"What was that?" she asked quietly to herself
"umm… a kiss" I whispered softly touching my lips which were still tingling with ecstasy.
"Obviously I know it was a kiss Derek… why? Why was it a kiss" She said now growing agitated. Here came that anger I was dreading. In one… two… three…
"You can't kiss me I mean I'm your sister. What were you thinking?" She shoved me as she got up and began pacing the porch
"STEP-sister, we're not really related" I corrected her as I pushed myself to my feet
"Look Derek I can't do this right now. I can't deal with things with Sam and deal with your sudden hormonal breakdown all at once. You kissed me out of pity okay fine now let's just pretend it didn't happen so that we can go back to our normal roles of despising each other." She said suddenly stopping to look at me.
I looked at her pained and somewhat irritated. "A hormonal breakdown! I had a hormonal breakdown?" I asked her my voice raising more than I had intended.
"Well what else could you call it? Kiss me out of nowhere without any warning and might I add not provoked in any way" she scolded as she crossed her arms across her chest.
"Out of nowhere? No warning?" I scoffed now mimicking her body language "Oh please you knew I was going to kiss you and you had plenty of time to stop me" I shook my head at her my voice becoming steady
"How was I supposed to know you were going to act like the male chauvinist you are and take advantage of my situation like that!" she shouted at me
"You know what call it what you want Casey; me being a pig, a hormonal breakdown, whatever; but you're forgetting one very important detail here" I pointed out walking towards her
"I am?" She questioned "And what is that?" She was now looking at the ground I got the feeling she was trying to do everything but look my way
"You let me do it! You did you let me kiss you. You didn't pull away, push me away, scream or hit me; as a matter of fact you kissed me back!" I said moving towards her speaking quietly enough that we would not be heard by any passer bys.
"I did not" she said glaring at me
"Oh you did too. You didn't even pull away in fact I was the one who pulled away" I said now walking towards her
"Well I… I mean I was in shock. I mean it's not everyday that your step brother has a meltdown or whatever this is and kisses you. I mean do you realize the ripple effect that your actions could have on our lives?" She said now shouting at me
"Well excuse me for thinking that a kiss is just a kiss it was a momentary sudden and believe me fleeting impulse" I said rolling my eyes and walking towards the edge of the porch in an attempt to flee this embarrassing confrontation.
"Get real Derek a kiss is definitely not just a kiss. Especially when it's you kissing me. Is this some kind of sick joke?" she shouted at me. I stopped and turned on my heels walking back towards her.
"A joke?" I scoffed "you think I would put myself through this humiliation for a joke? No Casey" I said rubbing my forehead which was no throbbing from stress "This is not a joke as much as I would like to pretend it is; I kissed you because I wanted to, it felt right, I liked it" I was now leaning against the porch railing next to where she had positioned herself. "can you honestly tell me you didn't feel anything?"
"Seriously you're asking me if I felt anything when my step brother was kissing me? Are you high?" She glared at me
I threw my hands up in frustration, "Fine let's just drop it and forget it ever happened. I'm sorry! It wont happen again" I said finally giving up the fight
"Okay… so we… just pretend it didn't happen… okay" She said and got up and walked into the house before entering the house she turned to me and asked me "Oh and Derek… do you think you could not say anything to Sam about tonight? Let me handle it? Please?"
I inhaled a deep breath before answering her "Sure… I guess" I said with my jaw clenched
I walked into the house and straight to my room without saying another word. Edwin came to get me for dinner when the pizza arrived but I opted to remain in my room playing my computer games. About an hour later the phone rang. I answered to hear Sam's voice on the other line. "D man is Casey home? I kinda need to talk to her" He said. It took everything I had not to yell at him over the phone, but I stayed true to my promise to Casey. I exited my room and knocked on her bedroom door.
"Come in" she shouted from inside. I opened the door and remained standing in the doorway as she turned her attention to me. "Phone… it's Sam" I said quietly tossing her the phone and walking back into my room shutting the door. A half an hour later there was a light knock at my door before I could reply she entered my room sitting on the edge of my bed. "So he explained what happened" she said pausing for me to respond. When I didn't she continued "Sam has been having some personal troubles with his home life and he has been frustrated and preoccupied and he simply wanted to find some way to feel better about things. He wasn't in any way trying to pressure me at all and he certainly did not mean to lay a hand on me. He just got caught up in the argument and lost control. But he's apologized and promised nothing like that will ever happen again and everything is fine now." She said all in one breath
"Hmmm good for you guys" was all I could manage, never taking my eyes off of the computer screen.
"So… I just wanted to tell you the good news before I went to bed…. And now I have so… goodnight" she said getting up and walking towards the door.
"Night" I mumbled as she walked out closing the door behind her
Switch to Casey's Point of View
An entire month had gone by and Derek had barely spoken to me. He would speak to me only when necessary at school avoiding me until lunch when Sam would convince him to eat with us and at home he would pick little fights with me I guess to keep our family from noticing any change. Sam and Derek's relationship had not even been affected, mostly my fault I guess for asking Derek not to say anything to Sam, but still I couldn't help but wish he had shown some sort of concern regarding the event.
Sam and I were doing great. There had been no more incidents, not even any small little arguments or disagreements I accepted his apology; I knew better than anyone how difficult it is to deal with stress at home so I forgave him and we moved on from there. But somehow my feelings for Sam had changed. Not because of what happened between he and I, more so because of what happened between Derek and I. I found myself thinking of Derek when I should have been thinking of Sam.