Roxie Bing | she's the one

(1.7) The One With The Blackout

"Everybody! Central Perk is proud to present the music of Miss Phoebe Buffay." Rachel spike through the microphone in the crowded coffee shop ready for Phoebe to perform.
"Thanks." Phoebe smiled as she held her guitar. "I want to start with a song that's about that moment when you realise what life is really all about."
Phoebe played the first chord on her guitar and the whole coffee shop became pitch black.
"Okay. Thank you very much." Phoebe finished before even starting.

"This is so cool, you guys. The entire city is blacked out." Rachel was staring dreamily out of the apartment window.
Joey came in shielding the Hanukkah candle he had lit and placed it down.
"And officiating at tonight's blackout is Rabbi Tribbiani." Ross joked.
"Well, Chandler's old roommate was Jewish and these are the only candles we have. So happy Hanukkah everyone." Joey smiled.

"Hello." I picked up the phone when it rang.
"Hey, it's me." I heard my brother say in a rushed voice.
"It's Chandler!" I announced to everyone before going back to the conversation. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." He said, just as rushed as the previous time.
Chandler then started saying something in a mumble that was complete indecipherable.
"I have no idea what you just said."
"Put Joey on the phone." He snapped.
I handed Joey the phone and it was only a few seconds before Joey exclaimed, "oh my God! He's trapped in an ATM vestibule with Jill Goodacre!"
Joey then proceeded to mumble something inaudible back but apparently Chandler had understood. I rolled my eyes.

Joey hung up the phone still excitable about where Chandler was.
"I'm impressed." I told him.
"With what?"
"Your ability to decipher what Chandler was saying."
Joey shrugged and smiled.
"I mean, it would only be you who'd be able to decipher a completely indecipherable sentence when it came to something about a hot girl."
Joey rolled his eyes.

"Okay, I'll go, I'll go." Monica caved. "Senior year of college on a pool table."
Everyone made noises like they'd heard a scandal.
Joey piped up next. "Okay, my weirdest place would have to be the women's room on the second floor of a New York City public library."
"Oh my God. What were you doing in a library?" I teased and he rolled his eyes.
"And you, Ross?" Rachel smiled.
"Disneyland, nineteen-eighty-nine. "It's a small world after all.""
Everyone gasped and chuckled.
"Rox?" Joey asked.
I shrugged. "I think it'd probably be a car wash."
Everyone laughed and gasped.
"A car wash? How?" Rachel questioned.
"No one can see." I shrugged and everyone laughed again.
"Now who's last, Rachel?" Phoebe pointed at her.
"No, I already went!" Rachel insisted but we all chorused "no you haven't".
"Okay, the weirdest place would have to be... the foot of the bed."
The group fell silent in an anticlimactic response.
"Step back."
"We have a winner." Joey finished it for me.

I was sat on the floor in front of the chair Joey was on and we were both eavesdropping on the conversation Rachel and Ross were having on the other side of the rug.
We both watched as Rachel stood up and ruffled his hair and we watched Ross' expression turn into one of a lovestruck teenager.
Joey and I shot each other the same look as Ross stood up - still looking dazed in his own world - and tried to walk past us.
"It's never going to happen." Joey said casually without even looking up from what he was doing and I chuckled.
"What?" Ross questioned.
"You and Rachel." I answered for him.
Ross stammered for a few seconds acting like we were ridiculous before giving in and asking, "why?"
"Because you waited too long to make your move, and now you're in the 'friend zone'." Joey explained.
"I'm not in the zone." Ross insisted.
I scoffed. "Ross, you're mayor of the zone."
"I'm just... I'm waiting for the right moment."
Joey stopped still and sighed.
"What? Now?" Ross asked as if Joey was crazy.
"Yeah! What's messing you up? The wine, the candles, the moonlight?"
"Fine, I'm going to do it." Ross strapped some courage on.
"Good luck, man." Joey pulled Ross into an unexpected hug.

Ross headed out onto the balcony to confess his attraction for Rachel and Joey and I both jumped up and squished on the small chair together, trying to not look suspicious as we spied out of the window.
"It'd be nice if you were as romantic as you help other people to be." I muttered to Joey.
Joey smiled and shrugged. "I can be."
I chuckled. "No, you can't. You don't have it in you."

Ross' confession had been interrupted by him being attacked by a cat which Rachel and Phoebe were out searching for.

"Everybody? This is Paolo. I want you to meet my friends. Monica, Joey, Roxie and Ross."
Rachel had re-entered the apartment with an Italian man and Ross was looking visibly unhappy.
"So where did Paolo come from?" Ross asked.
"The cat turned out to be Paolo's cat, isn't that funny?" Rachel giggled.
"That is funny," Ross started and when he realised Rachel had zoned out, he turned to Joey and I and said, "and Rachel keeps touching him."

"Hey." Joey smiled as he stepped out onto the balcony where I was sitting on my own. "I thought you could use this."
Joey wrapped a thick blanket of Monica's around me and I smiled at him. "Thank you."
"Hey, I think it's really cool you're living with us, you know?" Joey started.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah! You're so fun, and you're probably one of the coolest girls I've ever met."
"Thanks, Joe." I nudged him as I chuckled.
"I'm serious. And the fact you went all the way to London to go to university? That's brave, Rox. And also, the fact that you're intelligent enough to get a degree in the first place is pretty impressive to me."
"Intelligence impresses you?" I sipped on my wine and asked him, slightly shocked.
"When it's you."
I rolled my eyes and continued to sip my wine.
"Joey, have you ever had a girlfriend?" My curiosity got the better of me and I blurted out my question.
He shrugged his shoulders. "Not really, no. But I'm not like you think, Rox. I do like to think I could be a good boyfriend if I met the right girl."
I smiled at his sincerity. "Maybe you're not what I think you are."