Studies of Resonant Bodies, Chapter 10
Word Count: 2,646
Rating: NC-17
Spoilers: Up to the end of Season 3
It was Day One of the Year of Perry. She’d emerged from the crucible of this long, hot, lonely summer a stronger, more confident woman. She’d self-actualized the fuck out of herself. She was a lean, mean, studying machine. She was getting laid on the regular, and things were going pretty good on that front. Britta smiled as she pushed the library doors open, thoughts of her paramour floating through her head.
She’d even managed to make it to the study group’s first meeting early. And it was a Monday! She was unstoppable.
“BRITTA!”
Britta started, letting out a small “eek” as she whirled around to see a determined looking Annie Edison bearing down on her.
“Oh, Annie,” Britta said. “You scared me a little bit. Ow!” The younger woman grabbed her roughly by her arm and dragged her off into the stacks. “Get off!”
Britta managed to yank her arm out of Annie’s grip, rubbing at it and shooting her friend a hurt look. “What the fuck, Annie?”
Annie jutted an index finger right into her face. “Listen!” she said curtly, her tone quick and clipped. “You are going to leave Abed alone. No more half-witted head shrinking I don’t know what happened on the day of the Bio test but we both know whatever it was it probably didn’t meet the APA’s guidelines for ethical treatment.”
Britta felt her face go cold, her jaw clench. Annie had consoled her that day, before Troy had shown up and everything turned around. And it probably should have occurred to her that Annie was smart enough, diabolical enough, to put two and two together and figure out why once she’d heard about Abed’s therapy sessions.
“Oh, and I suppose they teach you all about medical ethics in your classes, huh?” Britta sputtered.
“Yes!” Annie said, incredulous. “They do!”
Oh, right, shit. They would, wouldn’t they? Britta thought to herself. She couldn’t show weakness in front of Annie though, not now. “Whatever! I know what I’m doing! I’m a psych major!”
“You never know what you’re doing!” Annie retorted. Britta started to feel herself go red in the face, anger rising up in her again.
“Abed seems to think I do!” Britta said. “And you know that, don’t you? You had plenty of time to confront me about this over the past week; I’ve been at your apartment enough. But you wanted to do it when Abed wasn’t around. You already tried to talk to him about this and he told you to butt out, didn’t he?”
Annie faltered, taking a step back. “No, I-”
“You listen, Annie,” Britta said, seizing the initiative. “I have had to deal with enough tip-toeing around this shit with Troy, and I’ve got way fewer reasons to be as diplomatic with you. Abed asked for my help. Maybe he should go to a fully trained psych major, but he doesn’t want to. Maybe that’s a mistake, but it’s his to make. So back the fuck off!” She ended her speech with an authoritative little poke at Annie’s chest. The brunette shrank back, and Britta felt her anger start to fade away, guilt seeping in to replace it. She might have been… venting a little bit there. “Besides… worst case scenario you get to laugh at me for being stupid again when everything blows up in my face. “
“Britta!” Annie said, her expression shifting from scared to hurt. “I’d never laugh at you!” Britta shot her a look. “Okay, that’s a lie. I don’t think you’re stupid though.”
Britta snorted. “Yeah right. You say it often enough.”
“No, honestly! I know I can rag on you kind of hard sometimes, but I don’t think you’re stupid, not really. I guess I just… I don’t know. You’re so intimidating sometimes Britta! And… and sometimes I feel like being ‘the smart one’ is the only way I can compete with that.” She smiled, a little sadly, and looked away. “Too many gold stars as a kid, I guess.”
“Annie…” Britta said, the anger all gone now. She reached out and rubbed her arm reassuringly. “It’s okay. I’m sorry too. I know you’re just worried about Abed.”
“He… he goes into the blanket fort and just sits in that box. The one he made after the Dreamatorium turned into Troy’s room. Just sits there, sometimes for almost an hour. Sometimes longer.” Annie looked away.
Britta sighed. She and Abed had talked about that, his little coping mechanism. She wasn’t going to tell Annie about any of that, though; both because it would violate Abed’s trust and because it would just make Annie feel sadder. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I’ve just been really stressed. Troy and I decided we’re going to tell the group today. About us.”
“Yeah…” Annie said hesitantly. “I don’t think there’s a single person who doesn’t already know.”
“Oh, I know there isn’t,” Britta answered darkly. “I went and told Jeff last night.”
“Oh!” Annie said, her voice raising an octave. “Did he- how did that go?”
Britta narrowed her eyes at the younger woman. Was she still going to be jealous like this whenever she brought up Jeff? When is she going to get over him? “Not well. He acted really… weird…” She shook her head. “Whatever. Let’s just forget about this and head to the study room, ‘kay?”
Annie hugged her, surprising Britta a little, but she returned it.
Year of Perry, she thought.
#
The rest of the group was already in Group Study Room F when Annie and Britta walked in. All except one. Britta frowned as she looked from Annie to Abed.
“Where’s Troy?” she asked as she took her seat.
“I don’t know,” Annie answered. “He was out the door before either of us this morning.” Abed nodded in agreement. “I thought he’d be here already, honestly.”
“I hope he turns up before the Grand Opening,” Pierce muttered. “I told him how important it was that we get as many people there as possible.”
“Actually, Pierce, I did,” Shirley corrected him, an edge to her voice. “And he’ll be there. He promised.”
“Guys, I think we’ll survive if Troy’s ten minutes late,” Jeff interrupted, his arms folded over his chest. “Can we please, for once, stick to the idea of being a study group talk about our History class?” He was hunching over in his seat even more than he usually did, and Britta could see the vein work in his neck as he clenched and unclenched his jaw.
She shot Annie a look as if to say: “See? This is the shit I have to deal with.” The other woman nodded, a worried look on her face.
“Okay… Jeff…” Annie said slowly, the affectedness of her tone a little too obvious. “There hasn’t been a meeting of our History class to talk about yet, but we could get a head start on the reading, if people wa-“
“Yes, good.” Jeff said quickly, ignoring the fact that you could probably count on your hands the number of times they’d actually read from a textbook during one of these meetings. “Let’s do that.”
Britta could feel the tension in the room swelling. Annie wasn’t the only one who looked uneasy. Shirley shot her an anxious look from across the table. Even Pierce seemed to realize something was in the air, and looked from Jeff to her with a quizzical look on his face. She felt the need to say something, anything, building in her, and in situations like that she tended to go with what was familiar. So she quirked an eyebrow and asked: “Since when do you believe in reading ahead, Winger?”
She was hoping he’d rise to her bait and engage in a little playful banter, diffuse the tension, and allow them all to get on with their lives. Instead he made eye contact with her briefly (the first time since she’d entered the room) and then looked away, muttering, “I- uh- I’m trying to turn over a new leaf.”
She rolled her eyes as hard as she could. Back to square one, I guess. Why did he always have to want what he couldn’t have? Why was he waiting almost a year and a half after they’d stopped having sex to start acting vulnerable again? And why did he have to be so god damned good at it? She tried, desperately, to think of some other way to salvage the situation, to get things to a point where she and Troy could reveal their relationship with a minimum of drama. But Abed beat her to the punch.
“Jeff’s jealous of Troy,” he said.
“Abed!” Annie said sharply.
“No. I’m tired of all the social landmines and emotional booby traps you people keep leaving everywhere,” Abed said, his voice firm. There was an edge of anger to it; something the psych major part of Britta’s mind took note of for this week’s session. The rest of her just sunk deeper into her seat and hoped, desperately, that he’d show a bit of restraint. “I’m tired of all the tension. It never let’s up, it’s just gotten worse and worse. And I can’t deal with it anymore; sitting in silence and watching it build up. So I’m going to start saying what I’m thinking. And what I’m thinking is: Jeff’s jealous of Troy.”
“Of course he is!” Pierce interjected. “They’re both fighting each other over who gets to be the beta male!”
“Abed,” Jeff said, ignoring Pierce, “I’m sorry that you’re feeling stressed. But I am not jealous of Troy.”
The double doors of the study room flew open, and in strode Dean Pelton followed closely by Troy. Britta felt a jet of warmth in her chest as some of the tension eased off her back. She smiled at him, and he gave her a tiny little wave.
“Okay, sorry gang didn’t have time to get a costume together so I don’t have a Dean pun for you today,” the Dean said. Shirley and Annie both “awed” sadly. “But I’ve got big news! Troy and I-”
“Wait, Dean,” Troy interrupted, his eyes gleaming, “Can I tell them? I’ve been thinking about what to say ever since we left the Annex.”
The Dean’s face broke into a big grin. “Oh, alright Troy! Go ahead! It is all thanks to you, after all.”
“What?” Britta asked, her smile widening. They both seemed really excited. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jeff pull out his cell phone. She ignored him.
“Okay, well,” Troy said, looking around the table. “Shirley! I told everyone in the A/C repair school to come to your opening today. They have to do what I say, because they think I’m the living avatar of mankind’s ability to fix stuff on the material plane. The cafeteria’s gonna be packed.”
“Oh yay!” Shirley said, clapping. “Thank you, Troy!”
“While the Dean and I were down there, we forced them to fork over a bunch of cash to Greendale. That means the school’s not going to be so run down this year, and we don’t have to worry about homeless people taking over the study room again because there will be non-crazy security guards on the staff. Oh, and Annie! The Dean says they’ll finally be able to pay a specialist to get rid of that black mold you’re always complaining about.”
“That’s great!” Annie said. “There’s more mold than wall in that stairwell at this point.”
“And Abed!” Troy continued, his voice becoming quicker and more excited. “The Dean says they can afford to restart the A/V department again!”
“Really?” Abed asked, smiling openly.
“Yeah, buddy!” Troy gushed, walking over to his friend. “And there’s a giant room that A/C school is wasting that I thought maybe you guys could turn into a studio.”
“Troy…” Abed said, his voice breaking. He swallowed. “Thank you.”
“And Pierce!” Troy said, even though he was walking backwards, away from the old man as he talked, towards her. “The Dean says he’s got an idea to start a Woman’s Health Resource Center on campus.”
Pierce frowned. “Why the hell would I give a shit about that?”
“Because! It’s going to offer cheap birth control to registered Greendale students!” he laid a hand on Britta’s shoulder. “Which means Britta and I can finally start taking your advice! No more condoms! BOOYAH!” Britta felt her chest clench.
“You…” Pierce seemed genuinely moved. “You remembered…”
Troy was looking down at her expectantly, a broad grin on his face. It faltered as she shot a look over at Jeff, who was jabbing at his phone with way more strength than the buttons required. Troy looked confused, maybe even hurt at her hesitation, his eyes more and more questioning as Britta continued to say nothing. She felt everyone’s gaze on her again.
“Can we… talk outside?” Year of fucking Perry… she thought, sardonically
#
“You were the one who said you wanted to tell the group!” Troy fumed. “You said you didn’t want our relationship to be a dirty little secret! You said it would stall out and crash otherwise!”
“I know!” Britta hissed. “Keep your voice down!” This was the second heated conversation she’d had in the middle of a bunch of library stacks today, which seemed, to her, like two too many.
“I thought you’d be happy!” Troy said, more quietly. “Not pissed off at me.”
“I’m… I’m not pissed,” she said. She wasn’t entirely sure what she was, but she felt a lot better being outside that room. “I’m not entirely sure what you just did, with the Dean today, but it sounds like you did a pretty awesome thing for a lot of people. And I’m proud of that. But you showed, like, zero tact in there dude.”
“Oh,” Troy said, his voice becoming cold. “This is about Jeff.”
“No, fuck you!” Britta snapped, hissing. “You don’t get to do that. You made this about Jeff the second you didn’t include him in that little ‘Great and Powerful Oz’ routine you had going in there! Not to mention when you practically started humping my leg in front of everybody! I’m not just self-conscious about Jeff seeing that, Troy. Do you think I want to rub Shirley’s face in the fact that I’m leading you down the sinful path of pre-marital sex?”
“I-” Troy reached up to rub the back of his head. “I guess I… got kind of carried away…” He gave her those big puppy dog eyes, the ones that never failed to make her heart swell with affection. And heaven help her when he used them on her in bed… Nope! Bad vagina. Focus, she thought to herself, knowing there was plenty of time for arousal later. “I just got so excited, you know? Getting my chance to be the big hero. Doing my little speech…”
She reached out and cupped his cheek. “It was a pretty good speech…” she said, her voice softening. “And I am… excited… about not having to use condoms anymore.”
Troy grinned. “Me too.” But then he looked downcast again. “I hope I didn’t run the Year of Perry on its first day.”
“Don’t worry about it,” she said, encircling his waist with her arms and pulling her head to his chest. “It wouldn’t be named after me if it didn’t have to get used to a little bumpiness.” She wasn’t sure what she was going to do about Jeff, how she was going to defuse that particular time bomb in her life. And she wasn’t really sure how she’d ever be able to afford grad school, or the year or so of interning after that it’d take her to get licensed. But she felt sure of this, of him, and for now that was enough. It was a start.
Rating: NC-17
Spoilers: Up to the end of Season 3
It was Day One of the Year of Perry. She’d emerged from the crucible of this long, hot, lonely summer a stronger, more confident woman. She’d self-actualized the fuck out of herself. She was a lean, mean, studying machine. She was getting laid on the regular, and things were going pretty good on that front. Britta smiled as she pushed the library doors open, thoughts of her paramour floating through her head.
She’d even managed to make it to the study group’s first meeting early. And it was a Monday! She was unstoppable.
“BRITTA!”
Britta started, letting out a small “eek” as she whirled around to see a determined looking Annie Edison bearing down on her.
“Oh, Annie,” Britta said. “You scared me a little bit. Ow!” The younger woman grabbed her roughly by her arm and dragged her off into the stacks. “Get off!”
Britta managed to yank her arm out of Annie’s grip, rubbing at it and shooting her friend a hurt look. “What the fuck, Annie?”
Annie jutted an index finger right into her face. “Listen!” she said curtly, her tone quick and clipped. “You are going to leave Abed alone. No more half-witted head shrinking I don’t know what happened on the day of the Bio test but we both know whatever it was it probably didn’t meet the APA’s guidelines for ethical treatment.”
Britta felt her face go cold, her jaw clench. Annie had consoled her that day, before Troy had shown up and everything turned around. And it probably should have occurred to her that Annie was smart enough, diabolical enough, to put two and two together and figure out why once she’d heard about Abed’s therapy sessions.
“Oh, and I suppose they teach you all about medical ethics in your classes, huh?” Britta sputtered.
“Yes!” Annie said, incredulous. “They do!”
Oh, right, shit. They would, wouldn’t they? Britta thought to herself. She couldn’t show weakness in front of Annie though, not now. “Whatever! I know what I’m doing! I’m a psych major!”
“You never know what you’re doing!” Annie retorted. Britta started to feel herself go red in the face, anger rising up in her again.
“Abed seems to think I do!” Britta said. “And you know that, don’t you? You had plenty of time to confront me about this over the past week; I’ve been at your apartment enough. But you wanted to do it when Abed wasn’t around. You already tried to talk to him about this and he told you to butt out, didn’t he?”
Annie faltered, taking a step back. “No, I-”
“You listen, Annie,” Britta said, seizing the initiative. “I have had to deal with enough tip-toeing around this shit with Troy, and I’ve got way fewer reasons to be as diplomatic with you. Abed asked for my help. Maybe he should go to a fully trained psych major, but he doesn’t want to. Maybe that’s a mistake, but it’s his to make. So back the fuck off!” She ended her speech with an authoritative little poke at Annie’s chest. The brunette shrank back, and Britta felt her anger start to fade away, guilt seeping in to replace it. She might have been… venting a little bit there. “Besides… worst case scenario you get to laugh at me for being stupid again when everything blows up in my face. “
“Britta!” Annie said, her expression shifting from scared to hurt. “I’d never laugh at you!” Britta shot her a look. “Okay, that’s a lie. I don’t think you’re stupid though.”
Britta snorted. “Yeah right. You say it often enough.”
“No, honestly! I know I can rag on you kind of hard sometimes, but I don’t think you’re stupid, not really. I guess I just… I don’t know. You’re so intimidating sometimes Britta! And… and sometimes I feel like being ‘the smart one’ is the only way I can compete with that.” She smiled, a little sadly, and looked away. “Too many gold stars as a kid, I guess.”
“Annie…” Britta said, the anger all gone now. She reached out and rubbed her arm reassuringly. “It’s okay. I’m sorry too. I know you’re just worried about Abed.”
“He… he goes into the blanket fort and just sits in that box. The one he made after the Dreamatorium turned into Troy’s room. Just sits there, sometimes for almost an hour. Sometimes longer.” Annie looked away.
Britta sighed. She and Abed had talked about that, his little coping mechanism. She wasn’t going to tell Annie about any of that, though; both because it would violate Abed’s trust and because it would just make Annie feel sadder. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I’ve just been really stressed. Troy and I decided we’re going to tell the group today. About us.”
“Yeah…” Annie said hesitantly. “I don’t think there’s a single person who doesn’t already know.”
“Oh, I know there isn’t,” Britta answered darkly. “I went and told Jeff last night.”
“Oh!” Annie said, her voice raising an octave. “Did he- how did that go?”
Britta narrowed her eyes at the younger woman. Was she still going to be jealous like this whenever she brought up Jeff? When is she going to get over him? “Not well. He acted really… weird…” She shook her head. “Whatever. Let’s just forget about this and head to the study room, ‘kay?”
Annie hugged her, surprising Britta a little, but she returned it.
Year of Perry, she thought.
#
The rest of the group was already in Group Study Room F when Annie and Britta walked in. All except one. Britta frowned as she looked from Annie to Abed.
“Where’s Troy?” she asked as she took her seat.
“I don’t know,” Annie answered. “He was out the door before either of us this morning.” Abed nodded in agreement. “I thought he’d be here already, honestly.”
“I hope he turns up before the Grand Opening,” Pierce muttered. “I told him how important it was that we get as many people there as possible.”
“Actually, Pierce, I did,” Shirley corrected him, an edge to her voice. “And he’ll be there. He promised.”
“Guys, I think we’ll survive if Troy’s ten minutes late,” Jeff interrupted, his arms folded over his chest. “Can we please, for once, stick to the idea of being a study group talk about our History class?” He was hunching over in his seat even more than he usually did, and Britta could see the vein work in his neck as he clenched and unclenched his jaw.
She shot Annie a look as if to say: “See? This is the shit I have to deal with.” The other woman nodded, a worried look on her face.
“Okay… Jeff…” Annie said slowly, the affectedness of her tone a little too obvious. “There hasn’t been a meeting of our History class to talk about yet, but we could get a head start on the reading, if people wa-“
“Yes, good.” Jeff said quickly, ignoring the fact that you could probably count on your hands the number of times they’d actually read from a textbook during one of these meetings. “Let’s do that.”
Britta could feel the tension in the room swelling. Annie wasn’t the only one who looked uneasy. Shirley shot her an anxious look from across the table. Even Pierce seemed to realize something was in the air, and looked from Jeff to her with a quizzical look on his face. She felt the need to say something, anything, building in her, and in situations like that she tended to go with what was familiar. So she quirked an eyebrow and asked: “Since when do you believe in reading ahead, Winger?”
She was hoping he’d rise to her bait and engage in a little playful banter, diffuse the tension, and allow them all to get on with their lives. Instead he made eye contact with her briefly (the first time since she’d entered the room) and then looked away, muttering, “I- uh- I’m trying to turn over a new leaf.”
She rolled her eyes as hard as she could. Back to square one, I guess. Why did he always have to want what he couldn’t have? Why was he waiting almost a year and a half after they’d stopped having sex to start acting vulnerable again? And why did he have to be so god damned good at it? She tried, desperately, to think of some other way to salvage the situation, to get things to a point where she and Troy could reveal their relationship with a minimum of drama. But Abed beat her to the punch.
“Jeff’s jealous of Troy,” he said.
“Abed!” Annie said sharply.
“No. I’m tired of all the social landmines and emotional booby traps you people keep leaving everywhere,” Abed said, his voice firm. There was an edge of anger to it; something the psych major part of Britta’s mind took note of for this week’s session. The rest of her just sunk deeper into her seat and hoped, desperately, that he’d show a bit of restraint. “I’m tired of all the tension. It never let’s up, it’s just gotten worse and worse. And I can’t deal with it anymore; sitting in silence and watching it build up. So I’m going to start saying what I’m thinking. And what I’m thinking is: Jeff’s jealous of Troy.”
“Of course he is!” Pierce interjected. “They’re both fighting each other over who gets to be the beta male!”
“Abed,” Jeff said, ignoring Pierce, “I’m sorry that you’re feeling stressed. But I am not jealous of Troy.”
The double doors of the study room flew open, and in strode Dean Pelton followed closely by Troy. Britta felt a jet of warmth in her chest as some of the tension eased off her back. She smiled at him, and he gave her a tiny little wave.
“Okay, sorry gang didn’t have time to get a costume together so I don’t have a Dean pun for you today,” the Dean said. Shirley and Annie both “awed” sadly. “But I’ve got big news! Troy and I-”
“Wait, Dean,” Troy interrupted, his eyes gleaming, “Can I tell them? I’ve been thinking about what to say ever since we left the Annex.”
The Dean’s face broke into a big grin. “Oh, alright Troy! Go ahead! It is all thanks to you, after all.”
“What?” Britta asked, her smile widening. They both seemed really excited. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jeff pull out his cell phone. She ignored him.
“Okay, well,” Troy said, looking around the table. “Shirley! I told everyone in the A/C repair school to come to your opening today. They have to do what I say, because they think I’m the living avatar of mankind’s ability to fix stuff on the material plane. The cafeteria’s gonna be packed.”
“Oh yay!” Shirley said, clapping. “Thank you, Troy!”
“While the Dean and I were down there, we forced them to fork over a bunch of cash to Greendale. That means the school’s not going to be so run down this year, and we don’t have to worry about homeless people taking over the study room again because there will be non-crazy security guards on the staff. Oh, and Annie! The Dean says they’ll finally be able to pay a specialist to get rid of that black mold you’re always complaining about.”
“That’s great!” Annie said. “There’s more mold than wall in that stairwell at this point.”
“And Abed!” Troy continued, his voice becoming quicker and more excited. “The Dean says they can afford to restart the A/V department again!”
“Really?” Abed asked, smiling openly.
“Yeah, buddy!” Troy gushed, walking over to his friend. “And there’s a giant room that A/C school is wasting that I thought maybe you guys could turn into a studio.”
“Troy…” Abed said, his voice breaking. He swallowed. “Thank you.”
“And Pierce!” Troy said, even though he was walking backwards, away from the old man as he talked, towards her. “The Dean says he’s got an idea to start a Woman’s Health Resource Center on campus.”
Pierce frowned. “Why the hell would I give a shit about that?”
“Because! It’s going to offer cheap birth control to registered Greendale students!” he laid a hand on Britta’s shoulder. “Which means Britta and I can finally start taking your advice! No more condoms! BOOYAH!” Britta felt her chest clench.
“You…” Pierce seemed genuinely moved. “You remembered…”
Troy was looking down at her expectantly, a broad grin on his face. It faltered as she shot a look over at Jeff, who was jabbing at his phone with way more strength than the buttons required. Troy looked confused, maybe even hurt at her hesitation, his eyes more and more questioning as Britta continued to say nothing. She felt everyone’s gaze on her again.
“Can we… talk outside?” Year of fucking Perry… she thought, sardonically
#
“You were the one who said you wanted to tell the group!” Troy fumed. “You said you didn’t want our relationship to be a dirty little secret! You said it would stall out and crash otherwise!”
“I know!” Britta hissed. “Keep your voice down!” This was the second heated conversation she’d had in the middle of a bunch of library stacks today, which seemed, to her, like two too many.
“I thought you’d be happy!” Troy said, more quietly. “Not pissed off at me.”
“I’m… I’m not pissed,” she said. She wasn’t entirely sure what she was, but she felt a lot better being outside that room. “I’m not entirely sure what you just did, with the Dean today, but it sounds like you did a pretty awesome thing for a lot of people. And I’m proud of that. But you showed, like, zero tact in there dude.”
“Oh,” Troy said, his voice becoming cold. “This is about Jeff.”
“No, fuck you!” Britta snapped, hissing. “You don’t get to do that. You made this about Jeff the second you didn’t include him in that little ‘Great and Powerful Oz’ routine you had going in there! Not to mention when you practically started humping my leg in front of everybody! I’m not just self-conscious about Jeff seeing that, Troy. Do you think I want to rub Shirley’s face in the fact that I’m leading you down the sinful path of pre-marital sex?”
“I-” Troy reached up to rub the back of his head. “I guess I… got kind of carried away…” He gave her those big puppy dog eyes, the ones that never failed to make her heart swell with affection. And heaven help her when he used them on her in bed… Nope! Bad vagina. Focus, she thought to herself, knowing there was plenty of time for arousal later. “I just got so excited, you know? Getting my chance to be the big hero. Doing my little speech…”
She reached out and cupped his cheek. “It was a pretty good speech…” she said, her voice softening. “And I am… excited… about not having to use condoms anymore.”
Troy grinned. “Me too.” But then he looked downcast again. “I hope I didn’t run the Year of Perry on its first day.”
“Don’t worry about it,” she said, encircling his waist with her arms and pulling her head to his chest. “It wouldn’t be named after me if it didn’t have to get used to a little bumpiness.” She wasn’t sure what she was going to do about Jeff, how she was going to defuse that particular time bomb in her life. And she wasn’t really sure how she’d ever be able to afford grad school, or the year or so of interning after that it’d take her to get licensed. But she felt sure of this, of him, and for now that was enough. It was a start.