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If there was ever a good time to die, Casey thought, it would have been right now.
Immobilized on the cold bathroom floor, Casey laid on her side and hugged her knees to her chest, gasping for air. She tried not to move even a centimeter; anything could and would make her nausea go from relatively subdued to hell on Earth.
Really, all she could do was be, and even that was difficult in itself. Feeling the loud trap music thumping below her as well as the animalistic hoots people gave social binge drinkers made the world too confusing for even her.
Instead she just retreated to staring at the gap between the bathroom door and the floor as she waited for her imminent death.
Suddenly there was no gap to stare at.
The bathroom door opened, revealing a shadowy figure. She could tell even from her headache that the figure was a guy, a very fit guy at that, but there was something familiar about him that she couldn’t pinpoint.
Then he spoke. “Looks like Princess drank a little too much tonight. What happened with the whole ‘I’m not drinking in college because I’m better than you’ shit?”
Oh god. Unfortunately she could identify that shadowy figure just by hearing his smirk. That voice she had to endure hearing for three years, it was him . It was Derek.
She did not have the energy nor her usual wits to deal with any stepsibling shit. Guess her insults had to be more serious for him to leave her alone.
“Oh, fu-fuck youu Derek,” she spat, “Go fuck some other girlll somewhere else.”
It had the opposite intended effect.
Instead of leaving, Derek stepped closer and kneeled down. “Seriously though, what happened? Why did you drink so much tonight ?”
If her face had been flushed before, her face flushed even harder.
I drank because of you, she thought bitterly, I drank because I am stupid and woke up one day that I like you, that I have liked you ever since I met you. I drank because I saw you dancing with her happy in a way that I can’t make you because you’re my fucking stepbrother and I…just can’t.
Somehow she did have enough foresight not to tell him that.
She did, however, sloppily toe the line between confessing and not.
“Some dumb guy, like the fucking dramatic bitch I am, ok?” Casey began to cackle - a cackle that had seemed to have been buried inside since birth. “He’s not even that cute! He’s ugly as shit, sooooo don’t worry about him, ok Dereky?”
Casey gazed at Derek, her “Dereky” (which seemed absolutely brilliant to her for unknown reasons - perhaps she was wittier drunk after all), who was now…palming his fist?
“Who?” he asked in what Casey soon recognized as cool rage.
Her eyes widened, realizing the potential violence that could occur. “No no no! It’s fine! Really it’s - oh god.”
She sat up, her head feeling like an overcrowded carousel. Casey then got on her knees and gripped the toilet seat albeit with a stumble or two into the lid. When she bent down her head and gagged, nothing came out.
Odd, Casey had found it. How could her body reject something so much so to make her hurt and not let her throw up?
Derek’s voice lifted her out of her brief depression. “If you can’t throw up, try swishing warm water in your mouth and spit it out.”
Casey glanced at the sink and groaned at how far it was.
“Oh shit, you don’t have water. Be right back.”
While he ran, she found it comforting to rest her forehead on the cool toilet. It smelled of something herbal or flowery. Probably both.
“This toilet smells weird. Good but weird,” she mumbled as Derek rushed back and slid the water cup to her right. Casey grabbed it, took a sip, and indeed swished and spit out the water.
She groaned again. “How does this help again?”
Derek shrugged. “Don’t know. It worked for me once.”
She simply nodded and slowly lowered herself to the floor, the pain slowly subsiding as she fell back to her original position. Already at the onset of drowsiness, her eyes began to droop.
“Uh, Casey?”
She sighed but didn’t dare open her eyes. “Dereky, it’s been a long night. Just let me sleep.”
“Do you want to sleep on a bed here? I can get you there.”
Upon hearing that, Casey had never felt more awake. “What! No, definitely no!”
She took in the bathroom floor like it was her own warm bed. “Just let me sleep here, okay Dereky?”
Casey heard feet shuffling and scampering away, feeling relief after hearing the faintest one.
Finally he left , she thought.
Then the footsteps became louder and louder and then she felt her head being lifted.
“Derek…” said Casey, “What are you doing?”
“Well, if I can’t take you to sleep on the bed, I guess I’ll have to take the bed to you then, princess.” And by then, Casey could hear his soft grin, the one he saved just for Marti and sometimes even her.
He rested her head on what Casey thought was the softest, fluffiest pillow in the world.
Then something warm and soft covered her whole being.
Casey was certain this was the best thing to ever happen to her.
“Oh Derek!”
Oh god. It was her roommate - her roommate that had practically thirsted over Derek since move-in day, her roommate that had to have been dancing with Derek like that about an hour before.
Casey could feel the atmosphere shift, though to what she was unsure. “Hey Mary Ann! You good?”
“Yeah!” Mary Ann dropped her voice to a whisper, albeit one Casey could hear. “It’s just…thank you so much for taking care of Casey. It means a lot.”
Casey wanted to groan. If feeling like death wasn’t enough, hearing everyone’s pitying comments was just the fucking sprinkles to a raw cake.
Casey swore she could hear Derek’s shoulders push against his shirt as he shrugged. “Well, she is my sister, after all.”
Casey grimaced. Sister. Oh god, he said sister. I need another drink. Her first instinct was to try to scan the room for anything remotely alcoholic, but her headache kept her from doing so completely.
Unfortunately for her, Mary Ann kept talking. “Well, if you have time, would you want to talk later? I found a room.”
Casey was desperately trying not to puke. Yup, this has to be the worst night of my life.
And of course, Derek being horny college boy Derek had to respond. “Would definitely love to talk with you all night long. Just let me make sure she’s safe here.”
Mary Ann giggled in what Casey thought Mary Ann thought was sexy. “Okay, Der. Guess I’ll…see you Der.”
Casey almost vomited then and
Der
there as Mary Ann’s heels’ click-clacks grew faint.
Derek sighed - Casey had no idea whether it was from exhaustion, relief, arousal, etc.
“Good night Princess.”
Then Casey felt soft lips gently touch her cheek - a kiss on her cheek, she had realized.
She didn’t dare move - not because it was bad but because it wasn’t bad at all.
His kiss felt like chamomile tea - soothing especially after a long night, even if he was originally why she felt like death. Tonight now felt like a really, really good night.
She snuggled into her blanket, letting go of everything that had plagued her before. Nothing about the future resided her mind, which Casey hadn’t realized was so freeing. Sure, perhaps she’d wake up and freak the fuck about getting wasted, getting kissed by Derek. Perhaps she’d wake up and hyperventilate about the homework due in two weeks she’d have to do. And maybe she’d wake up and rant vaguely about Derek to Lizzie, much to her sister’s confusion.
But that was tomorrow’s problem, not tonight’s and not of now.
For now, all Casey needed to worry about was to tell Derek one thing before she slept.
“Good night Dereky.”