OH! DARLING | joey tribbiani

fifty two

Two weeks later, Tom had fully moved in with Chandler. And if Quinn's luck over the friend group couldn't get better, he brought with him a foosball table and three Barcaloungers that his two roommates over in Austin left him when they moved in with their girlfriends.

That's how Tom, Chandler, Joey and Quinn found themselves spending their Thursday evening in the boys' apartment, watching the Yankees and the Mets play the Subway Series on television, each with a beer in hand. Quinn was, as always, sitting on Joey's lap and with his free hand, Joey unconsciously drew circles on the skin of her thigh that was exposed to him thanks to her denim shorts. The chick and the duck were also there, Little Yasmine perched on Tom's knee as he petted her. He liked the two birds, it reminded him of the chickens his grandma had in her backyard. Whenever he and his sister would stay the night at their grandparents' house, he would always accompany his grandma to go feed the birds right before breakfast.

"So how long have you two been together?" Tom asked the couple during a commercial break.

"A little over a year," Quinn answered, the corners of her lips pulling up in a smile.

"Yeah but there was this period of 'will they, won't they' that lasted like four months before they actually got together," Chandler told his roommate.

"In my defence, I had just gotten out of a big relationship and needed some time to sort things out in my head," Quinn pointed her finger at Chandler.

"We're together now, that's all that matters," Joey said, wrapping his arms around his girlfriend to hug her and bring her closer to him so he could pepper gentle kisses on her neck.

"Y'all are disgustingly cute," Tom chuckled.

"Yeah, you better get used to it," Chandler sighed out before taking a sip of his beer.

"So, are there any other couples in the gang that I should know about?" Their new friend asked.

"No, just Joey and me," Quinn answered, the fingers of her unoccupied hand threading soothingly in Joey's hair.

"But you should know Ross and Rachel dated for a year and broke up a couple months ago," Joey informed him.

"Oh, so that's why they can't stand to be breathing the same air," Tom realised.

"Well, not just because of that," Chandler remarked.

"Let me tell him," Quinn told the guys and turned a little to face Tom as she started her explanation, "they got into a fight on their anniversary because Ross was jealous that Rachel got a new job and couldn't spend as much time with him as before. They took a break and three hours later Ross was sleeping with another girl. He hid it from Rachel because she called the morning after to get back together and she found out about it from Gunther the guy at the coffee house."

"Yikes," Tom commented.

"Yeah and so they fought for hours about it while we were all stuck in Monica's bedroom so we heard everything, and after that it was actual fucking hell to be in the same room with those two because Ross doesn't think he did anything wrong. Then three weeks ago we were at this beach house in Montauk and I don't really know what happened but they got back together for like two days and then the same argument broke out and now here we are," Quinn finished.

"Damn, that's a lot," Tom breathed out.

"Plus there's this whole history between them that goes all the way back to the ninth grade," Joey added. "I've never seen a relationship more complicated than theirs."

Tom chuckled. "Yeah, don't wanna get tangled into that at all," he said and took a sip of beer.

"Well, don't let Ross' machoness stop you if you ever wanna do something with Rachel," Quinn told him. "He needs to be put in his place from time to time and reminded that he doesn't own Rachel, she's her own person who can date whoever she damn wants to."