Hello! Here is chapter 8! I'm sorry that it took awhile! This story now has 8 favs and follows, thank you SO much to each and every one of you, and to the now 2 people who have left me reviews! They mean the world to me, and please keep it coming. I hope you all enjoy this! Please leave a review with what you liked, what you think I can improve on and anymore ideas for things to see in the future! Happy reading!
"Do you mind if I shower really quick? It won't take me long" Annie asks, pointing to her bathroom. Jeff shakes his head.
"Go for it, take your time" he offers.
"Thank you, I'll be right out" she promises, and scurries to her room.
Jeff takes a seat on Annie's couch, looking around the colorful; but desolate room. He taps his foot a bit anxiously as he waits, nervous but also feeling a little electrified at the idea of taking her out to breakfast. He knows it's not a date, not even close. Just a friend trying to keep a friend from starving. But knowing that Annie is getting ready, and it being just the two of them, he can't help but have certain thoughts and feelings washing him.
"Horny bastard" he mutters under his breath. He hears the shower turn on, and finds himself standing up; walking over to her kitchen. He notices the bouquet of flowers he gave her, still on the counter and smiles; staring at them for a bit. Then he glances over to her refrigerator, looking over his shoulder. He slowly walks up to it, grabbing the handle and opening it carefully. The sight before him makes him feel ill. Inhabiting the fridge is bottle of ketchup, mayo, and chocolate sauce, a container of butter, a jar with two pickles in it and a few slices of Kraft cheese. He opens the freezer to find two ice trays, and a box of popsicles. He cringes as he sneaks over to her pantry, feeling extremely guilty but for some reason needing to know. He opens the door to find sugar, flour, baking soda, vegetable oil, sprinkles, chocolate chips, a single box of macaroni and cheese; and a roll of Ritz crackers. He hears the water shut off, and quickly heads back to her couch.
About ten minutes later, he hears Annie emerge; and turns around to find her in a fuzzy red sweater, leggings and tennis shoes; her damp hair up in a ponytail. He feels his heart swelling in his chest as he smirks, surprised by her casual outfit opposed to her usual dress or skirt and fancy shoes, thinking that it's impossible for her to look anything but beyond beautiful.
He swallows before asking, "Ready to go?" She smiles, nodding repeatedly.
"Yes! Where are we going?" she asks curiously, grabbing her purse. Jeff follows her out, and Annie quickly locks her door before they head downstairs.
"You'll see" Jeff teases. She can't help but her roll her eyes as she hops into Jeff's passenger's seat, her subconscious making her have thoughts similar to Jeff's.
"Welcome to my chariot" Jeff jokes, flipping the ignition of his Lexus. While he cringes, Annie looks out the window; thinking that his commentary is not helping her high school like thoughts calm down.
As they begin driving, Jeff turns on his stereo; and a CD starts playing; "He wakes up in the morning. Does his teeth, bite to eat and he's rolling"-
"Hey! You like the Dave Matthews Band?" Annie asks excitedly. Jeff turns to her with his eyebrows crinkled in bewilderment.
"You like the Dave Matthews Band?" he rebuttals.
"Yeah I love them! My dad always played them in the garage when I was a kid when I helped him build stuff" she tells him casually.
"Build stuff eh? I didn't know you were an amateur carpenter" Jeff smirks.
"I was like seven" she laughs. "And 'help build stuff' might have been a bit of a stretch. It was more like, handing him his tools and refreshing his beers". Jeff laughs a little through his nose, relating to that all sentence all too much.
"Ouch. Well that's sounds familiar" he bares.
"Oh no, it wasn't like an issue or anything" Annie clarifies. "I mean, he wasn't a mean drunk at least".
"Well that's good. Mine was just an absent one" Jeff retorts, making jokes having always been a crutch for his "daddy issues".
"Gotta love parents huh?" Annie shakes her head, looking at him sympathetically.
"Absolutely" Jeff replies sarcastically, throwing her a sincere smirk as reaches for the knob on the stereo.
"You cannot quit me so quickly. There's no hope in you for me. No corner you could squeeze me, but I got all the time for you, love", Annie and Jeff belt together, both slightly out of tune but in sync with eachother. "The space between, the tears we cry; is the laughter that keeps us coming back for more".
Annie reaches forward and turns the song down, even though it's one of her favorites; wanting to talk to Jeff more.
"So why do you like the Dave Matthews Band?" Annie teases.
"Because everybody my age likes them. They're DMB", he exaggerates his love for the group. Annie bursts out laughing, grabbing her stomach.
"Please. Jeff Winger is way too cool to refer to any band by their initials. Although, if we're talking BNL…" she riffs, digging at an old tiff the group had had their previous year at Greendale.
"Don't even talk about BNL" Jeff feigns annoyance, laughing with his friend. Annie looks around the neighborhood as Jeff continue to drive, still wondering where they are eating breakfast. As if the world were answering her question, suddenly Jeff whips his blinker on and turns into his apartment building's parking lot.
"Alright, we're here!" he exclaims, heading up the drive, a part of him feeling giddy and smug pulling off a surprise for the girl sitting next to him.
"Umm…this isn't a restaurant" Annie says confused.
"It's el restuarante Jeff's casa" he pronounces, in very poor Spanish, but Annie understanding none the less.
"You're…going to cook us breakfast?" Annie asks. "I sure am. Chef Jeff at your service!" he jokes, turning off the car; and inwardly slapping himself over his geeky remark. Annie gives him a puppy dog look, feeling guilty all over again.
"You really don't have to do all this, but thank you Jeff" she expresses her gratitude sincerely.
"Not a problem at all milady" he smiles, getting out of the car, and Annie follows him into the building. They head upstairs to apartment 204, and Jeff throws his keys and wallet onto the counter.
"Welcome to mi casa" he boasts, spreading his arms in a grand gesture. "Living room, kitchen, dining room" he lists, pointing to each area; then extends his arm to the hallway. "My bedroom and the bathroom are down that way".
"This is such a…grown up apartment" Annie muses aloud.
"Well I am a grown up" Jeff laughs. "Now, waffles or pancakes?" Annie turns to find Jeff already in his kitchen with the pantry door open, holding a box of pancake mix in one hand, and waffle mix in the other; a bit of a boyish grin on his face.
"Waffles. Definitely" Annie answers, taking a seat at his kitchen table. "How long have you lived here?"
"About 13 years now. I moved into the place after I got paid for my first lawyer job. Spent every last penny on the security deposit and first month's rent" he admits, starting up his waffle iron and laying out bacon, eggs and bread on the counter to prepare as well.
Annie stares at the array of breakfast foods on the counter, beginning to see spots in her vision; fighting hard to hinder her growing hunger. Apart from the pizza, she had eaten two other times in the past week. It was the longest she had gone without eating a real meal. She was so thankful for Jeff in this moment that she wanted to cry, but she pushed through her invasive thoughts to continue the conversation.
"How have you been able to afford this place since you lost your job?" Annie asks. Jeff scratches his head, while his other arm stirs the waffle mix.
"I might have uh…pulled a few…favors for the landlady", he admits, looking at Annie warily. He hates to admit this, especially to her, but he would never lie to Annie.
"Gross!" she laughs, even though the thought of him with another woman stings worse than poison ivy.
"How long have you been at your place?" Jeff asks, pulling a fryer pan out from a low cabinet and starting up the stove.
"I moved in after I got out of rehab. It was a month and a half before I graduated high school" she tells him.
"How were you able to afford it?" he asks, surprised and sad to hear that she moved into her place so young, especially at a time where she shouldn't have been alone.
"I used my savings. Everything I'd kept from birthdays, Hanukkah, allowance" she tallies, omitting the period fairy. "It helped that the rent is really cheap. I know, hard to believe".
Jeff laughs fully at her sarcasm, as he begins to lie out turkey bacon slices into the now hot frying pan, and then flips the waffle iron.
"That's impressive Annie. Most teenagers don't have the willpower to save their money, let alone spend it on getting their own place before they've even graduated high school", Jeff praises.
"Well, to be honest…I didn't really have a choice" she admits. Jeff turns around, leaning his back against the counter for a moment and crossing his arms.
"How do you mean?" he wonders.
"Well…my parents kicked me out" she says, looking at the floor. This subject was very hard for her to talk about.
"Kicked you out? Why?" he asked, absolutely dumbfounded.
"Because I went to rehab" she states, playing the hem of her sweater.
"Because you-" he begins to repeat in shock, then stops himself. "Why?"
"Me going to rehab meant that they had to explain to family and friends where I was, and why. They couldn't come up with a good lie, so they decided to be honest. Which they were ashamed of. They said I brought shame onto our family, as if we were so perfect before" she laughs ironically. "They wanted me to just forget about my public freak out and my addiction and move on with life. They didn't get that it wasn't that easy. That I couldn't get better unless I got help. It's like they would have rather had me suffer than admit I had a problem. They said if I went to rehab I wasn't allowed to live with them anymore. They're divorced, but neither of them were going to allow me to stay with them. So I cut them off".
Jeff looks at Annie with low, sympathetic eyes; her's having never left his kitchen floor as she spoke to him.
"That's…so hurtful, and wrong" he states the obvious, shocked at what he is hearing. "I'm so sorry that they put you through that".
"It's okay. I mean, it's fine now. I accepted it. It took me a long time to work through my feelings. But I realized, they would have rather made me shove my illness down, than admit that I had a problem. If I had listened to them, I don't know where I'd be in life. I'd probably still be addicted, doing god knows what. Or even worse, I might be dead. And once I realized that's what they preferred over the "shame" of telling our family that I had an addiction, to Adderall of all things, I decided to stop letting it hurt me so much" she unveils, Jeff taking a deep breath and he takes all of this in. "Last year I started talking to them again. But I still haven't seen them. And…it's not the same. They still try to pretend that nothing happened. They'll never acknowledge that what they did was wrong. And most of our conversations just consist of them making sure that I'm sober, or making me feel bad about what I'm doing in life".
"Making you feel bad? For what?" Jeff asks, not understanding how any parent could be disappointed in Annie.
"Well, being at Community college. Having no job. A cheap apartment. Being single" she lists, shifting uncomfortably.
"You do realize that not a single one of those things is something you need to feel bad about right? Not to mention the fact that your parents are far from saints themselves and have no room to be speaking to you like that at all. You worked for everything you have, you are the most dedicated student at Greendale and you are in fact the most responsible 21 year old I've ever met. Not to mention that you have achieved all of this on your own. If your parents aren't anything but insanely proud of you, then screw them", Jeff spews. "Oh shit" he suddenly mutters, turning around and quickly pulling the bacon off of the frying pan with his tongs, while opening the waffle iron and flipping the squares out onto a plate. "Almost burned our food" he forces a chuckle, while fuming on the inside with rage towards Annie's parents.
"Thank you!" she pipes up behind him. "The fact that you think those things truly means the world to me". Jeff tries not to smile too widely at her words, his jaded heart melting even more for this woman.
"You're welcome" he says softly, turning back around to tend to their breakfast. "I only speak the truth". He adds more waffle mix to the iron, more bacon to the frying pan and puts four slices of bread into his toaster.
"Trust me, I would've had no problem with keeping them cut off. The main reason I actually got back in touch with them, was in hopes of seeing my brother" she tells Jeff.
"You have a brother?" he asks, shocked that that had never come up before.
"Yeah. Anthony. He's 16. We haven't spoken since I went to rehab. He doesn't have his own phone yet, and my parents won't let me speak to him. They say he doesn't want to" Annie shares, pausing for a moment to swallow the lump forming in her throat. "I don't know if that's true or if they are just using him to hurt me. I was upset with him for awhile…and kind of still am. He took my mom's side when I left. That hurt. But he was so young. That's why I wish I could speak with him now, and talk everything over. Maybe get at least one family member back on my side. I want him to know I've changed. And to know that I'm not all the terrible things that my parents make me out to be".
"I can't imagine how difficult that must be Annie. But I definitely think your parents are using him against you. When he's old enough to find you on his own, he will. There's no way that he wouldn't want such a cool sister back in his life" Jeff comforts, meaning every word. Annie blinks back tears, using all her willpower to fight off another emotional breakdown.
"You want to know the other reason I got back in contact with them though?" she asks, diverting the conversation away from her baby brother.
"What's that?" Jeff responds.
"For money" Annie admits. "I wanted to enroll in extra classes so I could graduate early. I wanted to get on my feet and get a job. I wanted stability. But I couldn't focus on any of that when I was struggling to pay my rent and to eat. Which is, still the case; obviously" she vents.
"So, what did they say when you asked for money?" Jeff questions.
"They said they wouldn't give me any…because they were afraid I'd spend it on drugs", she answers, irritation filling her voice. Jeff practically sees red, and feels his fists clenching.
"Your parents are fuckin idiots, and terrible people" Jeff says matter of factly, before he can stop himself. "You should never feel bad about yourself on behalf of them. You hear me?" Annie nods quickly, wide eyed. "I mean it. What a bunch of low life, shitty excuses for parents", he goes on, turning around to face his stove, and taking a deep breath, not wanting to appear so enraged in front of Annie.
She watches the rise and fall of Jeff's muscular shoulders as he focuses on calming down, feeling nothing but appreciation and honor that somebody would get so upset in regards to the way her parents have treated her. She felt so heard, so understood and so validated.
"Thank you for telling me all of that" Jeff says softly, having regained enough composure to head over to his fridge and grab a carton of eggs.
"Thank you for listening. And for caring" Annie returns, still in shock that somebody could actually care so much about her. Annie's word still float through Jeff's mind, the horrible things that her parents did and said to her. The way it made him feel, and the strong urge to protect Annie and make sure that she never felt anything but happy and loved for the rest of her life scared him.
"How do you like your eggs?" he asks, needing to change the tone before he blurted out things he might regret.
"Scrambled" Annie replies, smirking a bit at the domestic question.
"Excellent, so do I" he says, grabbing an egg, throwing it into the air and catching it, before cracking it into the pan; all with one hand.
"Show off" Annie giggles. Jeff turns around, ready to give a sarcastic remark; but all thoughts fly out of his head when he sees Annie's smile.
"Yeah maybe" he chuckles, before cracking three more eggs into the pan and beginning to whisk them.
Within ten minutes, their meal is complete; and Jeff carries over the giant plates of waffles, eggs, bacon and toast. Annie shuffles in her seat as she eyes up all the food in front of her.
"Grape or strawberry jelly?" Jeff asks, back inside his fridge.
"Strawberry".
"Apple or orange juice?"
"Apple".
"Maple or blueberry syrup?"
"Oooo blueberry!"
Jeff comes back to the table with everything tucked in his arms, and lays it out before grabbing each of them a cup, and filling them with apple juice. Annie watches him do all of this, her mind again traveling off into a fantasy. Jeff was her husband. This was their apartment. It was a Sunday morning, and they were having brunch after spending the morning tucked in bed; after a long night of love mak-
"Bon appétit!" Jeff boasts, returning to the table with stacked plates of waffles, bacon, eggs and toast; and taking a seat adjacent to Annie. She feels her face flush red, hoping Jeff hadn't noticed her daydreaming. He takes two waffles, a piece of toast, a handful of bacon and a spoonful of scrambled eggs, before grabbing the syrup and digging in. Annie hesitantly reaches for the waffles, still feeling like a bit of a burden.
"Jesus woman! Get in there! Dig in!" Jeff encourages in a light tone, not believing how conditioned she is to feel like she is undeserving of help or love. She laughs a little, embarrassed; and fills up her plate with a now trembling hand. Jeff pretends not to notice.
They commence eating in silence, Annie scarfing down everything on her plate and taking more before Jeff has finished half of his food. She lathers her second piece of toast with a thick layer of jelly, and coats her second serving of waffles with the blueberry syrup. She cuts them up quickly, taking a bit bite.
"These waffles are really good" she mumbles through a mouthful; not caring about etiquette or her appearances anymore. Jeff laughs, grinning at a finally carefree, and fed Annie.
"Glad to hear it. They're vanilla cinnamon" he informs.
"Wow-ee, I don't think I've ever had a better breakfast" she continues praising him, now scarfing another scoop of scrambled eggs.
"Feel free to eat as much as you want. None of this is good leftover" Jeff offers, having of course purposefully made way more food than necessary for two people. Annie finishes her plate again, filling it for a third time; as Jeff finishes his first plate and takes it to the sink.
"You're done?" Annie asks, shocked at how he could pass up more of this delicious meal.
"Yeah I'm full" Jeff lies, coming back to the table and smiling reassuringly.
"Alright" Annie replies unsure, but not about to protest the rest of the food going to her. Now that she remembered what it felt like to have a full stomach, she wanted this feeling to last as long as possible. They sit in comfortable silence, Jeff playing around on his phone; while Annie finishes up the food. She leans back in her chair, patting her bloated stomach.
"Whoosh…I am full", she pronounces. Jeff could not feel happier hearing her say those words.
"Excellent. Does mi casa restuarante get a 5 star rating?" he jokes.
"The biggest five stars in the galaxy" she praises.
"And those are?" Jeff riffs.
"Please, we go to Greendale. You think I've actually learned anything?" Annie scoffs with a giggle.
"Absolutely not" Jeff states with a smirk, standing up and beginning to clear the table.
"What can I do?" Annie offers, standing up.
"Sit down. You aren't doing anything", Jeff replies; putting the condiments back in the fridge, and taking the dishes to the sink. She watches as he piles the pans and utensils on top of their plates and cups.
"I can help you do the dishes!" she extends, walking towards him.
"Don't worry about it, I'll just do them later" he shrugs.
"But-" Annie begins.
"Let yourself relax for a day Annie. You don't need to do anything for me" Jeff insists. Then he notices Annie's eyes beginning to droop as she stands in front of him. "Besides, I should probably get you back home so you get some sleep huh?" Annie nods, sleepiness hitting her like a brick now that feels full and safe. Jeff puts his arm around her shoulder, and helps her walk towards the door; sliding on his shoes and grabbing his keys on the way.
Jeff helps Annie get into his car, putting on her seatbelt for her when her eyes get even heavier. By the time he has gotten in, her head is lying against the window, and she is out like a light. He shakes his head and smirks, knowing not a cuter site could ever exist. He carefully backs out, and heads down the drive; not wanting to take her home and end their time together. He hoped that she finally knew that she was worthy and deserving of anything and everything in this world. He would never stop showing her, until she believed it.
As Jeff stops at the end of his building's driveway, another member of their study group walks by; out for a stroll; having played hooky today herself. Her head whips around, doing a double take; when she sees Jeff leaving his apartment, with a passed out Annie in the passenger's seat. Jeff doesn't notice, and takes a left when the coast is clear. Their friend watches Jeff's car intensely as he drives away, wondering why in the world Annie was over at Jeff's apartment so early. Had she spent the night?
"Jeff Winger" she mutters suspiciously, shaking her head, coming up with all sorts of wild assumptions. "I'll be talking to you tomorrow" she speaks allowed, and continues with her walk; praying for Jeff and Annie's souls.