Disclaimer: I don't own the show Life With Derek, or Eve 6. I also don't own the Boys Like Girls song: Learning to Fall
A/N: So…it took me a while to come up with a title, but I finally did! Yay me! So, I sure hope people are still interested in this story.
--Beautiful Oblivion--
Chapter Two: you're so content it hurts me
Five minutes later, Derek's stomach was still feeling a little queasy. He decided that maybe it was because he was hungry.
Actually, I'm starved, he thought.
He looked at the clock on his dresser before he left his room. It was 6:08. He laughed to himself as he ran down the stairs. He was shaking his head when he arrived in the kitchen.
"Why are you so giddy?" Casey asked him. She was standing by the counter, taking small sips of her juice.
"I was just laughing at the fact that you expected me to be gone when it's only, like, six o' clock."
"Yeah, and?"
"Well, obviously it's too early to go on a date."
"That may be true for you, but not for everyone. Oh, and it still doesn't explain the fact that you did have a date, and then cancelled on her so suddenly." She stepped away from the island, walked towards him and crossed her arms. "Why did you cancel?" she asked curiously, staring up at him. He couldn't help but stare into her wide eyes before he answered.
"No specific reason," he said sluggishly, but she narrowed her eyes, letting him know that she didn't believe him, so he sighed dramatically and continued. "Fine. I realized that I had made a bad judge of character and decided it was best for me to end things before she got too attached to me." He stared at her, willing her to disagree with him. She broke the eye contact and then made a face at him.
"Yeah, sure." She was obviously still unconvinced.
"Whatever. Believe what you want."
"That's the thing. I don't know what to believe. I can't come up with a good enough reason for why you'd ditch your date."
"Can we please stop discussing this? It's giving me a headache." He rubbed his temples for good measure. Casey just shook her head and watched him leave the kitchen.
For some reason, being in such close proximity to her was wigging him out. If only he could figure out why. Or, admit why.
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"Casey, can you please stop sighing so loudly?" Derek asked faux-politely. He was sitting in his chair in the living room and Casey was sitting on the couch. He had the remote, of course and had chosen an old hockey game to watch.
"Can I help it if I can't stand to watch stupid hockey?"
"Well, you see, that's really not my problem. Oh, and hockey is not stupid."
"Can't we just watch something else? Don't you get enough 'hockey' at your 'hockey practice'?"
"Why did you just put air quotes on 'hockey' and 'hockey practice?" he asked, annoyed.
"No reason."
"Uh, uh. You can't just say something like that and not have a reason. Please tell me why. Are you trying to imply something?" She just rolled her eyes.
"No, Derek. I wasn't implying anything." She reached for the remote once more in a futile attempt to steal it away from him. He lifted it above his head so she couldn't reach it.
"De-rek!"
"Just answer the question, Casey! Are you saying that you don't think I'm a good hockey player?"
"I wasn't!"
"Good. Plus, you wouldn't know, anyways. You don't know anything about hockey, and it's not like you come to any of my games."
"Well, sorry, I didn't know you wanted me to come to your games!"
"I don't!"
"Well I don't want to go to them!"
"Fine!"
"Awesome. I'm glad we cleared that up."
"Me too."
They were both quiet for a minute. Then, she reached over and grabbed the remote from his now limp fingers.
"Hey! Give that back!" She quickly changed the channel.
"Relax, you can have it back when Sam gets here. You can watch TV all night for all I care."
"Why? What do you plan on doing?" Casey just smirked and continued to flip through the channels. Derek's heartbeat picked up. "Casey! Answer me." Actually, he didn't really want to hear her answer.
"Why do you care? We're just going to be hanging out. Probably in my room," she added.
"But I thought it was a date."
"It is a date…" she trailed off. He motioned for her to finish her sentence. She groaned. "Fiiine. It's kind of a date. We talked about it, and we decided that we were just going to see if we could make it through a night together."
"What?!" Casey rolled her eyes.
"A night of hanging out, you dufus. Without fighting." Derek's heart finally started to go back to its normal speed.
"But you know, if it all works out well, we might be getting back together." Casey sighed to herself and grinned. She wasn't looking at him, though. She was staring at the TV screen. She didn't see Derek's face turn from bored indifference to a deep frown.
"Yeah, well, whatever you do, please don't make out in front of me, or anything. I don't want to have to throw up my dinner."
"Eww. First of all, why are you so gross? Second, you haven't even had any dinner. And third, I wouldn't want you to see us kissing. Plus, I doubt we will." Derek's interest was baited, once more.
"Hmm? What's that?"
"Well, it's just like it's a first date all over again, right? And it might be too awkward still for us, to...do that," she explained. Derek scoffed.
"Oh, come on. If I know Sam, and any hot blooded teenage guy in general, he's totally going to want to make out with you."
"Can you not say 'make out' so much to me, please?"
"What, would you rather I say 'kissing'?"
"Yes."
"Well fine. I can almost assure you that Sam is going to want to kiss you." Casey turned towards him.
"Really?" she asked.
What? Why did I just say all of that? Derek asked himself. Ugh. I'm so stupid. Now she's going to be thinking about kissing him.
"Well, actually. I don't know. But I think it's a good idea that you…don't kiss him. You're right. It's too soon." Casey shook her head.
"Well, now I'm not so sure. I mean, we did have our first kiss pretty soon. Like, right when we found out we liked each other. We hadn't even been on a date yet." Derek really didn't want to hear all of this, but she continued. "Wow. That was a great kiss." He could tell that she was reminiscing from the dazed look that appeared on her face.
He snapped his fingers in front of her.
"Hey, Casey. Snap out of it, okay? I think I've heard enough." She shook her head as if clearing her thoughts.
"What? Oh, right. I don't even know why I'm telling you all this. Or discussing any of this with you at all."
"Maybe it's because deep down, you think I care. Or, you want me to care."
"Ha. Sure."
"Maybe."
"Well, do you?" Derek lied.
"Nope!"
He then stood up, and fled the living room. He didn't want to be in the same room with her any longer. Plus, she did have a point. He hadn't had any dinner yet and was still hungry. His stomach chose that precise moment to growl its agreement.
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Derek was still in the kitchen fixing himself a sandwich and going over everything he had said to Casey in the past hour when he heard the phone ring. And ring again, and again.
"Casey! Will you pick up the phone!" he yelled.
"I can't find it!" Derek rolled his eyes and followed the noise. It was somewhere in the kitchen. He found it and answered.
"Hello?"
"Derek?" It was Sam.
"Sam, my buddy. How goes it?"
"Derek, why are you home right now? I thought you were going out with that girl."
"Nope. Change of plans."
"Really…well maybe that's a good thing because you probably wouldn't have been able to make it back home tonight."
"What do you mean?"
"Um, have you looked outside lately?" Derek shook his head and padded over to the sliding glass door in the kitchen. He pulled the curtain away and looked outside. There was snow everywhere, and it was still coming down hard. It also looked extremely windy and he wondered how he hadn't heard the howling until right then.
"Whoa. I did not know that there was supposed to be a storm tonight."
"I knew it was going to snow, but I wasn't expecting this," Sam said. "I wouldn't have made plans with Casey if I had known there was going to be a blizzard or whatever."
"You were the one that made the plans?"
"Well. A little. I mean, I approached her first. But we both made the plans to hang out tonight." Derek liked what he heard. A little.
That means that Casey wasn't the one to initiate the date. Sam had.
"Really."
"Yeah. But I guess we're going to have to reschedule."
"Wait, so does this mean that you're not coming over?" Derek asked, trying desperately to cover the glee in his voice.
"Well, duh. That's why I'm calling. Can I actually talk to Casey please?" he asked. Derek shook his head.
"Nah, that's okay. I'll tell her for you, man."
"No, I'd really like to tell her my—" but Derek cut him off.
"Talk to you later Sammy boy!" he said and quickly hung up the phone. He took a large bite of his sandwich and turned around. Casey was standing at the door of the kitchen, and she didn't look too happy.
"What?' he asked, his mouth still full. She had her arms crossed over her chest.
"Was that Sam?" she asked. He nodded, and took another bite.
"Why didn't you give me the phone? He wasn't calling for you."
"Yeah, I know, but he gave me a message to give to you." Casey narrowed her eyes.
"What did he say?"
"He wanted me to tell you that he wasn't going to be able to make it tonight."
"What?" she asked incredulously. "He did not!" Derek grinned and nodded his head. He walked back over to the sliding glass doors.
"Actually, he did. He said he's not going to be able to make it due to the total snow storm happening right outside." He pulled the curtain back for her to see. Casey's mouth dropped open.
"Are you serious?" she ran over to where Derek stood and looked outside. "But it was only supposed to snow a little!" she complained. Derek smirked.
"Oh well. Guess it's just you and me tonight." He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. Casey was too shocked about the snow to care that he was touching her. They both just stood there in front of the glass, staring out at their deck and the backyard. Derek was grinning and still chomping on his sandwich, and Casey was glaring at the snow.
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A/N: Reviews are nice. Oh, and I really do wish that there were more LWD stories. Please write some, people. PLEASE!
