EVERLASTING. ━ joey tribbiani

⌞ xiv. | ❝are you jelly?❞ ⌝

⌞ xiv. | ❝are you jelly?❞ ⌝

    WINTER HAD FINALLY ARRIVED IN NEW YORK and the city was covered in a velvet blanket of white snow within only a few hours. And while one snowflake after another fell from the night sky and settled down on the window frame of Monica Geller's apartment, a group of friends had gathered around the kitchen table inside the apartment, wrapped up in a conversation as the purple apartment door opened and Ross Geller stuck his head through the narrow gap.

"Guys?" He drew the attention of everyone present to himself. Cassidy Steele curiously raised an eyebrow, wondering what Ross' mystery was all about. "There's a somebody I'd like you to meet." With these words, he stepped through the door, his head a little tilted, and with a monkey on his shoulder who had his puffy tail wrapped around Ross' neck.

Apart from Monica Geller, who obviously didn't share the joy of her friends, everyone gasped out of joyful fright. Cassidy, who didn't even realize that she had risen from her seat at the kitchen table next to Joey, grinned broadly. "Oh, my God!" she squealed and stepped cautiously toward the monkeys. "Ain't you the sweetest creature to ever exist?"

"W—Wait," Monica stepped in, alertedly pointing at the monkey sitting on her brother's shoulder. "What is that?"

"That would be Marcel. You wanna say hi?" Ross introduced his monkey to the group and took a step towards his sister.

But she looked almost panicked as she took a quick step back and refused, "No, no, I don't!"

"Yes, we do. Hi, Marcel!" Cassidy took another step towards the monkey and beamed at the little creature as she waved at him.

Rachel also joined into Cassidy's enthusiasm for the monkey, "Oh,he is precious! Where did you get him?"

"My friend Bethel rescued him from some lab," Ross replied with a smile.

"That is so cruel!" Phoebe exclaimed in horror. "Why? Why would a parent name their child Bethel?"

Cassidy grinned at her friend's comment as Chandler returned from the bathroom and joined the rest of the gang in the kitchen. Of course, he couldn't resist to crack a joke at the sight of Ross and his new pet, "Hey, that monkey's got a Ross on its ass!"

Instead of replying to his joke – or even reacting to it – Cassidy asked with a childlike delight, "Can I hold him? Pretty pretty please?"

Ross grinned about his friend's behavior, but then nodded and replied, "Okay, but remember, he's still a wild animal so be—"

"Blah blah—C'mere, sweetie," she cut him off and stretched her right arm out towards the monkey, who first sniffed her hand in a curious manner, before he climbed from there onto her shoulder and nestled his small figure to her neck. Cassidy beamed with happiness as she caressed Marcel and praised, "Yes, good boy."