A Gleeful Night
A chorus of goodbyes echoed through the hallway outside my apartment as my friends filed out. It was Christmas, and we had all just finished watching the Inspector Space-time Christmas Special. It was amazing. A few group members thought it was crappy, because it was, but I loved it anway. I was happy that we had all watched it together. See, my friends and I had gotten into one of our "If We Don't All Want the Same Thing, How Can We Be Friends?" routine. A bit of a pattern in our group, but always exciting and entertaining. Earlier in the day, I had mentioned to my group that Christmas was feeling a bit dark and dreary, and I wanted to do something special. Later, at lunch, all of the members of our Community College glee club got kicked out, something about copyright laws, I think. It wasn't very interesting, just filler at the beginning of the day, before we got to the real plot. Greendale, our school, ended up needing a whole new glee club. I figured that this could be a good way to brighten up our Christmas, and so after singing a duet with the head of the club, Mr. Rad, I was on a mission to get everybody in the group to join the glee club.
First, I convinced my best-friend, Troy, to join the glee club with me. I wanted to have another one of our groups exciting Christmas Specials, and Troy was the guy to help me get started. He's great. He's funny, cool, nice, smart, imaginative, and he always leaves the best voicemail messages… He's definitely the greatest guy I know. Anyway…
Eventually, Troy and I convinced everybody in the study group to join the glee club, right before the Christmas concert! Unfortunately after getting the whole group involved in the spectacular concert, it turned out that Mr. Rad wanted us to join the glee club for our whole time at Greendale, but I only wanted this to be a one time, Christmas experience. So, I sent out our friend Britta to ruin the concert. She's not very good at singing. She ruined the concert pretty well. Also, I think Mr. Rad was guilty of homicide. I don't really care, he's just a side-character. Anyhow, the group felt bad that my plans to brighten Christmas fell through, so they all joined me in watching Inspector Space-time. It's my favourite show. It'll never end, which is perfect. I hate it when shows end. Also, it's great the characters are delightful, the plots are inventive and edgy, the enemies are awesome… I could go on forever. I won't, though. After the show, all of my friends left and it was just me, Troy and our other roommate, Annie.
Annie is great, typical girl-next-door character. Well, I used to think she was. She fits all the criteria: she's smart, cares about her grades, sweet, charming, bashful, bubbly, a bit high-strung, beautiful… In a refined way. Like, she's cute, but sexy at the same time. Hot and cold, night and day… See? Not typical. After our friends left, we chose a DVD to watch. I was in luck, as "A Very Kick-Puncher Christmas" had just been delivered the day before. A classic, to be sure. Just kidding. Troy and I watch Kick-Puncher because it's bad and funny. We watch a lot of things like that, because we like to laugh. Troy and I laugh a lot together. And now Annie does too! We make sure to include her, because she gets sad when we don't. Besides, I like spending time with her. She's fun.
The first couple of times we tried to include Annie in an activity, it didn't go too well. Her suspension of disbelief wore thin very quickly, and she kept breaking character! How am I supposed to be a good Inspector if my Associate is busy dusting the TV? It just wouldn't work. Troy got mad and said she was ruining our bonding time, and, while I agreed that she wasn't very good, she was trying, at least. I wanted her to be better, so Annie and I practised inside our Dreamatorium for a while. We had fun together. I liked spending some alone time with her, and I could tell she was having fun. She smiled a lot, which was good.
So, Annie, Troy and I were watching "A Very Kick-Puncher Christmas" (not too surprising: very poor quality, but with a lot of laughs), when, about a quarter way through the movie, things started going… strange. Not in the movie, the plot was pretty straight forward, (Kick-puncher had just been about to propose to his lover when his arch-nemesis sent in his henchmen to kidnap her) but things off screen were a bit... odd. Generally, when we're watching TV, Troy sits on one armchair, I sit on the other, and Annie sits on one of the dining room chairs behind us. Because all of our friends had been there, Annie had sat on the arm of my chair. She had also been holding my hand; I thought it was because she was happy the group had been bonding. We stood to say good-by when everyone left, and when we sat down again, instead of sitting behind us, she continued to sit beside me,. I didn't really think much of it, but after a few minutes, she began to sort of lean against me. It wasn't a big deal, her red sweater was soft and her weight was comfortable against me. It was just weird, because she generally kept a bit of a distance between us.
Then, she kept touching me. It was odd. She put her hand on my arm and leaned her head on my shoulder. I could smell the shampoo in her dark, soft hair. It smelled like apples. I was still pretty comfortable, so I wasn't going to ask her to move, but when I looked over at Troy, he seemed more interested in what Annie was doing than the movie. I furrowed my brow in confusion and he looked up at me. I mouthed "What's wrong?" to him, but he just turned away. I was confused. I turned my attention to Annie, who was watching the movie intently, laughing at something stupid Kick-puncher had just said. Or, I assume it was stupid… I can't really remember, which is odd. I always memorize movies, every line. I can recall them at a seconds notice. Usually.
My arm was getting a bit numb, and Troy's expression was making me uncomfortable. I didn't want to disturb Annie, but I also didn't want to upset Troy. I readjusted my arm ever so slightly and took in a breath, ready to ask her to move. Then, Annie looked up at me. Her large, brown eyes seemed even deeper brown and larger at this angle. We locked eyes for an eternity, or a few seconds. I couldn't keep track. Her eyes were deep dark pits… like I was Indiana Jones stuck in quicksand. I tore my eyes away and mapped the rest of her face. She looked happy, a small smile playing on her lips, which made me happy. I didn't want her to move. I remembered Annie said to try to show my emotions more (I have a few problems with that) so I quirked up a corner of my mouth. She widened her smile and turned back to the screen. She nuzzled into my shoulder a bit more. I tried to divert my attention back to the movie, but I couldn't focus. I looked over at Troy, but discovered he was no longer there. I looked towards our blanket fort, but he didn't seem to be in there, either. He had skipped out on the movie.
The climax was approaching, I could tell from the exciting music, but Annie wasn't watching. She was looking up at me again. She hadn't moved from our close position. I tried not to look at her. I was feeling a bit unsettled, like something big was happening but I didn't know what. Of course, I'm not an idiot, I understand basic romantic language, but Annie and I? It simply wouldn't happen. She's Annie, and she has this chemistry with Jeff (one of our friends) that's turned into a great love triangle, the other participant being Britta. I wasn't involved in that particular love story. I wasn't involved in any. It's just not my role.
"Abed?" Annie was still staring at me, a storm brewing in her eyes. Her face was serious, and I held my breath. In that moment I couldn't help thinking 'Screw Jeff'.
"Yeah?" My voice came out as a squeak. I cleared my throat.
Annie smiled, filling me with relief. I was sure that nothing was going on. "I, um… I really like you." My eyes widened. I was pretty sure I knew what she meant, but I had to be sure.
"I like you too Annie. That's why we're friends."
Annie frowned which made me frown. She removed herself from our comfortable position. This made me frown more; I was cold and uncomfortable without her weight. She stood and began pacing in front of the TV, where I noticed Kick-Puncher stealing away into the night with his lover, who was now his fiancée. The movie was over, the credits began to roll.
"I… that's not what I meant, Abed." Said Annie, sounding flustered, and a bit hurt. Her cheeks were flaming. I cocked my head to the side. So, Annie likes me… like that. Like, in a dating way, in a hugs and kisses way, in a Marshal and Lilly way. Oh, sorry, that's from "How I Met Your Mother", if you didn't know. You really should know, it's a good program.
Annie stopped pacing and looked at me, her doe-eyes welling up. I couldn't take it, it made my insides hurt. I stood swiftly and walked over to her. I put my hand on her shoulder. I wanted to tell her to let it go, that it wouldn't work out between us. I was nothing but comic-relief, the hilarious antics between Troy and I were meant to distract the group from drama such as this. I wanted to tell her that the drama was between her and Jeff.
I also wanted to hold her close. To kiss her and tell her that I cared about her. I hadn't known that I felt this way; I had never looked at Annie, at anyone, in such a light. Now that I had, I feared there was no going back. "Annie," I began, but I didn't get a chance to finish. Her lips were already crashing against mine. They were soft and warm, comforting. Yet, somehow, they were also hot, sexy, invigorating. My hand was still on her shoulder. I let it slip around and down to the small of her back and put my other hand around on her hip. She wrapped her arms around my torso and sighed against my lips. I felt like if somebody could hook this kiss up to the grid, it could power the whole universe. She eventually pulled away and looked at me, sheepishly. She left me with my eyes wide, my mouth agape, and my breath taken away.
Annie looked anxious, waiting for my reaction, but I was a bit dazed. I couldn't focus on anything, because Annie Edison had just kissed me, and I was trying to process the enormity of what had just occurred. No, I realized, this wasn't right! This was the wrong plot! "Abed…?" Annie looked at me, imploringly. She seemed to be searching the deepest reaches of my soul, yet not finding a thing. I whimpered a bit, because my brain wasn't working quite right. She looked concerned; she grabbed one of my hands with both of hers and looked deep into my eyes. "Are you okay?
"Jeff…" I said. She looked extremely confused. "You're supposed to be with Jeff, the chemistry, the looks-" she cut me off with a laugh.
"Screw Jeff" Annie smiled at me. I was overjoyed; she had picked me over the leading man! Definitely not the twist I was expecting but a great one nonetheless. I leaned in and kissed her, feeling confident and proud. She wrapped her hands loosely around my neck and deepened the kiss. I pulled her down with me onto the armchair, sat her on my lap and held her. Triumphant music played as the credits on-screen came to a close. She kissed me on the cheek and her eyes shone. She looked incredibly happy, which was all I really wanted for her. I smiled too. We kissed again.
Suddenly, the front door opened and shut in a swift, loud motion. Annie and I quickly turned our heads. Troy stood in the doorway, staring at us. somebody. His eyes bugged out of his head. "You guys… you… what?".
Annie giggled, but I felt the smile slip from my face. What would this mean for Troy? I couldn't ever let him feel like the third wheel. Not ever.
Troy stared at us. "That is… wow. Cool."
My smile returned. I looked into Troy's eyes, seeing the admiration. "Cool" I echoed. "Cool, cool, cool."
Annie looked up at me. Her voice was quiet, and a soft grin graced her lips. "Merry Christmas, Abed."