A/N: Same
"So, are you going to tell me the real reason you didn't come over to my house yesterday?" Alex C. finally asked when the bell rang for Criminal Justice to be over.
"Oh, something came up after baseball yesterday," Casey said, not wanting to give up the information about Olivia's mom. "My mom wanted me to come straight home."
"Oh," Alex said as they walked down the hall.
"Well I have Biology," Casey said.
"Oh yeah, you're in this class with Abbie right?"
"Yeah, I should be in Physics since Biology is for freshmen, but I took Physics freshmen year at private school."
"Oh, well, Abbie just kept failing it."
"Really, is she that dumb?"
"No, not really actually, but she never does her work. You practically fail if you get 4 zeros in one marking period."
"True," Casey said, reaching the door to Biology.
"See you at lunch?" Alex C. asked.
"Maybe," Casey said. "I told Liv I'd sit with her."
At lunch, Casey strolled into the cafeteria and glanced around, looking for Olivia. She didn't see her, so she took a seat at the table and waited for her. A few moments later, Olivia walked in and Casey stood up.
"Oh hey Case," Olivia said.
"Hey, do you want to sit with me today?"
"Oh, sure," Olivia said, thinking about all the times she had gone outside to eat because she had no one to sit with. "How's your day going?" she asked as they stood in line.
"It's pretty good, how about yours?"
"It's alright I guess," Olivia said, playing with one of the small diamond studs in her right ear. "By the way, Case, thanks for letting me spend the night last night. I know it was kind of weird and all because we don't know eachother that well, but it was nice, thanks."
"No problem," Casey said, smiling at her progress.
Thursday after school, Casey paced up and down the hallway, waiting for Olivia. She wanted to see if she wanted to spend the night at her house to make t-shirts for their football team to wear to the game the following night.
She finally saw Olivia emerge from her last period class, Spanish.
"Hey Case, what's up?" Olivia asked, pulling her jeans up slightly as they walked.
"Are you going to the game tomorrow?" Casey asked as they walked outside into the mild weather towards Casey's car.
"Maybe, to see Elliot play."
"Do you want to go with me?"
"Sure."
"Do you want to sleep over tonight?" Casey inquired. "I mean, we could make t-shirts for Lovett High so that we can wear them to the game tomorrow."
"Oh, cool idea!" Olivia said as they quickened their pace to her car when it began to sprinkle several raindrops.
"Alright, we'll go pick up your stuff then head back to my house."
"Stop it!" Casey shrieked as Olivia smeared a streak of red fabric paint on Casey's cheek.
"Oh come on, Case, you've already become a blue and red abstract painting," Olivia giggled as she looked at Casey, covered in Lovett High's school colors from head to toe. It was even in her hair.
"Oh yeah? Well you don't look like you have enough on you!" Casey yelled as she smeared some blue in Olivia's short ponytail.
"Girls," Ms. Novak said, coming into the room. "I thought the fabric paint was supposed to go on the fabric?"
"It's more fun to put on Olivia," Casey laughed.
"Hey!" Olivia said as she finger-painted Elliot's football number on the back of her shirt.
"What do you girls want for dinner?" Ms. Novak asked as she looked around the kitchen.
"Pizza," Casey said, finishing the 'T' at the end of 'Lovett.'
"Fine," Ms. Novak said, grabbing the portable phone. "But just this once, because Olivia is here."
"My mom likes to make everything fresh," Casey said to Olivia.
"It's healthier that way!" Ms. Novak shouted as she walked into the living room to place the order.
"What do you girls want on it?" she called to the kitchen a few minutes later.
"Pepperoni and mushrooms!" the girls exclaimed at the same time.
They both began to laugh before Casey spoke. "That's my favorite kind of pizza!"
"Mine too!" Olivia exclaimed. "I thought I was the only one who liked mushrooms."
"Well now you know you're not alone," Casey added before the shriek of her cell phone interrupted the multiple-meaninged heartfelt moment.
"Hello?" Casey answered into her cell phone.
"Hey Case," said the voice on the other line, which belonged to Abbie Carmicheal.
'Who is it?' Olivia mouthed to her.
'Abbie,' she mouthed back. Olivia just nodded in response.
"Hey Abbs, what's up?"
"There's a party after the football game tomorrow night. Just thought I'd let you know."
"Oh cool, I'm going with Liv, we'll stop by. Where is it?"
"Brian Cassidy's house."
Casey's heart skipped a beat as she thought about the cute boy who had been eyeing her all week.
"What's the address," she sputtered out with great effort.
"2162 Sunset Glen. It's in Alex C.'s neighborhood."
"Okay, cool," Casey said. "I'll just mapquest it. Thanks Abbie," Casey finished before hanging up the phone.
"What was that about?" Olivia asked as she laid her t-shirt on the counter to dry.
"There's a party at Brian Cassidy's house tomorrow after the football game.
"Cool," Olivia said, a shy smile creeping up on her face.
"What are you smiling about?" Casey asked her as she poked her in the ribs.
"Nothing," Olivia laughed as she pulled away.
"No seriously, is it because Elliot's going to be there?"
"Yeah," Olivia said, all joking aside.
"You really like him don't you?" Casey asked.
"Yeah, I do."
"Well, tomorrow's your chance."
"Uh huh," Olivia muttered as she screwed the cap back on the red paint.
Friday was going by way too slowly for Casey Novak. She watched the clock as the last 15 minutes of Pre-Calculus ticked away. Time was going by so slowly that she thought the hands on the clock might actually be moving backwards.
Casey leaned her head into the palm of her right hand as the teacher rambled on about a rectangle in a semicircle and what the radius of the rectangle is.
She thought about how cute Brian was and how she couldn't wait until after the football game for the after party.
"Ms. Novak?" the teacher's familiar voice brought her back to math class as she noticed the 26 pairs of eyes suddenly on her.
"Oh, um, the radius is 10 feet," Casey managed.
"Good," Miss Holiday said, turning back to the board just as the bell rang.
"Page 196, 1-52 even!" she called after the students already rushing out of the classroom, and Casey was one of them.
She didn't even bother to wait for Olivia. Once she reached her car, she unlocked the doors and shoved her back pack in the back seat and waited for Olivia. About 2 minutes later, Olivia walked up to her normal parking place.
"Let's go," Casey said, getting in the driver's side.
"Well aren't you in a rush today," Olivia said, getting in the passenger seat.
"I'm excited. I've never been to a football game. And especially not an after party."
"Oh wow, you're going to have so much fun," Olivia said as she stared out the window on the way back to Casey's house.
The girls arrived at Casey's house at about 4:20. Casey practically leaped out of the car with her backpack and hurried inside.
"Whoa, Case, you want to wait up?" Olivia said, pulling her back pack on and shutting the door.
"Sorry, I'm really excited. I want to go change and redo my makeup and straighten my hair so that we can go to Sonic and then go to the game. It starts at 6 right?" Casey asked as she unlocked the front door to the house.
"Yeah," Olivia said as they walked down the hall to Casey's room.
"Good, we'll be gone before my mom gets home."
"You're so bad, Casey," Olivia giggled as she kicked her shoes off. In the short week that they had been friends, Olivia had become so comfortable around Casey.
"Shut up. What are you wearing to the game tonight?" Casey asked, looking through her tops in her closet.
"This," Olivia said, holding up a shimmery black tube top, coming up just high enough to expose her belly button piercing. "I'm only changing shirts," Olivia said.
"Yeah, probably the same with me. What do you think about this?" Casey asked, holding up a red low cut halter, exposing 3 inches of her midriff.
"Cute," Olivia said, pulling off her shirt to put on her "Lovett High Bulldogs" shirt.
Almost two hours later, Casey was screaming at the top of her lungs. "Let's go Bulldogs!" she screamed with Liv screaming next to her. The majority of the game was interesting, she found out Brian's number from Abbie and she screamed her lungs out for number 71 as much as possible.
"See you at the party!" Abbie yelled, getting into Alex C.'s car.
Once Olivia and Casey were in Casey's car, Casey pulled her shirt and bra off and replaced it with her slender halter top. She ruffled up her hair a bit and applied thick rims of black eyeliner around her eyes. Liv did the same with her black tube top and changed her belly ring to a diamond ring with two diamond chains attached, flowing down her stomach.
"Ready to go?" Casey asked Olivia about 20 minutes later.
"Yep," Olivia said, finishing her mascara.
Casey pulled out of the parking lot and onto the highway, following Mapquest's directions to Brian's house. She pulled up into the driveway of the large house several minutes later. She put her car in park and walked up to the door and heard the large music playing from the inside the house.
Casey pulled the door open and was alarmed by the large amounts of people everywhere.
"There's Elliot," Olivia screamed over the noise a few minutes later. "I'm going to go talk to him, okay?" she asked.
"Okay, I'll go find Brian," Casey called back.
She walked through a crowd of drunk football players in search of Brian, but she couldn't find him anywhere.
'How weird,' Casey thought. 'This is his house.'
She climbed the stairs and found a long hallway with many doors. Brian practically lived in a mansion.
She attempted to open the first door on her right, but was interrupted by a large yell of "shut the door!"
Casey moved onto the first door on her left, but it was locked. On the 2nd door on the left, she opened it and found a hall closet, with Brian Cassidy making out with Alex Eames.
"Oh, uh," she said as she stumbled backwards, feeling stupid for everything she had thought of him.
"Wait Casey," Alex E. said as Casey began to walk hurriedly down the hall.
"I don't want to interrupt," Casey said shyly, the frustration beginning to rise up as a lump in her throat.
"Casey wear are you going?" a very drunk Brian Cassidy yelled.
"Ugh!" Casey muttered when Alex E. grabbed her arm.
"Do you like him?" Alex E. asked, clearly feeling guilty.
"Sort of. I mean I thought he was cute and stuff but I didn't really know him," Casey sputtered before the tears of frustration began to come rather quickly. "I mean," Casey said, "I thought he liked me too," she said, exasperated.
"Casey I'm really sorry," Alex E. said sympathetically.
"Just forget this happened, it's fine he's not even worth it. I'd rather be friends with you," Alex said, frustrated with the new news.
"No, Alex, it's fine if you like him or whatever. I barely knew him, I'm making a big deal out of nothing. I'll find someone else," Casey said managing a smile.
"You sure?" Alex asked, placing an arm on her shoulder.
"Yeah, positive," Casey said, smiling again. "See you later," Casey said, turning to walk down the stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs, she noticed Bobby Goren walking around aimlessly. Casey really took notice of his height as she approached him. She wondered why he wasn't playing football. 'Nah,' she thought. 'Bobby's too smart for that.'
"Hey Bobby!" Casey screamed over the noise.
"Cassandra!" Bobby yelled, walking over to her.
"Bobby, I told you it's Casey!" she yelled again.
"What!" Bobby yelled back.
"Let's go outside so I can hear you," Casey said, pointing towards the door.
Bobby nodded as they walked out to Casey's car. Casey got into the back seat and Bobby followed.
"That's much better," Casey said.
"Yeah, God that noise," Bobby muttered as he shook his head. Casey laughed at how mature Bobby was acting. "So, what brings you to this party?" Bobby asked, leaning against the back of the seat.
"Abbie told me about it so me and Liv stopped by."
"Oh that's right, I did see Liv, she was with Elliot talking in the kitchen," Bobby said.
"Yeah, I thought so. Why are you here Bobby? You don't strike me as one of those to come to these kinds of parties."
"Alex brought me along, but she left for Brian Cassidy," Bobby said, rolling his eyes.
"Oh yeah, I saw," Casey said, glumly. "You like her, don't you?" Casey asked as she folded her legs Indian style so that she could face him.
"Me and Alex?" Bobby asked, a bit shocked. "No, she is my best friend and has been for a very long time, but we would never date. Sometimes I think she can not handle me." Bobby said with a hint of sadness in his eyes.
"Oh," Casey said, a bit thrown off. She was sure they had a thing for eachother.
"I don't date much," Bobby said, making small patterns with his fingers across his pant leg. "You liked Brian Cassidy, didn't you?" Bobby asked.
"What?" Casey asked, a bit surprised. "How did you know that?"
"I could tell. Your facial expressions when he said hello to you in the halls," Bobby said, then quickly recovering when he noticed Casey's confused look. "I spend a lot of time observing people," Bobby said.
"Oh," Casey said. She noticed Bobby's deep intellect and was surprised by it. She would have figured Bobby would be some kind of nerdy kid in Rocket Science club and the Robotics club, but if you had just seen him one time you would guess he was on the football team. She noticed his dark blue, almost gray eyes watching her, piercing her, and somehow she knew he was evaluating her.
"Open your hand," Bobby said after a few moments of silence passed.
"Um, okay," Casey said, stretching out her palm.
Bobby took her palm and placed it face up in his. He began to trace a line across her palm, just above the center of her palm. This is your heart line. They say if it's deep like yours, you're a deep lover, but you're hurt easily," Bobby said, thoughtfully. "And this," he continued, "this is your head line," he said, tracing the line below the 'heart line'. "This means that you're intelligent, and you're not easily influenced by others. You make decisions that you want to," Bobby said, his eyes coming to reach hers. He slowly moved his fingers up to hers, tracing up her fingers and around the tips, and back down to the dips between each fingers. "Your fingers are long and slender, you're an emotional and aggressive person." Bobby began to lightly draw his finger up her ring finger. "Your ring finger is almost as long as your middle finger, meaning you can be artistic, but you can be wild when you want to be," Bobby said, his eyes traveling up and down her ring finger before moving onto evaluating her pinkie finger. "Now your pinkie finger," Bobby said, running his large index finger up and down her small pinkie, "determines how articulate you are. Yours is longer than average, so you're very articulate, and good at writing," Bobby said, looking up into her eyes at the same time Casey did, their faces more intensely close than Casey was ready for.
Casey hadn't realized how much time had passed until Olivia opened the door to the passenger side and peered into the back seat.
"There you are," Olivia said, before stopping herself. "Oops, did I interrupt something?" Olivia asked as she noticed how close Bobby and Casey were to eachother.
"Not at all," Casey said, pulling back, Bobby's eyes narrowing into hers. "We just came out here because it got too loud and Bobby lost Alex in the crowd."
"Oh," Olivia said. "Are you ready to go home? I'm exhausted," she said, climbing into the passenger seat.
"Oh, yeah, absolutely," Casey said, climbing out of the back seat at the same time Bobby did.
"See you at school on Monday," Casey said to Bobby.
"Bye Cassandra," Bobby said, heading towards the house.
"Bobby, it's Casey, please call me Casey," Casey said, almost laughing.
"Oh, right, Casey."
Casey giggled as she climbed into the driver's side of her car and began to drive towards the road, taking a left before Olivia spoke.
"So, are you going to tell me what happened?" Olivia inquired.
"Nothing, we just talked for a while," Casey said.
"You know, forget Brian, Bobby's really cute," Olivia said, flipping the dial to find a radio station.
"Yeah, forget Brian," Casey murmured, gripping the steering wheel harder.
"What was that?"
"I said forget Brian," Casey said, a bit louder. "Found him in a closet with Alex Eames."
"Again?" Olivia groaned.
"What do you mean, 'again'?"
"They are an off/on couple. They hook up, go out, then break up so often it's hard to keep up."
"Oh," Casey said, feeling stupid.
"Don't worry about it," Olivia said, patting Casey on the arm.
"I'm not, Alex and I talked. I don't really care, I barely knew him anyway."
"That's good. But seriously Case, Bobby's so cute."
"But weird," Casey said, shifting lanes.
"What do you mean?" Olivia asked as they pulled up to a stoplight.
"He read my palm," Casey said, scratching at her head.
Olivia began to laugh. "Yeah, Bobby is like that in so many weird ways. But you gotta love him," she said.
"Yeah, I guess so," Casey said, some of the stress lifted off her shoulders. "So you want to tell me what happened with you and Elliot?"
Olivia began to smile. "We talked for a really long time and that's it. I wasn't interested in a hook up, but he asked me on a date, next weekend. He said he's liked me for a long time and he wants to actually get serious this time."
"I take it you guys have been around this block before?"
"Yeah, we've had a couple dates, but it's never worked out. He says this time he wants it too."
"Well, Elliot doesn't seem like the type to lie about that kind of stuff, so I would go for it."
"I think I will," Olivia said, looking out the window. Meanwhile, Casey sat and thought about her strange encounter with the mysterious Bobby Goren.