Hey! So I'm starting a new story, however, I'm not abandoning Words Like Knives. (If you don't know what that is, I encourage you to check out my other stories which is where you will find a story with this title *wink wink*) I am still going to continue that story I just was inspired to write this story and I got excited. Note in this story that Mark and Derek are still in college too, 3 years ahead of Meredith. Here goes!

Meredith Grey basically had her life cut out for her. Her mother being the great Ellis Grey pretty much meant that she was bound to be a surgeon. She was okay with her fate though, no matter how hard she tried to stray away and resist her mother. The field of medicine had always fascinated her, most likely due to the fact that her mother was devoted to her job during Meredith's childhood so most of the things Ellis spoke of had to do with surgery.

Meredith had been studying at Dartmouth but due to recent circumstances she decided to move herself to California to study at Stanford. She was already off to a bad start financially. After the circumstances mentioned above, Meredith's mother disowned her and left her to fend for herself and withdrew all the money she gifted to Meredith. Now, Meredith was on the search for a roommate, someone to pay half the bills.

After searching ad boards all over town, she had collected a few numbers for available rooms. So far, she was not impressed. The first house she visited was a mess with garbage everywhere and smelled like someone died inside of it. The second house had Meredith convinced that they had a drug operation running. She prayed that the third house would have sane, cleanly people living there. Third time's a charm, right?

She walked up the walk to the front door. So far, the house looked normal. The yard was taken care of and the house was in good shape. She could only hope that the roommates were nice. She approached the door and knocked lightly three times.

After waiting for a few seconds which felt like hours, the door opened and she was taken by surprise. A man stood before her wearing plaid pajama pants and no shirt, his dark curly hair was a mess on top of his head, and a toothbrush held in his mouth. He clearly had just woken up but somehow, he still was glowing with attractiveness. Meredith took him in for a minute before she remembered why she was even at the house in the first place. "I uh, is this," she glanced down at the paper she was holding and recited the address, "1435 Oak Street? I found this ad in the coffee shop and I believe we spoke on the phone about a meeting today."

The man removed the toothbrush from his mouth and looked her up and down. "Oh, you must have spoke to Mark, my roommate. He never tells me anything, I'm sorry for my uh, lack of clothes," he stammered nervously. "I'm the organized one in this house. Come on in, I'll get Mark."

Meredith followed him inside and sat down on the living room couch as the man walked away. He turned his head to get one last look at her which did not go unnoticed by Meredith due to the fact that she was also staring. Crap, she thought to herself. She didn't have the time for guys to begin with let alone start something with her potential roommate. That was a recipe for disaster. Don't get ahead of yourself Mer, she told herself. You didn't even make the deal yet.

Another man walked into the living room, Mark, Meredith guessed. "Hey, I'm Mark," he confirmed. "You must be the Meredith I spoke to on the phone."

"That'd be me." she responded.

"Nice to meet you. So I'll show you the room and you can make a decision from there."

"Sounds good," she chirped, still in awe at how attractive these men were.

After Mark showed her the room and the rest of the house, they returned to the living room. The man who had greeted her at the door was sitting on the couch when they entered. Meredith found herself slightly disappointed that he had found himself a shirt. Along with the shirt, he had put on some jeans and looked to have styled his hair.

"I like the house and the room. I think we have a deal." Meredith told Mark.

"I'm glad. We can talk numbers later and you can move in whenever you want. Here's your key. I have to run out to the campus to talk to one of my professors, so I'll catch up with you later." Mark said, shaking Meredith's hand and scooting out the door.

Meredith turned to the man she met before and gave him a smile. He smiled back before he stood up and walked over to her, just close enough to invade her personal space bubble in the slightest. Strangely, Meredith liked it.

"I don't believe I caught your name before," he said. She looked at him and for the first time she noticed his eyes. They were a piercing blue, the kind that captivated you.

"Meredith. Meredith Grey."

"Meredith, I like it. I'm Derek Shepherd" he said with an overwhelming sense of confidence. He offered his hand out to shake.

She shook his hand, never breaking eye contact. His eyes fascinated her and she couldn't pry her gaze away.

Her phone ringing pulled her away, finally. She looked down at her phone to see it was a call from her bank so she had to answer it. "Sorry, I have to take this," she said before scooting out.

After she was done on the phone she entered the house again to find Derek in the kitchen cleaning up breakfast.

"Hey, um, I'm going to go grab my stuff from my hotel room to move in so I'll be back," she told him.

He turned around instantly at the sound of her voice and dried his hands on a towel. "I can help you, if you'd like."

"Oh, you don't have to, I mean, it's not a big deal, I mean if you want to, you don't need to-" Meredith stopped herself when she realized she was rambling. She did that when she was nervous. Why did he make her so nervous? He was attractive but she wasn't interested. She didn't need a man right now and she sure as hell didn't have the time.

He smiled at her and grabbed his keys off the counter. "It's no big deal, really. I'll follow you."

Meredith got in her car and drove to her hotel followed by Derek. They made awkward small talk while retrieving Meredith's things, occasionally sneaking looks at each other when the other wasn't looking. When they had everything packed up, they drove back to the house. Everything was brought inside, Meredith stood in the hallway outside her room, Derek across from her on the opposite side of the hall.

"Thanks again for the help."

"It was my pleasure," he said, a small grin spreading across his face. His features were definitely dreamy.

She returned the smile before disappearing behind the door. As soon as it was shut, her back fell against the door and she slid down to the floor. This man was bad news for her. It's not like she wanted to date him, she didn't do relationships. All of her "relationships" were one night stands and having a one night stand with your roommate is a recipe for disaster. She needed to focus on her studies anyway.

So there's the first chapter! I know it's kind of short but it's more of an introduction and I have big things planned for this story. Updates are not going to have a specific pattern because I'm super busy but I will update when I have free time. Let me know what you think so far!

-scenescaptured