sugar and spice, friends

xviii. hootie hostility

―

―

Ross stood by the kitchen, on the phone to Julie whilst the rest of the group - minus Monica - were sat around the coffee table.

"Yeah, yeah, everybody's here," He turned to the gang, "Hey, everybody, say hi to Julie in New Mexico."

"Hi, Julie!"

"Hi, Julie." Rachel sarcastically mimicked.

"Tell her to bring me back a snow globe!" Marty told the man as he turned back to his conversation with his girlfriend.

Chandler lowered his voice as he addressed his friends, "Okay, while Ross is on the phone, everybody owes me sixty-two bucks for his birthday."

Marty choked on the cookie that she was eating, "Sixty-two?" She coughed out as Joey patted her back.

Phoebe let out a nervous chuckle, "Um, is, is there any chance that you're rounding up? You know, like from, like twenty?"

"Hey, come on, we got the gift, the concert, and the cake." Chandler listed off.

"Do we need a cake?" Joey asked.

Chandler sighed, "Look guys, I know it's a little steep."

Rachel scoffed, "Yeah, whoosh!" She mimed at steep motion with her hand.

"But it's Ross." Chandler appealed to them.

They all sighed, agreeing.

"It's Ross." Phoebe frowned,

"All right." Joey nodded.

"Ross." Marty muttered.

Chandler nodded, "I'll see you guys later, I gotta go...do a thing." He said, before rushing away, Ross rushing his call to Julie to a halt so that he could catch the man before he left.

Rachel turned to the remaining friends, "So uh, what are you guys doing for dinner tonight?"

"Well I guess I gotta start saving up for Ross's birthday, so I guess I'll just stay home and eat dust bunnies." Joey sighed.

"Can I have a few of yours?" Mart asked the Italian, resting her head on his shoulder as he wrapped an arm around her.

"Can you believe how much this is gonna cost?" Phoebe shook her head.

Rachel cleared her throat, lowering her voice, "Do you guys ever get the feeling that um, Chandler and those guys just don't get that we don't make as much money as they do?"

"Yes!" Joey nodded, "Yeah, it's like they're always saying "let's go here, let's go there". Like we can afford to go here and there."

"Exactly." Marty nodded with a frown.