Only another 37 minutes until my birthday! Woohoo! lol
Just wanted to say about the paragraph starting 'Marti can't be at all my games', I really didn't realise how the latte bit sounded until I wrote it and I just had to leave it for giggles.
Disclaimer: Don't own LWD
Chapter Seventeen
When I woke up I was really hot, something that had obviously influenced my sleeping position as I was in a strangely contorted pose with only half of my body under the covers. My back lay exposed to the air while my right arm and leg were buried in the duvet. I twisted so my entire body was out in the air to cool and let out a sigh of relief as the air circulated around my sweating limbs.
"Do you mind? I wanted to keep my eyesight."
My eyes snapped open and I leapt on the duvet, pulling it back over me and shooting a glare across the room. Derek was already up, though that was perhaps related to the massive hang over he was bound to have and a search for aspirin.
He was munching leftover pizza and watching the small TV in the corner of the room. "Want some?" He asked with his mouth full, waving the box aimlessly towards me.
"No thanks." I looked at the silent TV and wondered if the sound was broken. "How old is that, anyway?" I asked about the pizza.
He shrugged. "Two days."
"Gross!"
"Hey, it's fine! It's cold, but there's nothing wrong with it." He picked up another slice and the TV remote. He pressed a button and the sound came on. He caught my puzzled expression. "What?"
"Why was the TV on mute?"
"You were asleep." He looked back at the screen.
"You mean, you muted it so you wouldn't wake me up?" I paused for a second. "Why?"
"You looked like you could use the rest." He turned and looked me up and down. Well, as far down as he could see with my body buried in bedding. "Still do actually, but hey, when do you not?"
I rolled my eyes at the half hearted insult and reached for my clothes which I'd left folded by the bed. They were just out of reach, but I could touch my top with my fingers, so I started to gingerly pull it towards me. Before getting tangled up in the duvet and falling flat on my face on the floor.
"Wow, you've fallen over and you haven't even got up yet? That's gotta be a record." Derek laughed from across the room.
I flailed about a bit, trying unsuccessfully to unravel myself until he finally came over and dug me out.
"Where would you be without me?" He said when I was finally extricated, thankfully without exposing myself.
"In my dorm." I retorted. "Eating a nice hot breakfast."
He laughed again. "Come on Princess, I'll buy you breakfast at that coffee shop you like. I think they do croissants and stuff."
I looked at him suspiciously. He was being far too nice.
"Don't worry, I won't play any pranks or anything." He said, taking in my narrowed eyes. "At least, not until after breakfast."
My suspicion wasn't erased, but I nodded anyway. "I need to get dressed, go wait outside." I ordered him.
"Right away, your highness." He smirked.
I headed for Derek's dresser as soon as the door closed, pulled out some random items of clothing, pulled them on, and spent a couple of minutes in front of a mirror with Derek's comb. After digging through my purse for a hair tie I gave up and headed for the door.
"Okay, come on then." I said as I walked out of the room, ignoring the wolf whistles and calls of 'all right Venturi' that erupted from the people standing in the hall.
Derek accepted a high five from one of our many observers as we walked, and I rolled my eyes. I wondered what they'd all say if they knew I was his step-sister.
"What time do you have class?"
I turned to answer him, stumbling backwards and nearly falling until a hand shot out and caught me by the elbow, roughly pulling me upright as it's owner rolled his eyes at my clumsiness. "I told you last night, two thirty." I shook off his hand and carried on walking.
"If you didn't notice I was a little inebriated last night, so forgive me if I don't remember the details of what I'm certain was a very interesting chat." He said, in a tone that was probably meant to sound sarcastic and scathing.
I laughed and he scowled at me. "Sorry, it's just that you sounded like me when you said that." I laughed again at his affronted expression. "And where on earth did you learn the word 'inebriated'? It's not exactly your usual vocab."
"I can use long words if I want to." He huffed.
"Aww, is widdle Dewek upset?" I teased.
"No, just horrified at the idea of sounding anything like you."
"I'm sowwy Dewek, I won't upset you again, I pwomise."
"Stop that!"
"Stop what?" I pulled a cute face and then realised I was doing it and stopped. I was meant to be teasing him, not flirting with him.
He grinned. "Did you just use your cute face on me?"
"No." I said, a little too quickly.
"You did, didn't you?" He laughed.
"I didn't!"
"Just admit it; even the mighty Casey McDonald isn't immune to my many charms." He pushed back his hair dramatically as he said it, making him look ever so slightly camp.
I laughed, but even though I knew he was just teasing the words made me a little uneasy.
Luckily we were nearly at the car and conversation automatically stopped for a while as we got in and put on our seatbelts. I remembered when I had to bug him to do his, but after Ralph was in a crash on the way to University and went to hospital for three weeks, Derek decided on his own that wearing one was a good idea. Ralph was fine in the end, although he broke his arm and his ankle and got a bit of concussion. He was actually quite proud of the broken ankle, as for some reason after it healed it looked like he had two ankles on one side and he liked to show people. It had still scared Derek though; he'd just been told Ralph was in an accident and was in hospital, and he couldn't get hold of anyone to find out how bad it was.
The coffee shop was fairly empty when we got there, and we got served very quickly. Especially considering even though he'd had pizza, Derek still ordered three pieces of cake. When I pointed out how unhealthy it was, he changed one of them to carrot cake, said that I couldn't complain any more and used it as an excuse to grumble at me about how a cake wasn't really a cake if it had vegetables in it. He still ate it though.
It was strange; though I wanted to kill him half the time... Actually, make that two thirds of the time; not responding meant I heard more of what he was saying. Usually he'd crack a joke about me and I'd start yelling, but now I wasn't going straight into a rampage I realised not all of them were aimed at me, that he had a knack of hiding a joke about himself in with the mean comments he made. He also apologised, in a round about way, for things he realised actually got to me.
I finished my breakfast at sat back sipping a soya latte. I didn't usually drink coffee; it's bad for the skin and teeth, it's loaded with caffeine and it's so bitter I have to have sugar with it which makes it worse; but I had a weak spot for the lattes at this place.
It was surprisingly relaxing being around Derek; it was probably because he was so laid back himself, at least when he didn't have a hockey game coming up. He gave off an aura of carelessness that calmed the worry freak inside me, making me just relax instead of constantly checking the time to see how long I had left before class or picking at my clothes and hair. Speaking of clothes, wearing his helped; they were loose and warm and had that Derek hug smell about them, it was like wearing pyjamas but better. I thought again what a shame it was he didn't hug properly, though I smiled as I remembered the side hug he gave me on the walk from the car to the coffee shop. I still wasn't sure Cher was right about them being hugs, but they were still something close to a form of affection that he didn't seem to give anyone else.
I remembered last night and had to ask. "That line, the one about there being a man and a woman out there for everyone? That came from Sally didn't it?"
"Yeah, personally I'm not even sure about there being a person of the right gender out there for everyone. I just thought it would be funny to see the look on that Zane guy's face." He smirked. "Stupid jerk, like anyone cares what he thinks about gays. I say what a person does in their own bed is their own business." I was surprised at the fierceness of his expression as he said it.
"And the person they're doing it with." I grinned, trying to lighten the mood a bit.
"Yeah." He smiled, then the fierce expression returned. "It annoys me when people judge for stuff that isn't anything to do with them! Larry and Peter were standing right there! And why shouldn't they be together just because a minority of people don't like it? I mean some people might even think Josh and Cher shouldn't be together because their parents were married, but they're not hurting anyone and they're not actually related, not genetically anyway, why should they have to be siblings just because their parents fell in love first?" He went quiet a moment. "If it doesn't hurt anyone why should it matter what other people think?" He seemed to say the last part mostly to himself.
I was stuck on what to say after that. Derek very rarely got passionate about anything, and I'd never seen him get that passionate about anything that didn't directly relate to himself. His strength of feeling was confusing given the subject matter, as the only links I could think of were if he was homosexual himself (unlikely) or; and this had me downing my latte to smother the idea; Cher was right.
I gave him a quick glance and he seemed to be back to normal, so I took the chance to try to steer the conversation back to safer ground. "So, when were you planning on going to see the family next? It's been a month and Mom keeps bugging me to come down one weekend soon."
He shrugged. "Don't care. When's best for you?"
"Aren't you worried about missing any classes?" I asked, a little frustrated that he still wasn't taking his education seriously.
He gave me a level stare. "It's gonna be what? One, maybe two friday classes off? That's nothing. I'm pretty sure I can manage to persuade my teachers just this once."
I smiled a little at his use of 'teachers'. No one else I knew called college lecturers that. "And how are you going to do that exactly?"
He shrugged again, "I'll tell them I need the time off to take my loony step-sister home for a weekend for some family support."
"Der-ek!" I pouted.
"What? It's believable and they'll sympathise." His eyes glinted mischievously. "Especially if I bring you in to meet them."
"Forget it, I'll find my own way home." I crossed my arms and resolutely looked away.
"Calm down miss pouty-pants, I'll make up an uncle and kill him off or something." He flicked a cake crumb at me.
"Don't say that! What if you tell them that and then one of our uncles really does die?"
He gave me an are-you-kidding-me look. "Then I'll feel better about having lied."
"You wouldn't feel just a little bit responsible?"
"Umm, no. Because it wouldn't be my fault! Saying it doesn't make it happen."
"Really? You think Marti has to be at your games as a good luck charm, but you don't think wishing someone dead is a bad idea?" I argued.
"Marti can't be at all my games anymore, I just have her picture now instead. And it wouldn't be wishing them dead, it would just be a harmless little lie." He ran his finger around the inner rim of my empty latte cup and licked the resulting froth off his finger. "Besides, good luck charms are different than jinxes."
"How so?" I challenged.
He shrugged. "Just are."
"That's ridiculous; you can't just decide to believe in the good stuff and not the bad." I had to admit to myself at this point that I had missed the milder bickering we used to do. I wasn't there yet on the yelling and definitely not on the pranks, but a little conflict was... Entertaining and invigorating. And it also just felt more or less how we were supposed to be.
"Why not?"
"Because... Because you can't!" I sighed as I couldn't find a point to back me up. "Let's just agree to disagree."
He had been smiling and smirking all through the semi argument, but he scowled a little when said that. "What's so wrong with us arguing?"
"We were hurting people!" I reminded him.
"No we weren't! We were annoying people, stressing people out, but that was in a house with a new baby! Anything would stress them out." He reasoned. "We've always fought, and no one ever actually got hurt!"
"Liz got hurt when you yelled about Darren, and Sally got hurt when you pulled that stunt with Amanda and the top of the pile has to be us nearly stopping our parent's marriage." I listed on my fingers.
"Those are the only examples you can think of? Those are your grounds for this whole thing? We gave in with our parents, I fixed things with Sally, and the stuff with Lizzie was for her own good." He paused as someone came and cleared our table. "I just don't get it! We argue, it's our thing! I have no idea how to even talk to you when you don't fight back."
"We've been talking the whole morning!" We were back on unsure ground and I had no idea how we'd got there.
"And for most of it we've been arguing or it's been one sided. And every time you decide to stop the arguing before it escalates and the whole conversation just stops."
I frowned. To me the conversation hadn't seemed like that, but then maybe it didn't seem that bad to me because I was enjoying his company. I was just spending time with him without the worry hanging overhead that he'd prank me and we'd make a scene or any number of other things that weren't happening in part because I wasn't letting them. "Well maybe if you didn't take it too far when you don't get your way then the bickering would be okay, but I can never be sure when I argue with you that it won't end in me actually being hurt or humiliated!"
"When have I ever actually hurt you?" He scoffed.
"You do it all the time! With the insults and the mocking and the never ending setups designed specifically to make me look like an fool in front of everyone we know! Not to mention how you purposely sabotage everything I try to do!" I ranted. The thought that he had meant to hurt me, had strangely felt better than the idea that he hadn't even known, that he'd carelessly caused me pain without even noticing. Even if it was a lot less often than I was making out. "You know what? I'll walk back to my dorm myself. Drop off my clothes next time my room mate and her boyfriend have a double date with you and your latest excuse for a relationship." I picked up my bag and stormed out before he even said a word back.