Jeff

After hearing Abed finish his monologue, Jeff didn't know how to react. First, that guy was a literal magician, like how did he know what was going on behind his back? It took him two minutes to just look at everyone's faces and deduce correctly whatever had happened.

This was a new achievement for the study group and not in a good way. This was a new low. He certainly hadn't been expecting to kiss Annie tonight and he enjoyed doing it, until she opened her cute little mouth and gave out a cute little chuckle and said words that totally contradicted the whole concept of what 'cute' was supposed to mean.

No one wanted to hear that after a make out session and Jeff was sure this time, making out could lead to something more. Unlike the transfer formal, he wasn't planning on holding back. And then she said he reminded her of her dad and it was just gone. The attraction. The fantasy. It fell down to the floor and broke into a million shards and he hoped that happened for her too, judging by her expression, she felt the same way too. Why would she say that unless it wasn't true?

And he couldn't even afford to be offended by Abed's somewhat accusatory tone and accusatory words because yes, he did subconsciously make their night about himself. He could've controlled himself but then again, when there's electricity, people seem to get lost in the moment. What he didn't like was how Abed seemed to perceive him. Jeff was the only one they had to bend over backwards for and photoshop a postcard for so that he wouldn't blow their important night off and even then he'd create some sort of problem in the night. Yes, the Britta-Shirley row and the Pierce-Troy rift was also there but he did contribute to the trouble too and he had been wanting to get rid of this sort of perception of him lately. He'd already freaked the whole group out after the whole chopping study table with axe incident which showed he cared too much. Now he cared too little. What happened to just being, 'cool'?

Regardless, no one said anything. Abed went to his room, closing the door behind him. Troy sulked angrily and glared at everyone being the only one who completely agreed with Abed and the only one Abed didn't seem disappointed in apart from Shirley who also technically didn't start anything.

It was a new low. Disappointing Abed was something to Jeff that seemed impossible maybe because he didn't think Abed was one to get disappointed in things easily.

Troy was the one to break the silence. "Well, this was fun," he said with a half heart. "Imma head out for the night. See y'all on Monday."

"Troy, we're–" Annie started, softly.

"Yeah, okay, whatever, I'm inclined to agree with the person who's right. Bye." he said as he closed the door shooting a menacing look at Pierce.

Annie made a face indicating a major amount of sadness and guilt. Apparently, having Abed disappointed in her was more rough for her than it was for him. He knew that Annie couldn't bear to have any of her friends think about her in a disapproving way.

They all proceeded to vacate apartment 303, a place that looked pretty sick and cozy to begin with but was now tainted with a hint of toxicity.

As Jeff gradually reached home, Todd's words rang in his years, "your love is weird and toxic and destroys everything it touches!"

Jeff sincerely hoped that wasn't true. Hell, he'd do anything to make sure that wasn't true but for now, he was too glum to even check the number of likes he had on his latest tweet from this morning.

Troy

The evening seemed promising to Troy. Abed and he had put up with Shirley for hours and keeping the whole agreement thing to himself was rather hard. Eh, it was all gonna be worth it for the evening, right? Wrong! The worst part was that at the end of Abed's awesome (but kind of sad) monologue, he didn't feel the need to reassure Abed and ask him to come out or something (and he was far too disheartened to even consider how dope Abed's predictions had been as he took a glance at Jeff's pink glossy lips and Annie's pink glossy lips). Why? Abed was right. They had been bending over backwards to make sure everything went smooth and however awesome it would've been for Jeff to make out with Annie, not cool to do it during their housewarming party. Heck, he wanted to make a move on Britta too but he didn't for the sanctity of this awesome day.

And then, Pierce. That guy was straight up nuts! Like what was wrong with him? Like seriously who does that? That guy was the pettiest, most mean spirited and sad old man he'd ever met. He'd been prepared to think that Pierce could be awesome after he defeated City College but some people never change, apparently. To be fair, Pierce didn't feel like giving the gift to him but it was only because Troy was being sweet, like he always is to Pierce regularly. Ah, that jealous old man, he couldn't believe how he forgot about the time where he tried to buy their handshake.

He couldn't understand the deal with Jeff and Annie though. If they made out, that was a good thing right? They couldn't even look at each other. That was straight up weird. He also couldn't really gloss over the way Abed was looking at Annie as he was saying us deductions out loud. He looked more disappointed than he did on Pierce or Britta. Usually it's difficult to tell these feelings for others but with Abed, even a distinct shift in tone could mean that he was going through something. A small quirk of lips or eyes that looked shiny, like a mirror. Like it took all his willpower to not let his eyes well up so that he'd cry. Thank god Abed didn't cry or something. Troy wouldn't want to have to do anything with something that made Abed Cry. After the psych experiment from two years ago and the things Britta told Troy that Meghan said to Abed last year or even that librarian turning him down during Valentine's Day because he was weird, none of that made Abed cry but it made Troy bawl.

There was something he saw in Abed's eyes as he looked at Annie after he concluded they made out.

Troy wasn't one to notice mood changes and dynamic shifts. He was a person who could sense change in emotions.

Strong emotions.

Strong emotions that Abed perhaps had for Annie.

Or maybe he was reading too deep into it for the sake of feeling smart…

"Hey, uh-Abed?" Troy started.

"Yep?"

"Is there anything you wanna tell me?"

"In what way?"

"Do you like Annie?"

"Do you like Britta?"

"I can't confirm or deny that"

"Right back atcha."

And just like that, the magician who was Abed Nadir had distracted Troy to think about Britta.

That girl was a hurricane.

He smiled.

Britta

Monday morning

Britta felt bad. She should've decided to get high another time. This was clearly getting out of hand. She started considering Todd's words to be kind of true and that gave her shudders. Abed was right, though. She shouldn't have smoked weed just then. Should've waited till she got home. She really was the worst, she thought, as she sadly walked in the study room as she saw Jeff come in from the other side and nodded in acknowledgement.

The group wasn't completely at odds with each other. They all wanted to apologize to Troy and Abed who both seemed equally disappointed in them but were themselves as good friends as ever. Those two really lived in their own world.

Annie was reading the chapter about Darwin and whatever he discovered and philosophized. Abed and Troy were whispering at each other. Pierce was pretending to be tech savvy by using a calculator for some reason, Shirley was noting a few things down and Jeff was checking out his text messages. They couldn't even bring themselves to talk to each other at this point of time and that was just, bad.

Getting lost in her thoughts, she thought about the housewarming party. She remembered staring at Troy intently when he wasn't looking and remembered the happy feeling she got as she puffed a smoke and that amazing smell of fresh baked pies that Shirley made and it felt like heaven. The pies tasted amazing. And then she remembered she messed up everything. And then Shirley called her a "godless hippie skank" which offended her and then Abed walked in with the pizza. He was oblivious to everything to such a degree that she wished she got the pizza instead (on second thought, she was already high, she didn't want to do something weird like get engaged to the creepy pizza guy or something) but then Abed found everything out by just looking at them. That did seem pretty cool but at that time with his monologue she was too busy feeling endlessly guilty.

The door opened only to reveal the Dean come in wearing a hot dog costume for some reason.

"Hey, favorite study group" he chuckled

They acknowledged him.

He chuckled before observing everyone's demeanor, "uh, what happened here guys?"

No one responded.

"Uh, whatever, so I need you guys to um, help me out, we are having a fundraiser for raising money so that puppies could get prosthetic paws and we'll have a hot dog fest!"

Everyone except Annie and Shirley groaned.

"You guys will get more pizza for the next month!"

Everyone's eyes lit up finally. Abed and Troy smiled.

So did Britta. This could be an opportunity for things to go back to normal.

"Happy fun-dean!" the Dean said after which he walked away.

"I have a feeling he only asked us to help because he wanted to crack that terrible pun."

Everyone chuckled. Jeff smiled

(Britta could feel things go back to normal)

"Guys, who are we kidding, we can't stay mad at each other." Jeff said

Everyone agreed, saying "yes", "yeah" "sounds about right" and so it was solved.

"And we're sorry Abed and Troy, we should've been behaving better during your housewarming party." Annie said.

"Yeah, I'm really sorry." Jeff chimed in.

"Me too" Britta said, smiling at Troy who smiled back, giving her a surge of serotonin go through her veins.

Troy and Abed shared a look of agreement.

"We accept" both said at the same time. Troy started smiling at Britta first this time and she couldn't resist the urge to decide that she was going to ask him out today. She was a strong and bold woman. Not some blushy and shy girl.

"I'm really sorry, Troy. Here, maybe this will make it up to you." Pierce said.

"What is this?" Troy looked skeptically. "Oh Pierce! Is this a signed photo of LeVar Burton?"

"The one and only"

"Pierce, this is awesome! Thanks!"

Britta smiled as she observed everyone smiling at each other and felt particularly wholesome but then something distracted her. It was Annie. Looking intently at Abed for some reason. Had she gotten over Jeff or something? Or was she still sorry. She had no idea.

As everyone was leaving for breakfast, she asked Annie

"Hey, uh-Annie?" Britta started.

"Yep?"

"Is there anything you wanna tell me?"

"In what way?"

"Do you like Abed?"

"Do you like Troy?"

"I can't confirm or deny that"

"Right back atcha."

She blushed as she left the room. Britta looked behind her and she was appalled at finding out that Troy was still playing a game on his phone. He'd heard her conversation. Before she could say anything, he looked up at her.

"You know, it's funny, Abed and I had the same discussion on our housewarming party and he reacted the exact same way." He wiggled his eyebrows

Britta didn't know what to do with that but that also mean that Abed asked Troy if he liked her. She smiled lightly. "I was thinking," she said in a soft tone, "do you wanna grab a drink at Starbucks after?"

"Yes, I'd love to." Troy smiled.

They went to have breakfast while Britta was internally jumping around in happiness

Annie

Things had changed for Annie recently. Not little but a lot. Since the housewarming party, she'd successfully gotten over Jeff Winger and she could not say for sure that she was lying when she said what she said after making out. And it felt wrong and gross and she hoped that this didn't happen in the "other timelines" but strangely, she was over it.

Something changed.

A new obsession had entered her brain. A new addiction. A new thing that when she thought about made her smile but then made her tear up sometimes. She was pretty sure she won't be able to follow through.

As Abed was giving his insights on the situation and looked at her disapprovingly, she was hurt. Hurt in a different way. He was looking at her disapprovingly in a different way. His caramel brown eyes portrayed hurt, more than anything. For Britta and Pierce, it was just a frustrating eye roll if you squinted. For her, she noticed something more, a silent question, "why?". And she knew that probably wasn't true and she was reading too much into it. She was no Abed.

And then she reached home, not crying, but she had a certain air of melancholy about her. Britta didn't try to console her as she drove her given that she was pretty upset too. So she reached home, not knowing what to do. She didn't know how to cheer herself up so she decided to read her journal from the last semester. She had journal where she recorded the happiest memories of each day of school (community college) and so she started in the last page. Little did she know what she had coming.

The last page of the last semester was paintball. The Han and Leia one. The one she had to force herself to forget because if she professed her genuine feelings on the same, they'd not be returned. In Abed's eyes probably, she liked bad guys. Jeff. Han Solo. Don Draper. So he'd start role-playing sometimes, with seemingly innocent intentions and then something would happen between them. But he would only be doing those things and showing her his attraction because he was being in character. Why did it always feel so genuine? How did he mimic the fictional characters with such emotion, with just expressively lustful eyes? Could someone actually fake that unless they were a professional actor?

Goosebumps ran through her body as she read how she described that kiss under the raining paint in the most intricate way. Down to how their hands moved and how their eyes closed and how he turned her around and how she wrapped her arm around his neck and how she clung onto him as he gently held her waist as his velvety soft lips tasting of nutmeg and cinnamon were on hers. There was something in that kiss and there was something in Abed, not Han Solo, that made her remember compulsively that whole memory. Maybe Han Solo!Abed's distinctive voice did additional things to her but that was it. She was certainly sure she didn't have feelings for that elf maiden that day either and as much as she wished that that role-play sex was just for winning the game but it just wasn't true.

Night after housewarming party

7 pm

The group had been reunited this morning and Abed volunteered to help her arrange her new shelf. He seemed concerned about her living condition and she was there for it. As they were done, Abed sat down, tired. It was apparently too late at 7 pm and time had flown. He had been planning on watching a certain murder mystery movie but now he couldn't but much to Annie's happiness, he didn't complain when she said she had the same movie downloaded in her laptop. They watched the movie and as the movie went on, Annie kept getting scared as women and men screamed when they found out that the killer had caught them. She gripped Abed and he didn't complain. "Let's watch something different." he said when he saw her almost cry. They put on a romantic movie next and as the whole concept of unrequited love was introduced made her get goosebumps which were scarier than the ones she got from the previous movie. She gripped him again. He didn't complain. "Sorry." she said, "kind of personal" she chuckled sadly. "Same" he said, understandingly. She looked him straight in his eye and he looked back. She knew what that meant. She leaned in and kissed him. As him. He kissed her back. It started soft but turned passionate and she was planning on letting his tongue slip through when she heard a loud thud from the apartment below and opened her eyes.

And woke up from her sleep.

Quite a dream...

"This better not awaken anything in me..." she muttered to herself.

Monday

The study group was finally together. Well it had only been a few days but still, it felt nice.

She found herself eyeing Abed and studying him again as they exchanged sorries and Britta knew something. When she pulled her aside and asked her the question, "do you like Abed?" she didn't know what to do so she twisted things around from what she'd been noticing lately between Britta and Troy.

Wednesday

Said hot-dog fundraiser

It had been amazing that day. They'd managed to sell a lot of hot dogs and even though the whole reason behind this fundraiser was to rub it in City College's face, Annie always felt happy doing things for a good cause.

"Hey." Abed said as she was winding up her stall.

"Hey!" she replied, upbeat.

"I noticed something I wanted to ask you about"

"Yeah! What is it?"

"What's up with you and Jeff. You guys clearly kissed. Why were you mad at each other?"

As much as voicing the reason felt unnecessary and something she never wanted to say out loud she did.

"The dynamic was wrong."

"Age difference is garbage in my opinion."

"No, the dynamic…"

Abed's knowledge on TV was enough and she was glad about that. She really didn't want to get into it. He shuddered.

"How did you find out?"

Annie told him all about Jeff worrying about where she lived as she was taking care of his wounded head and then one thing lead to another.

"I mean, even though it was creepy, Annie…you really shouldn't be living there" he said, normally concerned. "You should move in with Troy and I. We have two bedrooms and the apartment is spacey in general." he said it like the sky was blue. Jeff cared, Abed offered (but then again Jeff probably didn't have a spacey apartment hearing from what Britta told her about it).

So she said "yes" like the sky was blue.

And then a girl walked up to Abed.

"Still on for tomorrow?" she asked, blushing.

"Yep. For sure." he nodded.

He turned towards Annie, "we bonded over commentary on whatever was happening in this fundraiser" he informed her.

She nodded knowingly. "That's good for you" she said, teeth gritted.

Inside her head, all she could do was scream "why?!"

She wanted to have that dream come true. But how?

She blinked back her incoming tears.