Spring Day

twelve

chapter seventy nine ~ the one with a strip club
Heather's POV

Keeping our kind of relationship, a secret was getting harder every single day and I knew that soon enough we would slip up and someone would find out about us. If we had decided that we were officially together or that this was just a fling then it would be easier to explain but neither of us had discussed what we were, so if anyone was suspicious then we would have nothing to say. I didn't even know what to call us when we were hanging out together, we're just two friends who care about each other but we're not friends with benefits because we haven't slept together. I wasn't the kind of person who would jump at the chance to do something like this and therefore, I was more than just confused. Joey didn't seem to be bothered, or maybe he was just good at pretending that he wasn't bothered and hadn't mentioned it which was why I refused to mention it and at this stage we were both as bad as each other.

This weekend, he was leaving to go on a fishing trip with his Father and I hadn't had the chance to say my own special goodbye yet. Everyone was meeting at the boys' new bigger apartment to wish him well and I was hoping to sneak somewhere for a few minutes so that I could say goodbye without all of our friends being around. When Joey did leave, then I would have to say goodbye as a friend but before that, I wanted the chance to say goodbye to him as whatever the hell we were. Luckily, when I arrived to say goodbye, Monica told me that Joey was still packing his bags in the bedroom and it was my perfect opportunity to have him alone for a few minutes. So, I told her that I would help him pack and ensured that I closed the door behind us so that we would know if someone was going to interrupt us.

"Hey, I didn't know you were coming?" He smiled, opening his arms for me as I embraced him tightly.

"I had to say goodbye to you before you left." I replied, wrapping my arms around him and almost refusing to let him go.

"It's only for a weekend, I'll be back in like, two days."

I nodded, pouting in his arms. "I know, but I'm going to miss you."

Joey pulled me away from him and held onto my arms, looking into my eyes as his smile got wider. "I'm going to miss you too. But this weekend gives me the chance to tell my Dad about us."

"Really? You're going to tell him?"

"Yeah and I already know that he's going to love you." He explained and it made my heart flutter, just thinking about how excited he was to tell his family about us. It made me wonder what my family's reaction would be when I told them, hopefully it would be better than their reaction of Carl, but then again, what would Chandler say if I told him that I was kind of dating his best friend? "Especially when I tell him that Nonna gave you the family necklace..."

My jaw dropped and my eyes almost popped out of their sockets. "The what necklace?"

"Uh, look at the time, I have to get going." Joey quickly grabbed his bags and kissed my cheek before heading out of the bedroom. I was still frozen on the spot, because I couldn't believe what he had just said. On Thanksgiving he had acted weird about the necklace but I had just brushed it off because it was a weird day but now, he had just admitted how important that necklace is and no wonder I freaked him out that day. "See you in two days!"

~•~

My brother was depressed and sucked into a black hole ever since he and Kathy broke up. I knew that that woman was bad news, I called it ever since she started dating Joey and we should have realised that we couldn't trust her after she cheated on Joey with Chandler; because now she had also cheated on my brother. Luckily, it wasn't with Ross because that would have just complicated things even more but Kathy was officially out of our lives. However, because Joey was away on his fishing trip, he wasn't around to help Chandler through the break up cycle and it fell to the girls to try and cheer him up which was harder than expected because one of the things that was included on the itinerary was to take Chandler to a strip club. "Chandler, you don't look like you're having fun."

He sighed, rolling his eyes at me as we sat at a front row table. "That's because I'm not."

"Oh, come on, being single is not as bad as you think it is." I squeezed his arm gently.

"It is, you know how I know that? Because I've spent most of my adult life single."

"Hey, listen, being single isn't the worst thing in the world. I'm single and my life isn't terrible."

"That's true." He answered, then shook his head. "But you have other great things to enjoy."

"So, do you, you have a great job, great friends and a great new apartment to watch porn in!"

"You're right, hey, maybe we can both be single and happy together forever?"

I patted his shoulder because I had kind of lied to him before. "Let's not get too ahead of ourselves."

"Hey, I got some ones, you want to put them in her panties?" Monica interrupted us, trying to be as fun as possible but she didn't really get the memo.

"No thanks, Mom."

"Well, I just checked our messages and Joshua didn't call." Rachel complained as she sat down, she was upset about Joshua and the fact that Ross had ended up with some girl in Vermont. "You would think he would be worried about me not showing up at his club. And you know what makes it so much worse? Ross is all happy in Vermont."

"Come on, look where you are." Phoebe tried to act supportive but it was hard when we were in a strip club. Monica tapped on one of the waitress's backs. "If you've got a sec, another round of Daiquiris?"

"Remember, Virgin for me, please."

"Oh, and don't let me leave without getting the name of that carpet guy."

"You know what?" Chandler tried to stand up. "I'm just going to go home and call Kathy."

Phoebe shrugged, sipping on her drink. "Well, if you think it'll help."

"No, that was a test. In a couple hours, I'll get really drunk and want to call." He whined. "You guys have to stop me. And then after that, I'm going to want to call Janice."

"You should, how is she?"

"No!" I interrupted, because there was no way that we were getting onto Janice. "I'll definitely stop you from making that call."

a/n: christmas was different this year but it was still good to spend time with my family 🥰 -lizzie ⭐️

date published: 26/12/20