Woo! Another chapter! This one was a lot easier to write. I don't know why but it was. Enjoy!

Before Derek actually started his clean day, he had to make a stop. When Edwin and Marti were still sound asleep and his dad left for work, which he still hadn't said a word to him, he took the bus to Marco's house. He needed to have a small chat.

When he got there, he waited in Marco's living room for him.

"Derek, nice to see you're back."

"Yeah," Derek nodded, "listen, what I owe you?"

Confusion ran across Marco's face.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Johnny said he talked to you."

"I haven't talked to Johnny for about a month." Marco informed him.

"What? No, he said that…"

Derek sat there for a minute. What was he missing? He and Casey fighting, taking off to Johnny's, he said he would take care of it, and something else. Someone else was there too. Who was it?

"Derek? You okay?" Marco asked.

"Yeah," he nodded. "Do I owe you anything?"

"Derek, you've never had any debts with me." Marco said, "Why?"

"I'm gonna get clean."

"Well, I'll miss you."

Derek said nothing; he simply stood up and shook Marco's hand before walking out.

XxX

Derek walked back to the bus stop and waited for the bus to come. He was still thinking about what Marco had told him. He didn't owe him anything. How could he not owe him anything when Johnny told him he would talk to Marco?

Derek shook his head. No use getting tied up in something that wasn't going to be apart of his life anymore.

The screech of the breaks on the bus startled him and he got on.

When he got home, Edwin informed him that Sam had called and said that he was going to pick him up for the movies in an hour. He also told him that Casey called. Derek immediately grabbed the phone and called her back. There was no answer so he called the restaurant. Lisa answered and she put Casey on.

"Hello?"

"Hey hot stuff." He said smirking.

"Hey Derek," she laughed. "Listen, I feel I need to apologize again."

"Case, we've been over this. It's cool."

"No, not about that."

"What about then?"

Casey sighed.

"I saw Ben today and he looked pretty burned." She said.

"Casey, do you know what burned means?" He asked.

"Yes, it means you're under the influence."

"Okay, continue."

"Well, I just wanted to let you know than I'm sorry for not believing you when I should have and that you were right about him."

"Don't worry about it. I don't want you to dwell on the past. Live in the now."

"Really, is my boyfriend suddenly becoming more philosophical?" Casey teased.

"Very funny Case,"

"Well, I have to go. I've got tables to wait."

"Okay." He said nodding to himself.

"Call me later?"

"Of course,"

"I miss you." She said after a few seconds.

"I miss you too."

After their good byes, they hung up and Derek sat back on his bed and sighed.

He really did miss her. He missed her so much and he really wanted to just hop on a plane back to New York but he knew he couldn't. Before he could do anything with Casey he had to make things right with his dad. And he knew that was going to take a while.

--

He was waiting for Sam and Ralph to come and pick him up. He was nervous. He didn't know why he was because he had already seen Sam and he seemed like he was easing up on Derek.

The doorbell rang causing Derek to jump. Marti giggled at her brother.

"It's just the doorbell Smerek."

Derek smirked and he walked over to the door. He opened it and saw his two former friends whom he was trying to make amends with.

"Sammy!" Marti screeched.

She ran into his arms for a hug and she giggled.

"Hey Martster,"

Sam put her back on her feet and she ran to Ralph earning an 'oof' out of him.

"Hey creep."

"I'm not a creep, Ralph." She said to him with a pout.

"I think you are."

He ruffled her hair and she bounced over to the couch.

"Derek, how you doing?" Ralph asked.

"Pretty good," he answered, "you?"

"Same old, same old."

Derek and Ralph had their own awkward silence before Sam stepped in.

"Uh, Ralph, can I talk to you for a sec?" Sam asked pulling him aside. "Look, I know what he did to us was pretty shitty-"

"Pretty shitty?" Ralph repeated, "Try extremely shitty." He shook his head, "Need I remind you that after I broke up with Carmen I found out that he was banging her behind my back?"

"I know." Sam said, "But, I think we should give him another chance."

"Are you freakin serious?"

"Yes, I am. See that's the difference between you and me. I know when to be an adult and to let things go. Try it sometime." Sam turned back to Derek, "Ready?"

"Yeah, hang on." Derek said before he bounded up the stairs.

Minutes later, he came back down with Edwin so that he could watch Marti while he was gone.

They bid their farewell to Edwin and Marti and left.

XxX

Meanwhile, after Casey got off work, she went to her mom's place to tell her what had been bugging her since it began.

Nora handed her a glass of juice and Casey sighed.

"Mom, I need to tell you something. Actually, I've been keeping what I've wanted to tell you because I thought you would freak out or something. And because I thought you would freak out, I began to semi freak out so now, I have to tell you whether you'll like it or not." Casey said to her mom. Nora nodded for her to continue. "I'm dating Derek."

Nora said nothing. She simply looked at her daughter in shock and disbelief.

"Excuse me?" She asked. "How are you dating Derek, I thought he went back home?"

"He did." Casey confirmed. "And we both talked it over and we thought we could handle this kind of responsibility."

Nora was still in a bit of shock.

"Casey, honey, I think that it's great that you've found someone but I don't think it's a smart idea to tie yourself down while you're so young."

"What are you talking about?"

"You're starting your second year of college. Don't you think that being in a long distance relationship will get in the way of you being able to have fun when the time is right?" Nora asked. "And who's to say that Derek will stay faithful to you, you don't even know what his plans are now that he's back at home. He could go back to drugs and have a random slum and forget all about you."

Casey looked at her mother. She thought that she would be supportive about it but it was evident that she wasn't.

"Okay then," Casey said to her mother. She chose against arguing with her at the moment.

"Casey,"

"No, I have to go."

--

"My own mother is against Derek and I being together. She thinks he'll go back to drugs that he'll cheat on me and forget all about me." She stressed to Lisa.

"Your mom?"

"Yes!" Casey sighed, "I mean, you're cool with this right?"

"Yeah, I think that once Derek gets his life and priorities in order, he'll be great for you. And besides, even if I said I wasn't cool with it, you wouldn't have changed your mind about it."

"You're right about that one." She sighed out, smiling lightly. "I mean, sure, Ben made me happy when we started dating but Derek, I can see us being happy for a while."

"I think you two will be that one couple other people are jealous over." Lisa smiled.

Casey smiled too.

She had been thinking a bit about her relationship with Derek and she knew that trying this new thing was a good idea, despite what her mom had told her.

XxX

Derek knew why Ralph wasn't being as friendly as Sam was. He knew that Ralph still remembered what he did to him. Hell, Derek remembered like it was yesterday. It was a few weeks after Casey had left.

After Ralph had broken up with Amanda, he met this jet black bombshell named Carmen. He had introduced her to Sam and Derek at a party which was a mistake. While Ralph was too drunk to notice, Carmen had asked Derek to drive her somewhere and he agreed. Another mistake. She told him to pull over to the side of the road, another mistake. And then the worst possible thing happened. She kissed him. And something worse than that happened next; Derek didn't stop her.

In fact, he didn't really care that he was cheating on Sally or that she was cheating on Ralph. All he cared about was getting some action.

It had gone on like that for about three months before Ralph caught them in the act. He had walked in to Derek's room and saw Derek, his best friend on top of his girlfriend, going to town. And that was the last time Derek had spoke to Ralph.

When they pulled up to the theater, Derek saw a familiar blonde and an all too familiar curly haired girl. Surely Sam would have invited Sally to the movies, she hated him and he was pretty sure she still hated him. As he walked closer to the two with Sam and Ralph, he noticed it wasn't Sally. It was Kendra and Emily. They both turned and froze.

"Derek?" Emily asked.

"Hey," he said.

"Wow," was all Kendra could muster.

"What's going on?" Emily asked Sam.

"Sam decided to invite Derek along." Ralph muttered as he shoved past Derek.

Emily and Kendra watched as Ralph walked to the line to pay for his ticket. Emily looked at Derek while Kendra went to go talk to him. Derek knew it would take a lot more than a simple apology to get Ralph to give him a second chance.

"Yeah, maybe this wasn't such a good idea." Derek said to Sam and Emily. "I'm just gonna walk home."

Derek turned to leave but he heard Emily.

"Wait," Derek turned. "Don't leave because Ralph doesn't want you here."

"Yeah, I invited you and Ralph is just gonna have to deal with that." Sam said.

Derek's head hung and Emily pulled him into a hug.

"Hey, you made a mistake." He looked at her. "None of us has an empty book. We all have a few pages filled."

Derek nodded.

--

After the movie, as they were all walking outside, Derek pulled Ralph aside.

"I don't wanna talk to you Derek."

"You're gonna have to talk to me sometime."

"No, don't." Ralph snapped. "I don't have to do anything!"

"Look, I'm not-"

"You think I'm just gonna forgive you like that? Forget that you slept with my girlfriend for about three months before I found out?"

"No!" Derek shouted to him, "I want you to make me work for your forgiveness. And I'm sorry, I'm sorry for sleeping with your girlfriend and for cheating on mine, I'm sorry for choosing drugs over you and I…I'm sorry."

"Yeah well we don't always get what we want." Ralph looked at Kendra, "Can you give me a ride home?"

"Sure, hon. Emily wanna come?"

"No, I'll catch a ride with Sam." She said.

When Ralph and Kendra left, Derek slumped against Sam's car a sighed.

"This is gonna be harder than I thought." He muttered.

"He'll come around D."

When he heard his old nickname he looked up at Sam and knew that whatever Sam had held against Derek was completely gone. Derek smiled a little and they got in the car to go home.

XxX

Instead of going their own houses, they all went to Derek's to hang out. Well it was more laughing than ever. They talked about old times, good old times, when D-Rock was still together, all the times when Casey made a fool of herself when she fell at school, all things good.

The front door opened and a very tired George walked in. He froze when he saw his son and two people who didn't ever want to speak to him. There they were, talking, laughing like he did nothing wrong.

"Hey Mr. V," Sam greeted.

"Hey Mr. Venturi," Emily said with a smile.

"Emily, Sam,"

"Well, I think we're gonna head out." Sam said. "See you tomorrow Derek."

"Bye Derek." Emily said as she gave him a hug.

"See you guys."

And they walked out leaving Derek to face his dad.

--

There was a knock on Casey's door. It was pretty late so she had no idea who it could be. She set her book down and opened it to see her mother

"Mom,"

"Can I come in? I'd like to talk to you."

"Sure,"

Casey opened the door for her mother and they both sat down.

"I'm sorry for what I said to you Case." Nora started, "It's just that Derek is working to get his life back in order while you're just starting yours. And I don't really think that it's a good idea for the two of you to be tied down."

"I know mom, but what you don't see is that I really like him." Casey said, "More than Sam, Max and Noel. More than Ben."

Nora sighed.

"And no matter what you say about Derek, I'm still gonna be with him."

"Honey,"

"No, mom," Casey said.

Casey went over to her bookcase in her small living room and pulled out a piece of paper. She handed it to her mom.

"Derek wrote that for me. You really think that he's just gonna forget about me?" She asked, "You're my mother, you're supposed to support what ever relationship I have, and if you don't then I'm gonna have to ask you to leave."

Nora looked at her daughter and nodded. She set the paper down and left her daughters apartment.

--

George was still in slight shock at how good his son looked. Sure he knew he was home but because George had been so busy lately, he didn't get a chance to see his son.

Derek stood up.

"Dad, we need to talk."

Hmm, no...I changed my mind. I don't really have anything to say right here! :)