Thank you to jessica619, justkimmy, Alexandria M, DeeMarie426 for reviewing :)

"I haven't seen much of you lately." Said Roman as we got out of class. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, it's good." I replied. "Just a little rough. Remember that day Leah and I went to that party and we saw Vanessa?"

He nodded, remembering.

"Well, a few days later, her step-brother talked to us and let us know that Vanessa and that guy may be up to know good." I continued. "And Vanessa may have told the guy a few things that Leah told her and trusted her with when they were still friends."

"What was it that was said?" Roman asked when we reached our lockers.

I pressed my lips together as I hesitated. "I rather not say. Let's just say that it's something that as a guy, you'd want to hear, but as a boyfriend, you don't want to talk about in a way because of how much it embarrasses her. Well, it doesn't in a way but...I don't know."

"The fact that Vanessa is telling this guy is what's making it embarassing in a way for Leah." Roman finished up saying. "It shows that she may be capable of saying whatever it is to other people as well."

"But why would she be embarrased to tell me?" I asked as I put on my coat.

Roman shrugged. "I don't know what it is, so I can't say. But it's probably something that Leah felt may have been personal and private. Maybe something that she wasn't ready to share just yet. Have you talked to her about it?"

"She hasn't wanted to talk about it." I replied as we walked out of the school. "Leah comes to school and she's so quick to leave before seeing Vanessa that I barely get to see her around until I get to work."

"Vanessa will get what's coming to her. It's just a matter of when and how." Said Roman as we got in his black SUV Tahoe. "What about that Derek guy? Do you really trust him?"

I thought for a moment. "I'm not sure. I've only known him for a few days, so I don't know what to think of him. A part of me wants to because I keep thinking of why he would want to help us if he was against us, but then the other part of me says to just be careful because I don't really know him. I'm nice to him because of Leah but the moment he double crosses me, that's it. I won't think twice about doing anything to him."

"Be careful with him, Dean." Roman said. "I know he says he's trying to help but be careful with him regardless."

When we got to the mall, I walked around for a bit as I looked for Leah. Seeing her at the store that she works in, I walked in and acted as a customer. After 10 minutes, I turned the corner and saw her standing there leaning against the wall, as if waiting for me to get there.

"I uh...I wanted to say that I'm sorry." I told her softly. "I shouldn't have reacted the way that I did a few days ago. I should have been more understanding about you being upset and why."

Leah crossed her arms and pretended to show me something that was nearby to make it seem like she was doing waht she was supposed to.

"It was just something that was supposed to be between Vanessa and I." She replied softly. "I trusted her and it's just a blow to me because she acted like a friend to my face and then she just went and does this. If she's telling people things that I trusted her with, what else is Vanessa capable of doing? To me? To you? I was afraid for you to know that I liked you because I didn't know if you'd feel the same way about me, so I never mentioned anything."

We stayed quiet for a while as we walked around the store with Leah showing me a few things. "Can you forgive me?"

Leah looked up at me with soft blue eyes and I saw as they had a sparkle in them. "I forgive you. Just try to be a little bit more understanding next time."

I nodded and cupped her chin, wanting to kiss her. Leah smiled and looked down reminding me where we were as she played with her hair.

"I'll see you later." I told her quietly with a smile when she wrinkled her nose at me. Wrapping her fingers around mine, I stroked them softly with my thumb. Looking at my watch, I saw that I had about 7 minutes left to get to work, so I gave her a quick kiss on her cheek and left after giving her a wink.

O.O

Getting off of work, I found it odd that I saw Vanessa and John hanging around and wondered if Derek was anywhere nearby. I haven't spoken to Derek in a few days, even though he's sent me a few texts. I wanted to be left alone for a while and talking to the one guy that heard almost everything that John and Vanessa have talked about against Dean and wasn't going to help anything.

Keeping to myself, I texted Dean letting him know that I was out of work and that I was going to wait for him in the food court. Wanting to avoid Vanessa and my step-dad, I had to take the long way there. Had it not been for that, I would have lost it and slapped Vanessa into next week.

I didn't want to be anywhere near her, knowing that I would do exactly that and not care about what happens. I may be one of the nicest people you could meet, but I will not tolerate the shit that she's pulling off, or at least trying to. I don't have the energy anymore to pretend to be nice to someone like her or to even try to do so.

30 Minutes later...

Looking around, I haven't seen Derek anywhere and my eyes were getting tired of straining to see any one of the three. It wasn't that I was trying to avoid my step-brother, I just wasn't up for it. All I wanted at the moment was Dean. Just him and I for the rest of the night with nobody to bother us in our own little apartment.

Seeing the time and knowing that Dean and I weren't going to want to cook by the time we got home, I looked around and saw the chicken place that we both liked and made a quick bee line to the place. Feeling a hand on my waist when I got on line, I jumped only to see Dean standing behind wrapping his arms around me. I releaxed quickly, taking in his scent and feeling hte comfort of being in his arms.

I pulled him down for a kiss and smiled happily when our lips finally met. Wrapping my arms around his neck, we stood there enjoying each other's embrace before we pulled back. I curled his hair around my finger and gave him a full kiss before turning my attention back to the line. He hugged me from behind and we stayed like that until it was time for us to order our food. Waiting for our order, I turned to face Dean and rested my hands on his sides.

"Are we okay?" He asked me. "I really am sorry."

"I know you are." I told him. "We're good. Like I said though, just try to be a bit more understanding next time. I know if I acted the same way, you wouldn't have liked it too much either."

Dean nodded and kisses my forehead just in time for our food to come a few minutes later. Grabbing my hand, we made our way out the mall after getting ourselves together and walked home. Luckily our apartment wasn't too far from the mall so it wasn't that long of a walk that had to be done.

Later that night...

Dean and I laid in bed after some making up. His phone vibrated indicating a new message, causing him to let out a groan. He reached over to pick it up and saw that it was from Derek.

"He said that his dad and Vanessa are talking again." Dean said.

I rolled my eyes. "Does he really have to tell us now when it's almost one in the morning?"

"They were probably having sex like we were." He whispered huskily in my ear when he rolled me over on my back and gave me a few kisses on my neck.

Blushing, I bit my lip and snuggled up to me when he laid on his back again and rested my head on his chest. "Yes, but we were making up and we're boyfriend and girlfriend. Vanessa's doing it because she's a hoe and she don't have nothing better to do to. The guy she's fucking just screwing just happens to be a damn perv. That's on her, not me. We just happened to get screwed over in the process."

"I'm gonna see if there's anything that he could get to tell us before he forgets." He tells me as his fingers start to type a message to send back to Derek. Looking up at him, I knew that he didn't trust my step-brother. Seeing when Dean furrowed his eyebrows, I poked my head up and tried to see what was going on.

"Derek's saying that it's better to meet in person so that he can tell us what's going on at his end." Dean told me. "Why can't he just text it to me or at least you since he has a better relationship with you than he does me?"

I took his phone and looked at the text messages in disbelief. My jaw tightened. "What is me texting him going to do?" I asked, remembering exactly how Derek was. "There's no way that he'll text back. I'm sure of that."

"Why wouldn't he?" Dean asked as he looked at me and took his phone back when I gave it to him.

"He may want something." I simply replied. "I know him a lot better than he thinks I do."

Dean texted Derek to meet us tomorrow for lunch at a diner that we both love going to every now and then, when we have enough money to go. Now I see clearly why Dean hesitates to be around him as much, even though Derek really can be a nice guy. But he's also extremely smart and knows how to do things that people wouldn't think that he knows much about.

The next day...

Dean and I get to the diner, hand in hand and we see that Derek's car is already there. When he sees us, he gets out of his car and locks it before meeting us halfway. Him and I greeted each other while Dean hesitated but eventually greeted him as well.

I walked behind Dean as we went in and was taken to a booth by the waitress. I kept looking over at Derek, only to see him attached to his phone. Even when we had situated ourselves and were ready to order, we barely put any attention to us.

"What's so important on that phone of yours?" I asked. "I thought you were here to talk to us, not your cyber buddies."

Derek looked up at me and saw the blank expression on my face before he cleared his throat and put his phone down after seeing the look that Dean gave him, daring him to say something smart. After the waitress came and went, he turned his attention back to us and left his phone alone.

O.O

"Vanessa wants to try to get Dean alone." Derek said to us. "It's a way, she believes, in where she could get him to do or say something bad to her against Leah so that it can be used against you, Dean. John believes that there's a chance somewhere in there that would have her running to Vanessa to then run to my dad. From there, my dad will do whatever it is that he wants to do to her, but gradually. He knows that she'll run from him if he's straightforward with what he wants from her which is sex, obviously."

The fact that he said it so calmly just freaked me out. Not on a Leah level, because when she did it, it was just scary because if you knew her well enough then you'd know that her anger was about to get her ready for takeoff.

"You couldn't text me that last night?" I asked him. "You could have texted Leah if you weren't comfortable with saying it to me. Then again, you were the one to text me, so yeah."

"I just wanted to talk to Leah." He replied. "If you didn't want to come, you didn't have to."

I nodded as I blinked a few times. I chuckled as I looked at Leah who was crossed her legs to keep from moving them around so much. "You got a mouth on you today, don't you Derek? Trying to earn a pair of balls all of a sudden?"

"Funny, because you could have texted me if it was me that you wanted to see and the one that you wanted to talk to." Leah said to Derek. "Don't get smart, Derek. You know I can do a much better job at that if I wanted to. Now let's all just calm down and do what we came here for which is to talk."

We stayed quiet as our food was bought. The waitress left after giving us a soft smile. Things got awkward with Derek for a moment there, but it was fine.

"If Vanessa has said anything bad about Leah, then why doesn't she go to her and say those things to Leah?" I asked Derek. "She's woman enough to lay with your dad so why isn't woman enough to confront the one person that she's doing wrong?"

"She obviously doesn't think that there's anything wrong with what she's doing." He replied, facing me. "And if Vanessa does, then she doesn't care. What am I supposed to do? They don't know that I'm here telling you these things. Taken aback by me not being intimidated by you, Dean?"

I looked at him and smiled before chuckling. Looking over at Leah, I let her know that I'll handle it. "Let me tell you something, Derek. Whether you're intimidated by me or not, I could care less. You have the balls to stand up to me and I commend that. I genuinely do because not a lot of people do what you're doing at this very moment. Although, just because you grew a pair doesn't mean you can cross me because I can assure you that I have a bigger pair."

"I'm not scared of you, Dean." He told me confidently. "You can't scare me, no matter your threats."

"And that's all well and dandy, Derek." I responded as calmly as I could. "There's no problem with that. Really, there isn't. I'm not scared of you either so now that we have that out of the way, we can probably move on. Just because your Leah's step-brother doesn't mean that I won't stand up for myself against you. I'm trying to be nice to you and I'm trying to work with you here, but don't double cross me just like I won't you. And as for threats...dear ol' Derek. You'll be able to know when I'm giving you a threat. Our conversation today between you and I has been filled with none on my end so don't get it confused with threats when it comes to me."

"You don't seem like the kind of guy to stay this calm." Derek said. "You're Leah's bitch now?"

I smiled. "I'm nobody's bitch so let's not get it twisted. But she's my girlfriend and I will respect her by not jumping over this table and beating the shit out of you."

"Are you big boys done now?" Asked Leah as she sat watching the whole thing. "Or are we going to continue to get away from what we're really here for?"

I looked at her before looking back at Derek and shrugged. "Apologies on my end. Let's move on, shall we?"

"One more thing before we do, though." She said. "The two of you will get along with each other. Is that understood?"

Derek and I shared an intense glare between each other before finally moving on. Let him try something with Leah and I won't be this calm.

A/N: So what do you think about Derek? Is he really wanting to help them out or does he want something and if he didn't want to talk to Dean, then why wouldn't he just text Leah to talk to her and her alone? And that 'conversation' between Dean and Derek during lunch?