TV Show (hence not mine): Life with Derek
A/N: I don't know why I like this show... I just... do... and this pairing just fits (must be the 'you hate the ones you love' quote that's stuck in my head). Ah wells, enjoy!
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"-you can hold onto my credit card and here's the list of phone numbers. This is the number for my hotel room but the one below is George's-"
"-It's all right mom, I can read your writing on the paper. I'll call if anything goes wrong. Don't forget, I'm the responsible one not the slacker," assured Casey while patting Nora's shoulder (Marti's head was resting on the other one as Nora carried her).
"Right, you might not be the slacker but don't forget, it's summer break now. There aren't any consequences now to procrastinating," quipped Derek. "Aren't I right Smarti?"
"Of course Smerek!" Casey had the sudden urge to slap Derek over the head.
"Yes, but if you keep that habit up, you will be living the consequences."
"Yes daaaad."
"Stop rolling your eyes." Derek promptly stopped.
"Now remember, no parties-"
"We've got it down Nora. Don't worry, everything will be fine and the house will be intact when you return."
George sighed. "It better be. Our house better be the same one when we come back. That means no eBay-ing any of our collector's edition items or anything that seems insignificant like our hair dryer. Understand Derek?"
"Hey, why's it just me?"
"Because you're the type to go against everything our parents tell us to do."
"Goody two shoes!"
"Stupid jock!"
"Yay! Casey and Derek are fighting again!" cried out a joyful Marti.
"Klutzilla!"
"Ego-maniac!"
"Grade Grubber!"
"Smart a-"
"Casey!"
"Derek!"
"Sorry mom/dad," replied the two quietly. "But yes, I know I am smart Case," whispered Derek to Casey while smirking.
"Now we expect you both to act your ages, remember, you're seventeen now. Be responsible adults-"
"Uhm, Nora, we have to go or we'll be late for our conferences," cut in George.
"O-oh, all right." She turned and called upstairs, "Come on Lizzie, Edwin, we're leaving!"
Lizzie and Edwin clambered down the stairs carrying their duffel bags. Both were excited to be going to their one-week overnight sports camp and had been waiting for a month to leave. Well, it was mostly Lizzie that was excited; Edwin moped about leaving his science equipment and computer behind.
"Take care and have fun, 'kay Liz?"
"Of course Casey!" Lizzie smiled, hugged her older sister, and ran out the door following George into their family van.
"Don't miss me too much."
"Don't worry Ed, I won't," joked Derek.
"Actually, I think you will. The tech guy is now leaving the house along with all his money."
"Uh, actually no. I know where you've hidden your piggy bank and if you changed its location, I've got a week to find it. Have fun at sports camp!"
Edwin sighed and accepted his fate. He too went out the front door while dragging his bag along the floor until his dad shouted at him from the car to pick it up.
"All right, last minute check mom. Keys?"
"Check."
"Research papers?"
"Check."
"Window cover samples? Marti's babysitter's phone number? Your coworkers' phone numbers? George's hotel number? Lizzie and Edwin's camp number?"
"Check, check, check, check, and check," said Nora with a smile.
Two honks rang in the air before Nora said goodbye to the two eldest step-siblings and raced out the door, but not without hugging each one. Casey waved as the van pulled out from the driveway until she could no longer see it. She closed the door with a smile on her face, heading towards the kitchen.
"Perfect, now for the party."
"Derek!" she cried out. "Did you honestly just say that? No parties remember?"
"Yeah, yeah."
"Der-rek! I won't let you this time!"
He sighed and after a moment turned his eyes up with a bored expression. "Look, what's it going to take for you to leave me alone this week?"
"Everything. That means you finally listening to mom and George about what we're allowed and not allowed to do, you doing your chores, and most importantly, you not bugging me." She ended the conversation as she walked upstairs to her room. Casey plopped herself on her bed, feeling restless and tired all at once. It was the same feeling she had every time after arguing with Derek. He was just so... frustrating!
"Ugh!"
She flipped herself over onto her stomach. Looking over to her bedside table, she picked up the phone and when she was about to dial Emily's number when she heard another phone pick up and the person started dialing a number. 'Who's Derek calling?'
A few rings later, a man picks up and asks, "Who is it?"
"Yo."
"D-Man!"
'Sam?' thought Casey. 'Yet, it doesn't really sound like him...'
"Hey, sup?" Derek turned aside his head and sighed before returning his attention to the other.
"Not much. How's Casey?"
'Why's this guy asking about me?'
"Uhm... fine?"
"Yeah, she is fine. You're so lucky to be living with her bro, I mean if I was you, I'd be doing her-"
"-Yeah, uh, I want to talk with Sam, not you," cut in Derek.
"Oh come on, don't change the subject. Your sister's hot!"
"Stepsister. Now where's Sam?" (Casey by this time was thoroughly disturbed.)
The boy completely ignored him again and continued. "I mean have you looked at her? Her chest is hu-"
"Shut up and get Sam on the phone!" shouted an aggravated Derek.
"Wha? Oh, whatever. Tell her I said, 'Hi.'" He coughed once before yelling out, "SAM!"
Both Casey and Derek pulled the receiver away in attempts to not aggravate the ringing in their ears. One phone picked up while the other was put down on the other end.
"Hello?" came the familiar voice of Sam.
"Hey man."
"Derek, sup?"
"My house is completely empty right now."
"So a party huh?"
'Derek's still planning a party!?' thought an outraged Casey.
"That's right. You up for it?"
"Yeah, of course."
"Wanna call the guys for me? I'll be busy with the girls."
'Figures.' - Casey
"I'm honoured that you called me first then," kids Sam. "And- uh, hey, you okay?"
"Whaddya mean?"
"I'm hearing heavy breathing on your end."
In the silence that followed, Casey, suddenly conscious of herself, inhaled sharply and cursed herself for having done so. 'I'm so dead.' She hurriedly put her phone back on its stand.
"CASEY!" Derek this time not only yelled into the phone, but up the stairs too. "I'll call you back."
He ended his call and Casey could hear him stomping up the stairs. She tried to calm herself, turning to face away from the door when it suddenly slammed open. She flinched.
"What do you think you were doing?"
She did her best to speak in a steady voice while trying to add a touch of annoyance to it, "I was trying to sleep. Thanks for wak-"
"Don't even try to lie to me," he cut in. "You were listening in on my phone call."
"No I wasn't." Casey silently rejoiced since her voice hadn't squeaked yet.
"You did. I heard you put your phone back so your lame attempt at lying isn't getting you anywhere." Derek by this time had walked over to the other side of the bed and stared down at her.
"Okay fine," she said, finally getting annoyed, "maybe I did listen in, but nothing serious was said. Even worse," now she was getting annoyed and stood up, "I find out that you still want to hold a party at our house! Do you want to go through the same thing that happened the first time we were left to take care of the house?"
"That's a little thing compared to the invasion of privacy you just committed! That's breaking the rules here!"
"Funny that you're the one to be telling me about breaking rules! Or even talking to me about invasion of privacy!"
Derek reigned in his anger for that moment. "I'll tell you this MacDonald, for the rest of this week, don't even think about touching the phone."
"And I'll listen to you because?"
"Because I'm older."
In her defiance and perhaps stupid daringness, she went over to her phone and taunted him with her finger. She'd bring it close to the phone then pull back just in time while keeping her eyes fixed on his, challenging him. Then on the third taunt, she touched the phone, picked it up, and put it back down. She smirked.
By this time, Derek was towering over Casey but she continued to look into his eyes, both too pig-headed to stop their dispute. They continued staring at each other, trying to overpower each other's stubbornness. Anger welled within Derek from the previous week's arguments, this week's arguments, his recent meeting with his mother...
A chord within Derek snapped.
With sudden strength, he pushed Casey back onto her bed and began punching her wherever he could: her stomach, her chest, her face, anywhere where her feeble arms weren't blocking was sufficient for him.
"Derek!" she cried out, "Stop!"
But he didn't hear her. He was releasing his pent up anger and without any parent in the house, he could not be stopped.
"STOP!!"
This time her scream reached him but not without a final blow to her cheek. Derek, panting hard, stepped back to see what damage he had caused and was bewildered at the sight before him.
Casey's shirt had ridden up her body and bruises were clearly marked on her stomach as well as on her arms and legs. Her chest was heaving up and down as she gasped for air, but it was her face that shocked him most. Her forehead had a small trickle of blood flowing down to her pillows, her eyes were puffy from crying and the right one was particularly swollen, her nose leaked blood in a small river down her bruised cheeks, and who knew what it was like beneath the matted hair. It was her eyes though, the complete look of fear, terror, horror, that scared him. Because it was he that caused that fear.
Her pitiful sniffles, oddly enough, seemed to resound like crashing waves inside the little room. With wide eyes, Derek looked at his hands and registered that they actually hurt a bit. He turned his gaze back onto his stepsister and raised a hand with full intention to help her when she screamed.
"Get away from me!"
"B-but you're injured..."
"You don't think I know?! Get away from me! Get away! Get away!"
"C-Casey..."
"Get out! Get Out! GET OUT!!!!" He panicked and left her room as she continued to scream herself hoarse.
Hours later, Derek found himself sitting in front of the television. The sky outside was dark, the moon glowed, and stars shimmered above. He took no notice of this. The shower upstairs turned on but he paid no attention to it. He could barely pay attention to what was happening in front of him on the TV screen. Images and colours flashed by but his eyes, ears, and brain didn't seem to want to cooperate to make sense of the signals his senses were receiving.
His ears after a while picked up the sound of footsteps descending the stairs, but it was obvious that the person was trying to keep as quiet as possible. The sudden intrusion of sound from the doorbell nearly made Derek fall off the couch from surprise. Curious, he turned to see Casey (he winced when he saw that her face was still swollen) hurry down the last few steps before opening the door.
"Hi, a large pepperoni pizza?" Casey cleared her throat and acknowledged that it was her order. "All right, it comes to a total of seven dollars and ninety-six cents." She opened up her wallet and paid him, he handed the pizzas over, thanked her, and was about to leave before he stopped and shyly asked if he could ask her a question.
"Huh? Sure."
"I don't mean to be nosy but... why are you so..." he started off uncomfortably, "Uhm..."
"Bashed up?" she helped.
"Uh, yeah ehehe," he laughed nervously.
'What are you gonna say?' thought Derek, starting to feel annoyed all of a sudden, 'Tell him it was your stepbrother that did that to you? The one sitting over here on the couch?'
"Oh haha, yeah, I get asked that a lot." ('What?' - Derek) "I was in a game of rugby recently with my friends and well, things got a little out of hand." She laughed lightly and the delivery guy unknowingly felt a lot more relieved.
As he headed back to his car, she called out, "Oh hey, sorry!" He turned around. "I forgot to give you tip." She wasn't happy but even after telling him a lie, she felt a bit better as well and was feeling generous. He went into his car feeling proud for getting a fiver that night. 'Hmm... maybe asking your customers how they feel isn't such a bad thing.' And off he drove to make another delivery.
Back inside the Venturi-MacDonald house, Casey closed the door and was bringing the pizza upstairs when Derek, falling back into his routine of 'the annoying stepsib', started speaking.
"I thought I told you not to touch the phone." 'Wait, what am I saying? I don't need to bring that back up again, do I?'
She stopped cold in her tracks. Then very slowly turned to look at him, "I didn't. I ordered online." Her voice was quiet, minute. There was no will to fight left within her. Strangely though, her eyes, seeing almost nothing, seemed to bore straight through his and he felt like she could see all that he was in that moment. Without another word, she went back up the stairs and from where he sat, Derek heard her door close with an almost inaudible click. It was then that he noticed that the TV wasn't working (the cathode ray tube inside had just fizzed out of life).
It was quiet. 'How strange,' Derek mused to himself, 'for once, when everyone's gone except for the two of us, the house is finally the quietest it has ever been for the past how many years?' Yet he felt disturbed and rather uncomfortable. He also had this nagging feeling that he should go see Casey, but he had been rather successful in making excuses to himself to not go. 'She can take care of herself,' or 'it's Casey, she'll come back to me tomorrow and apologize for having gotten me angry' or the most effective one, 'she told me to get out so I should stay out.'
In the end, after two hours since the delivery guy left, Derek hauled himself off the couch and went upstairs. Walking down the hall, he had never felt such trepidation. The cliches of the heartbeats filling up one's ears in a deafeaning roar was currently happening, and every footstep seemed to sound like those of a giant's. He wasn't even all too sure why he was nervous. Ever since seeing Casey on her bed looking up at him in terror, his mind hadn't seemed to want to function since.
He reached her door after what seemed like years. It took him eleven tries to finally gather enough courage to knock on it but upon hearing no answer, he called out her name and asked for permission to enter - something he had never done. He tried again, feeling worried that she hadn't responded so giving her a little warning, he forced the door open.
Instead of seeing her moping on her bed or in front of her computer with the box of pizza ('Because that's what I came for... right?'), Casey was nowhere to be seen. A draft passed by and he shivered taking note that the window was left open. 'Wait, open? She... Is she still here?' Derek left and checked all the rooms in the house and either he and Casey were circling each other, or Casey wasn't in the house anymore.
'...Where'd you go Case...?'
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A/N: Heu... I'm not all that happy with this chapter... The story always seems to flow better in my head but this chapter, I don't think it flowed as well. Kinda choppy here and there and some of it seems so makeshift... Aiya! Then again, it could be because it was at midnight that I started typing this XD!