Hello, lovely readers! This July has just breezed on by!
Here is a little aforementioned August present! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha... I found two quarters and three pennies in my purse today though...
Casey knew exactly how this conversation was going to go the second she answered her phone. She should have known better. She had caller ID for a reason. Call screening was very important for safety and security reasons. She almost regretted picking up the call. Almost. But it was a genre of call she'd not had in years.
"I'm still waiting for an explanation here, Miss Secretive-ness." Emily was impatient.
"I have been explaining."
"Well, it's not answering my questions very quickly."
"I'm being efficient ," Casey countered, "so you won't have questions later."
"Oh, I'll have later questions, you can count on it. Now, get yapping."
"Aren't you with your mother looking at dresses?"
"We were until I found an old year book and got all nostalgic over our really dorky outfits. Then my mom goes 'whatever happened to Miss Casey? Last I heard she was running the finance world. Come to think of it, last I heard from next door was that one Christmas and Marti said Derek might be dead somewhere in New York' so I pointed out my excellent choice in prom dresses to distract her and then grandma needed a nap. So, is Derek dead in New York?" She gasped suddenly." Did he abandon you to raise two small children on your own?"
Casey was developing a headache from the velocity at which Emily raced around a conversation. She remembered Emily mentioning New York the first day they ran into each other. "No, Emily, he's not dead in New York."
"And I'm supposed to believe you. I spent years thinking I knew you until your secret life started seeping in. How do I know you're telling the truth?"
"Believe me, I'd let you talk to him if he weren't," Casey smiled at the irony, "in New York."
"What!"
"Business trip. Not death."
"Jesus, will you just tell me what happened that Christmas? Why was Marti saying Derek was dead?"
"I promise I'm telling you. Three very important things happened that you need to know before Christmas."
"Great. Three things. What were they?"
"The first time we hung out alone together on purpose, our first kiss, and the fighting that followed."
Casey moaned, loudly. She'd better have amazing abdomen muscles after all this coughing. She rounded a row of beans. They'd been standing in the muddy market, for over an hour, in the rain.
"Hey, I didn't ask you to run out and play in puddles without shoes on, Princess."
"I didn't play in puddles," she croaked out.
"That's right," he said, pausing to line up a shot of a little squash with raindrops on it. "You came out to yell at me." Casey coughed at a tickle in her throat and sniffed. "Was it worth it, Case? Was it worth three doctor's visits and two weeks of coughing?" She glared but was enveloped in another coughing fit that she tried to muffle in the elbow of her coat. He smirked at her.
"If you would just communicate like a normal person, I wouldn't have had to go out and interrogate you." Her voice was gravely. She cleared her throat but it didn't make the sound any better. "So, you should be nicer to me." He laughed. So had her work. Once they knew she wasn't contagious, they set her up in a back room and didn't let her answer the phone.
"Oh, yes, because everything is big, bad Derek's fault, right?"
"You're finally catching on," she mused at him. He smirked again and rolled his eyes. She smiled, too, and immediately had to cough. It hurt to cough now after two weeks of it.
"Come on, tough guy. We can go now before you bust a bronchial tube." Casey looked at him as he unscrewed his lens cap and put the camera away in its little bag. "Yes, I know what a bronchial tube is." He steered her out of the market with his hands stuffed into his jeans.
They walked next to each other down the sidewalk . He would bump her with his camera bag to nudge her closer to the street. She just moved closer so he couldn't hit her. She crossed her arms over her chest to hold her lungs together. She sniffed again; she was cold and coughing. In the rain. Derek shook his head at her and herded her toward a deli that sold soup.
"Chicken or beef, Princess?" He shook rain off of his hair and checked the sandwich board again. "Or tomato?"
"Well, I don't like basil, so the tomato is out, and you're allergic to mushrooms so you can't have the beef." She stomped her feet and rubbed her arms for the friction.
"That just ruins all the fun of guessing."
"If you want to die, I'm not stopping you." Casey arched a brow and fought to keep her coughing at bay.
Derek paid for two bowls of the creamy chicken soup, grabbed spoons, and walked out to his car. Casey followed after composing herself. Derek had paid for her. Without being asked. She stopped coughing outside the restaurant and ran to the car. The rain had picked up and it was getting darker.
"I hope you remembered napkins," she told him, digging through the bag.
"Napkins?"
"Yeah, the things that keep fingers clean? I guess boys don't use them. You and Landon always use your jeans. Or mine." Derek snapped his jaw shut. Casey looked over at him and he was very fixated on the road. "So, no napkins?"
"Why would I remember those?"
"Because you're messy."
"'Gee, thanks, Derek for buying me sustenance and letting me cough up phlegm in your car all evening,'" he mocked her.
"You're using a lot of big words today."
"I'm not a complete idiot." He sounded offended. Casey was a little surprised at his harsh tone. The rest of the drive was silent.
"You can come eat inside before you leave, so you don't spill all over your car."
"Because I'm so messy?" he shot back at her, not moving.
"No," Casey coughed twice, "because it's dark and soup is hot." A muscle near his jaw was working hard. "I'll be nice and give you some of the bread Kelsey brought back. And then I'll stop bugging you."
"Fine," he snapped, letting his seatbelt retract violently.
Casey eyed him as she sat curled up in her computer chair across the coffee table from him. She had two blankets wrapped around her and her soup in her lap. The warmth of her dinner felt good on her raw throat. Derek ate quickly and angrily from the couch opposite her. She tried small talking at him, but he was unresponsive.
"Thanks for feeding me, Derek," she tried. "And for putting up with my coughing." He started at her without really seeing her. His gaze was icy. She went for the more direct method. "Why are you pissed? I was joking about the big word thing."
"Yeah, and I loved hearing how similar your exboyfriend and I are. It's really spirit-lifting." That's what he'd fixated on? "He was an ass to you and treated you like shit. I'm so glad you think we're twins."
"Woah, I was just talking. I don't think you and he are alike at all."
"We just go together so well in sentences?"
"No, I just," she coughed. "You do some things the same, but—"
"He looks like a penis!" Casey wasn't prepared for that outburst and stammered "wwwh" for a few seconds. "Yeah. He looks like a fucking penis."
"Don't use that word. And what? Why do you even think that?"
"He's scrawny and his face, the shape of his perverted head sitting on the rest of him."
"How do you notice something like that?"
"Are you gonna defend him now, Case?"
"No, I just—"
"Think about it. He resembles it just a little too closely."
Casey rolled her eyes but humored him. And was disgusted that Derek seemed to be right. "Oh, my God."
"Right?"
"Ew!"
"I am nothing like that dickhead." He was mad again. Casey sighed.
"Derek, I used to think you were similar because of hockey and some of the disagreements, but then the fighting got mean. He eventually was trying to hurt me. You just try to get under my skin and annoy me. You've never been blatantly cruel, Derek. You're nicer." She paused, hoping he was listening to her. "I wasn't grouping you together for any reason other than your gender. Although, with his temper, his species might have altered."
She was trying to make him laugh. It didn't work, but when he looked up at her, she shot him an overly sunny smile and he granted her a genuine grin that warmed his eyes. He snorted like he thought she was ridiculous and shook his head.
"Well, I think I'll leave while you're in a good mood," he said, finally, getting to his feet. "Where's Kels?"
"I bribed her into going home. I didn't want her to get sick, too."
"You know you aren't contagious right?"
"You never know," she said, also standing.
"So, why am I allowed to be here?"
"I don't care if you get sick."
"Gee, thanks. And we'd had such a nice day." He pulled his jacket back on and ascended the stair with Casey right behind him.
"We did, illness included," she insisted.
"Oh, great, so when I get bronchitis, you'll come hang out with me?"
Casey pulled a face. "I dunno, Der, you're pretty whiney and gross when you're sick."
He laughed at that. It made her feel good to make him laugh. Lighter, in a way. He stepped out onto the porch, the laugh slowly leaving his eyes.
"Sorry, I was pissed earlier. I can't fucking stand Landon."
"Don't use that word, Derek."
"Yeah, whatever, Princess." He stomped down the steps.
"But I don't like him very much either," Casey finished from the doorway.
"And yet you reference him." Derek turned as he stepped onto the front walkway.
"I don't have much more data of normal male behavior," she protested. Derek held out his arms, offended. "You and Ed don't count. I did say 'normal' behavior."
"You wouldn't know normal if it danced naked in front of you, Case," he turned back to his car, shaking his head.
"That is the exact opposite of normal, Derek," Casey called after him.
"So they would have you believe."
"Drive safe, Der, don't die."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, fun-sucker." He shut his door and started the engine.
Emily was quiet for a second.
"And he left? Wow. Nothing like 'the soup was eight bucks and you owe me money for taking you home' at all?"
"Nope."
"Wow," Emily said, after another pause.
"What?" Casey asked.
"You guys were stupid."
"Thank you?"
"You didn't even know you were friends until you isolated each other."
"We were two very selfish kids. And very determined to not get along. So for us, it took extremes."
"Okay, move on, next item."
"Well, I finished my internship a week before school started and went home for a week of summer. And Derek had something to share with the whole house."
Casey was pissed. They talked all the time and he never mentioned a thing. Really, he couldn't have taken the two seconds it takes to slip that into a text? That wasn't the kind of news you just drop on someone. It was also not the type of news you say around a mouthful of masticated pork over dinner.
She stopped at his door, thought for a minute, and decided to throw caution to the wind. She was mad! She hammered on his bedroom door with a fist until he answered.
"Yes, oh, very loud one?"
"New York? Really?"
"Yeah, the City That Never Sleeps, I'm stoked."
"No, you're stupid." Casey wanted to smack the smirk right off his head.
"Excuse me?" His expression hardened, like he hadn't heard her correctly.
"Dropping out three semesters away from finishing? That is the most idiotic thing I've ever heard, Derek! Who told you that this was a good idea?"
"Hey, no one asked you, Princess!" His eyes narrowed. "This is a great opportunity for me, I could have a job doing something I enjoy right now!"
"What happens in three years when they need someone with a degree, with higher credentials than a high school diploma?"
"They want me, now. They know I'm not done with school yet, and they still want me."
She squinted at him "Is this about opportunity or being wanted?"
"This has both. That's why it's good. A once-in- a-lifetime type of good."
"It will get you nowhere!" She threw her arms up in frustration.
"Because I'm an idiot?" His voice was cool but softer.
"Yes! If you drop out now you are definitely an idiot!"
"I've thought this through, Miss Number Queen, okay? And it makes a lot of fiscal sense right now." Casey's eyebrows rose. "I do listen when you talk sometimes."
"Well, no, you don't because you'd see that in the long run, you'd make so much more with a college—" He cut her off shaking his head. He looked like he wanted to punch something.
"I don't have time for a 'long run,' Case, this is a now or never situation."
"That will screw you over for life!" She slapped one hand down on the other for emphasis. "What part about that are you not getting?"
"I'm not a school guy, I can't just hide in a classroom for years while chance like this are begging for me."
"They need a filler at the bottom of their totem pole, Derek. That's how the world works."
"Oh," he was nearly laughing with mirth, "because you know so much about the outside world."
"Don't turn this around on me," she crossed her arms, " you took business courses. You know how it works."
"You know what, that class on taking good risks is coming back a little more clear," he snarled.
"This isn't a good risk! It's just dumb!" She wanted to shake him! Why was he being so blind?
"Well, it's something I gotta do."
"God!" she shrieked. "What are you running from?" She prodded him in the chest. " Do you hate us all that much? I mean, Ed's annoying if you let him get going, and Lizzie's pretty intense. And we just started getting along, but hell, let's throw that out the window, too!"
"I thought this wasn't about you?"
"It's not!" She stomped and clenched her fists. "Arg! Why do you insist on being so stupid?"
"Why? Why do you care?" he roared. "How would this even affect your perfect world? Why would you give a fuck about what I do with my life?"
Casey paused, panting, trying to think of her next point. Then 'why' sunk in. She swallowed, hard. Each word slammed into her like a bullet. His eyes blazed, still angry.
"Oh, my god." The words slipped out in the shock of her realization. "I like Derek." It was barely a whisper, but she'd said it out loud. Seconds too late, her hand covered her lips.
"What?" His body language had immediately changed. The furious reverberations his posture had emulated vanished. Casey looked back at his face.
"Nothing, I just," she started, lowering her fingers. Her palms were sweaty and she hastily tried to dry them on her jeans. This was not normal. She should have thought about this, but it was already hanging in the air above them. She swallowed again. "I think," she hesitated and then exhaled sharply. "I think I like you," she whispered. This seemed to confuse him further.
"What? What d'you mean? What does that mean?"
"That I like you?"
"Yeah, what is that?"
Casey couldn't make her mouth respond. It had other plans; for no reason at all Casey stepped into him and pressed her lips to his. Her stomach jumped into her throat and her feet cemented to his bedroom floor. She pulled back almost immediately, scared as to what would happen next.
Derek looked like he had been slapped. His eyes were open wide and his mouth retained an "o," expression. Casey twisted her fingers together. He was going to laugh at her or throw up or something. She heard him draw in a long slow breath and she turned bright red. He looked at her as the silence pressed against them both.
"I'm sorry," she began. "I just- I like you." He didn't move. "And I don't know what you're supposed to do with that information, but…" She trailed off in defeat. She already felt silly enough. She took a step back toward the door and Derek's throat made a weird strangled noise. His facial expression hadn't changed much, apart from his narrowed brows.
"You," he managed, drawing the word out like he was struggling with their structure, "like me?" He looked at her face again as she nodded. He nodded with her but didn't speak again.
"Do you," she squeaked, as he looked around his room in thought, "Do you like me?" She bit her lip, wishing she didn't ask that question. Way to put him on the spot, genius, she scolded herself.
"Well, yeah, obviously," he said, crossing his arms. It took Casey a second to realize that that meant yes.
"Re-yeah?" Derek chewed his tongue and nodded again. She relaxed and they both looked away, laughing a little."So, uhm, what now?" He gave her a slow, genuine smile and shrugged.
"What? What was 'now?'" Emily whined.
"We were like kids; we'd hold hands and blush. He'd tease me and get on my nerves, but let himself be sweet, too. It was precious."
"Then you fought."
"Of course we did. It's what we do."
"When? Why?"
"I got scarred. Terrified. And stupid."
What's gonna happen? 5,000 points to whoever guesses correctly!
Reviews are much appreciated. I love hearing thoughts (preferably others')
Does anyone else do stupid things when their scared? Anyone ever think they are too smart for their own good, analytically speaking? Does anyone else actually read these? I have often found amusing anecdotes in the A/Ns... :)