Pomegranate

Meredith - 5

"I vote for Seth," Corey said. "Seth, definitely."

"It's not a vote," Meredith grumbled from her bed, enveloped in a cocoon of blankets with crumbled Oreos stuck to the corner of her mouth. "It's not anything. I'm just telling you what happened."

What happened to be simply that they had been texting every day for two weeks now, which in Corey's language meant Something Was Up.

"Seth is nice. He's fun. He's charming. He's raising a bunny, dammit!" Corey listed the points on their fingers. "You've been pining after Benji for like, a year. It's time to move on, Mer."

"I like Seth, a lot, but...I'm in love with Benji."

Corey huffed and sat back down on their bed. "I don't know how you can just throw that around like that." They waved their hand in the air "I'm in love with him — seriously! You never even dated, you never even kissed."

Corey couldn't understand, but, how could they? Meredith knew herself enough by now, she knew, goddammit. It didn't matter it was platonic, it existed. It was there.

Twisting Meredith's heart.

She thought of Seth, his wide smile, and how everything was just...easy. They clicked. It was simple, it was comfortable. For the whole day, she thought of texting him and asking about Persephone, and if he needed help with her. Trying to find reasons for them to hang out.

"I guess you could always tell Benji how you feel," Corey said, casually.

Meredith turned to face the wall, escaping Corey's gaze.

The next day, she finally texted Seth and asked if she could visit Persephone. Not babysitting while he was away, but just hanging out there with him. He responded almost immediately. She smiled when his text popped up on her screen.

"Not going to Spectrum tonight?" Meredith asked a few days later, sitting on Seth's desk. The Spectrum email had just popped up on her phone while she watched the trailer for a new comedy movie. Benji had sent her the trailer, suggesting they try to go later in the week. Meredith wasn't sure if it was the guilt over possibly transferring schools, or how much time she was spending with Seth, but lately, Benji had tried to be more present. He texted her more often, suggested more plans, even baked her gingerbread cookies. Meredith wasn't sure what to make of it. She always liked spending time with him, sure, but if he only felt inclined to act like this because of Seth, it almost made Meredith want to pull away. To say, it's been a year, but only when another guy shows up you decide to show me how much you care?

Bullshit.

"Nah. Meeting topic didn't really speak to me," he said, petting Persephone's head. Meredith closed the YouTube tab on her phone, her mind returning to the present.

"' Talking about queerness with your parents'?" She read from the email.

"I have two moms. I think I have that covered."

"Fair enough."

"What are you up to tonight?"

"Um..." She put her phone away and petted the space between Persephone's ears. "Just getting dinner, I guess. Doing some work."

"Okay." He checked his watch. "We can grab dinner together."

"Sure," she said, accompanied a wave of giddiness. As if dinner at the dining hall was a big deal. Suddenly, she decided to say, "Maybe we could go to that Thai place I told you about? I can drive."