I do not own any part or morsel, not even a tiny crumb, of Friends.
PB&J
The voice reached the apartment before the owner. As such, anyone who happened to be inside said apartment would have heard a rather high pitched, disembodied, "Monica? Mon? Mooonnnicaaaa…" float through the unlocked door before the knob actually turned and the caller stepped in.
Joey Tribbiani stuck his head through the purple-colored door of Apartment 20, brown eyes scanning the seemingly empty room. "Mon?" he called again hopefully, looking as though he expected her to materialize out of thin air if only he said her name enough times. When there was no response, his lower lip stuck out in a pout that, for some reason, girls seemed to find very adorable. His voice took a decidedly whiny tone as his spoke once more: "Monicaaaa! I'm hungry!"
"Well, I'd agree with you, but I'm not Monica and it appears that I don't matter to you," came a wry reply. Joey jumped, flinging the door open with an echoing bang! as his eyes darted around suspiciously at the still very empty room. "W-who said that?" he snapped, making a vain attempt to sound braver than he felt, and failing miserably when his voice cracked.
A blonde head appeared from behind the back of the couch, gazing reproachfully back at him. "You know, people other than Monica might be in here," the head growled. "It wouldn't kill you to call out their names too."
Joey visibly relaxed as his shoulder slackened and he dropped into his usual casual semi-slouch. "I'm sorry Pheebs, I really didn't see you," he apologized sincerely as he finally decided to walk fully into the apartment. Shutting the door behind him, he offered his obviously offended friend a sheepish grin. "I'll look for you too, next time, promise. Forgive me?"
"I dunno, Joseph Francis Tribbiani, I can't pretend that it didn't hurt hearing you wail for Monica and no one else," Phoebe sniffed, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at the man. "I mean, that just made me feel very unimportant!"
"Alright, alright…I know! Hang on!" He spun around abruptly and swung the door open again, before dashing out and slamming the abused door. A second later, that disembodied voice floated through the wood for the second time in as many minutes. "Pheebs?" it said, "Phoebe? Pheeebs?"
And for the second time, the knob turned and Joey stuck his head in. "Well?" he asked, grinning impishly at his friend, who was noticeably trying not to smile. "How's that?"
Phoebe struggled to mask her pleasure for a few more moments, before losing the battle and bursting into a short giggle. "I'm important!" she stated delightedly.
"Well sure you are, Pheebs!" Joey laughed, just as delighted that Phoebe wasn't peeved at him any longer. He shut the door soundly and bounded over to join her on the couch. "It's just that there wasn't any more food in our fridge, and I'm really hungry! Then I remembered that Monica's a cook, and so I was kinda hoping she'd make me a chicken…"
"Why didn't you just order KFC?" Phoebe inquired, propping her feet up on the coffee table.
"I'm broke," Joey replied truthfully, "and Chandler's been so busy lately that I haven't had the time to beg him into treating a dinner."
"Yeah, I understand," Phoebe sighed, patting her friend sympathetically on the back, her heart nearly melting at the doleful expression Joey now wore. "I'm broke too. And if it makes you feel better, I was also here hoping Monica would came to make me some lunch."
"Yeah?" Joey perked up for a brief moment at the knowledge that someone was in the same boat as him. Then he groaned, and sunk back into the sofa, sliding down a couple inches. "Well, I'm still hungry. I'll settle for anything. Do they have anything left in their fridge?"
Phoebe shook her head no. "I checked, and they really need to get a move on grocery shopping! I mean, people are starving over here! All they have is some bread, and I have here a jar of peanut butter in my bag."
Joey stared as she pulled a decent-sized tub of chunky peanut butter out of her red handbag. What she was doing carrying around peanut butter…well, he didn't really want to know, so there was no need to ask.
"So…hey that's great! We can make peanut butter sandwiches!" he clapped his hands together joyfully, and was about to bounce up when Phoebe pushed him back. "What, just peanut butter? Uck. That's just gross! That's…that's an incomplete sandwich! We don't want to create an unhappy, incompletely sandwich, Joey Tribbiani!"
"Why? Why is that incomplete?" asked a very baffled Joey.
"Because! You – you don't ever hear about anyone eating just a plain peanut butter – oh, it's just not right! It's missing something," Phoebe stated firmly. From long and sometimes painful experience, Joey knew better than to contradict her on such matters. She could be nearly as bad as Monica sometimes.
"Okay, fine then," he slumped back down. "I guess we'll just go hungry."
"We'll just have to," Phoebe sighed forlornly.
"We were so close, too!"
"I know. I know," she patted his arm comfortingly. "But it'll be okay, you'll see –"
"Oh! Ooo! I've got it, hang on!" And with that, Joey jumped over that couch in a manner that would have caused Monica to skin him if she ever found out, and sprinted out of the room, pausing only to make sure he didn't run straight through the door in his haste. There were muffled bangs and clanks from the apartment across the hall, before he raced back, eyes as big and excited as a child's at Christmas morning.
"Jelly!" he announced proudly, positively beaming. "That kind from McDonald's! This, this'll completely the sandwich! Then we can eat it, right?"
"Oh, you're a brilliant, brilliant man!" Phoebe crowed, snatching her jar of peanut butter up. "Yes, yes, go get the bread! We're gonna have ourselves a PB&J sandwich that's totally, one hundred-percent complete! Put that peanut butter and jelly together, Tribbiani! Me and you, we totally completely that bread!"
Okay, yes, that was rather random, but…hasn't anyone ever noticed their initials? PB&J? Phoebe and Joey? Phoebe Buffay and Joey? As Phoebe would say…coincidence? C'mon, I'm not totally crazy, right?
Anyway, I guess I just missed some of that random Phoebe/Joey friendship moments they used to have…and it was fun writing this, so…
Please leave a review!