Saturday

Most of Saturday passes by uneventfully as Derek and Casey try to avoid each other while forced to be around each other, resulting in an awkward tiptoeing that eventually results in their usual bickering. Finally, George empties his wallet and tells them to go see a movie.

"One Bright Day In the Middle of the Night?" Casey recites disdainfully. "No way, Derek. We're not seeing a horror film."

Ignoring her protests, Derek goes up to the window and buys the tickets, and then drags her to the concession line. Finally, she follows him into a darkened theater and they find a pair of seats in the back, and Casey resentfully sits down and forces him to open her box of candy. He rolls his eyes and steals some of her Skittles.

When the theater darkens entirely and the screen brightens with the opening of the movie, Casey takes a deep breath, bracing herself. Derek snickers quietly, and she throws a piece of popcorn into his hair.

Halfway through, spindly fingers glint silver in the moonlight, and Casey squeals and digs her nails into Derek's sleeve, and his attention becomes focused on her hand while his muscles tense. A moment later she buries her face in his shoulder as the music crescendoes, and without really thinking about it Derek pulls his arm from her grip and wraps it protectively around her shoulders.

When the screen blacks out and the credits finally roll, Derek pries Casey's fingers from where they're knotted in his shirt, and gently pushes her away so he can stretch his sore shoulder. "Movie's over. You lived."

"No thanks to you," she mutters, still miffed over his insistence on the horror movie and completely glossing over the fact that she spent the last half of the film clinging to him. Derek shrugs, smirking, and throws away the empty popcorn bucket.

When they arrive home, the house is dark and silent, the family having already gone to bed. Casey and Derek look at each other in the darkened foyer, and take the opportunity to jostle their way up the stairs and into their own bedrooms, thinking they can just switch early in the morning, or else just endure another day of punishment. At this point, anything to have their own space again, just for the night.

Casey closes and locks her door and immediately sits down in the desk chair she's been missing all week. Her own desk, white wood and perfectly organized, with a pretty paper flower from Lizzie in a glittery vase that Marti made in a summer camp crafts class. Maybe a little less organized since Derek has been staying in her room, but, still more appealing to her than his space!

Derek closes and locks his door and immediately flops down onto the bed he's been missing since he stopped sleeping in there because of the baby assignment. The bed is a little too made, and the room smells a little too fresh and flowery, thanks to Casey, but it's his own bed, in his own space, with the dark colors that don't hurt his eyes and the cool posters, and state-of-the-art stereo just within reach. And anything that is Derek's is better than anything that is Casey's.

After soaking it all in, he gets up and moves to his computer. The desk is too neat, stacked with Casey's binders and books stacked, and he shoves those out of the way and grabs the mouse. After a moment, the screen wakes up.

Derek shoves his chair back and rushes for the door.

After she's done straightening the things that are already straight on her desk, and adjusting the vase so that the flower is positioned just so, Casey gets up to flop down on her bed. It might be a little less made than she'd prefer, and Derek's mattress might be a little softer, but she's been missing the silky, weightless sheets and the cheerful colors she picked out herself. Her cheerful personality is much better matched to her own room than to Derek's.

She rolls over and cuddles one of her throw pillows, curious as to why this one is not tossed carelessly on the floor with the others. Pulling it to her chest reveals what's waiting underneath, and she throws the pillow aside and rushes for the door.

Derek and Casey meet in the middle of the hallway. Blue and brown eyes that could not be more different now wear expressions that could not be more similar in their shifting between surprise and confusion and anger and uncertainty. They look back and forth between Casey's room, Derek's room, Casey's room, Derek's—until Casey yanks Derek forward into her room and slams the door. Immediately they commence fighting.

"Der-ek, you read my diary again—!"

"Maybe I did this time, but—!"

"Every time—!"

"You read through a private folder on my computer—!"

"You can't read through pictures, Derek—!"

They go at it until they're tired of shouting, and then Casey raises her hands to swat at Derek's hair, his face, his chest, and he grabs her by the arms to shake her, until somehow, suddenly, her lips are on his and his hands are in her hair and her fingers are curled in his shirt, and he slams her against the wall and she wrestles him to the bed and they end up on the floor in a tangle of limbs and confusion.

They sit up, disoriented from the impact, and the instant they look at each other they scramble apart.

Silence passes, broken only by the sound of panting as each tries to catch their breath, eyes locked and then broken away and then looking back again and away.

"Shit, shit, shit," Casey breaks the silence, getting to her feet and starting to pace around the room. Derek scrambles up and flips the lock on her door, and grabs her by the shoulders to stop her.

"Casey, if you start to freak out about this, your mom and my dad will find out and then we will be dead. Dead." Derek's grip tightens, his fingers digging into her skin, until she's uncomfortably trying to twist away. "No, Casey, look at me. Breathe. In…out…"

"I know how to breathe!" she snaps, shoving him away. She breathes in raggedly, then out, until Derek rolls his eyes and finds a paper bag for her to hyperventilate into.

Finally, Casey takes calmer, deeper breaths, and tosses the bag into the trash can below her desk. She balances her hands on either side of the bed next to her, staring at the rug, and says quietly, "I think you should go."

"What?" Derek reaches to touch her hand and she snatches it away before he can make contact. "Casey—"

"Derek, we can't do this. For…for the sake of the family, what just happened can never happen again."

"For the sake of the family? Really, Casey?" He gives her an incredulous look. "Why don't you just admit that you're scared and the family has nothing to do with it. Where was your consideration of the family ten minutes ago!?"

"Der—" she tries, but he's already stormed out of her room, and slams his door shut so that one of his do not enter signs falls to the ground.

Biting her bottom lip, Casey stares at the sign on the floor. Then she gets up, goes to her own bedroom door, and closes it.