"My part as Sheldon should be obvious. Troy would make a good Leonard even with his sports abilities. Britta makes a natural Penny, the sexual appealing blonde who doesn't understand pop culture references. I fear the rest of the cast is in applicable as none of them fit the-"

"I could be that one girl, the smart one with the glasses," Annie said excited that she'd known the show well enough to think of that. She'd only recently caught up with the newest episodes.

"You're thinking of Amy, but that wouldn't work," Abed said without thinking too much about it, "Amy is Sheldon's girlfriend and since I'm Sheldon that'd be weird."

"Weird…" Annie repeated a bit shocked. Weird? It'd be weird if the characters they were claiming were dating? Abed thought she was too weird to date even in a simulation situation? But they had kissed more than once and he hadn't thought she was too weird then. She fidgeted with her hair as she realized that her feelings were hurt.

She realized the topic had changed. They were discussing how Jeff would be Howard's idealized self. Jess refused to be in any way connected with a character who owned that many ugly belt buckles. Abed was impressed that Jeff had seen Big Bang Theory at all.

The rest of the study group went by uneventfully, besides Troy refusing to believe that cheese was mold. It was just too delicious to be something so disgusting. Annie didn't try and correct him, leaving it to Jeff and Britta. She was staring down at her pen when she felt eyes on her. She glanced up slowly and saw Abed staring at her, waiting and expecting her to say something. When she met his eyes, he didn't turn away. Instead his expression changed. He pondered for a moment then turned his attention back to their friends. Annie didn't know what to think about his expression. She went back to copying highlighted text from her book onto her paper. She felt eyes again, but she didn't look up.

The group casually dismissed at six o'clock and Annie didn't linger, her bag already prepacked. She left first and waited in the hallway by Abed's locker. He came around the corner casually and saw her, eyes going wide for a moment before calmly going to his locker.

"We're going to have a talk, aren't we?" he asked his focus on his opening his lock.

"I just-I mean-"Annie started then stopped. What could she say? Hey weirdo what right do you have to think I'm too weird to date? You should be happy I even considered the idea for a second. She hated herself as she realized that was basically what she had been thinking. Between what he'd seen and what Jeff had said before, it made her feel like something was wrong with her. She could be a good girlfriend, she knew it.

"Can we skip this one?" Abed asked breaking her train of thought.

"Skip what?' she asked her eyes squinting slightly and frowning again.

"The realizing a platonic friend is a romantic option and then regretting it trope," Abed explained. The words romantic option made her shift awkwardly, putting her hands on her backpack straps.

"I don't get it," she admitted watching him suspiciously. Abed sighed and rolled his eyes.

"I understand. It's not commonly used and for good reason. It's long winded and can easily ruin the dynamic of two characters," Abed said opening his locker and pulling out his books He held them in front of himself as he turned back to her.

"What does that mean? What are we skipping?"

"I said it would be weird if we were Sheldon and Amy, because they are dating. After so many rejections from Jeff-"

"That so does not bother me anymore."

"Of course," Abed said a bit too quickly and Annie knew he didn't believe her,

"After unsuccessful romantic entanglements you're worried that it has something to do with you. You've begun to pressure yourself into proving that your worthy of a guy, any guy. My pseudo rejection brought up those feelings in earnest and now you feel determined to show me that it wouldn't be weird at all. Your plan will start out this talk, but no matter how much I reassure you, you won't believe me. You'll fixate on proving that you'd make a great girlfriend and hatch a plan. We'd spend more time together, which would be nice, but things would start changing. You'll start engaging in more physical contact, casually pressing your arm against mine during a movie or leaning your head on my shoulder when you get tired. You might even fall asleep in the pillow fort with me after a long discussion on movies, life and everything, and then we have an awkward morning moment when we wake up, possibly in one another's arm," he said then watched to make sure she understood. She nodded so he continued.

"You would be especially anxious about it. You'll start believing that these encounters suggest you have an attraction to me after all and you feel like you should act on it. Things will become tense as you realize I'm a sexual being, one you could see yourself with. Finally, after a particularly moving moment, you'd kiss me. I'll be shocked, but after analyses not surprised. After the kiss you'll realize that it didn't make you feel like it should. You compare it to kissing Jeff and even Vaughn. You decide there is nothing there after all and have to let me down softly. I take it well, but there is still an odd air of tension for an episode or two before we have a reconnecting event and then we pretend it never happened."

Annie stared at him, her mouth hanging slightly open. She was trapped between being angry at him for assuming he knew her so insanely well and being impressed at the details. She shivered slightly, imagining waking up in his bed. The imagery was so sharp in her mind that she blushed.

She'd say he was wrong, but she'd been here to have a talk with him. Step one and she was on it. Abed was rarely wrong about these things either.

"Okay," she said with a little roll of her eyes as she tried to make the conversation lighter, "Okay, I agree. We can skip all that."

"Cool. Cool. Thanks," he said his lips curling into an almost smile, but it didn't reach his eyes. For a split second he looked sad, but it was so fleeting she wondered if she hadn't imagined it.

He turned without much ceremony and went down the hall. She watched him go; feeling like the world was slightly upside down.

She'd never, ever considered Abed like that. She'd thought about Troy, mostly in high school, but some in community college too. She didn't think about him at all these days, but that was only because she'd grown past him. Jeff was a completely different situation, one that was still ongoing and insanely confusing. Abed had been her safe guy. He was so nice, funny, and smart, but she'd never thought of him like that. He helped her escape her own over organized world and enter his chaotic, imaginative one. He made her playful and gave her the courage to try new things. He'd let her explore the Dreamatorium with him and she'd actually been able to help him.

Her heart did an odd jump as she thought about it. She'd started calling it to the Jeff Jump, because it had never happened for anyone else before. She put a hand over heart and realized she'd had a Jeff Jump for Abed. No, no she'd had a heart palpitation. That made way more sense. After all the two of them together…well that'd be weird. She turned and started down the hallway as quickly as she could as if she could outrun the situation.