Chapter 25: Avoider?
"I'm heading to Joe's. You coming?" Cristina asked as she pulled her leather jacket on, flipping her hair out from under it.
"Uhh… no," Meredith said as she closed her locker.
"What?" Cristina asked, not expecting her to decline.
Meredith wrapped her purse around her shoulder before turning to Cristina, "I have to go home," she said, obviously not happy about it.
"Okay, what's wrong with you?"
"Something's wrong with Derek," Meredith said as they left the locker room, "I haven't seen him since this morning when he snapped at me in his office. Derek doesn't snap like that. Not at me."
"And you're going home because??" Cristina asked as they reached the elevator.
Meredith hit the elevator button, "Because, he's Derek."
"There's a problem in fairytale land," Cristina remarked slightly happy about her friend's discontent.
"Derek is not a problem," she answered quickly as they both stepped onto the empty elevator.
"Derek's always the problem."
"He isn't a problem."
"Keep telling yourself that, Mer," Cristina said, enjoying the situation.
Meredith shook her head, "I just have to figure out what's going on."
"Wait a second," Cristina said as she turned to look at Meredith, "You're an avoider. You avoid. If something was wrong with you and Derek, you go to Joe's and get drunk off of tequila and sleep with inappropriate men. It's your thing."
"It's not my thing."
"It's your thing."
"It's not- okay, it was my thing," Meredith confessed.
"It's still your thing."
"No it's not. Because I love Derek and he's my fiancé. Which, I know, doesn't seem like much coming from me, but I love him. As in, I want to actually marry him and have kids and get all old and wrinkly and still love him. I can't go get drunk and sleep with inappropriate men," Meredith rambled.
"So… you're going home to actually work out your problems?" Cristina said, a look of confused disbelief crossing her face.
"Yes," Meredith said convincingly as she nodded her head.
The elevator doors opened and they both stepped out. "You're actually doing this?" Cristina asked again.
"Yes, I have to. He's Derek and I love him," Meredith repeated.
Cristina just shook her head as they headed to their cars. "I miss philandering whore Meredith."