So, yeah. It's terribly long, but quite important. (Both the story and this)

Also. THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER OF STUDY BUDDIES.

(Made you have a heart attack, didn't I?)

Naw, see, I'm going to post the last bit as chapters in the sequal, which will be called either Better Off or something else. Not quite sure, but probably Better Off. The best ways to find out are to a) keeping an eye open, b) adding me to author alert or c) contacting me personally. And by personally, I mean the site. Not IN PERSON. That's creepy. And I don't think that my parents/friends/etc. would be too happy about that. With the exception of people whe know me in reality. Because I see them often.

So, yeah. Once I post this, the story will now be 'complete'.

Also, plot bunnies have been having wild sex in my head (with everything BUT this story, because I already have that worked out entirely.) and because of that, once this big MASSIVE sequal is complete, you can definitly count on NOT ONE, BUT TWO Life with Derek fanfic's and maybe two Harry Potter ones as well.

P.S. I will try to have the sequal up by the end of the month, but I make no promises.

kthxbai

*DISCLAMER: I don't own LWD. But I do own Daniel and Jed and any other named character that is not a part of LWD.*

CHAPTER 25: It Won't Be Pretty When The Lights Come Back

"Thanks for the ride, Sam," Casey said, getting out of the car and walking over towards him. "I really appreciate it,"

"You're welcome," he smiled. He walked towards her and gave her a hug. She wrapped her arms around him too.

"I'll see you later, kay?" Sam said, as she pulled away.

"Yeah, I'll see you later, Sam," she said, waving meekly as she walked to the front doors. "Bye,"

"Bye,"

Casey closed her locker and started walking in the direction of her first period English class. She gripped her bag straps tightly, fighting tears. She'd underestimated how tough today would be. It was hard walking through the halls of Thompson High without Derek there.

And like wild fire, the news of his disappearance had spread through the school. In fact, twelve different people had already come up to her and said that they heard about Derek and offered their condolences [Big words] and mentioned their hope that he'd come home soon. It hurt even more now. It was like there was a constant reminder that she'd screwed everything over.

"Casey!" yelled someone from behind her. She turned to see Emily, running towards her. Emily stopped in front of Casey.

Emily wrapped her arms around Casey's neck.

"I heard about Derek. Oh God, Casey, I'm so sorry." Casey held on to her friend, as if she was a life preserver and Cased was about to drown, and started to sob. Emily felt her shaking body and pulled away.

"Not here, you don't," Emily said, grabbing her hand and dragging her into the nearest girl's bathroom.

"Here," Emily said, sitting beside Casey on the floor, as she handed her some toilet paper to wipe her eyes.

"Thanks," Casey sniffed, wiping her eyes with it. Black smudges appeared on the tissue. "I'm so sorry for blowing up like that. I've just been so upset since he left."

"It's okay, Case. I know it's been hard on you and the fam." she said.

"Emily, it's been terrible. Everyone's a wreak." Looking over her shoulder, she added, "I just wish he'd come back,"

"We all do," Emily said, wrapping her arms around her crying friend.

Casey looked at her tissue. "I guess I should've worn waterproof mascara today," she joked.

"C'mon," Emily said, now standing and holding out her hand to help Casey up. "Let's get you cleaned up,"

Casey silently walked in to her English class. Mr. Harris, her teacher stopped writing on the chalkboard and looked her way.

"Ah, Miss McDonald, how nice of you to join us,"

"Sorry, Mr. Harris," she said, ducking towards the back of the classroom to grab the empty desk there.

Mr. Harris turned back to writing on the board. "Anyways, as I was saying, on the exam there will be three sections; Part A is on Grammar, Language, Vocabulary, Literary Terms and Elements, Part B is on Death of a Salesman, and Part C is on poetry."

"YO! JED!" a girl hollered. Derek looked up from his iPod and pulled off his headphones. She was louder than his music, and he liked his music loud. The girl walked behind the counter as Jed emerged from the back room.

"Oh, hey, Erin" he said, sounding a bit annoyed but then his tone changed to a confused one. "You're here early…"

She smiled cutely. "'Tis better to be early than to be late, my dear boy."

"Your shift isn't for another hour and a bit,"

"So? Maybe I wanted to see you and get some of your fabulous coffee,"

Jed rolled his eyes.

There was a customer at the counter and Erin walked over. "I got this one," she said as she passed Jed and smiled flirtatiously at him.

Jed walked over to Derek, whose headphones were around his neck. Jed leaned against the other side of the counter.

"That's Erin?" Derek asked.

"Yup, that's Erin."

Erin walked over to the espresso machine and pushed a couple buttons on it. A few seconds later, she handed the customer their drink.

It was lunch time now and Casey needed more caffeine. That one macchiato certainly wasn't enough to keep her awake in Math. She pushed the big door open and walked out of it. The sun was bright and blinding. She squinted.

Casey walked out of the front area of the school, where the smokers were smoking. She turned to the left and started to walk down the shaded path which was lined with trees. The shade was better on her eyes.

"CASEY!"

She turned to see one of Daniel's friends, Braden, running after her.

"Oh, hey Braden,"

"Hey, Casey." He said, walking beside her now. "I've been looking for you all morning. I really need to talk to you about something."

"Oh, yeah, sure. What's up?"

"It's about you and Sam,"

"What about 'me and Sam'?" she asked, a tad bit confused.

"Look, Casey, I saw you getting out of his car. I saw him hugging you-."

She interrupted. "Braden, Sam and I are just friends; you know that. He was just giving me a ride to school-."

"Casey, I know that you guys are just friends. But Daniel doesn't. And he's the type to get really jealous if he thinks another guy wants you." The tone of his voice changed. It was angrier. "I just wanted to tell you to watch the way you act around other guys. Don't be too friendly or flirty. And be thankful that it was me who saw you, instead of him,"

"Yo! Erin!" Jed hollered. "It's 5! I'm out for the night. See ya tomorrow!"

"Kay!" she yelled back. "See ya!"

He walked out from behind the counter and headed over to Derek, who was still listening to his iPod. Jed tapped him on the shoulder and Derek pulled off his headphones and set them around his neck.

"You ready to go?" he asked.

"Yeah,"

Derek slid off his stool and followed Jed back to his apartment.

"So what's the deal with you and Erin?" Derek asked, cracking open a beer. "You seem awfully flirty. Are you dating?"

Jed almost spit out his beer. "Me? Erin? Date?"

"So I'll take that as a 'no',"

"We're not dating, we're just friends," Jed took a sip of his beer. "And she's my boss."

"Oh…" Derek said, as if he had had an epiphany. "That would explain the whole name-tag thing,"

Jed picked up the remote to the T.V. and flicked it on. He surfed through the channels.

"Anything good on?" Derek asked.

"Uh, let's see…" Jed flipped through the channel listings faster. "There's The Price is Right, New. Music. Live., Wipeout Canada-."

"Dude, that's my favourite freaking show! Put it on!"

"Awesome; putting on now," (definite Drake and Josh moment) he smiled as he pressed 'Select' and sat back. Derek grabbed the bowl of popcorn on the counter and sat beside him on the couch. He stuffed some popcorn in his mouth and offered Jed the bowl.

"Ooh ont shome?" he asked, grabbing another handful and adding it to his mouth.

"Sure, thanks dude," Jed spoke hesitantly but laughed a little at the end.

"Hey," Daniel walked by Casey and kissed her on the cheek, then leaned against the locker by hers.

"Oh; hey," she said, putting her binder away.

"I missed you this morning," he said.

"I had to get up early to get ready and I wanted to grab coffee," she said simply.

"Damn," he smiled. "I was hoping I could've driven you to school,"

"Anyways, I figured to make up for not being able to drive you to school, that I'd stop by to give you a ride home,"

Casey closed her locker and shoved her knee against it to keep the door closed and locked it again. "Actually, I think I'm gonna pass today, Daniel,"

"What? Why?"

"I just need time to think," she said.

"What the hell do you need to think about?" Daniel laughed a little to hide his upset.

"Things," she said.

"You mean Derek, don't you?"

"Yeah,"

His voce dropped to a lower tone. "You shouldn't worry about him. He left because he couldn't take a rejection. It's his problem, not yours."

She looked away.

He mover her head with his finger so as to look him in the eyes. "Please, just one ride home. That's it, nothing else,"

"Fine,"

Casey leaned her head against her hand. She looked out the window. It was a view she'd seen before, yet new, all at the same time.

Daniel looked over at her. "You're still thinking about him, aren't you?"

She nodded. "Yeah,"

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

"No."

There was a silence.

"So how was your day?" he asked, trying to break it and fill it with conversation.

"Hard." She said.

Another pause.

"Mine was pretty good, actually. I ended up skipping today and hanging out with Kyle 'n the guys at his trailer. Braden wasn't there though,"

"Yeah, I saw him at lunch today."

Silence again.

He pulled up to the front of the house and put the car in park. Daniel looked over at her.

"Look, Casey, I don't want you to think that this shit that went down with Derek is your fault. You and I both know that it wasn't. He came after me; he kissed you; he hurt you. So please, don't worry about him so much. Please,"

"I've got to go, Daniel," she said, reaching for the door release. Daniel reached for his and he met her on her side as she got out. She placed her feet on the pavement walkway and stood up. Daniel rushed over to her.

He put his arm around her and they began to walk to the door. Casey looked down until she noticed what was going down on the front lawn. She stopped, halfway to the house to see Nora and George, holding each other, in front of large, professional-grade video camera equipment.

"-If you have any information about Derek's whereabouts, please call the tip line's phone number-." George said.

Casey looked up at Daniel. He didn't say anything.

She looked back at it.

She couldn't tear her eyes away from it. Daniel gave her a little jerk to call her back.

He ushered her towards the door, bordering on being pushy.

"-And please Derek, if you see this, please; give us a call or something to let us know that you're safe. Everyone's worried about you. We all miss you-." She heard Nora say.

They arrived at the porch and Daniel pulled her into a hug. "I need you, Casey. Please don't pull away from me because of him." he whispered into her ear.

She nodded and he leaned in and she let him kiss her, wrapping his arms around her waist. She sorta just stood there. He noticed that and pulled away, resting his forehead against her forehead.

"I love you," he said.

"I love you too," she responded quietly, voice barely audible, trying to turn her head away from his eyes and he let her go to leave.

"See you tomorrow," he added, waving to her. She waved back meekly and entered the house.

Nora and George returned to the house. He closed the door behind them. Nora was on the verge of crying. George rubbed her back sympathetically.

"You want some tea?"

She nodded.

George went to the kitchen and Nora sat beside Casey on the sofa. She was watching the Weather Network.

"Anything interesting on the Weather Network?"

"Nope," Casey said sadly. "Just weather,"

She rested her head on her mother's shoulder. "I wish he'd just come home already," she said.

She put her arm around her eldest daughter. "We all do,"

"Yo, I'm gonna go get a shower," Jed got up. Wipeout was over and the news was about to start.

"Okay,"

Jed headed towards the bathroom and Derek sat back, grabbing the remote and pointing it towards the T.V.'s cable box.

He pressed 'guide' on the remote and surfed through the channels for something interesting… or that he liked. But unfortunately, there was nothing that he saw immediately that appealed to him.

"Good evening, I'm Ellie Pierson for CKZE News. Tonight's top stories; President Barak Obama's meeting with Congress: what will this mean for Canadians; Rob Ford denies homophobia in a press conference; and the riots in London."

He flipped back towards the 20's to go back for a re-run of How I Met Your Mother (NPH FTW!). The box in the top right corner continued to produce sound. He ignored it until something grabbed his attention.

"-London teen, Derek Venturi, disappeared from his London home yesterday afternoon, between the hours of 11am and 12pm-."

He waited and listened to the news report.

"-Derek Venturi is 18 years old white male, approximately 182cm with light brown hair and light brown eyes. If you have seen him, or have any information on his whereabouts, please call 1-800-593-TIPS-."

Whatever, he thought, and put on How I Met Your Mother.

"Why would I want to change anything? This place is great, except you don't have a TV."

"See that wall? 300 inch flat-screen! They only sell them in Japan but I know a guy. They ship it over in a tugboat like freakin' King Kong!"

"It hurts my eyes..."

"Yeah, that doesn't go away."

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a wild balled up shirt appears and is launched in Derek's face.

"Put it on," ordered Jed. He was dressed in a light blue button up and jeans.

"Uh… why?" Derek asked, examining the shirt. It was sorta his style. It was a black-and-white plaid button-up.

"'Cuz we're going out. To celebrate." He said, grabbing his keys and shoving his wallet into his pocket.

"What? Why?" Derek questioned.

"We're going out to celebrate you being my roommate. Plus it's Ladies Night at Mink. Works out well, doesn't it?"

Derek stayed silent, trying to hide his lack of excitement at going out clubbing. He'd been out to a couple of teen clubs with Sam, Ralph and others, but these were big-boy clubs. The teen ones sure didn't have that much booze, every drug imaginable and half-naked girls (but it was quite close [really, have you seen how slutty some girls out there dress?]).

Jed shook his head, seeing that he was giving it a face. "You're not getting out of this one. You're coming along no matter what."

He groaned.

"Good; now put on that shirt."

"How do I look?" he asked, leaving the washroom. His other t-shirt was balled up in his hand.

"You look good. Does the shirt fit?"

"Yeah,"

"Great. Put on some more deodorant; brush your teeth; grab your ID and let's go. The cab's waiting outside."

Casey could hear her phone vibrating beside her on her bed. She looked over from her notes at her phone. It was Sam.

She put down her notes and picked up the phone.

"Hey Sam,"

"Hey. Have you heard anything about Derek?"

"Nope, nothing. How about you? Has he texted you or anything?"

"Nope." He paused. "Casey, I really want him to come home."

"Me too,"

"Call me if you hear anything, okay?"

"I will. You call me if you hear something too, kay?"

"I promise,"

"Bye"

"Here," Jed gestured the pack of gum towards Derek. "You want a piece?"

"Yeah, sure." He unwrapped the long, flat piece of gum and stuck it in his mouth. Peppermint.

The cab pulled up to the curb. From the car, they could hear the heavy baseline. A bright, neon pink sign illuminated the off-white building and reflected off the windows across the street. There was a line forming outside the building. Derek was hesitant to get out of the cab while Jed was already opening the door of the car.

"You coming?"

"Oh, yeah,"

Derek nervously shoved his hands in his pocket. Jed met him on the sidewalk and the two guys walked to the end of the line.

The line wasn't terribly long, considering that it was 9:00ish. There were a handful of guys and a shit load of girls, all waiting to get into the nightclub. Slowly, they moved forward. The bouncer was taking too long, flirting with every girl who wanted to enter the threshold.

Derek's eyes began to wander around the street. He looked at the dark bank on the street corner. He looked at the bus shelter across the street. He watched the black cars go by. He moved unknowingly, distracted by the area.

He felt Jed's hand hit him in the chest.

"Dude, your I.D.,"

"Oh," Derek reached into his pocket and pulled it out. The bouncer took the I.D. and looked at it. His expression changed.

"Your friend here's underage."

"So? Is that a problem?"

The bouncer's face returned to his original blank expression. "Hand."

Derek held it out as the bouncer un-capped a black Sharpie and drew a large 'x' on the back. He recapped it and ushered the two into the club.

The music in there was certainly louder than it was outside (and it was pretty loud outside of the club). The club was dark, with steady lighting over the bar and strobe lights that illuminated the room fully periodically. Girls danced and the lights reflected off their dresses and their jewelry. Guys leaned up against the walls, flirting with girls with drinks in hand and trying to get lucky.

"I'm gonna go grab some drinks. You want one?" Jed asked.

"Surprise me," Derek said. But then he held up his hand. "But nothing alcoholic." He felt like being a good boy tonight.

"Got it,"

Jed left him and walked over to the bar. Girls pushed passed Derek and gave him a flirty smile. He smiled back. But no matter how hard he tried, he was a fish-out-of-water, standing around all awkward-like.

"Here," Jed gestured to the drink in his left hand. "I got you ginger ale." Derek took it. Jed took a sip of his beer.

"Let's go grab a table," he suggested.

Derek nodded and followed behind him.

Jed sipped his beer as his eyes followed a tall, sexy blonde across the floor. Derek just looked around. There were lots of people dancing. Girls were grinding up on guys or throwing their hands up in the air to the music. Guys were either dancing or chilling in a little lounge-like area setup towards the back or the larger one upstairs. The DJ was hard at work, selecting music to pump up the crowd.

Derek looked at the glass in his hands, almost like a recovering alcoholic does with a glass of wine; he wanted to get out of here. Jed looked over at him.

"Yo, Derek," he said. Derek looked up and Jed gestured to across the room. "See that redhead over there? She's totally checking you out. Let's go and say 'hi',"

Once again, Derek was totally reluctant to flirt. After yesterday, he'd had enough with girls. But Jed dragged him along anyways.

The two dudes approached the redhead and her friend, a bubbly blonde. The redhead wore a skintight, black sequin dress and blue 5" platforms with a silver necklace with a star pendant and a bracelet to match. The blonde, on the other hand, wore a no-back, low-front red dress that was a bit looser that her friend's, but still left nothing to the imagination. She also wore simple, 4" black pumps (but she didn't need it because she was already quite tall) and a black bracelet.

"Hey," Jed said. "I'm Jed and this," he gestured to the awkward boy standing beside him. "Is Derek,"

"Hey," he waved meekly.

"Well," began the blonde. "I'm Deana and this is my friend, Laura."

"Nice to meet you," he smiled. "Anyways, we were wondering if you'd let us buy you ladies a drink."

The blonde smiled flirtatiously. "Sure. We'd love that,"

"Okay, what'd'ya drink?"

"I'll have tequila," she looked over at Laura. "And she'll have scotch."

"Oooh, hardcore drinkers. I like that," Jed laughed. "We'll be back,"

He winked at them and both he and Derek walked over to the bar. He told the bartender what he wanted and she quickly got to work to grab the drinks. Jed leaned up against the bar beside the nervous Derek.

"The redhead was super-into you. You could tell by the way she played with her hair." Jed said. "You into her?"

Derek shrugged. "Not really. Like she's cute'n'all, but she's not my type."

"C'mon dude, just give her a shot. You might like her."

The bartender placed the two drinks beside Jed. He placed a ten dollar bill in their place and took the drinks. He gave Derek the scotch and they headed back to where the girls were sitting. The girls were causually chatting.

As soon as Laura saw Derek, she perked up. Deana noticed and turned.

"Here you go," Jed handed Deana the drink. She graciously accepted it and began to sip it almost instantly.

Derek, on the other hand, wasn't as, er, enthusiastic about Laura. But he decided to give her a try and smiled as he handed her the drink. She took it and whispered "thank you" to him, but he couldn't hear her so it just looked like she was mouthing it.

Then Deana turned and whispered something into Laura's ear. Laura nodded in response and as Deana pulled away.

The heavy baseline of the previous song ended and a new track began. The DJ was styling his own personal remix.

"Ohmygod, I love this song!" she exclaimed.

"Me too!" Jed said. A part of Derek believed that he wasn't into the song so much as the person who liked it.

Deana proceeded to stand up and grabbed a hold of Jed's wrist. "Then let's dance," she said and Jed nodded. She pulled him on to the floor and began to shift her hips and body in time to the beat. Jed did the same and before they knew it, they were "dancing" with each other.

Derek looked over at Laura. She was rather cute. And as a bonus, was totally into him. "You wanna dance?" he asked. "Yeah," she yelled. He grabbed her hand and led her over to the floor.

Laura was more comfortable now. The alcohol had kicked in faster than she thought and now she was ready to let loose.

She placed a hand on Derek's shoulder and began to move her body, using him as support. Derek started to get into it too. She turned her body to face away from him. He put both hands on her waist and they moved together as she grinded against him. Derek looked over and from what he could see Jed and Deana were definitely having a great time.

Next thing he knew, she was sitting on him, straddling him. They were making out. And he was enjoying it.

She moved down to his neck and he let out a small moan of pleasure as he tilted his head in the opposite direction. He let his eyes open and looked around for Jed. He finally located him across the club near the door, where he saw that things are heating up between them.

He closed his eyes again.

She moved back to kissing him on the lips, gently gripping his hair and pulling a bit. She grinded harder.

He let out a groan and she smiled.

"Remember how you used to think of me doing that to you?"

Fuck off, Casey, he thought.

She bit his lip playfully and he moved his hands down her back. He then moved to her neck, sucking hard. She tilted her head back in ecstasy.

"Can't get rid of me that easily, Derek. Nice try though,"

Seriously, fuck off. I don't need you nagging at me.

She ran her fingers through his hair, gripping it and pulling.

"Isn't it sad how she's grinding against you and all you can think about it me?"

FUCK OFF. You're ruining it.

He bit down lightly.

She stopped and pulled his head up and guided him to her mouth as she started to move against him.

"Miss me, miss me, now you wanna kiss me…"

Fuck off, he thought. Fuck OFF! You don't want me and I don't want you here. So FUCK OFF!

But he said the last part out loud and Laura pulled away for a second.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Oh y-yeah, I'm fine."

She kissed him harder, grinded against him harder, until she suddenly pulled away. "We can go back to my place, if you want," she whispered in his ear, panting slightly.

He nodded and she kissed him again. But this time, she seemed more excited. More enthusiastic.

"So you're gonna go home with her?"

For fuck's sake, Casey, leave me the FUCK alone.

"Fine,"

It'd been nearly twenty minutes since "Casey" had last shown up. For once, Derek had won.

But if he'd won, why did he feel like he lost?

Derek pushed her off of him.

She held a confused look on her face. "What's wrong?"

"I can't do this," he said. Laura just sat there, looking confused.

He rushed towards the door and ran outside. The night air was a mixture of gasoline, sweat and nature. The city was black, with the exception of the lights that glistened in the city, illuminating sections of streets and buildings. He inhaled it. Cars drove by, people were chatting.

"Derek!"

Derek turned in the direction that his name was being called. Jed was running towards him. He caught up to him.

"What the hell are you thinking? Are you gay or something?"

"Just leave me alone, Jed. I'm not in the mood."

"There was a hot girl up in there, about to have sex with you and you just turned her down and ran out of there."

"Just leave me alone."

"Derek, what the fuck is with you?"

"Leave me alone, Jed."

"No, not till you fucking tell me. You've been in a fucking mood since last night. Nobody screams some chick's name at night without a good reason."

"JUST. LEAVE. ME. ALONE."

"You know what? Fine," Jed reached into his pocket and handed Derek his house keys. "Go home. I'll see you in the morning."

At 11:59pm, Derek returned to Jed's apartment.

With a heavy sigh, he unlocked the door and tossed the keys on the table. He knew where the light switch was as well as he did at his home. He flicked on the kitchen light and watched the florescent bulb power up slowly. The couch was put back together from when he had planned to leave.

He walked over to the couch and plopped down, placing the edges of his thumb and pointer fingers against his hairline. His wallet lay open on the other cushion. He reached into his back pocket to put his ID away, but instead of his fingers finding a hard, smooth surface; they found a soft, frayed one.

Curious, he pulled it out his pocket.

There, in his hand sat a folded up photo, frayed and worn from the folds and multiple washes. He'd forgotten that he had it in there. Slowly, he opened it.

It was a family photo. Their first one, to be exact. He couldn't remember when or why he'd put that there.

But he saw her face.

He looked away, folded it up blindly and put it away on his stuff.

Whap! Whap! Whap!

"Derek! Wake up! Let me in!"

Slowly, Derek lifted his head. Sunlight lightly entered the room, flowing through the white blinds.

"C'mon, let me in!" WHAP! WHAP! WHAP!

Derek had fallen asleep on the couch, not the couch bed, (which he was too lazy to set up last night. Or grab blankets, for that matter).

He let out a loud groan and rolled over.

"Damn it, Derek," he swore. "I heard that groan. Open the door!"

He rolled off the couch and his feet fell to the floor. He stood up and walked zombie-like to the door. "Keep your pants on," he hollered.

He opened the door to a disheveled Jed. He was wearing last night's clothes, with his shirt only half tucked in and his pants were sagging and he had smeared lipstick on his face and neck and his brown afro was super messy.

"What the hell man? I've been pounding on the door for the last 10 minutes."

"Sleeping."

Derek looked him over. "Looks like you had a fun night," he remarked, smirking.

He pushed past Derek into the apartment and headed towards the bathroom.

"I'll tell you about it later. I'm gonna grab a shower."

Derek sat down with his sesame seed bagel with butter on the couch. He flicked on the T.V.

A News Program was on T.V. but only because How I Met Your Mother was on a local channel. He noticed his picture in the corner of the screen.

"-The parents of Derek Venturi, the Missing teen from London, Ontario, have released a press statement to local and national news outlets-."

The screen quickly turned from the news center's background to his front yard. Nora and George stood together. George had his arms around her.

"-On Sunday, our son Derek disappeared from our London home. He is 18 years old. He is five-ten and has brown eyes and brown hair. If you have seen him, or if you have any information about Derek's whereabouts, please call the tip line's phone number at 1-800-593-TIPS-."George said.

But in the background, he saw a familiar figure walking along the pathway towards the house. He looked harder. Then he dropped his bagel that was hanging out of his mouth. It was Casey. And she was walking with Daniel. And his arm was around her.

"-And please Derek, if you see this, please; give us a call or something to let us know that you're safe. Everyone's worried about you. We all miss you and want you home as soon as possible-." Nora said.

He ignored the sentiments of his family; all he could focus on was Casey and Daniel.

He saw her look straight at the camera.

He saw Daniel pull her back.

He watched as they walked to the front door.

He watched as they kissed.

He couldn't stand it and quickly turned the T.V. off, leaning over to grab that photo. Tears were in his eyes. That was the slap in the face.

That was the reason he needed to leave.

That was the reason he had to stay.

He shook his head just when he was about to cry, as if to tell himself that he wouldn't waste another second on her.

Derek quickly unfolded it. Looking at the photo still faded and wrinkled, he firmly gripped the side where Casey was. She sat on the armrest of the sofa, farthest away from Derek.

"I'm out of your life, and you're out of mine."

And he pulled down.

And he didn't feel bad.

AN (July 23, 2013)

Alright, I know it's been a loooong time, but, I have the first chapter of the sequel. It's called "Losing You". Check it out :)