The Actor
Rachel was still in her room, when Monica returned around 45 minutes later, calling her name as she placed her leather purse on the table. Rachel opened the door, slowly traipsed over to the sofa and sat down with a defeated sigh. Monica asked where Ross was, as Rachel buried her head into her hands and said "I told him to get out, and that I didn't love him any more" Monica made her way over to the sofa, and sat down next to her and she looked up at her friend and said "But I do. I love your nerdy brother so much, it breaks my heart". Monica smiled slightly and said "I know you do, and I know this can't be easy for you"
Ross is sitting on a stool, in a bar across town with a half-empty bottle of beer in his hand, and 3 empty bottles in front of him. Joey and one of his many girlfriends just stepped inside, talking and laughing. Joey glances towards the bar and sees Ross and he turns to his date and said "I'm sorry, do you mind if we cut this short? That's my best friend and he's been having a really rough week". She smiled and said "Sure and he is lucky to have a great best friend". They share a kiss before he walks over to the bar, sits down next to Ross and orders a beer.
The barkeep hands Joey an icy-cold bottle as he opens it, looks at Ross and said "I take it things didn't go so great, huh". He took a sip of beer as Ross said "She said she didn't love me anymore, man. I knew she would have a problem with this, but I never expected to hear those words from her". He paused to take a sip of beer and added, "It's like she took a knife, and sliced my heart in half". Joey nodded lightly and said "I know, dude. But just give her some time, ok? She's angry and upset, and right now the best thing you can do, is just give her all the space she needs. The barkeep returned and asked Joey "You're friend isn't driving, right". Joey shook his head and told Ross to hand over the keys, which he did.
"C'mon", Joey said as he got up, "We're going to a movie". Ross said "Oh, why don't we see..." Joey interrupted him saying "No movies where I have to learn anything or think. I get enough of that from reading". Ross looked at Joey, chuckled and said "Reading? This is me, Joe... what do you read, anyway". Joey said "Comic books, porn, cereal boxes. But like I'm saying, that's enough reading for one day". Ross laughed a little and Joey was glad to see him laugh, even if it was at his expense. Secretly, he knew he was the butt of their jokes, and in reality he knew more than he was letting on. He just always gave people what they expected, and if people expected him to be this naive, dumb goof, that's exactly what he gave them. It was a performance... a show. He was an actor, and a damned good one, at that.
As they left the bar, Ross turned to Joey and said "Thanks, man". Joey patted him on the back and said "Anytime". They stopped on the sidewalk, talking and Joey said that deep inside, Rachel didn't mean what she said, and was willing to bet a million dollars, that right that very second, Rachel felt bad, wanting to take it back. A light snow had started to fall and Joey told Ross to wait and he would park his car in a nearby garage and they'd come back for it in the morning. "Yeah, if it hasn't been stripped for parts, by then", Ross commented, as the area they were in, was not really known for it's safety. Ross walked toward Joey's car, when a figure in a dark hooded sweatshirt snuck up behind him, pressing a pistol against his back.
"Make one move, and I'll blow your head away", he hissed. He demanded that Ross hand over his wallet and the keys to the car, which he did. The gunman noticed Ross' wedding ring and demanded him to hand it over. It was the ring from his wedding to Carol, and even after all these years, never had the heart to part with it. "C'mon, buddy", Ross pleaded, "You already have the car, my money and credit card. Let me keep my wedding ring"
He ordered Ross to sit down, close his eyes and count to 100. As he did he felt the thief yank the ring off his finger and Ross finally had enough and tackled him to the ground, as the thief grabbed the gun and fired. Blinding pain ran up and down Ross' body as he fell to the ground, the thief jumped into the car as another shot was heard in the opposite direction, and hit the car as it was quickly speeding down the street. Ross' vision was becoming blurry and heard a familiar voice say "Don't move, you'll be ok". He couldn't tell who the voice was, but it was somebody he knew. The voice had a calming and re-assuring effect, as Ross strained to fight the darkness that was enveloping around him.
He heard the voice call into either a walkie-talkie, or CB Radio... Ross couldn't tell and the voice said "We have a man down on 14th and Bleaker. Requesting Ambulance, ASAP". Ross tried to get up, as the mystery man just lightly put his arm on Ross' shoulder and said "Ross, don't move, OK, you'll be just fine and help is on the way. The guy who shot at you got away, I'm afraid. But we'll nail the son of a bitch". Ross tried to speak, but could not get the words to come out and thought 'What do you mean shot AT me? He DID shoot me'.
"J...Joey", Ross painfully croaked. "Joey", he asked, "Where is Joey". It was painful to speak, but Ross tried, "We...nt to ga...rage". The pain was becoming intense as he felt hands pressing on his side and it became unbearable, like lightning was coursing thru his entire body. "Ross", he said, "I don't want to alarm you, but you've lost quite a bit of blood". Ross groaned and thru gritted teeth said "Rachel". And to his utter amazement, he said "Rachel? You mean Rachel Green". How did he know Rachel?
All of the sudden Ross could hear footsteps quickly running towards them and recognized Joey's voice, and it sounded so frightened and said "Gary, what the hell happened". Gary said somebody tried to rob Ross, and Ross struggled with them, and then Gary turned his attention to Ross, and in a serious tone said "And that was the worst thing you could have done". Joey was now angry and said "So help me God, I am going to find him and beat the holy crap out of them". Gary tried to calm Joey down and said "Joey, that's our job. Right now your job is to be here for your friend"
Joey replied "Ok, I'll give you 3 days to find him. If you don't, I will". Gary begged Joey not to do anything that would make him a suspect. In the distance, the wail of a siren could be heard and Joey said "They're on their way, buddy and you're going to be just fine". Finally darkness overtook Ross and the last thing he heard was Joey say "Stay with me, Ross"