Mind over Matter

Chapter Thirteen: Let It Be

Meredith carefully squinted her eyes open at the familiar sound of her alarm. It was the day after her dinner with Mark, Lexie, and Derek. Her head was pounding as she slowly came down to earth from her sleep-induced high. She grimaced at the sound of the loud and annoying alarm, which didn't seem to be shutting up anytime soon.

Meredith covered her ears with her pillow before stretching one of her arms out and smacking her alarm, causing it to stop beeping. As soon as the frantic sound stopped, she let out a sigh of relief.

Meredith blinked a few times before closing her eyes and rubbed her temples profusely. The hangover caused by the previous night seemed to be hitting her harder than ever before. Meredith glanced at her now quiet wake-up device from hell and read the brightly lit letters and numbers.

06:30 AM

Her eyes had slowly become adjusted to the absence of light around her. It was still dark outside, as the sun would rise in a couple of hours from now. Her disorientation faded as she realized why her alarm woke her up this early. She had it on its repeat setting, which caused it to go off at the same time every morning unless she turned it off herself. Then it hit her...

She was going to have to work with this gigantic hangover...

Meredith sighed, rolled back over, and stretched her arm out, expecting to find an empty spot next to her.

Instead, her hand touched a torso of chiseled flesh. She shot her eyes open wide and sat up, looking over at the sleeping figure next to her. Her eyes scanned the sleeping body as her mind tried to comprehend who they were, and how they ended up there.

As her eyes processed the person in bed with her, the events of the previous night rushed back to her...

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Meredith stood next to her car. She fumbled in her purse in search of her keys. Her hands roamed through the various trinkets in her bag; lipstick, post-its, wallet, cough drops, but no sign of her keys. She groaned as she pulled her hand out of her bag. Where were her damn keys!?...

The fact that Meredith had probably drunk half of the bottle of wine at her dinner wasn't proving to be a success as she stumbled over to her car. She looked into her car window and her eyes caught sight of them...

Her keys.... still dangling in the ignition... She must have forgotten them when she went inside of the building...

Meredith groaned and pulled at the car door, to her surprise, the door didn't move an inch. She had forgotten the fact that her car locks automatically. She let out a series of swears as she pulled her phone out of her purse to call a cab.

Ten minutes later the cab pulled up to the parking lot, stopping next to her. Meredith stepped inside and gave the car directions to the bar near the hospital; she really needed another drink...

Meredith paid and thanked the cab driver before stepping out of the vehicle. She walked into the Emerald City Bar. It was loud and filled to the brim with hospital personnel. She took a seat on one of the bar-stools and hollered at the bartender.

"What can I get for you?" Joe asked.

"Tequila... leave the bottle," Meredith said as she threw some cash on the wooden surface. Joe turned around and grabbed a shot glass, accompanied by a bottle of tequila. He sat the glass and bottle before her and watched as she filled it to the brim before throwing it back without hesitation. Meredith grimaced as the burning liquid slid down her throat.