I Don't Own Life With Derek

"Carefully." Derek said, walking in and plopping down on her bed. "But you don't do it if you're in love with her." Derek whispered.

"I'm not in love with her." Casey whispered as a tear rolled down her face. "I'm sorry." She whispered, quickly wiping it away.

"For what?" The look on Derek's face was nothing but confused.

"I know you don't do tears." She said, wiping the next one that feel. Derek felt something he never felt before. He felt the urge to hug Casey. He felt like grabbing her, hugging her, and never letting go. He wanted to slip back into 'Sensitive Derek' and ask her about her feelings, and tell her its alright to cry.

"Okay, I'm not Derek right now." He said, and now the confused look was painted onto Casey's face.

"Than who are you?" She asked, raising an eyebrow in his direction.

"I'm... Your best friend Bob." Derek said, searching for the right words.

"Umm, okay?" Casey was still confused, but went along with it.

"Alright. Me, Bob, thinks you should break things off with Kendra, but not if you are truly in love with her." Derek said, waving his arms in the air as he talked.

"I'm not in love with her! Its just a stupid game! It wasn't supposed to mean anything! It started as a dare!" Casey yelled, but Derek jumped across the room to throw his hand over her mouth.

As his hands laid across her lips, he couldn't help but wish they were on top of his, but he quickly shook the thought out of his head. "Lets go somewhere where we can talk." Derek said, opening the window sitting next to him.

"Sneaking out? No way. You know I'm bad at that." Casey said, shaking her head forcefully.

"Look, I'll go out first, you follow." Derek said, opening the screen and sticking his leg out. Before Casey could protest, he jumped out, causing her to almost have a heart attack.

"I hate you, but I don't want you to die!" She whispered, watching him land safely on the ground. "Alright, come on." Derek said, ignoring her comment, and holding out his arms, as if he was going to catch her.

"No way." She whispered, shaking her head back and fourth and crossing her arms.

"Fine, jump onto the ground, and break your leg. I don't care." Derek shrugged his shoulders and started to walk away. He wasn't four steps away before Casey called after him.

"Alright, I'll jump." Casey said, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, and she held one leg out of the window. "I cant do this." She whispered as fear took over her whole body.

"Its like... Falling in love. If you fall, its gonna hurt pretty bad, and might even leave permit damage, so you have to trust the person under you, trust that they will catch you when you fall." Derek said, sounding like some corny love movie he hates, in his opinion, anyway.

Casey placed her hand over her heart and made a small smile, this told Derek it was as sappy as it sounded in his head. "That was so sweet, who knew Derek Venturi was capable of such sweetness?" Casey said through her growing smile, she almost forgot her legs were hanging out of the window.

"He isn't. Bob is." Derek said, causing Casey to roll her eyes. "Alright, falling in love in... 3... 2... 1... GO!" Derek yelled, and Casey slid off of the window. As she was falling, it was as if somebody pressed paused. Like somebody just stopped life, right then and there, and gave her time to think about this craziness that was now becoming reality.

She held her eyes shut tight and thoughts of her and Kendra ran through her mind. Should they stay together? Are they even together now? She wants to be with her, she wants to be apart, she wants to be happy, she just wants to be normal, but normal seems so far away right now.

She opened her eyes and looked down at Derek standing beneath her. For a spilt second, she thought maybe he would pull his hands back to himself, causing her to fall on the ground, and get hurt. It would be a very 'Derek' thing to do, but like he said, he was Bob tonight.

She held her breath, and fell into his arms, and possibly into love... But, not with Kendra...

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"Moms gonna be mad, we have to get home." Casey panicked.

"Case, we've only been out for three minutes, calm down." Derek said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. That's all it took to make her insane, just a simple touch and she could hardly breathe. Why couldn't Derek just have been a sweetheart from the beginning? Why did he have to be such a jerk all this time when he could be treating her like this?

At that second, all of her worries floated away, and she really didn't care that it was going on midnight, which is the time her mother usually comes up to wish her a good night's sleep. She didn't care that it was freezing and she had a small dress on. She didn't care that her feet were killing her from the tight high heels. All she cared about was his arm, laying gently around her shoulders.

"Youre cold." Derek stated the obvious.

"Duh?" Casey said with a small smile running across her lips.

"Want my jacket?"

Whoa. "Are you trying to make up for that horrible date?" Casey asked, finding it impossible that Derek would actually offer her his jacket, which she would love nothing more then to wear.

"What? Your date with that jerk Derek? Yea, he can be a real ass." He said.

"Okay, stop with the 'Bob' stuff. This isn't like you... Why are you being so nice?" Casey couldn't believe she was actually asking Derek why he was being so 'nice'. Normally its 'Why are you being so mean?'

"I guess because a feel bad." Derek said, with a small shrug.

"Pity. Gee, that makes me feel better." Casey said sarcastically as Derek dropped his arm. "I didn't mean it like that." Derek said, taking a deep breath. "You were sad, and I don't like it when you're sad." Derek confessed, and he himself couldn't believe it.

"You've never cared before." Casey said after a few minutes of silence. "I have... I just never let you see." Derek said, looking down at the cold ground, and wet grass.

"Like when?" Casey asked, raising an eyebrow and stopping in her tracks.

"Well, remember when Max dumped you, and the next day he had that black eye." Derek said, and he couldn't help the smile that was starting to fill his face.

Casey gasped and threw her hand over her mouth. "You lair." She whispered, as her eyes got big.

Derek chuckled, and the smile slowly grew across her face. "You beat him up!?" She asked, way too excited as they started to walk again.

"I wouldnt say 'beat up'. I just taught him a lesson." Derek said, wrapping his arm back around Casey. "And what lesson would that be?" Casey asked.

"Don't mess with people I care about..."