When they reached the house, Derek pulled Casey back seconds before she opened the door. "What?" she asked, looked at him.
"I'm very superstitious," he began, "So therefore, you have to give me a good luck kiss."
"You just want to stall time."
"Whatever you want to believe, darling. Now pucker up."
She leaned in against him.
Lizzie, who had simply glanced out the window for no apparent reason, gazed upon this occurrence. At first, she rolled her eyes. Was there no end to Derek's girlfriends? But upon closer inspection, the girl was…Casey?
Casey was Derek's new girl? Casey?!
Lizzie fell back upon her bed, eyes wide. It couldn't be. It just couldn't be.
She looked out the window again. No, that was definitely her sister. She saw them enter the house and, crept out into the hallway to listen.
She was glad she had been pretending to take a nap when George suggested Ed take his sisters to lunch. No wonder he seemed insistent.
Downstairs, Casey felt their parents look back at them with surprise, like maybe the night before had been some odd, elaborate prank and they had just confirmed that it was, in fact, not.
"Hey…guys." Derek said feebly, "Parenting hard or hardly parenting?"
George narrowed his eyes. "Sit down, Derek. We need to talk."
The two teens sat on the couch, their arm and legs pressed together and their hands entwined despite the disapproving glance of the parental units.
Derek let a wry smile cross his lips. "Let the trial begin."
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"I can't believe they're making us leave our bedroom doors open from now on," Derek complained, tossing a hockey puck up in the air, catching it, and then repeating the motion. He was on his back, his head nestled against a pillow.
Casey, sitting on Derek's desk chair, held her face in her hand. "It could have been worse, Derek." She reminded him.
"And we can't be home alone anymore. They're treating us like we're five!"
"At least they trust us enough to let us be in here alone."
"Who says they're not eavesdropping?" Derek snarked childishly, letting the puck fall down beside him. He stood up, his lanky arms reaching above his head as he arched and stretched. He walked closer to Casey, putting his hand on her shoulder.
In a swift motion, he shoved her off the chair, caught her before she could fall, and settled her on his lap. She opened her mouth, about to make a comment, but he cut her off by pressing his lips against hers.
She responded, her fingers running through his wild curls, her teeth raking against his lips, her warm breath causing shivers to run up his back. He ran his fingers up and down against the soft skin of her exposed stomach, his opposite hand pulling her closer to him.
They pulled apart, their chests heaving, eyes muddled with lust, their hair slightly disheveled. She leaned in again, and he took her, slipping his heated tongue between his lips, briefly smirking at the small whimper that escaped her mouth.
Her passion was revealed quickly—her nails ran deep, jagged trails down his back.
Derek pulled from her swollen lips, setting his head back in a tortured surrender.
"We need to find a place." Derek whispered throatily, not giving a damn whether the parents heard his want for her or not.
Casey pressed her forehead against his. "Yes," she began, giving him a chaste kiss, "we do."
His only response was another kiss.
Seconds, minutes, hours passed—Derek wasn't sure, Casey had a tendency to warp time for him—and the prolonged silence was enough to instill suspicion in George. How the two hadn't heard his ominous trek up the stairs, Derek wasn't sure, but he figured it had something to do with the current hormone levels spiking out of control.
"Ahem." George coughed pointedly, causing the two teens to tear apart from their lust-induced reverie and scramble to look as though they were innocent.
The red lips and disheveled hair proved otherwise, and George's lips drew into a firm line.
"We were just…talking," Casey said weakly, petting at her hair.
"Yeah, about…uh…how it's great to have such understanding, loving parents."
"I'm so sure," George muttered wryly, motioning for Casey to leave the room. She slunk away, passing Derek a look of pure grief.
George plopped down onto Derek's bed, well aware that his son was glaring at him with burning hatred.
"Derek," George began, ignoring his meek protest, "It can't be like this. You couldn't even last a day? Should we be thinking of some…alternatives?"
Derek's glare grew taught. "Alternatives?" he whispered darkly, "You were the one who threw us together in this fucking family in the first place! You're punishing me for something you did?"
George's own gaze grew less sympathetic and more angry. "You know it's not like that at all, Derek, and you're being entirely unreasonable about this whole thing—"
"Unreasonable?" Derek bellowed, unable to contain his anger any longer, "We kept our relationship from you because we knew you'd be the unreasonable ones! You want us to be this Brady bunch—but we're not, Dad! Can't you see that? This isn't some fling. I…"
His anger dissipated, replaced by brief annoyance with his inability to say what he wanted, "You love Nora, don't you?"
George nodded wordlessly. "I love Casey. Don't tell me you wouldn't do the same to protect Nora if you were in my shoes."
"We have others to think of in this household besides you, Derek! I can't condone an intimate relationship under my roof when you have younger, more impressionable siblings to think about!"
"I'm not letting you direct how my relationships should be!"
"All we're asking of you is to cool it down a bit, and try to make it as normal as possible! We're not trying to end this, Derek, but we can."
A hollow laugh escaped Derek's throat. "Are you threatening me?"
"I'm trying to reason with you," George muttered softly, his shoulders slumped.
"I need to take a walk," Derek muttered, breezing past his father and exiting with a reverberating door slam.
Casey, tensing for a moment after the aforementioned door slam, got up and poked her head into Derek's room, noting George's slumped posture.
"He doesn't mean it, George," Casey said softly, "He's just frustrated. He loves me, George, and he loves you too…he's just feeling torn right now, that's all. It'll work out."
"Why did you have to do this, Casey?" George said tiredly.
Casey's face scrunched up in an expression of confusion. "Do what?"
"I know Derek. I know how he flirts with every girl, and I know he's been attracted you from the start. I should have said something. But do you realize how complicated this all is now? You were supposed to be the responsible one. The smart one."
Casey shrank from his wearied and subtly vicious whispers. She returned to her own room, slipping underneath her comforter with a glassy gaze. The gaping hole in her chest throbbed now, exuding a fresh batch of pain as George's words ran through her mind.
She cried quietly. No one came to comfort her.
Not even Lizzie, who had heard the whole thing.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Derek, walking down the street with a scowl on his face, came upon a twisted, beaten-up Pepsi can on the sidewalk. He kicked it as he walked, pretending it was George rather than an actual can.
He walked past the park Casey and him had been at just hours prior; walked past Sam's house, where they'd spent their last worry-free night together. Where he was going, he had no idea. He allowed his feet to do the walking and his mind to wander elsewhere.
After a while, he realized he heard someone following him. Someone that had been for a while. He turned, and upon seeing Lizzie, stopped to let her catch up.
"Aren't you supposed to be out…doing something?"
"I heard everything. I know everything. Well, most of it. But there's something I want to know."
"What?" Her eldest stepbrother asked warily.
Lizzie looked tired, run down. Like she hadn't slept in days. He felt a pang of guilt for not paying more attention to her, to Marti, to Ed.
"You meant what you said? About loving her?" She asked.
"I wouldn't say if I didn't mean it, Liz."
The girl walked alongside him for a little while, thinking.
"I'm trying not to be angry at you, Derek, because I think you do love her, and she needs that."
"But?" He prodded.
"I am angry. Because you stole my sister away from me and she forgot I even existed and she's always been there, until now. I'm mad at her too, trust me, I'll all about equality here. But I'm mostly mad at myself, because I shouldn't be angry. It's horrible of me to be, isn't it?" She whispered.
She felt him take her into a hug. "No, Liz, it's not horrible. It's not. Casey would say the same thing." When was the last time she'd let anyone hug her? Hesitantly, she wrapped her small arms around her, and to her utmost mortification, began crying.
Derek didn't say anything. Not because he was uncomfortable, but because he realized his little sister had slowly been keeping secrets of her own, and no one noticed. Not even Casey, who was supposed to. And he felt intensely guilty for that.
When the tears stopped, she released him quickly, obviously feeling embarrassed.
"Liz," he said slowly, channeling Casey the best he could, "I know a lot's going on, but it doesn't mean you can't talk about stuff that's going on, too."
The girl sniffled, sidestepping the obvious concern as fast as she'd released him. "I know. I'm okay. Just worried about Casey. George…got a little upset, said some things he didn't mean. I think we should go home."
When they arrived, and just before they parted ways to different areas of the house, Lizzie whispered, "Just so you know, Derek—I don't agree with our parents."
"Thanks, Liz." He whispered, before knocking on Casey's bedroom door. She opened the door, and upon seeing him, pulled him inside.
"Heard from a little lizard that you might need company?" Derek asked, and Casey didn't answer, simply wrapped her arms around him.
After some time had passed, Derek heard her say calmly, "He said I was supposed to be the responsible one. The mature one. Like…like this is just some…meaningless…"
He had to focus on suppressing the urge to have a few choice words with his father.
"What are we supposed to do?"
"I don't know, Case. But I know Liz supports you. Ed, and Marti, I think they will too. Maybe things will calm down."
"Maybe," She murmured.