Natalie was nodding off with her head on Joey’s shoulder, he had been giving her a piggyback ride to the Central Perk. She had spent the night at the guys’ apartment again so of course she was leaving with them. She was woken up when they finally reached their location with Joey telling Chandler something about a hundred steps as she started wiping the sleep from her eyes.Â
“Welcome back from the dead,” Chandler pulled her hat off her head, her hair messy underneath as she got off Joey’s back. “Tea.” Was all she said as she made her way to the couch, sitting firmly against Phoebe with her head on the blonde’s shoulder.
“There’s the birthday boy!” Joey jumped onto the couch next to Ross, holding out three tickets to a game that was on tonight when Natalie’s eyes fluttered open, she looked over at her older sister who shook her head. “It’s funny, my birthday was seven months ago.” Ross looked down at the tickets in his hands before looking at his friends, “So?” Joey raised a brow.Â
“So, I’m guessing you two had an extra ticket and you couldn’t decided which one of you got to bring a date,” Ross answered, making Chandler scoff, he was so very wrong about that. “No, Natalie didn’t wanna go,” He shook his head, offended that his friend would ever think that low of him.
Ross shook his head, turning over to Natalie who had fallen asleep with Phoebe now before his eyes went back to the ticket, “Oh my God, is today the 20th? October 20th?” He looked from the tickets to Monica but before she could say something Natalie spoke up, still deep in her slumber, “You’re so funny, Rachel.” She muttered, nuzzling her head into Phoebe’s neck.
Chandler was the first to react while everyone else focused on Ross, “Okay so it’s eleven days from Halloween and all the good costumes are gone but that’s fine, we all know Nat starts stocking up on the 15th of September,” He waved his hand at whatever problem Ross had before looking over at the youngest in the room. “But that has to be more insteresting,”Â
Ross sighed, almost ignoring his friend entirely and his sister, “Today’s the day Carol and I first consumated our psychical relationship,” The momet those words left his mouth, Natalie’s eyes fluttered open as she began sitting up, “Are we sure Ross isn’t a lesbian because what did I just hear?” She reached out and picked up the cup of coffee on the table, taking a sip when Ross spoke up, “That’s my coffee.” She looked over at him for a second before spitting the coffee back out, “My bad.” She put the coffee down before taking her hat back from Chandler.
Ross sighed again, shaking his head, “I think I’m gonna pass on the game,” His words were barely cold when Joey turned to Natalie, “Yes! Now you can come with,” He had a bright smile on his face when Natalie shook her head slowly, trying to let him down gently for the second time today, “I have an assignment due tomorrow, remember?” She raised a brow as his smile faltered before he turned back to Ross, “You’re the only one we want to come with us,” He pushed the tickets back into his friend’s hands.
“I can’t, I think I should just go home and think about my ex wife and her lesbian lover,” Ross sighed again, a sound that was driving Natalie out of her mind. Ross got up and Joey followed, “To hell with hockey, let’s all do that!” He smiled as Natalie picked up Ross’ coffee again, starting to drink from the cup.
“Didn’t you just spit in that?” Monica raised a brow as Natalie shrugs, “Relax, I don’t have chlymadia,” She paused, rethinking what she had just said, “Yeah, no.” She mumbled, “I went to the doctor.” She took another sip of the coffee, this one more confident as Monica shook her head, mumbling to herself, “I know way too much about your sex lives.”
Before Natalie could respond, Rachel ran to the group, giggly as she held up something in her right hand, “Look! Look! got my first paycheck!” She smiled, showing it off to everyone, “Look at the window, that my name,” Her voice was light and airy when she spoke, looking down at the paycheck, “Hi me,” She pressed it to her chest, almost hugging it.
“I remember my first paycheck,” Phoebe, who had woken up with Natalie, said as she sat more comfortably, “There was a cave-in in one of the mines and eight people were killed,”Â
Natalie paused, her eyes still focused on Rachel when Monica spoke, “Wow you worked in a mine?”Â
“No, I worked in a Dairy Queen, why?” There was another beat of silence before Natalie shifted in her seat, now getting up to stand next to Rachel, “How much did you make, rich girl?” She asked, nudging Rachel slightly while she cut open the envelope, her smile still bright.Â
The smile quickly dropped as she looked up at Natalie, “Who’s FICA? And why’d he take all my money?” Rachel handed the paper to Chandler to look at it while Natalie rubbed the woman’s back to ease her stress about her lost money.
The paper went around the group who all made a show of telling her that it wasn’t that bad, “By the way, great service today.” Ross spoke up, taking money from his wallet as everyone else followed his lead while Natalie let Rachel rest her head on her shoulder while the younger of the two tried to console her.Â
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