Work Text:
God he hated him. He hated how he could run faster than him, hated how he thought he was better than him and especially hated those gentle eyes that he could spend hours staring at and- okay scratch that part.
The point is, Troy Barnes hated Abed Nadir and it wasn’t going to change. At first he was just the Weird Guy sitting a few rows behind him. He’d talked to him a few times. Okay well talk is a strong word for what was a quick exchange of borrowing a pencil. But in any case the weirdo came up to him completely unprompted and asked him to join a study group.
Listen you didn’t hear this from Troy, but he was kinda struggling in Spanish. usually teachers just passed him because he was such a good quarterback but Chang was like actually clinically insane. So instead he had to actually put the work in, which wasn’t going well so far.
Now though, he was sitting next to Abed (and also a really creepy old dude who might’ve been racist) and trying not to stare. It’s not like he was ugly or anything, actually it was the opposite, he was beautiful. It was just he was the kinda kid he used to bully just a year ago and he wasn’t used to being on equal footing with someone like that. It made him confused. All his life he was told you needed to act a certain way to be shown respect but everything about Abed contradicts that. Troy knew college was supposed to be different but everything was just so confusing.
Like Annie Aderall. Or just Annie. because she wasn’t hooked on pills anymore and she was kinda hot now. In a librarian way. She seemed so much more different than how he remembered her in high school and that made him wonder if maybe it was weird that he hadn’t changed at all. And then he remember that he was Troy ‘T-Bone’ barnes and he was awesome and an even more awesome quarterback. Well not anymore he thought with a weird pit feeling in his stomach.
Everyone else at the table was also weird, except for Jeff. There was Shirley who was someone he didn’t except to be at college. He did feel bad for her though because her life seemed to be falling apart. There was Britta who was hot and smart but also a little annoying. She kept talking about like people getting murdered in Guatemala and her one eyed cat she just rescued. But whatever, she seemed cool enough.
Pierce, the one who sat next to him, was probably saying something homophobic at the moment but he wasn’t really paying attention and he didn’t care all too much. That guy was weird but he was like way older than him and Troy was always taught to respect his elders. Even if they were scary and/or insane they usually held some great wisdom or a prophecy. Although, Troy was a little sad to acknowledge Pierce probably didn’t have any epic quests for Troy to go on. The last one was Jeff, who was cool because he made inspirational speeches up on the spot- momentarily making him forget how weird the rest of this study group is - and he wore expensive suits.
Right now all of them were trying to study but Pierce and Britta were in the middle of a yelling match that was so very out of place in a library. Troy sighed. He didn’t even know why he was still there if they weren’t going to study and at this point he could’ve gotten farther by himself. Annie looked upset too but she wouldn’t be able to get a word in even if she wanted too. Shirley shook her head and put a hand on Annie’s back in that comforting mom way. He was sorta mad that Jeff wasn’t doing anything. Abed was kinda right (not that he listens to anything he says) they all looked to Jeff as the dad of the group. But right now Jeff had his feet kicked back on the table and was probably playing Candy Crush.
——
Troy huffed a bit and looked at the clock. They had been at this diorama for about three hours now and he was kind of ready to lose his mind. Personally, he thought the diorama was perfect around two and a half hours ago but Annie kept saying it wasn’t accurate enough. At first he felt guilty about hypothetically costing Annie her A++ but now he just wanted to go home. He didn’t go to community college to actually put in work.
beside him Jeff was texting someone -probably a girl he didn’t even remember the name of- and Britta was getting more and more outraged about the unfairness of expecting the minorities to work while he did nothing. It seemed to have the opposite effect Britta wanted when Jeff went completely unresponsive. Troy thought it was a bit ridiculous and turned away from the situation that was unfolding. He saw Abed who seemed to be working on the diorama with the same attention as when they started which was kind of impressive. Today Abed wasn’t wearing a hoodie or sweater, just a loose fitting graphic tee. Troy tried not to stare at his arms because it made him feel weird and mushy.
Lately Troy had been spending more and more time with the whole study group and it was like being on a whole new planet. He could talk about nerdy shows and not get laughed at. Jeff would sometimes make fun of him but at the same time he also perfectly understood every reference Troy or Abed made so he learned to take it with a grain of salt. Troy even stopped wearing his letterman after a few comments made him realize it had the opposite effect on his status as it did in high school.
Abed noticed Troy’s gaze and wiggled his eyebrows.
“Wanna watch Star Trek in my dorm after all this.” Abed said. Troy’s instinct was to say no but he really did like Star Trek and he’d already spent a few times at Abed’s dorm marathoning the Spider-man movies.
“Sure man. Next Gen?” Troy replied. Abed shot him finger guns in response.
“Cool cool,” and then, “I was hoping to watch TOS as it’s bad graphics and fight choreography are easy to make fun of and bond over but that can be for another time.”
“Guys, can we please just focus!” Annie said while slamming her hands down on the table and fuming at Jeff and Britta, then at Shirley and Pierce (the former who looked to be just about ready to sucker punch Pierce for whatever he had said), and finally at Troy and Abed who had been so focused on their conversation they barely registered the chaos around them.
——
Troy and Abed were sitting on a sofa near the vending machines they had previously been trying to reach up into and steal snacks from. it proved less fruitful than they had hoped but Abed ended up being pretty flexible and managed to snag them a few candy bars. The rest of their study group was busy. Troy caught a glimpse of Shirley and Jeff through the cafeteria windows. They both were jolting with poorly subdued laughter and Troy briefly thought it was nice to see Jeff smiling non-smugly at something for a change. Annie mentioned early she was excited Britta was taking her to some activist thingy so Troy assumed that was where they went off to.
He was kind of happy everyone else was off doing their own thing. While it’s true he and Abed had a lot of solo adventures together, they usually ended up intermingling with the rest of their friends’ antics. Sometimes it was nice to be around just Abed. Currently Abed was theorizing what new feature Star-Burns would add to his look next year.
“He’s already got his signature side burns, top hat, and weird vest that somehow works. Why would he possibly want to add anything else?” Troy reasoned.
“Don’t you see the pattern here, Star-Burns keeps adding to his uniquely disturbing wardrobe in a misguided attempt to distract from his star shaped side burns.” That made sense, Troy thought. But also…
“Couldn’t he just..stop shaving them like that???”
“Wait Troy,” Abed said with suddenly intensity, “Leonard just dropped all his change. If we hurry we’ll have enough money for more snacks.” Troy thought about how it was kind of immoral to steal from the elderly but then remembered Leonard was a bastard and then he didn’t feel so bad.
“What are we waiting for?!” Troy astonished and grabbed Abed’s hand to pull him towards the loose change that would soon be theirs for the taking.
——
Troy and Abed were sitting on the edge of their regular fountain.
“I think this year is going to be great, Troy. I have a feeling it’ll really tie together all our character arcs.” Abed said, and he nodded thoughtfully in reply.
“Yeah,” Troy said then idly looked at his watch, “We should probably get going the group’s probably waiting.”
Abed nodded and stood, Troy following close behind. Troy vaguely registered holding Abed’s hand. At this point it was second nature to be touching Abed at all times. Troy smiled and thought about how amazing the man beside him was. Yeah, this year was gonna be their year.