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“I can’t believe you dragged me into this,” Troy mumbles.
Annie shoots him a reproachful look, one just long enough to make him feel guilty about complaining before she turns her attention back to an approaching crowd of students, greets them, and passes them their programs for the evening with an almost aggressively cheery smile. He hands a few out to the people coming up by his side of the table too, with a touch less enthusiasm.
“You’re the one who said you owed me for helping you pass Astronomy,” Annie reminds him once there’s a lull in the crowd again. “We’ll be even after this, okay?”
It’s true, he did say that. He huffs in annoyance at his past self.
“Yeah, okay,” he concedes, “But of all the events to work, I don’t understand why you chose a student film festival. You actively dislike hipsters.”
She bristles slightly at that, sitting up straighter in her chair and folding her hands on the table in front of her. “It’s just nice to volunteer, Troy,” she says firmly. Her voice sounds a little higher than usual.
Troy ponders her for a moment before a thought occurs to him and his eyebrows shoot up.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he shrugs, nodding at a few more students on their way in and keeping his tone as casual as possible. “So this has everything to do with you being a good person.”
Her lips are drawn tightly as he glances over at him, then back away. “Yes.”
Troy nods. “And nothing to do with Stacy from Astronomy, that girl with the blue hair and nose ring who happens to be double majoring in Film and Gender and Sexuality Studies.”
She slowly deflates in her chair and looks over at him pathetically. “Is it obvious?”
That makes him feel a twinge of sympathy, so he takes the smugness out of his tone and shrugs. “Well… maybe not obvious, but—”
“Shit!” She cuts him off when something in the distance catches her eye. “Shut up, never mind, shut up, here she comes!”
“Oh my god,” Troy whispers, “You’re a disaster. You know, if you’d just be yourself…”
He trails off as he follows Annie’s gaze to where Stacy is approaching their table. She’s actually dyed her hair pink now, Troy notices, but that’s not what he’s focusing on at all.
No, he’s focusing on the guy she’s walking with—tall and dark and handsome, dressed in skinny jeans and a red flannel, with an adorable smile and big brown eyes and some je ne sais quoi that makes him feel weak in the knees, which would worry him a lot more if he weren’t already sitting down. He feels his cheeks heat up and his palms start to sweat.
“Annie?” He finally manages, voice soft and strangled as he wipes his clammy hands on his jeans. He’s sure his sudden change in demeanor is cause for confusion but he’s not looking at Annie’s expression to see if that’s the case. He can’t; he can’t stop staring forward. “Who’s that?”
“Huh?” Annie says distractedly. Of course she’s not paying attention.
“Annie!” Stacy comes up to the table with a smile. “This is a surprise. I didn’t know you were interested in film.”
Annie’s eyes widen—even more than usual, because that’s somehow possible—and it takes her a second to gather herself before she giggles nervously.
“Oh, totally,” she leans forward, planting her elbows on the table. “Love films. Love movies. Independent movies, especially. I find they’re so much more… um. Authentic.”
Troy resists the urge to snort.
Stacy’s expression morphs into one of interest as she nods slowly. “Huh. Well, that’s very cool of you.” She gestures to the ludicrously attractive guy standing next to her, finally. “Anyway, this is my friend Abed. He’s kind of a legend in the Greendale film department.”
The guy—Abed—greets them with a small, slightly awkward wave. Annie doesn’t acknowledge him; she’s too fixated on Stacy, and Troy can’t remember how to speak at the moment, so all he manages is a nod in return. Up close, his eyes are even more beautiful and Troy feels his heart melting like butter.
“Um,” Stacy looks between the two of them when they both fail to say or do anything, and picks two programs up from the table, passing one to Abed. “Okay, well. Hope you guys enjoy! Annie, maybe I’ll… see you later?”
Annie just squeaks.
She collapses forward onto the table once Abed and Stacy have walked past them, just as the lights in the cafeteria are starting to turn down.
“Looks like they’re about to start screening,” Troy says. He pokes her awkwardly in the shoulder when she doesn’t look up.
“Okay,” she already has her pleading face on, “You’re gonna hate me, I know I said we could leave once it started—”
“But you wanna stay and pretend to like Stacy’s movie,” he finishes for her with a nod. “Fine, we’ll stay.”
“You don’t mind?”
“You’re not the only one of us who’s a good person,” Troy says pointedly. Annie narrows her eyes slightly.
“You wanna stay so you can keep staring at the guy she came with,” she says after a moment of examining his expression. “I think what you meant to say was, I’m not the only one of us who’s a disaster.”
“He’s so cute, Annie,” he pouts, allowing his facade to break. “I don’t have to tell you that Greendale isn’t exactly teeming with viable gays. And… he must be gay, right? If he’s friends with Stacy?”
“Troy, that’s presumptuous,” she scolds, but then glances back over her shoulder at them. “...But, I mean. Probably.” She finishes with a mumble.
“Maybe watching their shitty movies will make us like them less?” Troy suggests. Annie perks up.
“You think so?” She asks. “That would be great. You know, Stacy’s so distracting, I almost got an A minus on that last Astronomy test.”
“Okay. Don’t make me change my mind about not hating you,” Troy says, holding his hand out for her as he stands up from his seat. She nods and takes it, letting him haul her up before standing on her toes and surveying the room.
“There’s a spot over there,” she nods towards an empty booth in the front corner and Troy trails behind her as she walks over to it. He grabs one of the complimentary popcorn bags from the middle of the table as soon as they sit down.
“So you really think this’ll work?” Annie asks hopefully, reaching into the bag of popcorn for a handful.
“It ought to. I mean, it’s a student film festival,” he lowers his voice to a whisper as the projector turns on. “There’s no way these things are gonna be good.”
*
Troy can barely see through the tears in his eyes, his vision positively swimming as he watches the screen fade to black and the credits begin to play.
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY:
ABED NADIR
“So this backfired, then,” Annie says as she stands up beside him—because, oh yeah, he’d leapt out of his seat immediately for a standing ovation—resting her hand on one of his shaking shoulders. Troy keeps clapping until his hands sting, until the lights come up and Dean Pelton thanks everyone for coming out to support the film department, then turns to her breathlessly.
“Yeah,” he sniffs and wipes his eyes. “This backfired. This backfired really bad. Fuck, Annie, he’s a genius. What am I supposed to do about that?”
“Well,” she says, pulling the sleeves of her sweater down over her hands and crossing her arms with a small shrug, “This might sound crazy, but you could just… tell him?”
Troy sighs wistfully. “You’re right. That is crazy.”
She raises an eyebrow at him.
“Well come on, Annie,” he says defensively, “It is. He’s intimidatingly pretty, okay? And also—”
“Stacy!” Annie cuts him off, eyes widening as she looks over his shoulder. He turns around, heartbeat picking up when he sees Abed walking towards them as well.
“Hey, you guys actually stayed for the whole thing!” Stacy greets them at the same time that Abed looks over, makes direct eye contact with him and says,
“You’ve been crying.”
Suddenly, Troy wishes the ground would open up and swallow him alive.
“Abed,” Stacy addresses him in a quiet sidebar, “That’s usually not something people want pointed out.”
“Troy really loved your movie, Abed,” Annie jumps in before he can embarrass himself further. “He’s very sensitive, hence the, uh, crying. So—”
“So that end scene was really amazing,” Troy blurts. His voice sounds a little broken, but he can’t stop himself. “Penelope’s speech about how the people we love are always gonna leave us, and we have to learn to be okay with that… that was really heartbreaking. I mean, really beautiful, but… heartbreaking.”
Abed’s eyes light up.
“Thanks,” he says, and this is the first time Troy’s hearing him speak, and he decides it’s a voice he could easily listen to forever. “I almost scrapped that, I’m glad someone liked it.”
“Everyone liked it, Abed,” Stacy nudges him with her elbow. She glances at Troy, then back at Abed, then back at Troy again. He’s pretty sure he can see the cogs starting to turn in her brain.
“You know, Troy,” she says thoughtfully. “I came over here to ask Annie if she’d wanna go out for coffee. Thing is, Abed hates coffee and he only drinks cold hot chocolate—”
“Special Drink,” Abed cuts in, “It’s hot cocoa mix poured into cold milk. It’s different from cold hot chocolate. It’s better.”
Damn it, Troy thinks, that’s adorable.
“Sure,” Stacy shrugs, “Special Drink. Anyway, I just thought maybe you guys could keep each other company while Annie and I have our date. That is,” she glances over at Annie, “If Annie wants to at all.”
Annie’s face is beet-red when Troy looks over at her.
“Oh, Annie definitely wants to,” Troy grins. Annie manages a minute nod herself.
“Awesome,” Stacy grins, and it’s not actually until he’s watched them fully walk out of the cafeteria that Troy realizes he and Abed are alone now, and the panic begins to rise again.
“You’re a good wingman,” Abed says. “Stacy’s wanted to ask her out all semester. She promised me she would tonight, as long as I promised to get back in the dating scene, too.”
Troy’s heart thuds against his ribcage; he can practically feel the blood pulsing hotly through his veins. “Oh,” he says in what he hopes is a casual tone of voice. “...back in the scene?”
Abed shrugs. “It’s been almost a year since my last boyfriend cheated on me. I haven’t wanted to date since then, but I guess she got tired of me moping around and making her watch chick flicks. She thinks they’re beneath her.”
“As if,” Troy snorts. “Has she even seen When Harry Met Sally? It’s a masterpiece.”
Abed nods, thank god. Troy might’ve never recovered from the embarrassment if he didn’t.
Then Abed’s expression becomes thoughtful and Troy wonders if they’re thinking the same thing, especially when he looks him up and down a couple times.
“You’re very cute, actually,” he says in a much quieter voice. “Do you wanna come back to my room?”
Troy feels like he could faint.
“Not like that,” Abed follows up quickly. “I just meant, I have a lot of movies and stuff there. If you wanted to watch one, or something.”
Troy breathes in deeply, counts to three, and then breathes out. In and out, in and out, and subtly pinches the side of his own leg to make sure this is actually happening.
Yup, it hurts. He’s definitely awake.
“That sounds fun,” he says when he’s collected enough. Abed smiles. It’s very subtle, but it’s definitely a smile, and that feels like winning the lottery.
“Cool,” Abed says. “Cool cool cool.”
They start walking, the backs of their hands brushing against each other as they do. It’s comfortably quiet for a little bit before Abed turns to him.
“Annie doesn’t like independent movies at all, does she?”
“Oh, not even a little,” Troy answers quickly. “This was probably torture for her, but worth it for what she got in the end, I think.”
“Good thing you guys ended up staying, then,” Abed says.
Their hands brush together again, which he’s pretty sure is intentional on both their parts.
“Yeah,” he smiles wide enough to make his cheeks hurt, “Good thing.”