"Hey Abed?" Troy was lying on the bottom bunk in Abed's dorm room, trying to fall asleep. His brain just wouldn't shut up.
"Yeah?"
"What if... Never mind, it's stupid." That hadn't stopped it from plaguing Troy's mind for the past few days.
"No, tell me."
"What if I had drawn that picture?"
Abed didn't answer at first. Troy was almost positive he knew which picture. The one in his textbook with hearts around it, that he didn't draw but honestly could have.
"Strictly speaking, the bible condemns this level of friendship," Abed said finally, in an eerily convincing Shirley impression. Troy almost checked the top bunk to see if it really was her.
"Neither of us is Christian," he pointed out instead. "And you didn't answer my question."
"It depends what you meant by it. The drawing."
Troy swallowed. He wasn't going to do it again, psych himself up and then brush this conversation off with a joke, or a nervous laugh and a handshake. The drawing had almost brought things to the surface, and he wasn't going to let them sink to the ocean floor again.
"What does it ever mean?" Troy squirmed uncomfortably. His stomach felt like before a high school football game and a college dance recital combined.
"In Titanic, Jack drew Rose."
"It's not like I drew you naked or anything, man, it's..."
"It's more of an abstract comparison. The sketch was meant to convey love, not lust."
"And what if I did mean that?" He held his breath.
Abed answered well before Troy ran out of air. "I'd be lucky. Requited love is pretty uncommon."