A/N: During flashbacks, everything is in italics, except thoughts and stressed words. During times of regular font, thoughts and stressed words are in italics.

Disclaimer: I don't own LWD.

OOOOOOOO

"Umm, excuse me?"

"How long did you wait until you stole him back?" Emily repeated her question, pronouncing each word slowly.

Casey wanted to faint, slit her own throat, runaway—just do something, anything, that would make her answering Emily's question impossible. She had known when they started down this path that Emily would want to know how she came to be with Derek again, but she dreaded having to tell her. If Emily was pissed now, and Casey was quite sure that she was, then Casey didn't even want to be in the same room with her when she heard the details of her and Derek's reconciliation.

"I… well… see, I uh—

"Casey," Emily interrupted her stammers, "quit stalling and spit it out. I think I already know when you two got back together anyway."

"Really?" Casey heaved a sigh of relief.

"Yeah," Emily nodded, "it was when you two went off to college together, right?"

'Apparently she doesn't know.'

She shook her head. "No, uh not exactly."

"The week after graduation? You know, that time I thought I had caught him with Vicky," she elaborated. Her jaws had tightened considerably, but she was trying to hold on to her anger.

"You're warmer," Casey said, weakly.

"Prom?" Mya took a guess before Emily could. She had told herself: 'be seen and not heard.' But her curiosity had gotten the better of her. And besides, her guess was reasonable; prom nights were designed for hooking up.

Casey wished that it had been on their prom night, even that wouldn't have been as bad as—

"No more guessing games, Casey," Emily interrupted her thoughts, eyes blazing. "Just tell me when!"

Casey didn't even know why she was there. She used to love dances—the old Casey lived for things like the winter formal. But now this just seemed like some horribly exhausting burden she was forced to endure. She didn't want to be there. She didn't want to be in Sam's arms. And she sure as hell didn't want to watch Derek hold Emily in his arms all night.

Just then Derek dipped Emily and Casey almost threw up. 'This must be my punishment for cheating on Sam.'

Suddenly, the music stopped and a voice called out from the stage, "Attention! Students may I have your attention."

Casey looked up to see the assistant principal, Ms. Kelly, wielding a microphone. 'Hmm, it must be time to announce the winners of the popularity contest,' she thought to herself.

"It's time to announce our ice queen"—Casey's gaze shot to Emily's and they shared a silent laugh across the room –"and king," Ms. Kelly announced. "Let's start with the king. I know that this will come as no surprise"—she gave an airy laugh—"but your king is none other than Derek Venturi!"

Ms. Kelly started clapping rapidly and Casey once again felt the bile rise up in her throat—even the vice principal seemed to be in love with Derek. Ms. Kelly was quickly joined by the rest of the gym's occupants; honestly, the thunderous applause was enough to deafen a person.

Derek didn't walk up to the stage, but sort of sauntered, like he owned the place; he was obviously enjoying himself. Casey wished she was a big enough person not to begrudge him his happiness, but she wasn't. She was miserable and, naturally, she wanted him to feel the same way.

Derek telling her he would never take her back had been one thing, and him casually dating Emily had been a hard pill to swallow too, but when he had asked Emily to be his girlfriend a week earlier a tiny part of Casey's heart had died. The only good thing about it was that he had the good grace not to ask her to go "steady" in front of Casey. She wouldn't have been able to bear that, and she shuttered to think of the type of scene she probably would have caused had he subjected her to it.

When Casey saw him grab the microphone, her eyes automatically rolled. 'Here we go.'

"Thanks everybody. But, really, was there any other choice?" he asked, smirking.

'Could he be any more conceited?' she thought, but everyone around her was just eating it up. Even his opponents were laughing good naturedly.

"And now, Derek, if you'd please announce your queen," Ms. Kelly requested, handing him an envelope.

"My queen is Emily Davis," he declared, matter-of-factly—

'God, he's laying it on thick.'

His words were met with a few barely audible catty remarks—nobody would dare disrespect his girlfriend loud enough for him to actually hear—and looks of disgust by some of his jealous groupies. This wasn't the first sign of hostility Casey had seen where Emily was concerned. In fact, since Emily had started going around with Derek people were either really nice to her, or downright bitchy, some people even fell into both categories. But for her part Emily seemed either not to notice or not to care. And even though Casey was jealous of her too, she was also really proud of the way her friend was handling herself.

"—but your queen is… Mindy Mitchell," he said, lazily.

Mindy squealed from her spot in the middle of the dance floor and ran, as ladylike as she could manage, to the stage and up the steps. She practically snatched her tiara from the vice principal's hands and eagerly handed it to Derek so he could crown her. Derek's jaw clenched and Casey could tell he was annoyed by the girl's hysterics, but he placed the ornament on her head anyway.

"Now if you two would take your place in the middle of the dance floor, we can commence with the traditional dance of the Ice King and Queen." She shooed them off stage.

Derek and Mindy took their appointed positions and he loosely wrapped his arms around her as they waited on the music to pick back up. Once the music started, Derek and Mindy began swaying back and forth to the rhythm. But suddenly Derek motioned to the DJ and the music abruptly stopped. The crowd began to murmur at the interruption, and Mindy looked about ready to cry, until Derek whispered something in her ear. Pulling back, she looked up at him and smiled brightly—Lord only knows what he said to her—and went off in search of her date.

And that's when Derek sunk to a new low; Casey hadn't thought that even he was capable of such vindictiveness.

Walking over to Emily, Derek pulled her into his arms just as the music picked back up. Casey couldn't believe her ears: it was their song. Well, not really, it wasn't like they had declared it "their song," but that's how she had always thought of it.

'How long has Derek been planning this?'

There was no way the DJ just happened to have that song. The old movie theatre they went to, first as friends then as something more, had always shown the same three dated coming attractions and played one very dated song, The Tymes' "So in Love." The first time they heard it Derek had claimed that the song made his ears bleed, but Casey had thought it was sweet and eventually, even though he wouldn't admit it, the song had grown on him too. She had assumed that nobody else they knew, including their parents, knew of the song, so she had always thought of it as hers and Derek's secret- like it belonged only to them. So while the other kids in the gym reacted to Derek and Emily dancing to that song with confusion, Casey reacted with tears.

"Aww, Casey," Sam said, tenderly, "You really are a sucker for romance, aren't you?" He brushed her tears away with the pads of his thumbs.

'I'm a sucker alright,' she agreed silently. 'I never should have given in to my conscience; I shouldn't be here with you.' Frankly, she had been so wrapped up in thoughts of Derek, that she had forgot Sam was standing beside her. How sad is that?

"Come on, lets dance," he suggested, pulling her close. "This song isn't half bad."

The last thing she wanted to do was dance to The Tymes with Sam, but she didn't see any way around it.

Throughout their dance, she focused on Derek, hoping that if she caught his eye she might be able to make him feel at least a little guilty. And, eventually, as the song came to a close, their gazes did lock. But there was no guilt in his eyes. Quite the contrary actually, it was a look of pure triumph he sent her before winking and bending down to kiss Emily. For someone so against public displays of affection, Derek didn't have any problem shoving his tongue down Emily's throat in a room full of people.

When a sob escaped Casey's throat, Sam looked down at her in concern. "Are you okay?"

"No," she said, voice barely above a whisper. "I think… I'm having… I," she broke off, starting to hyperventilate. She needed to get out of there; she felt like her chest had just caved in. It was too much; it was all just too much.

"Hair crisis," she finally said, voice on the brink of panic. She knew it was a lame excuse, but she needed something that would make escape possible, and Sam couldn't follow her to the restroom. In fact, Casey didn't even give him a chance to question her, she just took off in a dead run, not caring that she was making a scene.

She made it to a restroom in record time, and as she leaned on the sink and broke down and cried, she was hit with such an intense wave of dejavu. This wasn't the first time she had cried over Derek in a women's restroom. But this time she wouldn't go seek him out; this time she knew she had really lost him for good. And that knowledge hurt, God, how it hurt.

Unexpectedly, Casey heard the restroom door swing open. She tried to make herself presentable; as far as anyone knew she didn't have any reason to be upset, and she really didn't want anyone questioning her about it.

"Casey," a voice called out tentatively, from behind her. She looked up and caught sight of Derek's reflection in the mirror. 'Of course,' she thought, bitterly, 'he's come to rub salt in my wounds.'

"Jeez, Casey, I didn't mean to—

"Yes, you did," she accused, turning around to face him. Her red swollen eyes were blazing and her fists were clenched—she looked poised to do battle. "You wanted to hurt me, so congratulations, it worked," she said, venomously.

He didn't respond, and, really, what could he have said? They both knew she was right.

"And do you know what else?" Casey didn't give him time to respond. "I'm sure you'll be ecstatic to know that I am miserable." She laughed mirthlessly. "Yup, you really had me pegged." He lifted his brows inquisitively, and she rolled her eyes in response. "Oh, come on, we both know that I regret ending things. Look around you"—she gestured wildly—"I just left my boyfriend in the middle of a dance floor so that I could go to a foul smelling restroom and cry over you."

To say that Derek looked surprised would've been an understatement. "I guess I didn't know that you cared," he said, lamely, after a long pause.

"What?!" She asked incredulously. "Of course I care. I care about you. I care that a guy I used to hang out with all the time, now spends most of his time either ignoring me or trying to piss me off. And, I really care that a guy I'm probably half in love with just made out with my best friend in front of half the school." Casey's voice had gotten higher and more hysterical throughout her little speech, and Derek was looking at her as if she had two heads.

"So there," she said, coming down from her adrenaline high a little, "now you know. And I hope you're happy," she practically flung the words at him, as her fist connected with his shoulder.

After saying her piece and getting in a lick, Casey figured that she had better quit the restroom before she said anything else embarrassing. But she had barely taken two steps when Derek's hand reached out and grabbed her, pulling her back.

"Princess,"—his voice was soft, and despite her anger, Casey melted a little at the use of her nickname—"all I ever wanted was to know that you cared."

"Derek?" she questioned, unsure what he meant.

"You can stay with Sam, you can date a hundred other guys—I don't care," his voice was rough, but wholly sincere. "All I needed to know was that you wanted me too. Any way you want us to work, I'm up for it; just let me have a little piece of you too."

"B-b-but you said," She was crying again, but this time out of hope, "that it would be too late—that I couldn't have another chance." She held her breath, as she waited for his response.

"A hundred chances; as many chances as you need, as long as you always come back to me." He pulled her up against him then, and leaned down, pressing his lips against her own.

"Thank you," she murmured, clinging onto him as if he were a lifeline. And in some ways she supposed that he was. She had tried living without him, it didn't work.

"So," Derek sighed, stepping back from her a little, "what are you going to do about Sam?"

"Derek you're the one I want, don't ever forget that," she assured him. "But Sam, he's just too clingy and attached. And a large part of that is my fault," she admitted, sighing. "But I'm afraid of how he'll take it if I end it"—she paused a moment—"It's just, if you could hear the way he talks about us"—she broke off abruptly. "I mean, can you understand that? Can you understand why I have to stay with him?" She hoped to God that he could; he had said that he'd take her anyway he could.

"I don't like it, but I understand." He gave her hand a squeeze.

"And, um, what about Emily?" She hated herself for asking—for wanting him to do for her what she wouldn't do for him.

Derek smiled a little, probably at her obvious jealousy. "I wish I could, Casey, but I can't do that to Emily. I've been, for lack of a better word, 'courting' her so zealously that if I were to dump her out of nowhere"—he paused, and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "I've made too much of a spectacle," he said, trying again. "What would people say about her?—they wouldn't think the problem was with me."

Casey was moved by his obvious concern for Emily, even if he didn't like like the girl, he did seem to at least care about her feeling. She was actually a little surprised, Derek wasn't known for his gentleness and chivalry where the fairer sex was concerned. In fact, she and Emily were the only two girls Casey had ever seen him go out of his way to please—that dressing up/studying thing he did for Kendra, just wasn't in the same league in Casey's opinion.

"Its okay, Derek; I understand too. I know that it's gonna be hard," she grimaced, "but we'll manage, somehow."

Emily was trying her damndest not to blink; she knew that if she did she would dissolve into tears. 'Chivalry my ass,' she thought angrily. "He did make a spectacle out of our 'relationship'?" she used air quotes. "The type of stuff he would do: tossing me his jacket in the hallway, pushing me up against the lockers and kissing me, and that dance," she spat, fiercely. "That stupid scene he made at the formal, like we were the perfect couple or something. Well," she gave a self-deprecating laugh, "more fool me."

"Em, no, he wasn't trying to make a fool out of you. I swear, we both thought that, in some twisted way, we were doing the right thing," Casey said, desperate for Emily to understand.

"The right thing," she echoed. "Stealing my boyfriend of one week was the right thing?" Her voice had risen to a frenzied note. "Then, tell me, what on earth was the wrong thing?"

"Mya,"—Emily turned her crazed, tear filled eyes to the waitress—"help me out here, what was the right thing?"

'Shiittt,' Mya thought to herself, 'she's crazy if she thinks I'm answering that.' "Oh, look," Mya glanced at her watch, "it's time for me to clean the toilets. Bye," she exclaimed, hurrying from the table. Sure, she hated to miss the drama, but Emily looked like she was gonna blow, and that was just a little too much drama for Mya.

"Emily, I am so sorry." Casey was close to tears herself; so much for progress.

Emily was full blown sobbing now. "Just s-s-stay away from me for a while," she said quietly, gathering her things.

"Em, please—

"I need some time, Casey, I need some time," she repeated sadly, rising from her seat. "Please don't call me anymore," was the last thing she said before scurrying out of the diner.

Casey rubbed her head in her hands and wept quietly; it was over.

TBC…

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