The Choices We Make, The Roads We Take
MoshPit
"You go in first."
"Nuh-uh. Rachel, you go first."
"Oooh no. I think Joey should go first." There they stood, in the doorway of room 32C, a small, two bedroom, one bath apartment on the west side of Chicago. The first thing they had done when they came to the city was look up an apartment building with a room available, and this is what they got.
Joey placed a tentative foot on the unfurnished floor and winced as the boards beneath his feet groaned heavily.
"I don't think that's such a good idea," he observed, withdrawing his foot. "I could fall through."
"Any one of us could fall through, Joey," Phoebe said knowingly. This was true. The floor to the room looked like it wouldn't support a kitten, much less a full-grown human being.
"Yes, but I'm heavier than the two of you. It's a bigger risk for me."
"All the more reason you should go first!" Rachel said encouragingly. "If the floor holds you, surely it'll hold little old us." Phoebe and Rachel smiled sweetly to seal the deal. Joey sighed.
"The things I do for you two." He took a deep breath, and ventured into that where no man had tread in a long time: Room 32C.
There was a stale smell in the air, Joey couldn't identify what. This worried him, as he often prided himself in his ability to distinguish smells. A cockroach skittered across his foot. He yelped and kicked, sending the poor bug airborne in the direction of his two female companions, who erupted into a mass of screams.
"Joey! That thing almost touched us!" Phoebe screeched. Joey made a face at her.
"Well, I guess we didn't have much to worry about," he started, bouncing on the floor a bit. "These boards seem pretty stable."
CRRRAAACK
A cloud of dust, mold and mildew settled around the hole in the floor where Joey Tribianni once stood. A pitiful 'ow' leaked up from the floor below.
Rachel and Phoebe hurried gently to the hole. "Joey, honey?" Rachel called into the hole. "Are you alright?"
"We should look into getting 32B," came the response. "The floor's strong enough."
