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My name is Bridget, I'm 15, and I'm a massive procrastinator. I'm sorry, there really are no excuses for this but I want you guys to know I'm sorry I'm the worst updater ever, and if anyone is still reading this, you're incredible!

Also, I want you guys to know that I'm currently working on Derek's Assistant, so it's not a complete lost cause. Please bear with me.

I was hoping this chapter would have been a little more romantic, but it was hard to make it so without it going on for a looong time. So, yet again, I am breaking up this chapter and it's kind of a Part 1 of the night.

Don't forget to favorite, follow, and review!

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Kelley Armstrong

Chapter 13

Chloe's P.O.V.

"13.63."

"Huh?" I blinked, suddenly being snapped out of my thoughts by the tired, yet irritated looking teenager in front of me. I leaned in slightly closer, struggling to hear him over the noise in the background and ambulance passing on the street.

"Total's $13.63," the boy clicked, eyes focused on register in front of him as he moved the cheesecake box to the side.

"Oh," I muttered, digging through my purse before snatching out a twenty to hand him. In a millisecond, the bill was snatched from my outstretched hand and replaced with change.

"Thanks," I said with a smile while clutching the box against my small frame.

"Yeah," He murmured with a flick of his dark eyebrows. "Next!"

Taking this as a very obvious cue to leave, I pushed my bag further onto my shoulder and promptly left the bakery. So I was going to this party, which was Tori's undeniable attempt at being grown up. I was almost tempted to tease her, asking if it was a wine and cheese party, but with all my stress over Derek, I had decided against it. Speaking of Derek, the urge to just ditch the party and go home to eat all the cheesecake by myself was becoming more and more overwhelming. But, I'm better than that, or so I tell myself.

I was going to go to this party tonight. I'm going to enjoy myself. I'm going to forget about Derek. And then we'll just see what happens.

Yeah right, like that's ever going to happen. Knowing me, I'll have a panic attack and end up spilling something on Derek and start crying there on the spot. So no, you can say that I do not have high expectations for tonight.

Times like these I really missed Rae, and Nate for that matter. I just need someone to talk to about what's going on, and Tori's useless even if she wasn't Derek's brother. Simon would be great, but he wasn't exactly impartial, being his brother and best friend and all. I didn't know who exactly to turn to about these matters, other than possibly Liz, but still I missed my old friends. Why did everything have to be so complicated all the time?

Inhaling deeply, I popped in some earbuds and promptly began walking to Tori's apartment with The Smiths' playing softly in my ears. Dodging past some tourists all dressed in yellow shirts, I let out a sigh and glanced up. Brushing my hair out of my eyes, there it was, the famous apartment building that had been burden to me all week. Shaking my head ever so slightly, I plucked up my finger and rang the bell and was buzzed in.

Deciding against getting there any quicker, I ignored the elevator completely and instead slowly walked up the six flights of stairs. Choosing exercise over spending any more time with Derek should be cause enough for alarm, but I couldn't bring myself to face him.

Get yourself together, Chloe. You're not in high school anymore. He's just a boy. Or guy. Or man. Whatever.

Finally reaching the doorstep, only a little out of breath thank you very much, I briefly closed my eyes and inhaled a final time before lifting my knuckles to knock on the door. Just as I raised my hand, the door flung open, greeting me with a slightly frazzled looking Tori with a glass of nearly finished wine in her hand.

"Hey," I muttered, trying my hardest to look forward to whatever happened tonight, "I brought food."

Tori grabbed my forearm and pulled me in roughly, seizing the box of cheesecake from my outstretched arms and gave me a brief smile, "Thanks."

I shrugged and allowed myself to finally look around, hoping not to look so eager to see if Derek was already here. But oddly enough, the entire apartment was silent, except for the quiet hum of music sounding from the kitchen. Tori set the cake down on the table before glancing over at me.

"You like what we've done," she asked, misinterpreting my looking around for Derek as admiring the apartment. I blushed quickly, not even noticing what Tori's already done to the apartment and how it was decorated with a very Tori flare. Deep purple pillows were scattered over the black love seat and a knitted navy throw strategically draped over it. The walls were fairly minimalistic since the landlord insisted that they were not, under any circumstances, allowed to paint the walls, but a few pictures of Tori and Ash decorated them. In a week's time, Tori did an impressive job of making it look presentable and even nice.

I grinned at her, "Yeah, I'm sure you didn't listen to whatever your boyfriend suggested, but it looks really good."

"Hey! He suggested black so we compromised on the couch, alright?" Tori feigned annoyance but smiled back at me regardless.

I rubbed the back of my arm with my left arm and glanced around once more, making sure Derek wasn't hiding in the curtains or anything like that. "S-so, am I the first one here?" I asked, hoping Tori thought it sounded more casual than I thought.

"Yeah, Simon texted me like twenty minutes ago and said he'd be here by now, but he's a damn liar." Tori rolled her eyes, strumming her long fingers against her forearm.

"He and Liz together are guaranteed to arrive anywhere like four days late. That's just the way they are," I said, brushing my hair back behind my ears recalling just how late those two could be. And while I loved them, I really didn't want to know why they were late so often.

Clearly thinking the same thing as me, Tori scrunched up her face, "I don't want to think about that, Saunders."

"Hey, you're the one who brought it up," I backfired, smiling as I sat down in a red plush chair.

"So, where's Derek? He's always the on time one," Tori mused and I quickly glanced at my feet, murmuring something that sounded like an 'I don't know' and busying myself with the zipper on my light jacket.

"What? You guys didn't come here together," Tori began, taking a sip of her beer and relaxing into the sofa. "Trouble in paradise?"

You could say that.

While obviously I knew Tori was teasing, it didn't help the scenario in the slightest that my only response was to sputter incoherent sentences and avoid any sort of eye contact with her.

Tori threw her head back in laughter, "Oh my god! I'm right!" Her laughter echoed throughout the room and the redness of my cheeks deepened, "You and my brother?"

I sent her a sharp look, "You're insane."

"Why do all my friends fall for my brothers?" Tori giggled, sipping more of her wine. "They're absolute pigs!"

"You're drunk," I chuckled, watching Tori compose herself.

"Trust me, I'm a lot more insightful when I'm tipsy!"

I rolled my eyes, "So where's Ash?" I asked, hoping to change the subject away from my infatuation with Derek.

"Oh, he ran down to the store because he forgot something. He'll be back soon." Tori said, seemingly sobering up.

"So, how are things going living together?"

Tori grinning devilishly, "Amazing. He almost always makes dinner and the sex is nonstop."

I tried not to grimace, but failed miserably. "Was that really crucial to add?" I said between a laugh.

"Very necessary. We've been going at it like bunnies this past week." Tori said, biting her lip as if to recall the aforementioned events.

I snorted just as the front door opened and a tired looking Ash walked in, "Speak of the rabbit." This prompted Tori to erupt in laughter and I felt quite accomplished to make Tori laugh, even if she had a little much to drink.

But then a second figure entered, and my laughter immediately stopped as I felt as though I had been punched in the gut.

"Ah," Tori began, "The two most cheerful boys I know."

Ash gave me a quick wave before returning to the kitchen, plastic bag in hand as Derek fully entered the apartment and rolled his eyes at his younger sister.

I didn't know what to do. Where was I supposed to look? I can't just stare at him with my eyes bugging and my face turning blue because I forgot to breathe. God, I'm such an idiot. I should have stayed at home, where this could all blow over by morning.

So, after much deliberation, I settled on getting up to pour myself a glass of wine to avoid any interaction with my roommate at all. And I mean a proper glass. After all, this is going to be a long night.

Unfortunately, when I get nervous, I stutter and I can on occasion become rather manic and awkward. Totally out of character, right? Anyway, Tori made a joke, a terrible, not-even-worth-repeating joke, that couldn't have even made a child laugh. And yet, because of my extreme anxiety in the moment, my brain chose to think this mind-numbingly stupid joke was absolutely hilarious, causing me to laugh for an unnaturally long time and for my body to kind of spasm with laughter.

Normally, this would be embarrassing enough, but in classic Chloe fashion, my left arm decided that I needed some real humiliation and went against my brain's wishes and practically poured the wine onto my nice top.

I feel like I should be a regular on America's Funniest Home Videos with me constantly pouring a variety on beverages onto myself, but alas nobody in the room tonight laughed. Tori probably would have, if it wouldn't have been for the fact that she had gifted me that shirt when she moved out as a sort of parting present, so she was rather furious. Derek, as per usual, didn't have any emotion on his face, and I didn't think he was the type of guy to laugh at gag reels, or anything at all.

So I stood there, in all my pride and glory, in a sagging shirt while Tori fussed and Derek watched, becoming more and more tempted to run out the front door and into oncoming traffic. Normally, I wouldn't have been this phased by an occurrence like this, it happened rather regularly; the only difference was that Derek was looking at me, with some sort of pity in his eyes as he realizes just how pathetic I am, between my one sided feelings for him and my lack of hand-eye coordination.

I wanted to cry.

Derek kept staring at me.

Tori kept hissing and pulling the wet material away from my skin.

Ash kept cooking in the kitchen, unaware of the scene I had caused out front.

And Derek kept staring.

...

Less than three minutes later, I was standing in Tori's bedroom as I was being thrust a grey tee shirt into my arms as Tori delicately folded my previous shirt.

"You're lucky this was white wine," She murmured before turning to me. "If it was red I would've have personally seen to your murder."

I couldn't muster a smile as I slipped on the shirt she had given me as I glanced in the mirror. A Bugz Bunny sleepwear shirt, not something I would've expected Tori to ever wear, but it was perfectly fine by me.

She saw me looking at it a spoke up, "It's the only thing I have that would fit you. And that I wouldn't mind if you spilled more stuff on it."

I faked a smile as I pulled at my hair, wiping at the few strands that got wet in the process of the wine fiasco. Tori stared at me with slight concern for a second before talking again.

"I'll put this in the washing machine for you, but you owe me a quarter."

I flashed her a quick smile, a real smile, before nodding and she left, leaving me alone.

I wasn't going to cry, I'd already promised that to myself before I came over and I'm not exactly one to break promises. But that didn't stop a sniffle from escaping as I thought about how idiotic I had been all day. You know what the real kicker is? Not the pouring wine on myself, honestly that was nothing, it was the the slight sliver of hope that I held, that I clutched onto that Derek somehow felt the kind of connection I felt earlier today.

I felt so stupid. But I've dealt with guys not liking me before and I'll just have to deal with it again this time.

So, with a deep sigh and a quick tug of my hair, I smoothed down the wrinkled Looney Toons shirt and walked back out to the 'party'.

A hand delicately touched my wrist, causing me to turn towards him as he spoke.

"Are you okay?" Derek asked, his voice just above a whisper as he leaned in to be heard.

I gulped, hoping it wasn't audible. "Th-that's just part of m-my daily routine."

His green eyes sparkled and I felt my stomach flip before I forced myself to look elsewhere, "Right, I forgot about that." He said, playing along.

I took in a deep breath, "Yeah, i-it's just a preview to m-my final act of falling on my ass."

Derek's lips twitched and he released my arm. And I could finally breathe again, but the air suddenly felt cold.

More romance next chapter, I promise. I'm so sorry for being so crappy at updating, but I do remember this story all the time. Just stick with me for a little longer and hopefully you'll be thankful you stayed. I'll update soon, I promise, hopefully within the month.

I just want to thank the readers of this story, the views I get really inspire me to continue writing this story, so thank you so much for reading and your heart warming reviews, I read every single one. If anyone has any suggestions or predictions about future chapters I would love to hear them in the reviews or you can private message me anytime you want.

Thanks again for reading this story!

Don't forget to favorite, follow, and review!

Thanks, Bridget