Chapter Four

Jeff tried to calm himself down as he sat in a nearby small pizza place. He felt so insecure and he hated that. Maybe he really should have held onto some of those pills he had used before. He was sitting here, under legal drinking age and felt so conspicuous to everyone. They were all staring at him but there was no chance that they would know he wasn't the age he was supposed to be. What was he thinking!? When he had seen her he was reminded that whilst he wasn't too old for her now, he might be too young. Damn it. These things never went to plan.

He thanked a woman as she brought over a personal low-fat pizza and a diet soda. "Kid like you shouldn't have to watch your calories," she winked at him before laughing. Jeff watched her and heard her laugh softly. "If I was only five years younger," she said. Okay. So, he was still attractive. Well, he was still him, right?

"Thanks," he called after her before looking at the pizza and picking a piece up. He was about to pick up a fork before hearing a hand slam down atop the table.

"What do you think that you're doing?" Britta asked as she pulled the pizza away from him. Jeff tilted his head to the side and raised an eyebrow as he coughed but didn't say anything. "Just so you know, you're obnoxious arrogant self is much more deserving of being punched," she whispered so no one else could hear her.

"And you really thought coming in here and threatening me would change things?" he asked and Britta sat down but gave him the flatware back. Jeff looked her over before picking up a piece of the pizza.

"I didn't think, okay. I was trying to help. I was trying to be a good friend," she frowned as she studied him. He really was cute if she had no idea who he was and how weird being caught up in this situation actually was. "I can't stop thinking that you're," she leaned in, "nineteen."

"You can't keep yourself from thinking that, huh?" Jeff asked her in a dry manner before holding up his driving license which said that he was nineteen. "Besides, I doubt that it's a secret so you don't have to whisper. Fortunately, even at this age I was very experienced so I don't have to break anything in."

"And you wanted me to support you going after Annie," Britta said and Jeff looked away weakly. He nodded. "You think that I want Annie to get together with someone who would use her and cheat her. I swear, if you want my help to win her over then you better treat her right."

"Maybe you could have said that to me during our studying Spanish but we've all learned and grown since then right," he said and saw Britta biting her top lip and laughing at that. He stared at his hands and sighed, rolling his eyes. "Right some of us don't appear to have grown at all but I'm not going to do anything to hurt you or Annie or Shirley or Abed or Troy or anyone else that I've dealt with."

"So, you are not projecting your fear of your own body onto Annie so that you're afraid of her, right?" Britta asked. "That's psychotherapy for you."

"Psychotherapy?" Jeff asked, he shook his head and managed to concentrate on the pizza in front of him. "And here I was thinking that you were fine not being a psychologist or psychiatrist. You seem pretty content with your bar."

"Maybe you're not the only one who wants to get a second chance," Britta said and Jeff sighed and looked at her for a while before focusing back on the pizza.

"I'm not just wanting a second chance. I sort of have to take one and I want to take one with Annie but you're right. I don't think that I can do it like this, she knows everything about Jeff Winger so, if I told her then she'd know."

"Da-doy" Britta replied and Jeff smiled as he shook his head.

"The thing is to make it so that she can't know. If we walk back seamlessly on this then I bet that I can get a chance as someone else. I'd have to try to hide my face a little which might be hard, I don't think that I can hide this much handsome," he stated and Britta rolled her eyes.

"Can you just stop being a douche and finish your pizza?" she asked and Britta saw the waitress coming over.

"Hi, are you Jeff's mother," the waitress asked and Britta looked horrorstruck by that, she saw Jeff was trying hard not to laugh and so kicked him in the shin. This wasn't funny to her.

4.2

Annie sighed as she looked out the window whilst sitting opposite Troy and Abed. She had missed this. She had missed being around her kind of people. Greendale may have warped some people's minds but she knew that – other than Troy – she wouldn't have ever met the other people of the study group had her life not turned out the way it did. If she hadn't had a pill addiction then she would have gone to a regular school.

She sighed as she studied the two of them and laughed, "After all of this time and after your social circles have changed so much, the two of you are so much in sync."

"We gotta be for when Abed becomes the new Spielberg," Troy grinned. Abed nodded as if this was all a matter of fact thing to him. "I mean, being rich isn't everything you might make it out to be. I mean, did you guys know how rich Pierce is."

"I believe we were all there when the will was read, Troy. I remember all of those bottles of sperm and the fact that he died being because of filling up all of those nasty bottles." Annie's eyes widened as she saw Troy and Abed both get large milkshakes with brownies and sparkles in them. She looked to her own iced coffee.

"These drinks are so cool," Troy laughed as he grabbed a spoon and Abed pulled something from his bag.

"The only thing that might make them cooler is -" Abed began but Troy's eyes had already widened in eager anticipation for that.

"Are those firecrackers?" he almost squeaked and Annie looked around. She didn't think that they were but honestly, Troy had always had such a better read on Abed that if they had been firecrackers then she wouldn't have been that surprised.

"Sorry to disappoint," Abed said before pulling out two impressive curly straws and Annie grinned as she saw how excited this made Troy. She had really missed him. Troy wasn't smart in the usual academic meaning but he did have things he had knowledge on.

"I really miss that the three of us used to live together," Annie pouted and Troy laughed.

"Yeah, you guys should totally come visit me. I mean, it's a sad thing that I never got an indoor swing like Pierce did," he told them and Annie bit her top lip whilst Abed just blinked at him, mentally checking out due to a rare disinterest in Troy's life. "But it'd be fun. Like a giant slumber party. I mean, I know that Pierce probably had some reason for giving me all of his money but I at least get to have a little fun with it."

"I thought that you traveled around the world and were also planning to help me set up a film studio," Abed commented. Annie opened her mouth to argue but shook it again and sat down. This really wasn't any of her business anyway.

"Yeah, I did," Troy laughed before leaning forwards. "Oh, yeah, I went to Colombia, like the real one, not the fake one here and I never thought that Jeff would be into that type of thing," he said before laughing to himself. "Of course, many of those women were incredibly attractive. Especially the ones with the blankets wrapped around them on those cool nights. I mean, what's not to enjoy about a lady being comfortable."

Abed nodded, "Yes, what's not to enjoy about anyone being comfortable," he said before forcing a laugh.

Annie bowed her head and played with her straw, "Mentioning Jeff, you said that he came here with you guys but something happened to him. Is it a real something that needs to have a doctor treat or is that just the Jeff Winger way of saying that he really doesn't want to see me."

"Oh, he wants to see you," Troy laughed. "I think that he has feelings for you the way that you did for me. I know that you also liked him even though -" he saw Annie about to protest. "Even though you always said that you went after men like Jeff because you wanted to make sure that you could get anyone you like to love you."

"I didn't say -" Annie began and Abed looked to her and nodded.

"You have feelings for Jeff," he said and Annie glared at him but shook her head. They didn't need to know how much that parting kiss had meant to her. Yes, she had said that she might regret it for a while but that she could just count it as a mistake. Maybe it wasn't a mistake but it was too hard to tell him the actual truth. Jeff couldn't provide her with the life which she wanted to live. It wasn't his fault. Making enough money to have a upwardly mobile life path was near impossible for anyone. That's what she needed, not to be stuck at Greendale.

"That's really nobody's business," she told them. "Besides, I'm tired of trying to get attention from older men. I think that I'd rather date someone my own age or you know what, just because Jeff's a guy and he tried it doesn't mean that a girl can't, I'll date younger boys who will look at me with respect."

"Might be considered too young to be a cougar," Abed commented, "You want to really consider what the target audience is looking for. Might want to try something like a telenovela or even a more aged Pretty Little Liars, secret pact thing."

"If you want to be with a guy that's younger than you then you really might want to talk to Jeff," Troy laughed and Annie stared at him confused.

"Wha-" she held up a hand, "No. Don't even answer that. I'm just happy spending time with the two of you anyway and when I see Jeff, I'll be able to thank him for everything and we'll go and be friends. Now, can we please move the conversation off of Jeff Winger."

End of Chapter Four

Thank you for reading

Thank you to the reviewers of Chapter Three

Anon, Noellesullivan, PaulTheApostle, Rodleon37,