disclaimer: I own nothing except the story line
Chapter 3: She is so Screwed
Wake up in the morning,
Stumble on my life,
Can't get no love,
Without sacrifice.
"Casey, the phone's ringing," Derek mumbled, nudging her awake.
"Why can't you get it, I got it yesterday," Casey mumbled back.
"Remember, I'm sick, cough, cough," Derek said, not opening his eyes. "Besides, you're closer," he continued, nudging her again.
"Fine," Casey said, sitting up in Derek's bed and grabbing the cordless phone that he left on his nightstand after talking to Sam the day before. She caught a glimpse of the time and saw that it was 8:30 in the morning. She wondered who would be calling so early. There friends wouldn't be up yet and their parents knew not to call before nine. "Hello," she said, rubbing her eyes. "Yes this is she… What? Oh my gosh! What happened?… Thank you for calling, my stepbrother and I will be there as soon as possible," Casey said, then clicking the phone off.
Derek was now wide awake, wondering who was on the phone that caused Casey to turn pale. He saw a tear roll down her face and he lifted his finger to wipe it away. "Casey, who was that?" he asked. Casey turned away and got out of the bed without answering him.
"We have to get dressed. Don't worry about showering or eating, we have to leave as quickly as we can," she said, then opening Derek's bedroom door, leaving the room to go to her own.
Derek got up quickly and followed her. "Casey what happened?" he demanded. He was getting worried; he had never seen Casey act like this. Casey didn't seem to notice him and grabbed her hairbrush to untangle her hair quickly. Derek clutched her by the shoulders and shook her. "Casey, what happened?" he demanded again, looking into her eyes that were starting to get red and puffy.
"They got into an accident. They collided into a truck," Casey chocked out.
"Who? Who collided into a truck?" Derek said quietly, almost afraid to know the answer.
"Our family. George, mom, Edwin, Lizzie, and Marti."
Derek released Casey's shoulders, not believing what he heard. He covered one of his hands over his mouth to muffle the sob that he could not control coming out.
Derek opened his eyes quickly. He sat up and looked at the clock that read 2:54a.m. He sighed, running his hand through his hair. He hated having memory dreams. The memory was always something about Casey or about something that day. He went to the hotel washroom and threw cold water on his face to stop the sweat. He walked back into the bedroom, seeing Faith sitting up in the bed.
"Are you alright?" she asked and Derek nodded.
"Ya, just a really intense dream," he said, getting back into the bed. Faith nodded and lied back down.
"Well, I hope you don't get any more, you had one yesterday too."
"Ya," Derek replied, lying down in the bed, thinking about the dream the night before. That dream was about the memory the day before, when he was proposing to Casey. Derek shook his head and tried to go back to sleep.
---
Casey woke up that morning the same way she did the morning before. She dreamt about the morning of that day when she got the call. Who knew one phone call could change her life so drastically. She hated those dreams and hoped that she wouldn't have anymore.
The morning was the same as every other school day. Lizzie and Edwin left to go take the bus to Western University while Casey drove Marti to the high school that all her older siblings had attended years before. She then drove to Trudeau Public Elementary school, which was where she worked and Zachie attended. She taught grade five there and although she couldn't go around the world dancing, she loved teaching her students and she loved teaching dance after school at Anita's Dance Studio. After she made sure Zachie was safely in the schoolyard, she quickly walked into the school, to one of the grade 3 classrooms.
"Derek's back," Casey said as she walked into the room
"Well, I guess we're going to start with how your weekend went," Mark replied, handing her a coffee cup from one of the local coffee shop.
Casey sat down on top of one of the student's desk and looked at her two friends. Rachel was sitting at her desk, and Mark was standing beside it, both staring at her, waiting for her to continue. She realized that she interrupted their conversation but they didn't seem to care. She met Rachel and Mark at teacher's collage and they all instantly became friends, which made work even better when they all got a job at the same school.
"Wait, which Derek are you talking about? Not the one who left you a month after the crash," Rachel said.
"The one and only," Casey replied, now chugging her coffee, hoping that somehow alcohol will magically appear in it.
Mark gasped. "Start from the beginning," he said, completely pulled in as if he was watching his favourite soap opera.
"Well, I was in the mall Saturday, shopping for some new clothes-" Casey started before she was interrupted.
"Without me? How could you," Mark said, completely disgusted.
"Could you not think about fashion for one second so she can finish her story," Rachel replied, sarcastically.
"Did you find anything that you liked?" he asked Casey, purposely ignoring Rachel.
"A couple things," she said, drinking more of her coffee.
"Can we get back to the story about seeing Derek," Rachel said.
"Right," Casey said. "Well, when I was leaving the mall, I bumped into this girl, well more like collided and we both fell-"
Mark gasped again. "That was you? Someone took a video of it and now it's on youtube."
"Lovely," Casey said. She had to admit that she wasn't surprised, she never had the best of luck. "Anyways, it turns out that Faith, that's the girl's name, is Derek's girlfriend and they are in town for business. Oh and Faith is also his secretary," Casey added.
"Does anyone else know Derek's here?" Rachel asked.
"Well, he came by the house yesterday but only Zachie and I were there, everyone else went their own separate ways after church-"
"And you both gazed into each other's eyes and kissed passionately," Mark said, staring off into the distance.
"You really have to stop reading those Danielle Steel books," Rachel said to him, shaking her head. Then she turned to Casey. "Did you tell anyone?"
Casey looked ashamed. "No I didn't. I should have right, of course I should have. I don't know why but I just couldn't do it. I mean Derek not only left me, he left everyone else and poor Marti was really having a tough time in facing abandonment. What do I do? Should I tell them, should I call Derek and ask him to come over or should I just pretend I never saw him?" Casey asked, opened to any suggestion.
"Well, we all know that it doesn't matter what we say because you always end up doing the right thing," Rachel said.
Casey groaned. "What is the right thing?"
"I think you should just forget about it, if Derek wants to see everyone, he should initiate it, not you, you already do too much for your family," Mark said, just as the bell rang. "Well gotta go, my grade ones will destroy up my classroom if I'm not there," Mark said, gulping the rest of his coffee and walking away.
"I agree with him, you know. Let Derek call, not the other way around," Rachel said. Casey nodded and left the classroom to go to her own.
---
"Miss Macdonald, have you seen my glove, I can't find it," one of Casey's students said to her.
"I'm sure it's out here somewhere, Alice," Casey said walking out into the hallway. "Ah, is this it?" Casey asked moments later, holding a pink glove.
"Ya, thank you Miss Macdonald," Alice said, taking the glove and running to the stairwell to go outside for recess.
Casey smiled and walked back into her classroom and sat down at her desk. She began to start marking the math tests that she had her students do last Friday. This is what she did, she spent her recesses grading assignments, marking tests, or writing down the lesson plan for the next week. She liked to get the work down when she was at school so she could focus on her family at home and her dance at the dance class. She very rarely went to the staffroom. She only went there to eat her lunch in the lunch hour, but the morning and afternoon recesses, she spent in her classroom at her desk, working.
"Casey, Casey are you in there?" Gail, the secretary's voice said on the P.A., filling the room.
"Ya, I'm here Gail," she said, still looking at the test on top of the pile.
"You have a call on line one," Gail said.
"Alright, I'll be down there in a second," Casey said, leaving the classroom. She was a bit surprised. No one ever called her. Her only friends besides Rachel and Mark were Emily and Sam but she kind of drifted apart from them when they went off to other university in different cities when and she stayed at home. Marti, Lizzie, and Edwin were all in school and wouldn't call her unless there was an emergency. Casey began to walk faster towards the office. She was afraid that something horrible happened. She opened the office door quickly and picked up Gail's phone, only greeting Gail with a fake smile.
"Hello?" Casey said, trying to make her voice sound natural.
"Is this Casey Macdonald?" a female voice asked. Casey tried to blink back the tears; this was the first thing the nurse at the hospital asked on that horrible day.
"Yes it is," Casey replied quickly.
"Hi Casey, this is Faith Adam, Derek's girlfriend." Casey relaxed a bit but then tensed up again when she heard Faith utter the words, girlfriend.
"Oh, hello," Casey said politely
"Um, did I catch you at a bad time, I looked up your school on the internet and checked to make sure that I would call during recess," Faith said. Casey could sense how nervous this girl sounded and tried to make her feel more comfortable.
"You couldn't have called at a better time," Casey said, encouraging her.
"Oh, well, I would really love to meet Derek's family, and who knows when there will be another time that we will be in London," Faith started to say. Casey smiled, if it was up to Derek, he would probably never come back. "I was wondering, if maybe, I uh, could take you and your family all out to a restaurant maybe today, my treat of course," Faith continued.
"I have to teach dance this evening, sorry," Casey said a little too quickly.
"Oh," Faith replied. Casey could hear the disappointment in her voice and she sighed.
"Listen, how about you and Derek come over tomorrow, I'll cook dinner and you can meet everyone," Casey said, instantly regretting what she said.
"Really? I would love that, what time?" Faith said, having her perky voice return.
"Is six alright?" Casey asked, desperately trying to act nice. It wasn't that she hated Faith, it's just that she reminder her of everything that she doesn't have anymore.
"It's perfect, we'll be there, see you tomorrow at six," Faith said.
"See you then," Casey said, then hanging up the phone and put her head in her hand.
"Inviting your ex-boyfriend and his girlfriend over for dinner, very classy," Gail said, not even glancing away from her computer screen.
Casey looked at her. "How did you know-"
"Please, the secretary knows everything, plus Mark loves gossip. If you want to keep a secret, don't tell him," Gail said.
Casey groaned. "What do I do?" she asked.
"Hey, I just gossip, I don't give advice, that's why you're closer friends with Mark and Rachel than me, now go, I know you're dying to tell them. You still have three minutes left before the bell rings," Gail said, then picking up the phone. "Trudeau Public Elementary school, how may I help you," she sang into the phone. Casey left the office and walked straight to the staffroom to find Rachel and Mark. She saw them instantly, talking next to the fridge.
"I just invited my ex-boyfriend and his girlfriend over for dinner tomorrow. I'm so screwed," Casey blurted out.
"Ha, pay up," Rachel said to Mark. Mark pulled out his wallet and handed Rachel twenty dollars.
"You bet to see when I would ask for more help?" Casey asked, a bit disgusted.
"No of course not," Mark said. "We bet on for how long it would take you to do something stupid that involved your ex. You couldn't hold out till lunch could you?" Mark continued, shaking his head.
"So you asked Derek and what's-her-name to dinner tomorrow, why?" Rachel asked.
"Faith called and asked to take me and my family out to dinner tonight but I have the second job so I offered to cook and have them come over tomorrow," Casey said.
"I repeat, why. You had an out, why did you push it?" Rachel questioned.
"She seemed so sad that I couldn't go and she really wanted to meet my family and I felt sorry for her," Casey said.
"And that's your problem," Rachel stated.
"What?" Casey questioned.
"You're too nice, why couldn't you say screw you bitch, and hang up the phone?" Rachel replied.
"Oh ya, that's mature," Casey said.
"Of course it is, so what are you gonna do?" Mark questioned.
"I don't know, that's why I'm asking you two."
"You could make pasta, everyone loves pasta and it's really easy, my grandmother actually has a spaghetti sauce recipe if you want to use it," Mark said.
"I'm not asking help about the food, although that does sound good, but I haven't told my family that Derek is here," Casey said.
"Well I suggest that you tell them tonight," Rachel said. Casey nodded just as the bell rang; they left the staffroom to go back to their classrooms. Trying to shake off the nerves that she had, Casey started teaching but all she could think about was how would her family react when she told them that she had been keeping Derek from them.
---
Casey was chewing her nails and pacing in her bedroom. She wasn't sure how she was suppose to tell her family that the brother that abandoned them was back in town and was coming over tomorrow.
"Are you okay?" Marti asked, coming into Casey's room.
"Ya, I'm fine, it's just I uh, I have to tell everyone something, could you tell everyone to come into the living room," Casey requested and Marti nodded. Marti called everyone as Casey walked to the living room. She decided that she would take the direct approach, just blurting it out. She was still pacing when everyone came in.
"Can we make this quick, I have to go to work soon," Edwin said and Casey looked at her watch, noticing that she also had to go to work soon.
"Derek's back in town and he and his girlfriend, Faith are coming tomorrow to dinner at six, so no one go out tomorrow," Casey said. She then walked away, leaving everyone stunned.
"I don't want to see Derek," Marti called, making Casey stop half way up the stairs and turn around.
Neither do I, Casey thought, closing her eyes for a second. She then turned around looking at everyone's stunned faces. "We should forgive and forget, and it doesn't matter if you don't want to do that, we are all going to be here tomorrow and welcome Derek and his girlfriend into this house." Even if it kills us, Casey thought the last part. She then turned and walked up the stairs to go back to her room. She felt tears filling her eyes and she didn't want anyone to see her so upset over this. After all, it was only Derek.
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