Stay Gold

one

chapter one ~ the one with the annulment
Heather's POV

Being in Vegas was a lot more fun than any of us had imagined and it got much better once Chandler and Monica made up, deciding that it was better to not fight about Richard when he didn't mean anything to them anymore. I was more than glad that my brother and his girlfriend were on good terms again because it was hard taking sides with them, one was my brother and the other was my best friend; it wasn't the easiest to be impartial when they were fighting which was why I preferred when they weren't. Things got more interesting when Ross and Rachel turned up, obviously not wanting to miss out on the fun trip that the rest of us were having but when I had seen them, they were both heavily drunk and had pen all over their faces. Instead of babysitting them, like I probably should have, I spent the evening with Joey in the casino but their drunkenness led to something pretty big happening.

"I still can't believe Ross and Rachel got married last night." I whispered to Joey as we made our way out of our hotel room, heading downstairs where we were meeting our friends for breakfast.

"It's crazy, right? That they would just get married so sudden, we won't do that for our wedding, will we?"

I shrugged. "I haven't really thought about how we're getting married. I don't really mind, I've always dreamed about a big white wedding but if you didn't want that, then I would understand-"

"No, I want whatever you want." Joey said, interrupting me as he intertwined our fingers and swung our hands back and forth as we walked down the staircase. "As long as you're happy, I'm happy."

"Okay, but we don't have to think about the wedding yet; we can take as much time as we want."

He stopped us from walking and pulled me over to one side of the staircase, his face turning serious. "There is something that I need to ask you though?"

"What is it?" I was worried, whenever Joey got serious that scared me and he could say anything.

"Now that we're engaged, I think we should take another step. I want us to live together."

I sighed in relief, my hands resting on his chest. "Oh my God, you really scared me for a minute."

"So, what do you think?" His eyes were practically shining with excitement and the thumping of my heart proved to me that whatever happened, I was ready to spend the rest of my life with him. Saying that, I knew that we were ready for this particular step. "Are we ready to live together?"

"Yes! I would love to!" I squealed, wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling him closer to me, sealing the deal with a kiss but pulling away before he could deepen it. "We have a lot to talk about though. Like, are you moving in with me, or should I move in with you or should we get our own place and-"

"We can talk about that some other time. Right now, let's just celebrate the fact that we're going to start living together." Joey wrapped his arm around my waist and guided me into the breakfast area where I could see some of our friends had already sat at a table. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face, this was really happening, I was moving in with Joey and I didn't feel like it was rushed; it was perfect, we were engaged and now we were going to be living together. This was what I wanted and I couldn't believe how lucky I was. But because we still had so much to discuss, I decided not to let the girls know yet; I didn't want them getting ahead of themselves, so it was a secret for now.