Waiting For the Ball to Drop
Title: Waiting For the Ball to Drop
Author: office_bluth
Rating/Warnings: I think it's G, actually. This is new for me.
Word Count: 2015
Disclaimer: I do not own Community or its characters, blah blah blah.
Author's Note: This was written for the Auld Lang Slam at milady_milord. Happy New Year, everyone!
“Everyone!” Shirley chirps, her eyes a little glassy from her fifth glass of champagne. “Unfortunately, Britta has to leave soon so she can get some sleep before her flight, so we’re gonna speed up our countdown.”
Jeff snorts into his scotch. This bastardized New Year’s Eve party has become even lamer than Jeff thought it would be - and it was pretty lame right off the bat. First of all, who ever heard of a New Year’s Eve party on December 27th?
But Shirley and Annie had conspired, and figured that the reason the group had gone through such a tumultuous year was because they didn’t begin 2010 together. The plan wasn’t bad at first; they decided to have a New Year’s party. But then no one was available, due to family obligations, long-standing traditions, or prior arrangements. Rather than give up, they simply decided to have the party a little earlier - and the only date that worked was two days after Christmas. On a Monday night.
Jeff’s got to admit, the party’s pretty nice, despite the fact that it’s, you know, not New Year’s. Shirley had goaded Pierce into hosting it, and Pierce has a bar in his basement the size of Jeff’s living room, so - yeah, he’s pretty content.
Actually, once Jeff started drinking, he realized the party isn’t that bad. Troy and Abed designated themselves bartenders/DJs - basically, they change the song every time someone requests a drink. Or maybe they pour a new drink every time someone requests a song. Jeff’s not too clear on their system, but it seems to be working for them.
Even Pierce isn’t being his normal disgusting self. He’s actually a great host - see the thing about his gigantic bar, and his willingness to share even his most expensive bottles of alcohol. When Britta came in with her hair straightened and her skirt a little shorter than normal, Pierce didn’t comment; even Annie’s uncharacteristically strappy dress warranted little more than a welcoming smile and telling her she looked a decade older - except not in a creepy way. Or even in an insulting way. It was incredibly weird.
And then there’s that. Jeff hasn’t been able to look at Annie all night without feeling very, very dirty. It’s just - she doesn’t look like a teenager anymore. At all. He knows her birthday was just a few days ago, so technically, she’s not a teenager anymore. But it seems like she turned twenty and instantly formed into an adult. Jeff has only seen Annie wear high heels a couple times, and it always seemed a bit like a little girl wearing dress-up. But now…something about seeing Annie, with her dark hair pulled into an elegant bun, a light blue dress that showed off all her curves, and those shoes that made it seem like her legs went on for miles…It was all enough to make Jeff completely forget everything he’s been telling himself on and off for the last year whenever he started thinking about getting close to Annie, or taking her on a date.
Shirley’s announcement snaps Jeff out of his thoughts. She makes everyone gather in the center of the living room. “Okay, everyone,” Annie says brightly. “Before we start our countdown to midnight -“
“Ten PM,” Shirley interrupts. “Britta’s gotta get home.” The blonde in question nods appreciatively. She has an early flight tomorrow morning to visit her family in New York; Shirley insisted that she leave the party by eleven, and refused to take no for an answer.
“Before we start our countdown to ten PM,” Annie amends, “we wanted to some traditional New Year’s Eve stuff. Except, you know, there aren’t really a lot of traditions that go with New Year’s except drinking -“
Troy and Abed cheer, then do their weird handshake.
Annie looks perturbed. “Right. Well, there’s drinking and talking about resolutions. And everyone’s done enough drinking for now, so Shirley and I thought we could start the resolutions part now.”
Shirley grins. “And here’s the fun part! Don’t think about it. Just say the first thing that comes to mind. Here, I’ll go first. I want…to find love again.” Her face softens. “Oh, that’s nice.” Then she turns to Britta. “Britta? What’s your resolution?”
“Um…” Britta scrunches up her nose as she thinks.
“No thinking!” Annie says accusatorily, pointing at her.
“Sorry,” Britta says. “Uh - then I guess I want…to fly to Paris.”
Troy nods appreciatively. “Word. I want…to become a man.”
Pierce snorts. “I know a few women who can help you with that for a very low and reasonable fee.”
“And there’s the Pierce we all know,” Jeff mutters. Then he turns to him. “So what’s your resolution, Pierce?”
“To get in touch with my family,” he says simply. “I lost touch with most of them after my divorces. I’d like to get back in touch with some of my ex-wives, or ex-stepkids.”
“Pierce,” Annie says softly. “That’s really sweet.” The older man shrugs, suddenly self-conscious.
“Annie? What’s yours?” Shirley asks.
“I want…to do something unpredictable,” she answers. “Every day. Yeah - one unpredictable thing every day. I’m tired of being so buttoned up and conservative. I’m going to start having more fun.”
“Looks like you’re starting that tonight,” Britta says with a smile, pointing to Annie’s dress. “That’s a lot of leg, Ms. Edison. And didn’t I see you drinking some champagne earlier?”
Annie blushes. “Maybe,” she says. “So there we go - I’m starting early before the new year.”
Abed nods. “Interesting…” he murmurs to himself. “There’s irony in the fact that you’re trying to be more unpredictable, which is, in of itself, a rather predictable storyline for a character like you.”
“And what Abed means,” Jeff says smoothly, “is that his resolution is to stop acting like reality is a television show, and he’s going to stop calling us all characters.”
The group laughs appreciatively at that. Shirley takes the opportunity to sneak herself another champagne flute. “What about you, Jeff?” Annie asks, batting her impossibly long eyelashes at him. “What’s your resolution?”
He meets her eyes for a second, then has to look away. Looking at Annie is just making Jeff think all these things he really shouldn’t be thinking about, let alone imagining. “I want to be happy,” he says, looking somewhere in the vicinity of Abed’s feet. “Believe it or not, I’m not always as awesome as I appear. I usually am, of course, but sometimes there are things I…don’t let myself have. No matter how much I want them.”
He swallows hard. It takes a few moments, but he gathers enough strength to look at Annie; she’s looking sympathetically at him, her eyes wide. But she doesn’t looked shocked, which means that she doesn’t understand what he’s talking about. How could she not know by now that, when Jeff talks about happiness, he means her?
“Well,” Shirley says, gathering everyone’s attention again. “Now that we’ve done that, we can start the countdown. I know it’s a bit tacky, but we wanted this to be as much like a real New Year’s party as possible, so - unless someone’s really against it, would it be okay if we paired up and kissed at midnight?”
“Platonically,” Annie interrupts. “Everything’s friendly. We just want it to be a nice party.”
Everyone glances around uneasily. Jeff jerks his head towards Pierce. “Really?” he mouths to Annie. She bites her lip to keep from laughing.
“But we’re an odd number,” Troy says. “There are four guys and only three girls.”
Pierce shrugs. “Seeing as Jeff has already made his way through two-thirds of the female population, I think he should -“
“What’s that, Pierce?” Shirley asks. “You’re offering to sit out? Oh, that’s so nice of you. Thank you.”
Britta almost spits out her drink. The six remaining people all glance at each other, trying to mentally decide who to choose. Troy takes a surreptitious step over to Britta, taking a long sip of his drink, as if that’ll make him look casual. Shirley raises an eyebrow, looking between Jeff and Abed. Before she can decide, Abed takes one look at Jeff, then glances at Annie; without a word, he steps next to Shirley, offering her his arm, which she gladly takes.
None of this goes unnoticed by Jeff. He walks over to Annie, trying not to be too amused by everything. “Looks like it’s you and me, kid,” he says, smirking.
Annie wrinkles her nose. “Oh, gross,” she says, teasing him. “Looks like things never change from high school. Once again, I get last pick.”
“Watch it.” Jeff tries to sound gruff as he bumps her shoulder with his, but she’s just too endearing. He thinks he maybe musters the anger of a teddy bear.
“Everyone get ready,” Abed says. They all glance at Pierce’s giant wall clock, starting to count off the last ten seconds.
“Three…two…one! Happy New Year!” Everyone cheers together, then all the respective pairs turn to each other, grinning, and kiss chastely. Britta threads her fingers through Troy’s, pecking him lightly on the lips. When they pull apart, she doesn’t let go, much to Troy’s pleasure.
Jeff bends down, trying not to think about the last time he kissed Annie. Instead, he lets himself think about the first time he kissed her - in front of a large group of people, just like now. This time is different, obviously; it lasts maybe a second, if that. But then he pulls away from her, the words, “Happy December 29th” on his lips…and then Annie steps on her toes and kisses him again, and it’s all too familiar. The last time she was acting like an adult, the last time he let himself put his arms around her, the sounds of a drunken professor getting arrested in the background…This is dangerous territory. He knows that. But then she wraps her arms around his neck and pulls him tight against her, and Jeff couldn’t move even if he wanted to.
He’s never been a big fan of New Year’s itself. The only part he likes is those ten seconds when every set of eyes is glued to the television, counting down and waiting for the giant ball to drop. In those seconds, it seems like an eternity flies by - you relive your past year, remembering the highlights, cringing over the mistakes, grieving the moments that flew by too fast. Those ten seconds seem to last a lifetime. Kissing Annie, Jeff quickly realizes, is exactly like waiting for the ball to drop.
Then she settles back down on her feet, her arms back at her sides, and it’s a new year. Jeff just looks at her, thinking of so many questions he wants to ask. “What was that about?” he asks.
Annie shrugs. “I want to be unpredictable,” she says innocently.
“But - The dress, and the champagne.” Jeff gestures a little wildly at her. “You already filled your unpredictable quota for the day.”
Annie shrugs. “What’s more unpredictable than being unpredictable about being unpredictable?” It’s far from being a well-planned retort or a particularly deep thought, but it makes perfect sense to Jeff. With a shrug, he pulls her back to him, wrapping his arms around her waist and lifting her in the air, kissing her the way he’s wanted to for so long - hard, passionate, no space between them. Just them, the way it should have been at the debate, the way it was at the Tranny Dance.
When he sets her back on her feet, it’s her turn to look confused. “And what was that about?”
“I said I wanted to be happy,” Jeff says, ignoring the shocked expressions of their friends. Annie expects him to go on and elaborate somehow, but he doesn’t; what else needs to be said?
Annie grins, her cheeks flushing pink. “The new year started thirty seconds ago, and we’ve already both achieved our resolutions.” Jeff holds up his hand; Annie promptly high-fives him.
“That,” Jeff says, “is because we’re awesome.”
Annie beams at him. “We are awesome.” With that, he takes her hand, ready to begin the new year together.
Author: office_bluth
Rating/Warnings: I think it's G, actually. This is new for me.
Word Count: 2015
Disclaimer: I do not own Community or its characters, blah blah blah.
Author's Note: This was written for the Auld Lang Slam at milady_milord. Happy New Year, everyone!
“Everyone!” Shirley chirps, her eyes a little glassy from her fifth glass of champagne. “Unfortunately, Britta has to leave soon so she can get some sleep before her flight, so we’re gonna speed up our countdown.”
Jeff snorts into his scotch. This bastardized New Year’s Eve party has become even lamer than Jeff thought it would be - and it was pretty lame right off the bat. First of all, who ever heard of a New Year’s Eve party on December 27th?
But Shirley and Annie had conspired, and figured that the reason the group had gone through such a tumultuous year was because they didn’t begin 2010 together. The plan wasn’t bad at first; they decided to have a New Year’s party. But then no one was available, due to family obligations, long-standing traditions, or prior arrangements. Rather than give up, they simply decided to have the party a little earlier - and the only date that worked was two days after Christmas. On a Monday night.
Jeff’s got to admit, the party’s pretty nice, despite the fact that it’s, you know, not New Year’s. Shirley had goaded Pierce into hosting it, and Pierce has a bar in his basement the size of Jeff’s living room, so - yeah, he’s pretty content.
Actually, once Jeff started drinking, he realized the party isn’t that bad. Troy and Abed designated themselves bartenders/DJs - basically, they change the song every time someone requests a drink. Or maybe they pour a new drink every time someone requests a song. Jeff’s not too clear on their system, but it seems to be working for them.
Even Pierce isn’t being his normal disgusting self. He’s actually a great host - see the thing about his gigantic bar, and his willingness to share even his most expensive bottles of alcohol. When Britta came in with her hair straightened and her skirt a little shorter than normal, Pierce didn’t comment; even Annie’s uncharacteristically strappy dress warranted little more than a welcoming smile and telling her she looked a decade older - except not in a creepy way. Or even in an insulting way. It was incredibly weird.
And then there’s that. Jeff hasn’t been able to look at Annie all night without feeling very, very dirty. It’s just - she doesn’t look like a teenager anymore. At all. He knows her birthday was just a few days ago, so technically, she’s not a teenager anymore. But it seems like she turned twenty and instantly formed into an adult. Jeff has only seen Annie wear high heels a couple times, and it always seemed a bit like a little girl wearing dress-up. But now…something about seeing Annie, with her dark hair pulled into an elegant bun, a light blue dress that showed off all her curves, and those shoes that made it seem like her legs went on for miles…It was all enough to make Jeff completely forget everything he’s been telling himself on and off for the last year whenever he started thinking about getting close to Annie, or taking her on a date.
Shirley’s announcement snaps Jeff out of his thoughts. She makes everyone gather in the center of the living room. “Okay, everyone,” Annie says brightly. “Before we start our countdown to midnight -“
“Ten PM,” Shirley interrupts. “Britta’s gotta get home.” The blonde in question nods appreciatively. She has an early flight tomorrow morning to visit her family in New York; Shirley insisted that she leave the party by eleven, and refused to take no for an answer.
“Before we start our countdown to ten PM,” Annie amends, “we wanted to some traditional New Year’s Eve stuff. Except, you know, there aren’t really a lot of traditions that go with New Year’s except drinking -“
Troy and Abed cheer, then do their weird handshake.
Annie looks perturbed. “Right. Well, there’s drinking and talking about resolutions. And everyone’s done enough drinking for now, so Shirley and I thought we could start the resolutions part now.”
Shirley grins. “And here’s the fun part! Don’t think about it. Just say the first thing that comes to mind. Here, I’ll go first. I want…to find love again.” Her face softens. “Oh, that’s nice.” Then she turns to Britta. “Britta? What’s your resolution?”
“Um…” Britta scrunches up her nose as she thinks.
“No thinking!” Annie says accusatorily, pointing at her.
“Sorry,” Britta says. “Uh - then I guess I want…to fly to Paris.”
Troy nods appreciatively. “Word. I want…to become a man.”
Pierce snorts. “I know a few women who can help you with that for a very low and reasonable fee.”
“And there’s the Pierce we all know,” Jeff mutters. Then he turns to him. “So what’s your resolution, Pierce?”
“To get in touch with my family,” he says simply. “I lost touch with most of them after my divorces. I’d like to get back in touch with some of my ex-wives, or ex-stepkids.”
“Pierce,” Annie says softly. “That’s really sweet.” The older man shrugs, suddenly self-conscious.
“Annie? What’s yours?” Shirley asks.
“I want…to do something unpredictable,” she answers. “Every day. Yeah - one unpredictable thing every day. I’m tired of being so buttoned up and conservative. I’m going to start having more fun.”
“Looks like you’re starting that tonight,” Britta says with a smile, pointing to Annie’s dress. “That’s a lot of leg, Ms. Edison. And didn’t I see you drinking some champagne earlier?”
Annie blushes. “Maybe,” she says. “So there we go - I’m starting early before the new year.”
Abed nods. “Interesting…” he murmurs to himself. “There’s irony in the fact that you’re trying to be more unpredictable, which is, in of itself, a rather predictable storyline for a character like you.”
“And what Abed means,” Jeff says smoothly, “is that his resolution is to stop acting like reality is a television show, and he’s going to stop calling us all characters.”
The group laughs appreciatively at that. Shirley takes the opportunity to sneak herself another champagne flute. “What about you, Jeff?” Annie asks, batting her impossibly long eyelashes at him. “What’s your resolution?”
He meets her eyes for a second, then has to look away. Looking at Annie is just making Jeff think all these things he really shouldn’t be thinking about, let alone imagining. “I want to be happy,” he says, looking somewhere in the vicinity of Abed’s feet. “Believe it or not, I’m not always as awesome as I appear. I usually am, of course, but sometimes there are things I…don’t let myself have. No matter how much I want them.”
He swallows hard. It takes a few moments, but he gathers enough strength to look at Annie; she’s looking sympathetically at him, her eyes wide. But she doesn’t looked shocked, which means that she doesn’t understand what he’s talking about. How could she not know by now that, when Jeff talks about happiness, he means her?
“Well,” Shirley says, gathering everyone’s attention again. “Now that we’ve done that, we can start the countdown. I know it’s a bit tacky, but we wanted this to be as much like a real New Year’s party as possible, so - unless someone’s really against it, would it be okay if we paired up and kissed at midnight?”
“Platonically,” Annie interrupts. “Everything’s friendly. We just want it to be a nice party.”
Everyone glances around uneasily. Jeff jerks his head towards Pierce. “Really?” he mouths to Annie. She bites her lip to keep from laughing.
“But we’re an odd number,” Troy says. “There are four guys and only three girls.”
Pierce shrugs. “Seeing as Jeff has already made his way through two-thirds of the female population, I think he should -“
“What’s that, Pierce?” Shirley asks. “You’re offering to sit out? Oh, that’s so nice of you. Thank you.”
Britta almost spits out her drink. The six remaining people all glance at each other, trying to mentally decide who to choose. Troy takes a surreptitious step over to Britta, taking a long sip of his drink, as if that’ll make him look casual. Shirley raises an eyebrow, looking between Jeff and Abed. Before she can decide, Abed takes one look at Jeff, then glances at Annie; without a word, he steps next to Shirley, offering her his arm, which she gladly takes.
None of this goes unnoticed by Jeff. He walks over to Annie, trying not to be too amused by everything. “Looks like it’s you and me, kid,” he says, smirking.
Annie wrinkles her nose. “Oh, gross,” she says, teasing him. “Looks like things never change from high school. Once again, I get last pick.”
“Watch it.” Jeff tries to sound gruff as he bumps her shoulder with his, but she’s just too endearing. He thinks he maybe musters the anger of a teddy bear.
“Everyone get ready,” Abed says. They all glance at Pierce’s giant wall clock, starting to count off the last ten seconds.
“Three…two…one! Happy New Year!” Everyone cheers together, then all the respective pairs turn to each other, grinning, and kiss chastely. Britta threads her fingers through Troy’s, pecking him lightly on the lips. When they pull apart, she doesn’t let go, much to Troy’s pleasure.
Jeff bends down, trying not to think about the last time he kissed Annie. Instead, he lets himself think about the first time he kissed her - in front of a large group of people, just like now. This time is different, obviously; it lasts maybe a second, if that. But then he pulls away from her, the words, “Happy December 29th” on his lips…and then Annie steps on her toes and kisses him again, and it’s all too familiar. The last time she was acting like an adult, the last time he let himself put his arms around her, the sounds of a drunken professor getting arrested in the background…This is dangerous territory. He knows that. But then she wraps her arms around his neck and pulls him tight against her, and Jeff couldn’t move even if he wanted to.
He’s never been a big fan of New Year’s itself. The only part he likes is those ten seconds when every set of eyes is glued to the television, counting down and waiting for the giant ball to drop. In those seconds, it seems like an eternity flies by - you relive your past year, remembering the highlights, cringing over the mistakes, grieving the moments that flew by too fast. Those ten seconds seem to last a lifetime. Kissing Annie, Jeff quickly realizes, is exactly like waiting for the ball to drop.
Then she settles back down on her feet, her arms back at her sides, and it’s a new year. Jeff just looks at her, thinking of so many questions he wants to ask. “What was that about?” he asks.
Annie shrugs. “I want to be unpredictable,” she says innocently.
“But - The dress, and the champagne.” Jeff gestures a little wildly at her. “You already filled your unpredictable quota for the day.”
Annie shrugs. “What’s more unpredictable than being unpredictable about being unpredictable?” It’s far from being a well-planned retort or a particularly deep thought, but it makes perfect sense to Jeff. With a shrug, he pulls her back to him, wrapping his arms around her waist and lifting her in the air, kissing her the way he’s wanted to for so long - hard, passionate, no space between them. Just them, the way it should have been at the debate, the way it was at the Tranny Dance.
When he sets her back on her feet, it’s her turn to look confused. “And what was that about?”
“I said I wanted to be happy,” Jeff says, ignoring the shocked expressions of their friends. Annie expects him to go on and elaborate somehow, but he doesn’t; what else needs to be said?
Annie grins, her cheeks flushing pink. “The new year started thirty seconds ago, and we’ve already both achieved our resolutions.” Jeff holds up his hand; Annie promptly high-fives him.
“That,” Jeff says, “is because we’re awesome.”
Annie beams at him. “We are awesome.” With that, he takes her hand, ready to begin the new year together.