Title: The Soundtrack of My Summer
Spoilers from: Season 4. Man, I really hope there's going to be a LWD movie. Wouldn't that be awesome!? Then hopefully Truman and Casey will break up, Emily and Derek will too, and Casey and Derek can be together!
Summary: It's the summer before Derek and Casey are about to go off to college, so the family decides to spend it in Mexico City. While there, Casey and Derek end up sharing a room, Casey gets a stalker, and Derek figures out just who Casey sees in her dreams.
A/N: You guys are absolutely blowing me away with all your reviews! Thank you soooo much! And if you were wondering, the bet that I referred to in the last chapter was when Derek and Casey were fighting over the room, and Casey beat him in a thumb war. They made a bet over who would win, and whoever lost had to be the other's personal servant for the summer. Derek lost, of course, hence Casey's comment last chapter. As for this chapter, it gets pretty intense, so I hope you're ready for it!
Disclaimer: I do not own Mexico City, Boys Like Girls, or Life With Derek, but I DO own Julio. Not that that's entirely a good thing.... he's such a creeper.
Chapter 8- A Broken Man
(Derek's POV)
As Casey McDonald's eyes fluttered open, my heart nearly stopped inside my chest. She wasn't supposed to wake up!
Yet a lot of things happen that aren't supposed to, and I think I know that a hell of a lot better than anyone.
I didn't remove my lips from hers, simply because I couldn't. I was so scared of what she was going to say to me, what she was going to do about this, that I simply couldn't convince my nervous limbs to move.
Suddenly, Casey's eyes became very wide, almost as if she realized for the first time that night what was happening, and she shoved.
My whole body went flailing backwards off the bed, so that I was hanging upside down with my head nearly touching the ground. I prayed to God that my feet weren't in her face, (how romantic that would be, Venturi), but I had no way of knowing for sure.
So, I managed to pull myself back onto the bed so that I was sitting in front of a very timid, very awkward looking Casey.
What the hell have I done?
"You're awake," I confirmed, immediately slapping myself in the face for making such a lame comment. Of course she was awake!
This is why I normally don't let myself fall in love. I tend to lose my cool.
"Yeah," Casey replied quietly, looking anywhere but in my eyes.
Boy was this awkward.
"Well, I guess I'll go back to sleep then," I sighed, beginning to climb back up the bed.
Casey sprang off the bed like a bee had just stung her and crossed her arms.
"I guess I'll go sleep in Liz's room tonight," she declared, and my heart plummeted.
Great, I blew it.
"You don't have to," I insisted, looking at her apologetically. "It was my fault. I shouldn't have kissed you."
"Then why did you!?" she asked, outraged. "What could possibly have gone through your head that made you decide to do something like that, Derek!?"
"You talk in your sleep," I sighed. "About me."
Her face grew ashen white, and I immediately regretted my comment. First I had to make her feel awkward, and now I'm pissing her off.
I am so not cut out for this love thing.
"What.. um... d-do I say?" she asked, stuttering. "Whatever it is, I was lying."
"How do you know if I haven't told you what you've been saying?" I asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"Well, I can guess," Casey muttered. "And it's not true! Any of it!"
"You told me you loved me, and asked me to kiss you," I whispered.
"You're lying!"
"Case, I think you're the one who's lying."
Her eyes dashed nervously around the room, looking for a way out of this uncomfortable conversation.
And then? They filled up with tears.
If there's one thing I hate more than feel good family moments, it's tears.
Casey McDonald's tears, to be exact.
"Case, please don't cry," I begged, grimacing. "I didn't mean to make you so upset! I just wanted to try it."
"Well that wasn't a very good idea, was it!?" she asked, her eyes portraying both anger and sadness. "Derek, we're stepsiblings! We're not supposed to like each other like this!"
"We?" I asked, my heart skipping a beat. "Each other? Case-"
"Just stop!" Casey cried, grabbing her pillow. "Leave me alone, Derek. Please."
"Case-"
"No! I have to go! I'll sleep in Liz and Marti's room, on the floor if I have to, and you go back to bed and pretend this thing never happened, okay?"
"But Casey-"
"Derek, please!" she begged, and I sighed in defeat.
"Fine. I'll see you tomorrow."
As Casey fled the room, tears streaming down her face, I plunged my face into my pillow to muffle my groan.
Why was she being so difficult?
If what Casey had said was true, that 'we' aren't supposed to like 'each other,' then does that mean she has feelings for me, too?
She seemed to be trying way too hard to deny her dreams about me.
Did that mean she loved me too?
Of course not. I'm being ridiculous. Our kiss made her cry, for heaven's sake! People don't cry when you kiss them if they love you.
My love for her was unexpected, unrequited, yet unconditional, nonetheless.
As I fought to contain my own tears, (not that Derek Venturi cries or anything), I attempted to get some sleep.
Unfortunately, I wasn't destined for sleep that night. I ended up getting about five minutes tops before my Dad called to me that breakfast was ready.
Great. That meant I would have to see Casey, and I definitely didn't want that.
I'm sure she wasn't ready for that either.
But maybe, just maybe, seeing her might be a good thing. If she's just as torn up as I am about this thing between us, maybe that means she loves me back!
One thing was for sure. I had to find out.
As I made my way into the kitchen of our little cabin in Mexico City, Nora dropped the news.
"Derek, the family's decided to stay here for the day. Casey isn't feeling well, and we don't want to leave her here alone while she's sick."
"We're not going anywhere today?"
"I'm afraid not."
Just great! Now, there was absolutely no chance of me getting Casey off my mind.
For the first few hours of the day, I slept. At least, I tried to sleep, but my brain wouldn't let me. It was too busy whirring through the many possibilities of Casey liking or hating me.
There's a fine line between love and hate, and I'm pretty sure I've just crossed it. The question is, which side is Casey on?
At around 3 PM, I decided to find out. This was getting ridiculous, and I was pretty sure we both knew it, because the moment I entered Lizzie and Marti's room, which was now Casey's infirmary, she showed no sign of surprise.
"About time," she sighed, sitting up in Lizzie's bed.
"Hey, you could've come to me," I insisted, and Casey rolled her eyes.
"Derek, you started this thing. You're going to be the one to end it."
"End it? Excuse me, Casey, but what if I don't want to end it?!"
"Derek, we have to! We can't be together! Don't you get that?"
"Of course I do, Casey! I know very well that the family will think we're weird, and most of the world will be disgusted by us. Some ignorant fools will even try to call it incest. But we're not related, Case, so it's not so bad!"
"Not so bad!? Derek, how can you say that! You're my step-brother, for crying out loud!"
At this point, our voices were on the verge of a complete shouting match, and I knew neither of us wanted the family to overhear. So, I grabbed a chair and sat by her side, lowering my voice to a whisper.
"Tell me one thing, Case. How do you feel about me?"
Her face turned a sickly green, and she looked as if she were about to throw up. I took this as a good sign.
I was making her nervous. That had to be a good thing.
"Derek, it's not about how I feel-"
"Case, just tell me," I pleaded, my eyes boring into hers. "Do you like me at all?"
"Of course I do!" she sighed, throwing her hands into the air. "When you throw two hormonal, rather attractive teenagers under the same roof, there are bound to be some feelings there."
"I knew it!" I exclaimed, a smile lighting up my face. Immediately, however, I forced it to disappear. "How much?"
"How much what?"
"How much do you like me?" I asked nervously, and she began to fidget.
"On a scale of what?" she asked, and I rolled my eyes.
"Case, don't you even think about backing out of my question. I want to know how much you like me."
"Fine," she sighed, pouting. "A lot, okay? I like you a lot. I always have, ever since you and I teamed up to try and force my mom and your dad to end the engagement. There was something about you, underneath the arrogance, that I found rather sweet."
I beamed. This was like a dream.
Wait. I wasn't dreaming, was I? I hadn't managed to drift off and make this whole conversation up, had I?
Just to make sure, I pinched my arm real hard, and yelped at the pain.
I was awake. This was real!
"But Derek, just because I love you-"
"You love me!?" I cut off, shocked. "You mean it?"
Casey blushed and looked down at her hands, but I refused to let her down easy. Finally, she answered me.
"Yes, I do. But right now, I hate you for putting me through this humiliation."
"The story of our lives," I sighed. "We've always been extremely bad at balancing our love and hate for each other."
"Do you think Mom and George know?" she asked nervously, and I shook my head.
"Case, I didn't even know until we came on this trip. There's no way they could have figured it out. They're not as smart as you are."
Blushing again, she averted her eyes to the wall and frowned.
"You know, this doesn't mean we can date or anything. What happened the other night can never happen again."
And just as it had last night, my heart suddenly found itself in the gutter once again.
"What do you mean? We're in love, Case! How can we not be together!?"
"It's simple. We'll both continue to fight and pretend to hate each other, and then one day, we'll each find someone else. Someone that's not our stepsibling."
"Case, it's not that easy for me to forget about you," I sighed. "Believe me, I've tried."
"Well, you'll have to try harder," she demanded. "This can never work out, and you know it."
"Case, how can you say that!? You can't know anything until we at least try!"
"No, Derek!" she refused. "I told you how I feel about you, but that's all you're going to get. Sometimes Derek Venturi can't get everything he wants."
Boy was that the truth. The one thing I wanted most in the world was to be with Casey, yet she was single-handedly denying me.
"I won't stop loving you," I promised, getting up to leave. "Not in a million years."
"Derek," she pleaded, her eyes filling up again. "Please, just try?"
"Sorry Case. I can't."
And with that, I left Casey alone in her room to dream of all new ways to ruin my life.
If there was one thing I knew for sure, it was that I could never stop loving Casey. Not even if I came across some gorgeous blond in a bikini.
My heart would always belong to Casey McDonald.
Later that night, as I tried to sleep yet again but continued to fail miserably, I heard a sound coming from Casey's old room.
The haunted room.
She wouldn't have been so desperate to stay away from me that she had tried to sleep in there, would she?
Knowing Casey, and how extremely determined she can be, I was sure that she would.
But there was more than enough room on the floor of Liz and Marti's room. Why hadn't she slept in there?
Probably so they wouldn't have to hear her cry. Casey always seems to think of everyone else but herself.
Well, except for when it comes to her feelings about me.
Nervously, I crept out of my room and opened the door to the haunted room an inch, peeking inside.
You will never believe what I saw.
Casey, wearing only her bra and underwear, was desperately attempting to fight off a mysterious figure in the room that I couldn't quite make out.
Whoever he was, he was so going to pay.
Then, as the moonlight shone through the window and lit up her attacker's face, I saw who it was.
Julio.
Grabbing the nearest weapon I could find, which just so happened to be an umbrella that hung on the coat rack a few feet away, I plunged into Casey's room.
"Get away from her!" I warned, pointing the end of the umbrella at Julio.
The stalker merely looked up from where Casey lie struggling on the bed, laughed, and continued to attempt to restrain her.
"Dude, get off of her!" I screamed, jabbing him in the back with the pointy end of the umbrella.
That seemed to do it. Julio leaped off of Casey and faced me with an angry glint in his eye.
"What's Truman still doing here?" he asked angrily.
"I'm not Truman, I'm her step-brother," I admitted. "And you had better leave Casey alone before I really hurt you!"
"Casey, isn't this the same guy that you said is always making you cry?" Julio asked, and I gritted my teeth.
"Derek's a good guy, Julio," Casey answered. "Unlike you."
"If you don't get out of here in the next five seconds, you're going to become lunch for the wolves."
"There aren't any wolves in this part of Mexico!" Julio laughed.
"Oh, believe me. I can arrange it," I insisted.
"How sweet! Your step-brother's trying to play the hero!" Julio laughed, turning to Casey.
"For your information, I'm in love with him!" Casey spat, and Julio's face grew a very unique shade of green.
"You pervert!" he screamed, backing away from her. "What kind of twisted person falls in love with their stepsibling?"
"Me," I answered, smiling.
"You both are disgusting! I'm out of here!"
And Julio launched himself out the open window, onto the grass, and out of our lives forever.
"That was close," Casey sighed, and I looked at her nervously.
"Are you okay?" I asked uncertainly, and she smiled.
"I'm fine," she answered, giving me a hug that I gladly accepted.
"If that guy ever comes near you again, just let me know."
"Don't worry," Casey laughed. "I don't think he's planning on seeing me ever again after tonight."
"See? I told you our relationship could have its advantages," I smiled, and Casey frowned.
"Derek, this still doesn't mean we're a couple."
What?
"What the hell, Case! Are you kidding me!?"
"No, I'm not!" she retorted. "We can't do this, Derek!"
"You know what, I'm getting extremely sick of your mind games!" I growled. "Would you just admit that you want me as much as I want you?"
"Derek, it's not a matter of what we want. It's wrong!"
"I don't care!" I insisted, grabbing her by the shoulders.
She attempted to push me away, but I merely held her to me tighter.
And then, I kissed her.
This kiss was much different than our first, which was an experimental kiss. Right now, I was kissing her with all of the passion I had been feeling for her over the years.
I kissed her as if my life depended on it, which I felt like it did.
And this time?
She actually kissed me back.
My heart soared as I felt her respond with just as much passion, her arms wrapped around my neck in a tight embrace.
We were finally getting somewhere, after all this time.
As she reached for the bottom of my shirt, I traveled my hands down the length of her back, her shirt having already been removed by the stalker earlier.
How dare he take away what was supposed to be my job?
This was the last thought that entered my mind as the door to the not-so-haunted room swung open, revealing Dad and Nora staring in disbelief at their children.
Crap. We were so screwed.