Chapter 10
Emily arrived at school knowing what she had to do today. She had to talk with Ryan about ending their relationship since she finally had Derek. Yeah, it hurt that she had to say bye to Ryan but she was sure he would find someone more deserving.
Emily caught sight of Ryan walking down the wall and he smiled at her. She started to feel nervous and guilty all at the same time as Ryan approached her.
"Hey beautiful. Seems like forever since I saw you." Ryan said as he kissed her hello.
"Um, hey Ryan. Good to see you too. Uh, actually I want to talk to you later. Wanna meet up after school and get some coffee?" Emily asked a little wearily.
"Yeah, sure. Sounds good. Hey are you alright Emily? You're looking a little shaky." Ryan asked looking very concerned.
"Yeah I'm alright. Maybe I'm coming down with something or not. Well I better get into class I'll see you later okay?"
"Alright I'll see you later Em." Ryan said as he gave her a quick peck on the cheek.
Emily ducked into her French class trying to think up a way to tell Ryan without it sounding so bad.
'" Ryan you're a great guy and any girl would be lucky to have you but I just don't think that girl is me." Hm, that sounded alright. Maybe I shouldn't mention anything about Derek just yet.'
Lunch time rolled around and Casey and Emily were seated at their regular table.
"Hm, no Sam today? That's a first in such a long time." Emily teased Casey.
"Sam is at some hockey meeting. Hm, Ryan and Derek should be there too. So how'd it go last night?
"It went really good. I think me and Derek are together now. Well we will be officially after I talk to Ryan."
"I'm sure Ryan will understand. He seems like such an understanding person. Well I'm happy for you anyway even if you're happy with Derek. Don't worry Em, I'll do my best to not fight with Derek around you." Casey beamed at her best friend.
"Thanks Casey, it means a lot to me." The lunch bell rang and both girls got up and started to make their way to their classes.
"I'll see you later Case or I'll call you after I'm done talking to Ryan to let you know how it goes." Emily waved to Casey and made her way down the hallway. She was getting close to her class when she felt a hand grab her wrist and pull her into an alcove.
"Hey Emily." Derek said as he gave her a long kiss hello. Emily felt that electrifying feeling only Derek could give her.
"Hey to you too Derek. You know, you can't keep pulling me into dark corners just to make out with me." Emily smiled up at Derek.
"So are you busy after school?" Derek asked as he kept placing kisses on Emily's cheeks, her forehead and then back to her lips.
"Sorry to say, but yeah I am. I have to go talk to Ryan today, but I'm sure you understand." Emily replied looking up into those entrancing chocolate brown eyes.
"Yeah yeah just tell him it wasn't working out and get it over with." Derek chuckled.
"I can't do that. That would be too mean and he's been so nice to me. Don't worry about it okay?" Emily responded. "Now please, we have to get to class or we'll both be late. Believe me I would love to stay here a little longer but we can't. I will call you later okay?" Emily finished before giving Derek one last kiss and ducking back into the hallway and ran into her Chemistry class.
The last bell rang and Emily made her way to her locker. Ryan was already waiting there as usual.
"Hey Em, ready for our little after school date?" Ryan said as he flashed his smile down to Emily.
"Yeah, totally ready." Emily said as she lied through her teeth. She wasn't ready to break this guy's heart but what else was she gonna do?
Emily got into Ryan's car and he brought her to Café Diem, that new place that had an awesome pastry selection along to boot. They ordered their drinks and pastries and brought it back to a table.
"So what did you wanna talk about?" Ryan said as he bit into his Danish and took a sip of his coffee.
"Yeah, so I just wanted to, uh." Emily was starting to blank. She never really broke up with a guy before so she was finding it so difficult. "We've known each other for a little over a month now and that whole month has been really great. Uh, I." Emily was having trouble spitting it all out.
"What is it Em?" Ryan asked again as his brow started to crease with worry.
"Okay. It's just that you're such a great guy but I just don't feel that connection." Emily bowed her head down in shame. She didn't want to do this but she couldn't keep hurting Ryan like this.
"Wow. I mean, well I thought we were getting along great." Ryan responded as he could barely look over at Emily.
"Ryan, I'm really sorry. I thought we were getting along great too and I really like you and all, its just that I don't feel it." Emily replied feeling the absolutely worst.
"I guess I was wrong when I thought we were really great together." Ryan replied very sullenly.
"I wasn't faking my feelings or anything because I really did like you Ryan. It's just that as time past by and my feelings started to fade and I didn't want to keep going around leading you on." Emily looked to Ryan apologetically.
"At least you're being honest. I would hate for you to be stuck with me if you were unhappy." Ryan answered sounding so honest and nice.
"Gosh Ryan, could you be any nicer? You're making this so hard you know." Emily giggled as she playfully hit Ryan. "So are we okay? I mean I would love to stay friends, if that's okay with you."
"Sure we can stay friends. Of course, it'll be hard to see you everyday and not be with you." Ryan flashed her a loopy smile.
"Seriously, you're making me blush and this is not how a break-up is supposed to go." Emily joked again with Ryan. She felt relieved that he could take something like this and treat it very light-heartedly.
"Well since you know we're kind of over, I hope you don't mind me asking you this one question." Ryan asked.
"Uh, yeah sure what is it?" Emily replied as she took a sip from her drink.
"Was there ever anything going on between you and Derek?" Ryan asked out flatly.
Emily was taken aback by the question and was silently debating whether to tell him or not.
"What makes you ask that?" Emily questioned back.
"It's just that sometimes I would notice how you tensed up around him or I would catch him looking over at you. I was always curious but thought that it would be best if I just didn't say anything."
Emily hesitated a little but thought everything would be better out in the open. Just do it quickly and it'll be painless, like stripping off a band-aid.
"Well, I guess it started when we were younger. Me and Derek grew up really close to one another." Emily started to relay the story of how her and Derek were very close when they were young and that the trials and tribulations of their pre-teen years got the best of them and broke them apart. Now several years later they somehow got attracted to each other and that was that.
"Looks like you two had a history even before I came along. I can't genuinely say I'm happy that you two are together now, but you seem happy and I guess that's all that matters right?" Ryan responded.
"Seriously Ryan, any girl would be so lucky to have you as her boyfriend. I'm sorry it didn't work out between us, but it was really great while it lasted." Emily finally finished off. "Well I better get going, but do you think you can give me a ride home?"
"Of course I can. It's not like I'm gonna shut you out and leave you here." Ryan laughed. They both got up and walked to Ryan's car. Several minutes later, Emily found herself on the curb in front of her house waving bye to Ryan.
As soon as Ryan was out of view, she called Casey. Several rings later Casey answered her phone.
"Hey Em, so how'd everything go?" Casey asked.
"Hey Casey, come on outside and I'll tell you." Emily replied.
"Sure I'll be down right now." Casey said before she hung up. Casey appeared on her front lawn to see Emily crossing over. "So how'd it go with Ryan?" Casey asked.
"Actually, it went a lot smoother than I thought it would. He was very understanding and he asked me about Derek." Emily said as she raised an eyebrow.
"He asked you about Derek? What about Derek?" Casey asked looking puzzled.
"Well Ryan asked if there was something going on between me and Derek because he noticed something between us and I just told him the truth. Seriously though he couldn't have been more understanding. Why don't we just set him up with Kendra? The girl shows serious compassion with whoever she's with." Emily laughed along with Casey.
"So what now?" Casey asked.
"Well now, we let everyone know or at least let all the girls at J.S. Thompson know that Derek Venturi is unavailable and if they have a problem with that they can deal with me." Emily boasted as she propped her arms to her side.
"Why don't you come over for dinner so you can let our parents know officially that you two are dating?" Casey suggested.
"Sure sounds great. Let me run home and tell my parents I'll be here for dinner." Emily answered.
"Alright, so see you back here in like 10 minutes." Casey called out as Emily ran back to her house. She opened up the door and called out for her family. "Mom! Dad! Are you home?"
"In here honey." Emily heard her Mom's voice come from the living room. Emily made her way towards the living room and was surprised with the site in front of her.
"Em, you were such an adorable little child, but then again I already knew that." Derek smirked at Emily as he continued to flip through an old photo album. Emily started to blush profusely because even if she was going out with Derek that didn't mean those pictures on that album weren't still embarrassing.
"Uh, yeah let me take that from you." Emily said as she swiftly maneuvered the photo album away from Derek's hands and stashed it somewhere. "So what are you doing here?" Emily said as she stood in front of Derek.
"Well I thought I would just come by and wait for you and then next thing I know your mom is showing me all these adorable photos of little Emily." Derek said as he stood up right in front of Emily.
"Fine, if you saw my baby pictures now, then when I go over your place for dinner – Oh Mom, that's what I came over to tell you – then I get to see all your baby pictures." Emily smiled up at Derek.
"Not if I can hide them first." Derek said as he dashed out of the living room. "Bye Mrs. Davis, sorry to leave in a rush but I'll be back!" Derek yelled out as he ran towards his house.
Emily ran after Derek because it wasn't fair that he saw all her baby pictures and she wouldn't get to see any. "Bye Mom! I'll be back later." Emily too yelled out behind her as she ran towards the house next door. As Emily got to the house the door was slightly ajar so she made her way in to see Derek rushing past her with several albums in tow.
"Derek! Come on that isn't fair. Oh hey Casey, hi Nora, George!" Emily smiled sweetly at them.
"Oh yeah Mom & George, Emily will be over for dinner but I think she's Derek's guest of honor tonight." Casey smiled.
"Ah, finally. I was wondering when you two kids where gonna get together." George stated.
"Well I'm happy that you're here Emily and we should be getting ready for dinner." Nora said.
"Where in the world did Derek go? He should be helping set the dinner table." George said sternly.
"Actually, he went to hide all of his baby pictures so I wouldn't see them, but of course I'll find them eventually." Emily said.
"Oh really. Well I guess he forgot that I have his most embarrassing picture in my wallet. I like to carry it around with me to remind me of the simpler times when Derek wasn't the Derek he is today." George said as he sounded like he was going to trail off and start rambling on about nothing.
"Oh George, do you mind if I see?" Emily asked excitedly.
"Yeah sure." George replied as he took out his wallet and removed a picture from one of the hidden pockets of his wallet. He extended his arm to Emily and dropped in her palm an old photo of Derek dressed up as…Barney! Emily couldn't contain her laughter and started to laugh extremely loud and next thing she knew Casey was joining in on the laughter. Derek came down thinking he was in the clear when he saw that Emily was holding a picture in her hand. He made his way over and snatched it from her palm.
"Are you serious Dad!? You showed her the Barney picture!" Derek exclaimed as he questioned his dad.
"Well she is your girlfriend Derek, she was bound to see some embarrassing picture of you anyway." George teased.
Edwin, Lizzie and Marti finally came into the room and all sat down at the table.
"Hi Emily! So are you and Smerek still married?" Marti questioned as always.
"Actually, Smerek is my boyfriend now." Emily smiled as she took a seat next to Casey but looked over at Derek who smiled back.
"Really Smerek? Is Emily your girlfriend now?" Marti asked.
"Yes yes Emily is my girlfriend, now can we eat?" Derek interjected. That was typical Derek, not wanting to publicly let the world in on his life and what went on.
Dinner went by smoothly as congratulations came from around the table that Emily and Derek were finally together. Right after dinner, Derek walked Emily back to her house where they stood for awhile kissing each other good night.
"Okay okay, this is the last one. Good night Derek." Emily said as she leaned in to kiss Derek one last time. His lips felt like a cool rush against her lips and even though her head was telling her that she had to go in now, her lips thought otherwise and kept pulling Derek's lips into another kiss. They broke apart and Emily stared straight into Derek's eyes.
"You have no idea how long I was waiting for you to come around." Emily stated.
"Well actually, I've known for quite awhile how you felt, but I guess it didn't hit me till recently how great you are. I'm glad now, even though I had to wait for you to get with another guy for me to realize it."
"Aw, Derek was getting jealous wasn't he?" Emily teased.
"Me, jealous? Yeah right. Anyway I'll see you tomorrow morning beautiful." Derek said as he kissed her one last time before jogging back over to his yard and waving good bye one more time.
Emily stepped into her house and she couldn't be any happier than the way she was feeling at that moment. She finally got the guy and everything after that was going to be gravy. Well except for the fact that every single female student at J.S. Thompson high will want to murder her for taking Derek off the market, but then again she could deal with them.
Emily settled into bed and fell asleep quickly thinking of Derek as usual and how everything was perfect now.
The next morning Derek had picked her up and they were on their way to school. Derek pulled into the school parking lot and Emily was starting to feel jittery. Today was the day that everyone saw she finally tied Derek Venturi down and he was no longer the playboy of the school. She stepped out of the car and walked over to Derek. She slid her hand into his and they began to walk hand in hand into the main building. As soon as they entered, Emily heard the gasps and sighs coming from all the girls out in the hallway. She could also feel their eyes burning into the back of her head, but she could care less. Emily also heard the little whispers being said as she walked past with Derek.
"Oh my gosh, he has a girlfriend…?"
"Derek Venturi is going out with her? I look way better."
"He's not single anymore? Oh my gosh."
Emily stifled a couple of giggles as they continued to walk down the hallway. She sitting on cloud 9 with Derek and there was no way anyone could bring her down. Emily finally got what she wanted and in the end, she was surely happy that she gave Derek a second chance.
There is is...the end!! Yeah Derek started to get a little mushy at the end but I had to do it. Anywho, seriously it was fun to write this and it was even better to have people respond to my first time fanfic. Thanks again and possibly I shall be back with more stories!