Annie walked into the study room without her usual bounce and Abed, being the only one in the room at the time, immediately noticed. "Are you ok?" Abed knew the answer, obviously, but found that asking allowed people to actually ask themselves within and get closer to closure.
"Yeah. I'm fine…" She lied. Her posture was slightly slouching; she was definitely bothered.
Abed couldn't understand why Annie was hiding something that was obviously troubling her. She slammed her backpack on the desk (also highly un-Annie like) and began rummaging through random binders inside. After silently observing her, Abed decided to try again; he hated it when his friends were sad or angry...or any negative emotion that caused them to frown. "You can tell me what it is." He said plainly, getting up and walking to her side. "Maybe I could help."
She turned and almost startled Abed; he sees that small tears had begun to form in the corners of her eyes. "Sometimes people don't want to explain, Abed. Sometimes they just want to be hugged and told that 'everything's going to be ok.'" So that was exactly what he did and it's alright that that could possibly be a lie and that everything was not going to be ok. He would have been able to predict the outcome of the situation if he knew what the problem was, but Annie was happier now than she was when she walked in and she's quite soft and her hair smelled really nice. So he decided to go sit back down and wait for the rest of the group to arrive, watching her leave for the bathroom to wash her eyes.
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Troy sat looking at his shoes quietly. Abed mentally noted that his face wasn't made for frowns. Although still depressingly handsome, smiling complimented Troy's Troy-ness even more. He had spent the last few minutes sighing at his chemistry textbook, which had yet to be cracked opened. Abed knew he was struggling with that subject and could have easily sketch him up a good study schedule that would work. Instead he simply walked over, slid the book far across the table, hugged him, and told him everything was going to be alright. He could feel Troy's cheek crease into a small smile against his ear and felt Troy's arms wind around his waist. Abed never paid attention to many on-screen hugs or even sitcom hugs so he couldn't accurately decipher when this turned from comforting to awkward. He just decided to keep holding on until something else happened; he had made plans to be more out of mold lately anyway.
After a few more seconds, Troy muttered a "Thanks man. I needed that." into Abed's shoulder and pulled back from the hug. It pleased Abed to see a warm smile tug at the corner of his best friend's lips and was somewhat proud that he was the cause of it. A hug was quite a powerful thing. He made a mental note to thank Annie later. Troy seemed to be lost in his own thoughts, still teetering between being academically depressed and temporarily content; a very tough decision, indeed. Abed sat quietly beside Troy and thought that he should make the choices easier for him. Temporary contentness was nice, but not a very worthy contender when considering one's permanent grades. He settled he should do away with the temporary part for now; for as long as possible in fact. He grabbed Troy's hand from his lap causing the boy's head to shoot up. Abed translated the action as startled, but Troy's eyes were saying something completely different. They were consumed with reliance. That's all Abed could see; just plain reliance. "Let's go not-study?" He offered and Troy gave Abed an authentic smile which involuntarily made Abed's heart flutter; he'd have to explore that later. It wasn't a beaming smile that portrayed happiness or bliss, rather a small sobering one that showcased his lone dimple and simply said "Thank you for being my friend." Abed found that he liked this one all the same as the one he'd get for cracking a joke at a movie, or explaining Lost, which was somehow extremely comical to Troy. Instead of saying the proper "You're welcome" Abed instead squeezed Troy's hand and laced their fingers. He was on a role with this physical contact communication and didn't want to jinx it with unneeded words. Fascinatingly enough, when he got up so that he and Troy could find a cooler place to not-study, Troy didn't let go of his hand, or even hint that he wanted to let go; which Abed was more than fine with. He also really liked the way Troy followed him all the way to his dorm. Even though they both knew the way, Troy simply let Abed lead and Abed especially liked tugging his arm occasionally to notify him to turn or speed up.
They had wordlessly agreed to watch a movie together. Abed would have considered this cliché for them, but they never got tired of it and it was as natural as drinking water. Every time Abed saw worried thoughts of school or grades or studying flash across Troy's face during the movie, he'd enthusiastically tell Troy a random fact about whichever actor was on screen. It worked for a while, until he noticed he was losing the fight and Troy would simply nod or give an infrequent "uh-huh" or halfhearted "Really? Wow." Words were becoming useless and even Abed was growing tired of trying to focus on a movie when his friend was so borderline depressed. Not-studying wasn't enough obviously, which made sense considering Troy was probably trying dreadfully hard in chemistry and still failing a great deal. Abed couldn't let this happen. Not while he was so close and wielded the weapons he needed to help his friend (weapons Annie unknowingly presented him with). A hug would be redundant. Not to mention unfitting for the situation; they were both watching a movie and hugs usually didn't occur during this time. Abed did remember a young couple he saw at the movie theaters a few weeks ago. The guy had greasy hair and was drenched in musty cologne and the girl wore a push-up bra that was too tight and heels that were too formal for her outfit, but they seemed adequately happy with each other albeit a little too affectionately showy when they caught lonely singles watching. A couple of minutes into the movie, during an uneventful non-romantic scene, the guy placed his arm around the girl's shoulders. It wasn't the stereotypical yawn-and-swoop maneuver, but more of a I-want-the whole -theater-to-see-we're-in-love-and-be-envious tactic instead. It would have disappointed them if they had looked back to see that only Abed and some little kid were in there, but what did they expect from going to a matinee.
So Abed decided that he would use that move, but revised. It was movie-watching-physical-contact and fitted all the criteria of acceptable movie-watching-physical-contact that could potentially cheer up and\or distract best friends; criteria he came up with minuets ago. Instead of pretending to yawn or waving at the theater full of people that was not located behind him, he simply slipped his arm behind Troy and rested it on his shoulders. The sudden contact made Abed's heart speed up again and he quickly wondered if Troy's did the same, but he again reserved those thoughts for another day in his memory bank. The stiffness in Troy's shoulders began to melt after a breath or two; in fact it seemed as if Troy's whole body was melting right along with it: in Abed's direction. He sank deeper into Abed's side until Abed could smell a hint of the cocoa butter lotion Troy borrowed from Shirley that morning and the movie was nothing but a blur of mumbles and shapes. Abed couldn't see Troy, his head had somehow slid down to rest on Abed's shoulder (for maximum comfort, Abed made sure to sit monastically still) but he was positive that he was more content then he had been. "Everything's going to be alright." he whispered quietly because Troy's ear was extremely close to his lips when he tilted his head down.
Troy's arm pushed at Abed's side, making him sit prostrate for a second so Troy could accurately slide his arm behind his waist. It was more awkward than Abed's approach, but nevertheless heartfelt. Troy pulled Abed closer; surprisingly that was still possible, and took a deep breath in. If Abed had that kind of power, he would have sworn he saw all of Troy's anxieties and troubles float out with his exhale.
"Thanks Abed. I know." Were the credits rolling already? It was rare that Abed missed the final lines of a movie.
"Cool." he figured he'd rewind it later just so he could remember what it was; for future reference. "Cool cool cool." And with that the two friends created voices for all the funny names they could catch scrolling on the screen; in each other's arm and far, far away from worry.