Applied Human Mechanics (3/?)
Title: Applied Human Mechanics - Group Support Systems (3/?)
Author:
rorge
Character/Pairing: Jeff, Annie, Britta, Jeff/Annie
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Drama, Angst, Romance
Word Count: 2810
Summary: The morning after the night before. Jeff is confused, Annie is determined.
Disclaimer: I own the seven bucks in my pocket, and a few other odds and ends. No TV shows, though.
A/N: Almost another split chapter, but some judicious pruning and editing cut it down to manageable length. And I promise that Annie and Jeff will actually talk to one another at some point soon.
Jeff groaned, and attempted to move. His neck hurt, he couldn't feel his left arm, and his mouth felt like sandpaper. He coughed, blearily opened his eyes, and realized he was lying on the couch in his apartment. Oh man, what the hell happened last night? It was all a blur, from the time he, Britta and Troy started doing shots of Jagermeister. He could remember Annie and Abed watching them, her shaking her head in disapproval, Abed studying them like they were some sort of exhibit. Christ, I hope I didn't do anything too dumb. Though honestly, with a combination of Britta, Annie and copious amounts of alcohol, the odds weren't in his favor.
Heaving himself upright, he suddenly winced in discomfort as blood rushed back into his arm, the prickling sensation spreading painfully. His head was throbbing like someone had hit him with a mallet. He could remember mulling Britta's words over in his head, and looking at Annie, wondering if Britta was right. If maybe he should just throw caution to the wind and....
A flash of memory came to him, of leaning over Annie, and he'd been thinking about how much she meant to him, and what he wanted to be....“Oh, god,” he croaked, “I did something stupid, didn't I?” The empty apartment offered no answers, but in his mind's eye, he could see her face, screwed up with anger and hurt. “Shit.”
*
It was well past ten by the time Jeff managed to make it to Greendale. He still felt like complete crap, despite forcing down almost a pint of the glucose rich energy drink he usually reserved for after a long run, two Tylenol and standing under a cold shower for ten minutes. All of that was kill or cure, and unfortunately, it seemed like today it was the former.
Jeff still couldn't remember what had happened last night, and what he'd said to Annie to upset her like that, and he was dreading meeting them in the study room at eleven. Fortunately, he had about twenty minutes to kill, and decided that attempting one more hangover cure couldn't do any harm, on top of the concoction he'd already ingested. He made a beeline for the cafeteria, and offered up prayers to Cthulhu that there wasn't a queue in front of vending machines.
As he sat down at a table in the corner, moving like a man just out of his sickbed, a shadow fell over the table. He looked up to see Troy standing there, eyes bloodshot, mouth slightly open. “Morning,” he grunted, hoping that would be enough.
“S'up, man. Wild night last night, huh?” Troy flopped down into the seat opposite, and peered at the bottle of orange juice Jeff had bought, wrinkling his nose. “That stuff's crap, you know. Probably been in that bottle for months. Not fresh at all.”
“Yeah. I know,” Jeff said, eying the vivid colored liquid critically. “But I'm not really drinking it for the taste.”
Troy just looked confused, eyes flitting from the juice back to Jeff's face. “Then why...?”
Jeff exhaled heavily. “Fructose, Troy. It's good for hangovers. Restores the body's natural energy, and a lot of the vitamins that alcohol takes out.”
“Huh.” Troy looked contemplative. “Man, I thought coffee was the stuff to drink.” He glanced down at the cup of black sludge in his hand.
“Common misconception. The caffeine gives you an energy boost, but it's also a diuretic, so you just get more dehydrated.” Jeff paused, and squinted at Troy. “I thought you were a star athlete in high school. How do you not know this stuff?”
Troy didn't answer. He was still staring at his coffee, indignation growing. “You mean to tell me I've been forcing this stuff down all morning, and it's actually making things worse? Maaan!” He shoved the mug down the table, and turned his back on it.
Jeff smiled weakly, and took a hearty pull of his bottle. “You learn something new every day, buddy.”
Troy hopped up and trotted over to the vending machine, returning a few seconds later with his own bottle of juice. He eyed Jeff briefly, hitching his chin up just a little, as though expecting some sort of cutting remark. Jeff felt an uncharacteristic urge to offer him something.
“You know, the first few times I got properly drunk, I didn't even really know what a hangover was.” Troy squinted at him slightly, suspicious. Jeff smiled and explained, “I though that waking up and feeling like your head had been split open was just something you had to deal with. Like the cost of having fun.”
Troy smiled slowly. “Heh. My Mom'd probably say that's exactly what it is. God punishing you for indulging.”
“Right?” Jeff nodded. “But once you learn how your body reacts to it, you can avoid most of that pain and discomfort.”
“So... how come you're so rough this morning, then?”
Jeff let out a sardonic snort of laughter. “Way too much to drink. I just passed out, but normally I'd make sure to rehydrate and eat something before going to sleep. It makes things a lot better. When you get... to my age, a simple hangover can write off more than half a day.”
Troy nodded thoughtfully. “I'll keep that in mind, in future.” He sounded distracted, then fixed Jeff with a searching, probing look. “So how'd you get home, anyway?”
“Annie gave me and Britta a ride.”
Troy's eyes narrowed slightly. “You and Britta? You guys still... doing it, then?”
Jeff wasn't stupid. He'd seen the looks that Troy and Britta had been sharing over the last few weeks. Hell, he'd seen Troy's interest in her for a lot longer than that, and thought more than once about telling him it was a bad idea. He knew from experience just how crazy Britta could be. In ways that were oh so good, but also in ways that could make a guy want to tear his hair out. None of that was worth getting into right now, though. So he simply said, “Nope. We knocked that on the head last year.”
Troy nodded, face carefully blank. “Good.” He blinked, then hastily added. “I mean, because it might mess up the group, you know.”
Jeff didn't even try to interpret how Troy's elaborate hand gesture related to the group dynamic, and decided to change the subject.
“Hey, Troy, can I ask you something?” He waited for the nod, before stumbling onwards. “Last night.... Did I... y'know... do anything dumb?”
“You mean like bet you could down a shot without touching the glass? Yeah, you did. And you managed it too. That was a sight to see....” He trailed off, a look of distant wonder on his face.
“No, not that kind of stupid. I mean, did I... say anything... mean to anyone?”
“Well, I think you told Abed that Stargate was a terrible franchise. He was upset about that this morning. But Annie convinced him you only meant Stargate Universe.”
Jeff shifted uncomfortably when Troy mentioned Annie. “And that was it? No one else seemed...mad?”
Troy thought for a moment, and then shook his head. “Not that I noticed. But then, I've been kind of slow on the uptake this morning. I don't think I'm gonna drink again.”
“We all say that, the morning after. It's never true.” Not much help there, though. He still didn't know why Annie might be upset with him, or whether he was about to walk into a shit storm in a few minutes. Sighing, Jeff glanced at his watch. “Dammit. Five to. I guess we'd better get to the study room.” He heaved himself to his feet, and traipsed out of the cafeteria, Troy alongside him.
*
Everyone else was already seated when they arrived. Britta looked the worse for wear, Jeff was pleased to see, and she shot him a baleful glare that might just have been because he got her drunk, or it might be because he'd committed some heinous crime that he couldn't remember.
As he passed Jeff, Troy whispered, “Hey, you should tell Britta about the rehydration trick.” The wariness in the younger man's eyes as he skirted carefully around Britta's slumped form brought a smile to Jeff's face, which in turn made Britta glare even more hatefully.
Deciding discretion was the better part of valor, Jeff kept his mouth shut. His eyes darted across the table to Annie, and she offered him a shy smile, before turning to look at her book, cheeks pink.
Huh. Maybe I didn't do anything. Unfortunately, there was no way he could try to talk to her here, and make sure. And right now, his brain wasn't capable of coming up with a way to get her to leave the study room so he might get a moment alone with her.
“Good morning, Jeffrey,” Shirley cooed, a welcoming grin on her face. “I hear you had a good time last night.”
Jeff blinked. Clearly, Shirley hadn't been told of any offensive behavior, whatever it might have been. He coughed. “Yeah, it was... good.” Glancing at Annie again, he continued. “But I can't really remember much. Hope I didn't do anything to... upset anybody”
Annie's head shot up, her eyes wide with surprise. It wasn't her who answered, though.
“That's okay, Jeff,” Abed said, impassively. “I understand that you were merely voicing concerns about the attempt to darken the show's world without having the commitment to actually make any of the characters dark or interesting.” He shot Jeff a thumbs up.
“Right.... Well... I'm sorry about that, Abed.” Annie was still watching him, a frown on her face. “And I'm sorry if I said anything else dumb.”
Pierce scoffed. “Jeff, you say dumb things all the time. If you apologized for each one, you'd never have any time to do your hair or date men.”
“You're right, Pierce. I'll make sure I never apologize to you again. Not even when I run you over with my car.”
“Guys, can we please study?” Annie demanded, cutting Pierce off before he could retort. “We still have this assignment for Biology, and I really don't want to fail because you're all too busy arguing. Shared grade, remember?” She turned her glare from Pierce to Jeff, and her eyes softened alarmingly, and the blush returned to her cheeks.
So perhaps I didn't upset her, then. Hopefully, by the time he managed to get a few moments to speak to her, he'd have remembered what he did, or didn't do. That way, he'd know whether things were good, or whether he should just turn tail and run for the hills.
*
As it turned out, Annie was apparently determined to avoid having any sort of conversation with him. As soon as the clock struck noon, she was packing her books away and zooming out of the study room, eliciting curious glances from the rest of them. Jeff grimaced to himself. His head was still throbbing, he needed to get a decent grade on the Biology assignment, and the last thing he needed was to for things to be awkward with the primo studier in the group. That was his only concern. Nothing else.
He considered rushing after her, and trying to figure out where they stood, but really, he didn't have the energy for it. Instead, he ambled out of the study room, making sure everyone saw how totally lacking in urgency he was.
As he was wandering down the corridor, Troy caught up and fell into step alongside him. “Hey, man, we have Theory of Practical Idealism now, right?”
Jeff nodded, suddenly perking up a little. He and Troy had picked the course as a likely blow off class, and had not been disappointed. Professor Jenner, a handsome but easily flustered woman in her late thirties, seemed to have even less understanding of the course than any of the students, so spent most of each lesson writing something on the blackboard, staring at it in confusion while mumbling to herself, then rubbing it off and writing something else. Ideal for a man nursing a hangover.
Troy was obviously thinking along the same lines. “Good. I've been looking forward to this class all morning. Got my pillow primed.”
Jeff smirked in appreciation, but it lacked any strength. He couldn't help thinking of all the things he'd rather be doing than dozing off in a stuffy classroom in Greendale. Things he'd planned to be doing, and perhaps things he'd never get to do again. Dammit.
By the time they reached the classroom, he was thoroughly miserable again, and it had nothing to do with his hangover.
*
Annie stared at her fries, long since gone cold, and slowly pushed one around the plate, making interesting patterns in the ketchup.
Shirley and Britta were chattering away about something or other, and Abed was listening to them intently. Annie's mind was a million miles away, or maybe just a few hours away. She kept flashing back to that morning, when Shirley had been positively giddy about the fact that Jeff and Britta had had “a big talk” last night. She seemed to be losing perspective on what the talk had been about, Jeff's possible depression. Instead, she kept gushing over how nice it was that Jeff and Britta were getting closer again. It was grating on Annie's nerves.
Still, it seemed easier to just let her think what she wanted. And Britta certainly wasn't eager to disabuse her. In fact, Britta was frustratingly close mouthed about everything Jeff had told her. Annie didn't know whether that was good or bad, and with Britta as hungover and grumpy as she was, Annie hadn't been able to find an opportunity to ask.
It was more than frustrating, it was infuriating. If there was something bothering Jeff, Annie wanted to know about it. Pushing Britta to talk to him had seemed like such a good idea at the time. Somehow she had been convinced that it would work, that Britta's... extra-curricular knowledge of Jeff put her in the best position to help him. But given that Jeff's immediate response to their talk had been to get more drunk than Annie had ever seen anyone, and now apparently couldn't even remember anything, it seemed she'd been wrong. Great, she thought, Britta totally britta'd helping Jeff.
From what she could tell at the moment, the only useful thing that had come from last night had been Britta's declaration that she and Jeff were no more. It was something Annie had long hoped to hear, but hadn't really allowed herself to believe. After all, hadn't Jeff been circling around Britta since the day they all met? And with all that had happened since then, it had seemed like the connection between them was still very much alive. Hearing Britta be so adamant that it wasn't the case had been the highlight of the evening. Then Britta effectively handing Jeff off to Annie as though he was a homeless puppy was... weird. But Annie could deal with a bit of weirdness if it got her what she wanted. The thought sent a warm flush through her, and she wiggled slightly in her seat... just to get more comfortable, of course.
As though some sixth sense had kicked in, Annie looked up at the cafeteria doors just moments before Jeff swept through them, accompanied by Troy. He was smiling somewhat wanly as he listened to whatever Troy was saying, shoulders slumped a little and hands shoved deep into pockets. He looked up suddenly, his eyes finding hers across the room, and Annie couldn't look away. She fancied that she saw the flash of emotions across his face, going from surprised, to pleased, then to withdrawn all in the space of a few seconds. In moments, he simply looked glum and resigned. To what, she didn't know, but she felt something shift in her chest, and knew that, if it was the last thing she did, she was going to get to the bottom of whatever was bothering Jeff Winger. And if that brought the two of them closer... emotionally... physically, well then that was just a price she would have to pay. She felt her lips curve up into a satisfied, determined little smile, and watched as Jeff's eyes widened comically, before he ducked his head and shuffled into the lunch line. Yep, she thought, decisively, just the price I'll have to pay.