Okay, I have some bad news. My uncle is dying from lung cancer. (There I said it without falling into tears). From what the doctor has told us, it will only be a couple of weeks before he passes on. They are going to give him one more round of radiation for 10 days, to try and break up the tumors in his body. So that means for the next couple of weeks I'll be spending more time with my family, going to visit my uncle in the hospital. Anyway, I'll be away from my computer during that time which means I'll be very bad with updating all of my stories.
Don't worry, though. I have about 3 to 4 chapters almost complete. Those should come out by the weekend or beginning of next week. So please bear with me while I deal with the hardest thing, I've ever have to deal with in my life.
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A/N: "Thoughts are in italics"
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Life with Derek
Changes: Chapter 2
Thompson High School: 8:30 AM Monday morning
Casey is at her locker getting her books for her next class. As she closes the locker, Truman is standing on the other side. His face all beat up and eyes shot. Casey jumps at the sight, but quickly calms down. Truman looks solemn and afraid.
"Casey, can I talk to you?" Truman asks quietly.
"Fine." Casey sighs.
"Casey, look I'm sorry. I'm an idiot. I was being stupid and demanding." Truman apologizes. "I'm very sorry. Please forgive me."
"Truman..." Casey begins.
"And I'll do whatever it takes to make this relationship work. I really care for you and really like you. I just made a stupid mistake. Please forgive me." Truman continues
"Truman, just stop!" Casey yells. "I can't take this anymore."
"Casey, come on. Let's just forget about Friday and move on." Truman begs.
"Truman I can't just forget about what happened. You were drunk and tried to take advantage of me. You didn't hear me when I was crying, begging for you to stop. I thought you cared then." Casey explains. "But you proved me wrong and almost hurt me."
"Casey, I'm sorry." Truman whispers.
"I can accept your apology, but I can't be with you anymore." Casey says.
Casey begins to walk away from Truman. Casey can feel tears slowly forming in her eyes even though she promised herself to be strong. Casey wants this to end and forget all about that night and breaking up with Truman would be the first step.
"It's about Derek, isn't it?" Truman says.
"What?" Casey asks, turning around to face Truman.
"I said, it's about Derek, isn't it?" Truman says again.
"What would Derek have anything to do with this?" Casey asks.
"It's always about Derek." Truman says "This just proves that you have a crush on him."
"What are you talking about?" Casey asks confused.
"Please, save the act Casey." Truman says "Everyone knows about it."
"About what?" Casey asks.
"How you are in love with your stepbrother. And you are using me just as I am using you." Truman explains
"How DARE you!" Casey yells.
"You know, you probably thought you had everyone fooled." Truman smirks. "That the perfect princess Casey was so squeaky clean that she would never fall for a jerk. Especially after breaking up with the school's prince. Then all it took was a little teasing and a few arguments and you became putty in my hands."
"I don't believe this." Casey whispers.
"Then the night I decided to advance our relationship, you grow cold feet." Truman begins. "Then I realized what the problem was. You were never happy with me. I don't have the same impact Derek has on you. And that is all I am to you, a replacement for Derek so you don't have to deal with your incest thoughts of him."
Casey can feel the anger surging through her body. Her blue eyes arre slowly turning darker. She brings her hand to Truman's face and the sound resonates throughout the hall. Everybody within earshot of the two begins to walk away, but hiding behind a locker, Derek continues to watch the soon-to-be ex-couple talk.
"Listen to me, Truman because this is the only time I'll say this. I do not and will never like or love Derek." Casey scowls. "We are breaking up because you tried to take advantage of me when you knew how I felt about it. You don't care about me; all you care about is your reputation and how many girls you can make fall for your charms. I'm done being one of those girls because I know I'm not the only one. So in other words, Goodbye, Truman."
As Casey leaves Truman standing in the hall, Derek has a half-smirk on his face. He can't help but feel that some of what Truman said is true. The whole bit, about Casey having a crush on him, sounds like something to make Casey feel embarrassed. But then reminds himself that Casey voiced raised and said she would never have feelings about him.
"Derek, get a hold of yourself. Why do you care if Casey likes you or not. It's not like you have feelings for her. Not to mention you have girls lined up to go out with you.... You are perfectly content with Casey hating you and you hating Casey. No worries."
Casey comes up to Derek and sees his smirk slowly fading. Casey sees a somewhat hurt expression on Derek's face, but chooses to ignore it. Derek looks at her and his face becomes hard and emotionless.
"So, did you break up with him?" Derek asks.
"Yes, didn't you see?" Casey says.
"Yeah, I saw..." Derek says as he walks away. Then he mumbles. "and heard."
"He heard what I had said. Then did he hear about that disgusting idea Truman mentioned. Truman had some nerve trying to make me out as the bad guy. A replacement for Derek...Pfff, yeah right! Besides in what world would I ever have a crush on Derek. That's just crazy and plain creepy."
Monday afternoon:
"Paul..." Casey shouts.
"Case...coughs...y." Paul chokes on his coffee.
"Sorry, but I need your help." Casey says.
"Sure, what do you need?" Paul asks.
"I broke up with Truman this morning." Casey says.
"Really, what caused you to do that?" Paul asks.
"Over the weekend their was an incident. That is a very touchy subject that I don't want to talk about." Casey says.
"Okay." Paul says.
"What I do want to talk about is something that Truman had said to me when I told him I didn't want to see him anymore." Casey explains.
"What did he say?" Paul asks.
"He said the only reason I didn't want to see him anymore is because of Derek." Casey says.
"Because of Derek?" Paul asks.
"Please, don't make say the rest." Casey begs.
"You have to, if you want to move." Paul explains.
"He said the only reason we had a relationship is because he was a replacement for Derek. That because I'm too prim and proper I chose the next best thing to Derek which is him. He also said that I was only using him to get my mind off of Derek." Casey says.
"I see." Paul says. "Tell me, Casey, do you see Derek as something more than a stepbrother."
"NO! NO! N-O!" Casey yells. "I hate Derek. He is the complete opposite of me in every way. He is a jerk, who doesn't care about anybody but himself. He is arrogant, smug, flirtacious..."
"Casey...Casey...CASEY!" Paul says over Casey's ranting. "Before you go on, can I show you something."
"Sure." Casey says.
Paul opens his file cabinet and takes out a folder of papers. He searches for a specific sheet and once he finds it, he gives it to Casey. Casey looks down at the paper and her jaw falls to the ground.
"Casey, not two minutes ago you described Derek as being "arrogant, smug, flirtacious"; then you saw what I had written down. That was the day your "relationship" with Truman began. Now it may not seem as much of a point, however, before you start asking questions think about it. Before you realized you had some feelings for Truman you said that same sentence. So I'm just trying to piece this together based on your responses; so you describing traits of Derek exactly like the traits of Truman would cause someone to believe you may have feelings for Derek." Paul explains.
"Paul, how often do I talk about Derek?" Casey asks. Her face very red, afraid of the answer.
"Everyday you come here." Paul answers.
"Paul, could everything that has happened these past few days be indicating that something is happening." Casey asks. "That because I still didn't have the right guy; these events needed to happen to point out the flaws in my relationship."
"Casey, I'm not in your mind. You will have to find..." Paul begins, but is cut off by Casey talking.
"What if this was meant to happen to me, just like last year when Max and I broke up after the big game. And at the heart of every break up the one constant is Derek. With Sam, it was that stupid "male code". Scott, Derek exposed him as a cheater. Max, Derek told me to change back. Truman, Saturday after the incident, Derek told me to break up with him." Casey says.
"Casey, do you feel it coincidence that Derek was there for all those, or do you think there is another force at work here." Paul asks.
"Paul that is beside the point. Derek is not smart enough to know to be there when my relationships fall apart." Casey says. "It is just a coincidence."
The bell rings and Casey jumps up. She rushes out the door before Paul has a chance to say anything. Paul takes a sip from his coffee mug and sighs.
"Finally, she's coming to her senses." Paul mumbles to himself. "Here's hoping."
McDonald-Venturi home: Monday night
"Derek? Derek?" Casey shouts.
"What do you want, Space-Case?" Derek asks.
"Well I just wanted to...say..." Casey begins.
"Say what?" Derek asks.
"Th...tha...thanks." Casey stutters.
"Sure. But remember that is the only time I'm helping you." Derek says.
"Of course." Casey sighs.
Derek and Casey stare down each other again. This time their eyes stare directly into the others'. Words cannot describe the feeling between the two as they lose each other in their eyes. Casey slowly moves closer to Derek closing the gap in between them. Casey can feel Derek's breath on her face and she feels something grow in the pit of her stomach.
Derek watches her, looking at her face and the distance between them. He is unsure of what to do. He just wants to complete closing the gap between Casey and him. After another minute they hear a shout from Lizzie's room. Derek breaks eye contact and walks off to his room. Casey walks off to Lizzie's room to see what the problem is.
"What the hell just happened? Why was I looking into her eyes and trying to move closer to her? What was that ...gulp... feeling in my stomach when we were so close? It cannot be, can it?"
"WHAT WAS THAT? WHY DID I MOVE CLOSER TO HIM? WHY DID HIS EYES LOOK SO DEEPLY INTO MINE? WHAT WAS THAT FEELING WHEN WE GOT SO CLOSE?"
Later that night, Casey and Derek lay in their beds for the rest of the night trying to get their mind off that moment before. Derek finally falls asleep after convincing himself that nothing happened. Casey, on the other hand still has trouble falling asleep because too many thoughts are clouding her mind. In the forefront of her thoughts is Derek.
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Well, here you go. Chapter 2. Enjoy, and chapter 3 will be out in a few days.
READ and REVIEW.