Chapter Two: (What's The Story) Morning Glory?
The morning of her last final of the semester, twenty-one year old Lizzie McDonald woke up to the incessant chirping of her cell phone alarm. She mentally cursed her decision to choose the most annoying ringtone her phone came with to serve as her alarm clock. She blindly swung her hand in the general direction of her desk, hoping that she'd somehow manage to find her phone and hit the snooze button before she was fully conscious. Her hand swiped through air.
Two facts managed to register in her brain, despite the fact that she was still half asleep. One, she wasn't in her own bed. And two, she most definitely was not alone. A warm body was pressed up against her back and there was also an arm resting securely around her waist. Lizzie did the only thing that came to mind. She froze. Her mind raced through all of her possible options. She'd never woken up next to anyone before, let alone had to extract herself from a sleeping boy's arms without waking him. Was she supposed to pretend to still be asleep until he woke up? Let him make the first move? He was, after all, in a better position to move considering that he didn't have another set of arms wrapped around his body. Was she supposed to risk it and detangle herself from his arms and pray not to wake him up. Or would she be well within her rights to jostle him awake?
She was just about to snuggle back into the blankets (it was December in Canada after all, and she was comfortably warm) and pretend to be asleep until he woke up when she heard him mumble, his voice unrecognizable and still thick with sleep.
"Make it stop."
With a start, Lizzie realized that she still hadn't managed to find her phone and turn off the annoying alarm. Somehow, in her semi-panic she'd managed to tune it out. Obviously she'd had other, more pressing matters on her hands.
"Trying," she groaned. Lizzie forced herself to open her eyes, thinking that it would help her find her phone faster. Searches were generally more successful when one could see what they were searching for, at least in her previous experiences. The second that her eyes popped open, she was greeted with the blinding morning sun streaming in through a dorm room window. She slammed her eyes shut as one more fact became apparent.
She was horribly hung over.
Despite the ice picks she could have sworn were being stabbed into her brain, she forced herself to get up and find her phone just so that she could make that incessant chirping stop. It was way too early for incessant chirping.
In her jacket pocket, that was where her phone was most likely to be. In fact, she was almost certain that was where she'd left it. Now, she just needed to find her jacket. She let her eyes slide open a fraction of an inch in an attempt to see where she was searching while still keeping out as much of the sun as possible. There it was, her jacket was hanging on the back of a desk chair. She stuffed her hand into a pocket and disabled the alarm as quickly as possible.
"Oh thank god you stopped it. I am too hung over for that."
Lizzie dropped her phone onto the desk and turned around to see Edwin pushing himself into a sitting position. Lizzie could see that he wasn't wearing a shirt and instead he'd fallen asleep still wearing his jeans from the day before. Half way to sitting up, he'd decided that it wasn't worth the effort and let his arm collapse beneath his weight, sending his body crashing down against the mattress once again. He groaned as his head hit the pillow, obviously regretting the sudden movement.
"Moving is definitely not an option for now," Edwin mumbled into his pillow.
"Oh my god!" gasped Lizzie as the previous night's events came flying back to her. Before now, she'd been too focused on turning off her alarm and too groggy from recently waking up for last night's memories to hit her. But now those memories hit her full force and she was definitely embarrassed.
"Oh my god," she repeated. "I. . . I have to go," she stammered, an intense need to get the hell out of there overriding anything else she had been feeling before, including the stabbing pains behind her eyes due to her hangover.
She scrambled to grab her cell phone and her winter jacket. After a quick glance downward, she realized that she was only wearing her jeans and a tank top. She had definitely been wearing a blouse over the tank top when she'd arrived at Edwin's room the night before. Her eyes frantically swept the tiny dorm room in search of her blouse. She didn't see it anywhere. It wasn't on the floor or draped over a chair and it hadn't gotten thrown onto Edwin's roommate's bed either. (She made a mental note to remember where her clothing got thrown from now on). Instead of searching harder for her blouse (she didn't really even like it that much), she shoved her arms into her jacket and started to shove her feet into her tennis shoes, not bothering to undo the laces like she normally would.
"Lizzie, where are you going?" asked Edwin, finally opening his eyes to see what Lizzie was doing.
"This. . . this is too weird. I have to. . . I just have to go."
Lizzie was halfway to the door when she heard Edwin throw his blanket aside and jump out of bed. Seconds later she felt his hand on her arm. Despite the fact that every instinct she had was screaming for her to leave, she paused and turned to face Edwin.
"You don't have to leave."
"I have a final today," she protested.
"Not for like eight more hours," Edwin countered. "You have to be as hung over as I am. Stay. Sleep it off for a few more hours. Just crawl back into bed with me and stay. Please," he pleaded with her.
Lizzie almost gave in to him. Her head was killing her and it was incredibly early and she had to admit that Edwin's bed looked inviting. But she couldn't bring herself to stay.
"I can't. It's too weird right now. I have to go."
"Why? Why is it weird? Because we finally gave in to what's always been there?"
Over the years, it had become apparent to both of them that they didn't truly see each other as siblings and there were definitely feelings stronger than friendship between the two of them. They had never actually acknowledged their feelings for each other, but they both knew they were there nonetheless. In high school, both were reluctant to bring their current boyfriend or girlfriend to the house and on the rare occasion they did, the other was conveniently absent or quick to make themselves scarce. Despite the fact that they both knew these feelings existed, neither had acted on them. Until the night before, at least.
"Do you think that Derek and Casey's relationship is weird?" Edwin tried again.
"They're different." Lizzie answered quietly.
"How are they different from us? Why is this so weird for you?"
"I don't know, okay? I just don't know. This is too much for me to handle right now." She shrugged his hand off her arm. "This isn't the least bit weird to you?" she wondered.
"No. It couldn't be more right," he replied. But his answer fell on deaf ears. Lizzie had already left.
"Thanks for agreeing to the last minute change in plans," Lizzie thanked her sister a few days later. The four oldest Venturi/McDonald children were on their way home for the Christmas holidays. In Lizzie and Edwin's case, they were heading home for most of January since their spring semester didn't start until the end of that month and most of the on campus dorms were closed until then. Casey and Derek were only planning on staying until New Year's day because their classes were going to start up much sooner than the University's.
Because Lizzie and Edwin were going home for such a long stretch of time, they were both bringing home a significant amount of their things. Consequently, they'd need both Derek's and Casey's cars. The original plan was for Derek and Casey to drive to their siblings' dorms and load their bags into the cars. Edwin and Lizzie had originally planned on driving home in one car while Casey and Derek drove home in the other, taking advantage of the last bit of alone time they'd most likely be able to have until after the holidays. Once they were at the Venturi/McDonald home, they'd have to go back to being step-siblings and step-siblings only.
That morning, Lizzie had called Casey and asked if they could ride together instead. Casey had readily agreed as Lizzie had assumed she would. She knew something was up between Casey and Derek, but didn't have the slightest clue as to what it was.
"It's no problem, Liz. What kind of sister would I be otherwise?"
"Horrible. You'd be a horrible older sister. Refusing to give up time with your boyfriend and all," Lizzie rolled her eyes to let Casey know that she was just joking. "Speaking of, why were you so eager to give up this time with Derek. I thought for sure that I would have needed to ask more than once." She may have assumed that Casey would give in, but hadn't assumed that it would be so easy.
"So, why are you avoiding Edwin?" asked Casey, not bothering to pretend she didn't know what Lizzie was talking about. They were too close for something like that to work. She knew that Lizzie could tell that there was something going on with her and Derek, just like Lizzie knew that Casey could tell that she was avoiding Edwin. Neither sister would try to deny anything.
"It's complicated," replied Lizzie. (Just because she wouldn't deny it didn't mean she wanted to actually talk about it).
"Try me. I'm pretty smart."
"Only if you tell me what's going on with you and Derek."
Casey nodded in agreement, accepting Lizzie's terms.
"Edwin and I kind of spent the night together," Lizzie confessed quickly. "We were drinking and one thing led to another and we were kissing. I don't even remember who made the first move."
"And now you're avoiding him," said Casey, starting to understand.
"Yeah, pretty much. I woke up and got the hell out of there as soon as I could. It was too weird."
"What's so weird about it?"
"He's my step brother."
"Derek's my step brother too and look at us." Casey shrugged. "Take the step sibling thing out of the equation. Pretend Edwin was just some random guy you met and became friends with. If this happened with that Edwin, would it be so weird?"
Lizzie was silent for a long time before she finally answered.
"I don't think it would be," she realized. She knew without a doubt that she cared about Edwin. She had known for some time now, but had been too afraid to admit it.
"So stop avoiding him then. Talk to him. Figure out if you think you two are worth a shot. If you think you'll look back at any time and wonder what would have been, then go for it."
After another stretch of silence, Lizzie spoke again.
"Okay, so a deal's a deal. Why are you avoiding Derek?"
"What gives, Edwin?" Derek demanded, lacking the tact that Casey did. He preferred to get right to the point. "There had better be a good reason I'm stuck in a car with you instead of enjoying some alone time with my girlfriend."
On the drive home, Derek had fully planned on pulling off onto a back road and having his way with Casey one last time before they arrived at their parents' house for a little over a week, where it wasn't guaranteed that he'd be able to do so much as hold her hand until they got home again.
"Lizzie and I spent the night together," Edwin said. He knew better than to try and be vague when Derek was in a mood like this. "And now she's avoiding me."
"Dude, was the sex really that bad for her?" asked Derek. Edwin wasn't sure if Derek was joking or not. For all he knew, it could be both. Either way, Edwin wasn't in the mood to have a sex talk with his brother.
"Get your mind out of the gutter," ordered an unamused Edwin. "and help me!"
"Get better in the sack," joked Derek, earning himself another glare from Edwin.
"We didn't sleep together." Edwin knew that Derek would keep bringing it up until Edwin told him exactly what happened and Edwin really didn't wanna sit through a two hour car ride with Derek insulting his bedroom skills. "Now be serious!"
"Okay fine. I'll be serious. She's freaked out. You don't wanna deal with a girl when she's freaked. It's basically the same as trying to deal with a girl while she's crying. Let her calm down and come to you if you insist on talking to her."
Edwin knew that was the last of the serious advice that he was going to get from Derek. Edwin could accept that Lizzie was freaked out. That much had been obvious from the moment they woke up together, but he wasn't sure he was willing to wait around for Lizzie to come to him. He was going to talk to Lizzie at the first chance he got. Apologize for freaking her out (even though he really didn't think he needed to), and then beg for her to give them a chance. He knew without a doubt that he needed to know if there was anything between them.
Sooner than any of the Venturi/McDonald kids were prepared for, they turned onto the familiar street. Derek pulled his car into the driveway and a few moments later Casey pulled hers in next to his. All four kids started grabbing bags and boxes from the trunks to bring into the house.
"You know, I think this might go faster if Lizzie and Edwin stay out here and unload the car while Derek and I bring it into the house," suggested Casey. Actually, she figured their task would be done faster if they all carried whatever boxes they grabbed into the house, but she needed an excuse to leave Lizzie and Edwin alone.
"Speak for yourself. None of this is mine. I'm going inside to relax. Ed can unpack his own stuff."
"Well, then at least take a box inside as you go." Casey shoved a heavy cardboard box into Derek's arms before he had a chance to protest and grabbed one for herself. She didn't care if Derek helped or not at the moment. As long as he left Lizzie and Edwin alone to talk, she was happy. She actually had no intention of coming back outside until Lizzie and Edwin were talking.
"Hey Casey!" Lizzie called after her. "Remember what I told you."
"Will do, Liz."
Casey and Derek were almost inside the house when George and Nora came outside to greet their children. Nora wrapped Casey in a hug despite the big box between them. She did the same thing for Derek and then headed towards the end of the driveway to hug Edwin and Lizzie, frantically asking questions about the end of their semester, the drive back, and anything else she could think of. She was obviously excited to have all of her children home at the same time. Casey saw Lizzie sigh and knew that she was disappointed about not being able to talk to Edwin immediately. By the end of the car ride, Casey could tell that Lizzie was eager to talk things out with Edwin now.
Unfortunately, it looked like their conversation was just going to have to wait awhile.
Re-uploaded with minor updates November 2022.
