Chapter 25 – Things Take a Turn for the Worse

CASEY'S POV

No matter how hard I tired I couldn't concentrate on anything except for what happened between Derek and me. Just thinking about what happened made my skin crawl yet made my heart leap at the same time. I still couldn't understand why I did something like that…with Derek of all people. Something must be wrong with me.

"Casey," Emily said impatiently as she waved her hand in front of my face.

"I'm sorry Em," I said as I blinked and shifted my attention from Derek, who was throwing food at his friends, to Emily who was staring at me with a smirk. "What did you say?" She didn't answer but continued to smirk at me. "What? Why're you looking at me like that?"

"It's a boy, isn't it?" Emily asked, the smirk never leaving her face. My heart started to race but I forced myself to keep my composure. I mean, she hadn't even mentioned anything about Derek, I was just jumping ahead of myself.

"Ummm…boy?" I asked as I squinted slightly. "What are you talking about?"

"You weren't paying attention to me and you were staring at something over my shoulder," she responded. "And I'm pretty sure you weren't staring at the food that we have to eat here." Her smirk got bigger as she asked, "So, who were you staring at? I mean, after Max, I didn't think you'd be interested in another guy."

"I'm not interested in another guy," I muttered as I took a bite of my fruit salad. 'You're not interested in another guy only because you've fallen for your step-brother.'

"Yeah right," Emily said as she rolled her eyes. "Is it…Dan Hewitt?" She asked as she pointed. Dan was on the school's hockey team and he was pretty nice, but if you got him mad he'd shoot off swear words like a rocket being launched into space. She must've seen the horrified look on my face so she quickly said, "Ok, it's not Dan. Is it…Peter Johanssen?"

"Em, I told you, I'm not interested in any guy." 'Right, because to you Derek doesn't classify as a guy.'

"Hey Casey, Emily," Noel said as he appeared at our table and smiled a little bit. "How are you two today?"

"Hey Noel," I said cheerfully as I pushed my backpack to the ground and patted the seat next to me. He took the bait and dropped his backpack to the ground before sitting down next to me. "We're great. Just talking about some poetry submissions we got for the next Literary Magazine."

"People besides you actually submit poems to that Literary Magazine?" Noel asked with a raised eyebrow. "That's surprising."

"Hey, I'm not the only one in this school who likes poetry," I said as I gave his arm a light smack.

"Name one other person," he said in a challenging tone. I opened my mouth to respond but he quickly added, "The English teacher doesn't count!" I couldn't help but laugh. Noel always seemed to be able to get my mind off of things that bothered me, especially when I had a sun sized problem on my hands.

"You got me."

"Anyway, is Mack here? I didn't see her at all this morning," he asked.

"Oh, um, she's…sick!" I blurted out and mentally kicked myself. I could've come up with something better than that. "We don't think she's going to be able to come to school for a couple of days."

"Oh, ok, maybe I can visit her after school."

"Um, no," I said quickly. "She's highly contagious. We wouldn't want you to get sick too."

"Ohkaaaaay," Noel said slowly as he stared at me in suspicion. He grabbed his backpack and walked off, throwing a wave over his shoulder without turning around. I sighed before holding my face in my hands.

"It's Noel, isn't it?" Emily spoke up.

"What!? No!" I cried out as I shot my head up to look at her.

"Then who is it?' She pressed.

"You…wouldn't understand," I muttered as I grabbed my backpack and jumped up from the table. I rushed out of the cafeteria, down the hall, and straight into the bathroom. I checked to make sure no one else was in there before I let out a loud scream. I then went over to the sink and splashed some water on my face before looking into the mirror. "Face it, Casey; you've liked Derek ever since you moved into the Venturi house. You like every minute of him constantly teasing you and playing tricks on you. You love his attention and that's why you've fallen for Derek Venturi," I said to my reflection.

God, even when I said it out loud it still sounded weird to me. If I couldn't accept it I didn't know how Derek could, or how Mom or George could for that matter. I tried to keep from crying as I thought about what Mom and George would do. Mom would probably move us out of the house and start dating truckers and be sad and lonely for the rest of her life and it would be my entire fault. 'Get a grip, Casey, you're overreacting like always. Maybe they forgot. Maybe Derek forgot. Maybe this whole thing is just a bad dream that keeps seeping into your reality. Yeah, that has to be it.'

I grabbed my backpack and walked out of the bathroom before making my way to my locker. I had three minutes until I was late for being early to my next class so I rushed to my locker. I was in such a hurry that, when I pulled my locker door open, it smacked me in the forehead with a loud metal clang.

"Ouch," I said as I winced when I went to touch my forehead.

"I see you're still excellent at inflicting pain upon yourself, Klutzilla," Derek said as he stood behind me. I could feel my face burning as my heart sped up and I cursed myself for acting that way whenever he was around now. How was I going to survive until going off to Harvard while Derek accepts his French-frying job?

"What do you want?" I asked without looking at him. 'Easy Casey, your voice shook a little. Don't let him know that you're nervous. It's just Derek. Keep thinking that.'

"We need to talk," he responded. I could tell that he was standing with his arms crossed.

"About what?" I asked, feigning innocence. 'You know about what, you also know that you can't deny it anymore.'

"About what happened," he said as he leaned forward so he was talking in my ear. I resisted the urge to shudder when his breath tickled my ear. I swallowed hard and grabbed my books before closing my locker and walking away, making sure not to make any contact with him.

"Nothing happened," I muttered as I sped up. I could hear him walking behind me.

"Casey, we have to talk about what happened, even if you and I don't want to. And trust me, I don't want to," he said as he fell into step with me. He threw out his arm so I stopped walking and he turned so he was standing in front of me. "Skip with me."

"What? Derek, I can't, it'll ruin my–"

"Perfect attendance?" He asked with a sneer. "C'mon, you jumped at the chance to sneak out and go to that party. Of course you ratted me out, but you haven't done anything like that before. Don't you want to relieve the rush?"

"Personally, no," I responded as I went past him, although a part of me did want to go with him instead of face Noel's interrogation again. "Why do you want to leave anyway?"

"Do I ever need a reason?" Derek asked. "And I'm sure you don't want to have to face Noel and lie to him again."

I finally looked up at him and glared at him as he looked down at me with a smirk on his face. I sighed and he smirked in triumph before grabbing my wrist and yanking me out of the school. We rushed to our car and got inside before he sped out of the parking lot. I pushed away the feeling of guilt that was inside me as Derek sped down the street. Man, just being in a car with him made me have a reaction. I couldn't stop fidgeting with things that were around me. He finally pulled over at a pizza parlor, which really didn't surprise me since it was his favorite food.

"Why am I here?" I asked myself as I followed him inside.

"Well, Princes, if you really don't want to be here then you can follow me." Derek and I whirled around to see a man pointing at us with a gun. Memories from the shooting slammed back into my head when I instantly recognized who it was.

"Lucas," I muttered as he smirked evilly. Derek tensed beside me.