Get ready for some serious fluff. I mean, really serious. It's so fluffy it's fluffernutter. But it makes me happy, and I hope it makes you happy, too! I promise some actual plot will be coming in the next chapter!
Chapter 2, Derek: Brave New World
Ninety-one days. I know, I know, I'm dwelling on it. But really, can you blame me? After being with Casey thirty-six times, I can't just quit cold turkey. It's cruel and unusual punishment, is what it is. And I know it's such a girly thing to do to count the times. But I do. I keep track on a little slip of paper in my wallet. Right next to where I keep my emergency condom. Now, I know you're not supposed to keep it in your wallet because it can break or whatever, but I swear, it's never the same condom in there for more than a week. We use them up that fast. Thank God Casey made friends with health services. They've saved me a fortune.
We talked about the fact that we'll have the basement to ourselves this summer, so really, we could. It's just …
Okay. It's weird, but we know for a fact (thank you, Simon), that Nora and my dad had sex in that room. So it's just … not a sexy place.
Besides, with six other people living with us, I feel like the odds are too great that someone will hear, or see, or sense something going on, and I can't scar my siblings like that. As hot as the idea of discoverable sex is, it's not worth the risk. That's what the balcony's for. We get our exhibitionist kicks without any real chance of someone finding out. I'm surprised Casey's into it. But Casey's surprised me a lot with that kind of stuff. She was even the one to initiate our first non-apartment encounter.
We were leaving the library late one night when we noticed the tents were already set up in the quad for the spring carnival starting the next day. Casey pulled me into the closest one and we went at it on one of the tables set up inside. Of course, she felt terrible when she realized that this particular table was being used to sell food, but I found it pretty darn funny, and soon she was laughing along with me.
See what I mean? Such a far cry from danger-averse, play-by-the rules Casey. I'd seen shades of this new Casey on the few occasions she wanted to "live dangerously" in high school, but now? When it's a Casey who likes to sneak into abandoned places to have sex? Mind-blowing.
We drop Sam off at his house, and suddenly I'm driving a lot slower. I want to prolong these last few minutes alone with Casey.
"I know what you're doing, and if you get pulled over for going under the speed limit, you're never going to hear the end of it," Casey comments, and I smile ruefully at her. She always knows exactly what I'm thinking.
"Come on, Case. Can we at least pull over to the side of the road—"
"Not in broad daylight, Romeo. That kind of police attention would be much more embarrassing." She rolls her eyes at me.
"Fine," I huff, and pick up the speed.
We reach our house and I grab Casey's arm before she gets out of the car. She looks at me questioningly and I pull her in for a heated kiss. She catches me off guard by deepening it, pulling away just as we get into our usual rhythm. She smirks at me and I'm sure I look like she just killed my dog. She pecks me on the lips one more time and giggles, and I follow her out of the car, head spinning a little. Ninety-one days of celibacy I guess I can deal with, but to miss out on more kisses like that for three months? Not gonna happen.
Of course, as soon as we open the front door it's utter pandemonium. There's a Welcome Home! banner hung across the living room curtains. Edwin and Marti have plastic horns they're tooting away on, and Lizzie's got cymbals. Nora, Dad, and Simon are yelling and whooping and making all kinds of noises. I'm almost surprised Simon hasn't burst into tears, but he's making screeching sounds with the rest of them. Living in such a busy household got him adjusted to noise pretty quickly.
We say our hellos and for the next few minutes it's all hugs and smiles and chatter and I'm overwhelmed by how much I miss these people. Sure, Casey and I try to come home for the weekend as often as we can, but to be here with them daily for awhile will be great. I haven't realized how excited I am about it until just now.
I don't even pull any kind of anti-affection act because I know no one will buy it anyway. I pick Marti up and spin her around and I'm almost sad that's she's getting too big to lock onto my hip anymore. But that doesn't stop her from crushing me in a breathless hug.
"I'm so, so happy you're here, Smerek," she whispers into my ear.
"Smarti, I hope you planned lots of fun stuff for us to do this summer, because I'm not letting you out of my sight," I whisper back. She beams.
We finally go about the business of bringing in our luggage and dragging it downstairs, and suddenly Casey and I are left alone to unpack. I'm acutely aware of the fact that we can't hear a sound from upstairs. Which means they can't hear us, either. I shake that thought out of my head with the reminder that Nora and Dad once shared this bed. Yeah, that works.
"Good to be back, huh?" Casey asks with a smile.
I shrug. "I wonder what other 'welcome home' activities they're going to subject us to tonight."
Casey shakes her toiletry bag at me. "You know you love it."
"Doesn't mean I have to admit it," I call after her as she heads into the bathroom to arrange her things. Sometimes I still have to maintain a semblance of my old cool-as-a-cucumber persona. If I don't, it's basically me melting into a puddle every time Casey so much as looks at me, and how manly is that?
Nora and Dad did a nice job piecing together furniture for us. Up until today there'd just been the bed and a small, crooked nightstand Edwin built in the woodshop at school. We never needed to stay more than one or two nights. But now, there are two dressers, a full-length mirror, and another small nightstand on the other side of the bed. I throw clothes into my dresser, and debate unpacking Casey's for her so I can see her infuriated reaction when I arrange something wrong. But I decide against it. No reason to make her angry with me right now; it will just get us riled up, and I refuse to give in to my base urges less than an hour after our arrival. That's just pathetic.
Casey emerges from the bathroom and takes in the furniture for the first time. "Aww, that was so sweet of them!"
"Yeah. I took the dresser by the door, is that okay?"
"Sure." She peers into her own dresser, automatically suspicious that I unpacked for her. She wrinkles her nose and points a finger at me as I laugh. "I know you were thinking about it, Venturi," she reprimands.
I love this girl.
We finish unpacking and go upstairs. "I dig the furniture," I tell Nora as my way of thanking her. Nora smiles at me as Casey gives her a hug and a kiss.
"We were happy to do it," she says.
"Edwin made the other nightstand," Dad adds.
I look at Edwin in shock as his cheeks turn red. "Way to go, bro!"
He shrugs off the compliment, clearly enjoying the attention. "Yeah, well, I got better with practice."
Casey ruffles his hair and he grows even redder. "Good job, Ed," she gushes.
"Can we tell them now?" Marti interrupts, clearly impatient.
Nora laughs. "Go ahead, Sweetheart."
"We're taking you to dinner!" Marti cries gleefully. "At the buffet!"
Casey and I exchange impressed glances. "That's so expensive!" she protests. I have half a mind to shush her, but I'm thinking the same thing. We rarely go out to eat as it is, and the buffet restaurant near us is way too pricey for a family our size. But hey, it's a special day, and at least we know Ed and I will eat our money's worth!
"We're happy to do it," Dad insists. "It's in celebration of being together as a family again. We missed you both so much—"
"Last one to the car has to force feed Casey the bacon-wrapped sausage!" I yell, to head off what is sure to be a weepy speech from Dad.
Casey shrieks in consternation as we all race outside, followed more slowly by Nora, who's holding Simon, and Dad, who's shaking his head in mock annoyance.
()()()()()
As Casey and I climb into our bed that night, both stuffed full of the finest fried foods known to man, she lets out a contented sigh.
"Exactly how I feel," I agree, and she snuggles into me. "Emily's coming home tomorrow, right?"
She nods against my chest. "I can't wait to see her."
I can. Emily knows we're a couple; Casey told her over the phone not long after we got together. But she was taking a class at university over winter break, so we haven't seen her in person since last August. I'm hoping it won't be too awkward. Our breakup last summer was completely mutual and drama-free, and Emily even told me that the reason she broke up with me (yes, I can now admit she dumped me) was because she knew I was in love with Casey. Thankfully, Emily is a majorly cool chick, and she never mentioned it again. We went back to being friends. But now that I'm actually Casey's boyfriend, I'm not sure how to act around her.
Guess I'll find out tomorrow.
"Yeah, you guys have a lot to catch up on," I say, instead of voicing my concerns. But Casey knows me so well that she can tell exactly what my delay in responding was about.
"She won't be weird around us," she reassures me, reaching over to squeeze my hand. I breathe into her hair and can't help but break into a smile.
"I love you," I say in response. She murmurs it back and I can tell she's starting to drift off, so I lean over to turn off the light glued down onto on Edwin's rickety first nightstand. I hold my breath, and luckily it doesn't collapse, just like it hasn't every time I've done this in the last few months since we moved from the cots in our siblings' rooms to sleeping down in the basement. I've always enjoyed the little element of suspense this action poses right before I go to sleep.
I stretch out my legs and look around the roomy basement, eyes adjusting to the dark. In the Kingston apartment, we sold our beds and bought a bigger one that just barely fits in my room. Casey still keeps her stuff in her bedroom, mostly because it's nice to have our own spaces when we need to study or want alone time or whatever. But both of those bedrooms are tiny. I allow myself a second to fantasize about buying a big house where we can sleep in the master bedroom, our kids running in to join us on nights when they have bad dreams or there's a thunderstorm.
So sappy, I know. But there's nothing I'd rather think about before nodding off to sleep. I enjoy the feeling of Casey sleeping soundly in my arms and think about how happy I am in this moment, right now. It's good to be Derek Venturi.