I Will Follow You Into the Dark

CHAPTER 78

The Saturday evening after Derek returned to Seattle, he parked his car in the parking deck and grabbed the 6-pack of beer and the bag of takeout he had picked up on his way. He rode the elevator upstairs and walked down the hallway. Stopped at the familiar, door, he juggled everything he was carrying so that he'd be able to knock on the door. As he raised his fist to knock, the door swung open.

"Get your ass in here," Jen barked at him.

"Nice to see you again, too," he quipped.

"Funny. You think you're so funny. Neurosurgeons aren't funny. Not at all."

"I brought your favorite," Derek chimed in as he held up the bag of takeout, hoping to appease his distraught friend.

"Thanks. But I'm not hungry yet."

"Oh. OK. Want a beer?" he asked, opening one of his own.

"No. Not yet."

"Jen, I'm beat. I had three long surgeries today. I'm hungry. Let's eat, and then you can yell at me."

"No. Yell first. Eat later."

"But, Jen........," he whined.

He could tell by her stance and her facial expression that he wasn't winning this battle. Turning and walking into her living room, he plopped down on the sofa and kicked off his shoes. Taking a swig of his beer, he glanced over at her before purposefully looking everywhere else in the room.

"OK. First? Friends do not avoid each other. You broke that rule."

"I'm here. I didn't.........," he started.

"You haven't said three words to me all week. I've been dying to know what happened in Chicago. And I left you long, ranting messages telling you that and you didn't call me back. You've been holding out on me," she ranted.

"Not really. Just didn't want to talk about it."

"It?" Jen asked angrily, "So there's an 'it' you haven't talked to me about?"

Derek rolled his eyes and then laughed at her. "Oh," he began, "The graduation was great! Trent graduated with honors. I was very, very proud."

"That's wonderful, Derek, it really is. I'm happy for him and for you. But you know that's not what I'm talking about."

Derek raised an eyebrow at her and shrugged in feigned ignorance. She threw a pillow at him.

"OK. Jeez. Fine. I do have some news," he teased.

"News? What news? Tell me!" she demanded.

"Trent's getting married," he said proudly.

"What? Wow! When?"

"Do you want me to tell you or are you just going to play 20 questions?" he asked.

She glared at him before sighing and begging him for more details. Derek explained how Trent had proposed to Allison at the dinner after their graduation. It was a nice, clinical description of the event. Jen knew he was leaving out juicy details. But she was too stubborn to just tell him that she wanted to know.

"So when's the wedding?" she asked nonchalantly.

"Next summer after they finish their freshman year," he said, trying not to grin at her frustration.

"Oh, summer's a great time to get married."

"Yeah," he said as he laughed inwardly, knowing that she was dying to ask him more pointed questions. "So enough about me, how have you been? How's Patrick?"

Jen jumped up and lunged at him. Derek barely moved his beer in time to avoid a serious spill.

"Whoa! What in the world?" he sputtered, not entirely surprised that she was moving to place him in a choke hold.

"Jen! Seriously!" he sputtered, his face beginning to turn read.

"Spill," she demanded from her position straddling him on the sofa.

"Maybe I should call Patrick. He'd find this scene quite entertaining," Derek said, raising his eyebrows suggestively at her before she applied more pressure and got his attention. She glared at him, and he finally acquiesced.

"OK. Fine. What do you want to know?"

"Better. Much better, Derek. I'm not violent, you know that. You've just been torturing me all week with this weird silence about it all. Something happened.
What happened? Are you OK?"

He looked over at her and smiled. "I'm fine. I really am," he said as his mind wandered back to the events in Chicago.

Jen looked at him in frustration, "Details, dude. I need details."

"Well, before the big announcement, I got my hopes up about things with Meredith. Emotions were high. We were sharing in the happy event. There were looks and.........stuff," he began.

"Wow," was all Jen could say.

"Yeah, I know," he replied. "And then......well.......Meredith didn't take the engagement very well."

"Oh, that's not good," Jen said.

"No," he responded, "she blamed me since I loaned him the money for the ring and didn't tell her."

"Derek! That was.......why did you.........," Jen started.

Raising his hand to stop her, he replied, "I didn't know why he wanted the money. But I got blamed anyway."

"Well, what happened?"

"Trent took Meredith's car to the party, so I drove Mer and the girls home. The girls went to a friend's house. I had been so eager to talk to her, but she was furious........and scared of what had been happening between us that day."

Jen just sat there, nodding and encouraging him to continue. So he did. "Bottom line? We had a big fight and she told me to move on.........that she had done so years ago. Then she told me to leave," he said, his face unreadable.

"Derek, that's just horrible. You seem so.......OK with all of this—are you?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said, pausing a long while before he added, "because I didn't leave," and glanced over to watch his friend's mouth fall open.

"You didn't leave?" she asked, completely shocked but almost smiling.

"No. I almost did, but then I just couldn't."

"What did you do?"

"I ran upstairs, kissed her and then I told her I'd see her at the wedding. Then I left."

"What?!!"

"I told you."

"Man, you are way too rusty. You need lessons. Not the way to get the girl, Derek. Don't kiss and leave.........kiss and.......do more," Jen suggested.

"No. I'm thinking that kissing and leaving was the perfect thing to do," he said, smiling.

"I'm confused," Jen said, "Why is this good? You won't see her again for a year?" But then she saw the way his eyes had grown darker with passion and with something akin to hope as he relived the memory. She sat mesmerized by the appearance of him reliving that kiss. "Holy crap. That was some kiss," she said.

"Yeah, it really was," he said.

"So it was an 'I love you..........so screw me soonish' kiss?"

"Better," he replied, "it was an 'I love you' so do me forever" kiss.

"I see," Jen said, watching her friend closely.

"Even better than that," he said as he stood to go get another beer. He looked over at her and finished his sentence happily, "she gave me one of those kisses back."

Jen grinned broadly at the happy smile on his face. Maybe. Maybe there was hope for them, after all.