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Troy had gotten used to a certain routine. Growing up, and in high school, he’d never had or needed one. Even freshman year, he’d just kind of done his own thing. But once he had moved in with Abed, some semblance of a routine became necessary. Abed needed structure. Thus, the shared alarm that made them both get up, the breakfast in the morning that both of them made, the obligatory complimenting of each other’s outfits, and the drive to school, complete with their shared playlist.
Nothing about their routine changed when they started dating. Well, except from waking up in the same twin bed rather than separate ones.
What made their routine change was Annie. When she moved in, suddenly they had another body to maneuver around, to work with, and to say good morning to. Showers had to get shorter, because none of them were willing to shower at night.
(“My hair’ll get messed up!” Annie whined.
“Mine would too!” Troy replied.
Abed just said: “I can’t shower at night.”
And that was that. They all try to fit in showers in the morning.)
Breakfast almost changed, too, but Troy and Abed were resolute. For the first few days, Annie tried to push the boys to add some protein to their breakfast, saying she wanted them to eat healthier at the most important meal of the day. She made eggs in all different ways. She tried microwavable turkey sausage, and turkey bacon. When nothing worked, Annie gave up and decided to eat cereal with Troy and Abed. Troy counted this as a 50/50 win. He hadn’t minded the nice meals, but throwing them out after Abed immediately rejected them, and seeing Annie upset about it had sucked.
It wasn’t just the morning routines that changed. Annie insisted on adding vegetables to dinners, and cooking meals instead of microwaving them. She also wanted dishes done, and not left in the sink for days.
Which, he guessed, was a good thing. Really, it meant that he felt a little healthier — more like he’d felt when his diet had been monitored when he was in football — and that the kitchen stayed cleaner.
The worst change was the arguments over what to watch. Those were becoming routine, too.
“It’s brilliant,” Abed said. “Just because you don’t get it-”
“Oh, I don’t get it?” Annie stood up from off the couch. “There’s nothing to get! It’s all in Japanese, and it’s all in the rain. There’s nothing poetic about that, it’s just boring.”
“You’re not supposed to get it. It’s supposed to be boring. To most people, anyway.”
Annie sighed, and looked to Troy for help. “Come on, it’s boring, right? You can tell the truth.”
“Troy,” Abed warned. “You can say what you think, but in many situations, people tend to get upset when their boyfriends disagree with them on things like this. I don’t want that to happen here.”
Troy shook his head. “This is your argument, you guys. I don’t wanna say something that’s going to get either of you upset.” He racked his brain. “How about, um, you let Annie choose a movie to watch tomorrow? Something you’re not allowed to say no to.”
He looked at Abed hopefully. Abed nodded decisively.
“Yes! Ooh, I’m feeling Legally Blonde tomorrow night. How do you guys feel about that?” she asked, then pretended to remember. “Oh yeah, you can’t tell me no!” she pumped her fist in the air. “Thanks, Troy.”
“Sure thing,” he said, and grinned when Annie kissed the top of his head, then the top of Abed’s.
“I’m going to bed,” she said. “Goodnight, guys.”
“Goodnight, Annie,” they responded in unison.
Troy moved from the floor to the couch, and curled into Abed. “Thank you for agreeing to watch whatever she chose,” he said, and kissed his boyfriend’s cheek. “After you guys fighting twice this week about movies, it means a lot.”
“Oh, it’s not a problem,” Abed smiled. “I love Legally Blonde. I knew she’d choose that.”
“I did too, that’s why I suggested it.”
“I know. Should we go to bed, too?”
“Probably,” Troy agreed, and stood up. “Big day tomorrow. Big plans. Big Legally Blonde plans.”
Abed kissed him and laughed.
---
Overall, Troy loved having Annie as a roommate. Yeah, everything he’d just said had been annoying, but she was good to have in the apartment. Easy to talk to, with or without Abed there. The two of them could get on one topic and stay on it for hours, or think of one thing after another and lose track of time completely. She was a good friend to him, and to Abed. That was most important. She didn’t think it was weird when Troy cried at a commercial, or because he’d had a hard day, or because he’d called his mom and she’d said something nice. And she didn’t panic (anymore) when Abed was having a tough time adjusting to a change. She’d learned the right amount of pressure to apply to his shoulders, and to say what she could before, eventually, listening to what he wanted to say. And she liked the Dreamatorium, which was paramount. It meant she could have fun with them, too.
She made things better in the Dreamatorium, really. She thought of solutions that Troy never would have, and was better at admitting when she didn’t know something.
Those were both skills that would come in handy on the night he fucked up.
---
In Troy’s defense, he was exhausted, and he’d fallen into a nighttime routine that he could do with his eyes closed. Seriously, he’d tried, and done it with his eyes closed. He thought it might help him get to bed earlier, but it turned out it just made him run into the wall.
On this night, he kept his eyes open, but he couldn’t keep his brain turned on. He’d been running around school all day, trying to keep today’s nonsense from spiraling out of control. Doing that all day really wears him out. So it wasn’t really his fault when he forgot that Abed was at Britta’s that night, helping her with an assignment. He just did what he always did: brush his teeth, put on his pajama pants, take a drink of water, and kiss Abed goodnight.
Except it wasn’t Abed. Abed tasted like peppermint toothpaste. This kiss tasted like strawberry candy.
In front of him, mouth wide open, was Annie.
“Oh my god,” Troy stepped back, covering his mouth with both hands. “Oh my god. I’m so sorry, Annie, I thought you were Abed, I didn’t even realize.”
She blinked, touched her lip with the tip of her index finger, and frowned. “You thought I was Abed?”
“Yes, I-”
“The height difference didn’t tip you off? He’s like a full head taller than me when I’m not in heels.” She giggled. “You didn’t notice anything wrong until after you’d kissed me?”
“No! I swear! I’m really tired, and it was a mistake, and I’m so sorry!”
The weight of what he’d done crashed around him.
“Oh my god.” He gasped. “I just cheated on Abed. I just cheated on my boyfriend with our shared best friend. What the fuck am I going to do?”
Annie sighed. “Tell him the truth, I guess.”
“Yeah. That’s the right thing to do. Oh man, he’s going to be so pissed though. I wouldn’t go so far as to say devastated,” he said, not talking to Annie as much as he was talking to himself, “but definitely upset. Do you think he’ll scream? Or just say nothing and go to his room?”
He turned away from Annie entirely, digging his hands into his hair.
“Oh my god. What if he doesn’t let me sleep in our bed tonight? What if he kicks me out? What if he wants both of us to leave the apartment?”
“Troy-”
“We can find somewhere to live together, still, right?”
“Troy-”
“I mean, it’ll take me forever to deal with this heartbreak, but we’ll be friends still, Annie. We can be roommates, this doesn’t have to change anything.”
“Troy, what if I want it to?” Annie almost yelled. “What if I want-” she quieted. “What if I need this to change everything?”
He turned back around to face her and stepped closer. “What do you mean?”
She pulled her hair nervously. Her shoulders shook. “I mean I’ve had something to tell you for a long time, and I’ve always meant to say it but chickened out, and you just kinda, well,” she gestured her hands in the air, referring to everything that had happened, “you kissed me. And that was pretty much all I’ve wanted you to do for years.”
She sighed. “I’m sorry to bring this up. I know you’re stressed right now, and you probably don’t see me like that. Besides,” she turned away. “You’re dating Abed. And you guys are perfect. I should probably move out.”
The front door opened, and Troy and Annie jumped.
“Hey guys,” Abed said, stepping inside and rolling up the sleeves on his hoodie. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing!” Annie squeaked.
“We have to tell you something!” Troy said at the same time.
Abed frowned, then actually smiled. “Classic saying-opposite-thing-simultaneously. I like it. What happened?”
Annie took a shaky breath. “Abed, Troy kissed me.”
“I thought she was you, and I was really tired, and-”
“Oh,” Abed nodded, like he was processing it. “We should go sit down.”
Stunned, Troy and Annie sat down on the couch. Abed sat in the armchair so he could face them. The tension in the air was uncomfortably heavy. It was like everyone knew something Troy didn’t, and they wouldn’t tell him what was going on.
So actually, not that different from usual.
“So, Annie’s in love with Troy,” Abed said, like it was the most natural conclusion. “Has been for a while. Like, years.”
“What?” How did you-” Annie stuttered, and started again. “But I-”
“-She’s also in love with me, I think,” Abed interrupted her. “Although I don’t want to assume anything, she seems to act the same way with me as with Troy, and she’s definitely in love with Troy.”
“Woah, woah,” Troy held his hand out in front of him. “What are you talking about?”
Abed held up his hand and listed items on his fingers. “She has your schedule memorized, she gets you the candy you like, she giggles when you say something that’s not funny, she listens all the time to everything you say. I could keep going, honestly. She does the same things to me.”
Troy avoided Annie’s gaze. “So maybe she’s just being a really good friend?”
“Nope,” Abed shook his head. “She doesn’t do that for Britta, or Shirley, or Pierce, or even Jeff. Just the two of us.”
“He’s right, Troy,” Annie said quietly. “I mean, in love might be a little strong, but it’s not far off. And when you kissed me, I kinda hoped that you felt the same, even if it was silly.”
“See, that brings us to the kiss,” Abed nodded, leaning forward so his forearms rested on his knees. “I don’t think it would have happened if Troy hadn’t wanted to kiss Annie, even a little bit.”
Troy panicked. “No, I told you, I thought she was you!”
“Okay,” Abed agreed. “But did you like kissing Annie once you started?”
Annie blushed. Suddenly she found the floor fascinating.
“I don’t know!” Troy said, feeling like he was drowning.
Abed raised his eyebrows. “Do you want to kiss her again?”
“I don’t know, Abed! Do you want to kiss her?”
“Yes. I do.”
Troy blinked. “Oh. Okay, so kiss her then.”
Annie looked at him, worried. “Troy, are you sure you’re okay with that? You don’t have to say this is okay if you don’t want him to kiss me. It’s not like we owe him this, or like this will make it even.”
Troy put his hand on top of her own, but kept his gaze fixed on Abed. “No, that’s not it. If he wants to kiss you, he should kiss you. Just like-” he took a deep breath “-just like how I wanted to kiss you, and I did.”
He watched as Abed stood up, stepped to the couch, and crouched down in front of Annie. She looked him in the eye, and then surged forward to meet his lips in an overwhelming kiss. It was everything and nothing like how Troy had kissed Annie; this was excited, and sure, and happy, not surprised and muffled and scary. He watched as the two pulled away from one another, and watched how they smiled like they didn’t need to say anything. They looked like they made sense.
Abed moved sideways so he was in front of Troy. “I want to kiss you,” he said. “Can I?”
Troy nodded, and brought a hand to Abed’s cheek. Abed kissed like he always had, familiar and soft and kind. He didn’t taste like peppermint toothpaste yet, but Troy thought he could taste strawberry again.
“What if we did this?” Annie whispered. “All three of us.”
“I think we should,” Abed answered. “It’d be right. The right conclusion.”
Troy’s brain short-circuited. “All three of us? And it wouldn’t be cheating? I wouldn’t have cheated on Abed with Annie?”
“Well, the one time, it would have been,” Abed shrugged. Annie giggled, like it was a dirty joke. “But I’ve already forgiven you. If we’re both dating her and each other, it wouldn’t be cheating.”
“You’re right. Would that make Annie,” he thought hard about how to phrase it, and came up with nothing better than “our girlfriend?”
Annie laughed again and leaned into him. “I’d be your girlfriend if you’d be my boyfriends.”
Abed smiled and pointed at her. “That’s a good deal.”
She kissed his cheek and turned to look at Troy. “Are you in? If you’re not, and you don’t want to do this, even a little bit, you can tell us. If we’re pushing you or rushing you, tell us please. We can talk through it. I could leave. It could be just you and Abed, and you’d never have to deal with me interrupting you-”
“Can I kiss you again?” Troy asked. “For real this time? As your boyfriend?”
Annie glowed and grinned, nodding so fast her head looked like it might jump off and roll away.
His first real kiss with Annie went like this: leaning in, tilting heads, figuring out where each of them fit with each other. It wasn’t thoughtless or forgetful, it was intentional and quiet. Annie really did kiss like she’d been waiting to do this for years. One day, he decided, he’d ask her how long she’d wanted to do this, and he’d tease her about it. For now, he wanted to keep kissing her. And kissing Abed. And watching Abed kiss Annie. And making up for lost time as the three of them.