Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
••••••••••••••••••••••••
"Hey, everybody, say hi to Julie in New Mexico." Ross holds up the phone for all of us. We are all sitting in the living room; Chandler and Rachel on the couch, Phoebe on the floor and Joey is sitting in the armchair with me on the floor between his legs.
"Hi, Julie!" Chandler, Phoebe, Joey and I all greet happily before Ross went back to his conversation.
"Hi, Julie." Rachel says sarcastically, reading her newspaper and I nudge her knee.
"Ok, while Ross is on the phone, everybody owes me 62 bucks for his birthday." Chandler whispers, taking out a piece of paper.
"Um, is there any chance that you're rounding up? You know, like from, like 20?" Phoebe asks him and I nod along with her.
"Hey, come on, we got the gift, the concert, and the cake." Chandler lists.
"Do we need a cake?" Joey questions.
"Yeah, I can make one instead." I suggest.
"Look guys, I know it's a little steep." Chandler starts when Rachel makes a whoosh sound. "But it's Ross." He finishes. The three of us sigh giving in. "I'll see you guys later, I gotta go...do a thing."
"So uh, what are you guys doing for dinner tonight?" Rachel asks all of us.
"Well I guess I gotta start savin' up for Ross's birthday, so I guess I'll just stay home and eat dust bunnies." Joey remarks and I look up at him frowning.
"I'll make something for you using leftovers." I tell him. "For all of you if you want." They nod gratefully. I'm not as good of a cook as Monica but I'm pretty good.
"Can you believe how much this is gonna cost?" Phoebe groans, changing the topic back to Ross' birthday.
"I know right." I huff nodding my head.
"Wait, I thought you had a good salary at the police station?" Joey looks down at me questioningly.
"I do, kind of," I nod. "but my mums having surgery so nearly all of my income is going to her surgery. So I'm in the same boat as you guys at the moment." I look at the guys empathetically.
"Do you guys ever get the feeling that um, Chandler and those guys just don't get that we don't make as much money as they do?" Rachel questions.
"Yes! Yeah, it's like they're always saying "let's go here, let's go there". Like we can afford to go here and there." Joey starts playing with my hair as he speaks.
"Exactly. I luckily can afford it, but I feel bad for you guys because you can't." I say quietly.
I really feel for the others, I've been where they are. Being a gay trans guy it's a bit of a struggle to find a stable income. There was a period of time where I was couch surfing at Rachel's house as I had nowhere better to go.
