"DEREK!!!!!!" Her father screamed, and then he reached for my face. I scooted out from under the bed and stood up. "YOU BITCH!!" He screamed at Casey before shoving her out of the bed. She screamed in terror and then fell onto the floor, landing with a thump. "YOU LIED TO ME!!! He IS here!!" he cried as Casey stood up and hid behind me.

"Derek…" She breathed as she wrapped her hands around my arm. Her father stood there with a furious look plastered on his face.

"DON'T YOU COMFORT HER!!!" He screamed, lunging at me from across the bed.

I dodged out of the way and he fell onto the floor. "COME BACK HERE!!" He screamed as Casey and I ran towards the door. "DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE THIS HOUSE!!!" he yelled as we quickly left her room, closing the door behind us.

"Come on!!" I cried as we jumped down the steps and out the front door.

"Where are we going??" Casey asked as I practically dragged her towards my car.

"DON'T ASK! JUST RUN!!" I screamed as her father's footsteps got closer to us. I started to climb the fence after I noticed that the gate was locked. I jumped onto the ground and turned around. "CASEY!!" I screamed, noticing that she was on the other side.

"I can't climb!!"

"Try baby, try!!"

"GET BACK HERE!!!" Her father screamed as he continued to run after us.

"HURRY UP!!" She jumped onto the fence and finally made it to the top.

"I'm scared." She said.

"I'll catch you, now come on!!" Her father was almost to the gate. "JUMP!!" She closed her eyes and jumped. She fell into my arms and then I let her down. "GET INTO THE CAR!!" I screamed as I watched her father climb the gate. I got in and Casey slammed the door. I locked the doors and then started the engine. Her father jumped onto the ground and started running towards my car so I backed up and sped as fast as I could away from her father and down the road. We sat in silence for a long time before we calmed down.

"Look Casey, I'm sorry. This is all my fault."

"No. It's not." She said, and I could see tears fall down her face. "Where are we going?" She sniffled. "Your house?" She asked.

I sighed. If I take her to my house, she's going to know that I'm not rich. "Case?"

"Hm?"

"You know how we promised each other that we wouldn't keep any secrets from each other?"

"Yeah." She nodded her head.

"Well I've been meaning to talk to you about that." I said, and then drove into the parking lot of a nearby park. "Come on, let's just go and talk by the lake." I said, pointing towards the dark water a little bit away.

She got out of the car, and then we started walking towards the lake, hand in hand.

I can't believe I'm actually going to do this…

We sat down on the grass and Casey brought her knees to her chest. She rested her chin on the top of her knees and the wind started to blow her hair.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Casey asked.

"I don't think that this relationship thing is going to work."

"Why not?" She gazed at me quizzically. "We're perfect for each other. You're cute. I'm cute. You're funny. I'm funny. You're adventurous. I'm adventurous. You're nice. I'm nice. You're honest. I'm honest. You're rich. I'm rich. What's wrong with that?"

"See, that's the problem."

"What?"

"I'm not honest. If I was, I wouldn't have told you that I was rich. 'Cause I'm not." I sighed. "I'm not rich at all Case. I only said it because I thought that the only people you dated were rich people. And I really wanted to get to know you."

"I know you're not rich Derek. I've known the whole time."

"You did?"

She nodded her head.

"But how? Was it the way I dressed?"

"NO! I love the way you dress." She giggled. "I saw you that night after you asked me to be your girlfriend? I saw your breakdown. I know that you're not rich. I heard you say it."

"Then why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I was afraid that you were going to breakup with me. And I didn't want that."

"You didn't?"

"No. Why did you act rich?"

"I told you why. You have a perfect life anyways."

"No I don't! My parents are constantly traveling, especially my mom, and my dad abuses me. How is that a perfect life? I don't even know my parents birthdays. They don't even celebrate my birthday. They never can remember it. And whenever I do something bad, they always say that having me was just an accident and that if they could, they would send me off to a boarding school or to the orphanage."

"Aw Case, I'm sorry…"

"No. It's okay, now let's go. It's cold here."

"Okay, you wanna go and see my poor house?"

"I'd love to see your poor house." We started towards the car, and we both got in. I started up the car and then Casey asked me, "Wait, if you're poor…how could you afford this car?? And dinner? And tip?"

"Okay…the car? It's not mine. It's Ralph's dads. The dinner? Mowing lawns, stealing Sam's lunch money, and babysitting for three years. The tip? You paid for it, remember?"

"Oh yeah." She smiled.

We drove into my driveway and I smiled as she and I both got out of the car. Man, it feels so good to get that off of my chest. "Now be quiet." I told Casey as we walked towards my front door. "It's really late, and the kids are probably asleep."

Casey looked down at her watch. "Actually, it's 6:30 in the morning."

"What?"

"It's 6:30."

"Oh." Was all I could think of as I opened up the door, revealing my house to Casey's eyes.

"Awwwww! It's cute!" She said as we walked into the house.

"DEREK!" I heard someone scream and we both watched feet thump down the stairs.

"HEY BRO!!" Ed said as he jumped off of the stairs and landed on the ground, smiling with all of his might.

"SMEREK!!" I heard Marti scream as she ran down the stairs.

"SMARTI!!" I smiled as I picked her up, spinning her around. She started to laugh.

"Who's this?" Lizzie asked.

"Ed. Liz. Smarti. This is Casey, my girlfriend. She's going to be…staying here a couple of nights."

"Why?"

"I'm kind of in a little trouble." Casey said, putting up two fingers to symbolize her trouble.

"You pregnant?" I heard someone say and I looked past Ed's large egotistical head to see my mom and dad walking towards us.

"No." Casey shook her head. "I'm just having some family issues."

"Hi. I'm George Venturi." My dad said, shaking Casey's hand.

"I'm Abby Venturi. It's nice to finally meet the girl that takes up Derek's time.All of Derek's time."

"YEAH! He draws PICTURES of you and writes POEMS and all of that."

"Shush Smarti." I said through gritted teeth.

"Yeah, Derek accidentally says your name all the time." Lizzie smiled and nodded her head before turning around and walking towards the kitchen.

"Yeah. Derek is never even here for dinner anymore. We really miss him." Edwin said.

Casey just smiled and then Marti walked down the stairs with a puzzle of a princess in her hands. "Casey? Do you want to help me put together this puzzle?"

"Sure!" Casey seemed…excited.

Marti started towards the table, and the rest of the family went their opposite directions. Mom and Dad both went into the kitchen where Lizzie sat, and Edwin went upstairs.

"Derek." I turned to see Casey standing there, holding my arm. "I love your family. Thank you so much for being honest. You saved me Derek. You saved me…" She smiled and then sat down with Marti at the table.

I didn't know what I saved her from, but the only thing that mattered was that she was happy, and that I was her superman. I had saved her.

From what, only Casey's fragile heart could tell.

Okay, so I know what you're thinking…IT'S OVER??? Well…it's not. In fact, it's far from over. So review!!!

Toodles,

Alexandra