Bit of a jumbled chapter, but I like it. I think. :/

Btw, wtf is happening with Life With Derek, Again? I haven't heard a peep in months :(

Disclaimer: There's a reason it's called fanfiction. If I owned LWD then I wouldn't be writing on this site.

Chapter Twenty-One

Our sort-of-almost-date was a strange mix of fun, disgusting (Derek really needs to learn to enjoy food with his mouth closed), annoying and theraputic. My nerves in the car had made me all but forget my promise not to argue and since then the insults, sarcastic comments and exclamations of 'Der-ek' had flown freely. It was surprisingly relieving and enjoyable, even when we actually wound each other up it wasn't so terrible, and I began to realise why Derek hadn't wanted it to stop. It wasn't so that he could torment me at all (or at least not completely), it was so he could talk to me, interact with me. It occurred to me that Derek didn't do well talking to girls without constant flirting or family overtones. It was a natural flow between us, and it worked for us. It also turned out he wasn't the only one with no real idea how to converse without conflict; with the 'date' to compare it to, I could see what he'd meant about our conversation being stunted the day I'd stormed out.

All in all it was typical 'Casey and Derek' behaviour, but after so long resisting it, I revelled in it almost as much as if it had been a real date. And as for him, I was ridiculously pleased to note the excited glint in his eye each time I rose to the bait instead of backing down or shutting down.

We'd been settled into a comfortable silence, only broken by Derek's CD which he insisted was going back in once we left the diner, when we pulled up outside the family home.

We only had seconds before Marti would come rushing out of the door to greet us; my mom had been texting me on her behalf for hours wanting to know how long we'd be and I knew from these that Marti was intermittently checking out of the window to see if we were there yet.

I was working up the courage to say something, anything, before we went in. I knew that our focus couldn't be soley on each other once the family knew we were there, and I just wanted a little more of his attention before his Smarti arrived.

"I'm sorry." His voice startles me out of my reverie.

"Huh?" I asked, with no idea what he was appologising for or why.

"I, uh... I never meant to... You know... Hurt you." He was staring straight ahead and I could see how uncomfortable he was.

"What do you mean?" I pressed, still clueless.

"What you said that day in the coffee place. I didn't know any of that stuff I did... I didn't know-"

I cut him off, needing to save him from this straining topic. "I was just being dramatic. You know me; I'm queen of the drama, right?" I said lightly.

"Still-"

"Really, nothing to appologise for. I'm sure I've done just as much to upset you as you have me in the past. Probably more actually." I couldn't stand to see him like this with me; not when we had been so easy and comfortable just moments before. His appology meant something, it meant a lot, but I wanted easy Derek back again.

"Yeah." He said uncertainly, and I felt the sudden urge to do or say something Derek-like.

"By the way; you can take the trash out." I dropped the carefully gathered rubbish from our earlier sandwiches and drinks over his head, laughing as a piece of cling film got stuck to his hair.

He choked back a laugh and tried to look menacing. "You are so going to pay, McDonald!"

"Bring it on Venturi." I goaded, sticking my tongue out at him.

He replied by squirting me with his plastic sports bottle of water. A shot that somehow missed everything ouside of my clothes and dribbled straight down my cleavage.

"Der-ek! That was cold!" I complained, trying and failing to hold back a giggle as he celebrated his shot.

"Here, dry off with this." He chucked a used paper napkin at me.

"Ew!" I threw it back and after a couple of seconds of throwing it back and forth, I found myself fighting off his attempts to drop it down the back of my shirt. His hands kept brushing against me and he repeatedly gripped my arms to clear his goal, and I suddenly recalled Cher's comments about wrestling and dry humping. I flushed red all over, but I was enjoying it too much to stop and leave the oasis of the car.

It wasn't long before an excited Marti was hammering at the windows, distracting me enough for Derek to win, and we were forced to leave the Prince and go inside.

I glanced regretfully at his back as he hoisted his screeching little sister over his shoulder and headed for the house.

As soon as I saw how happy my family was to see me I felt a little guilty at my reluctance to leave the car, but I couldn't help feeling a twinge as Derek's eyes and conversation were taken over by our boisterous relatives. I shook myself. What the hell had happened to me on that car journey? I'd gone from only just admitting I might like him, to getting jealous of my own family because he was smiling at them. It was this more than anything that made me decide to head for the kitchen. I needed time to clear my head and tone down my all too obvious behaviour before anyone noticed.

I hadn't counted on my sister following me though.

"So how is it going with the guy you might like?"

I jumped and spun around at her voice, splashing the glass of water I'd been getting down my front. I took a moment to breathe before answering. "Well, I'm pretty sure I like him." I couldn't keep the cynisism and resignation from my tone.

"So what's the problem?" She immediately asked.

"I don't think he sees me that way."

"What makes you think that?"

I stopped for a moment. What did make me think that? Everyone (being Cher, Josh and Emily) seemed pretty sure he did see me that way, so far it was only me thinking otherwise. "I'm not sure." I told her truthfully.

"So why don't you ask him?"

She made it sound so simple. If only my head would agree. "Because if he doesn't it could mess a lot of stuff up. I need to be as sure as possible before I can even think about that." In all honesty I wasn't so sure everything wouldn't get messed up even if I never said anything; with my new possessiveness over him I could easily ruin everything anyway.

She stared at me for a moment. "Okay. Well don't wait too long; it'll drive you crazy if you do."

We went back to join the others soon after, me with slightly less awkwardness than before.

I decided that from now on I was going to look closely at my interactions with Derek and try and acertain if there was anything on his side instead of just waiting for him to make a move as my initial instincts told me to. I thought for a while of calling Cher and Emily for moral support but thought better of it; I didn't need them colouring my observations and leading me to make a fool of myself.

The first evening there was nothing much to observe; we were still completely occupied by our family, and we went upstairs (me to Lizzie's room and him to Edwin's as Mom and George had finally taken over our rooms) having barely spoken since the car.

The following morning we all ate a frantic breakfast before Mom insisted me, Lizzie and Marti should come shopping with her for some girly time while the boys looked after Simon. I felt a little irritation in the delay of my observations, but couldn't say no to my obviously excited mother.

Once out, Lizzie and Marti ran on ahead to look at a display that had caught their eye, Lizzie loving her new role as the big sister. This left me alone with my mom who was now grinning a little scarily and shooting glances at me.

After a little while she spoke. "So, Lizzie tells me there's a boy?" She asked, failing completely at a casual tone.

I blushed and tried to think of a way out of the situation.

She took my silence as agreement. "Does he have a name?"

"Yes, he has a name, and no I'm not going to tell you what it is!" I replied.

"Aww, that's no fair! Lizzie knows who it is, why can't I?" She whined childishly.

"Lizzie doesn't know." I half laughed.

"She seems to think she does." Mom shrugged.

I repressed the sudden anxiety I felt at the thought that she was right. Even if Lizzie did know, she was being supportive and hadn't told anyone. There was nothing to worry about.

"Can't you at least give me a clue? If it's someone Lizzie knows, I must know them too." She wheedled.

I sighed before answering. "He's..." I struggled to find something to tell her that wouldn't give everything away. "He's friends with Laurel." Not a lie. Not even vaguely a lie. Just a... Deflection. Yes, that would work. Nothing wrong with deflecting your own mother. Not like lying.

She seemed to sense that that was all I was going to give her and we picked up the pace to catch up with the other McDonald-Venturi girls.

Even with my new Derek obsession (which I had to admit wasn't so much new as... Newly acknowledged) I managed to have a good time with my mom and my sisters, playing around in the shops and trying on random outfits that we knew we wouldn't buy, eating junk food at the food court and eating more ice-cream than could possibly be good for us. It helped distract my over-active imagination from it's goal of driving me insane.

When we got home I realised just what a welcome relief it was. The next few hours were a hell I'd not expected; everywhere I turned there he was, my mind grew exhausted with trying to unravel him and I felt like crying from his confusing jumps between teasing and nice. Especially when my mom interrogated him about me liking a boy to see if he knew who it was. He cajoled me mercilessly about it; he was really quite mean. He made quips about my Klutzilla tendencies and how I probably acted in front of the 'mystery guy', reminding me of just how unattractive it was to spill things down myself or trip and land on my face. He insulted my fashion sense, although that one didn't hold as much sting; repeatedly called me boring, and suggested I let Marti do my make-up for my first date with whoever he was. Marti seconded the suggestion and sulked when told her no.

As Marti's sulk escalated, I was forced to tell her that I didn't think the guy liked me back; an admission met first cheerily and then suspiciously by Derek. And that was where it got confusing. He sat next to me on the couch with his arm around my shoulders while taunting me about my old boyfriends and how my mystery guy's lack of interest was probably a good thing and I should probably swear off dating. Then he switched to telling me to barbie doll up and act like a bimbo to try and get the guy, then when I seemed genuinely upset (mostly by him telling me how unattractive I was and that I should be a bimbo) he offered to talk to whoever it was and try and sort it out as he was sure I was wrong and the guy probably had enough bad taste to like me back.

This just made me give an ironic laugh, and he seemed to get frustrated.

After three hours of dizzying swings between nice and nasty, I escaped his presence under the pretence of doing school work. This left him and Mom to talk to each other as Marti and George were making dinner (the take-out had already been ordered; as much as we didn't want to burst their bubble, none of us had any intention of eating whatever bio-hazard they managed to concoct) and Lizzie and Edwin were playing on the kinect; something that meant all of us had at one point had one of Edwin's errant limbs hit us as he tried to match Lizzie.

I carefully monitored the conversation for a little while; afraid that between them they would try and succeed at figuring out who I liked. I needn't have worried. Derek seemed to be avoiding any topic that didn't have direct links to him, and without them already knowing, my secret remained outside of Derek-world.

However, Lizzie's 'helpful' interjections made the conversation infinitely more dangerous.

Just as my Mom got a small niggle of recognition in her eyes as Derek mentioned spending time with his friend Laurel (he made it sound like he met her first and I was desperately trying to assimilate his friends), Lizzie decided to remind them both that whoever it was that I liked was a friend of Laurel's. Derek just narrowed his eyes a little, as if trying to figure out who I could have meant; most of Laurel's male friends had girlfriends. Mom immediately seemed to make the connection and looked between us both with wide eyes. Lizzie shot me a knowing grin. I wished that the floor was hungry.

Shortly after, Marti and George finished their creation and we were all called in to examine it. A daunting task.

Mom tried to be nice about it, Derek made rude comments, Lizzie and Edwin started a guessing game as they tried to work out what it was meant to be, and I stood by helpless with laughter. Although we all screwed our eyes shut and tried a bite when confronted with George's slightly hurt expression and Marti's pout.

It was agreed by all, including the chefs, that it was a good thing take-out had been ordered.