Honesty

By Laura Ferrari

"Honesty."

"Honesty." Paul screamed, interrupting the fighting of the infamous Derek Venturi and Casey McDonald. George, Nora, Derek, and Casey stared at him like he was crazy. That was the advice that Paul Creepy offered them. That was going to stop their fighting!?

"Honesty?" The family questioned. "That's the dumbest advice ever. Do you pay him?" Derek quipped looking at Casey.

"Derek, could you be anymore rude!" Casey screamed hitting his arm.

"Yes." Derek smirked. "Yes, I can."

"Um, Mr…." George looked at his name plate. "Creepy. I don't think honesty is the best thing for Casey and Derek. If anything they're to honest."

"No, Mr. Venturi, it's quite the opposite." He fanned George and Nora out of the room.

"This is ridiculous, Paul. Honesty is not going to make Derek and I stop fighting. If anything it could lead to worse problems."

"I think it will work perfectly." He looked at Derek and nodded his head. "You may start."

"Start with what?" Derek crossed his arms.

"You say something to Casey, she doesn't know and then Casey will do the same." Paul explained, drinking from his coffee mug.

"What if I don't want to?" Derek asked.

"Detention." Paul smiled. A smile that screamed 'I just won'.

"Dentention? You can't give me detention. I didn't do anything?" Derek yelled.

"Uh, I'm a teacher. I don't have to have a reason."

"UGH!" He let out a huge breath of air. He looks at Casey. "I think you're annoying."

"Thanks, bro. But, I already knew that." Casey replied.

"Yes, Derek. Something she would never be able to know. Unless you told her."

"Okay. I put honey in your shampoo."

"Der-ek!" She started hitting his arm. "You are so lucky I didn't wash my hair today!"

He grabbed her hair and replied, "No joke!" All she could do in response is let out an exasperated sigh.

"Well," Paul frowned. "That's a start. Casey."

"Since, unlike Derek, I take this assignment seriously…"

"Assignment?" Derek laughed.

"Yes assignment. I will tell you something really honest. I'm tired."

"Of what, Casey?" Paul asked.

"Of fighting all the time. With Derek. It's getting old, really quick." She finished noticing Derek's face falter. She looked right at him, staring into his eyes. "I'm sick of it."

"Good job, Casey. Something honest."

"Mine was honest!?" Derek screamed his face instantly back to normal.

"Yeah, however, you were looking for the easy way out. Trying to avoid talking about your feelings." Derek rolled his eyes. "But, that's okay. It's kind of what I expected from you anyhow. I mean, everyone knows Derek Venturi isn't man enough to talk about his feelings." Paul said in a completely serious tone. Derek freaked out. Derek Venturi if anything was a man. Not just any kind of man. A manly man. Or so he liked to think.

"Fine. You want feelings. I'll give it to you. He grabbed the arm of Casey's chair and spun it so that her entire body was facing Derek. "I thought it was our thing."

"Thing?" Casey questioned.

"Well, not a thing thing. But, it's what we do. I thought that's how we communicated, kept each other in check. I didn't know you hated it so much. I'll stop."

"It was. It is." Casey assured him. "Don't."

Another half an hour later they were still at it. Derek would say something and then Casey would. And over and over. They never ran out of things to talk about. It surprised them how much they had in common. They could have been friends!

"My favorite color is blue."

"Mines pink."

"No, duh, princess." Derek joked.

"HEY!" They laughed.

"I hate Tofu. Everytime your mom makes it, I want to throw up. It's so nasty. It should be illegal."

"Oh, my gosh, Derek. You're so stupid. The only thing you like is greasy food like Pizza."

"Honestly, I kind of enjoy fries."

"Okay, you guys. I have a lot of work to do. But, I think you've made a lot of progress." Paul chimed.

"When do you want us back?" Casey asked.

"Uh, never. I think you're good." They looked at him, completely surprised.

oooOOoOOOooOO

Ever since then they hadn't really been honest to each other. They still fought like crazy lions competing for a pride, but it had sort of turned into a playful banter. They were almost certain the other didn't hate them, as much as it appeared to any person outside of their weird little friendship.

One night, around 1:30 in the morning Casey walked into Derek's room. She closed the door and sat on his bed, waiting for him to wake up. Derek felt the bed move and opened his eyes to see Casey sitting on his bed.

"Um, hello?"

"I did it." She whispered.

"That's nice. Now go to bed!" He grabbed his blanket and rolled onto his side.

"I'm not a virgin anymore." That surprised him. He jumped out of his bed. "What!? Casey, what the heck were you thinking?"

"I wasn't."

"Of course not. Little Miss Space Case, I just can't believe it. How could you be so… I thought you were the smart one. Casey, oh my God," He threw himself back onto the bed, hands covering his face. "Why did you tell me that? Now I have to keep this huge secret. SCREW honesty." Then he opened his eyes and pointed at her. "Not literally."

"Are you seriously joking at a time like this? I just completely lost my mind and did the dumbest thing ever, and all you can do is joke." Casey asked him as if he were insane. She was expecting him to go all crazy and tell Nora and George, but he didn't. He was surprisingly calm.

"Well, if you want discipline, you came to the wrong place. You already did it. There's nothing we can do."

"You're right." She nodded.

"Just make sure you're completely ready next time, ya know. Because it doesn't seem like you were ready right now." Derek suggested putting an arm around her shoulder.

"Yeah, that could work. Thanks Derek." She got up and walked over to the door.

"So," She turned around to look at him. "Who swiped your V-card?" She grabbed the nearest thing to her which happened to be a stapler and threw it at his head, which luckily just missed his head.

"Der-ek!"

"Kidding." He laughs.

oooOOOoooOOOo

"She broke up with me!" Derek freaked as soon as he ran into Casey's room. She looked at him and saw complete hurt all over his face.

"Did she say why?"

"She said it was because it was getting too serious!" Casey, to amuse Derek, dropped her jaw in complete 'fake' surprise. This girl was all he ever talked about. It was a little annoying. "What I said exactly. I mean, me? Serious?" He collapsed on her computer chair. "This is why I don't have girlfriends."

"She really broke your heart, huh?." Casey asked sadly, although it was more of a statement, but Derek wasn't having it.

"Uh, no! It's impossible to break something you don't have." Casey frowned. This girl really messed Derek up. She went up to Derek, pulled him out of the chair, and gave him a huge hug. At first he didn't know what to do, but eventually he returned it. They stayed like that for a good 10 minutes.

"She really broke my heart." He whispered.

ooOOooOOOOoo

"I'm late." Casey whispered so low it was a miracle Derek picked it up. They were watching TV, Derek in his recliner and Casey on the couch. They were the only ones home.

Derek raised his eyebrow, "Then hurry up." Derek replied as if it were the most reasonable answer in the world. Wondering if she was so late, why she was sitting down watching TV.

"No, not like that." Casey said a little bit louder her face completely void of any emotion or color. And after a while Derek got it,

"Oh," And then, because he had nothing else to say so he repeated. "OH!"

He rubbed his face, "CASEY?! What the hell? You are so much more responsible than this. You're 17. You're not ready for this."

"I know." She said crying her eyes out. Derek not being good at tears, sat there while she cried awkwardly patting her back.

"Does he know?"

"No!" With that she just started crying harder. "Well, let's go get that test thingy, okay? You wanna do that?" He asked. She nodded, so he pulled her off the couch and walked her to the door, when she froze, and then squirmed.

"What?" Derek turned to her, eyes full of actual concern.

"Either I just peed my pants or…" She ran upstairs screaming, "False alarm!" Derek's face curled up with disgust.

"EWWWWW! That is sooo gross!" He yelled up the stairs. "Don't ever do that to me again!" His body shook in disgust. Wiping his hand on his pants that held her hand. "Nasty!" But, truly, he was thanking God, so hard.

oooOOooOOO

"I like you."

"Uh, thanks, D. I like you too." Casey said.

"No, like I mean, I like you." Derek repeated. "As in you're always on my mind. Last thing I think of before I go to sleep, first thing I remember when I wake up. My thoughts are of you, all the time. And I can't keep it in any longer."

Casey stopped reading her book and looked up at him. "Honestly?"

He nodded. She ran up and kissed him. "What took you so long?"

ooOOooOOO

"Okay, Casey right now, I'm going to do the honest thing, and tell you how much I don't want to dance." Derek confessed. Now, that they pretty much knew everything about the other, they used the honesty card, to try to get out of almost every situation.

"Derek, you have to dance. I can't believe we're even having this conversation." Casey argued face slowly turning red.

"Casey, I don't want to dance. I don't dance."

"Oh, please I've seen you dance, a million and one times." Casey reminded.

"Yeah, none of those time voluntarily." Derek smirked.

"What makes you think this time, you get to volunteer?" Casey screamed, now everyone's attention was on them. Not like it wasn't before, but now even more.

"Uh, it's MY wedding."

"NO! It's mine. And if I want to dance with my husband. I'm going to dance with my freakin' husband." She shrieked.

"Oh, I just feel the love."

"Yeah, and it's comin' in through the freakin' windows!!" Seeing how distressed Casey was looking and how everyone in the banquet was looking at them. He finally gave in.

"Casey, I don't like how everyone's watching us dance."

"Aww, babe," She put her hand on his cheek. "It's our wedding, they're supposed to be looking at us." He huffed.

"I'm just letting you know, I don't like dancing."

"And you have no idea how much you're honesty makes me feel." Casey joked.

"Bite me."

ooOOooOOOooOO

"Michael."

"Ashton."

"Michael!"

"Ashton!"

"Oh, my gosh, Casey! Ashton? It's a girl name. My son needs to have a manly name like Michael. Not Ashton."

"But, it's so pretty."

"Exactly! He can't have a pretty name!" Derek threw his hands up. "He will get beaten up!"

"No, he won't. It means, 'From the town with ash trees'" She repeated dreamily, holding up her hand to emphasize the meaning. "At least that's what it says on that website."

"From the town with freakin' ash trees! Are you insane?"

"You think I'm insane?" She asked almost in tears, unnoticed by Derek.

"Yeah!"

"Honestly?" He looked up at her at the word and noticed the tears in her eyes. He put his arm around her waist and held her close.

"Casey, you know I don't think you're insane. I just really don't want to name our baby Ashton."

"Well, I don't like Michael. It's too original."

"What!?" He let go of her.

"Just being honest!" She said as she walked away.

ooOOooOOoo

It hurt. It hurt like hell. The force, it was too strong. He couldn't breathe. "Casey, I'm going to do something, totally out of character and be completely honest with you. My hand hurts. You gotta let go!" She turned to him her eyes full of red firey fury and screamed.

"YOU DID THIS TO ME!! And to be freakin' honest, I don't care about you're hand right now." And then she squeezed his hand really really hard.

Their child was named Ashton.

Honestly, no one was surprised they were together. It just fit. Like it was supposed to happen.

And honestly, being honest not only started their relationship. It made their relationship strong.

Honest.

I hope you guys liked it. I had a lot of fun, writing it. Review.