Hey everyone! Thank you SO much for the reviews on this story and on my one-shot, Temporary Insanity. You guys are awesome!

Sorry that this update took me so long, really sorry! School just got out for summer and I am beyond bored, so of course, I should have been writing. But I couldn't think of anything to write. So I sat down and was like, "Now Sam, you are going to write this chapter." And then all of the ideas started flying through my brain and I just wrote them all down to give you guys a chapter 10! LoL…

R&R and please, no flames!

Lotsa love, degrassichick

-♥-

Chapter 10

-♥-

"Casey?" Lizzie asks quietly, entering my bedroom.

I am lying facedown on my bed, my head buried in a mess of bright pillows, "What is it?" I grumble, not wanting to turn around to face her.

"Are you okay? You and Derek are acting really angry at each other." She says, sitting on the foot of my bed and looking at me.

I sigh and turn to face her, she notices that my face is tear-stained and she gasps, "What happened?"

I sniffle and shrug, "Tonight didn't go as expected."

Lizzie stares at me intently, "Why? What happened?"

I shake my head and shrug, "Don't worry about it, Liz."

Of course, Lizzie does the complete opposite and begins to fire out questions rapidly, "Did Derek do something to you? Did he annoy you? Was he rude? Did he-"

I hold up my hand to cut her off, "Lizzie, chill out. It doesn't matter."

"What did he do to you?" she asks worriedly.

Oh nothing; just, you know, the normal stepsibling make out session in the bathroom, nothing too crucial.

I shake my head, "Nothing, Lizzie. Seriously, don't worry about it. I'm fine."

Lizzie stares at me as if I'm insane, "This is your idea of fine? You're crying!"

"God, Lizzie! Can't you just take a hint? I'm fine!"

I can tell that Lizzie is taken aback by the way she leans away from me, "Um…okay. Well, if you want to talk…I'll be in my room…" she mumbles quietly before getting up from my bed and hurrying out of the room.

I watch as she closes the door behind herself before I throw myself back down on my bed and begin to cry once again.

-¤-

Casey is crying.

I can hear her sniffles and sobs from my room as I am lying down in bed. I'm not completely sure of what she is crying about, but I'm pretty sure that it's about me. Okay, I'm sure that it's about me.

I roll over and try to block out the sound of her stifled sobs, but I can't.

Groaning, I lean over to my nightstand and grab my iPod, slipping the ear buds into my ear and turning a Hawk Nelson song up on full blast. Even through the loud guitars and drums, I can still hear Casey's crying. Not through my ears, but in my head. I know she is still crying and it is driving me nuts.

"Jesus, Case." I groan and press down on the play button of my iPod, turning it off before climbing out of my bed and staggering towards the door to my room, my digital alarm clock is flashing 2:26 in bright, red, lit up numbers.

I make my way into the hallway into the door, the sniffles louder. I can't believe Dad and Nora can't hear her! Why can't anybody but her hear me?

Maybe I'm the only one who is at fault, so I can hear her over everybody else. It's one of those guilty conscience things, I know it is. All because I grabbed her and kissed her (she didn't object, why am I the guilty one?), and then sassed off to her. All because of that, I can't sleep.

I turn the knob to her door and step inside her bedroom, closing the door quickly behind myself.

Her head shoots up and she glances around the dark room, the only light coming from the moonlight in her window, it flashes a streak of light over her bed and I make my way to it, sitting down.

"Was this all part of your diabolical plan to get me out of bed?" I ask with a laugh.
She sniffles and eyes me confusingly, "Derek?"

I nod, "Did you expect somebody different?"

Even in the dark, I can tell that she just rolled her eyes at me, "What are you doing in here?"

"Are you nuts? I can't get to sleep with your incessant sobbing!" I whisper frustratingly.

Casey groans and throws her head back down against her pillows, "Well sorry that I'm being such a nuisance to you."

"Why are you crying?"

Casey sniffles and runs a hand through her beautiful, dark hair that is just screaming for me to run my hands through, she shrugs. "Why do you think I'm crying?"

I shrug sheepishly, "Because you're hormonal?"

She throws a pillow at me, "Because you're insufferable."

My jaw drops jokingly, "How am I insufferable? Because you can't resist me?"

Casey scoffs, "Don't flatter yourself."

"Then how am I insufferable?"

Casey shakes her head and sniffles, "Never mind, just forget it. You can go back to bed; I'll try not to bother you."

I smirk, "Just as long as you promise to try and not bother me."

"Get out of here, Derek." She snaps.

I stand up from the bed, "Gladly." I scoff before stalking out of her room and closing the door quietly behind me.

As I step back into my room and close the door, I can only think of one thing.

That was the most confusing conversation I've ever had.

-♥-

"Spare me just three last words; 'I love you' is all she heard…I'll wait for you, but I can't wait forever…" I sing softly to myself as I twirl in my locker combination the next morning.

My eyes are bloodshot and I have giant bags under them, I wouldn't have even gone to school today if there hadn't been a huge exam in history that I couldn't miss.

"Case, you don't look too good." Emily says worriedly, leaning against the locker beside me and looking at me sadly.

I sigh, "Just tired. That's all."

"How did the date go last night?" she asks weakly.

Um…well, actually, not too bad.

"Horrible. I had to double date with Derek…again."

Emily's jaw drops and she laughs nervously, "Sorry, Case!"

I shrug, "What's done is done."

"Did Sam have as bad of a time as you did?" she asks.

I glance over my shoulder as I see Alyson leaning against his locker, smiling at him and laughing. What are they doing talking to each other? I mean, not that they can't talk to each other or anything but…well, it's just kind of bizarre.

"I actually have no idea." I conclude, "I'm guessing he didn't have a miserable time…" I drift off.

She smirks and glances over towards Alyson, "Seems like the pairing wound up switching on that date."

Both ways, actually.

Of course, I just play stupid, "What do you mean?"

She shrugs, "Well, now Alyson and Sam are looking pretty cozy with each other. You think something is going on?"

I chuckle, "Between Sam and Alyson? I doubt it…I'm pretty sure she just has eyes for-" I eat my own words as I see Sam peck Alyson on the cheek before he saunters off down the hall, "-okay, maybe something is going on."

Emily rests her hand on my shoulder, "Don't worry, Case. I'm sure Sam still likes you too. I mean, he wouldn't have gone on that date with you last night if he didn't like you."

Surprisingly, although she more than likely fears that I'm sad that Sam is no longer interested in me, I'm sad about that. In fact, if he likes Alyson, I could honestly care less. Because currently, only one guy is filling my thoughts. And his name isn't Sam. It's Derek.

Am I a horrible person or what?

…don't answer that.

-¤-

"Dude, I'm guessing last night didn't go as expected." My friend, Alex, from the hockey team says, patting me on the back as we all stand around the locker room for hockey practice.

I eye him confusingly, "What are you talking about, man?"

His dark eyes widen, "Uh…D, you haven't heard?"

"Heard what?" I ask.

"Last night, after the date, Sam and Alyson hooked up."

"They did not…" I scoff.

He shakes his head, "They seriously did. You weren't here early this morning; they were kissing by her locker."

I'm surprised that I'm not more upset about this. But I guess that's because I'm not really all that interested in Alyson Warner anymore…my head is only filled with thoughts of one girl. One girl that goes by the name of, as horrible as it is, Casey McDonald.

"Oh." I say flatly.

Alex's jaw drops, "That's it? You're not going to deck him or anything for stealing your girl?"

I eye him stupidly, "Uh. No." I shake my head.

Alex groans and shouts out to the locker room, "Bets off guys. Derek isn't as pissed as we all hoped."

Scattered groans are heard throughout the locker room and I turn and give Alex a blank look, "What was that all about?"

Alex sighs frustratingly, "A bunch of us guys were placing bets on you and Sam getting into a fight over Alyson over practice, we were betting on who would win."

I nod my head slowly, "Okay…" I say slowly.

Alex shrugs, "But whatever." He says shortly before throwing his practice jersey on over his head and slamming his locker shut.

Just then, the door to the locker room swings open and Sam jogs in, hurrying to the locker close to mine and twirling in his combination hurriedly.

"How's the love life going, Sammy?" Jason Davis shouts out before him and his best friend, Nathan Johnson, high five each other and laugh.

Sam rolls his eyes before turning to me and smiling at me sheepishly, "I hope you're not pissed at me for moving in on Alyson."

I shake my head, "Shouldn't be me your worried about," I say, slamming my locker shut, "it should be Casey."

Sam eyes me confusingly, "Why Casey?"

I scoff and shoot him an angrier glare than I probably should have, "Because for some reason that I do not under any circumstances understand, she's interested in you."

Sam laughs and shakes his head at me, "Not even."

My turn to be confused, "What are you talking about?"

"Casey is not interested in me." He scoffs, "I know that, she knows that, Alyson knows that."

Wait, he knows something about Casey that I don't know?

"What?"

Sam rolls his eyes, "Casey McDonald isn't into me. In fact, Alyson isn't even into you."

My jaw drops, "Wait, what?"

"We planned that whole thing." He laughs, "I can't believe you didn't know that."

My eyes widen, "You mean…Alyson already knew that she was going to be going on a date with me last night?"

Sam grins and nods, "Yup. And when Casey asked me on the date for last night, which I pretty much knew she was going to do sooner or later, I filled her in that I already had a girlfriend and she was cool with it."

"So…was everything from last night planned? Like the kiss between you and Casey?" my blood begins to boil as I remember how heartbroken I had felt when I had seen the two of them kissing.

Sam shakes his head, "I didn't expect that. But Alyson didn't care."

"So you guys didn't reveal to the school that you were dating until-"

"This morning." Sam cuts me off, "We were just going to keep it a secret for awhile, but after last night…we just let it loose. Of course, everybody thinks that we just hooked up to spite you and Casey, but oh well." He says, flashing me a grin and laughing.

I run a hand through my hair, I feel both confused and moronic.

Sam pats me on the back, "C'mon, we can't miss all of practice, no matter how much we want to." He says with a laugh before jogging out of the locker room.

I run a hand through my hair, make a mental note to talk to Casey tonight, and follow Sam out of the locker room.

The funny thing is, I'm not even planning on asking her about Sam and Alyson.

No, I'm planning on something much different…

-♥-

"You liar!" I screech to Sam over the phone that night, "I never knew that you and Alyson were going out. Why did you tell that to Derek?"

Sam laughs, "Sorry, Case. Just figured it'd be more fun between you and Derek if he thought that you were a backstabbing-"

"You jerk." I snap, but I'm laughing right along with him.

Just then, I hear the front door swing open and slam shut.
Sam can hear it on the other line, "Stepbrother dearest is home. This conversation is bound to be interesting."

I roll my eyes, "And all thanks to you."

Sam chuckles, "That's what I'm here for. See you tomorrow, Case."

I laugh, "Bye." I say before clicking off the phone and tossing it on my bed.

I can hear Derek entering my bedroom and I turn around to face him before he can say anything or ask any questions, "Before you do or say anything, I just wanted to let you know that I had no idea about Sam and Aly…" I drift off as I notice the look in his eyes, a look I've never seen before, a look of hunger and desire, a look that can send shivers up and down your spine and scare the living hell out of you at the exact same time. "Why are you looking at me like that?" I ask confusingly.

It is then that I get my answer.

For as soon as I ask the question, he grabs me and kisses me.

And I don't plan on pulling away anytime soon.

-♥-

Ta-da! LoL…sorry that it took me awhile to update!

My friend is coming here to visit for two weeks starting on Sunday, so I'm not sure if I'm going to have a lot of time to write, so I'm going to try and write Chapter Eleven before she comes and get it posted! Hopefully I'll have it done!

Once again, sorry for the longish update!

R&R and please, no flames!

Lotsa love, degrassichick