Page 25 of All In Good Time

She’d only interacted with Derek a total of four times now, and in that limited amount of time, she had seen more depth under all the fire and smoke than both Brent and April combined.

She just couldn’t tell why he hid it.

* * *

Derek watched Becca walk away, while April and Brent sniggered next to him.

It had taken him months to have enough courage to face her straight on. After Halloween, he was too embarrassed to believe she might actually mean what she wrote on that paper. Instead, he hid and watched her quietly when she wasn’t looking.

Including learning her name, and when her classes were, and who she hung out with. He wasn’t pleased to learn it was Parr, but that didn’t change the fact that he couldn’t stop thinking abouther.

After that night, when he’d been too drunk to drive and too beaten to stay home, he’d had nowhere else to go. The only reason he had enough courage to show up at her house was because he was too out of it to convince himself otherwise. Honestly, she had been the first person to even cross his mind.

For so long, he had been scared she would turn him away when it came down to it, but when he stumbled to her door and she opened it for him, she didn’t hesitate a moment. She brought him in and cared for him until he was sober and gave him a bed he could sleep in without worrying his father would be there in the morning.

He’d never slept so well, and when he wasn’t sleeping, he was so grateful he could have cried.

He guessed he could thank Mallory for the chance to really face Rebecca, though he would never say it aloud. He was less of a pussy now in front of her, and he’d had enough time to go over their short interactions to believe that she was one of the best people he had ever known.

It was worth the embarrassment. And the prying questions from Mallory, who was confused why someone like Becca would be friends with Derek.

Something he wasn’t sure of either, but selfishly did not want to throw away.

“God, she is such a priss.” April’s shrill voice pulled him away from the constant thoughts of her and pushed him straight into a net of annoyance.

He looked away from Becca’s retreating form and turned toward his so-called “friends.”

“I can’t stand her.”

Derek smirked at her, irritation simmering behind the well-maintained mask of composure, “Do you ever shut the fuck up? Your voice gives me a headache.”

April squeaked in surprise, her attention successfully off Becca and onto him.

“What the hell, man?” Brent stepped up, frowning at Derek. “What did she do to you?”

Derek pushed off from the lockers and walked away, tuning out their outraged calls after him. They gave him headaches most days. He didn’t want one today too. They would forget this entire thing later, and they’d be right back to him in hopes of drowning in the popularity that followed him.

Whatever. He couldn’t care less.

He had much better things to think about.

10

September 1985 | After

The drive back was smoother than before. Probably because she knew Derek was safe now, lying in her lap as Marty drove through the dark.

Outside of Madison, Marty announced that he needed to stop for gas. Derek didn’t stir as Marty pulled off an exit and stopped next to a gas pump.

“You have any cash I could use?” Marty asked, pulling what cash he had out of his wallet. “I don’t have a whole lot left.”

She carefully grabbed Winston’s twenty dollars out of her jacket pocket next to Derek’s head.

Marty took it and walked into the station, leaving her and a still unconscious Derek in the quiet of the back seat.

She took the moment alone to brush her fingers against his head, picking up a stray curl that was stuck to his temple and pushing it aside.

When Derek was awake, he spent so much of his energy trying to hide everything inside of him. His face was always calm, always angry, or always empty. On the nights when he showed up at her door, he preferred for the lights to be off so she couldn’t see his red eyes or the way everything shone through them. She never said anything when she saw a tear fall against his best efforts. She just let him lay his head down on her lap like now until he fell asleep.

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