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December 21, 2017
Troy & Abed
Troy and Abed lay on the couch in their apartment on a late Sunday afternoon. They are both in their pyjamas and Troy has his legs scrawled across Abed's lap haphazardly. Abed's eyes are glued to the T.V. without any regard for Troy's limbs. They are currently watching re-runs of their favourite show, Inspector Spacetime, though Troy isn't as immersed into the episode as his best friend. He groans at Abed, trying to get his attention without actually having to go through the process of saying words, though, his groans fall of def ears as Abed continues to focus of the T.V.
After a few failed attempts at getting Abed's attention through his prehistoric noises, Troy results to pushing his friend with his feet. At first, Troy tries to make his advances seem unintentional, he pretends to readjust his position on the couch while at the same time lightly kicking Abed in the gut. Abed doesn't seem phased by Troy's antics, he doesn't even give Troy a single glance, he only clears his throat and continues to stare at the screen.
Seconds pass and Troy gets impatient of being subtle. He lifts his leg up and not-so-gently taps Abed on the shoulder, still without saying a word. To this, Abed pauses the show and turns to face Troy with an expressionless face.
"What?"
"I'm bored." Troy whines.
"But we're watching Inspector Spacetime. This is our favourite show." Abed tilts his head and furrows his eyebrows, pointing to the T.V. Troy was never bored while watching Inspector Spacetime, so this sudden change in attitude confused him.
"I know, but…" He hesitated. In all honesty, Troy didn't really know why he was feeling the way he did, all he knew was that watching Inspector Spacetime wasn't something that he wanted to do, he didn't really even want to do anything. Abed looked at him for a second before getting an idea.
"Do you hear that, Reggie?" Abed says in the Inspector's voice.
Troy sighs, "I don't think I want to play in the Dreamatorium today, Abed."
"Who's Abed, Constable?" Abed interrupts. "Have the Blorgons finally figured out how to take human form? Get up, Reggie! We haven't much… space." He stands straight up with a jump, causing Troy's legs to fall to the ground.
"No, Abed." He says forcefully while standing up. He puts a hand on Abed's boney shoulder, a sad-stern look on his face. "I really don't feel up to it right now." Abed gives him another confused look and another head tilt.
"Okay," He says in his regular robotic voice and sits back down on the couch, crossing his legs. He turns back to the T.V. and unpauses Inspector Spacetime, not giving his friend a second glance. Troy huffs and walks towards their bedroom/blanket fort and changes into his regular clothes. He checks his watch, the time reads 10:03. S'not too late to take a walk, Troy thinks.
"I'm goin' out for a walk." Troy tells Abed as he walks towards the door to their apartment.
"Cool… Cool." Abed replies, his gaze never leaving the T.V. "Cool cool cool."
The cool winter breeze hits Troy face on. He has to squint to prevent his eyes from going dry. As he walks he thinks, reflecting on his life and where he is mentally. He thinks about how he used to love living with Abed and Annie, remembers the day that Annie moved in and how happy he was to be living with two of his closest friends. But as the months went by he started feeling different, and it wasn't a good different. Slowly, he started not wanting to play in the Dreamatorium or stay up all night marathoning all the Saw movies. The only think he seemed to want to do was lay in his bunk and sleep the days away.
Abed noticed the slight changes in mood very quickly, but he didn't start worrying about it until Troy started skipping class. The only class Troy and Abed had together was their last class, Biology, so he wouldn't know that Troy had skipped until it was time for lunch. And when the study group was scheduled to meet up, Troy rarely ever showed which made Abed anxious, he hates not knowing what's going on with his best friend. He would try talking to him through text, but Troy was an awful texter and never replied back so Abed would just have to wait until the day was over to check on his friend or skip the meeting altogether, which didn't calm Shirly's suspicions of them being together.
As Troy was out on his walk, Abed was walking around the apartment, mainly their blanket fort, for anything that would signify Troy's depression. He didn't know what he would or wouldn't find and that thought scared him. His mind automatically thought of the worse things he could think up. Through the T.V. shows he had seen, he learnt that people with depression would use things to hurt themselves with. The thought of Troy feeling so bad that he felt the need to take his pain out on himself broke Abed's heart, so he franticly searched everywhere he thought you could hide a small object.
While he was on his walk, Troy thought more about his life. He thought about whether moving in with Abed was a mistake like his father had told him. He though about what would happen if he moved back in with his father and his 21-year-old girlfriend. He thought about what would happen if he just continued walking and never looked back. He thought about what would happen if he found a bridge. He thought about what would happen if he never returned home to Abed and Annie.
"That was a short walk." Abed says as Troy walks through the front door, his back pressed up against Troy's dresser, "Where did you go?"
Troy takes off his jacket and throws it on the couch before sitting down. He leans back into the cushions and rubs his eyes, yawning. "Nowhere, just down the street. I just needed to get some fresh air, y'know?"
"Yeah…" Abed walks back to the couch and sits down. He takes picks up the T.V. remote and points it towards the paused screen. "Do you want to continue watching Inspector Spacetime or do you want to watch the new Kickpuncher that just came out? Kickpuncher dans Paris.
Troy yawns again, "Nah, Abed, as terrible as that sounds, I think I'm gunna go to sleep." He stands up, leaving his jacket on the couch, and walks towards the blanket fort.
"Cool. Goodnight, Troy."
"'Night, Abed."