Roxie Bing | she's the one

(1.1) Pilot

I walked through the warm airport, dragging my large suitcase behind me.
I'd just finished my Masters degree in Photography in London, and after years of being away from the city, I was excited to be back.

The city air hit me as I emerged out of the airports doors and directly ahead I spotted my brother.
He was leaning on a car and grinning widely at me.
"Oh, hello!" He yelled in a fake British accent. "Do you want a cup of tea?"
I rolled my eyes. Any time I'd spoken to my brother Chandler in the years I'd been at a London university, he'd had to make a sarky comment about the British accent.
"I don't even have an accent!" I yelled back as I approached him.
"No, you don't actually. You still sound like little old you." He ruffled my hair and I shoved him lightly before embracing him in a hug.
"I can't believe it's been two years!" He said.
"I know. It's crazy. I'm so happy to be back." I beamed.
"Here. Get in." He opened the passenger car door and ushered me inside while he took my suitcase and lugged it into the trunk.

"So what's new, Rox?" My brother asked me as he drove.
"Not a lot." I shrugged. "I'm a fully qualified photographer now and I'm venturing back to the city, which is cool. I mean, I'm trying to not think about the facts that I have no money, no friends and nowhere to live now I'm back, but that's okay."
"What about boys? Any British hunks on the scene across the water?" Chandler pried.
"Please." I scoffed. "I've never had a boyfriend in my life. I don't have the patience for that kind of commitment and neediness. And guys are intolerable."
"Hey." Chandler snapped, defensively.
"Oh, you don't count."
"Well, that's even worse." My brother muttered and I laughed.

"Anyway, what's new with you?" I asked him.
"Uh... nothing really. Same old dead end, soul-sucking job. And I've told you about my new roommate, haven't I?"
"Joey? Yeah. That's not really new anymore, is it?"
"No. It isn't really." Chandler realised. "I think we may have a new member of our little gang as well, besides you."
"Another new one as well? Who?" I asked.
"Rachel Green. Do you remember her?" Chandler asked me, and I shook my head.
"You must do. My friend Ross' sisters best friend. They went to Lincoln High. Ross was absolutely obsessed with her." Chandler tried to spark my memory.
"Oh! The girl Ross wrote all the songs about? Spoiled one?"
Chandler nodded in clarification. "Yeah. It was the weirdest thing. She showed up at the coffee house that we all hang out in in a wedding dress this morning."
"What?" I laughed in disbelief.
"Yeah, she was looking for Monica, who she hasn't seen in years. She'd left a guy at the alter. I had to rush off quickly to get you, but it was a darn weird morning."
"It sounds it." I continued to laugh.

We drove in silence for a few minutes.
"I can't wait for you to meet the gang. You'll fit right in." My brother smiled at me.
"I hope so." I admitted.
"And Rox? Regarding the 'nowhere to live' situation, I didn't think it needed said that you'd clearly be staying with me. I'll look after you." He smiled at me.
"Thanks, bro."

My brother led me into the apartment that was opposite his.
He smiled ready for his little sister to meet his friends, but we copied everyone else's in the rooms stances and stood still, listening to the girl in the wedding dress ramble on the phone.
"It's like all of my life, everyone has always told me 'you're a shoe'. But what if I don't want to be a shoe? What if I want to be a purse? Or a hat?"
Rachel paused for a second and then stomped her foot as she spoke.
"No, I'm not saying I want you to buy me a hat, I'm saying that I am a hat. It's a metaphor, daddy!"
Everyone watched the conversation eagerly.
"It's my life, daddy. Maybe I'll just stay here with Monica."
Everyone including me stared at Monica who sat awkwardly on a chair in the living area.
"Well, I guess we've established that she's staying here with Monica."
Everyone turned their attention back to Rachel's phone call.
"Well, maybe I don't need your money." She said fiercely, but then quickly followed it up with a frantic, "wait, I said 'maybe'!" before realising she'd been hung up on.