A/N: Pretend that Casey has never kissed Sam. I know she has, on the show, but pretend for the sake of this story that she hasn't. Sam asked her out, but they haven't kissed yet.

Disclaimer: I don't own Life With Derek.

"I had a great time tonight, Sam," Casey said as Sam led her to the front porch of the Venturi-MacDonald house. As they climbed the brick steps, Sam turned to face her.

"Me too," he said, looking straight into her eyes. Casey felt her breath catch in her chest as his hazel eyes burned into her blue ones. He smelled good, like a mix of aftershave and peppermint. She could feel heat emanating from his body, which was very close to hers, and she wondered if his heart was beating as rapidly as hers was. She could barely think straight as he lowered his head to hers; she closed her eyes in anticipation.

However, this only triggered her brain to start worrying. She'd never been kissed by a boy before, what if Sam could tell? What if she wasn't good at it and it repulsed him? She couldn't take that risk.

By now she could feel his breath on her face, warm and soft. Time seemed to be moving in slow motion as he leaned in closer.

Reluctantly, Casey tore herseft away from him. He opened his eyes and stared at her, surprise clearly etched on his face.

"Sorry," she stammered. "I, uh—I should go inside. It's getting late."

Sam nodded, still looking puzzled. "See you in school on Monday?"

"Yeah." Casey waved as she slipped through the front door. Once safely inside, she leaned against the door and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Is that you, Casey?" her mother, Nora, called from the kitchen. She walked out to greet her. "How did your date go?"

"It went great," Casey replied, forcing a smile. "I had a good time."

"Well, that's good. Sam's a sweet boy."

"Sam, sweet?" Casey groaned as she heard the voice of her least favorite step-sibling. She turned to see Derek making his way down the stairs, smirking. "I know you're not talking about one of my friends," he said. "My friends are not sweet." Derek disappeared into the kitchen and reappeared a moment later with a carton of milk, which he gulped straight out of the carton.

"Ew, Derek," Casey wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Others of us drink milk too, you know."

"Oh, sorry." He held the carton out to her. "Want some?"

"No!"

Derek smirked as he took another long sip.

Scowling, Casey turned back to her mother again. "I think I'll go to my room now, work on some homework or something."

She had just closed the door to her bedroom and flopped down on her bed when her sister Lizzie came in. "Hey, Casey."

"Hey, Lizzie. What's up?"

"Nothing, I'm just bored. George wanted me to build a birdhouse with him, but I managed to escape that one."

Casey smiled. "Sounds thrilling."

"Yeah. So how was your date with Sam?"

Once again, Casey's forced smile appeared on her face. "It was fun."

Casey and Lizzie made conversation for a few more minutes before Casey politely asked her sister to leave so she could work on her homework.

However, once she sat down at her desk, Casey found that she had a hard time concentrating.

She really liked Sam. She'd never felt this way about a boy before. She'd had crushes, of course, but none of them had ever amounted to anything, because, let's face it, nobody had ever wanted to date Casey. Which explained her lack of experience. But now she'd met Sam, her eldest step-brother's best friend, who, miraculously, seemed to reciprocate her feelings.

This was the reason for Casey pulling away when Sam leaned in to kiss her. She didn't want to blow her one chance at true love by turning him off with her lack of kissing skills.

So what to do about it? She had to experience her first kiss somehow, but not with Sam. Suddenly she found herself wishing to be one of those girls who'd had horrific first kisses with the class geek, or whoever, who slobbered in her mouth and gave her the most disgusting experience in her life. Because to Casey, this at least seemed better than having no experience at all.

She crossed the room and turned her radio on at full blast, flopped onto her bed, and became lost in her thoughts.

A/N: So how was it? Even if you thought it was terrible, I'd love to know your thoughts. So let me know in a review. Please and thank you.