Chapter 7: The Stalker Book

Author's note: This chapter references events from a specific LWD episode: Season 2, Episode 1. "Date With Derek." To best enjoy reading this chapter, I highly recommend watching the episode. Particularly, the date scene (up until the end of the episode). This is not required to understand and enjoy this chapter, however I think it makes it more fun when you can see my inspiration.

Also, upon updating, I've realized that this chapter is set at a time earlier in the day than chapter 6 so there's a bit of time travel happening in the narrative. To fix this in the future, I may not be as strict in alternating POV's for each subsequent chapter


Derek woke up at five in the morning. He wanted to go back to sleep, but his body wouldn't let him.

I don't want to be awake right now, Derek thought. He was not an early riser. He threw his face into his pillow. Go to sleep, go to sleep, he told himself.

It felt like no time had passed when Derek woke again. He looked at his alarm clock.

7:00?!

He groaned and flipped on to his back. There was no way he was going to be able to get back to sleep.

What do people even do at seven in the morning? Derek wondered. Who, besides Casey, would even be awake right now?

Derek got out of bed and wandered into the hallway. The house seemed strangely quiet. Even Casey was still asleep.

"It's too fucking early." Derek said to himself, satisfied with being able to curse in the house with nobody awake to scold him. Derek figured Emily might be awake. Things had been weird between them the night before, but he figured talking to her could keep the boredom away. Emily responded back right away.


D_Vent says: Hey


SwimmerGirl-Em-XO says: Ur awake?


D_Vent says: Sadly


SwimmerGirl-Em-XO says: Im coming over


She's coming over?This couldn't be good.

Derek was in the middle of brushing his teeth when he heard a knock at the front door; he didn't even have time to change his shirt. Derek thundered down the stairs. He swung the door open and leaned against the frame

"Hey Em," Derek greeted sweetly. Emily stared back at him, her expression unreadable.

"Hello Derek" Emily said, formally, "Where's Casey?".

"Asleep," Derek shrugged.

"We need to talk."

Ugh. Derek hated clichés. This will be fun…

Emily slid past Derek into the house. She strode purposefully to the couch, sitting down and motioning for him to join her.

"What would you like to talk about?" Derek asked with a cheeky sarcasm, as though he didn't know what kind of conversation was coming. He sighed, falling into the couch next to Emily.

Emily angled herself toward Derek. She opened her mouth to speak but hesitated. She licked her lips lightly. Derek prepared himself for the long road of conversation ahead.

"I think we should break up." She stated, quickly.

Just like that? He expected there to be a lengthy conversation about f-f-feelings. But, Emily just wanted to…break up? Okay, so it's mutual. At least he wouldn't have to worry about finding a way to break up with Emily that wouldn't prompt Casey to send him on a massive guilt-trip.

"Wha—why?" He instantly regretted asking.

"Well…" Emily started, "I've been thinking about it a lot and, well…here." She reached into her satchel bag and pulled out a binder, placing it on the coffee table with a thud. "Do you remember this?"

"Yeah." Derek laughed, lightly "Your stalker book?" Derek and Emily had joked about it before. The stalker book was where Emily kept all of her 'observations' on the guys at school (primarily Derek); relationship histories, personality profiles, compatibility, etcetera. He found it to be creepy, yet somehow flattering.

"Exactly!" Emily opened the book to the biggest tab, labeled ~DEREK~

"I hadn't even looked at my research in a such a long time. I almost forgot about it!" Emily ran her fingers over the page, excitedly. "I felt like things didn't feel right between us, and I didn't know what to think, so I pulled this binder out. I hoped it could help me make sense of some things…and it did!" Emily was enthusiastic, it made her sound like a detective who found the last missing piece of a mystery.

Derek looked at the number of pages under his tab. Maybe it would be a lengthy conversation, after all. Emily's enthusiasm was a little unsettling. Derek wasn't sure where the conversation was headed. He waited for Emily to continue.

"I found this entry." Emily said, flipping a few pages further into the binder, "It's about our first date."

"Wouldn't that be prom?" Derek was confused. So far, this seemed like a weird break up.

"No. Technically, we went out before that. But, I guess it wasn't a real date." Emily sighed.

Derek tried to remember…

Emily pointed to the page. "You went out on a date with me because you knew it would piss off Casey if you dated her best friend?" She prompted.

"Oh…right." Derek mumbled, embarrassed. He remembered how he hurt Emily's feelings when he faked interest in her back then.

Why is she bringing this up? Does it still bother her? Is that why she wants to break up? Derek couldn't think of why Emily was acting this way, or what relevance their fake-date had. He kept waiting for the bomb to drop.

To cut some of the tension he felt, Derek joked, "I remember Casey spying on us the whole time wearing a blonde wig and sunglasses."

Emily rolled her eyes and continued. "At the end of the night…I kissed you." She looked down, sheepishly. "And well, I thought you might have enjoyed kissing me. I thought that there was a spark there. So…I gave us a high compatibility score." Emily pointed to the score on the page: HOT!

"So, what's the problem then?" Derek could feel the suspense brewing inside him. He desperately wanted Emily to get to the point, his mask of indifference was starting to slip.

"After taking last night into consideration, I had to re-analyze our compatibility. I'm sorry to say, Derek, but…" Emily flipped to the last page in the Derek section. "We're incompatible."

Emily made it sound so robotic and analytical. Derek didn't understand.

"I'm compatible with everyone." Derek denied. "What makes us so incompatible?" Derek thought about the night before. He had been distant from Emil. Perhaps she had picked up on it.

"It was the way you supported Casey last night…how you took care of her." Emily said, quietly.

What does Casey have to do with this?

"I don't know what you're trying to tell me" Derek said, defensively. "Why would you be upset that I helped Casey? She's your best friend. Besides, I had to help Casey. She's my step-sister. I was obligated to get her home to the family in one piece."

Emily sighed, slightly frustrated. "No. It's not like that." She put her hands in her lap and looked down, slowly twiddling her thumbs. "Casey is my best friend. I am really glad you were there for her, she needed you."

Derek crossed his arms. He didn't want to hear this. He wished that no one knew that he ever did anything nice for Casey.

Emily continued "It was how you helped Casey…how you looked after her. I could see how much you care for her. I saw a different side of you" Emily's eyes started to water, but she maintained her composure. "It just made me realize that you would never care for me like that. You would never have feelings for me. At least…not in the way I wanted you too." Emily's glistening eyes met Derek's.

His heart nearly stopped. Emily couldn't possibly be implying…

"What are you saying?" Derek choked out a defensive laugh "Y—you think I have feelings for Casey? I do not have feelings for—"

"What I'm saying is…" Emily cut him off, "That you don't have feelings for me."

Oh. Derek's gaze fell to the floor. There it is.

"Emily…" Derek breathed. He did like Emily, just not in that way.

"It's okay Derek" Emily offered, calmly. "Really." Emily placed her hand on Derek's arm comfortingly. "I had a crush on you for such a long time, and I always wondered what it would be like to date The Derek Venturi. But honestly…it wasn't really what I expected it to be." She smiled, apologetically.

"Well…you've exceeded my expectations." Derek smiled kindly. Emily blushed. He was surprised at how smoothly this break up was going—he would have expected more crying and/or yelling. As far as break ups were concerned, this one seemed pretty good—if not incredibly strange.

Derek laughed "I'm surprised, honestly. I would have never expected someone to be this excited about not dating me." He grinned. Emily giggled and pushed Derek's shoulder, playfully.

"There's a first time for everything." She stated, simply. "We gave it a shot and it didn't work out. 'Demily' was just not meant to be!" Emily held her hand to her heart, in an exaggerated gesture. She laughed "It's okay though, because I know there are better love stories out there for both of us, Derek."

Emily reached over and gave Derek a warm hug. It was strange—Derek felt closer to Emily than ever before. She sniffled softly into his shoulder.

She pulled away from the hug and wiped a tear from her eye. "I guess it's time to conclude the Derek section of my binder."

Derek marveled over how Emily could be so cool about their relationship ending, she seemed…optimistic.

He noticed a divider in Emily's binder labeled with a drawing of a flower.

"What's in this part of the binder?" He asked.

Emily quickly snapped the book shut, nearly onto Derek's fingers. Her eyes went wide.

"Just a new project I've been working on." Emily hinted. "Top secret." She winked, shoving the binder into her bag.

Whatever weird thing Emily was up to, Derek wanted nothing to do with it.

"I should go home before Casey wakes up." Emily said, throwing her messenger bag over her shoulder.

"You don't want to see Casey?"

"I don't know if she wants to see me," Emily stated. "She might not want to talk about last night. I'm going to leave it up to her if she wants me here. I'm just a house away if she needs me."

Derek followed Emily to the door. "So…I'll see you later then?" He asked, "Friend?"

Emily smiled. "Yeah! See you later…friend."

Derek thought some clichés weren't quite so bad.

He watched Emily as she walked down the worn dirt path that connected their houses from when they were kids. Suddenly, she turned around.

"Miss me already?" Derek joked.

"There's one more thing I need to say…" Emily smirked "There's someone out there for you, Derek. Someone who you're destined to be with. I just know it! You'll figure it out." She winked.

Emily turned around and walked home, confidently. Derek laughed, shaking his head. He didn't believe in destiny, but he appreciated the sentiment. He figured that he and Emily could be good friends…if she weren't Casey's best friend. Derek went inside and closed the door, smiling to himself.

Derek knew his comfort would be short lived. No matter how smoothly the break-up went, Derek knew he'd never hear the end of it from Casey.