━━ 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑!
❪ sleep issues and taylor swift ❫

⋆      "𝗕𝗘𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗪𝗘 𝗪𝗥𝗔𝗣 up, I'd like to thank you guys for filling out these volunteer evaluation cards. I found your feedback to be largely constructive and flattering. So graçias on that," Señor Chang said as he held a pack of cards. Brooke placed his hand underneath his chin as he leaned forward in his chair, making an L shape of his arms. He had recovered from the past couple of days, catching up on his sleep and finding the centre of his explosive, emotive nature. He was a lot calmer ━ he was less stressed, in other words.

"De ñada" Abed said as he raised his pencil towards Señor Chang.

"You don't have to sign your name anymore."

"Got it."

"But there was one evaluation that was so harsh, hurtful, and racist that I took the time personally to analyse that handwriting against past exams. And this particular coward..." Señor Chang said as he approached Annie's desk. "dots her eyes with tiny, itty━bitty, little circles. Poop. Poop. Ain't that precious and cute?" He said as he leaned into Annie's forehead, pressed face to face, and Brooke raised his eyebrow.

"What is... Going on?" Brooke whispered as Señor Chang kissed Annie's forehead. Annie was flustered, her eyelashes fluttering. Brooke looked over to the side, meeting Shirley's eyes, and silently communicating with her, showing that he was stunned at this ━ especially coming from Annie, out of all people.

"Who's erratic and unstable now, Princess Gringa?"

The bell rang before Annie could respond, and the class started to pack up quickly to get out of the classroom before more awkwardness began again. Brooke reached into his bag and put away his books, watching Jeff and Britta leave the classroom. He continued to pack up, not worried (not in the slightest way, he thinks) and headed towards the door, seeing the two already ahead in the hallways. Brooke held on to his backpack's strap, watching the students walk past him.

"Having a Breakfast Club moment?" Abed said as he came up from behind Brooke, and he chuckled as he nodded before walking with Abed, who Troy also joined. The three of them walk down, sharing a comfortable silence, with Brooke exchanging conversations about movies with Abed, the latest film he had seen, and baseball games with Troy.

"Okay, Brooke, I got to be honest, I didn't expect you to be a sports lover," Troy said as he chuckled, walking backwards to face Brooke ━ ignoring that he nearly bumped into a water fountain. Brooke smirked slightly, placing their hands in his pocket as he looked away shyly.

"If it weren't for the music route, I would have gone for a baseball career, disregarding what my father wanted me to do, which was accounting. ━ I would have been a really good player," Brooke said, and Troy's eyes lit up with excitement.

"Wait, for real? Oh, man, I would love to hear about it. Did you play in high school? What position did you play?" Troy said as he spoke fast, with Brooke nodding and keeping up with his words, loving the budding friendship with Troy. He was willing to mentor him, as he reminded Brooke of who he was in high school. Brooke looked over to Abed, and he could tell by the facial expression that he wasn't sure what he was saying, so Brooke thought for a moment, a way to explain it easier for him.

"You know, in Space Jam, where Michael Jordan wanted to try out a new career because he wanted to explore things. That's like me, except I'm not Michael Jordan, and it's baseball and music instead of basketball and golf. But in the distance, there's the looming voice of my father, saying that I would do so much better at accounting ━ he's like the aliens from Space Jam and... I suppose I am Michael Jordan."

"That makes perfect sense now; I understand the metaphor."

"I also... Understand the metaphor?" Troy said, emphasising the question at the end of his statement, and all Brooke could do was give a little chuckle.

"He's Michael Jordan, but not really Michael Jordan," Abed said, and Troy gave a soft exclaim, nodding his head. Brooke agreed; even if it didn't make sense to him, it still made Troy understand, and that was all he wanted.

"See you guys at lunch!" Troy said as he waved goodbye to Brooke and Abed, and they did the same as they all separated their ways when they reached the end of the hallway, each going in a different direction. Brooke groaned as he headed towards his Calculus class, not considering numbers; they were too complicated anyway.

━━━━━━

⋆        𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗢𝗞𝗘 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗦𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧𝗟𝗬 late to meet up with the study group at lunch, with his quick paces, not wanting to miss a second. Music Theory held him back, suggesting he do some composition for an assignment, which Brooke was happy to do. After all, music was his passion, not some stupid subject that involved many calculations and tiring work. It allowed him to explore his music and expand on a chance to perform at Greendale. A chance for him to shine in the spotlight after so many years of shying away from the centre of the stage.

Brooke panted as he finally reached the table, looking at the different spots they were in. Britta was talking with some guy, and it seemed they were both hitting it off. Jeff arrived at the table at the same time as Brooke, which gave Brooke a little bit of ease, although he did notice that he was bothered by something, and Brooke had an inkling feeling of what it was. Shirley and Troy were at the table, watching Pierce open up a package, where Brooke stood behind Troy to see what he was up to. Abed was nowhere to be found, and Annie was off talking to Professor Duncan about something.

"I wonder what this express package could be. Somebody had to get something to me very fast," Pierce said as he started to tear open the package, trying to rip the cardboard open.

"I think that's what the definition of 'express' is," Brooke said as he gave a soft chuckle, slightly making a fool out of Pierce, and it got a bit of a smile out of Jeff and Shirley.

"Oh, 'express' blah baloney! It's okay, Bruce, it's just my Ear━Noculars."

"My name is not━"

"What is that? It looks like your Bluetooth thingy," Troy interrupted Brooke as he gestured to Pierce's ears, which seemed to have some earplugs in, one can only assume to be headphones.

"No, no, no. This is my cell phone headset, and this is Ear━Noculars. It's for spies and what━not. Gives you sonic hearing," Pierce said as he put on what seemed to be a mini version of a satellite dish. Brooke exhaled, rubbing his eyes at the pained thought of Pierce's common sense (that was nowhere to be found at this point).

"All hearing is sonic," Abed said as he entered the conversation with a drink in hand.

"What's that?"

"So, who wants to be in a psych experiment?"

"Hey, guys. Guys, Annie is talking about some experiment!" Pierce said as he perked up, thinking that his stupid Ear━Noculars picked up something from the far distance of Greendale. Brooke moved aside for him to notice Annie standing behind him, but even then, he wasn't aware.

"She's behind Brooke, and no, not interested," Jeff said as he looked over to Annie, who pouted and pleaded softly as she moved to stand beside Brooke.

"Do they do stuff to your butt?"

"No..."

"Do you get paid more if they do stuff to your butt?"

"I hope that it doesn't come to that, Troy," Brooke said as his eyes widened at the thought. "Why are you so... Fansitnated about butts?" Brooke questioned but shook his head, regretting even asking such a thing of Troy.

"Well, it's fine; I'll do it. I'm in."

"Yay! How about you, Abed? It's tomorrow."

"Oof. Tomorrow, they're showing all four Indiana Joneses at The Vista. I'm looking forward to the first three. I brought a whip," Abed said as he sipped his drink, and Annie tilted her head to the side, tilting her eyebrows upwards.

"This is important to me, Abed. Could you please go as my friend? My really good friend?" Annie said as he placed her hands together, begging slightly as her eyes started to tear up. Annie's motives were slightly working on Brooke as his shoulders slumped before shaking his head out of Annie's trance. On the other hand, Abed was listening and thinking about his words.

"Well, I didn't realise we were really good friends. I figured we were more like Chandler and Phoebe. They never really had stories together. Sure, I'll do it, Chandler," Abed said, which made Annie happy as she bounced on the spot, her hair falling off her shoulder, before looking over to Brooke, deep into his eyes.

"There's one more spot available."

"Anything is better than mathletics, so of course, I'll help out," Brooke said as he smiled, and Annie reached out to hug him, which Brooke gladly took, wrapping his arms around her before letting her go.

"Oh. I'm going to go save Britta from that dude," Jeff said as he placed his hands on the table, lifted himself and headed towards the line where the blonde stranger and Britta were conversing. Brooke noticed that Britta was more giddy than usual, and Brooke smiled, knowing there was something in the air between the two. He was unsure, though, how Jeff seemed too invested in Britta's interest in the stranger more than the others in the study group, and he wondered what his true intentions were.

"Yeah, she looks like she's in trouble. Hope he doesn't try to handsome her to death, haha!" Shirley said as she leaned forward, giggling to herself. Brooke couldn't help but smile as he crossed his arms, also leaning on the table.

"Oh! Brooke, you have to be at the experiment on time! Make sure you aren't late," Annie said, and Brooke quickly took Shirley's pen and wrote the time on his hand. He gave the pen back, politely thanking her.

"It's alright, sweetie! You're a kind kid; you're allowed my pens anytime," Shirley said as she patted Brooke's hand before lifting herself from the table, handbag on her shoulder, with the bell ringing, ideally on time for her departure to classes. The rest of the study group also took their leave, with Brooke taking one last look back at the table before accidentally bumping into Jeff.

"Oh! I'm sorry. Are you alright?" Brooke said as the pair walked in the same direction. Jeff sighed as he bumped shoulders with Brooke again, showing he was okay with such contact. Brooke smiled as he adjusted his glasses and tilted his head to hear why Jeff seemed bothered.

"Yeah, you know that guy? Vaughn? He plays hacky sack in this century."

"I forgot that was a thing that existed. I did forget most of my childhood due to my father," Brooke said with an awkward chuckle, avoiding eye contact as he didn't want any questions, but Jeff was good about that. He didn't start awkward conversations about childhood issues because they didn't need to be discussed.

"We're in the same boat, bud. Man, we have a couple of issues for Wilhelm to be raised with."

"Carlos."

"Wilhelm!"

━━━━━━

⋆        𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗢𝗞𝗘 𝗠𝗔𝗗𝗘 𝗜𝗧 on time for Annie's experiment, sitting beside Abed. He checked his watch, ensuring he didn't show up late or early, but seeing the other people partaking in the experiment took the tense edge off of him for a while. Brooke leaned back in his chair, placing his bag on his lap before drumming his fingers to the beat in his head. Before Brooke could question Abed, Annie walked into the waiting room holding a clipboard with a smile.

"Hi, everyone! Hi, Troy and Abed. Glad to see you here, too, Brooke! And... Hi, Señor Chang?" Annie said as she gave a confused look, tilting her head towards Señor Chang. Brooke was also not expecting to see him here as he readjusted his sitting position, uncomfortable chairs.

"What, a community college Spanish teacher can't use 80 bucks?"

"Well, we're just running a bit behind, so we'll probably start in five minutes━" Annie started to speak, but an explosive burst of anger from Señor Chang made Brooke snap his head towards him, the sudden noise scaring him slightly.

"No, no, no! No, no, no! Unacceptable! When you say something starts at nine, it starts at nueve!" Señor Chang said as he started to stomp his feet, frantically shaking his hands before putting them in a ball of fists to his sides. Annie stood there, eyes wide open in shock, not knowing what to do or how to react. Brooke was the same, trying so hard not to burst out laughing (after all, he grades his papers, and Brooke did not want to get on Señor Chang's wrong side).

Brooke watched Señor Chang storm out of the room; his crying was still heard down the hallways. Brooke then looked over to Annie, who was still standing in the waiting room, eyes wide. She awkwardly cleared her throat as she backed up slowly before retreating into the room that she was previously in. Brooke looked over to the now empty seat, and he sighed, not knowing what this experiment would contain, so instead of waiting around, Brooke started to drum his fingers again.

"This isn't so bad..." Brooke whispered to himself.

THREE HOURS LATER . . .

Brooke can feel his thoughts in his head. They swarm around, attacking him every chance they can, and Brooke can't do anything about it. After all, he is confined to this chair in this stupid waiting room for this supposed experiment that hasn't even started yet. Brooke sighed heavily; he had already been through three different artists' discography in his head, and he was on the fourth one, tired of thinking of music. Music was supposed to calm him down; instead, they are the reason he is getting impatient. God, he was not going to last waiting around any longer.

He looked around, seeing that other people had bailed out of this experiment, and he was honestly reaching his breaking point ━ ; he couldn't blame them. Brooke was this close to walking out of the door and having a mental breakdown on the other side. Troy was rocking back and forward in his chair, sweat going down his forehead, becoming more agitated, while Abed was staring into space, still sitting in the same position when he arrived in the waiting room. Brooke was watching the clock tick away ━ god he was so close to tearing that clock off the wall, the ticking becoming louder each minute. Brooke's bag sat next to him as Brooke's body stretched out on the chair, slowly sinking to the ground, but he was still holding out the chair. Brooke can't say the same for Troy.

"No, no, no! Annie. Why━ What is going on in there? I wasted all day here for you. The Soul Train Awards were tonight. You promised━" Troy said as he collapsed onto his knees, sobbing as he could not finish his sentence. He started to crawl out on his knees out of the door, still sobbing as the door closed behind him. Brooke and Abed watched him before returning to where they had been.

"And... There were two," Brooke whispered to himself, not realising that he looked frazzled. His head was messed up, his glasses were crooked, and his eyes were bloodshot red from staring at the clock for an extended period. He was... Holding it out slightly.

NINE HOURS LATER . . .

Brooke could taste his thoughts, and he had been through Taylor Swift's discography twice. He didn't even know he knew her songs; they were just stored in a section of his brain that he unlocked during the waiting period for the experiment. When this experiment was done, he planned to go on a Taylor detox, but right now? She's the only thing that is keeping Brooke sane. Brooke was pretty sure he was losing it in this room. After all, were his thoughts even helping him? Was this experiment just some sort of trap for him to be locked up in a room? Was Taylor Swift his mortal enemy now? Yeah, Brooke would not last another minute in this room; the ticking had made his last patience burst.

"No, no, you know what? This, this stupid clock can stop ticking because I had enough!" Brooke said as he stood up, dragging his chair towards the clock, positioning himself underneath to snatch it off the wall. On the other side of the wall, where Annie and the other students were watching, all they could see was a mental Brooke with no sense of awareness anymore. Due to Brooke's height being a disadvantage, he tried hopping to reach the clock, only for him to fall onto the ground with a thud.

"Brooke, are you okay?" Abed said as he tilted his head towards Brooke, who got up quickly, which was a bad idea as he tripped again because his shoulder was trapped underneath the chair. Brooke slapped the chair, thinking it was the chair's fault, his mind not mental anymore, before wincing as he held his shoulder.

"This... This chair is the death of me," Brooke said as he couldn't help but laugh before tears piled up in his eyes. "I am losing it, aren't I? This is just brilliant!" Brooke whispered loudly, unable to keep a straight face before throwing the chair at the clock, hearing a loud shatter from the clock. For final measures, Brooke stood on it before picking up his bag and went straight to the door; nothing else he needed to add. Abed looked at the door before Brooke slammed it, and a scream was heard on the other side.

"He's taking it well."

━━━━━━

⋆        𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗢𝗞𝗘 𝗪𝗔𝗟𝗞𝗘𝗗 𝗗𝗢𝗪𝗡 the hallways, his hair a mess, and his glasses placed on his head. His eye bags were something of a story, and his bloodshot eyes were proof of a man who had not had his well━deserved nap. So, Brooke planned to devour cups of coffee and then knock himself out to sleep well in his car with his already fucked up back position from sitting in the waiting room. His shoulder was starting to be a pain, but the adrenaline rush was enough to smooth it down for a while.

As he entered the cafeteria, he went straight to the front of the counter. Their look at Brooke was enough for the worker to understand that he needed coffee. Brooke smiled, using all his strength to ensure he had a little kindness in his day. As the worker gave Brooke his coffee, he quietly gave his thanks and headed in a random direction ━ which ultimately ended up being Jeff's table, where Shirley and a stranger were. It wasn't long before Brooke approached their table, only for the stranger to have no shirt.

"Hello━ Why... Why are you shirtless?" Brooke said as he stared at the stranger's torso, trying not to glance at his strange nipples. Shirley stood behind him, trying not to giggle as she placed a hand over her mouth. Jeff, on the other hand, was covering his eyes, and Brooke had no idea what was happening. Being locked in a room does that to a person, he supposes.

"The name's Vaughn; it's a pleasure to meet you. Can I say I love this visual art interpretation you are going for? You have the true vision of someone going through a crisis. Can I ask what inspired you to do this art piece?"

"Desperation and four hours of sleep. Still, that does not... Answer my question of why you are still... Shirtless," Brooke said, but Vaughn still didn't answer the question as he smiled, nodding before standing next to Shirley.

"All right. I'm going to check on Brits," Vaughn said before leaving, and Brooke watched him walk away, blinking slowly, unsure what to say.

"You look like you had one hell of a night," Jeff said, with Shirley reacting as she placed a hand on her chest. Brooke took Britta's seat and collapsed onto the table, his head making an impact. Shirley exclaimed as she touched the back of Brooke's head while Jeff touched his elbow.

"You have a pulse, right? Please, I'm not ready to be a single father; you're too young to die," Jeff said, nervously chuckling as he poked his forearm. Shirley, who stood behind Brooke rubbing his back, raised her eyebrow. Brooke groaned softly as he lifted his head, his glasses falling onto the table with a clatter. "Welcome back to the living, Brooky; you know where you are? You scared me half to death."

"I'm never doing another experiment or even waiting for one."

"Here, Brooke, I'll get another coffee for you, dear," Shirley said as she hurried over to the cafeteria, joining the line. Brooke rested his head on the table, his eyes tilting to Jeff, who cocked his head to the side. Brooke sat up a little, rolling his shoulder to relieve the discomfort. That caught the eye of Jeff, who furrowed his eyebrow inwards.

"I may have been... Very angry at a clock and fell over a chair... Twice," Brooke whispered and watched Jeff's eyes light up in amusement, his lips turning into a smirk, holding back a chuckle. Brooke couldn't help but do the same, and the pair started to giggle, neither of them able to help it. Shirley returned, holding a cup of coffee and placing it before Brooke, watching him cry.

"You two are interesting," Shirley said, smiling before sitting next to Brooke, who shuffled over to the side for her. Brooke took a sip of Shirley's coffee, and he smiled, thanking her, and she responded with a warm smile.

━━━━━━

⋆        𝗔𝗕𝗘𝗗, 𝗧𝗥𝗢𝗬 𝗔𝗡𝗗 Brooke sat in the study room, each doing their own thing. Abed was inspecting his whip from the Indiana Jones films from The Vista, wrapping it around his hand. Troy rolled around a ball on the table, watching the repetitive movement as he was stuck in a pattern. Brooke placed his legs on the table, reading a book he had taken from the library. It was the next day, and Brooke was very rested; he could feel the energy back in his body after the experiment. Brooke could hear footsteps behind him, and he looked up from his book, seeing Annie holding her bag, but she seemed frustrated.

"Hey, sorry about bailing on the psych experiment," Troy said, feeling guilty as he looked up from the ball, making eye contact with Annie. Brooke did the same, placing his book on his lap before sitting up, probably in his seat.

"I'm also sorry about the clock; I didn't mean to throw the chair. I think I lost it then," Brooke chuckled as he scratched his head, remembering the frazzled hair and his shoulder impacting the ground. He reached up to his shoulder ━ it was feeling a bit better than the day before, but there were still some cracks when he stretched his arms. "Anyways, I didn't mean to leave earlier either."

"That was the experiment. We were testing to see how long people would wait in the room," Annie said as she turned around, frustrated as she explained the situation. Troy's eyes widened in shock while Brooke blinked slowly, trying to comprehend what Annie had said.

"Oh. Gotcha."

"Gotcha? That's all you have to say?" Annie said as she placed her bag on the table, and Brooke noticed the eyebags underneath her eyes. now, he wondered how long Abed had been waiting in that room, but he was curious to find out (even if he was still shocked that he was in the experiment the entire time). "You sat in a room for 26 straight hours. Didn't that bother you?"

"Yeah, I was livid."

"Then why didn't you leave?" Annie yelled out angrily, and Abed blinked before tilting his head to Annie.

"Because you asked me to stay, and you said we were friends," Abed said, and Annie's face fell; Brooke couldn't tell whether she was surprised or saddened. Brooke's heart panged, realising how much Abed cared about people, even if it was a strange way to show it. He waited 26 hours because Annie told him to, while everyone bailed because their patience levels were low. Annie sat, unsure of what else to say because she was speechless. Abed returned to inspecting his whip, and Brooke slowly opened his book, not wanting to make things awkward, before hearing Jeff and Shirley walk into the study room.

"He's more like a puppy with a fish mouth."

"Right, right, right. It's more like this━"

"That's right. Laugh it up," Pierce said, following the pair into the study room. Both turned around, confused about what he was talking about. Jeff went to stand next to Brooke, taking his seat as Pierce made his way around the table, having a smug face. "Wanna know what they're doing? Making fun of all of us. I heard you with my Ear━Noculars," Pierce said as he pointed towards his ears, and Brooke face━palmed, still surprised that he was wearing the gadget for a couple of days. Jeff also had the same facial expression, not wanting to dive more into the topic of Pierce's gadgets.

"Pierce, we're not making fun of you."

"Calling me Hacky Sack and ripping my━ my six━pack abs and my moist hair. And that face you made: That was pretty obviously Annie," Pierce said as he pointed to Shirley, who looked over to Annie, who was making the same face that Shirley made when she entered the room. Brooke looked over to Jeff, who shrugged his shoulders, unsure about the interaction.

"Okay, this is definitely still part of the experiment."

"Pierce, we were not making fun of you. We're making fun of Britta's boyfriend, Vaughn."

"The shirtless guy? Really?" Brooke said with a surprised look, remembering the interaction yesterday. Shirley nodded, confirming.

"Oh, good. Well, in that case, if we're going to do something, let's do it as a team. I'll get the ball rolling. Maybe he has a tiny penis?" Pierce said as he took a seat from accusing Jeff and Shirley, who also sat at the table. Brooke moved his bag out of the way so Jeff could place his stuff.

"You all have to see him. Everything's 'no worries'; always say hello three times in a row, 'Hello, good evening, how are you?' And look, he wrote a poem!" Shirley said as she took a paper out of her bag, and Brooke suddenly had bad deja vu feelings as Pierce took the paper to read, but he didn't know what would happen.

As if it was on cue ━ a horrible cue ━ Britta and her boyfriend, Vaughn, walked into the study room, talking to each other. Vaughn waved to the study group, and Brooke responded with an awkward wave, smiling as he quickly avoided eye contact, not wanting to create more problems. He looked over to Jeff, who crossed his arms and made eye contact with Brooke, hiding a smirk.

"Hey, what's up? Hi," Vaughn said as he looked around, and some of the study group members started to laugh, catching on to what Shirley had said about Vaughn earlier. "This group's got a case of the giggles, huh? Huh. Wait, is that? Did you give them my poem? Why's the dinosaur rocking a picture of my poem?" Vaughn said as he noticed the paper in front of Pierce. Britta stuttered as she also noticed, and Brooke sunk in his seat, becoming the fly on the wall of the conversation. "You guys are━ You guys laughing at me, aren't you? That's, uh, wow. This is the least tight thing that ever happened to me," Vaughn said before looking to Britta and walking out of the study room.

"Oh, no, I'm not a part of this; I hate confrontation; I was never here," Brooke quickly said as he crawled underneath the table, avoiding Britta's eye contact.

"I can't believe you!" Britta said as she stormed out of the room, following behind Vaughn. Brooke, however, didn't see her leave the study room, as he was now underneath the table. Jeff extended his leg, hitting Brooke softly, while Annie looked underneath, letting him know that Britta was no longer in the room.

"This is how I process feelings. I'm teaching Carlos bad things."

"He's crying... Now, he's barking."

━━━━━━

⋆        "𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗢𝗞𝗘, 𝗜 𝗡𝗘𝗘𝗗 some advice, and you're the right person to go to," Jeff said as he opened the door to the music room, where Brooke was currently tuning a guitar. He looked up, saw him walk into the room and kicked out a chair for Jeff to sit. Jeff slowly took a seat, looking around in the music room, and Brooke gave a small smile, pushing his glasses up to the bridge of his nose. His fingers strummed the strings, hearing an adequately━tuned guitar, and Jeff straightened his back, watching Brooke place the guitar on his lap.

"What's up? Did the gossip train catch up to you?"

"Ah, no, Shirley and I compromised, and now there is no more gossip. I just wanted to be a part of the girls and to talk about Vaughn, out of all people," Jeff said. Brooke bit his lip, holding back a laugh, but Jeff turned in his seat, placing his hands in front of him. "See, I don't know how to talk to Britta without being a douchebag."

"Ooh, does Jeffery Winger have a crush on a certain Britta?" Brooke said as he nudged his shoulder towards Jeff, who turned around; his ears flushed red, but he wasn't embarrassed by Brooke's actions. Brooke chuckled as he placed the guitar back on the stand next to him and turned around, facing Jeff fully.

"I came here for advice, not for mockery," Jeff said, crossing his arms across his chest, and Brooke sighed happily before leaning forward, placing his arms on his knees. He placed his hand underneath his chin, looking up at Jeff.

"Well, talk to Britta, like how we talk. I think what she wants is the genuine Jeff Winger, and you are best when you don't overthink the next sentence," Brooke said as he explained, and Jeff nodded slowly, taking it in. "That's why I like talking to you."

"That's reassuring to hear that I have at least someone in this hellhole," Jeff joked, and Brooke smiled, grabbing his guitar so that his hand could have something to fiddle with ━ seeing as suddenly, he couldn't look at Jeff in the eyes in a positive way. "So, what you're saying is just be me?"

"Jeff, you think you are an asshole, a charismatic one, but that's what you think. What I think, and what Britta wants to think as well, is that you care. Deep down, your rotten core is a big soft heart that you hide away," Brooke said as he strummed the strings again, playing a familiar tune, but he couldn't quite place it. Jeff tilted his head to the side, trying to place the words out, but nothing came to mind. Brooke stopped playing, seeing that Jeff was still watching him.

"What song is that?" Jeff questioned, and Brooke looked back at the strings, seeing his fingers positioned on the guitar. "Isn't that━"

"Don't even. I'm supposed to be on a Taylor Swift detox. It's a habit; I didn't mean to play Love Story, and now I can't even play a guitar song without thinking of the trauma I've experienced during the experiment," Brooke stammered as he placed the guitar back on the stand, not wanting to even think about it. Jeff couldn't help but burst out in laughter, his hand covering his mouth.

"I'm sorry, a Taylor Swift detox? What did she do to you?"

"It's what she didn't do to me."

"Well, regardless, I'm glad you gave me advice. Now, I'll see if I use it or not," Jeff said as he got up from the chair, Brooke doing the same. Jeff walked towards the door before stopping to turn around at the door's entrance. "You're also really good at guitar, even if it's Taylor Swift."

"Thank you. Maybe I'll play some songs for our son, Carlos."

"Wilhelm, you mean Wilhelm."

"Hm, no, pretty sure I mean Carlos," Brooke said, hiding a smile behind his words as he crossed his arms. The curls bounced off his forehead, his hair not as frazzled as it was when Jeff had seen him last time, and his glasses showed a tint of light in his eyes. Jeff tapped the doorway before giving one more final smile as he headed for a conversation with Britta.

"Glad I could help," Brooke said to himself, whispering the last word.

𝐓𝐀𝐋 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐒!
✶ brooke and jeff being a swiftie? canon, so real of them <3 i also love this chapter as it really shows the different interactions that brooke has with other people, such as troy, abed and shirley, and i think that he's just neat! anyways, this was just a chance for me to spread the swiftie! jeff agenda across the globe because i'm right

𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗞𝗦 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚!