exchange. "Why don't we just watch whatever is already in the DVD player," he suggested. When nobody protested, he grabbed the remote and pressed play.

"Oh, god, anything but this," Casey complained as the opening credits rolled across the screen.

"Come on baby, you might like it."

Casey was about to say something smart, but when she caught Derek's eye she smiled and leaned into Sam. "I'll try Sammy, but only 'cause you asked me," she said, voice sweet as pie.

Emily was catching a really weird vibe from Derek and Casey, but she figured they were just fighting again. Sure, they may have been getting along better since that incident in the hall at school last year, sometimes they were even chummy, but to Emily their relationship was stranger than ever. They still fought, but sometimes it was like their hearts weren't in it—occasionally, the fighting even seemed forced. But, there were times, like now, when it seemed completely real. Emily was trying to remember what Derek had done to Casey lately . . . 'Maybe,' she thought, 'she's still mad about the pudding incident.'

For the second time since she had entered the Venturi house, Emily's thoughts were unexpectedly interrupted. Sliding the arm that was resting along her shoulders down her back and around her waist, Derek pulled her onto his lap.

"You comfortable?" he asked, bringing his other arm around to circle her waist, so that she was loosely locked in his grasp.

"Mmm hmm," was all she could get out, she was so overwhelmed.

"What's wrong, Casey?" Sam asked, in response to how stiff she had suddenly become.

"Nothing. I just don't feel too well," she said, rubbing her head.

"That's too bad," Derek commented, tightening his hold on Emily.

OOOOOOOO

By the time the movie was over Emily had come to two conclusions: Scarface was the most overrated movie ever, and Derek's lap was quite possibly the most wonderful place in the world.

When Derek stopped the movie, Sam got up, stretching.

"I guess I should get home, it's my night to do the dishes."

"Wait, don't you need my math notes?" Casey reminded.

"Oh, yeah," he said, following her to the stairs.

After Sam and Casey disappeared up the steps, Emily reluctantly removed herself from Derek's lap.

"I guess I should leave too; every night is my dish night."

"Here, I'll walk you to the door."

When Emily opened the front door, she turned back to Derek before exiting.

"Well, uh, I had fun."

"Me too," Derek agreed. "We should do this again some time."

"Definitely."

Emily had only taken a few steps down the walkway, when Derek called out to her, "Hey, Emily."

"Yeah?" she shouted back, over her shoulder.

"Your ass looks good from here," he said, smirking one last time before closing the door.

Emily walked the short distance to her house feeling a little embarrassed, but extremely happy. Derek Venturi, her school's unofficial ass expert, thought her butt looked 'good'. Maybe she'd give that DVD back to her cousin Sharon.

"Eww, mom," Tony began with a frown, "you could've left out all that 'butt' talk."

"Sorry," she said, sounding anything but repentant, "but that 'butt' comment made my day."

Lauren waved her arm dismissively. "Enough talk about your butt, what happened with you and Derek?"

Her mother shrugged. "We did do it again, and again, and again. Whenever Casey had Sam over, and sometimes even when she didn't, Derek invited me over. And, the rest as they say is history."

"You never," Lauren paused, trying to pick her words carefully, "thought that maybe Derek was just using you to make Casey mad or jealous?"

"In the beginning I thought he might be trying to make her mad, but like I said earlier, I just didn't care. And, it really never occurred to me that he would want to make her jealous. When I saw them together it was as step-siblings, sometimes even friends, but never potential lovers."

"Well, did Casey get mad when you and Derek started going together officially?"

"Yeah," Emily said, grinning almost evilly, "Casey was downright pissy."

"Guess what," Emily said, saddling up to Casey who was putting books in her locker.

"You got an 'A' on the math test too?" Casey guessed.

"No, no; jeez, it's always about schoolwork with you," she admonished.

"Sorry," Casey said sheepishly. "So, what did happen?"

Emily squealed from cheerfulness. "Derek just asked me out, like officially. He wants me to be his girlfriend," she said, grinning like an idiot. "Do you even know how monumental this is? He hasn't had a steady girlfriend since he dumped Kendra in tenth grade."

"You didn't say yes, did you?"

After a minute passed in silence, Emily said, "Oh, you were serious? I thought you were making a poor attempt at humor. Of course I said yes."

"Oh, Emily, how could you be so stupid?" Casey said, shaking her head back and forth.

"Excuse me?"

"Don't you know he's just going to hurt you; Derek Venturi doesn't care about anyone but himself," she said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Emily folded her arms across her chest. "Well, he must care about me a little, or he wouldn't have asked me out, would he?" she said tartly.

"Emily—

"No, Casey," Emily cut in, "I don't want to hear it. Every time you and Sam are going through your drama, breaking up and getting back together, I support you one-hundred percent. Now, I've finally gotten the one thing I've always wanted, and I need you to be happy for me."

"But, Emily, it will never work. You two are completely different."

"What, you mean he's popular and I'm not? Or, he's cool and I'm not?" Emily didn't wait for an answer, before continuing. "You know what, Casey? You need to deal with this, because Derek and I are going to be together. And, if you can't be happy for me like a best-friend should, then maybe we don't need to hang out anymore," she announced, before stalking off down the hall.

"So, I'm assuming that Casey got over it, or at least pretended like she had?" Lauren inquired.

"Yeah, she called me later that night and apologized. She was crying about how I was her only friend and everything," Emily responded, rolling her eyes "Friend? Some friend she turned out to be."

Tony and Lauren shared a glance, both silently deciding to steer the conversation away from what a crummy friend Casey was, at least for a few minutes.

"If Derek had been this ultimate player, what kind of boyfriend did he make? They say reformed rakes make the best husbands."

"Well, now, I wouldn't really know, would I?" Emily said, smartly.

"Come on, mom. I'm serious; did he ever cheat on you, or anything? I mean, besides the obvious."

"Well, there was this one time. But, it's sort of connected to the 'obvious' at least I think so."

TBC

A/N: I wasn't positive how they spell Dimi's name, so I took a shot.

Just in case anyone doesn't know, the cabbage patch was a popular dance in like the mid-'80s. People on tv still do it a lot—that's where I always see it—so I'm sure you've all seen it too.

Oh, I actually really like the movie Scarface, but I haven't met many other girls that do, so I figured that Casey's and Emily's reaction to the movie was realistic.

Reviews Are Welcome!