Such a long wait … Sorry.

The Letter

"Give it back! God Derek, annoy me much?" Casey complained as Derek sprinted down stairs with a letter of Casey's. "It's mine Derek! It clearly has my name on it and it was on the floor in the hall so mom or George must have dropped it when carrying in the mail."

Derek made a quizzical face before hurdling over the couch and tucking the letter out of view on the top shelf of one of the book cases in the living room. Casey huffed as she made her way downstairs obviously noticing its absence from Derek's hand.

"Where is it?" Casey whined already tired of the chase. Derek just shrugged as he made his way into the kitchen. Casey peered around the corner where Derek had left and then retrieved a chair in the corner of the room. Keeping constant eye contact with the archway separating the living room from the kitchen, Casey smirked before reaching up and grabbing her mail. Once it was grasped tightly in her right hand she backed off the chair and powered housed it to her room where she slid her envelope into her dream diary.

Derek returned from the kitchen casually, sandwich in hand. As if it was second nature, he reached up to the letter's former resting place before setting the sandwich down and fumbling the empty dusty space his hand was now occupying. Freaking out Derek pulled the chair over that Casey had used and stood on it as well to get a better look. Of course, the letter was gone and so was Casey. Realizing stealth was his only option, Derek patiently waited for Casey to leave her room before he was to go in.

Derek nervously ate his sandwich as horrible scenarios rushed through his brain about what could be going on upstairs with Casey and that letter. The possibility of her opening it was slight but he knew from observation that Casey would not open it until she felt like she had total security and privacy which she did not at the moment. If he himself or Edwin was home, there was never complete privacy unless they were locked in a closet with body guards covering the entrance with constant video surveillance.

Finally Casey came downstairs with her jacket on and cell phone in hand.

"Yeah, I am leaving right now Emily. This should be great." Casey spoke softly into the phone with excitement written all over her face. Derek also appeared a little happier for two reasons. Casey was leaving and based off her totally ignoring Derek, she hadn't read the letter. Waiting until the door had closed and the sound of footsteps down the walkway had faded, Derek rushed upstairs barging into Casey's room.

Derek knew from experience that the letter was either under a pillow on her bed, locked up in her somewhat fake mini vault or in another journal that was of less importance to her than her main diary. Checking her dressers around the room, Derek came up with nothing, fearing she might have taken it with her. Then a rush of stupidity hit Derek head on as he saw the letter laying on Casey's bed, front side up near the window.

Crossing her room to the side of the bed by the window Derek snatched the slightly frayed envelope off the sheets and into his jacket as if protecting a large sum of cash. Before Derek was able to cross back over to the door Casey's voice rang out over by the stair well as Derek ducked underneath the bed and silently prayed for her absence once again.

Unfortunately for the second time that day, she had interrupted his strategy as she was currently entering her room. Still on the phone with Emily, Casey sat down on her bed causing a dip in the comforter over top of Derek's back.

"It's okay Emily, another day." Casey spoke into the phone. "It's kind of late anyway. My mom might have gotten mad if I fell asleep over at your house again without forewarning her."

Silence pervaded the room as Casey anticipated Emily's response. A minute amount of noise rang out from Casey's phone, indiscernible to Derek. A few seconds later Casey casually said goodbye before flipping it shut and laying it on her bed. Derek lay on his stomach still, claustrophobic and dying to leave her vanilla smelling room. The longer he lay there on the dusty floor, the worse the awkward feeling inside of him got. Then a flash of black caught Derek's eye as Casey's jacket slid off the bed and on the floor beside him. Hoping she would not retrieve it, Derek lay frozen to the spot trying not to breathe to loud. A quiet sigh left Derek as he saw her feet make their way over to the door, only to return after shutting the door. Derek scowled. For a second he thought that she was just messing with him and that she was aware of him being there the whole time. But when Casey started changing into her night clothes, the possibility of that scenario vanished from Derek's mind.

Closing his eyes, even though Derek could only see about ¾ of a foot above the ground, Derek put his hand across his chest where the letter lay on the other side of his jacket, wishing the day to be over and for him to be back in his room with the music on drowning all thoughts out of his mind.

When he opened his eyes, Casey had moved towards the door again, this time opening and stepping outside briefly.

"Derek." She called out as Derek himself clenched his teeth underneath her bed. She left the room momentarily, only to return within a few seconds muttering the word, 'weird' under her breathe. After closing the door she turned off the lights in her room as Derek's vision greatly decreased. He could only make out figures on the left side of him using the light that was shining in through her window from the moon.

Instead of freaking out again, Derek felt relieved knowing that once her loud breathing had kicked in, he could leave the room unnoticed. After a bit of tossing and turning, Casey remained still for a while as her arm hung off the side of the bed that Derek was mainly facing. Waiting in silence, Derek felt compelled to reach out and touch the limp arm or at least move it out of the way as not to disturb her and wake her up. While considering his options, Casey's breathing slowed down and got considerably louder. Taking this as his chance, Derek started sliding himself toward the window and out from underneath Casey's bed. Within a few seconds, Derek was almost out. The only thing left in his way was the arm dangling there inhibiting him from ducking his head out.

Without thinking Derek went to move the arm, using two fingers against her palm to guide it out of his way. When it had moved about half the way up to the top of the bed, Casey's hand suddenly closed, with Derek's fingers in her grasp. Panicking and unsure if she was awake or not, Derek decided to get to his knees and peer over the bed. Thankfully her eyes were still closed and breathing had not increased.

Silently pulling his fingers out of her hand, Derek stood up surveying the room. Patting his jacket pocket again over the letter as if it could have fallen out over the course of his time in her room, Derek walked over to the door pulling it open slowly. A bit of movement startled him as he spun around only to see that Casey's asleep body had just turned over. Sighing again, Derek slipped out of the room and down the hallway as Casey's eyes fluttered open and a sly, yet sincere smile appeared on her face.

Hope that was interesting. There isn't a part 2, you just have to pay attention to detail to greater understand the letter and what happened because I didn't blatantly state anything. It kind of makes you think "Hmm... :)" if you picked up on my clues.