yay!! hiatus is officially over! or is it….? dun dun dun…haha yes it is. I'm just trying to be unpredictable. Anyway please review! It would make me update faster. Trust me, it takes forever for me to write chapters and I'm a huge procrastinator, so those two make a dangerous combination. And reviews are the cure! Anyway here's the new chapter. Oh, and I'm also thinking of a sequel from Derek's point of view. It will be called "Her" But it's gonna be very very long before I start on it. I need to finish this one first :D

Disclaimer: I don't own Life with Derek or its characters.

--

"He started to jog out of the doors. I was left there, still dizzy and blushing. Wow, he kissed me on the cheek. That is definitely something that he wouldn't do, well at least, to me. It started to tingle where he kissed me so I lifted up my hand to massage the area. With my heart pounding out of my chest, I silently admitted to myself that I was hopelessly and pathetically in love with Derek Venturi."

It went on like that for about 3 weeks. He would give me and Marti a ride every morning, claiming that he might as well because he doesn't want me whining to him about walking Marti to school everyday. But the funny thing is that I never told him that I walked Marti to school. How did he even know? Then at lunch, like clockwork, he would bug me for about 5 minutes in the middle of lunch, and when he departed, he dragged me with him to the doors of the cafeteria, probably so we can be a bit isolated from the rest of the lunch frenzy. He then looks around the room, then gives me a kiss on the cheek. Somehow no one ever sees this random PDA. He usually rushes out of the doors immediately after, but not before smirking at my then-red cheeks. But sometimes, if I'm hanging out with Noel, then Derek starts his bugging at the very beginning of lunch but he didn't have the chance to today

"So what's up with you?" Noel asked me, trying to get me actually talking.

"Oh, nothing, just trying to figure out what this is," I said to him, picking at my oddly colored food.

I didn't really want to eat, not because of the "food", well yeah the food, but mostly because I could feel Derek's eyes burning through the back of my head. Ever since this little routine, it feels like he's gotten possessive of me. I mean, before, I saw him eying me a few times and whenever I looked back at him, he looked away. Now he looks at me almost every time I'm in his sight. And when I look back at him, he just keeps on staring.

"What are you thinking about?" Noel asked me, seeing that I was deep in thought.

"Not anything, really."

"There's something going on with you."

"Nothing is going on with me."

"Don't say that, you've been acting weird lately."

"Just drop the topic, please."

"No! I won't. Why won't you talk to me?"

"Maybe I just don't want to talk…" I said.

"You haven't been "talkative" for the past month. It's so annoying," he exclaimed suddenly.

"Maybe I've just got things on my mind that I don't want to tell you. What's so wrong about that?"

"Its annoying because I'm your best friend and you still won't tell me anything about your life."

"You think of us as best friends?" I asked curiously. I always thought of Emily as my best friend.

"Yeah, I mean, we hang out every day all the time. Well except for when Derek drags you away." Noel said, rolling his eyes.

"Well, he's my stepbrother."

"How come you still say stepbrother?"

"Because he is?"

"Sometimes I think that you want it to be more than that. That's probably what you were thinking about."

"Whatever," I muttered. Noel started to get frustrated by my lack of interest in the conversation.

"Well I think that its disgusting, Casey"

Noel started to raise his voice and he was practically stabbing his food with his fork. I looked around the cafeteria. No one seemed to notice our little fight, well except for Derek. He was staring as usual, but his face was tense, his eyes filled with fury.

"Well, I haven't thought of him that way," I lied, "He's my stepbrother. I mean even if he wasn't, he's still an egotistical jerk who messes around with a different girl every day."

"I bet girls like you would love to date guys like that."

"And what kind of girl am I?"

"A dumb one for having a little crush on him."

"I don't! I would never date Derek ever"

I just wanted this conversation to be over and I just said anything to get Noel out of my hair. I looked back at Derek. His face was now full of hurt, and he looked away from me, hiding behind his linked hands. My throat started to throb, which means I was going to cry. I looked back at Noel. He seemed to be relieved, but and his face started to soften.

"What kind of guy would you date?"

"Um, I don't know"

"Would you like a guy who's "Noel started to ask," Like me?"

"Huh?" I said.

"Well, I want to be more than best friends, Case."

I shuddered for two reasons. First, I didn't exactly want to be exclusive with noel. I mean, he's nice and all. But he's not…well…Derek. And second, usually the only guy who call me Case is Derek. Well he usually adds a "Space" in the front, but still, it didn't sound right when Noel said it.

"I don't know," I replied. I did know. I didn't have feelings for Noel, "I'll have to think about it."

Why didn't I just plain out reject him? Why was some part of me trying to give out false hope to Noel?

"Well, maybe this will change your mind."

He leaned down slowly to kiss me. He went 70 percent in, waiting for me to close the gap in between us, but I didn't want to, somewhat because he used that cheesy line. When he realized that I wasn't gonna put in effort to move my lips to his, he leaned down even more. I turned my head, so he kissed my cheek. It was the exact same spot that Derek usually kisses me. It felt absent. There was no tingling that I usually get after Derek's kiss. There was no flip flopping of the heart or any fluttering of butterflies in my stomach. Just an empty kiss. I suddenly heard a chair fall on the ground. I looked back and all I saw what the cafeteria doors closing and a bunch of people looking at them.

--

This chapter was not that good. There was no Dasey interaction :( but I bet you guys already knew Noel was gonna have a crush on Casey haha. Anyway next chapter, I'll try to get up ASAP, after I write it. It should have more Dasey moments and it will be soooo much better than this chapter. Sorry if this was a let down for you guys :( its really short, i didn't have a lot of time today to write. but I promise you'll love the next chapter :D