Back To You ~ (Cazzie Fanfic)

Casual

Things get weird for a bit. Try to have faith guys.

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"But... aren't you worried you're gonna get injured?" Izzie asks, taking her glass of wine from the bartender with a concerned expression.

Casey shifts on her tired legs and rolls her shoulders a bit, trying to stretch out the soreness. Izzie had taken one look at her as she walked into the wine bar and her brow had furrowed. Izzie's friend Paula is throwing a birthday party for herself at her favorite wine bar and she invited Casey. It's a sophisticated place in an old converted shop front with smooth, vaguely electronic music that fades seamlessly into the background and tiny plates perfectly topped with even tinier portions of incredible cheese and tapas. Casey met Paula when she went to see a matinee movie with Izzie and Dylan a few weeks prior and Paula had tagged along. It was a stupid, college humor comedy that had made them all roll their eyes even as they couldn't help laughing along.

Izzie has a lot of friends, Casey is learning. There are the queer friends and the work friends and the UConn friends and the community college friends. Then there's Gabby's friends and Dylan's friends, and their siblings and parents. And, of course, the Clayton friends. There also seems to be a lot of overlap amongst those friend groups, with Izzie at the center, holding them all together. She's clearly introduced people to each other who then became friends and almost everywhere they go they run into people who squeal and throw their arms around her or vice versa. And as far as Casey can tell she, herself, seems to be in the process of being slowly pulled into the orbit of all these worlds that are spinning around around Izzie, their bright, central star. It's been nice. Casey doesn't have many friends here any more. Honestly, she's not great at keeping in touch with people. And, since arriving a couple months ago, it's been nice to have things to do and people to hang out with while she settles into post college life.

There also seems to be another group that she runs into when she's out with Izzie; women of various ages and appearances who are not quite in the friend category. They smile knowingly at Izzie with a wink or a "hey" or a bitten lip.

Sometimes they look her up and down saying, "Haven't heard from you in a while Izzie."

Or, "Did you lose my number?"

Or, "We should, uh... hang out again," said with a flirtatious smile.

Izzie doesn't seem to think much of any of this.

She takes it in stride and either smiles with a slight blush saying, "I've been busy. I'll text you," or, more firmly, "Alright, alright, now's not a good time. I'll call you," even though it seems pretty obvious to Casey she has no intention of calling or texting anyone.

When Gabby or Dylan are there they roll their eyes or completely ignore these women. And sometimes the women eye Casey curiously, or even suspiciously.

In spite of all these friends Izzie always seems to have plenty of time for Casey. They've even started running together once or twice a week. Izzie joins her for her long morning run, peeling off halfway to go shower and change for work. It makes the time go faster and sometimes, when they're running side by side through a particularly quiet or scenic part of the trail, Casey has the disorienting feeling that time has stopped... or become eternal. Or something like that.

The first time they'd run together... well the first time in three years anyway... Casey had remarked, "Wow, your stamina is really good. Did you get faster?"

Izzie had squinted at her sideways and said wryly, "Gee thanks. It's almost like I went to college on a track scholarship."

Chastened, Casey had grinned bashfully and said, "Sorry, I'm an idiot."