Casey stood outside in the freezing cold the next morning, shivering and glaring up the few faint rays of sunlight that were peeping over the horizon. She checked her cell phone, 7:02. Not only had Casey been early, Hannah was now late. Hannah had texted her asking her to meet her outside at seven.

"Hey Casey." Casey turned around to see Hannah standing behind her. A bright purple toque pulled down over her curls, a short kilt and knee high black lace up boots. She looked like a cross between a five year old, a porn star and a cougar and yet, somehow, much to Casey's dismay, she pulled it off beautifully. Jason stood beside her in a brown coat and the grey school pants that went along with the Catholic school's mostly disgusting uniform.

"Hannah," Casey's voice was weaker than she would have liked, "hey…"

Without warning Hannah darted towards her and wrapped her up into a bear hug. "I'm so happy for you," she whispered. Casey barely heard her. Even in her platform boots, Hannah barely stood at 5'4" contrasting magnificently to Casey's 5'8".

"Happy?" Casey pulled away. "What are you talking about?"

Hannah's smile was contagious. "You and Derek!" she cried. "You two finally admitted everything to each other."

"Did you hear the fight?" Casey had forgotten about the neighbours she'd been so wrapped up in thinking about Derek. Now she realized the whole world knew about her and Derek, it was only a matter of time before George and her mom found out. It felt like an iceberg was growing in the pit of her stomach and her breath came in short gasps

"The whole world heard the screams," Hannah said. "No one heard the words."

"Oh thank god." The words came out in a rush and Casey felt slightly drained.

"Derek texted me the good news at midnight last night," Hannah said, a knowing twinkle in her eye. "I just wanted to let you know that you made the right choice by trying to make things work with him."

"Wait," Casey's head was still spinning from the first piece of news Hannah had given her, "why would Derek text you that?"

"Because we've known the plan all along!" Hannah said leaning back and pulling Jason up so stand beside her. "Derek asked me and Jason to pretend to date so that you'd see that total opposites could be together."

"But I barely saw you two," Casey protested.

Hannah shrugged and glanced, almost shyly up at Jason. "The plan worked faster than expected."

"So," Casey pointed to the two of them, "you two were just pretending?" That made so much more sense. There was no way that someone like Hannah would date someone as total opposite. She knew that sounded hypocritical especially since Derek and her were like night and date with it just seemed so, weird. Besides they hated each other.

"We were just pretending," Hannah replied. "Jason and I used to be the type of friends who just kinda fought with each other all the time. Derek approached me and asked me to find my most irritating, not totally unattractive friend and ask him a favour."

"And I said yes," Jason added.

"Much to my surprise," Hannah said happily. "I thought for sure he'd say no way and maybe kick me."

"So now," Casey was still unbelievable confused, "you two are just going to go back to hating each other."

"Well," Hannah looked shyly up at Jason again and slipped her gloved hand into Jason's, whose ears went red, "that's the thing I wanted to tell you about."

"Oh," Casey breathed. Hannah was in love with Jason. The two grinned shyly up at each other, their cheeks burning red and their hands gripped together.

"She may be the most irritating, emotionally disturbing, horrible person I've ever met," Jason said. "But I think I love her." Casey's heart melted, as the tall boy's face broke into a goofy, love sick smile.

"And I might hate him more than anything else in the world but I think I love him too," Hannah said. "And that's what I wanted to tell you. That Jason and I, who hated each other even as much as you and Derek, We've found love and I just want you to know, you shouldn't regret anything."

Casey smiled warmly at the two. "I don't," she said, "I don't and I know I won't."

"Good." A large, yellow school bus pulled up alongside the three and Jason and Hannah moved to get on. "Good bye Casey."

Casey waved at them, still a little dazed and watched the bus until it turned around a corner and disappeared from her sight. She raced home, silently slipped inside and up the stairs until she reached Derek's room. Her heart racing and her cheeks hurting a little from smiling too much, she opened the door and slipped inside.

He was asleep, looking like a fallen angel, in black cotton boxers and nothing else. She leaned down, a small giggle escaping her lips and pressed her freezing cold hand against his searing hot skin.

"Jesus!" Derek shot up, his hand gripping her wrist. Casey tried desperately not to laugh at the bewildered look on his face but failed and succumbed to soft, hysterical giggles.

"Your face," she panted between giggles, "your face was so funny."

"Funny eh," Derek's hand moved slowly up her arm until he reach her elbow. "I'll show you funny." With a firm yank Casey found herself toppling onto the bed, her face pressed into his warm, soft chest.

She lay there for a moment feeling his arms wrap themselves around her waist and listening to his heartbeat. "I'm not really sure what's funny about this," she remarked after a few minutes of silence. "Maybe you're losing your touch."

Derek gently pulled her up into a kiss. "Who cares?"

()()()()()()

The car ride seemed longer than it had ever been. Casey sat tensed in the passenger seat. Once she'd stopped being in love for just a second everything that was waiting for her at school suddenly flashed back to her.

Vincent knew.

Would he tell everyone? Casey knew that they would be quicker to believe him than her and Derek. Looking back, they had kind of acted like a married couple. A very, very cute married couple but none the less it only provided Vincent with ammo.

"We'll be ok," Derek whispered as they pulled into the parking lot. "I know this whole fucking thing seems like a teen movie but maybe there's some truth behind those screenplays."

"What do you mean?" Casey asked. The pressure on her chest was so much she almost couldn't breathe. It was like she was swimming with sharks and all that she had to protect her was the metal walls of the car. Once she got out of the car it would be like throwing herself in with the beasts. Except she'd also be wearing a raw steak suit.

"I mean everyone rolls their eyes at the two teenagers promising to love each other and how they plan to spend the rest of their lives together. Maybe they weren't so wrong."

Casey raised her eyebrows at him, her heart racing. Was he…proposing?"

"I'm not saying we're going to get to that point," Derek continued as if Casey hadn't moved, "but I am saying we have to accept that people aren't always going to understand and we just have to…go with it."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Casey giggled a little. "But I love you."

Derek scrunched up his face at her. "That may have been the most heartfelt speech ever given and you missed it. I hope you're happy."

"Say it again," Casey replied.

"I don't want to."

"Then I'll just tell you what I got from it," Casey said moving as close to Derek as she could before the parking brake was digging uncomfortably into her thigh. "I got that you love me and you want to be with me. I got that you don't care what anyone else thinks about us."

"That's about it," Derek said smiling. "I love you. I don't care what Vincent's been saying and I definitely don't care what these losers think. I just want to take it one day at a time. With you."

Casey nearly melted. "Let's go then," she said. "Let's go face the losers."

It was strange; she could swear that as she slid out of the car she could feel herself glowing. She felt radiant. Maybe it was because of her new exfoliating body wash and her new found self confidence.

Or maybe it was the way Derek was staring at her like she was some sort of goddess.

He wrapped a protective arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a half hug as he brushed his lips over her forehead.

"You want to know what else I got from your little speech?" Casey asked as they walked proudly into the school as if they were celebrities.

"What?"

"I got that you have watched way too many teen movies for any teen aged boy."