Liar, Liar

Summary: Casey likes Derek. Derek is suspicious. Casey lies. Derek knows better...and isn't going to let her get off that easily.

Author's Note: I do not own Life With Derek

"Run your mouth,
I bet I can catch it."
- Sara Bareilles

Casey approached Emily at her locker before lunch. She knew she needed to get to her before Derek did. "Derek hasn't happened to have talked to you...has he?"

"No...why?" Emily slammed her locker shut, "Everything okay?" With Casey and Derek, it was always something. She was curious as to what it was today.

"Not really," Casey massaged her temples with her fingertips, "I may have done something totally stupid."

"I doubt that. Just tell me what happened."

Casey leaned against one of the lockers, "Okay...so you how lately I have sort of developed feelings for Derek?" Emily nodded - it had been the topic of mostly all their conversations for the past weeks, how could she not know - and Casey continued, "Well, he picked up on the fact that I was behaving kind of awkwardly around him. And he confronted me about it last night. I didn't know what to say, so I told him that you have a crush on him..."

"What?" Emily rolled her eyes, "Case!"

"I know, I'm sorry. It's all that I could think to do."

"Other than tell him how you feel?"

"Are you kidding?" Casey shook her head, "No way. He'd destroy me with that!"

"So this is your plan? What am I supposed to say if he does try to talk to me? Did you think about that?"

"No..." Casey winced. Em had a point. This was a poorly thought out plan. Casey could feel herself drowning, "What do I do?"

"Take your foot out of your mouth and talk to him?" Emily shook her head, "Come on. We're missing lunch. We can figure this out later, but today is Taco Tuesday and I'm hungry!"

The girls made their way to the cafeteria. After grabbing their trays, they sat sown at their usual table with Derek, Sam, and Ralph. Casey made sure not to sit anywhere near Derek. Though as she sat down, he caught her gaze, and she was certain she saw him wink at her.

"So...what did you think of that History assignment last night?" Sam asked.

The group all started talking, but Derek didn't join in. His thoughts were elsewhere. Did she really have a crush on him like Sam had said? Had he really been that clueless? But why would she like him? He made her life miserable. By all accounts, he disgusted her. But she had been acting so tense lately. And there was no way he was ever going to buy that line about Em having a crush on him.

"Derek, what did you think?" Sam asked, nudging him.

"Huh?"

"About the History assignment?"

"Oh...it was alright," Derek shrugged, picking a piece of lettuce off his taco.

Sam shrugged and continued talking with the group. Derek spotted Kelly Deavers. He hadn't spoken to her since their "date" a few weeks ago. And by date, Derek meant feeling her up on the couch while George and Nora were out to dinner. A wicked thought crossed Derek's mind, and he waved her over. Kelly smiled excitedly, and her blonde curls bounced as she made her way to their lunch table.

"Kelly, sit here," Derek elbowed Sam, and Sam moved a seat over, allowing for Kelly to sit next to Derek, "Haven't seen you in awhile."

"I've been around."

"Same," Derek casually put an arm around her shoulders, "Say, what are you doing tonight?"

"I have plans," Kelly picked at her taco, "But I'm free this weekend. What did you have in mind?"

"Oh not much...you...me...a couch...and no parents for at least two hours."

"Oh God," Casey nearly choked on her apple juice. Had she actually said that out loud? She felt queasy.

"You alright, Spacey?" Derek raised an eyebrow, "You wouldn't mind if Kelly came over this weekend, would you? Not that you have any reason to."

"N-no," Casey stammered, tucking a curl behind her ear, "Why would I have a problem with it?"

"I don't know," Derek grinned evilly, "You tell me."

Casey gritted her teeth. This was unreal. She just wanted to melt into the linoleum. She felt three inches tall and Derek wouldn't take his eyes off of her. Did he know? But how could he? Surely he didn't know. How could he? She had made up that story about Em. But then, Derek was always great at reading her. To him, she was a completely open book. He could always tell when she was lying, when something was wrong, etc. so how could she have expected him to buy her lie?

He knew. She knew he did. And he was torturing her over it. Of course he would. What did she honestly expect? For Derek to be an adult about things? No. He knew she liked him, and he was going to use that for his own entertainment, and her misery. Casey grabbed her lunch tray and stood from the table.

"I think I'm going to get an early start on some homework."

"Uh...yeah, me too," Emily said, following suit. Derek was being a jerk, and she needed to make sure Casey was alright.

The two left the table and Derek shrugged, turning back to Kelly. He lifted a curl and pressed his lips to her neck.

"Derek," Sam cleared his throat, "Can we have a little chat before class starts?"

"I'm busy," Derek muttered.

"Now!" Sam clearly was not going to take 'no' for an answer. Derek groaned, apologized to Kelly, and said -

"I'll catch you later," and followed Sam to the trash to throw out their lunch trays.

"So..." Ralph raised an eyebrow, "If Derek ditches you this weekend, maybe you and I can..."

Kelly stood from the table and walked off.

"Sammy, what was so important that you felt you had to drag me away from Kelly Deavers?"

Sam rolled his eyes as he and Derek made their way back towards the main hallway, "You haven't had two thoughts about Kelly Deavers in weeks," Sam shook his head, "You're just doing that to make Casey jealous. And that crossed a line. You said last night you'd 'have some fun' with the thought of her liking you. But what you're doing to her is just mean."

"What do you care?" Derek asked, stopping at his locker.

"I care because she's our friend, D. And you're crossing a line. I told you Casey liked you thinking maybe you'd pull your head out of your butt and actually talk to her. Because face it, you two have both had this weird vibe going on basically since her mom married your dad. And you know what?"

"What?" Derek was not liking where this conversation was going.

"I think you like her too. And I think you should grow up and actually be an adult about this and speak to her. This isn't 'fun' Derek. She's miserable and you're only making it worse on her. You need to lay off and think about some stuff. I'm going to get to class. I'll see you around."

Derek rolled his eyes, trying to shake off what Sam had said. He didn't like Casey. No way. Sam just had a momentary loss of sanity if he thought Derek would ever have feelings for Casey. But maybe he was right about something. Casey did seem really upset at lunch. Maybe he had crossed a line with Kelly Deavers. He wasn't just messing with Casey, he was hurting her.

Derek slammed his locker shut. Maybe he'd lay off a bit, but he sure as hell wasn't going to talk to Casey about any of this. Or think anything over. If he did, that would mean facing the possibility that he had feelings for Casey.

And that just wasn't going to happen.