invisible string

year 18

Ever since Meredith had made her feelings clear to him last Thanks Giving, Derek had been dating. And it had sucked. The only reason dating was better now than it was in high school was the girls were at least pretty now. He, according to a mildly frightening girl, was considered 'prime real estate.' He would have assumed that that would be a good thing, but generally it meant girls would go up to him, pretend to be normal and ask him out. Then on their date they would say something that he would assume some serial killer would also say.

Then he met Addie, or Addison Forbes Montgomery, his new girlfriend. His first ever girlfriend that he actually liked. She was tall, beautiful, smart, and confident. He honestly really enjoyed spending time with her. The only problem was Meredith. He hadn't actually told her he had started dating, and he was about to introduce her to his first serious girlfriend. He had been avoiding Meredith a little bit ever since he had gotten together with Addison, cause for some stupid reason in his head, he felt like he was cheating on Mer. Which was crazy. They weren't together, according to Meredith they didn't feel that way about each other.

So he was with Addison. They were standing in a bar waiting for Meredith to show up and he had a large lump in his throat. He didn't know how she was going to react. But once she knew about his girlfriend he could stop avoiding her and they could get back to normal. Well not normal, the kissing and sleeping in his bed would probably have to come to a stop, but everything else would be back to normal.

"Derek!" He heard behind him as Meredith maneuvered her way through the crowd.

"Hey Mer!" He smiled at her as she tried to kiss him. Instead he moved his head and hugged her. "This is Addison." He pointed to Addie, "My girlfriend."

Her face changed with some emotion he couldn't exactly decipher. Which was strange because it had been about a decade since he hadn't been able to decipher her facial expressions. "Girlfriend?" She asked.

"Hi." Addison said holding out her hand to Mer.

"Oh um- hi." She responded shaking her hand.

"It's nice to finally meet Derek's best friend." Addison said.

"She's not my best friend, she's-" He trailed off.

"Oh, she's one of your sisters." Addison said.

"No!" Meredith said quickly shaking her head.

"Well... Anyways, it's really nice to meet you, Derek talks about you all the time." Addison smiled.

"Oh- he hadn't actually told me he was dating anyone." Meredith said.

"Well it's newish." She said eyeing Derek.

"Hmm well..." Meredith trailed off.

"So you're an undergrad? What's your major?" Addison asked, sipping her martini.

"I'm pre-med." Meredith answered dryly.

"Oh, just like Derek's sisters." She said with a smile.

"Actually my mother is a famous surgeon, so doctoring is in my genes." Meredith stated.

"That's great." Addison said. "Do you have a boyfriend or girlfriend?"

"No, I don't really date. But according to Derek's family, I'm secretly dating Derek." Meredith laughed quietly.

"But as you said," Derek added, "We don't feel that way about each other."

"Yea." Meredith breathed.

"And that's a good thing, because that would make us a little awkward." Addison laughed, kissing Derek's forehead.

"Yea, we wouldn't want this to be awkward." Meredith said dryly.

"This is certainly better than the girlfriend/Meredith introductions in high school." Derek laughed. "Meredith always had a special talent for getting my girlfriends to dump me within a couple days of meeting her."

"To be fair, you were never good at picking girlfriends." Meredith smiled sweetly.

"But now he has figured it out." Addison said, swinging her arm around Derek's waist.

"He sure has." Meredith said. "I think I'm going to go get a drink." She walked away and Addison turned to him.

"That was fun." She said sarcastically.

"Sorry, it will get better. Meredith is just a little protective over me." He explained.

"uh-huh, sure she is." She sighed.

"She is." Derek confirmed. "And meeting the sisters will be easier."

"I hope so." She sighed.

"It will be." He said as he kissed her forehead. He never understood why Meredith was so hostile towards his girlfriends. Sure in high school he dated some not great girls, but there was nothing wrong with Addison. She had no reason to dislike her, so what was Meredith's problem? She didn't want to date him so why did she care if he dated other girls.