"Can you stop tapping that pencil? I'm trying to get some sleep here."
"You can always go back to your dorm."
After Thanksgiving break, Casey and Derek were back to their scheduled routines at college. Casey continued to study too much, and Derek continued to party too much, with no end in sight.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but do you want to go to a party? You need a break from studying, and I desperately need a break from you studying. If I hear another note card being flipped over, I'm gonna go insane."
Casey lifted her head, her eyes adjusting to something other than her note cards for the first time that day.
"No, I don't want to go to a party."
"It's Halloween, Case. Our plans to sit around here all night are almost as bad as Lizzie and Edwin's plans."
"What are they doing?" She asked.
"Hiding in the closet because Nora and Dad are dancing to Thriller in the living room. There's not much scarier than that."
"Yikes." Casey cringed, scrunching up her nose.
"Are you coming or not?" Derek grabbed his jacket from the arm of the couch, unwilling to stay a minute longer in this apartment.
"I told you I'm not going. Besides, as you pointed out, it's Halloween, and I don't have a costume."
Except she did. That Babe Raider outfit was buried in one of her drawers somewhere.
"That's a lame excuse."
"It's a good excuse. What about you? You've got hockey practice tomorrow. Shouldn't you be resting?" She mentioned.
"I'll rest when I'm dead," Derek replied.
"How soon can we make that happen?" Casey smirked.
"Alright, I'm leaving without you," he taunted, walking to the door.
"Wait." It was Halloween, after all. Casey didn't like to admit Derek was right, but her eyes could use a break.
Derek smirked as if he knew she would come all along. She was too predictable.
"Hurry up and change; I don't have all night."
Derek absolutely despised the Babe Raider costume Casey insisted on wearing. It was too revealing, and he knew guys would be all over her. He didn't like it, but couldn't tell her anything about it because of feminism and whatnot.
"Greg, my man! I didn't know you were coming out tonight," Derek greeted his friend with a pat on the back, happy to see a familiar face in the crowd.
Greg handed Derek a solo cup.
"I wasn't, but I changed my mind at the last minute. And woah, am I glad I did. Who's that hot girl over there?"
Derek didn't have to look to know exactly who Greg was talking about. Derek squeezed his eyes shut and smacked his lips together.
"That would be my roommate, Casey."
"She's your roommate? Are you dating her or something?" Greg wanted to know for his own personal gain.
"No. Definitely not." Derek wasn't mad at Greg for being interested, but the situation in general bugged him. He couldn't count on both hands how many of his friends wanted to get with Casey.
"So you wouldn't mind if I -" And there it was.
"She's a total keener; you're wasting your time." Operation Keep Greg Away has started.
"Bullshit. I've never met a keener that dresses like that. Even if she was, I don't think I'd hate it."
"As your friend, I'm telling you that you won't like her." Derek was trying his best to get his friend to lay off, but Greg wasn't taking the bait.
Greg ran a hand through his red hair, fighting the urge to laugh at Derek.
"It's okay if you like her, man. I'm not one to overstep a friend. Just tell me she's off-limits, and I'll leave her alone."
Derek paused, concerned with how protective he had grown over Casey. Protective or jealous or both, he wasn't sure anymore.
Much like the dead on Halloween, Derek's feelings were crawling out from under its grave.
"She's off-limits." Derek found himself saying.
His brazen response raised more questions than he'd like to admit. Greg was a great guy, better than a lot of Casey's exes, but still, Derek protested this arrangement. Why?
After much thought, Derek managed to convince himself he was against Greg and Casey being together because friends and sibs, even step-sibs, shouldn't date. It wasn't about Casey's protection or his jealousy, after all. This is the same situation as Sam and Casey, and he didn't want history to repeat itself. That's it.
"Gotchya. I'll keep my distance, but good luck getting every other guy in here to agree to that." Greg nodded his head toward the crowd of eager boys waiting for their chance to talk to a chippy Casey.
"Greg, be honest. Have you ever played Babe Raider?"
"Derek, every guy in here has played Babe Raider. Every. Single. Guy."
Son of a -
"Great. So she's dressed as every guy's wet dream," Derek cursed.
"Precisely."
It was hard to recognize any of the guys Casey talked to because they were all in costume. Apart from Derek, everyone took Halloween seriously at this party.
Derek pretended to chat up the ladies but found himself moving closer to keep an eye on his stepsister.
Casey's already chatted up two batmans and a superman. By the time the night would be over, Derek was sure she would have gone through the entire DC universe.
Casey wasn't a good flirt. Her mind often clouded her mouth, and everything she says comes out wrong. Having this many guys trying to talk to her at once made her more tense than studying did. She wasn't an expert like Derek, flirting with every girl he sees available - master at hockey and tonsil hockey. She shouldn't be surprised the girls at the party were all over him.
Contrary to what Casey believed, Derek was completely off his game tonight and, like a defeated man, watched her for longer than he'd care to acknowledge.
"I'm sorry, you were saying?" The girl talking to Derek repeated her entire life story again, and he still wasn't listening. On the third repeat, he was granted a gift... or a curse, depending on how one looks at it, when the song Thriller blared through the speakers.
Taking his opportunity, Derek left the chatty girl mid-sentence and grabbed a hold of Casey hand, pulling her to an open space on the floor.
"Der-ek!"
"Come on! Nora and Dad can't be the only ones who dance tonight."
When Derek busted out his horrible rendition of Thriller, Casey's shoulders began to relax for the first time that night. She was pretty sure that crazy legs weren't a part of the choreography. Of course, she joined in.
They were a bundle of laughs and soon were surprised to find their bad dance moves rubbed off on the crowd around them. Everyone started dancing, heavily aided by the alcohol.
As the song died down, Derek and Casey stood in front of each other, panting and smiling like idiots. They were the first to hit the dance floor and the last to leave.
"Hey, uh, as fun as this party is, I'm kinda ready to go home. How about you?" Derek spoke first, breaking the silence between them.
"Derek Venturi? Leaving early? I never thought I'd see the day," she laughed.
"Don't tell me you actually want to stay here."
Please say no, he thought.
"Of course not. I've been ready to go since the minute I got here," Casey answered.
Relief washed over Derek to know she wasn't enjoying being hit on by a bunch of random guys.
"How about we watch a movie when we get home?" He suggested. The night was still young, and Derek didn't want her to get any ideas about studying when they returned to the apartment.
"No, you're going to pick something too scary," Casey refused, walking behind Derek to the front door.
"How about Charlie Brown? Is that too scary for you, Princess?"
He was being condescending, but regardless, the nickname was starting to grow on her.
"It's perfect."
"Where's the remote, Derek?" Casey struggled to search the couch cushions for the remote, determined to find the darn thing.
"I'm making popcorn! I can't do everything!"
"But you're the one who lost the remote!" She yelled back.
"It's on the coffee table," he said, walking into the living room with his bucket of popcorn.
Sure enough, he was right.
"Oh." Whoops.
"Finally, I can eat popcorn in peace."
"What do you mean?" Casey asked, situating herself next to Derek on the couch.
"The whole you and Sam fiasco, holding hands in the buttered popcorn. I'm in recovery all these years later." Derek pretended to shake that memory out of his head.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know holding hands with my boyfriend scarred you for life," she teased.
"Ex-boyfriend, and yes, it was almost as bad as Nora's meatloaf the night before," Derek shuddered.
"Don't insult my mother; you can be such a jerk, Derek."
"I own it."
"To be fair, I can empathize with you about Sam; he was my first real boyfriend, but looking back, I do cringe at some of the things we did together. Holding hands in the popcorn is definitely at the top of the list, and playing footsie under the table is another contender."
Derek plopped a handful of popcorn into his mouth, nodding his head in agreement. He was glad she was finally seeing how disgusting that relationship was for him to endure. Every time they broke up was like music to his ears.
"Nah, you tried to play footsie with Sam, but you ended up playing footsie with me. And please explain how, out of all of the many cringy moments you had with Sam, did the Monthiversary not top the list?"
"Okay, the name itself is cringy, but there's nothing wrong with celebrating milestones together," Casey insisted, fighting the urge not to kick Derek's feet off of the coffee table.
"Well, I don't celebrate milestones of any kind. And you can add Monthiversary to the words I absolutely hate."
Casey didn't have a mental list of the words Derek hated, but she should probably make one so she could start using those words more often.
"Oh? Should I put it right next to 'Der-Bear'?" She smirked.
"I told you never to speak of that again!" He warned, popcorn falling out of his mouth and onto Casey's clean floor.
"Aw, someone is sensitive." Getting on Derek's nerves was fun.
Casey reached over to pinch his cheek, but he swatted her away.
"I am not sensitive! But it's best we stop reminiscing on the ghosts of relationships past." Derek wanted to talk about Kendra as much as Casey wanted to talk about Sam, which was not at all.
"Right. So Charlie Brown?"
"I'm on it."
They sat on either side of the couch, completely at ease with one another. Maybe it was always this easy, and that's why they worked so hard to make each others' lives a living hell. Bickering and creating fights were a great way to dodge the truth. A truth they didn't want to know. Couldn't know.
Derek's eyes flickered away from the television and landed on Casey.
Here he was, having taken the most sought-after girl at the party home, watching as she laughs at something Charlie Brown - a cartoon character - said while still dressed as Babe Raider and completely oblivious to the fact she was destroying every ounce of willpower he had not to put his arm around her.
If she were anyone else, this night would end very differently, but circumstance has its way of being cruel and unkind. Derek hated every thought he had of her. The good and the bad. How she could control his mind without ever touching him. It was worse than any form of punishment he had ever faced before. How long could he go on like this? Lying to himself and causing friction between them to settle the yearning behind his stomach.
She's off limits, he told Greg. He should've given himself that same advice.
As the movie dragged on, Derek's supposed hatred for milestones was proven null and void. Every slight adjustment Casey made on the couch was his version of a milestone. He celebrated every inch closer with no goal in mind, but he would enjoy the moments while they lasted.