Troy woke up early the next morning, so that he could be alone with Annie while Abed was still asleep. He knew Annie always woke up before him and Abed, which was something he was grateful for. She usually made them some sort of breakfast, or at least a pot of coffee; he never admitted to her that both he and Abed had no idea how to make it. It was one of the many things Troy admired about living with Annie, which made him feel even guiltier about yesterday. But none of that mattered anymore; Troy had spent a fair amount of time getting ready for his apology to Annie with the help of Abed last night. He felt confident that things would go well now.

When he left the blanket fort, Annie was already all dressed and ready to start the day. He how no idea how she even functioned right now, especially since it was 7:30am on a Saturday. She turned around with a smile on her face, but it soon fell when she saw it was Troy. She abruptly turned back to the stove before finally addressing him.

"I'm making pancakes, do you want some?"

Troy scratched the back of his head awkwardly, "Uh...yeah. That'd be great. Thanks a lot." Annie still hadn't turned around and stood idly at the stove facing the wall. She hadn't replied to him. Troy went over to the fridge and poured himself a glass of orange juice before going to the table to wait for Annie to bring him pancakes. He figured if she sat down to eat with him they'd be forced to talk about what happened.

But to his annoyance, Annie simply put the plate of pancakes on the counter before going back to the solitude of her room. Troy huffed in frustration. This is getting ridiculous. He downed the rest of his orange juice and walked towards Annie's now closed bedroom door. Hesitating slightly for a moment, Troy knocked on the door. He heard Annie's voice through the door.

"Go away, Troy."

"Annie, can I please talk to you?"

"Shouldn't you be in bed? You're never up this early."

"I know. I don't even understand how you can be up at this time every day."

"Maybe you can go laugh about it with Trish."

"Annie..."

"Your pancakes are getting cold."

Troy was beginning to get very irritated by Annie shutting him out. How was he supposed to apologize to her if she wouldn't even give him the chance?

"Annie, I'm trying to apologize to you. C'mon, please let me in?"

"We can talk later."

"No. I want to talk now."

"Well I don't."

"Well, you're going to have to leave your room at some point, so I'll wait right here until this door opens."

"Be my guest."

Troy sighed in disappointment, but was determined to hammer this out as quickly as possible. He wanted his Annie back. So, he sat against the wall beside her door and pulled out his phone to play games on it. Abed soon emerged from the blanket fort, still looking rather sleepy. Taking one look at Troy and the pancakes on the counter, he seemed to understand the situation completely. He turned to grab a plate and a couple pancakes, before going to his recliner and putting on a rerun of Inspector Spacetime. Troy just frowned at him, but watched anyway from his uncomfortable position on the floor.

His recliner never looked so enticing.

Troy's back was killing him. He had been waiting for 2 hours for Annie to emerge from her room. In that time, Abed had cleaned up the kitchen and did the dishes, spent a little time in the Dreamatorium and had since gone out to "run some errands". Troy didn't know what that meant, considering it was Abed and he didn't think his friend really ever had anything to take care of on a Saturday if it didn't revolve around watching movies or the annihilation of blorgons.

Finally, Troy heard the sweet sound of Annie's door opening. He struggled a tiny bit to get back onto his feet and face her. She had a look of complete shock on her face.

"You...you actually waited?"

Troy smirked at her. "I told you I would, didn't I?" He saw a small smile form on Annie's lips and she looked down at the ground.

"Troy..."

He took a moment to crack his back and massage his neck a bit before directing his attention back to Annie.

"So, ready to have that talk?"

She nodded and walked back into her room. Troy followed, closing the door behind him. It was weird; he had thought of exactly what to say to Annie, but now after finally getting the chance he was drawing a blank. Annie was looking at him expectantly, her brow slightly furrowed. Troy looked around her room for a moment, trying to come up with a way to break the ice between them. Not long after, he spotted it. He walked up to her dresser, picking up the small picture frame she had displayed there. It was of the three of them when she had moved in. Troy smiled at the memory of that day. He still had his green "#Annie's Move" t-shirt in his dresser.

"This was a good day."

"It had its ups and downs."

"Yeah, but it ended on a good note."

"Yeah."

Troy moved to sit on Annie's bed next to her.

Here goes nothing.

"Annie, I'm so sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. Actually, that's not completely true. I did know what I was thinking..."

Annie huffed in annoyance. Damn. This was a bad start. Troy mentally smacked himself and started over.

"Okay Annie. I did know what I was doing yesterday, but there's something you gotta understand about me. When we went to Riverside, I was popular. I couldn't help that, but what I could do was try and still be a good person. But...I wasn't. Instead, I spent every day trying to maintain my image. I honestly didn't know who you were, and to be honest that kinda sucks because I would've known how great of a person you are. But it was high school, Annie. I was a stupid jock who only cared about his status. And every single day I tried to get that status even higher. I wanted to the best, in every sense of the word. And...naturally, that made me want to date Trish. She was probably the only girl who ever rejected me at Riverside, and I just couldn't handle it."

"So that excuses what you did yesterday?"

Troy shook his head quickly. "No! No, Annie. Absolutely not. There's no excuse for what I did yesterday. I was a huge jerk...and I don't even know why I did it. But I want you to know that what I said wasn't true at all. At Riverside, everyone always told me that you were a loser, but I honestly didn't see it. But I...I didn't want to be seen with you. I thought it would tarnish my image. But like I said, you were probably awesome in high school. You were probably just as awesome as you are now. And if I could do it over and get to know you, I would. I would do it in a heartbeat, Annie."

Annie's frown slowly faded and a small smile came to her lips. Troy felt a great deal of stress being lifted after seeing her smile.

"You really mean that, Troy?"

"A hundred percent."

Annie wrapped her arms around Troy and relaxed into his arms. He reciprocated, and noticed that she smelled like strawberries. He found himself enjoying the scent much more than he usually did. He also realized though that Annie seemed to be very tired. He guessed this whole thing had taken its toil on her. This made him feel guilty once more. He realized he never wanted to upset Annie again.

"I'll never do anything to hurt you again. Screw high school, it means nothing. My status there means nothing now either. And neither does Trish."

Troy pulled away and held up the picture from her dresser.

"These are the only people that matter to me now Annie."

"Troy..."

"So...are we good?"

She smiled at him.

"Yeah. We're good."

"Awesome. So...I didn't really eat yet and I am starving. Wanna grab some pancakes?"

Troy had gotten up, but Annie remained on her bed. She looked to be thinking about something.

"Um...Troy can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what's up?"

"It's just...did you know I was on the cheerleading team in Riverside?"

"I do now. Since were friends now. I recognize you from the-"

Troy stopped himself, but it was too late. Annie looked down at her sheets.

"I thought so."

"Annie...that doesn't mean anything now."

Annie sighed.

"I know...it's just...seeing Trish yesterday kinda brought up all those memories."

"Oh. Well you couldn't help it if you lost your balance-"

"I didn't!"

Troy's eyes widened.

"Wait, what?"

"Trish and the other girls threw me..."

"Holy crap, Annie! That really sucks...wow..."

"Yeah."

Troy felt anger suddenly towards Trish. He couldn't believe he even cared enough to try and get her attention.

"They're bitches."

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you quit?"

"I wanted to, but my mom convinced me to stay on the team. Besides, I wanted you to notice me."

"Annie..."

"I guess it did end up working in the end. Even though the thought of us together was pretty ridiculous."

"I feel like a huge jerk. I mean, if you were anything like the way you are now, I probably would've really liked you."

"Except I was ugly..."

Troy felt himself getting more upset. He wanted to defend Annie, even though she was the one attacking herself.

"No you weren't! I mean...Trish and the other girls made you out to be a lot worse than you were. If you even looked remotely close to how you look now, you would've been really pretty."

Annie let out a small giggle of doubt.

"You're sweet Troy, but I really wasn't."

"Well even if you weren't, I would've totally still been friends with you. You're like the coolest girl I've ever met."

"Thanks, Troy."

She was smiling again, but she looked as though she still needed some reassurance.

"And for the record, I don't think the thought of us together is ridiculous."

"Troy?"

Troy was never a person to really think things through, but right now things just felt right anyway. He loved not having to think. He loved acting on impulse.

He loved the smell of strawberries.

He looked over at Annie. She was looking at him expectantly, waiting for him to finish his thought. But, unable to grasp the right words, Troy instead decided to make a bold move and press his lips against hers. Annie hesitated for a moment, before sinking into him. They kissed for about a minute, before Troy pulled away.

"Annie?"

"Yes?"

"I'm not ashamed of you. I never will be."