A/N: Sorry, so, so sorry for not updating right away! I got stuck with school and all those stuff and kinda left this one on the backseat. Anyway, here's the latest installment. Still not much reviews, but I'm hoping we'll get there. Hee. :) I have another story brewing somewhere and hopefully all the school stuff boils down so I can start with it. For the meantime, enjoy this one. Don't forget, please read and review! Thanks so much:)

Two: Tequila

Jose is my very best friend. Other than Cristina, of course.

He's been a very good friend of mine right from the beginning, just as he is being a good friend to me and my friends right now as we all sit here in Joe's counter, chugging down alcohol like there's no tomorrow. Tequila has always been my poison of choice ever since I discovered him back when I was in stringy bubble-gum pink hair and Goth inspired outfits. For the record, that was about a decade and a half ago.

The thing with tequila is that I know I'll be sorry when I wake up in the morning. I've always been sorry the moment I experienced the wondrous headache Jose brings when I get up—memories of the night before long gone and some unknown guy sleeping next to me naked. But that's not going to happen to me tonight. No sir, not anymore.

There are five upturned shot glasses in front of me and I've turned them into a little pyramid. It's a sure sign that I'm not drunk yet but a few more and everything will come tumbling down, along with my sanity and everything else that comes with it. Alex is sitting next to me, downing a bottle of beer in two gulps and he shakes his head when he meets my eyes, immediately grabbing the shot that Joe just poured out.

"Hey!" I whine, hitting him slightly on the arm as he winces from the burning sensation the tequila brought to his throat, "That was mineeeee! Get your own poison."

Alex grunts at me, rolling his eyes as he flips over the shot glass. "You've had enough Meredith. I don't think you'd be able to walk out that door if you had that shot." I glare at him and motion for Joe to bring me another. "Suit yourself." He says, shrugging his shoulders and leaves when Joe comes over bearing my best friend Jose.

On my other side sat Cristina, while Izzie and George had the table behind us all to themselves. We're all drinking ourselves crazy, but it's not like they have worst problems than I do.

"What's up with you?" Cristina asked wryly as I flipped another shot glass on the counter. "Are you drinking yourself dry?"

"Probably."

"Is there any particular reason?"

I look back at Cristina and roll my eyes at her, motioning to Joe to line up a few more shots for me. He shakes his head as he reluctantly places three more shots of tequila on the counter.

"My half-sister is sleeping with Alex." I mutter nonchalantly, thinking Cristina still doesn't know about the recent events that have transpired in my house. She snorts.

"Which new crackwhore hasn't slept with Alex anyway?"

"And I don't want to stop having sex with Derek."

Cristina huffs beside me and downs the drink she had in her hand. She looks at me and shakes her head slightly, turning her body to face me.

"Is there any other reason why you're drinking that I don't know about?"

I drop my head onto my hands, letting the effects of the alcohol seep into my now confused brain. The tequila is doing its job well, seeing as I feel slightly light-headed and Joe's bar has now gone a shade darker. I turn my head slightly in my hands, focusing my eyes on Cristina as she takes a sip of another drink that Joe had made for her.

"No," I mutter quietly to Cristina, sighing deeply before continuing. "No reason."

"Mmmph," Cristina grunted as she watched me rest my head on Joe's counter. I look up at her, sighing deeply before opening my mouth to speak.

"I love Derek. I love him too much that I can't stop seeing him. That it's more than just the sex," I groan, rolling my head slightly so my forehead now rests on the counter, "I can't not have Derek."

Tequila. It makes me say things, and do things, and forget things. Most of the time, they don't end well. Sometimes, they end well, then they come falling down and ruin everything. Either way, tequila, it's this thing that turns everything in my life around and around, spinning in circles.

ooo

Cristina's not sitting beside me anymore. Instead, I find a pair of blue eyes watching me intently as I lift my head up from Joe's counter looking messy and disheveled. Not drunk, just messed up. Or something like that.

I blink. Derek is sitting right across me, a glass of scotch in his hand with that McDreamy smile playing in the corner of his lips. He looked amused. And downright hot and sexy. I blink again and his smile just becomes wider.

"What," I pull my head up and turn my head around, looking for Cristina, "What happened? Where's Cristina?"

Derek smirks at me in that annoyingly cute way of his and he places the bottle of scotch down on the counter before facing me. He reaches over and strokes my cheek with the back of his fingers, his breath catching slightly on my skin as he leans forward towards me and I could literally feel the hairs in the back of my neck prickle in anticipation. It's those kinds of things that makes me wanna hate him, love him, things that make me wanna jump him in the middle of this room.

"Hey," Derek whispers softly as he runs his fingers across my cheek, "Did you have a good nap?"

I stare back at him, my mouth hanging open slightly. "I… what?"

"Nap, Meredith." He repeated, smiling slightly as he straightened in his seat. "You were taking a nap. Are you drunk?"

"Oh, uh, no." I answer in disbelief; somewhat reprimanding myself for letting Jose get to me this far. "I'm uh, just sleepy."

Derek snorted, shaking his head and downing what remained of his scotch. I, on the other hand have resorted to burying my head back in my hands.

"Cristina left a while ago," I hear Derek talking right beside me and I turn to look at him. He smiled. "She did tell Izzie and George to keep an eye on you, but…" George and Izzie were sitting on the table behind us, half buried in conversation and half sex crazed that they haven't been noticing the passing glances of the people around them. Okay, so maybe they weren't the best people to ask for any sort of favor to keep an eye on your slightly drunk friend.

"Hmmm," I respond, rolling my eyes at my friends as they sat behind us, "I noticed."

"It's a good thing I found you then." Derek tilted his head to the side, and I groan in frustration seeing as tequila—once again, have brought me to this situation. "Do you want me to bring you home?"

"Home?" I repeat in confusion, thinking otherwise of Derek's intentions. I look around and find Izzie and George groping their way out of the bar and I look back at Derek, shaking my head indicating that home isn't going to be in my list of go to places right now. He smirked.

"Or we could go somewhere else…"

I nod my head quietly and Derek smiles. He helps me up from my stool and helps me to my coat as we head towards the door and into his car. About a year or so before, the same thing happened and my life is just on rewind.

See, this is where tequila always ends up. Sometimes, I'm not sure if Jose is being nice to me or if he's making me miserable.