He Said She Said A/N:
Disclaimer: People take these things for granted, but youtube is so anal it's actually taking videos off people's channels because of the copyright. Even though we SAY we don't own LwD. People never listen…but just in case they do, I'm putting this up. Don't sue me.
Chapter 11: The wheels on the bus go round and roundCasey had been itching to get out of that car since the moment she stepped foot in it. Now all she wanted to do was leave her seatbelt on and will her whole family to go into that stupid diner without her. But of course, no such luck.
With overly dramatic sighs, and a last hateful glance, the sullen teenagers and the rest of the family half walked, half dragged themselves into "Shelly's". Some chick with hair bigger and stiffer than Tracy Turnblad's approached the family, smacking her gum annoyingly and eyeing them as if this were the worst thing she could be doing with her time. "How many?" Her monotonous voice completed the picture of a complete and total fake 50's bitch.
Before Nora could respond, she turned on her heel and started walking toward the booths. "Um…I don't think everyone is gonna fit" The waitress said like a true college scholar, and threw some menus onto two tables. Casey took one look at the tables with a somewhat disgusted face and broke the silence. "I have to pee." Ignoring the grossed out protests, she walked off to the restroom, leaving her family to be swallowed whole by a mutated creation of an era where families didn't have these kinds of problems.
"Get a hold of yourself girl. Just keep your eyes on your plate, and before you know it, you'll be back on the road home. Besides, there are two tables. Just don't sit with Derek. Easy as that." Casey splashed some water on her face, tore her eyes away from the mirror and walked a little more confidently back to her party of six. At first she thought her eyes might be playing tricks on her…surely the angle she was standing at made it seem like there was only one seating option. Oh no… 'What have I done to deserve this? Can you just tell me, please?' Casey thought silently to the heavens as she trudged to the last available seat.
George, Nora, Lizzie, Edwin, and Marti had all squeezed themselves into one booth. Casey couldn't make herself fit if she tried. And then she looked to the next table over. Derek sat farthest away from the other table and stared ahead, angry and begrudgingly.
'No problem'. Casey tried to keep her thoughts calm. 'I'll just sit over…uh…' With a quick look around, Casey finally realized how small and busy the diner was. This was the last seat available?! Just peachy…
Why did every event that's been happening have to remind her of their past events in some way? This was getting almost annoying…
………………………………………………………………………………
Casey wasn't stupid. She saw Derek "sneak" onto the bus the
moment he slid through the doors. If he wanted to pretend he was a
super spy, that was fine with her. But the second he banged his head
into unconsciousness, she was going to get off that bus. If it ever
stopped…where were they anyway? Looking out the window, it
seemed civilization was quite a distance from this road. Craning her neck to find a sign through the darkening sky, she hardly
felt a slight sinking in the seat to her right. "I figured I'd
wait till there was no way you could pull this bus over. Unless you
want to avoid me so much, you'd be willing to walk all the way home
and ruin your shoes." Casey's back stiffened. She didn't want
to turn around. She didn't want to look at him. "Excuse
me, but this seat's taken." Casey said dismissively, face still
turned to look out the window. Her eyes weren't really taking any
of the scenery in though. She was much too focused on how to get
Derek out of the seat he currently possessed. Or, what she really
wanted, to get him off the bus entirely. A massive pothole in
the road gave the bus a great lurch and Casey's rigid posture was
thrown to the side…straight into Derek's lap. "Aw, so you've
been this anxious to see me and I've been hiding in the front seat
all this time? No offence Case, but I think you're moving things
along a little fast. I know girls can't help themselves, but-" "Ugh, get off of me!" Casey shoved herself away violently,
feeling she had already stayed in that position for three seconds
longer than necessary. Derek just rolled his eyes and stretched his
arm along the back of the seat. He hoped she didn't notice how much
he was rambling just now… only nervous people ramble. Derek did NOT
get nervous around anyone. If anything, he was most cocky around
Casey McDonald. Just as a precaution, he took the pause in sound as a
way to change the topic. "I wasn't aware we lived on the
other side of the universe. Did you have to pick the bus that took
3000 years to get home?" Derek's tone was smooth, arrogant, and
back to normal. "Well you know Derek, no one forced you
onto this bus in the first place. Why are you on here anyway? Stalker
much?" Casey completely gave up the idea of appearing to look out
the window. Her whole body was turned toward him, ready for the next
argument. Derek, however, never moved from his casual, laid back
position. He simply crossed one leg over the other and sank a little
further in his seat. "Oh, and I suppose you were dying to
go back to that hotel and be lectured for five hours? If you didn't
have to get screamed at, why should I? Trust me, the last thing I
want to do is be within five million kilometers of your breathing
space." "Well, at least we agree on something." Casey
smiled bitterly and turned quickly away. Not to pretend to look out
the window… just so she wouldn't be distracted by the way he
looked. And his arm behind her was really starting to distract her. "I'm sure becoming accustomed to the misshapen back of your
head". Derek's voice had a smile in it. Casey took a deep breath
so as not to lash out, before replying. "At least my misshapen head
can hold a vital organ called the brain. The only reason all you see
is the back of my head is because my eyes can only look at you so
long. The burning is almost unbearable." She ground her
teeth together when she heard him chuckle under his breath. This was
funny to him? They were on a bus home, in the middle of nowhere, and
they were probably going to be grounded for the rest of their natural
born lives when they got home. Oh yes, a perfect time to just laugh
it up. "Do you have to sit here?" Casey might've
changed the topic for lack of a response, but she never took the
venom out of her voice. "The whole bus is practically empty and
even though you can't stand to be in my breathing space, here you
are, hogging up all the oxygen." "Well, fine then. Your
wish is my command your majesty." With a deep bow, he rose up and
began to walk away…to the seat directly behind her. "You see
Case, I'm a 'back of the bus' sort of guy. So if anyone needs
to move, it's you" With the tone equal to a child's and
the retort to match, Casey shouted back "I was here first!"
Realizing how stupid that sounded, she simply snapped her mouth shut
and turned around. No way was Derek going to get to her. He was
basically just being an attention whore. She would simply turn
around, stare straight ahead, and not acknowledge the heap of mass
traveling behind her. "Well, who could argue with that?"
Derek said sarcastically, suppressing a laugh. But all that followed
was silence. "Oh, so along with your pre-school remarks, you've
developed a pre-school attitude? Fine. Sit there and pout. It's
your trademark comeback after all." Casey wanted so badly to turn
around and give him a taste of his own medicine. But this would only
defeat her silence treatment, and right now she thought it was for
the best. It was the only thing she could do to bug him the most
really. An almost comforting silence filled the air for close
to an hour. Passengers were sleeping, the engine was quietly
thrumming and …Derek was singing? "The wheels on the bus go round
and round, round and round, round and round. The wheels on the bu-" "Do you mind?" Casey called loudly from the seat ahead, still
fighting the urge to turn around. "Not at all your grace!"
Derek called in a sarcastic politeness as he continued right where he
left off. "…All through the town. The princess on the bus goes
whine, whine, whine. Whine, whine, whi-" "Deeerrreeek"
Derek could practically hear Casey's teeth clenching together. This
must've been killing her. She hadn't produced a full comeback in
almost an hour. "Don't get bent out of shape Case, I'll
be here all night. Now where was I…" "Oh!" Casey yelped and
jumped from her seat. The bus was finally going through the town. She
would totally risk walking this distance home. Anything to get away
from HIM. Yanking the cord for the bus to stop, the bus driver slowly
pulled over toward a local store. Casey ran towards the front of the
bus and practically forced the doors open. Derek was right on her
heels. "You didn't even stay for my encore!" Derek
walked backwards in front of her, trying to imitate his best pout.
That was it. Casey stopped, took a deep breath in, and yelled loud
enough for Derek to get it through his brain, but not loud enough to
be arrested for disturbing the peace, "STOP. FOLLOWING. ME." With
every word she moved herself closer to him, trying to emphasize the
point. Her toes were touching his. Derek crossed his arms
over his chest and tried to make his expression serious. "Now
Casey, don't-" but Casey wasn't finished ranting. "And stop
using that patronizing voice with me! You're not my father! You're
not even related to me! If you were, I probably would've bought a
gun and a bullet the day I knew how to crawl. Because no brother of
mine could possibly be this horrible, cruel, and somehow manage to
get a reaction out of me every time! I'm better than this. I'm
better than you. I'm better than these stupid petty arguments we
have where you want to pretend all we do is fight, because we hate
each other so much. Did you ever stop to think that people could
argue with such passion for a totally different reason?" Derek waited till he was sure she wasn't going to start yelling
again, and then he spoke. "Um…Casey, what are you talking about?"
Casey looked away. What WAS she talking about? Other reasons for
fighting? She wasn't making any sense. And all her raging had left
her dizzy. Stumbling, she chose a direction and began to walk.
"I think I have a
better shortcut back to the house. I mean, we could take your
direction, but we'd have to circle the entire globe first." Damn
Derek and his last words. But he was right. And as usual, she was
powerless to stop herself from turning around and heading back in the
direction of that shudderingly irresistible voice. They
walked in silence. Derek took the lead, still showing no signs of
even registering what Casey had said. She was sort of glad for that.
She didn't really mean all of it. Except for never wanting to be
related to Derek. That would just be… unbearable. For lack of a
better word. Casey didn't even realize where they were till
she ran smack into Derek's cold, leather covered back. "I know
you're eager to get inside Klutzilla, but you're not a superhero.
You're going to have to walk around solid objects such as myself to
get to the door." Only half listening to him, Casey ran up the
steps and reached for the door. With a surprising gasp,
Casey realized the door was open when it shouldn't have been. And
then, much to her and Derek's absolute dread, their parents stood
on the threshold, waiting with crossed arms and sullen faces. Too make a long story short, the evening revolved around the parents
yelling out incoherent sentences, unable to believe their kids could
act so irresponsibly twice in a row. Derek and Casey had wondered
about their punishments… eternal grounding? Community service and a
Juvi sentence? The death sentence? But no…somehow Nora and George
had come to a last resort decision… a daytime talk
show. ……………………………………………………………………………………
"Riding on a bus for six hours of torture not enough for you? Trade seats with Lizzie or something." Casey didn't even so much as glance at him as she took her seat across from Derek.
"You think I haven't tried to bribe someone out of their seat yet? I'd rather eat on the ground. It'd be a waterbed compared to sitting on Casey's high horse."
"That didn't even make sense. Just…" Casey sighed and cast her eyes downward. She looked genuinely sad. "Just act like you're invisible for once? Don't worry… I'll do the same." Derek didn't seem to have a problem with that… for the moment. Halfway through the dining process, a loud thunder of claps broke out through the diner and something big and on fire was headed in their direction.
(Here's the part where you add the most annoying restaurant themed birthday song you can think of)
The waiters gathered around the table, singing with smiles plastered on their face that were faker than Michael Jackson's nose job. A huge sundae with a sparking candle was placed between Derek and Casey, and the waiters parted like the Red Sea, dragging themselves back to whatever dull tasks they were performing before having to humiliate themselves…and Derek and Casey.
Edwin, Lizzie, and Marti were laughing their heads off at the next table and George and Nora smiled and laughed at them apologetically. "You two were looking way too sullen and moody. And the only time we've seen you two happy together is when a birthday is involved. So…um…surprise?" Nora smiled weakly and Derek and Casey just groaned.
A spark from the candle jumped out and hit Casey's arm. "Ow. Stupid fire hazards…this place is going to go up in flames with all this hairspray floating in the air." Casey was basically muttering to herself. Derek didn't say anything, but the look on his face was in agreement. They both leaned forward at the same time to blow out the candle.
The candle went out, but Casey still felt like sparks were landing on her arm. Looking down she saw Derek's hand was resting on her forearm, and letting her eyes drift back up, she saw they had leaned all too close to blow the candle out.
Staring at each other for what seemed to be 6000 years, Derek and Casey jumped a mile in the air when the waitress slammed down their check on the table. "Get a room" she muttered between gum smacking and stalked off to annoy more customers.
Casey never stopped staring at Derek. Except now her expression had gone from surprised and amused, to horrified. Casey jumped out of her seat and made sure her family was getting up before she threw herself outside and into the van. The sooner she got home, the sooner she could hide in her room all day. She just needed to remind her mother to buy a deadbolt for her door to keep out certain…distractions.
HHH
urrayyyyy for updates. Ok so mostly the reason for this is to
shamelessly advertise my dasey documentary and to vent because guys
just suck so much sometimes. But I also updated because I love dasey
so much and was having ff withdrawls. So there you go. I don't
think it was much…but it was something, right? Geez, screw the
notes I've been taking to add to this story. It always takes a life
of it's own. And yeah, I could've made some parts juicier…I bet
you thought they would be with the empty bus and all right? But
no…the good stuff comes later. Because I'm a taunting author.
Don't you just love me?
xo, Christina