CHAPTER 7: Awkward Phone Calls

Emily thanked her lucky stars that Casey had caved, and they'd ended the conversation amicably. Casey remained laying on her bed wrapped in the towel, holding the phone in her hands and staring at it as if it was a sacred vessel. Something she both wanted and didn't want at the same time. The irony of that slipped past her as the phone rang a short time later. She picked up the phone on its second ring. Consciously trying not to appear too eager. Much to her chagrin, someone beat her to it.

"Yo... Venturi residence" Derek chimed in. "uh...hey is Casey there?" A male voice on the other end asked. "I've got it, you can hang up now Derek." Casey grouchily told him "Sorry, Casey's in the bathroom right now, can I tell her who's calling/" his grin could almost be heard over the phone." what? uhm... hi Derek, it's Trevor" "Der-ek! I've got the phone, hang up now." "Yuuuuuuueeegh! Casey did you not spray air freshener in there or what? I can smell it in here for crying out loud!" Trevor sat silently on the end of the line, he knew all along that Derek was just messing with Casey... or at least he hoped he was. "Mom!" Casey stomped out of her room and yelled down the stairs "Derek won't get off the phone ...and it's for me!" A clear click could be heard, and satisfied that getting Nora "involved" was enough to deter Derek any further. She continued to rectify a now, extremely awkward conversation.

"Hey Trevor... it's good to talk to you again. and ...uh ...sorry about Derek." She said in a sweet but still somewhat sensible tone. "Oh don't worry about it. My little brother acts like a jerk all the time. My parents say I was worse at his age though. At least you can be glad you two aren't actually related" He laughed sheepishly. "Oh believe me, I'm glad." She said matter of factly. After a short but awkward silence she started with "So...too bad Emily has a grad date huh..." "Yeh, I guess I'm not surprised though. I probably should have told her how I felt a long time ago." "Yeh, you should have." Casey answered. She always thought Trevor would have been a much better choice then Sheldon. "Why didn't you anyways?" "I don't know. I just never worked up the balls I guess... Until it was too late. I was really surprised to hear you were dateless though too. What happened to what's his face... the jock...? " "Oh Max.." Casey said "Well, honestly, we've been on again off again for so long it just became normal and easier then being alone. But, eventually we just decided to see other people." "That simple huh?" Trevor stated more as a fact than a question. "Yup, that simple." Casey confirmed. "So I was thinking, maybe we should you know... catch up this weekend, you know, hang out or something." Trevor seemed to ask rather forcefully. Casey noticed it and her heart sank a little. "Yeh, sure that would be great. You want to come over here tomorrow night maybe? We could talk, and watch a movie." "Sure. Oh... did you like that book we had to read for the exam?" "I loved it!" Casey grinned... Finally she remembered why she'd liked Trevor in the first place, he was definitely never boring, and they did have a couple of interests in common. Thought provoking novels by dead authors being one of them. "I thought you would... I'll bring that to and maybe we can talk about it's affect on 19th century neo-Freudianism." "That would be great. How's 7?" "I'll be there." "It's a date!" Casey said happily before she realized her own tongues misstep. "I mean... not a date date... just a good friend date... a friend date." It wasn't getting any better. Trevor laughed. "I know what you meant Case. See you tomorrow?" "Yep." Was all she could come out with. "Ok bye" And he hung up.

Casey's face was a mix of embarrassment and shock (at her own stupidity) as she too hung up the phone. Well that would have to be one of my more embaressing moments recently. She thought... Except for that towel thing.

Meanwhile in the room next door, Derek covered the speaker to the phone as he hung up the phone. He often listened in on Casey's phone calls. Mostly just to get her goat. But this time, he actually felt...anger. It sounded like Trevor might ask Casey to grad. Or at least there was a large chance, in Derek's mind. It would all depend on how tomorrow went... he assumed. Now was time to bring in the recruits, he needed some help to pull this one off. He leaned back in his chair, the gears in his mind evidently working at full speed. "EDWIN!!" He bellowed at the top of his lungs.