Intro to History of Addiction

Chapter One

The Greendale Seven, known for their campus shenanigans to all other students as well as their hogging of the schools best study room, met for their usual 4 PM study session on a Tuesday afternoon. They all took their usual seats in the blue walled and carpeted room, most of them always trying to forget the fact that two of their members, former anarchist Britta Perry and disgraced lawyer Jeffery Winger, had once had sex on the table. But of course once they reminded themselves not to think about it that image was all they saw. Luckily it always passed quickly between arising arguments between two or more members. The usual arguing parties were the aforementioned on again off again paramours; house wife/owner of Shirley's Sandwiches, Shirley Bennett and Hawthorne Wipes CEO Piece Hawthorne; or there was a three way argument between roommates Troy "Buttsoup" Barnes, Annie Edison (aka Annie Adderall) and the adorable but strange Abed ("The Arab" ("is that offensive?" –Pierce Hawthorn)) Nadir. But today before some kind of argument could arise on any given subject there was something they group had never heard at their study room door—a knock.

Usually the Dean entered with his usual "Dean-Dong" or some other atrocious pun while wearing a ridiculous transgender outfit. But the knock suggested a stranger, a fact that relieved but also disturbed Jeff. Yes, it wasn't the dean coming in to feel up his pecs again, which hey could you blame him? he always thought. But it was someone barging in on their territory and their precious study session. Having an unwanted guests cut out their usual 15 minutes of study time after 45 minutes of arguing.

"Knock knock." A young man said peeking into the room.

"Who's there?" Troy asked enthusiastically.

The man came into view and everyone stared, each member of the Greendale Seven noticing a particular trait about him.

Jeff noticed his hair first; thick, wavy and so dark brown it was almost black with a few glimmers of sandy brown from the suns natural rays not from a bottle. He also noticed that his stubbly beard actually connected at the corners of his mouth forming a goatee.

Britta noticed his jacket; black, military style with two round buttons over the left breast pocket. One had the words "Read Banned Books" and the other had a cartoon picture of a beet with eyes, legs, arms, and a pair of headphones on with the words "Beet got beat" across the top.

Abed saw the Andy Warhol inspired design of his shirt with four Technicolor pictures of William Shakespeare, as well as the Inspector Space Time buttons on his messenger bag.

Troy just noticed that there was someone was standing in the doorway.

Pierce noticed that he was white.

Shirley noticed his skinny jeans praying to the Lord that they weren't so tight this cute boy couldn't have children after wearing them.

And finally, Annie noticed his eyes. Round and soft which fit perfectly on his face, they weren't too close or too far apart, the Goldilocks of eye positioning. And their color, she thought, My God that color. Bright, sharp, deep, and blue, they pierced through your own eyes into your soul. They were the kind of eyes that you could stare into infinitely, that made you feel safe but at the same time made you yearn for danger and adventure. Her heart starting beating faster when she saw those blue eyes as old feelings she thought she reconciled with rushed back.

"Hey Annie." he said.

"'Hey Annie,' who?" Troy asked from across the table.

"Troy," Britta whispered, "He's not telling a knock-knock joke!"

The study group shifted their attention from the young man in the doorway to Annie whose face had flushed and her eyes glassed over with tears brimming. She clenched his fists feeling her nails dig into her skin and bit her lip to stop it from quivering. While she looked like she was about to explode, he remained calm, staring at her with nothing but a look of undying affection in his eyes and a small smile.

No one spoke. The entire group looked at Annie. Annie looked at the visitor in the study room and he looked back at her, pleading with his eyes for her to say something. Finally she got up and slowly walked over to him never breaking eye contact. His smile grew bigger as she stood right in front of him but before he could say anything else her palm made contact with his cheek, sending him reeling backwards as a collective gasp from the six people sitting in the room emerged.

"Oh snap!" a voice said from the other room entrance. Everyone turned to see former Spanish professor and current music major Ben Chang standing in the doorway.

"Chang get the hell out of here!" Annie shouted striking fear into everyone in the room. They had seen competitive Annie; they had seen sad Annie, desperate Annie, happy Annie, basically every emotionally ranged Annie except for this one. This was different. This was scary. It was like she was bursting at the seams with anger, rage, hatred, heartbrokenness, love, and longing, and even she didn't know which one was overpowering. They were all forcing on her equally causing the red face, the tears, the shouting, and the slapping. Everyone sank in their seats and shut up.

The young man, who was probably three or four years older than Annie and only an inch or two taller than her, tried to speak again but was cut off when she landed another slap on his face.

"Ow!" he cried out holding his burning red cheek. "Same. Exact. Spot!"

"Five years!" she yelled. "Five years since I've seen you and you think you can just waltz in here and say 'Hey'?!"

"I think I said 'Hey Annie,'" he smirked before ducking and taking a small step back when Annie raised her hand. "Please don't hit me again!"

"I can't believe you." She said lowering her voice, the tears that were once just surfacing now streaming down her hot face.

"I know, I know," he said dropping the smile and looked deeply into her eyes. "I'm a jackass. And I deserved those two slaps. But Annie, please, just listen to me-"

"Why should I?" she crossed her arms. "You betrayed me and most importantly you left me. So why should I listen to anything you have to say?"

His face was bright red and the study group could only imagine how bad it stung. Abed would say later on of Annie "To quote Shakespeare; 'Though she be but little, she is fierce.'" Jeff could vouch for that after Annie broke his nose one year.

"Because," he said. "I'm sticking around."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm a student here now. I did it Sprinkles."

"Don't call me that." she clenched her jaw.

"I'm sorry, I can't keep quiet anymore." Pierce said. "Sprinkles? Do we have donuts or something?"

"No, sorry." The man said before taking a step forward. "Let me introduce myself; I'm Jameson. Or Jamie for short."

"Is that Jameson whisky, Jameson?" Pierced asked.

Jamie paused for a moment not knowing if he was serious or not and finally answered. "Uh, no."

"And how do you know Annie?" Jeff asked.

"None of your business." She said grabbing Jamie's arm forcefully. "Hallway. Now."

As Annie and Jamie left the room the six remaining group members simply sat in their chairs in disbelief still trying to process what had just happened.

"Who the hell was that guy?" Britta asked breaking the silence. "I mean, obviously someone from Annie's past, duh doy! But who exactly?"

"Troy did he go to school with you?" Jeff asked.

"No I don't think so. Then again I didn't know Annie went to my school. I mean they could have hung out and I just never noticed them, and then he suddenly got hot like she did after graduation—"everyone stared at him. "What, you can't deny he's a good looking dude."

They remained quiet before all agreeing. Even Jeff did, reluctantly.

"Look the point is," Britta, surprisingly being the coherent voice of reason, said, "He did something that really hurt her, and we have to make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Agreed." Jeff nodded.

"I say we lock him in that crappy study room we found and—"

"Nope!" Jeff cut her off. "We're not locking anyone in any place. And while I agree we should protect her she is an adult and I'm sure she can handle this."

Shirley shook her head. "Nuh uh. Annie is a woman scorn, that boy better watch out before he wakes up with his precious vinyl record collection smashed all around his bed and his authentic Cosby sweater ripped to shreds."

For what seemed like the 100th time in the last 15 minutes everyone was silent.

"This has been a weird day." Jeff said. "Why don't we all just go home and talk about this tomorrow."

Everyone agreed and stood up right as Annie and Jamie burst back in the door causing everyone to slam back down in their seats. .

"I'm not going to leave you alone before you talk to me."

"Forget it Jamie, I'm not talking to you."

"Please. I know what I did was horrible and I know I was a bad person before I met you. But after that day I knew that I didn't want to be that guy anymore."

"Well guess what? You're still that guy. You were that guy five years ago and I'm willing to bet that you're the same guy now. You haven't changed—"

"Yes I have."

"I don't care then!" she said throwing her hands in the air. "Now please leave."

"Annie—"

"Leave."

He paused and finally hung his head in defeat. "Okay."

Annie took a moment to steady her breathing and wipe her eyes before opening her text book. "Now where were we?"