CHAPTER 36

CALLIE'S POV

"I can't even make out the words on these pages anymore. They are all just blurred together. Seriously, how many chapters can they make us read in one day? This is ridiculous!" Arizona says while rubbing her eyes and blinking them widely.

"I don't know, but I have read the same paragraph about 20 times in a row and still can't tell you what it says." Teddy tells her as she reaches above her head to stretch.

"I say we could all use a break. What do you guys say about us going to grab a pizza and some wings?" I suggest.

Arizona shuts her book, stands and says, "That sounds like a great idea. I need to get as far away from this book as possible right about now."

"I'm in!" Meredith says.

Since the day that Teddy and I made up in the bookstore, about 6 weeks ago, she and Meredith have hung out with Arizona and I quite a bit. It has been fun and a nice change of pace to have another lesbian couple to go out with, but there are times when I miss having time alone with Arizona. But she and I will have a little time away this coming weekend. We are headed to my parent's house to make the announcement about our engagement. I'm still surprised that we have both been able to keep it from them for 6 weeks, but our parent's schedules and our schedules clashed too much. And we both wanted to tell our family's face to face.

Just as we walk out of the apartment, Derek and Addison come out of theirs at the same time.

"Hey guys, where are you all headed?" Addison asks.

"We were just headed to the pizza pavilion. We needed a break from those ungodly chapters." Arizona says to our friends.

"Oh cool, Derek and I were headed to dinner as well. We have been studying all day. Oh how I miss summer Saturdays. It seems like we spend our weekend with our heads in a book, instead of enjoying our two days away from class." She adds.

"Why don't you guys come with us to eat?" I say to our friends.

Addison looks to Derek and he nods, and then we all head out towards the restaurant.

"Have you heard from Mark recently? That guy has been MIA for a while." Derek asks me.

"Now that you mention it, I haven't talked to him in a couple days. As soon as he got back with Lexie, he has been off the map."

"Well Mark has never been the type to keep things private that should be private. I'm surprised he has managed to keep his and Lexie's business private this long." Derek says.

The 6 of us enter the pizza place and find a table big enough for all of us.

"What kind of pizza are you guys wanting?" Teddy asks, but the sound of a familiar laugh causes us all to turn around.

Mark was sitting at a table, his arm around Lexie's shoulders and a group of people that I had never seen before were with them. They were all laughing, and it looked as though Mark was genuinely happy. For a second, I felt bad..almost hurt. It looked as though Mark had found a whole new group of friends to replace us.

"Who are those people they are with?" Addison asks me and Derek.

"I've never seen them before. Have you?" I say back.

"I know the 3 across from them are freshman, but the other 2 I have never seen." Derek says.

The waitress comes over to take our order, and once we made the decision, we all began talking about our assignments and other random things.

"So what day are you guys headed home for the weekend?" Addison asks.

"We are leaving Friday, since it's only a half day of classes." I say to her.

"It's been a while since I went home. I'm sure my parents would love for Derek and I to visit. They have been so happy ever since I told them that Derek popped the question. Now my mom keeps trying to plan my wedding. Everytime I talk to her, she goes off the deep end on planning. You have that to look forward to." Addison says with a laugh.

"You guys should totally come with us! It would be fun!" Arizona says to our friends. "Right Callie? They should!" She says while looking at me.

I planned on the weekend to be some time alone with Arizona, and now she invited our friends, but the last thing I want to do is upset anyone or hurt their feelings. So I decide to smile and go along with it.

"Yeah, that sounds like fun." I say with a smile.

"What do you think Derek?" Addison asks as she moves her hand from his shoulder, to run through his hair.

"Sounds like a plan. I'll call mom and let her know that we are coming to visit." Derek says.

Across the restaurant, I notice Mark stand and head towards the mens room. Quickly I excuse myself from the table, and head towards the direction he went.

"Hey you." I say, and he stops. Turning around to face me" he smiles.

"Hey Cal. What are you doing here?" He asks as he gives me a hug hello.

"Oh, we decided to take a study break, and pizza sounded really good. How are you?" I ask.

"I'm good. Lexie and I have been spending a lot of our free time together, and so far the homework has been kicking my ass. How are you and Arizona?" He asks.

"We are doing great. We, um, we…we are engaged. She asked me a few weeks ago." I say as I show him my ring.

"Wow. Congrats Cal!" Mark says before he wraps me up into a huge hug.

"Thank you. Hey, Addison, Derek, Arizona and I are going home this weekend. You should come too. It would be fun to all be back at the same time. You can even bring Lexie. You know, if you want to." I suggest.

"Really? That sounds pretty fun. I'll talk to Lexie and see if she can get away, and I'll text you later or something." He says with a smile.

"Cool. Well, I better get back. We just came to eat real quick before hitting the books again. But call me soon. Love ya Mark." I say before turning to walk back towards our table.

Arizona must have seen me talking to Mark, because as I sat down she ran her hand down my arm, before lacing our fingers together and asking, "Are you alright Calliope?"

"Yeah, I'm good. I was talking to Mark. I asked him if he and Lexie wanted to go home with us this weekend actually. He sounded excited and said that he will let me know later after he talks to Lexie."

"That's awesome. I'm glad you two are still doing ok. I'm sure you miss him babe. And a trip back to your hometown with your best friends should be interesting." Arizona says with a laugh.

"You have no idea." Derek says with a wink.

Once we finished eating until we couldn't eat anymore, we headed back to the apartment to get back to studying. Walking down the hallway to our apartment, we could hear shouting coming from it. Then, a woman screamed right after a loud "SLAP" noise echoed through the hallway. Derek and I stopped and looked at eachother before taking off at a full sprint towards the screaming female. Derek and I honed in on the man just as he had his arm raised and was winding up for another smack on the womans face. But the guy didn't get a chance because just as he went to lower his hand, Derek grabbed his wrist and twisted him until he hit the wall face first.

"You think you're a big man because you can smack a woman around? Huh? Does it make you feel like a bad ass?" Derek says through gritted teeth into the mans ear.

The man pushed against Derek with all his strength, and managed to spin around to face Derek. Just when he pulled back his fist and connected with Derek's jaw, it was enough to push Derek over the edge. He grabbed the mans wrist and bend it back while head butting him. The man screamed out with pain at the twisting of his wrist.

"I'm going to be a surgeon! Don't break my hand. Please don't!" he begged.

"Were you thinking about your precious hand when you were using it as a weapon? No! You weren't! I have half a mind to break it in a way that will ensure that you NEVER operate on anyone! So if you know what is good for you, you will get the hell out of here and never bother this woman again! Do you understand me you piece of shit?" Derek yells into his face.

"Ye-yeah. I got it." The man says through labored breaths.

Derek pushed him forward and the man didn't waste anytime before high tailing it down the stairs and out of our sight. Addison was immediately at Derek's side while Arizona and I walked up to the shaking woman.

"Are you alright?" Arizona asks her. The woman just nods a 'yes'.

"Are you sure? Is there anything we can do?" I ask her, knowing she is anything but fine right now.

But again, the woman just shakes her head, saying she was ok.

"Let's at least go inside and put some ice on your face. You're sure to have a big black eye regardless, but this way we can help keep the swelling down." Arizona says.

The woman finally agrees, and we take her into our apartment while Derek and Addison head into their own for a bit.

Meredith and Teddy follow us inside, and I hear Arizona tell Teddy to lock the door. Just because we don't know exactly how crazy that guy is and the last thing we need is any unexpected visitors.

Inside the kitchen, Arizona grabs an ice pack from the freezer and wraps it in a dish towel before handing it to the woman. Holding it to her face she flinches a bit, and it's obvious that she has a few tears falling.

"Hey. He won't hurt you anymore. I'm pretty sure Derek scared him away for good." I say to her, and she gives us a weak smile.

"Thank you for your help. Really. I appreciate it." She says quietly.

"You're welcome. I'm sorry that happened to you though, but I'm glad we got here when we did. I'm Callie and this is my fiancée, Arizona." I say as I extend my hand out to introduce myself.

"I'm Isabel Stevens. But everybody calls me Izzy. It's nice to meet you both." She says.

"I've seen you and your boyfriend a few times in the hallway. I had no idea that he was so crazy though. He seemed nice enough in passing." Arizona says.

"Yeah, Alex has a really short fuse. And I had finally reached my limit and when I told him it was over, well, as you all saw, he flipped his lid." The blonde explains.

"Some people can't handle rejection apparently." Arizona says and we all let out a small laugh.

"Well, it was really nice meeting you both, and thanks for.. you know.. all of this." She says while lifting the ice pack away to show us. She starts to hand it to me, and I quickly push it back gently.

"Just hang on to it. I'm sure we will see you around. Especially living down the hall from each other." I say with a smile.

"Well thanks. I owe you guys big time." Izzy tells us with a smile.

As she walks towards the door, I see Arizona move towards her and stop.

"Hey, Izzy?" she begins.

"Yeah?"

"Would you like to come over later for dinner? A few of us have been having a study group, and then we are going to eat. I'm not sure what you're studying but if you want to join us, you are more than welcome." Arizona offers, being the typical sweetheart that she is.

"Um, I'm a sophomore at Hopkins. I've seen you're group of friends around. But I wouldn't want to impose. You guys have enough going on I'm sure." She says, trying to decline Arizona's offer.

"Nonsense, you're not imposing on us. I'd really like for you to join us. So, come on by whenever you get your books together. We should be studying again here in about half an hour or so. Ok?" Arizona pushes.

"Alright. If your sure."

"We're sure." I say while coming to stand next to Arizona and offering our new friend a smile.

"Thank you. Then I will see you guys in an hour." Izzy says, and then she leaves headed towards her apartment.

After Arizona closed the door, she leaned her back against it and let out a deep breath.

"Wow." She says.

"Poor girl." Teddy says as we step into the living room.

"Is she going to be ok?" Meredith asks with concern.

"She should be ok, physically. As far as emotionally goes… I have no idea. There's no telling how long that Neanderthal has been smacking her around like a rag doll. Dammit, guys like him seriously piss me off." I say to nobody in particular.

"We invited her to come study in a bit, and she accepted. So , let's get this place picked up before we all make another huge mess." Arizona says.

Once the apartment was cleaned up, Addison and Derek came back over and a few minutes after that, Izzy knocked on the door with her books in hand. The first hour was spent talking about random things, just getting to know our new friend, and her getting to know us as well. We ordered Chinese so we could continue studying while eating instead of stopping so I could cook. Around 11:30 Addison stands up and lets out a loud sound while stretching.

"That's IT! We have been studying all day long, only stopping long enough to refuel ourselves and then right back to it. I'm in need of a drink, and I want to dance." Addison declares.

"I could definitely use a drink as well!" Arizona says while looking at me.

"Well if she's going, I'm going. How about you Izzy?" I ask.

"I don't know. Alex never really let me go to—" She started and Addison cut her off.

"Oh no girl. Don't even say the words, 'he didn't let me'. That is not acceptable. So take your pretty little blonde behind down to your apartment, get dressed up in something that says, I'm hot and I'm single, and meet us back here in 30 minutes." Addison orders.

Izzy looks around the room, silently asking if Addison was joking or being serious and when her eyes land on me I silently laugh before I smile and nod.

"You should probably listen to her." I say while leaning over towards her.

"Everybody get ready, and don't take all night. We don't have that long to put a large amount of alcohol into our systems. So get your dresses on, get your fake id's in your hands and we will meet in the hallway. 30 minutes SHARP!" Addison says.

"I don't even have clothes to wear here. So you can count us out." Meredith says.

"Nah uh. You don't get out of this that easily. I have plenty of clothes. Come on Theodora. You too." Arizona says before we all head into the bedroom to get ready.

This should be interesting…..