Seattle – 1994
"Did you find a prom date yet Mer?"
"No," I mumbled softly, not needing to be reminded that prom was two weeks away and I still didn't have a date.
"What are you going to do? You can't not go…and you can't go alone, you'll regret it for the rest of your life. You shouldn't have broken up with Justin. He was good for you."
"I highly doubt that Addie, I'm pretty sure that in five years, I might not even remember prom. And I was not going to stay with Justin for a prom date. And he was not good for me. All he wanted was to get in my pants."
"Mer, letting him in your pants wouldn't necessarily have been a bad thing."
"Maybe I'll just stay home." I continued, ignoring her last comment. "My mom won't be there, but I'm sure a bottle of Tequila will be."
"Can we do after prom at your house? Please Mer? Please?" Addison begged.
"I don't know Ad, if my mom found out…" I replied, my voice trailing off.
"It will be small, I promise. And we'll find you a date…and a bedroom."
"Fine," I said caving in, not missing the smile on Addison's face as she jumped on me. "Hold on!" I said to her, pushing her off me. "A few conditions first, one, it will stay small, us, our dates, and a few other friends. That's it. And two, I am not doing anything with anyone that involves a bedroom. Got it?"
"Got it." She told me, still glowing at the thought of the throwing the perfect after prom. As she walked away, I couldn't help but wonder exactly what I had gotten myself into. I sighed, turned around, and headed to history, thoughts of prom still weighing heavily on my mind. Would someone ask me? Did anyone even want to ask me? I had never really thought of myself as pretty, but I was ok looking. Maybe I should take that freshman boy who had been following me around the past few weeks. Before I could contemplate any further, a jolt of pain shot through my toe and sent me crashing back to earth.
"Ouch!" I yelled, looking down to my sandaled foot just in time to see blood start to trickle.
"Oh Mer! I'm so sorry," I hear before I lift my head and my eyes drown in a sea of blue. "Are you alright?"
I look back down to my foot and wince slightly at the sight of the cracked nail. "Yeah," I manage to let out. "I'm fine Derek."
"No you're not. You at least need a band-aid. Give me your books, I'll walk you down to the nurse."
"I'm fine Derek. And we have to get to class." I say, trying to make my way around him, but wincing in pain as soon as I stepped on my foot.
"Again, you are not fine. And what do you need to go to class that badly for? AP tests were last week, and I know from studying with you, you aced it."
I looked down to my toe again, and then up at Derek, knowing I had lost this battle. I sighed, pretending to be annoyed and handed him my books.
"I knew you'd see it my way," he told me, smiling and cocking his head to the side. I couldn't help but smile back. I had known him and his smile for most of my life, but why it seemed to render me so powerless right now, I don't know.
I was expecting him to take my books and escort me down to the nurse, what I didn't expect was my arm being slung over his shoulders and an arm tightly fixed against my waist.
"Derek, what the…"
"Shh. Let's go. Don't put anymore pressure on that then is necessary, it looks pretty deep, I don't want it to open any more. I am so sorry Mer. I just…I was rushing to class, and…"
"Derek, it's fine. I'm still breathing. And it's good to know I'm not the only one who doesn't want to be late."
I leaned into him and let him guide me down the hall. There was something about him that just seemed so comforting. A soft scent maybe, I couldn't put my finger on it. I just knew it felt like home. Breathing him in deeply was almost enough to forget the steady throb in my foot, almost.
"Mer," I heard as he shook me gently, "Meredith?" I broke out of my trance and looked up at him. "We're here," he said, pointing to the door of the nurse's office.
"Oh, yeah," I said softly, attempting to move out of his grasp.
"Hold on, I've gotten you this far, I'm going to take you all the way."
"Oh, ok," I told him as we walked through the door.
"What happened to you?" Nurse Williams asked from behind her desk.
"I stepped on her," Derek said quickly, "it was an accident."
"Sure Romeo," she replied, not noticing the blush on both of our faces. And then looked at me, "you're lucky track season is over missy. I'm sure Coach Becker would love to have this keep her star runner out."
"I'm fine." I tell her, "I just need a band-aid."
"I'll be the judge of that," Nurse Williams said, "Derek, help her up on that table and I'll take a look."
At this point, Derek had put our books down, so rather than help me walk to the table, he just picked me up and carried me across the room.
"Derek!" I squealed as he set me down.
"Relax." He told me gently.
"Alright, let's see." Nurse Williams said as she slid over and grabbed a stool. She slid my sandal off gently, but I still flinched. She didn't notice, but Derek did. Before I knew what was happening, he took my hand in his.
"I'm sorry Mer," he said softly. I just nodded my head and looked down, watching Nurse Williams examine my foot.
"Well, it looks superficial. You don't need stitches, and it's not broken. The nail might fall off, but it looks like it's just cracked. You'll be dancing in time for prom I'm sure."
"Yeah…prom…" I mumbled softly.
No one said a word while she finished cleaning up my toe. My eyes watered and I bit the inside of my lip when she poured the hydrogen peroxide over it. Derek noticed this and wrapped his left arm around me and reached over and took my right hand in his right hand. I let out a breath I hadn't known I was holding once the gauze was wrapped and taped down.
"All set," she said. "I'm just going to clean this off," she told me, picking up my bloodied flip-flop.
"Oh…thanks."
"Feel better?" Derek asked, now standing in front of me.
"Yeah," I said, the only thing making me sad was the loss of contact with him. I'm pretty sure I'd take a cut on my toe everyday if it meant Derek would wrap his arms around me.
"I'm so sorry. I just…I feel bad. Prom is so close and I hope you can still go and dance and have fun."
"Yeah, that," I said, hoping he'd drop it. I really didn't want to tell my friend who'd been nominated for Prom King that I was too much of a loser to have a date.
"You are going, aren't you?" he asked.
"I don't know."
"If I have to go, you have to go." He told me.
"Yeah, well, we can't all be nominated for Prom King with dates falling at our heels."
"Here you go my dear," Nurse Williams interrupted, handing me my shoe.
"Thank you," I told her, carefully sliding the sandal back on my foot.
"No, we can't all be nominated and not have a date." He replied once Nurse Williams had left us for another student.
"You don't have a date?" I asked as he helped me hop off the table.
"Nope," he said, handing me my books.
"Do you…" I began as we walked out into the hall, "Do you want to go together?" I asked him softly.
"ummm, ok." He said with a strange smile, as if he was shocked by my invitation. The shock was quickly replaced with the tilted head smile and my knees immediately felt weak.
"And there's this party after, I guess…at my house. Something…I don't know. Addison is throwing it together….and you probably don't want to go, but if you do or you just want to keep me company…"
"Mer," he said, placing his hands on my shoulders, "you're rambling. And I'd love to."
"Oh…Oh," I said again, realizing he had just agreed to go. "Well, I'm going to go…go to Math…so I'll…I'll see you later?"
"Yeah, later," he said with a smile before turning around and heading in the opposite direction. "And Mer?" he called over his shoulder.
"Yeah?"
"Keep that foot up. I want to be able to dance with you."