Jeff looked around. “So this is the…?”
“Dreamatorium. Yes.” Abed replied quickly. Jeff focussed his attention on the other. The room seemed to dwarf them both.
“So…”
“This used to be Troy’s room, but since he’s sleeping with Annie now it seemed redundant for them both to have rooms. Now Troy sleeps in Annie’s room, and I got to restore my Dreamatorium.”
“Ah.” Jeff wasn’t quite sure how to respond to it all. Abed was looking at him expectantly. Not wanting to disappoint his boyfriend, Jeff pretended to be invested in their surroundings. “So what are we doing?”
“I’ll activate a program,” Abed told him. It was hard to tell if Abed was happy or not, so Jeff nodded. “Where do you want to go?”
“Um…” He stepped towards Abed, making sure not to step on any of the yellow lines of tape. “What are the options?”
Abed tilted his head and opened his mouth, then changed his mind. “I’ll run the restaurant scenario.” He walked over to the side of the room and pressed on a cardboard computer screen. “Activate Restaurant Scenario.”
“Creative name,” Jeff said, and instantly felt bad. But at that moment it was either make fun of the name or get completely weirded out by the whole experience. Of course, he’d had to get used to a lot of weirdness attending Greendale, and even more dating Abed.
Luckily Abed just glazed over it.
“It’s not supposed to be creative. If the name is overly complicated it makes the system files harder to find. I find simplicity best.”
“Oh.”
Abed pointed to something. “Sit.”
Jeff looked at the empty spot. “A-h.”
Abed blinked and walked over to the ‘chair’ opposite Jeff’s and mimed taking it.
“Ah.” Jeff said again, looking doubtfully at his chair. He’d done weirder, he reminded himself, and copied Abed’s movement. No moment especially came to mind, but he was pretty sure there were ones.
Abed let his arm rest on an imaginary table.
“Maybe we should sit on the floor?” Jeff offered.
“That’s not part of the simulation.”
“Right.”
Abed’s brow furrowed slightly. “If you want to change the scenario-”
“No it’s fine.” Jeff quickly interjected.
“Cool. Cool, cool, cool.” Abed said distractedly, focussed on the ‘table’.
There was a silence.
“So what happens next?”
“We could order.” Abed suggested, looking up.
“Right. And how do we…?”
Abed jumped up suddenly, and his posture changed. “May I take your order?”
“Uh…”
Abed quickly switched back to Abed. “I’ll have a burger.” He looked at Jeff.
“Just a… salad.”
Instead of focussing on the awkwardness and general embarrassment of the situation, he focussed on Abed. He tried not to think about the beauty of his lover, because that wasn’t cool. He still couldn’t help himself noticing the cute way that Abed’s brow twitched slightly. On impulse Jeff reached over and took one of Abed’s hands (making sure not to pass through the table so that Abed’s illusion remained).
