Chapter Three

Britta sighed as she heard the noise of the bar get quieter. Soon there would be far fewer people and they could figure out the best way of dealing with this…this…whatever this was. "So," she said as she looked at her friend. "I thought you were scared of getting older," she tried to joke and Jeff rolled his eyes.

"As scared as you are of bag-alls?" he asked before shaking his head. He knew he was just projecting his anxiety…anxiety, that was a word which he didn't want to acknowledge. Girls were never attracted to anxiety. Nobody hired someone who was anxious and lacking charisma. He wasn't used to this. "I feel like I should be making -"

"No, trust me, no, don't make another audition tape for the real world," Britta told him. She sighed. He was always the leader and now it was as if she were talking to a kid brother or something. She smiled as she looked away and shook her head.

"What are you grinning about?" he asked as he raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"Just thinking that you're pretty lucky," she said and he frowned as he turned to her. "Listen, are you happy working at Greendale, being a teacher at Greendale. Now you get to follow whatever dreams you have. Go to a different community college, work yourself up to getting that law degree. Really try. You get to follow a new path. I wish that I could do that."

"So you could go and do activism in Africa, Britta…you don't want to do that," Jeff replied before sighing. His shoulders slumped. She was right. As much as he wanted to say that he was attractive enough to get nearly any girl he wanted, although he wanted to say how life had taught him various lessons and that he liked how people expected him to know those lessons. This was probably better for him. "You seem to be forgetting something though," he told her.

Britta blinked, "Okay. Maybe you need to figure out how to get clothes which actually fit," she said and Jeff looked at his sleeve and rolled his eyes. "That shouldn't be too har-"

"Money. I doubt that you really have enough of a profit from this bar to loan me anything," Jeff told her. He turned his body to face her and Britta couldn't stop thinking of him as a kid brother in this form. She had dated him, slept with him, promised to marry him. That was before he shrank down to this pipsqueak.

"Don't give me that," she sighed. "I have a good friend we can ask, an ex-boyfriend," she said before biting her top lip and Jeff was surprised to see tears in her eyes. He knew that she was referring to Troy but were her feelings of love for him so great even now. For the entirety of her relationship with Troy, he had made jokes about how Troy and Abed seemed more like a couple, they all had.

Before Jeff could figure out the right words in which he could comfort her, there was a beep from Britta's phone and she grabbed her computer. Abed was ready. She opened the device and set it up with a plug to the socket in the brick wall at the back of the bar. She entered her password and clicked on the video call button. She looked to Jeff and put her hand on his shoulder, squeezing it.

"What are you doing?" he asked her with another classic raised eyebrow.

"I thought that maybe you needed some support, someone who is supportive of you even if it is -"

"Thank you," Jeff told her in a genuine manner and Britta smiled feeling more confident in herself. Despite everything that she had done or claimed to do, sometimes things really hurt when she considered herself the very worst. The idea of helping Jeff with this problem made her feel worthy of their friendship. Maybe Shirley had accused her of having a strange morality with her atheism but human relationships meant a lot to her. She just wanted to be someone others could rely on.

"What am I seeing?" Britta heard Abed say and she blinked back. "You said you had a problem…is it just me or did you get a perfect fit for a young-Jeff type. I'd love to know how you managed to hire him if that's the case. Did you go through a service?"

"More like a curse," Jeff sighed before turning to Britta who was nodding.

"Ah, so those movies weren't all just pandering to a demographic to have them buy box sets of movies," Abed replied as Britta smiled and Jeff sat back a little shocked that something like this made sense to Abed, of course a stop-motion holiday season had made sense to him.

"I guess somehow I've found myself in one of those situations," Jeff said before closing his eyes. "Any advice?"

"Well that depends on what your character's narrative is," Abed told him. "You haven't felt yourself unfulfilled because of a failing divorce, a lost love, remembering that you weren't able to win the all important basketball game for your high school. Are any of these situations familiar to you?"

"You mean, was I in a rut?" Jeff asked before shrugging, "Sure, I was feeling in a rut…doesn't everyone get that way?"

"Well, true, yes, everyone does get in a rut sometimes but most people don't become, twenty….twenty-five years younger. Now, that is something unique to you and only a handful of characters," Abed hummed. "Now, could you have used any tainted soap or had a strange but meaningful encounter with a janitor."

"Nothing that I can think of but I'll let you know whether that does fit," Jeff said and Abed hummed.

"Please let me know if anything like that comes to your attention," Abed hummed before looking at the computer. "Maybe you want to be a younger man, like a successful lawyer with a proper degree and working towards a good cause. Or maybe this is to do with Annie…"

Britta smiled as she saw Jeff stiffen a little. He coughed, his throat dry. "Really?"

"No, Annie…what are you…what are you talking about," he asked and Abed hummed.

"Well, you should probably go and see Annie but things aren't going to be simple. Now she's the one who is too old for you. I'm assuming that she's not wanting to be a cougar especially if she's concerned about her profile. I mean, she does have a promising future now," Abed said and Britta saw Jeff's smile fade.

"You should go talk to her. This would be good for both of you," Britta suggested.

"Well, nothing's going to happen unless you do but will you tell me when you're going, I'd love to document this. Such a strange thing happening, it'll be something that most people don't get to see and this kind of scenario, I've always wished that I could actually be in the room when something like this happened. I'll make sure to bring popcorn," Abed said with genuine excitement.

Jeff smiled weakly. "Great, so my life becomes some sort of charade," he said. He looked to Britta. "What do you think?"

"I think you need to see her," Britta replied. "Maybe this is supposed to be a romantic fairytale…some really weird and freaky story but most of them were right, like The Snow Mouse or The Bear and the Witch."

"None of those are stories," Abed pointed out. "So…"

"I think it might be time to see Annie," Jeff said. He had no idea what to think about what could happen next, how did you prepare for something like this?

JWAAJWAA

Jeff stared at his friends before him. This was the first time he had seen Troy since…probably since he left, and the fact that he and Abed had brought snacks to watch him really made him feel uncomfortable and as if this was a joke to them. Britta had been talking about psychology and how she had studied it so that she knew about how he must be feeling. Yeah, right? A lot of people turned young again.

"According to my data, Annie should be visiting this coffee shop in about ten minutes. She is on her way from that direction," Abed pointed.

Jeff looked at them. He had only been this way for a few days and this was much different than he had expected. He had been staying with Britta whilst buying a few outfits and now he was supposed to confess this all to a girl who might have even thought time with him was a mistake. He didn't feel prepared for this. Was this right?

"I have to…I should…" Jeff said nervously and Britta put her hand on his shoulder.

"Man up, this is what we came here for," she said before looking at Troy who was staring at the menu. "Let's get a table,"

"You think that I could buy this place without any problem? I mean, do you see the menu, it says that they have unicorn drinks," he pointed and Abed nodded.

"Yes. It would be cool to drink something made by a unicorn, I don't think that's what it is but it would be pretty cool." Abed nodded and Troy grinned at him. Even with all the trappings of wealth, Troy hadn't changed. He just didn't need to worry about money ever again. No, he had been warned that if he invested in unwisely or tried to find a genie by buying every strange lamp he came across in hopes of finding a genie, he would run out of money.

"I know right," Troy nodded. "I'm sure that unicorns make great drinks."

"You two do realize that there is no such thing as a unicorn, right?" Jeff asked and Abed and Troy shared a look between themselves.

"I wouldn't be questioning what is possible or not," Troy laughed. "Didn't you used to be a lot taller," he joked.

Jeff rolled his eyes but as he looked ahead of him, he could see Annie in the distance. He paled feeling as if he could start hyperventilating. He wasn't ready for this. He couldn't approach her, not like this. He looked around and as the other three saw Annie, he ran. He needed to get as far away from here as possible. What was he supposed to say to her?

"Abed!? Britta!? Troy!" Annie said as she rushed over to them. She grinned widely as Abed tried to figure out how Jeff had gotten away and where he would have gone. It was easy to explain what had happened to Troy, Abed just had to explain it with using other movies as reference and he seemed to just roll with it. Annie might be harder to convince but they had come here so Jeff could confront her. "This is a huge surprise! What are you -"

"This is a surprise?" Troy asked her and Annie blinked at him confused but her smile was still wide on her face. "Trust me, this isn't the surprise, wait until you see Je-"

"Jeff wanted to come. I think something came up though, you know him," Britta laughed as Annie stared at her confused but then sighed and nodded. "I mean, you know…he has his uh…he has his cell phone."

"I think it's hard for him," Annie said and they all noticed some disappointment in her expression. "But it's so amazing that you are all here! What are you doing here!? Do you need my help for something?"

"Yes," Britta said as she scrambled to cover up what they were really doing there. It should be up to Jeff to tell her the truth. "Of course…of course…" she replied. "Let's get in, there's a drink made by a unicorn in here."

"Britta," Annie smiled as she rolled her eyes, "There's no such thing as a unicorn."

"Blasphemy," Troy whispered to Abed who nodded.

"Blasphemy indeed."

End of Chapter Three

Thank you for reading

Thank you reviewers for Chapter Two

Amyrwiol, EverythingButAverageJane, Guest (x4),