The First Time

1.

Meredith Grey rushed around trying to get ready knowing that she was going to be late. There was no way that she could get there on time. She wondered again why she had agreed to this. She had promised herself that this year would be different. She would be the one in control .... It was one of her New Year's resolutions ... supposedly one of the easy ones. And how long had it lasted? Not even 3 weeks. How would she ever manage to pull off the others?

But she'd really had no other choice she reasoned.

She hadn't known when she'd made that resolution that her roommate, Izzie Steven's mother would be diagnosed with breast cancer. And here she was trying to get to her roommates part-time job so that she could cover for her because Izzie had jumped on a plane and flown home to be with her mother. Izzie was desperate not to lose the job that she needed to make ends meet while she finished her final year of college before going to medical school. So Meredith had, without a second thought, volunteered to cover for her until she got back.
But she still had her own part-time job at the library to fulfill as well. Plus lectures were not an option to miss and the assignments were building up thick and fast. There were so many things that she should have been doing tonight rather than covering the desk at the off campus gym where Izzie worked but ... Meredith had promised.

She quickly grabbed a granola bar and an apple as she rushed out the door knowing that she would have no other chance to eat tonight and hurriedly made her way down the stairs to her waiting car.

She covered the few blocks in record time and quickly made her way into the gym. She felt awkward and self conscious wearing Izzie's uniform. As far as Meredith was concerned the shorts were way too short. The top was way too small. Too tight .... too skimpy, she thought as she tried again to pull it down to meet the waist band of the gym shorts which were skin tight and left nothing to the imagination, only to have the top spring back up revealing a not so small strip of bare mid drift. There was nothing that she could do. Izzie may have been quite happy wearing the outfit, but then she was an athlete and she did modeling and was used to people seeing her dressed like this. But for Meredith nothing could have been further from the truth. Sure she may have looked okay ... but she had long ago come to terms with the fact that she was gangly and uncoordinated. This could not have been further from the truth, but years of living with the impossible expectations and stiflingly critical eye of the fabulous Dr. Ellis Grey had made her believe it. That was part of why she avoided gyms and anything to do with sport at all costs. They only made her perceived lack of coordination more obvious and made her feel worse. Whereas Izzie was all tanned, lithe and supple - the ultimate guy's fantasy. Meredith felt that, when compared to her friend, she came across as the ultimate ugly duckling.

She quickly made her way behind the reception desk apologizing profusely for her tardiness to Jennifer, the day girl that she had to take over from. Izzie had told Meredith that she would be able to spend most of her time sitting behind the desk so that no one would actually get to see much of what she was wearing anyway. That was the only reason that she had eventually agreed to wear the uniform. Well ... that ... and the fact that Izzie told her that it was a part of the job. Meredith did not understand why she could not have just worn the practical shirt and skirt that she wore to the library. But Izzie had indicated that the owners of the gym wanted the clients to feel 'comfortable' while they were there and since the clients would be wearing gym clothes, then so should the staff. Plus it didn't hurt that all of the staff there were attractive and were the perfect advertisement for a beautiful body. Meredith had tried to argue with Izzie that while it made sense for her to wear the uniform as she would attract customers that Meredith would only send them running ... which of course Izzie had informed her was totally untrue. Izzie had tried and tried over the last 3 years to get Meredith to accept just how attractive she was but still with little success. Izzie knew all about Meredith's past and she knew just why it was that Meredith had so little confidence in her appearance and that was part of the reason why she had pushed Meredith with the rest of New Year's resolutions for the year.