More than Just Friends

Chapter Nine

Ross walked up the stairwell, whistling to himself as he shifted the brightly coloured present from one hand to the other. Reaching the top of the stairs, he immediately headed towards the well recognized apartment door, turning the knob and walking in.

When he stepped inside the apartment however, his whistling stopped as what he saw was not what he expected. Balloons and ribbons were strewn all along the wall and the large banner they had made yesterday was hung up across the room, but what he was really surprised to see was everyone crowded around a certain door that remained shut.

"Hey, what's going on?" he asked, setting his present on the counter.

"Ross, thank God you're here. Rachel won't leave her room and we don't know what to do," Monica explained, grabbing his arm and leading him to the others who were busy trying to coax her out.

"Rachel, come on out!" Chandler shouted, knocking on the door.

"Yeah, Monica made breakfast!" Phoebe added.

"Chocolate chip pancakes!" she clarified, knowing it was one of Rachel's favourites. For a second the door handle began to shake and the group thought they had finally gotten through, but when the shaking stopped they realised that all Rachel had done was lock the door. Monica groaned and turned to her brother. "See? We can't get her out."

"Do you know why she doesn't want to leave her room?" he asked.

"We think she's upset about turning thirty."

He raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Before Monica could answer Joey began knocking loudly on the door. "Rachel!"

His sister turned back to him and gave him a look. "You think?"

"Here, let me try," Ross said, stepping forward and placing a hand on Joey's shoulder to get him to stop. He motioned for everyone to take a step back and paused for a moment before he gently knocked on the door. "Rachel? It's me, can you open the door?" he called out in a soft tone.

"Go away, just leave me alone," came her voice through the door.

"Rachel sweetie, we're all waiting for you to come out. We have food, and presents, and decorations all set up."

"I don't care."

Ross sighed, looking at his friends then turning back to the door. "Rachel, please just open the door. Please... for me?" he pleaded, asking the last part in a quiet tone just loud enough for her to hear but not the others.

A moment later the knob began to jiggle and to the others' surprise, the door swung open revealing a very saddened Rachel. Her eyes scanned the room, looking at her friends and all the decorations they put up, until they stopped on the large banner that read 'Happy 30th Birthday Rachel!' To her, the large number '30' seemed to stare menacingly at her, boring a hole into her chest and at that moment, she completely broke.

"I'm thirty!" she bawled, turning and burying her face in Ross' chest. He was completely caught off guard but wrapped his arms around her nonetheless, feeling her tear up into his shirt.

"Sweetie, it's not that big a deal. We're all thirty here," he consoled, gently caressing her hair.

"Yeah come on Rach, just suck it up," Joey added.

Rachel sniffled and turned to look at him. "Oh yeah? Is that what you did on your thirtieth birthday? You just sucked it up?" she countered, remembering how poorly Joey had taken the news of him turning thirty.

"Hey that was different! God and I had a deal!" he ranted and everyone rolled their eyes.

Ross turned back to Rachel, who remained in his arms. "So, are you ready to start celebrating your birthday?"