A/N: Hey guys. Sorry this took a bit long to update, but it's mid-term time. Anyway, hope you guys like it. And I keep forgetting to mention this, but thank you guys who reviewed my little fanfic, it means the world to me!!!

After I got dressed and Derek cleaned up the mess, we got into his car and drove aimlessly around for a while before he decided to pull into the mall parking lot.

"You're taking me to the mall?" I asked incredulously.

"Yeah. What about it? Not your cup of tea Case?"

"I'm a girl Derek, the mall's my life." I answered jokingly. "But I'm just thinking of how you and I would have never been caught together at the mall six years ago."

He shrugged his shoulders. "So? People change." And he got out of the car.

"No doubt about that." I muttered to myself as I too stepped out of the car.

We wandered through the mall for a while, window shopping, but after all that pointless browsing as we didn't buy anything, we ended up in the food court.

After settling ourselves at one of the grease covered tables…let's not go there…we began to eat. The atmosphere was way beyond awkward. Even after all the distractions from this morning, I couldn't forget about what Derek told me last night. I guess I made a face because Derek broke the silence.

"What's up with you?" he asked with his mouth full of…cheeseburger. Ugh.

"Derek, that's disgusting." I said, pushing away the leftovers of my salad.

He shrugged his shoulders, how typical. "So? What's bothering you?"

I smiled teasingly. "Are you concerned for me Derek Venturi?" Hopefully I'll get him to on some tangent about him always being thoughtful or some kind of bull like that so that he'll be distracted.

"Nice try Case. We're adults now. I'm pretty sure we can all smell the bait now," he smirked. "So tell me."

I sighed and pulled the salad towards me so I could pick at it. That way I wouldn't have to look at him but ended up doing so anyway. "Derek, how can you act like you didn't say anything last night?" he looked at me. I sighed again. "Last night, you accused me of being the reason why you gave up on your dreams. I can't possibly take something like that lightly."

"Casey. Just forget I said anything, alright?"

I shook my head. "I can't. I need to know Derek why you would blame my leaving for the reason you gave up on your ambitions. It's not fair if you don't tell. I don't want to spend the rest of my life, hopefully being successful, and knowing in the back of my mind that I caused you to give up and not even know how I did so. You have to tell me Derek."

Derek dropped his food and pushed back from the table to leave. "I told you Casey to forget it. I'm not telling." He started to turn his back on me. "I'm leaving. You can stay here if you want or you can come with me and not say another word."

"Derek─" I began but got cut off.

"So you're staying," and he walked away.

Who did he think I was? Did he seriously believe that I would give up like that? I grabbed my purse and quickly dumped our lunch into the trash before catching up to him. I grabbed his arm to stop him and maneuvered myself around him so I was facing him.

"Just tell me Derek." I looked deep into his eyes. "Please."

He tried to shake me off but I held firm. So there we were, standing in the middle of the mall when he pulls me close and slams his lips against mine. I don't know how to describe it. Years of pent up anger, lust and every other emotion we had came crashing together in that one kiss. This one kiss, this one perfect kiss was wrong in every single way, yet every fibre of my being told me that this kiss was right. I was pulled out of my blissful state just as suddenly as it had started, Derek pulled us apart.

"Dammit Casey," he said angrily, still holding onto my arms in a firm grip. "Six years ago, when you left, I think I fell apart. I didn't know what was wrong with me. I should have been happy that you left, but I wasn't. I'd grown accustomed to everything I hated about you; your constant nagging, your strive for perfection…even just your existence. When you left, I just stopped caring, about anything. You were the reason for doing anything for those four years of my life. If I did anything, it was only to prove I was better than you. But when you left, I realized that I wasn't doing those thing to beat you," he paused to shake his head but he was still hanging on to me. "God Case. You don't know what it's like to wake up one morning and realize that for the past four years, everything you've done was to impress someone, to prove that you're good enough for that person. And in spite of everything you did, it wasn't good enough because in the end, you weren't very impressive."

"Oh Derek." I was so overcome with emotion that I hugged him, eyes misty. He didn't know why I left but I guess now's the time to tell him. I pulled back and dragged him over to a mall bench. "Derek, when I left, it wasn't only to go to a school better for my success at a good career; I needed to get away from you. No, stop. Just sit down and listen." I said as he made movement to get away from me. "I needed to leave because I was starting to realize that I liked you more than I should have. I was paying attention to everything you were doing, it was driving me crazy. I stopped trying to make excuses for all you good qualities to make you look bad. In the end, I couldn't deal with it; there was no possible way for me to be with you, so I decided to live without you. For the past six years, I've done just that and I thought I was fine but I don't think I really was."

I don't know how long we sat there, in silence, I don't know whether it was awkward or not but I could say that it felt good, being there, with Derek, no secrets between us. "Come on, let's go," said Derek as he got up, pulling me with him.

"Huh? Where are we going?" I was thoroughly confused, again Derek was acting like nothing happened after both of us had a heartfelt confession, but I followed him anyway.

"I didn't take the day off to sit on a mall bench. We're going to the amusement park," he said smirking and running off to the car.

"Derek! What are we? Ten?" I shouted after him, getting a few glares from some passersby. Oh…how tragically familiar the embarrassment was.

"I know you are, but what am I?" he shouted back, clearly not embarrassed. Right, okay. Neither. Am. I.

A/N: Thanks guys for reading!