Wow this fic is getting big... It's my first one as well. Thanks for all the reviews/follows/favourites, hugs to you all.
And to anyone also following F-f-feelings, the chapter is halfway written and will be finished shortly, it's just my Dasey muses didn't want to play with that one until this was done and uploaded. Hopefully make more progress now. :)
Disclaimer: IT IS MINE! okay, maybe not really...
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I stared at the phone in my hand, not really seeing it. The screen had gone black, hiding the screen with Derek's contact details on it and locking it against accidental button pressing.
I knew I had to call him.
I had been meaning to ask him again about helping him with his work for two days, but during our morning coffee meet ups I'd wimped out. And I had no idea why. I'd offered to help and I was following through on it, what was there to be nervous about? I'd helped him before.
I took a deep breath, steadying myself to unlock the phone and press the call button, when it started ringing. I jumped and dropped it. Cursing a little, I leaned over to pick it up off the floor. My eyes widened in surprise as Derek's name flashed on the caller ID and I chuckled a little at the coincidence, staring dumbly at the screen for a few seconds before it occurred to me to answer it. "Hello?" I choked out, a little embarrassed at my mindlessness.
"Hey, Case. I was just wondering about what you said. You know, about helping me with some of my work?" His voice sounded a little distant down the phone.
"Yeah?" I prompted when he didn't continue.
"Well, when were you thinking of? I mean when are you free?" He sounded slightly nervous but then cleared his throat and breathed a small laugh. "I guess a better question would be when aren't you free, but still."
I breathed a withering sigh, which I was sure was audible down the phone. "I don't know, when do you next have a gap in your busy schedule of drunken debauchery?"
Derek laughed. "I have practice tomorrow, and I told the guys I'd be at a party friday night, but I'm free now if you're around? You know, if you're not having an early night in a pointless attempt at the beauty sleep you so badly need?"
"Sure. I'm already in my pajamas, but I guess you've already seen that before so you won't be too mentally scarred." I ignored his jibe and checked the clock, making sure it wasn't too late. Not that I'd say no even if it was. Not at this point.
"Great. I'll be there in five." He hung up.
I pulled the phone away from my ear, frowning at it in puzzlement before shrugging and deciding just because Derek's dorm was more than five minutes away didn't mean he wasn't somewhere that was.
I stood up and checked my appearance in the mirror. Not too bad, but my hair could do with brushing. I picked up the brush and started dragging it through my hair, still a little crinkly from being tied up during the day.
A knock at the door interrupted me before I was halfway through. I stilled the brush and stood up to answer it, a little surprised at how quick Derek had been. He hadn't even been the five minutes he'd said he would be.
Derek stepped in almost before I'd opened the door. "I have an assignment due friday morning and I'd completely forgotten about it and now I haven't even started it and Casey I have no idea what I'm going to do." He looked panicked and sounded worse.
"Hey, it's fine. We'll do it." I herded him over to sit on my bed and flicked on the kettle. "What's the assignment?"
His expression blanked for a moment before he pulled a binder from his bag and opened it, finding the page he wanted. "Here."
I read the page. "Okay, so it's not that bad. It's just five-thousand words."
He groaned. "In one night."
I pushed his shoulder. "You have tomorrow as well you know."
"I have like three hours, tops. I have a full day of classes and then practice. After that I'll be exhausted; I'll barely be able to stay awake to eat and shower, there's no way I'll be able to fit this in as well." He hunched over his knees, cradling his forehead in his hands.
I sighed; I knew where this was going. "It really won't be that hard. We can get this done tonight." Even if it means I won't be getting any sleep, I added inwardly.
He looked up at me from his hunched position, hope and cynicism warring in his expression.
"We've done worse. Five-thousand words is nothing compared to catching you up on the whole of senior year in high school." I raised my hand again, this time rubbing his shoulder in what I hoped was a comforting gesture. He looked questioningly at my hand and I dropped it back to my side. "Just calm down. I'll fix us some drinks and we can get started."
He nodded, still not looking entirely convinced.
Two hours later we had half an essay plan and one-thousand words of actual essay (Derek didn't believe in essay plans but attempted one because of my nagging). It was pushing nine-thirty and I was already yawning, but there was no way I was kicking Derek out into the cold with under half an essay when I'd told him we'd get it done, so I raided my room-mate's instant coffee for Derek and dug out a supposedly energizing tea from my assortment box for myself.
"What's another word for 'copy'?" Derek grumbled.
"Duplicate?" I suggested. It always amazed me how Derek could command a wide vocabulary when arguing with or insulting me but it dried up nearly completely when an actual use for it emerged.
He didn't outwardly acknowledge me, but muttered something under his breath as his hand moved over the paper.
"You know, you wouldn't have to keep writing things out by hand if you took better care of your things. Or if you got a job and saved up money for a new laptop." I couldn't help but lecture. His last laptop had died a not so mysterious death a few weeks ago when a can of very sticky beer had been knocked over it when he and his room mate had invited some others from their dorm for a guys night.
He paused in his quiet muttering and pencil tapping to glower at me. "You know, you could have let me write this up on yours."
I blushed. The thought actually hadn't occurred to me. "Okay, we can type it up on my laptop." I pulled out said piece of machinery and started it up, carefully keeping my tea arms length away from it. I used typing up what was already written as an excuse to move in close and read over his shoulder as I typed; enjoying the slightly fruity smell of his hair (he'd deny it 'til death, but Derek spent more money on hair products than I did; he even used my shampoo a couple of times when he ran out) and the simultaneously relaxing and exciting feeling I got being so close to him. I wondered how I'd never noticed before; I'd always had this feeling around him, but my mind seemingly glossed over it instead of seeing it for what it was. "There," I said about fifteen minutes later (it was a little hard to concentrate so it took longer than it should have), "All typed up."
"Thanks." He reached over to take the laptop to continue his work, his hands brushing mine as we transferred it between us and causing me to drop one side a little. He frowned at me. "You okay?"
"Yeah," I answered, an embarrassed smile, not only at nearly dropping my laptop after saying how he should take better care of his things, but also at being caught so close to him, forming in reply to his frown. This was getting ridiculous; I was barely even helping him, distracted as I was. I took a deep breath in and slowly released it through my nose as his gaze turned back to his work. "Derek?"
"Mhm?"
"The coffee shop, is it..." I cleared my throat, unable to continue my question which had been along the lines of 'is it like a date. Are we dating. Will we date'. Instead I changed the question. "Is it... I mean, should I, I don't know, maybe call your lecturer when we go tomorrow morning and see if we can get an extension?"
He gave a worried look, clearly worried I was saying we weren't going to be able to finish his essay tonight. "I can't, I've already had two extensions from him since christmas."
"But what if your crazy, neurotic step-sister had a crisis and you'd sacrificed your study time to help her deal?" I couldn't believe what I was suggesting; I'd only just stopped getting concerned looks and 'how are you' s from my teachers and I was going to remind the world of Derek's little rumour about my mental health? Maybe they had reason to be concerned...
His expression changed to surprise. "Are you sure?"
I nodded, biting my lip to stop myself from taking it back.
He grinned tiredly. "That might just work."
I smiled weakly back at him.
"You know, you're not so bad for a keener." He said in a thoughtful tone.
"Hey!"
"But tell anyone I said that and I'll deny it." He smirked and nudged me with his shoulder.
"I'll just pretend you went the whole way complimenting me and thanking me instead of that painful excuse for a half compliment." I told him.
"You do that." He glanced at the laptop screen. "So are we still trying to finish this, or are we relying on the crazy step-sister extension?"
"We'll give another hour or two until my room mate gets back, then I'm kicking you out." I reached for my drink.
"Awww why can't I have a sleepover? I promise I make a great bed warmer." He joked.
My grip on my cup faltered, and it was lucky for me that it had taken a while to type up what was written of the essay and the water had cooled, because half the cup splashed over my front.
"Case, I know you want to get rid of that keener rep, but really? Wet T-shirt contests are a bit pointless when there's only one contestant and one judge." Derek admonished with laughter spilling around the edges of his voice.
"Shut up!" I retorted intelligently.
"You're so adorable when you blush." He teased. "Like a little red ball of nerdy pajamas."
"Der-ek!"
"What? I thought you wanted a compliment?" He said innocently.
I glared and looked down at myself. "At least it isn't sticky. Kind of like that herbal skin cleanser Lizzie bought me." I muttered to myself, trying to convince myself that I didn't need to go wash it off in the shower right the heck now. I returned my glare to Derek. "This is your fault you know!"
He laughed and raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry Casey, did I make you wet?"
My eyes widened in horror. At the coffee shop I was prepared for this kind of talk, but here, in my dorm room after dropping tea all over myself, I wasn't quite ready for it.
"If I can do that just by suggesting a sleepover, imagine what I could do if I actually tried." He continued.
Nope! Not imagining it! Don't imagine it! STOP IMAGINING IT! My inner voice screamed as my slack jaw scrambled to say something, anything, to bring us back to a safer topic.
He laughed again at my expression. "Why don't you go have that shower I know you're going crazy wanting to take and wash off all that faintly flavoured boiled water with some germy tap water. Added bonus is you can make it cold while you're there." He winked. "I'll keep working 'til you get back."
I hit him on the shoulder and grabbed a towel and clean pajamas from my drawers. "No rifling through my underwear. I have it colour coded so I'll know if you do." I warned him as I walked to the door. I turned back as I opened it. "And don't even bother looking for my diary; I'll be back before you have a chance to find it."
"Yeah, yeah. I'll be good." He waved me out of the room.
"Somehow I find that hard to believe." I mumbled under my breath as I made my way to the showers.
He was asleep on my bed when I got back, slouched against the wall, laptop still on his knees and neck at an angle that looked painful.
I watched him a moment before shaking his shoulder and ruffling his hair to get him to wake up. "Come on Derek. Sleep later, in your own bed."
He opened one eye and scowled sulkily. "I take it back."
I suppressed a grin at his sulky face. "Take what back?"
"The thing about you being not so bad for a keener." He reminded me.
"What was I meant to do? Let you sleep on my bed in a position that would probably signal the end of your hockey career?" I put the towel in the laundry. "You need to get back to your dorm and get some sleep."
He grimaced. "Yeah, I guess. Just better hope you can get me that extension."
"Trust me. I have a way with teachers." I reassured him.
"He's gay; bribing him with blow jobs won't work." He teased.
"Not if I do it." I paused for a second so I could say the next bit without laughing. "You could give it a shot though."
To my annoyance he just laughed. "Nah, don't think I'm his type, and he's definitely not mine." He stood up and stretched, and I looked away before he could catch me staring. He yawned, setting me off on a yawn of my own that made his smirk a little. He was one of those weird people who didn't get contagious yawns and he mocked me for my easy susceptibility to them; I yawned just from reading about someone yawning.
"I thought you were everyone's type?" I said sarcastically in response to Derek admitting there was a person alive who didn't want to sleep with him.
"Apparently there are a few rare people who do not find me attractive." His smirk grew. "I think they mostly have mental issues though."
I rolled my eyes because of course he would say people would have to be crazy not to fancy him. Not that I had much grounds to disagree. "Come on, grab your stuff. Time for the sex god to go home and get his beauty sleep."
Derek nodded and collected his things from where they had somehow scattered across the room. He paused with his hand on the doorknob. "Case?"
"Yeah?" I looked up from shutting down my laptop.
He came back towards me and leaned down. I flinched away in anticipation of a Derek style prank or attack and he laughed before pressing his lips to my hair. "Thanks." He smiled and backed up, heading for the door again, and pausing again. "Oh, and Case?"
"Mm?" I managed, a little too stunned to form words.
"Tell anyone I just did that and I'll tell them I found a vibrator in your sock draw." He winked and left me still sitting speechless and now blushing on my bed.
Yeah, I yawned when I wrote them yawning... Please tell me I'm not the only one who does that?
And I leave it up to you decide if he made up the vibrator or not, I just needed something to balance out the fluffiness before Derek got too OOC