Disclaimer: Characters are not my intellectual property.

Derek was being amazingly nice, which made this whole situation so surreal. Sure, he had continued to make fun of me and make sexist jokes, but he wasn't serious about them. It was like he new exactly what to say and how to say it to get me to loosen up a little.

I snatched the cookie out of his hand.

"I don't suppose you thought of milk?"

"You doubt my skills, young grasshopper," he said as he reached into the bag and pulled out a carton.

"Remembering the basics is not a skill, old cricket."

"Cricket, really? I might not share my milk with you, now, since you're so lame."

"Oh, just fork it over." He sighed, like it was the biggest challenge in the world to accommodate me, but he rolled his eyes as he did it.

"Here," he handed it to me. Skim milk. My favorite. It was so weird that he remembered such a minor detail about me. It was something that I had reminded Max about for months, but he never remembered. I began to tear up a little.

"God, Case, it's milk, not a million dollars," Derek muttered.

"Sorry," I whispered throatily and scrubbed my eyes. "It's not the milk it's just… it's just… Max."

Derek shifted uncomfortably next to me. "Do you want to talk about it?" I glanced over and saw his face contorted into a mask of pain. I could tell that talking about it wouldn't make either of us feel better.

"No, it's okay," I told him. I opened the carton and took a swig of it. The cold liquid made me shiver a little.

"You sure? Are you cold? Do you want me to run back to the car and get a jacket?" he asked. I laughed a little.

"Will you stop being so nice, it's freaking me out!"

"I'm not nice, don't you tell anyone I'm nice!"

"Oh, I am so going to tell everyone that the great triple-D is the nicest, sweetest guy in the whole world. And then everyone who knows you will put me into an insane asylum," I laughed, but couldn't help shivering again.

Derek scowled at me and hesitantly put an arm around me. "If you get sick, I won't have a date, remember."

I laughed a little, until his remark brought back memories of this morning. I flushed red and bolted upright. I hadn't even noticed that I was leaning into his warmth. I looked down and heard Derek clear his throat uncomfortably.

"How much should I pay you to make the incident this morning disappear?"

"What incident?" I muttered, my cheeks still burning.

"Great. Pass the milk." I looked at the milk in my hand, then back at him. He wanted to share the carton. Sure, I knew that Derek was disgusting and drank out of the carton all the time, but we had never shared it. It would be too personal, too much like kissing him.

He must have noticed me panicking, because he told me never mind and bit into his cookie. I passed him the milk carton. No big deal. Siblings were allowed to share drinks. I did it with Lizzy and Marty all the time. Once, when I was really thirsty, I stole some soda from Edwin, but never Derek. It was too weird.

He took a big gulp and passed it back to me. I took a sip, trying out the sensation. I didn't feel sick. I didn't feel uncomfortable. It was just milk. I leaned back into Derek.

"If you just gave me herpes, I might kill you," I told him.

"Please, if you got herpes, it was from Max," he retorted.

I couldn't help it, I really couldn't. I broke down and started sobbing again at the thought of kissing Max. Derek obviously panicked.

"Casey, I'm so sorry," he said, dropping his half-eaten cookie to the ground. "I didn't mean to bring him up, it just sort of slipped out." I shoved my cookie in my mouth and gulped some more milk, trying to get a hold on myself. It worked, but not very well.

"It's not your fault, Derek. I go to school with him, I'm going to have to get used to the thought of him."

"He doesn't have to go to the school for long," Derek joked. At least, I think he was joking. He sounded a little serious. I couldn't think of a response. It was like my brain was malfunctioning because of an overload of emotion.

"Casey…" Derek whispered, like I was too fragile to have him speak loudly. "What happened?" I took a breath and thought about telling him the story I had told Em. The story about Max and I needing to go our separate ways because we realized that we wanted different things out of life and out of our relationship. It wasn't a lie, it just wasn't the whole truth. But, I wanted to tell Derek. I needed to tell someone why I was hurting so badly, even if it would hurt like hell to repeat the story.

"Friday, after our date," I started, hearing my voice wobble, "Max and I were in his car and we were making out." I felt Derek shift uncomfortably, but I barreled on, knowing that if I stopped, I might not start again. "He wanted to-" I paused wondering how to phrase this delicately. "He wanted to go further than I wanted to go. So I stopped, and I told him that I didn't want to… do what he wanted to do. I told him that I didn't feel emotionally ready for it." I swallowed hard a couple of times, but it didn't get rid of the lump in my throat. "It wasn't the first time we'd had this conversation." Derek tensed and I felt tears start to well up in my eyes, ready to stream down my face. "This time, he told me to cut the crap. That it was really selfish of me to only take my emotions into account. He-he said that I was over-dramatizing the situation. That it was just sex, and people our age do it all the time. I told him no, I really didn't want to." I paused, wiping tears from my face, but it was pretty useless.

"Casey, did he-" Derek paused, clearly afraid of my answer to his unspoken question. "Did he rape you?"

"No," I told him honestly. "He drove me home, and we didn't really talk until we got there. Then he told me that he didn't appreciate me being such a tease. I told him that it wasn't my intention to tease, that I loved him. He told me that maybe we just wanted different things from the relationship and that it might be time for us to end it. I told him that I didn't want to, that I really did love him and enjoy being with him. He told me that he didn't think it was going to work out and that he just guessed he was a little more mature than I was. I got a little angry and told him fine, if that's what he wanted, that would be just fine with me. And I got out of the car and went to my room. I was really more angry than sad at that moment, so I was just lying on my bed fuming at him. And then he texted me." My voice broke. I didn't want to tell Derek what happened next, because I was sure that it was just typical Casey overreacting to nothing. Derek nudged me a little, telling me to go on.

"He told me that he was sorry he hadn't realized sooner that our interests were so separate and that he wished I had realized I wasn't ready for a mature-grown up relationship before I agreed to go out with him."

I put my head in my hands as I sobbed, relieved to have my story told. It felt nice to just let Derek comfort me. When I finally got the courage to look at his face, to gauge his reaction to my story, there was only one emotion: rage.