Disclaimer: I don't own Derek, Johnny or Orlando... Though I may dream that I do.

Chapter Six

I was flicking through channels on the TV when my phone rang. I snatched it up eagerly; I had had the most boring day in history and I had been looking forward to Emily's call all day.

As I answered it all I heard was Emily's excited yell of 'I'm back! come over' before she hung up again. Even better than I thought. I briefly wondered if her family would mind me coming over as soon as their daughter got back. It was a little intrusive. But then the Davisons were really nice, and Emily and I had been best friends since I moved to London, so I pushed the unwanted doubts from my mind and went upstairs to change out of my night clothes.

I was practically bouncing when I arrived at Emily's front door, but took a deep breath and tried to calm down when Derek's mocking smirk appeared in my head. Silently cursing him for ruining my excitment even without being there, I knocked on the door.

"Casey!" Emily launched herself at me and my enthusiasm made an admirable recovery.

"Em!" I squeezed her tightly. I hadn't realized just how much I'd missed her until her goofy grin and high pitched yell were before me.

"Oh my gosh, it's been forever!" Emily dragged me inside and didn't stop talking for at least twenty minutes straight. I mostly sat and tried to listen to her account of all the activities and parties that she'd had a part in, luckily for me she'd already told me most of it via email and phone calls or I would never have been able to keep up. When she finally took a break, she demanded to know how things had been going for me and sipped on her cola (which I hadn't noticed her get in amongst all the talking), watching me with her wide brown eyes.

I sighed; why did she need me to repeat everything she already knew?

"Well, it wasn't as scary as I thought it'd be," I started, "I mean, I was so scared when I decided not to do the show, wondering if I made the right choice-"

"Yeah, yeah. Skip to the good part!" Emily prompted.

"What good part?" I asked in confusion.

"The part where you tell me about all the cute guys that you were clearly waiting until now to tell me about!"

"Em, if there had been cute guys or any interaction with guys at all then you would know already." I laughed. She really did have a one track mind. A fact that didn't seem as innocent as it did in high school; maybe she and Derek should have tried harder to make it work...

"You mean to tell me that in a whole quarter at university, you didn't meet one cute guy?" She asked skeptically.

"I had a lot of work to do!" I defended. "You don't need to turn into Derek and critisize my personal life." I couldn't rid myself of the grin on my face when I said this though, so Emily just laughed. In truth, I hadn't really wanted to get back into the dating scene again just yet; Jesse was safe, he was a summer romance that wouldn't last long enough to hurt, but a guy who could potentially be at any party I went to, or be in a class or activity I was in... No, I couldn't, I didn't want to.

"All work and no play makes Casey a very dull girl..." Emily teased. "So, have I been replaced yet?"

"You could never be replaced Em."

"You know what I mean. Have you made any friends? Or are you too busy for that as well?" She rolled her eyes as she said this.

"Hey!" I pretended offense. "I already told you about Laurel! And I actually ran into someone from school yesterday who seems nice."

"Male or female?"

"Female." It was my turn to roll my eyes. "She's called Cher and she's in my english class."

Emily fidgeted.

"But, you aren't really interested anymore are you?" I stopped when I saw her troubled expression. I sighed, knowing instantly what she wanted to ask. "As far as I'm aware, he doesn't have a serious girlfriend yet. He's been on a few dates and kissed a few groupies, but that's just Derek being Derek." I never did tell her about Roxy; she was only a holiday fling so what would be the point?

"Oh, well it's not like I care anyway. I don't know why you brought that up." She started picking at her cuffs.

"I know, you're completely over him. That's why every time I talk to you we don't say goodbye until you know if he had a date that day." I put my hand on her back in what I hoped was a comforting way.

She sighed. "Force of habit. I know I should just let it go, I mean it was my decision to break it off in the first place. I... I just..." She moved her gaze to the ceiling, "I don't know, I guess years of obsession don't go away that easily." Her rueful smile as she looked at me convinced me that maybe she was right.

"He really liked you, you know." I smiled at her. I'd always had a feeling (and I guess a little hope) that it wouldn't work out, but that didn't mean they didn't have it good while it lasted.

"I know, and I think that's what scared me. I mean, he was... he was Orlando Bloom."

I must have looked as confused as I felt because she giggled and explained.

"You know, the perfect guy, the one that would never really happen. The one that wasn't real." She stopped a moment to check that I was following her line of thought. "So when I had him and he was real..."

"You got scared that he wouldn't be what you imagined." I finished for her.

"No, I knew he wouldn't be. He's a great guy but he's only human." She smiled a genuine smile when she realized I knew what she meant.

I nodded, finally getting why she'd thrown away her dream guy. It made sense in a strange kind of way, and I was relieved that I could stop worrying about her. And I'll admit, more than a little relieved that the likelyhood of a repeat Demily was slim. Couldn't help but think Derek was more of a Johnny Depp though... I spaced out, remembering the pirate outfit he wore for the musical at school.

"Casey?"

"Hmm?" I pulled myself back from my reverie to find Emily staring at me with a bemused expression on her face.

"What are you thinking about? You've got that look on your face that you used to get when we saw cute guys at the swimming baths."

I made a face. No way was it the same look! "So, what are you doing over break?" I changed the subject.

"Hanging out with you of course!" She gave me a you-are-so-dumb-sometimes look. "Unless you'd rather hang out with your imaginary boyfriend?"

I laughed, Emily would so not have said that if she knew who I'd actually been thinking about. "I knew that, Em, I just wanted to know what exactly you wanted to do?"

The next two hours we spent discussing our plans; who we wanted to see, where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do. After that, her parents politely made it clear that they wanted their daughter to themselves, so I said goodbye and skipped back next door to see if Mom and George had any ice-cream in the freezer.

Sorry for the short, slightly rambling chapter, just thought Emily deserved a reason for breaking up with Derek and wanted to fill some space in the timeline. By the way, if anyone knows when Simon was meant to be due that would be very helpful.