Author's Note: Thanks for all of the reviews! I'm glad to know people are actually reading this! Okay, here's the next chapter, I hope you enjoy! And remember... underage drinking leads to trouble!
The first thing Casey realized when she woke up was that she felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to her head. The second thing she realized was that she was not in her own bed. The third thing she realized, while rolling over, was that Derek was passed out next to her.
The last thing she realized was that they were both naked.
"AUGHH!" she screamed loudly, and Derek woke up with a start.
"What the hell, Case!" Derek grunted angrily, sitting up and pressing a hand to his pounding head. He winced as his eyes had to adjust to the light. Then he looked over at her.
She looked purely horrified, his blanket pulled up to her neck and her make-up smeared on her face. Derek's eyebrows knit together in confusion, wondering why the hell he was in her bed. Then, he noticed that he had no clothes on.
And Casey was attempting to cover the fact that she was naked, too.
"Derek…" Casey said slowly, shakily. She looked borderline hysterical. "W-what am I doing here?"
Derek scrubbed his face with his hands, and realized that most of the night was a blur.
"We got drunk," he said simply.
"And…then what?" Casey asked slowly. Even though it was obvious.
"We must have…" Derek trailed off, trying to wrap his head around the fact that he may, in fact, have slept with his stepsister.
"No…no, we wouldn't have," Casey shook her head. She felt the room start spinning again and moaned, lying back down in pain.
Derek's eyes widened at an object at the foot of his bed. "I…wouldn't be too sure about that…"
Casey looked up at him, confused. He picked up the object he had been staring at.
It was a condom wrapper.
"Oh my god, oh my god," Casey whispered, and she felt her eyes well up. What had she done!
Derek also looked somewhat nervous. Had he and Casey really had sex? Wouldn't they remember that? He stared at the wrapper in his hand. It was one of the ones that he had gotten in health class a few weeks ago. He had shoved them in his dresser, saving them for "someday." But he didn't think it would be for someday soon. And he certainly didn't think that it would be with his stepsister.
"Well… at least we know we practiced safe sex," he lamely attempted a joke, trying to lighten the extremely heavy air.
"Oh my god," was all Casey could whisper in disbelief and mortification. She stood up, closing her eyes to block out the pain of her head, making sure one of Derek's sheets was still wrapped around her. And she booked it out of the room.
"Casey…" Derek called after her. He sighed heavily. Then he glanced over at where Casey had been lying. There was a small dried blood spot on his bed. It must have been from when he… took her virginity. He closed his eyes, instantly feeling worse. He hoped he hadn't hurt her. Not that she would remember if he did or not. He couldn't remember anything about it, either.
Meanwhile, Casey ran into the bathroom and vomited. When she was done, she felt tears dripping down her face and realized she was crying. She turned the shower on as hot as possible and let the scorching water cover her cries.
Derek was waiting for her when she got out of the shower. He was standing outside of the door, wearing a pair of plaid boxers and a T-shirt. He looked concerned.
"Casey…" he began.
"I have nothing to say to you, Derek," was all Casey responded with, brushing past him in her towel, heading for her own room.
"I'm sorry, Casey… I don't remember what went on last night. I wish I did, but I don't. Apparently we were both really wasted. I mean, if I had been even a little bit sober, I never would have—"
"Had sex with me?" Casey filled in, her eyes flaring. "Took my virginity from me? Spoiled my innocence!"
"Hey it wasn't just me! It takes two to tango, Case!" his eyes flashed with anger right back at her and then he sighed, rubbing his eyes. Casey looked so fragile there, standing in a towel, her eyes red and swollen from crying, her lower lip bleeding from gnawing on it harshly, and a good-sized hickey adorning her throat.
"You've got to believe me, Casey," Derek continued, his voice several octaves lower. "I don't remember anything. And I'm sorry that your first time was like this. I really, really am. I wish I could change it, but I can't. And I'm sorry about that." He looked more genuine than Casey had ever seen Derek Venturi look. He looked completely honest and open, and she knew that he was telling the truth.
Casey nodded slowly. She knew it was her fault just as much as his. She had drunk way too much, and that had gotten her into this… predicament.
She sighed, pulling her towel tighter against her body. "Let's just…forget about this whole thing. Pretend that it never happened."
"Done," Derek said with a nod, and the two of them looked at each other for a moment before awkwardly turning and walking into their separate rooms.
Casey got dressed quickly, and pulled her wet hair up. She wanted to get downstairs quickly to scope out the damage. Meanwhile, Derek tiredly took a shower, not even thinking about the mess downstairs yet.
And it was a mess. Various types of junkfood seemed to be embedded in the carpeting. Beer cans, bottles, and large red plastic cups were all strewn all over the place. And there were several passed out bodies on the couch, chairs, and even floor.
Casey could only stare open-mouthed at the disaster. She was glad that her parents wouldn't be home until early that evening. They needed all the time they could get to clean this place up.
Her stepbrother, yawning, ambled down the stairs at this moment. Casey's head snapped over to him.
"Derek, LOOK at this MESS!" she yelled, throwing her hands up in the air for effect.
Derek's eyes scanned the place. He didn't look the least bit worried. "We'll get it cleaned up before Dad and Nora get back," he shrugged, grabbing a half-full bowl of pretzels and shoving a few into his mouth.
Casey's eyes bugged. "HOW are we going to do that! It reeks of beer in here!" She scurried around, opening every window on the first floor.
"Relax, Case," Derek rolled his eyes at his stepsister. She was so dramatic.
"I can't relax!" she pressed her hand against her head. "My mother trusts me! And this place is a complete disaster area, my head is pounding, and I slept with my stepbrother!" She was now screaming.
Derek just stared at hear, speechless at her outburst. Slowly he backed away from the flushed, angry girl. "Uh… I'll go get you a painkiller."
Casey sighed heavily, collapsing onto the floor next to some snoring guy and an empty keg. Derek came back with two extra strength Tylenol and a glass of water for her.
"Thanks," she mumbled, taking the pills from him and swallowing them quickly, washing them down with the cold water.
"Sure," he said simply, and went back to eating his pretzels.
Casey glanced around at the sleeping people. There were probably about seven of them. "Derek, who are all these people?"
Derek shrugged. "People from school," he said while chewing.
Casey sighed. "Well, can you wake them up and get them out of here while I go get the vacuum?"
"Will do," Derek nodded, shoving more food into her mouth. Casey got nauseous at the mere sight of food. Especially the way Derek chomped on his food like an animal.
She ran upstairs to the closet in the middle of the hall, and took out a vacuum and other various cleaning supplies that she figured might be of use. When she got back downstairs, she was surprised to see that everyone had gone, and Derek was the only one left, sitting on the dirty couch, his feet up as he channel surfed.
"Derek!" she yelled at him.
Derek looked over at her, startled by the yell. "What?"
"We need to CLEAN now," she stressed the word, tossing him the Pledge.
Derek grumbled, but actually shut off the TV and began cleaning, not looking too happy about it. Pleased with herself, Casey turned on the vacuum and began sucking away everything about last night.
Everything.
It took a long time to get the house back to its original condition. In fact, the two of them were just taking the many bags of trash out when they saw George's car coming down the street.
"Just in time," Derek said in a low voice as he covered the trashcans.
"I told you," Casey sneered at him, but outwardly they gave smiling looks at the approaching car.
"Hi, kids," Nora smiled as George parked and they got out of the car. Edwin, Lizzie, and Marti were in the backseat, and they all scrambled up into the house.
"How did everything go?" George asked the two teenagers.
"Great," Derek immediately gave his deceivingly angelic "everything's fine" grin. He elbowed Casey, waiting for her to say something to back him up.
"Great," she echoed lamely.
"Well, that's… great," Nora gave a laugh as the four of them walked into the house. "I'll go start dinner. Are you two hungry?"
"Starving," Casey answered. She still hadn't eaten anything yet.
"Alright, I'll just order a pizza then," Nora smiled, giving her eldest daughter a kiss on her head before exiting the living room, George trailing behind her.
"Casey?" Lizzie asked, walking downstairs.
"Yeah?" Casey asked her little sister, and Derek looked over from the magazine he was currently reading, curious.
"What was this doing behind my pillow?" She held out a bra, looking confused.
Casey's eyes widened, as did Derek's.
"Uhh…that's mine," Casey ran over and grabbed it from Lizzie. It definitely wasn't Casey's though. "Sorry about that, kiddo. I, uh… changed in your room."
Lizzie didn't quite believe that, but didn't feel like questioning it. "Okay…" she said slowly, looking from Casey, to Derek, and back again. Then she turned and went back upstairs to her bedroom.
Casey sighed.
"That isn't yours, is it," Derek said simply, turning the page of his magazine.
"Nope," Casey replied, making a face at the bra and tossing it in the trash can.
She went upstairs to her own bedroom, and flopped down onto her bed. It had been a long day of cleaning. Among other things. Maybe she and Derek hadn't done anything. Maybe she had just… fallen asleep naked on her own bed and then in the middle of the night somehow snuck into Derek's bed. Or maybe she had thought Derek's bed was hers.
Or maybe all of these were really lame scenarios.
"Just forget about it, Case," she whispered, closing her eyes. In time, maybe she would forget it all. It wasn't like she could remember it, anyway. It was better this way.
Derek had gone up to his own bedroom and started grabbing his dirty clothes together to put in a pile for laundry day tomorrow. But when he grabbed a pair of jeans, his eyebrows furrowed. They were definitely not his jeans. They were feminine jeans. A slender size.
…Casey's?
He also found a lacy red bra on the other side of the room. And a small pair of matching lacy red panties rumpled up at the side of his bed. He smirked to himself.
"These must be yours," Casey heard a voice and opened her eyes, peering over at her opening door. It was Derek. Hewas trying to hide hisslightly wicked smirk as he dumped something on her floor and left.
She picked them up. They were her clothes from the night before.
"Oh GOD, I DID sleep with Derek," she groaned to herself, closing her eyes in a mix of horror and embarrassment.
