Disclaimer: Still don't own it.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Even having left no later than quarter past five, it was ten-thirty by the time we made it back and I was feeling sleepy from the journey.

Derek walked me to my dorm room to see that I got in all right and I shot him a grateful smile as I whispered goodnight and gently opened my door. I looked around to check if my room-mate was back from her parents' yet before breathing out and turning on the light. I poked my head back out of the door and made a loud 'pssst' sound to draw Derek's attention.

He looked back towards me and I gestured with my hand while whisper-yelling, "You want a drink?"

He smiled tiredly and walked back towards me.

I shut the door behind him and made my way towards the small counter with a microwave, kettle and a small collection of mugs on a cup-tree perched on top. I plucked two mugs and opened the cupboard underneath to pull out drinks making stuff. "I only have tea and cocoa." I said quietly. It was doubtful my neighbours would hear my normal speaking voice through the walls, but it was late and I spoke quietly automatically.

"Cocoa's fine." He said through a yawn, stretching his arms back above his head.

I nodded and tried not to stare as he completed the stretch and sat down on my bed. If I was a guy I'd call him a cock tease for that.

"How many different teas you got in there anyway? I'm betting on at least ten." He broke the silence as the kettle boiled.

I grabbed the three boxes from the cupboard and threw them at him. "Just those." I smirked, more amused than annoyed by the taunt.

He looked at the boxes, "Ah, but this box has seven different flavours in it." He said triumphantly, waving the box around to prove it.

I laughed. "That's still only nine, or did you forget how to count?" I poured the hot water into the mugs, very nearly splashing myself with boiling water when it came out faster than I was expecting, and stirred, only remembering the instructions to make it a paste first when soggy little balls of powder floated to the surface, resisting all attempts to stir them in. I gave up and handed Derek his cup.

He gave a half smile in thanks and used his spoon to slurp some of the bubbles that had formed on top.

I pulled my eyes from his lips and cleared my throat. He looked up, expecting me to say something and I panicked and said the first thing that came to mind. "So, what do you do when you like someone? I mean, I go all klutzilla and Emily goes all swoon-y and motor-mouth, what do you do?" I couldn't help the heat from rising all over my body, but I hoped he was too focused on his drink to notice.

His mouth pulled into a tight smile, like he was uncomfortable talking about it. "I act like an asshole."

I laughed, "Which is different from usual how?"

The smile turned a little more genuine. "Shut up."

"Sorry, go on. So how do you act like an asshole?" I coughed down my giggling fit.

He shrugged. "It's like all my natural and incredible charm just vanishes and all I'm left with being is an arrogant moron who acts like he's king of everything. I go from antagonistic Casanova to idiot school boy pulling people's pigtails."

"Antagonistic?" I questioned.

He glared. "I heard it from you enough times to look it up."

I dismissed his slightly defensive explanation with wave of a hand. "No, I meant how did you antagonize Sally? Or Kendra?"

"There wasn't a lot of talking or 'courtship' with Kendra, and I teased Sally all the time; okay not to the extent that I..." He cut himself off with a deep breath, as if narrowly avoiding catastrophe. He collected himself. "And besides, it kind of wears off when I get involved. Partly 'cause I don't feel much like I need to try anymore so the pressure is off, and partly because they start trying to train me like a damn misbehaving puppy. It gets old real fast, so I watch myself a bit more closely, which is a lot easier to do when they're your girlfriend. I'm not really sure why, probably less pressure, like I said."

I thought about that for a moment; the only times I'd really seen his charm vanish were when interacting with family, namely me. I inwardly rolled my eyes; there was lack of charm and then there was whatever he was when he was with me.

"I also have a habit of coming off as even more retarded than I already am." He added with a rueful smile that I assumed was a by-product of being tired.

"You're not retarded. You're actually one of the smartest people I know." My forgotten blush flared up again as his eyes shot up to meet mine, but I didn't look away. "If you put as much thought into academics as you do girls and hockey you'd probably get grades almost as good as mine." Possibly better, I added in my head.

He laughed uncomfortably. "I don't know about that."

"Well, I do." I said firmly.

He gave another smile which morphed into a smirk. "I hate to say, but I don't think the same thing would work in reverse; you'd be just as hopeless with flirting with girls, and as for hockey..." He broke off with a grin, "Actually, I would not want to face you on the ice; I prefer my limbs and ribs intact. Though I wouldn't want to be on your side either with your klutzilla tendencies." His eyes grew distant as though picturing it.

I sat down next to him and shoved his shoulder. "Hey! I wouldn't be that bad!"

He bumped my shoulder in return, causing a little of my cocoa to splash over the rim of the mug and onto my skirt. "I'll have to take you to practice sometime so you can prove it. Before the others arrive though; we can't afford to have all our players taken out by a crazy girl with a hockey stick." He taunted.

I dipped my fingers in his drink and flicked the liquid in his face in retaliation.

"Hey!" He protested, before responding in kind.

I shrieked and shielded my face too late. Tepid cocoa ran down over my lips, and I stuck my tongue out to lick it off, trying to ignore the triumphant smirk plastered over Derek's features.

"You know, the amount of germs that could have gone from my fingers into that cocoa..." He said casually, watching as my eyes widened in horror. "From the prince, from the door of that diner restroom, from any number of places really."

"Ewww!" I immediately reached for a make-up removing wipe and wiped at my face frantically.

"Here, let me help you with that." He reached over and rubbed his fingers over my face.

"Ew! Derek!" I automatically withdrew.

He followed my movements and continued touching my face. Unfortunately, my brain took this moment to block out the previous comment about germs and zero in on the fact that Derek's fingers were running over my lips. My mouth dropped open in a gasp, just in time for one of his fingertips to slip between my lips.

We both froze.

Derek snatched his hand back like I'd bitten him and his face went pale. "I... Umm... I better be getting back. It was a really long... Tiring drive. Need to hit the hay."

I swallowed back the lump in my throat at his reaction. "Yeah, goodnight." I let him out of the door and leaned against it once I'd closed it behind him.

I sighed. Why was I such a klutz?

I woke up the next morning to my room-mate getting in. She'd driven back at five a.m and was dead to the world in minutes. Unfortunately, having been woken I couldn't get back to sleep again.

I sighed, throwing the duvet back and sitting up against the headboard. Last night's cocoa mugs were still on the counter and I wrinkled my nose at the mess. I'd meant to clean them up before going to bed, but the whole Derek thing had distracted me and I was already tired.

After cleaning the mugs I left to have a shower, spending nearly half an hour just standing under the spray, yawning periodically. I allowed my hair to dry naturally for a change while I sat in bed going over the work I'd done at home, then attempted reading for a while.

I checked the clock at half past seven and got ready for class, though I didn't need to leave for class for nearly an hour. The coffee shop would open at eight and I could use the caffeine.

The rest of the day passed in a tired blur, and I felt lucky I didn't fall asleep in class. I need my full eight hours to function properly and I'd barely got six. Amazing the difference two hours could make.

I blame this for the fact that I completely forgot about meeting up with Cher as I'd arranged before the weekend until she was knocking on my dorm room door asking if I was okay. I opened the door and let her in, checking my phone for the missed calls and texts she insisted she'd sent. Dead. I must have forgotten to charge it the previous night. I cringed, realizing that I was supposed to have sent my mom a text to let her know we got back okay. I quickly remedied this once I'd connected the charger.

"You have a good weekend?" Cher asked cheerily.

I gave a tired smile and yawned. "Yeah, great. Went out with my mom and my sisters, had some home cooked meals. Got humiliated by my family. It was fun."

She laughed. "How did they humiliate you?"

I pulled a face. "They sat there talking about what a bridezilla I'd be if I married Derek."

"Derek?" She instantly leapt on his connection to it. If I didn't know she was deeply in love with Josh and overly invested in me and Derek becoming a couple it would have sparked a fair bit of jealousy and possessiveness in me. "Why were they talking about you marrying Derek?"

I rolled my eyes at her. "Calm down, it was just something Marti suggested when she found out you and Josh were step-siblings."

"Was Derek in on this conversation?" She asked.

"Yeah, he was the one that started all the bridezilla stuff." I tried not to let on how much that had upset me. I was used to Derek and hadn't taken it to heart, but with my newfound feelings for him it had stung more than a little.

"What did he say?" She sat down on my room-mate's bed and leaned forward in interest.

"He said I'd complain about the way he proposed, I'd spend so much time planning it we'd die of old age, that I'd make him take ridiculous amounts of dancing lessons, that I'd spend forever choosing a dress..." I trailed off with an involuntary sigh.

"Sounds like he spent a lot of time thinking about it." Cher giggled.

I blushed a little at the thought. "Not really."

She smiled knowingly at that. After a moment she asked, "Why would you complain about how he proposed? He couldn't think even you would do that?"

"He said he'd just put it randomly into conversation just to annoy me." I smiled wryly.

She gasped. "He's thought about how he would propose to you? And to you specifically? Oh my gosh!"

I looked at her strangely. "It's not that big of a deal. He puts a lot of thought into things that could annoy me, especially ruining important moments in my life."

"Yeah, and if it were ruining your graduation or giving an embarrassing speech at your wedding I'd agree with you; but seriously, guys don't contemplate how they'd propose to someone unless they would actually consider proposing to them." She said adamantly.

"You obviously don't know Derek. He'd contemplate anything that might make me mad." I insisted, although a part of me was grinning like an idiot at her assertion.

"And if he did, would you?" She asked teasingly.

"I... I don't know." I avoided her eyes.

"I meant be annoyed, of course, not marry him. Because you'd never do that, you don't see him that way." She challenged with a mocking grin.

"Shut up." I responded oh, so eloquently.

She just ginned wider. "Unless you've changed your mind about that..?"

I muttered something inaudible.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear that. Would you mind repeating yourself?" Cher taunted.

"I may have... Just the teeniest crush on Derek." I mumbled, this time just loud enough for her to hear.

She raised her eyebrows. "The teeniest crush?"

I glared at her. "Maybe."

"You sure it might not be a pretty big crush? Maybe even more than a crush?" She pushed.

"It's... Possible." I conceded.

She made an undignified sound and grabbed my hands, pulling me to stand and making me join her in a goofy dance. She let go and reached for her phone. "You've got to tell Emily." She ordered, dialling and handing me the phone.

"What? No, I don't want to!" I argued, but it was too late, Emily had already picked up.

"Hello?" Emily's voice came from the other end. "Cher, are you there?"

I raised the phone to my ear with a sigh. "Hi, Emily, it's Casey."

"Hey, Casey. Why are you calling on Cher's phone?" She said amicably.

"She want me to tell you something..." I trailed off, reluctant to continue.

"Yeah?"

"I..." My eyes shot to Cher who gestured me on. "I may or may not have... Feelings... For Derek." I closed my eyes.

There was silence for a moment before she shrieked down the phone so loudly that I had to hold it away from my ear to avoid causing permanent damage. "Seriously?!"

"Um, yeah?" I said warily.

"And you told Cher first?! NO OFFENSE CHER!" She yelled down the phone. "But I'm your oldest friend, it's my privilege to hear these things first!"

"Sorry," I winced, it wasn't really my fault that Cher found out first, but all the same I felt guilty.

"You can make it up to me." She said cheerfully. "When you two get together, I get to know first, alright?"

"Okay?" I agreed tentatively.

"Good."

"Though you know we might not get together right?" I told them both.

"Why not?" They both asked in unison.

"Because I don't know if he feels that way about me." I reminded them.

"Oh, please! He's been mooning over you ever since you moved to London!" Emily exclaimed just as Cher said, "Don't be silly, of course he does!"

"One; he's never 'mooned' over anyone, even Sally just got sulks. And two; there's no 'of course' about it. You have absolutely no evidence to support your insane theory that he..." I took a deep breath, trying to release the tension my rant was building up.

"Looooves you?" Cher crooned playfully.

I scowled.

"Oh, but we do. You just don't believe any of it. Anyone with half a brain cell would be in no doubt of his feelings knowing everything we all know." Cher continued.

"Casey, if you don't believe us, why don't you ask him? Maybe he can convince you." Emily said soothingly, proving she still knew how to handle me a little better than Cher.

Derek's words from the car echoed Emily's in my head. Apparently the world was trying to tell me something. Too bad I wasn't in the mood to listen. "I'm sorry, I just don't think he does. And until I feel otherwise, I'm not going to embarrass myself by asking him anything. Or telling him anything." I said firmly.

Cher gave me a look and Emily sighed down the phone.

"You guys done?" I asked after a moment. They were silent. "Good. So you want to talk about something else?"

We spent the rest of the afternoon bitching about Cher's ex-stepmom/future mother-in-law and Emily's snoring room-mate (Cher had a ridiculous amount of minutes, allowing Emily to join in the conversation on speaker phone). It was a well spent afternoon.