guess what we'll discover (5/11)
Pairing: Jeff/Annie
Spoilers: None
Word Count: 5,878
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Description: Jeff gets a new roommate
Author’s Note: Okay, I’m so sorry this took such a ridiculously long time to post. There were real life issues and then computer issues and motivational issues all piled up on top of each other. But here it is! For those of you still reading, thank you and I love you.
Much thanks to 0penhearts for the beta and the demands to keep writing.
Previous chapters
~*~*~
“Jeff! We’re going to be late!”
Annie stands in the open doorway, a neatly packed canvas bag over one shoulder and a saran-wrapped platter of flag-shaped sugar cookies in her hands. She taps her foot impatiently, trying to shrug the strap of the bag up higher as it starts to slip down her arm.
“Jeff!”
“Annie.” He saunters out of the bathroom, unhurried. “It’s an all-day barbeque. We’re not going to miss anything.”
The nonchalance in his voice makes her grumble in frustration. “I told Shirley we’d be there by 1:00 and we have to pick up Abed and Britta on the way and-”
“Aaaaaand, as Americans it’s our right to be five minutes late for a Fourth of July pool party and not be executed for it.”
“I don’t think our forefathers fought for independence so that you could spend forty-five minutes applying self tanner, Jeff."
“Are you sure about that? Because I seem to recall reading about a little something called the ‘pursuit of happiness’ in the… What has that document called again?” Jeff snaps his fingers a couple of times and pretends to think. "Oh yeah, the Declaration of Independance."
Annie rolls her eyes, "Yeah, I'm sure they had your vanity in mind when they were protesting over-taxation."
Jeff throws a towel over his shoulder and grabs his keys off the counter. "This is a little like the pot calling the kettle black though, isn't it, Ms. 'I-once-overdrew-my-bank-account-buying-hair products'?”
Annie gasps, “It was an emergency. I had really bad split ends. And I told you that in confidence.”
“Yeah, you should probably rethink telling me these things,” he leans close and whispers with a smirk as he passes her on the way out the door. Her hands are full so she aims a kick at his shin with her flip-flop adorned foot, but he barely notices.
“Wait." Annie looks back toward the kitchen, "Where’s your contribution to the potluck?
He waves vaguely at the platter in her hands. “We’re bringing cookies.”
“We? You didn’t help even help! You just kept trying to steal bites of cookie dough when you thought I wasn’t looking.”
“I let you make them in my kitchen. The ‘we’ is implied. Besides, you really think Shirley expects me to contribute?” He gestures to himself. “C’mon.”
“Wow. It must be nice to be able to skate by on everyone’s low expectations,” she mutters as she pushes away from the door so Jeff can lock it.
He grins. “Annie, I bring something to the party that can’t be measured by fruit platters and bags of ice.”
“Ew.”
“You scoff, but you can't deny the truth.”
Annie sighs over-dramatically. “I can’t argue with you when you’re like this.”
“Like what?” Jeff holds the door to the stairwell open for her and she slides past, maneuvering down the steps carefully.
“All ‘I’m Jeff Winger and I’m a cocky ass who can lawyer my way out of everything by making it seem like I don’t care about anything.’” She pauses and looks back at him with a raised eyebrow as if challenging him to say she’s wrong.
Jeff laughs in a genuinely affectionate way that makes her lips twitch upward. “Did you just say ass?”
“That’s what you got out of what I just said?!”
He shrugs. “Cursing shouldn’t be so adorable.”
She's still walking ahead of him so he can't see her face but she splutters a little and he imagines the pink flush spreading up her cheeks. “See! And then you do that!”
Jeff laughs again but doesn’t ask her to elaborate as they exit into the parking lot and both blink into the brightness of the mid-day sun. It's hot, almost too hot, and everything on the horizon seems to shimmer in waves.
"Ugh. Can't we stay inside today?"
"No. Don't whine. Here." Annie motions for him to take the platter of cookies out of her hands and then starts rooting through her bag for something.
Jeff eyes her critically.“What the hell did you pack?”
“Essentials.
“Essentials,” he parrots back at her, shifting the platter to one hand and hooking a finger around one of the canvas straps to tug her back toward him.“You know we’re only going to be gone for a few hours, right?" He peers inside, "A change of clothes, a book…is that a first aid kit?”
“It’s a pool party. People can get hurt at pool parties.”
“Quick question: were you ever actually in the Girl Scouts? Or are you just that anal retentive?”
“Oh shut up.” Annie finally pulls a pair of sunglasses from the bottom of the bag and slips them on. She takes the cookies back from him and waits while he opens the passenger side door of the Lexus.
“Just remind me to never go on an actual trip with you.”
Annie laughs as she slides into the car, “Oh please, we’d need an entire suitcase just for your-”
Jeff shuts the door, cutting off her retort. But he can’t help but grin to himself, flipping his keys around his finger, as he walks around to the driver’s side.
~*~*~
He honks again, drumming his thumbs in annoyance on the steering wheel. “You texted her that we were here?”
“Yeah.” Annie gives him a sideways smirk. “What’s wrong? I thought we weren’t in a hurry.”
Jeff raises an eyebrow. “When did you become such a smartass?”
“Too much time hanging out with you, I guess.” She starts unbuckling her seatbelt, “I’ll go get her.”
“There she is.” From the backseat, Abed points up the stairs of Britta’s courtyard apartment complex where she is running towards them and simultaneously trying to shove a towel into her bag. She drops something, stops to pick it up and then somehow manages to almost topple down the remaining steps, catching herself on the railing at the last second. Annie, Jeff and Abed all watch her through the windshield, wincing.
When she finally yanks open the back passenger door and slides in, Britta is flushed and out of breath. “Sorry. Sorry. One of my cats threw up and-”
“Ew.”
“Do not finish that story.”
“Is that why you look more frazzled than normal?”
“Abed!” Annie and Britta reprimand him in unison.
“What?” He meets Jeff’s eyes in the review mirror and shrugs. “I wasn’t being bitchy. It was just a question.”
Jeff turns in his seat, regarding Britta’s tousled hair and flushed cheeks with narrowed eyes. “Britta have you been-”
“I’m fine!” Britta yelps as she interrupts him mid-question. “I’m just running late. And the cat. And stuff…” She trails off and claps her hands together once. “Alright! Let’s go!”
Abed cocks his head to the side as he watches her.
“Britta has a secret,” Jeff says with barely contained glee.
“What? No.” She shakes her head, “What are you talking about?”
“I’ve been trained to spot a liar, Britta. And you have the worst poker face I’ve ever seen.”
“Ugh. You were a lawyer. Not an Republican Guard interrogator.”
“Is this about your secret…” Annie lowers her voice to a hush. “Boyfriend?”
Britta pales and then laughs a little manically. “Boyfriend? Me? No.” She looks out the window and gasps. “Oh my god! Is that Graham Norton?!”
Everyone continues staring at her.
“The comedian? BBC America?” Her eyes dart around to each of her friends who remain silent until she throws her hands up in the air and slumps back in her seat. “You guys do know that there’s an entire world outside North America, right? Are we so self-consumed that--”
Abed and Annie groan but Jeff just continues to grin knowingly. “Hey, Abed, why doesn’t Britta want us to know about her secret boyfriend?”
Britta gapes at him.
“Well,” Abed holds up a finger as if he’s about to starting listing off reasons but Britta grabs his hand and pulls him close.
“If you continue on with that sentence I swear I’ll go to your apartment and destroy every Inspector Spacetime poster you own. Including the one signed by Travis Richey.”
Abed’s eyes widen in fear as she stares him down. “Britta doesn’t have a secret boyfriend,” he intones monotonously. Annie opens her mouth but Jeff gives her an almost imperceptible shake of the head and she drops back into her seat with a sigh.
“Okay, Britta. Whatever you say.” Jeff smiles indulgently but there’s an air of this isn’t over to his words. Britta glares at him and releases Abed’s hand, patting it in apology.
“Let’s just go. We’re already late.” Annie gestures toward the clock on the radio and Jeff throws the car into reverse.
In the backseat Britta is still reassuring Abed that she won’t touch any of his Inspector Spacetime memorabilia but she interrupts herself as Jeff pulls out of the parking lot. “Oh. And we need to stop at the store first. Shirley asked me to bring a salad.”
“What? Why? This wasn’t something you could have done on your own time?”
“I was busy.”
“With her secret boyfriend,” Annie mutters under her breath so that only Jeff hears her properly. He widens his eyes at her and nods slowly.
~*~*~
“If you’re not back in five minutes, we’re leaving without you.”
“Ass,” Britta grumbles, slamming the door behind her and sticking her tongue out at Jeff through the window for good measure. He grins and raises his arm, tapping his wrist to indicate that she should hurry.
In the car, they’re all quiet for a second until Annie breathes out a giddy, “Oh my god, she must really like this guy.”
“Please,” Jeff scoffs, “She’s probably just too embarrassed to tell us who it is. Knowing Britta she’s found herself some poor scmhuck with a facial deformity or a debilitating hunchback.”
“Oh please. You really think Britta’s dating a hunchback? Besides, she told us about One-Eyed Jason didn’t she?”
“Annie’s right. Britta’s usually pretty open about the guys she dates. Sometimes too open.” Abed’s eyes dart over to Jeff’s and he raises his eyebrow meaningfully. Jeff looks confused but Abed continues. “The most likely possibility is that it’s someone we know but wouldn’t approve of… But who?”
They all fall silent, pondering the possibilities. Annie thinks briefly of Troy, ignoring the familiar sweep of jealousy, but quickly discounts the idea -it has to at least be someone in town for the summer.
Her lips pursed in thought, she reaches for the radio, but Jeff bats her hand away without even looking at her. “What did I tell you?”
“It’s a commercial.”
“Well, I’m not in the mood to listen to the Jonas Brothers.”
“I don’t listen to the Jonas Brothers, Jeff.”
“Or Katy Petty. Or Lady Gaga. Or Taylor Swift. Or any other Top-40-cookie-cutter recycled crap that-”
“Fine!” Annie scowls as she pulls his ipod out of the glove compartment and hooks it up. “And Taylor Swift is really talented, okay? She writes her own songs.”
“Yeah. Like song writing ability indicates talent. If that were true, that tiny-nippled idiot you dated wouldn’t have to fall back on a sport created by stoners in the 90’s.”
Annie rolls her eyes but doesn’t reply or look up as she scrolls through his music selection. Jeff leans over the center console, into her personal space so he can look at the screen. “Here, pick-” But she pushes back against him with her shoulder.
“I want to choose.” And then she gasps and looks up at him, her eyes wide and bright. “Hey, Abed, guess what?” Her gaze doesn’t leave Jeff’s and his smile falters a little. “It turns out that someone in this car is a closet BNL fan.” She taps the ipod screen and the open strains of “If I Had A Million Dollars” start playing over the speakers.
“Nice,” Abed says from the backseat.
Jeff scowls. “Okay, I like one song. Who cares?”
“Admit it!” Annie’s practically bouncing in her seat. “BNL is awesome.”
“Stop. Calling them. BNL.” Jeff lunges for the ipod but Annie yelps and holds it to her chest, curling back into the corner of her seat.
“Just say it, Jeff.”
“Not happening. Give it.” He’s halfway out of his seat, leaning over her as they struggle and Annie starts to sing along, the lyrics broken up by her giggles and sounding more and more high pitched and shouty as Jeff gives up and starts tickling her, his fingers dancing up the sides of her torso.
“Stopstopstop.” Annie practically slides all the way out of her seat and onto the floor trying to get away from him and she relinquishes the ipod with an out-of-breath laugh. “Here!”
“Milady.” Jeff drops back into his seat and quickly skips to the next song.
Annie sits up, straightening the strap of her tank-top that’s slipped down one shoulder as Dave Matthew’s “Funny the Way It Is” starts playing. “Oh, I like this one.” She hums along softly and stretches her legs out, wiggling her toes in her flip-flops and scrutinizing the intricate stripes of red, white and blue she’d painted her nails the night before.
“I saw them in concert a few years ago when they were in Denver,” Jeff offers, not looking up as he continues scrolling through the ipod, presumably to make sure that there’s nothing else embarrassing to be found in his music selection. “They were pretty awesome. One of my clients gave me front row tickets.”
Annie looks a little wistful. “I’ve never really been to a concert before. Well…” her voice trails off and she smiles sheepishly, “Vaughn did take me to see this reggae band one time.”
“No, Annie. That doesn’t… no. Okay, clearly we’re going to have to-”
But Britta returns then with a grocery bag in hand, cutting him off. “Alright, are we ready to pool party it up?”
“What did you buy?” Abed asks, pointing at the bag.
“One of those pre-packaged salad kits.”
Annie bites her lip, imagining Shirley’s reaction and Jeff must have the same thought because he snorts and turns around in his seat. “You’re bringing a bag of salad to a party?”
“Shut up, Martha Stewart. What did you bring?”
“Nothing,” Annie interjects with a smirk.
“Ha! Party foul on you, Winger.”
“Traitor,” Jeff mutters at Annie.
~*~*~
It’s already 1:30 by the time they walk through the gate into Shirley’s sister’s backyard where there’s already a smattering of family and friends splashing around in the pool and milling around a picnic table laden with chips and plastic cups of soda.
Baby Ben spots them from his spot on a blanket in the grass surrounded by toys. “Ta! Ta!” he cries in delight and tries to stand on still-unsure legs. He takes a couple of wobbly steps toward them but doesn’t get very far before he falls forward, catching himself on his hands and looking for a moment, his face puckered and red, likes he’s about to cry. It only takes a second though before he’s off again, crawling this time through the grass, albeit a little hindered by the orange floaties around his upper arms. As Andre walks by, he swoops him up, arms and legs still flailing, and plops him into Britta’s arms.
“Ta!” Ben yells happily, throwing his chubby arms around her neck and burying his face in her curls.
“He’s been asking about you since this morning. Hey guys.”
They all offer their hellos as Britta smiles warily at the child in her arms. Despite the fact that she always seems a little terrified of him, he never ceases to be overjoyed at her presence, enthusiastically shouting her name (or rather, a slightly mangled version of her name) and demanding constant love and attention until it’s time to either eat or go to sleep.
Annie ‘awws’ and leans over to kiss him on the head, “Hi Ben.” But despite her gentle smile, his face scrunches up, almost suspiciously, and he holds up his hand to push her away.
“Nono.”
Jeff laughs as Annie’s shoulders droop, her lips puckering out in a pout of rejection. Britta seems a little smug about it all as she tightens her hold on the kid and nods in pretend understanding at the nonsensical gibberish that he chatters in her ear.
“He hates me,” Annie says quietly enough that only Jeff can hear.
“He’s a year old. I’m pretty sure he hasn’t tapped into that emotional well yet.”
“But he likes Britta better.”
“Wow. You really do have a pathological need to be everyone’s favorite don’t you?” he teases her, but his hand hovers over her low back as he leans closer. “Maybe he just has a thing for blonde anarchists.”
Annie fights back a smile. “Oh Shirley will love that.”
As if on cue, the woman in question emerges from the house, muttering darkly something about not needing to be told how to properly assemble a potato salad. At the sight of her friends though, she beams and claps her hands together.
“Oh! You came!” She straightens her “He is Risen” apron and bustles over, hugging Jeff and cooing over Annie’s cookies and side-eyeing the falafel that Abed brought from his dad’s restaurant. At Britta’s proffered grocery bag she raises an eyebrow and somehow manages a tight, “Oh, that’s… nice.”
Britta visibly deflates but Ben chooses that moment to plant a kiss on her cheek and then giggle in delight about it and she can’t help but melt and kiss his cheek in return.
~*~*~
Jeff lounges at the side of the pool in board shorts, his sunglasses firmly in place to block out the glare of the sun as he naps. The noise of the party bubbles around him - Shirley and her sister arguing by the barbeque as all the kids chase each other around the yard with nerf guns, Abed talking Andre’s ear off about his latest television obsession, the radio in the kitchen playing out a steady stream of patriotic hits. In the midst of it he hears Annie’s lilting giggle and he instinctively turns his head to where he knows she is hanging off the edge of the pool chatting with Britta.
Her hair is tied up in a knot to keep it out of the water, leaving her neck bare, the ties to her bikini trailing down her back. Earlier she had been nagging him about the importance of sunscreen and that if he was going to insist on lying around without a shirt on he better be using a higher SPF, but any clever retort he’d been able to come up with had died on his tongue as she slipped her tank top off over her head and revealed a red and white striped bikini speckled with little blue stars. She’d looked almost shy about it too and somehow that made it all the more appealing - enough so that he’d had to walk away, mumbling some excuse for having to go talk to Shirley on the other side of the yard.
Now she has her chin propped up on her folded arms, listening to Britta - who wearing a simple black one piece and sitting with her legs dangling into the water - rant about something presumably ridiculous. Jeff rolls his eyes and stares back up at the sky, shifting into a more comfortable position.
But something soft hits him on the side of his head and there’s a burst of raucous laughter from nearby. Jeff slides his sunglasses down and eyes Elijah who is standing about five yards away with a nerf gun in his hands and a sly look on his face.
“What are you-?” And then something hits the other side of Jeff’s face and suddenly he’s being pelted with a barrage of nerf darts from all sides.
“Hey!” He holds up his hands to protect himself and struggles out of the chair.
“HAHA! Sucker!” One of the kids yells and Jeff is momentarily reminded of a few humiliating elementary school traumas before he manages to reach Elijah and easily pull the gun from his hands.
“You boys! Leave. Him. Alone!” Shirley’s mom voice echoes through the yard.
Jeff smirks, “Ooooh, someone’s in trouble.”
Elijah makes a face. “Oooooh, someone’s got a receding hairline.” He doubles over in laughter, the other kids quickly joining in as the smile fades off Jeff’s face. Receding hairline? It’s almost involuntary when he reaches up and touches his forehead with something akin to horror. But then he catches Shirley’s eyes - which are sparking with some mix of mischievousness and annoyance - as she nods her head ever so slightly in the direction of the pool. And with that act of permission Jeff lunges forward, grabs Elijah around the waist and tosses him sideways into the pool, the resulting splash sending a spray of water directly into Britta and Annie.
“Hey!” the girls yell in unison as Elijah comes up spluttering. He coughs a couple times and then raises a fist in the air.
“That was AWESOME!”
The other kids who had fallen momentarily silent in surprise at Jeff’s retaliation all cheer and then suddenly he is surrounded by a clamoring of tiny but determined voices as they all beg to go next.
“Uh.” He holds his arms up, away from their grabby hands because he doesn’t really know what to do with kids and he hadn’t really signed up to be their activities director today but he catches a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of Britta as she wipes a few stray droplets of water off her arms and he can’t really help himself. “Okay, who’s first?”
“Me! Me! Me!”
He picks up one of the little girls, Andre’s five-year old niece Lola, and she’s already shrieking with laughter as he throws her in and she freefalls through the air, her arms held high above her head.
Annie and Britta both get a face full of water this time. Annie yelps and tries to jump out of the way, pushing back from the wall of the pool, while Britta yells, “Jeff Winger, I swear I’m going to come over there and f-“
“Now, I know you weren’t about to use any inappropriate language around children, were you Brit-ta?” Shirley trills from behind her. Britta’s mouth snaps shut, her jaw tight.
“Whatever.” She slides into the pool next to Annie, still sending nasty looks in Jeff’s direction and they resign themselves to getting drenched as Jeff continues throwing each kid into the pool.
“Well, good for him. He finally found someone his own maturity level to play with.”
Annie shrugs, watching as Elijah runs up to Jeff for another turn, holding his hand up for a fist bump that Jeff returns reluctantly but with a smile. “I don’t know. It’s kind of cute.” She doesn’t notice the way Britta narrows her eyes and follows her gaze.
“Oh, Annie.”
“What?” She frowns at the look on Britta’s face and shakes her head. “I mean the kids. The kids are cute…” Annie sinks down into the water a bit so that she’s submerged to her chin, kicking her legs out in front of her and trying to look casual. “What do you have against Jeff anyway?”
“Uh. He’s Jeff. He’s a douche.”
“But if I want to think,” she waves her hand in Jeff’s direction, “that’s cute, then who cares?”
“Because you can’t think something’s cute without falling in love with it.”
“That’s not true.”
Britta looks doubtful. “I’m just looking out for you. You don’t want to get sucked into that again. Trust me.” She widens her eyes. “Jeff is never going to be ready for a real relationship and you deserve better than pining around for a guy whose highest priority in life is looking good and being cool.”
Annie’s skin prickles in a sudden fit of defensiveness. She thinks about coming home to find Jeff in the kitchen making dinner with a hand towel slung over his shoulder, the way he squints his eyes and kind of blinks a lot when he gets sleepy, the fact that he always, always steals the last chunk of Oreo cookie out of the ice cream but then kind of shrugs apologetically and smiles and promises to buy more. And she wants to tell Britta these things, wants to make her understand. Instead -
“Speaking of relationships.”
“Annie.”
“Please. I won’t tell anyone. It’s someone we know, right? Is it swarthy Michael Cera? Asian Will Farrel?” Annie’s eyes widen as she looks around, “Chang?”
“Ew! Even I have standards.”
Annie giggles, forgetting about her earlier irritation. “Is it Neil? He’s still talking about that time you flashed him.”
“No. And I heard he and Vicki got back together.”
“Ugh. I’m so tired of the drama between those two.”
“Right?”
There’s a loud chorus of shouts behind them as all the kids have suddenly ganged up on Jeff and are pushing him towards the edge of the pool. He’s struggling against them but he’s also kind of laughing as Jordan and Elijah each yank on one of his arms and they all go toppling into the pool.
Annie and Britta are both still laughing when Jeff swims over to them, thoroughly soaked, his hair lying flat against his head.
“Awww, all that extra time spent getting ready gone to waste. John Adams would be so disappointed.” Annie lets out an exaggerated sigh.
“I’m pretty sure he’s rolling over in his grave right now.”
“So much for independence.”
Jeff grins down at her. “We should probably just go ahead and surrender ourselves back to the British.”
“It would probably be for the best.”
Britta stares at them, a little dumbfounded. “What the fuck are you guys talking about?”
“Ooooh. You said a swear,” a tiny voice says from behind her. Britta’s face goes slack as she turns to find a couple little girls sitting on the steps to the pool and shaking their heads at her in disapproval. And of course, Shirley is right behind them, standing with her hands on her hips and shaking her head slowly.
“Britta.”
“Yeah. Yeah.”
~*~*~
When the sun starts to sink low in the sky, throwing elongated shadows over the yard, the entire party sets out to walk the few blocks to the local park where they’ll be able to see the fireworks display being shot off at City College - an elaborate show set to music that’s broadcast over the local radio station. Greendale too has a fireworks display, but it’s not much more than a few rockets and the obligatory burn injury.
“Dean Pelton can never know about this,” Annie says seriously as she helps Shirley spread a few blankets over the grass.
“Agreed.” Everyone else nods, and a few minutes later when they see Dean Spreck walk by they all duck down and hide.
Jeff settles at the edge of one of the blankets and Shirley almost immediately plops Ben down next to him and then hustles off after the other boys as they run toward the playground.
“Uh.” Jeff eyes Ben apprehensively. “I hope she doesn’t expect me to baby sit.”
Britta rolls her eyes and drops down at the other end of the blanket, sitting Indian style. “Like anyone would trust you with a child.”
“She trusts you with him, doesn’t she?”
“Yeah right!” Britta snorts. “The last time I babysat she was gone for an hour and in that time six different people from her church showed up at the door. Including her pastor.” She gets a faraway look in her eyes. “He was actually pretty cute.”
“Is that who you’re dating?!” Annie asks, sounding disturbed, as she and Abed join her on the ground.
“NO!” But then they’re all laughing uproariously at the visual of Shirley finding out that Britta had hooked up with her pastor, each imitating the look of horror that would undoubtedly be on her face. Ben yells along with them, clapping his hands in amusement. As their giggles subside, Abed pulls out a deck of cards and soon he and Britta and Annie are caught up in a card game that seems to involve a lot of yelling and slapping at the ground and each other.
Jeff watches them, declining their offers to join in, all the while Ben sits next to him chewing happily on the arm of a stuffed Elmo doll as a steady stream of kool aid tinted drool drips down his chin. Eventually he ends up leaning into Jeff’s arm, his sticky cheek pressed against the sleeve of his sweatshirt.
It’s more than a little bit disgusting, but there’s something in the way the kid seems to instinctively trust him enough to snuggle up to him like this that makes Jeff heart constrict in his chest.
“Sup, kid?” he asks with a smile.
Ben pulls the doll out of his mouth and holds it up, “EMO!”
“Sesame Street.” Jeff nods. “Cool.”
“EMO!”
“Yeeeeeaaah. I always preferred Big Bird.”
Ben blinks at him, then waves the doll in his face again and says with an even louder shriek, “EMO!”
“Geez. Okay, okay. I’m sorry. Elmo’s awesome. You don’t have to yell about it.”
All seems to be forgiven as Ben leans back into him and closes his eyes with a yawn, shoving the poor, soggy Elmo back into his mouth.
~*~*~
The temperature cools to a crisp chill as the sky turns dark and by the time the first firework bursts into brilliant color over their heads, they are all huddled close and draped around each other on the blanket to keep warm. Britta and Annie lie curled together, each with an arm through the sleeve of Abed’s hoodie, giggling as he lies next to them and “narrates” the fireworks as if he is Inspector Spacetime and the fireworks are destroyed Blorgon spaceships. Jeff sits on Abed’s other side, his legs stretched out in front of him and his neck craned up to the sky. Beside him, Shirley is nestled under Andre’s arm but she keeps her hand curled around the crook of Jeff’s elbow, squeezing occasionally as she coo’s with delight at each burst of light crackling and fizzling in the night sky.
~*~*~
They’re laughing as Jeff keys into the darkened apartment.
“No! They’re convinced that there’s an alternate universe where we each have an evil version of ourselves.”
“So there’s an evil study group running around somewhere?” Jeff drops his keys and towel on the counter and turns to her with his arms folded over his chest.
“Yes. And eventually they’re going to try and cross over into our universe to take over our lives.”
He leans toward her as she sets her bag on the couch and kicks off her flip-flops. “Here’s a question. How do you know I haven’t already been taken over by Evil Jeff?”
Annie bites back a smile. “Hmm. I don’t know. I’ve always pictured Evil Jeff with a handlebar mustache.”
“You’ve been watching too many James Bond movies with Abed.”
“I think he’s bald, too.”
Jeff looks dismayed. “Annie, I’m pretty sure every version of me, even the evil one, has
awesome hair.”
She shrugs and heads toward the bathroom with a backwards glance over her shoulder. “Then I guess there’s no way of knowing who the real Jeff is.” And she doesn’t mean for her voice to come out so breathlessly flirty, but it does and she blushes a little and turns away. “Do you need the bathroom, right now?” she calls back to him.
After a pause he tells her no and she shuts the door, breathing a sigh of relief and quickly shaking off the unsettled feeling that sweeps over her. She peels off her shirt and presses a finger to the warm, pink skin of her shoulder. Even diligent sunscreen application hasn’t prevented a sunburn after being outside all day and she hisses in discomfort and goes about searching for a bottle of aloe from her box of toiletries under the sink.
She applies a thick slather of the cool gel to her arms and neck but she can’t quite reach the middle of her back where the skin is red around the ties to her bikini. It takes a full two minutes though before she gets up the courage to crack open the door and call for Jeff.
He pokes his head around the corner of his bedroom with a raised eyebrow.
“Um. Do you think you can help me?” She holds the bottle of aloe out to him. “I can’t reach.”
Jeff stares at her hand, faltering. “Oh. Uh. Sure.” He follows her back into the bathroom, standing behind her as she sweeps her hair over one shoulder, holding it in a makeshift ponytail and tilting her head down slightly to look at the counter.
“And you were yelling at me about sun damage?”
Annie laughs quietly. “I burn easily. And I wasn’t yelling at you.”
When he touches her at first, it's almost too rough, like he wants to do this as fast as possible, and she squeaks in pain and arches away.
“Sorry,” he murmurs as he slides his hand, softer now, along her shoulder and lower, smoothing aloe into the warm, sensitive skin. She relaxes into his touch, into the almost husky quality to his voice, and closes her eyes. His hands continue moving along her back, past the ties to her bikini, rubbing in large circles. Annie exhales deeply, not sure if she's imagining his movements slowing, his touch becoming lighter, his thumb tracing down along the edge of her spine to just above the waistband of her shorts where she's not even all that sunburned.
When he stops moving altogether, his hands at her hips, Annie opens her eyes slowly, meeting his in the mirror and she has to hold back a gasp. His eyes are dilated and dark and intent. She shivers and his fingers tighten, slipping down just slightly to press against her hipbones and suddenly he’s close enough behind her that she can feel the cotton of his tee-shirt against her back.
They’re just watching each other in the mirror and it would be so easy to reach her arm up, curl it around his neck, and bring him down for a kiss, and she knows, without a doubt, that he wouldn’t push her away.
But she doesn’t.
Instead, she looks down and breaks eye contact. Jeff seems to come back to himself immediately and his hands leave her hips as he backs away. “I think you’re good? You’re good. Yeah,” his voice cracking a little as he disappears.
Well. That’s not good.
Spoilers: None
Word Count: 5,878
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Description: Jeff gets a new roommate
Author’s Note: Okay, I’m so sorry this took such a ridiculously long time to post. There were real life issues and then computer issues and motivational issues all piled up on top of each other. But here it is! For those of you still reading, thank you and I love you.
Much thanks to 0penhearts for the beta and the demands to keep writing.
Previous chapters
~*~*~
“Jeff! We’re going to be late!”
Annie stands in the open doorway, a neatly packed canvas bag over one shoulder and a saran-wrapped platter of flag-shaped sugar cookies in her hands. She taps her foot impatiently, trying to shrug the strap of the bag up higher as it starts to slip down her arm.
“Jeff!”
“Annie.” He saunters out of the bathroom, unhurried. “It’s an all-day barbeque. We’re not going to miss anything.”
The nonchalance in his voice makes her grumble in frustration. “I told Shirley we’d be there by 1:00 and we have to pick up Abed and Britta on the way and-”
“Aaaaaand, as Americans it’s our right to be five minutes late for a Fourth of July pool party and not be executed for it.”
“I don’t think our forefathers fought for independence so that you could spend forty-five minutes applying self tanner, Jeff."
“Are you sure about that? Because I seem to recall reading about a little something called the ‘pursuit of happiness’ in the… What has that document called again?” Jeff snaps his fingers a couple of times and pretends to think. "Oh yeah, the Declaration of Independance."
Annie rolls her eyes, "Yeah, I'm sure they had your vanity in mind when they were protesting over-taxation."
Jeff throws a towel over his shoulder and grabs his keys off the counter. "This is a little like the pot calling the kettle black though, isn't it, Ms. 'I-once-overdrew-my-bank-account-buying-hair products'?”
Annie gasps, “It was an emergency. I had really bad split ends. And I told you that in confidence.”
“Yeah, you should probably rethink telling me these things,” he leans close and whispers with a smirk as he passes her on the way out the door. Her hands are full so she aims a kick at his shin with her flip-flop adorned foot, but he barely notices.
“Wait." Annie looks back toward the kitchen, "Where’s your contribution to the potluck?
He waves vaguely at the platter in her hands. “We’re bringing cookies.”
“We? You didn’t help even help! You just kept trying to steal bites of cookie dough when you thought I wasn’t looking.”
“I let you make them in my kitchen. The ‘we’ is implied. Besides, you really think Shirley expects me to contribute?” He gestures to himself. “C’mon.”
“Wow. It must be nice to be able to skate by on everyone’s low expectations,” she mutters as she pushes away from the door so Jeff can lock it.
He grins. “Annie, I bring something to the party that can’t be measured by fruit platters and bags of ice.”
“Ew.”
“You scoff, but you can't deny the truth.”
Annie sighs over-dramatically. “I can’t argue with you when you’re like this.”
“Like what?” Jeff holds the door to the stairwell open for her and she slides past, maneuvering down the steps carefully.
“All ‘I’m Jeff Winger and I’m a cocky ass who can lawyer my way out of everything by making it seem like I don’t care about anything.’” She pauses and looks back at him with a raised eyebrow as if challenging him to say she’s wrong.
Jeff laughs in a genuinely affectionate way that makes her lips twitch upward. “Did you just say ass?”
“That’s what you got out of what I just said?!”
He shrugs. “Cursing shouldn’t be so adorable.”
She's still walking ahead of him so he can't see her face but she splutters a little and he imagines the pink flush spreading up her cheeks. “See! And then you do that!”
Jeff laughs again but doesn’t ask her to elaborate as they exit into the parking lot and both blink into the brightness of the mid-day sun. It's hot, almost too hot, and everything on the horizon seems to shimmer in waves.
"Ugh. Can't we stay inside today?"
"No. Don't whine. Here." Annie motions for him to take the platter of cookies out of her hands and then starts rooting through her bag for something.
Jeff eyes her critically.“What the hell did you pack?”
“Essentials.
“Essentials,” he parrots back at her, shifting the platter to one hand and hooking a finger around one of the canvas straps to tug her back toward him.“You know we’re only going to be gone for a few hours, right?" He peers inside, "A change of clothes, a book…is that a first aid kit?”
“It’s a pool party. People can get hurt at pool parties.”
“Quick question: were you ever actually in the Girl Scouts? Or are you just that anal retentive?”
“Oh shut up.” Annie finally pulls a pair of sunglasses from the bottom of the bag and slips them on. She takes the cookies back from him and waits while he opens the passenger side door of the Lexus.
“Just remind me to never go on an actual trip with you.”
Annie laughs as she slides into the car, “Oh please, we’d need an entire suitcase just for your-”
Jeff shuts the door, cutting off her retort. But he can’t help but grin to himself, flipping his keys around his finger, as he walks around to the driver’s side.
~*~*~
He honks again, drumming his thumbs in annoyance on the steering wheel. “You texted her that we were here?”
“Yeah.” Annie gives him a sideways smirk. “What’s wrong? I thought we weren’t in a hurry.”
Jeff raises an eyebrow. “When did you become such a smartass?”
“Too much time hanging out with you, I guess.” She starts unbuckling her seatbelt, “I’ll go get her.”
“There she is.” From the backseat, Abed points up the stairs of Britta’s courtyard apartment complex where she is running towards them and simultaneously trying to shove a towel into her bag. She drops something, stops to pick it up and then somehow manages to almost topple down the remaining steps, catching herself on the railing at the last second. Annie, Jeff and Abed all watch her through the windshield, wincing.
When she finally yanks open the back passenger door and slides in, Britta is flushed and out of breath. “Sorry. Sorry. One of my cats threw up and-”
“Ew.”
“Do not finish that story.”
“Is that why you look more frazzled than normal?”
“Abed!” Annie and Britta reprimand him in unison.
“What?” He meets Jeff’s eyes in the review mirror and shrugs. “I wasn’t being bitchy. It was just a question.”
Jeff turns in his seat, regarding Britta’s tousled hair and flushed cheeks with narrowed eyes. “Britta have you been-”
“I’m fine!” Britta yelps as she interrupts him mid-question. “I’m just running late. And the cat. And stuff…” She trails off and claps her hands together once. “Alright! Let’s go!”
Abed cocks his head to the side as he watches her.
“Britta has a secret,” Jeff says with barely contained glee.
“What? No.” She shakes her head, “What are you talking about?”
“I’ve been trained to spot a liar, Britta. And you have the worst poker face I’ve ever seen.”
“Ugh. You were a lawyer. Not an Republican Guard interrogator.”
“Is this about your secret…” Annie lowers her voice to a hush. “Boyfriend?”
Britta pales and then laughs a little manically. “Boyfriend? Me? No.” She looks out the window and gasps. “Oh my god! Is that Graham Norton?!”
Everyone continues staring at her.
“The comedian? BBC America?” Her eyes dart around to each of her friends who remain silent until she throws her hands up in the air and slumps back in her seat. “You guys do know that there’s an entire world outside North America, right? Are we so self-consumed that--”
Abed and Annie groan but Jeff just continues to grin knowingly. “Hey, Abed, why doesn’t Britta want us to know about her secret boyfriend?”
Britta gapes at him.
“Well,” Abed holds up a finger as if he’s about to starting listing off reasons but Britta grabs his hand and pulls him close.
“If you continue on with that sentence I swear I’ll go to your apartment and destroy every Inspector Spacetime poster you own. Including the one signed by Travis Richey.”
Abed’s eyes widen in fear as she stares him down. “Britta doesn’t have a secret boyfriend,” he intones monotonously. Annie opens her mouth but Jeff gives her an almost imperceptible shake of the head and she drops back into her seat with a sigh.
“Okay, Britta. Whatever you say.” Jeff smiles indulgently but there’s an air of this isn’t over to his words. Britta glares at him and releases Abed’s hand, patting it in apology.
“Let’s just go. We’re already late.” Annie gestures toward the clock on the radio and Jeff throws the car into reverse.
In the backseat Britta is still reassuring Abed that she won’t touch any of his Inspector Spacetime memorabilia but she interrupts herself as Jeff pulls out of the parking lot. “Oh. And we need to stop at the store first. Shirley asked me to bring a salad.”
“What? Why? This wasn’t something you could have done on your own time?”
“I was busy.”
“With her secret boyfriend,” Annie mutters under her breath so that only Jeff hears her properly. He widens his eyes at her and nods slowly.
~*~*~
“If you’re not back in five minutes, we’re leaving without you.”
“Ass,” Britta grumbles, slamming the door behind her and sticking her tongue out at Jeff through the window for good measure. He grins and raises his arm, tapping his wrist to indicate that she should hurry.
In the car, they’re all quiet for a second until Annie breathes out a giddy, “Oh my god, she must really like this guy.”
“Please,” Jeff scoffs, “She’s probably just too embarrassed to tell us who it is. Knowing Britta she’s found herself some poor scmhuck with a facial deformity or a debilitating hunchback.”
“Oh please. You really think Britta’s dating a hunchback? Besides, she told us about One-Eyed Jason didn’t she?”
“Annie’s right. Britta’s usually pretty open about the guys she dates. Sometimes too open.” Abed’s eyes dart over to Jeff’s and he raises his eyebrow meaningfully. Jeff looks confused but Abed continues. “The most likely possibility is that it’s someone we know but wouldn’t approve of… But who?”
They all fall silent, pondering the possibilities. Annie thinks briefly of Troy, ignoring the familiar sweep of jealousy, but quickly discounts the idea -it has to at least be someone in town for the summer.
Her lips pursed in thought, she reaches for the radio, but Jeff bats her hand away without even looking at her. “What did I tell you?”
“It’s a commercial.”
“Well, I’m not in the mood to listen to the Jonas Brothers.”
“I don’t listen to the Jonas Brothers, Jeff.”
“Or Katy Petty. Or Lady Gaga. Or Taylor Swift. Or any other Top-40-cookie-cutter recycled crap that-”
“Fine!” Annie scowls as she pulls his ipod out of the glove compartment and hooks it up. “And Taylor Swift is really talented, okay? She writes her own songs.”
“Yeah. Like song writing ability indicates talent. If that were true, that tiny-nippled idiot you dated wouldn’t have to fall back on a sport created by stoners in the 90’s.”
Annie rolls her eyes but doesn’t reply or look up as she scrolls through his music selection. Jeff leans over the center console, into her personal space so he can look at the screen. “Here, pick-” But she pushes back against him with her shoulder.
“I want to choose.” And then she gasps and looks up at him, her eyes wide and bright. “Hey, Abed, guess what?” Her gaze doesn’t leave Jeff’s and his smile falters a little. “It turns out that someone in this car is a closet BNL fan.” She taps the ipod screen and the open strains of “If I Had A Million Dollars” start playing over the speakers.
“Nice,” Abed says from the backseat.
Jeff scowls. “Okay, I like one song. Who cares?”
“Admit it!” Annie’s practically bouncing in her seat. “BNL is awesome.”
“Stop. Calling them. BNL.” Jeff lunges for the ipod but Annie yelps and holds it to her chest, curling back into the corner of her seat.
“Just say it, Jeff.”
“Not happening. Give it.” He’s halfway out of his seat, leaning over her as they struggle and Annie starts to sing along, the lyrics broken up by her giggles and sounding more and more high pitched and shouty as Jeff gives up and starts tickling her, his fingers dancing up the sides of her torso.
“Stopstopstop.” Annie practically slides all the way out of her seat and onto the floor trying to get away from him and she relinquishes the ipod with an out-of-breath laugh. “Here!”
“Milady.” Jeff drops back into his seat and quickly skips to the next song.
Annie sits up, straightening the strap of her tank-top that’s slipped down one shoulder as Dave Matthew’s “Funny the Way It Is” starts playing. “Oh, I like this one.” She hums along softly and stretches her legs out, wiggling her toes in her flip-flops and scrutinizing the intricate stripes of red, white and blue she’d painted her nails the night before.
“I saw them in concert a few years ago when they were in Denver,” Jeff offers, not looking up as he continues scrolling through the ipod, presumably to make sure that there’s nothing else embarrassing to be found in his music selection. “They were pretty awesome. One of my clients gave me front row tickets.”
Annie looks a little wistful. “I’ve never really been to a concert before. Well…” her voice trails off and she smiles sheepishly, “Vaughn did take me to see this reggae band one time.”
“No, Annie. That doesn’t… no. Okay, clearly we’re going to have to-”
But Britta returns then with a grocery bag in hand, cutting him off. “Alright, are we ready to pool party it up?”
“What did you buy?” Abed asks, pointing at the bag.
“One of those pre-packaged salad kits.”
Annie bites her lip, imagining Shirley’s reaction and Jeff must have the same thought because he snorts and turns around in his seat. “You’re bringing a bag of salad to a party?”
“Shut up, Martha Stewart. What did you bring?”
“Nothing,” Annie interjects with a smirk.
“Ha! Party foul on you, Winger.”
“Traitor,” Jeff mutters at Annie.
~*~*~
It’s already 1:30 by the time they walk through the gate into Shirley’s sister’s backyard where there’s already a smattering of family and friends splashing around in the pool and milling around a picnic table laden with chips and plastic cups of soda.
Baby Ben spots them from his spot on a blanket in the grass surrounded by toys. “Ta! Ta!” he cries in delight and tries to stand on still-unsure legs. He takes a couple of wobbly steps toward them but doesn’t get very far before he falls forward, catching himself on his hands and looking for a moment, his face puckered and red, likes he’s about to cry. It only takes a second though before he’s off again, crawling this time through the grass, albeit a little hindered by the orange floaties around his upper arms. As Andre walks by, he swoops him up, arms and legs still flailing, and plops him into Britta’s arms.
“Ta!” Ben yells happily, throwing his chubby arms around her neck and burying his face in her curls.
“He’s been asking about you since this morning. Hey guys.”
They all offer their hellos as Britta smiles warily at the child in her arms. Despite the fact that she always seems a little terrified of him, he never ceases to be overjoyed at her presence, enthusiastically shouting her name (or rather, a slightly mangled version of her name) and demanding constant love and attention until it’s time to either eat or go to sleep.
Annie ‘awws’ and leans over to kiss him on the head, “Hi Ben.” But despite her gentle smile, his face scrunches up, almost suspiciously, and he holds up his hand to push her away.
“Nono.”
Jeff laughs as Annie’s shoulders droop, her lips puckering out in a pout of rejection. Britta seems a little smug about it all as she tightens her hold on the kid and nods in pretend understanding at the nonsensical gibberish that he chatters in her ear.
“He hates me,” Annie says quietly enough that only Jeff can hear.
“He’s a year old. I’m pretty sure he hasn’t tapped into that emotional well yet.”
“But he likes Britta better.”
“Wow. You really do have a pathological need to be everyone’s favorite don’t you?” he teases her, but his hand hovers over her low back as he leans closer. “Maybe he just has a thing for blonde anarchists.”
Annie fights back a smile. “Oh Shirley will love that.”
As if on cue, the woman in question emerges from the house, muttering darkly something about not needing to be told how to properly assemble a potato salad. At the sight of her friends though, she beams and claps her hands together.
“Oh! You came!” She straightens her “He is Risen” apron and bustles over, hugging Jeff and cooing over Annie’s cookies and side-eyeing the falafel that Abed brought from his dad’s restaurant. At Britta’s proffered grocery bag she raises an eyebrow and somehow manages a tight, “Oh, that’s… nice.”
Britta visibly deflates but Ben chooses that moment to plant a kiss on her cheek and then giggle in delight about it and she can’t help but melt and kiss his cheek in return.
~*~*~
Jeff lounges at the side of the pool in board shorts, his sunglasses firmly in place to block out the glare of the sun as he naps. The noise of the party bubbles around him - Shirley and her sister arguing by the barbeque as all the kids chase each other around the yard with nerf guns, Abed talking Andre’s ear off about his latest television obsession, the radio in the kitchen playing out a steady stream of patriotic hits. In the midst of it he hears Annie’s lilting giggle and he instinctively turns his head to where he knows she is hanging off the edge of the pool chatting with Britta.
Her hair is tied up in a knot to keep it out of the water, leaving her neck bare, the ties to her bikini trailing down her back. Earlier she had been nagging him about the importance of sunscreen and that if he was going to insist on lying around without a shirt on he better be using a higher SPF, but any clever retort he’d been able to come up with had died on his tongue as she slipped her tank top off over her head and revealed a red and white striped bikini speckled with little blue stars. She’d looked almost shy about it too and somehow that made it all the more appealing - enough so that he’d had to walk away, mumbling some excuse for having to go talk to Shirley on the other side of the yard.
Now she has her chin propped up on her folded arms, listening to Britta - who wearing a simple black one piece and sitting with her legs dangling into the water - rant about something presumably ridiculous. Jeff rolls his eyes and stares back up at the sky, shifting into a more comfortable position.
But something soft hits him on the side of his head and there’s a burst of raucous laughter from nearby. Jeff slides his sunglasses down and eyes Elijah who is standing about five yards away with a nerf gun in his hands and a sly look on his face.
“What are you-?” And then something hits the other side of Jeff’s face and suddenly he’s being pelted with a barrage of nerf darts from all sides.
“Hey!” He holds up his hands to protect himself and struggles out of the chair.
“HAHA! Sucker!” One of the kids yells and Jeff is momentarily reminded of a few humiliating elementary school traumas before he manages to reach Elijah and easily pull the gun from his hands.
“You boys! Leave. Him. Alone!” Shirley’s mom voice echoes through the yard.
Jeff smirks, “Ooooh, someone’s in trouble.”
Elijah makes a face. “Oooooh, someone’s got a receding hairline.” He doubles over in laughter, the other kids quickly joining in as the smile fades off Jeff’s face. Receding hairline? It’s almost involuntary when he reaches up and touches his forehead with something akin to horror. But then he catches Shirley’s eyes - which are sparking with some mix of mischievousness and annoyance - as she nods her head ever so slightly in the direction of the pool. And with that act of permission Jeff lunges forward, grabs Elijah around the waist and tosses him sideways into the pool, the resulting splash sending a spray of water directly into Britta and Annie.
“Hey!” the girls yell in unison as Elijah comes up spluttering. He coughs a couple times and then raises a fist in the air.
“That was AWESOME!”
The other kids who had fallen momentarily silent in surprise at Jeff’s retaliation all cheer and then suddenly he is surrounded by a clamoring of tiny but determined voices as they all beg to go next.
“Uh.” He holds his arms up, away from their grabby hands because he doesn’t really know what to do with kids and he hadn’t really signed up to be their activities director today but he catches a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of Britta as she wipes a few stray droplets of water off her arms and he can’t really help himself. “Okay, who’s first?”
“Me! Me! Me!”
He picks up one of the little girls, Andre’s five-year old niece Lola, and she’s already shrieking with laughter as he throws her in and she freefalls through the air, her arms held high above her head.
Annie and Britta both get a face full of water this time. Annie yelps and tries to jump out of the way, pushing back from the wall of the pool, while Britta yells, “Jeff Winger, I swear I’m going to come over there and f-“
“Now, I know you weren’t about to use any inappropriate language around children, were you Brit-ta?” Shirley trills from behind her. Britta’s mouth snaps shut, her jaw tight.
“Whatever.” She slides into the pool next to Annie, still sending nasty looks in Jeff’s direction and they resign themselves to getting drenched as Jeff continues throwing each kid into the pool.
“Well, good for him. He finally found someone his own maturity level to play with.”
Annie shrugs, watching as Elijah runs up to Jeff for another turn, holding his hand up for a fist bump that Jeff returns reluctantly but with a smile. “I don’t know. It’s kind of cute.” She doesn’t notice the way Britta narrows her eyes and follows her gaze.
“Oh, Annie.”
“What?” She frowns at the look on Britta’s face and shakes her head. “I mean the kids. The kids are cute…” Annie sinks down into the water a bit so that she’s submerged to her chin, kicking her legs out in front of her and trying to look casual. “What do you have against Jeff anyway?”
“Uh. He’s Jeff. He’s a douche.”
“But if I want to think,” she waves her hand in Jeff’s direction, “that’s cute, then who cares?”
“Because you can’t think something’s cute without falling in love with it.”
“That’s not true.”
Britta looks doubtful. “I’m just looking out for you. You don’t want to get sucked into that again. Trust me.” She widens her eyes. “Jeff is never going to be ready for a real relationship and you deserve better than pining around for a guy whose highest priority in life is looking good and being cool.”
Annie’s skin prickles in a sudden fit of defensiveness. She thinks about coming home to find Jeff in the kitchen making dinner with a hand towel slung over his shoulder, the way he squints his eyes and kind of blinks a lot when he gets sleepy, the fact that he always, always steals the last chunk of Oreo cookie out of the ice cream but then kind of shrugs apologetically and smiles and promises to buy more. And she wants to tell Britta these things, wants to make her understand. Instead -
“Speaking of relationships.”
“Annie.”
“Please. I won’t tell anyone. It’s someone we know, right? Is it swarthy Michael Cera? Asian Will Farrel?” Annie’s eyes widen as she looks around, “Chang?”
“Ew! Even I have standards.”
Annie giggles, forgetting about her earlier irritation. “Is it Neil? He’s still talking about that time you flashed him.”
“No. And I heard he and Vicki got back together.”
“Ugh. I’m so tired of the drama between those two.”
“Right?”
There’s a loud chorus of shouts behind them as all the kids have suddenly ganged up on Jeff and are pushing him towards the edge of the pool. He’s struggling against them but he’s also kind of laughing as Jordan and Elijah each yank on one of his arms and they all go toppling into the pool.
Annie and Britta are both still laughing when Jeff swims over to them, thoroughly soaked, his hair lying flat against his head.
“Awww, all that extra time spent getting ready gone to waste. John Adams would be so disappointed.” Annie lets out an exaggerated sigh.
“I’m pretty sure he’s rolling over in his grave right now.”
“So much for independence.”
Jeff grins down at her. “We should probably just go ahead and surrender ourselves back to the British.”
“It would probably be for the best.”
Britta stares at them, a little dumbfounded. “What the fuck are you guys talking about?”
“Ooooh. You said a swear,” a tiny voice says from behind her. Britta’s face goes slack as she turns to find a couple little girls sitting on the steps to the pool and shaking their heads at her in disapproval. And of course, Shirley is right behind them, standing with her hands on her hips and shaking her head slowly.
“Britta.”
“Yeah. Yeah.”
~*~*~
When the sun starts to sink low in the sky, throwing elongated shadows over the yard, the entire party sets out to walk the few blocks to the local park where they’ll be able to see the fireworks display being shot off at City College - an elaborate show set to music that’s broadcast over the local radio station. Greendale too has a fireworks display, but it’s not much more than a few rockets and the obligatory burn injury.
“Dean Pelton can never know about this,” Annie says seriously as she helps Shirley spread a few blankets over the grass.
“Agreed.” Everyone else nods, and a few minutes later when they see Dean Spreck walk by they all duck down and hide.
Jeff settles at the edge of one of the blankets and Shirley almost immediately plops Ben down next to him and then hustles off after the other boys as they run toward the playground.
“Uh.” Jeff eyes Ben apprehensively. “I hope she doesn’t expect me to baby sit.”
Britta rolls her eyes and drops down at the other end of the blanket, sitting Indian style. “Like anyone would trust you with a child.”
“She trusts you with him, doesn’t she?”
“Yeah right!” Britta snorts. “The last time I babysat she was gone for an hour and in that time six different people from her church showed up at the door. Including her pastor.” She gets a faraway look in her eyes. “He was actually pretty cute.”
“Is that who you’re dating?!” Annie asks, sounding disturbed, as she and Abed join her on the ground.
“NO!” But then they’re all laughing uproariously at the visual of Shirley finding out that Britta had hooked up with her pastor, each imitating the look of horror that would undoubtedly be on her face. Ben yells along with them, clapping his hands in amusement. As their giggles subside, Abed pulls out a deck of cards and soon he and Britta and Annie are caught up in a card game that seems to involve a lot of yelling and slapping at the ground and each other.
Jeff watches them, declining their offers to join in, all the while Ben sits next to him chewing happily on the arm of a stuffed Elmo doll as a steady stream of kool aid tinted drool drips down his chin. Eventually he ends up leaning into Jeff’s arm, his sticky cheek pressed against the sleeve of his sweatshirt.
It’s more than a little bit disgusting, but there’s something in the way the kid seems to instinctively trust him enough to snuggle up to him like this that makes Jeff heart constrict in his chest.
“Sup, kid?” he asks with a smile.
Ben pulls the doll out of his mouth and holds it up, “EMO!”
“Sesame Street.” Jeff nods. “Cool.”
“EMO!”
“Yeeeeeaaah. I always preferred Big Bird.”
Ben blinks at him, then waves the doll in his face again and says with an even louder shriek, “EMO!”
“Geez. Okay, okay. I’m sorry. Elmo’s awesome. You don’t have to yell about it.”
All seems to be forgiven as Ben leans back into him and closes his eyes with a yawn, shoving the poor, soggy Elmo back into his mouth.
~*~*~
The temperature cools to a crisp chill as the sky turns dark and by the time the first firework bursts into brilliant color over their heads, they are all huddled close and draped around each other on the blanket to keep warm. Britta and Annie lie curled together, each with an arm through the sleeve of Abed’s hoodie, giggling as he lies next to them and “narrates” the fireworks as if he is Inspector Spacetime and the fireworks are destroyed Blorgon spaceships. Jeff sits on Abed’s other side, his legs stretched out in front of him and his neck craned up to the sky. Beside him, Shirley is nestled under Andre’s arm but she keeps her hand curled around the crook of Jeff’s elbow, squeezing occasionally as she coo’s with delight at each burst of light crackling and fizzling in the night sky.
~*~*~
They’re laughing as Jeff keys into the darkened apartment.
“No! They’re convinced that there’s an alternate universe where we each have an evil version of ourselves.”
“So there’s an evil study group running around somewhere?” Jeff drops his keys and towel on the counter and turns to her with his arms folded over his chest.
“Yes. And eventually they’re going to try and cross over into our universe to take over our lives.”
He leans toward her as she sets her bag on the couch and kicks off her flip-flops. “Here’s a question. How do you know I haven’t already been taken over by Evil Jeff?”
Annie bites back a smile. “Hmm. I don’t know. I’ve always pictured Evil Jeff with a handlebar mustache.”
“You’ve been watching too many James Bond movies with Abed.”
“I think he’s bald, too.”
Jeff looks dismayed. “Annie, I’m pretty sure every version of me, even the evil one, has
awesome hair.”
She shrugs and heads toward the bathroom with a backwards glance over her shoulder. “Then I guess there’s no way of knowing who the real Jeff is.” And she doesn’t mean for her voice to come out so breathlessly flirty, but it does and she blushes a little and turns away. “Do you need the bathroom, right now?” she calls back to him.
After a pause he tells her no and she shuts the door, breathing a sigh of relief and quickly shaking off the unsettled feeling that sweeps over her. She peels off her shirt and presses a finger to the warm, pink skin of her shoulder. Even diligent sunscreen application hasn’t prevented a sunburn after being outside all day and she hisses in discomfort and goes about searching for a bottle of aloe from her box of toiletries under the sink.
She applies a thick slather of the cool gel to her arms and neck but she can’t quite reach the middle of her back where the skin is red around the ties to her bikini. It takes a full two minutes though before she gets up the courage to crack open the door and call for Jeff.
He pokes his head around the corner of his bedroom with a raised eyebrow.
“Um. Do you think you can help me?” She holds the bottle of aloe out to him. “I can’t reach.”
Jeff stares at her hand, faltering. “Oh. Uh. Sure.” He follows her back into the bathroom, standing behind her as she sweeps her hair over one shoulder, holding it in a makeshift ponytail and tilting her head down slightly to look at the counter.
“And you were yelling at me about sun damage?”
Annie laughs quietly. “I burn easily. And I wasn’t yelling at you.”
When he touches her at first, it's almost too rough, like he wants to do this as fast as possible, and she squeaks in pain and arches away.
“Sorry,” he murmurs as he slides his hand, softer now, along her shoulder and lower, smoothing aloe into the warm, sensitive skin. She relaxes into his touch, into the almost husky quality to his voice, and closes her eyes. His hands continue moving along her back, past the ties to her bikini, rubbing in large circles. Annie exhales deeply, not sure if she's imagining his movements slowing, his touch becoming lighter, his thumb tracing down along the edge of her spine to just above the waistband of her shorts where she's not even all that sunburned.
When he stops moving altogether, his hands at her hips, Annie opens her eyes slowly, meeting his in the mirror and she has to hold back a gasp. His eyes are dilated and dark and intent. She shivers and his fingers tighten, slipping down just slightly to press against her hipbones and suddenly he’s close enough behind her that she can feel the cotton of his tee-shirt against her back.
They’re just watching each other in the mirror and it would be so easy to reach her arm up, curl it around his neck, and bring him down for a kiss, and she knows, without a doubt, that he wouldn’t push her away.
But she doesn’t.
Instead, she looks down and breaks eye contact. Jeff seems to come back to himself immediately and his hands leave her hips as he backs away. “I think you’re good? You’re good. Yeah,” his voice cracking a little as he disappears.
Well. That’s not good.