"Yeah, that's why I come," Chandler said, with mock fondness. "The sparkles."
Monica patted his arm. "I'll loan you my jewelry box sometime. You can go nuts!"
"There they are!" Phoebe trilled, pointing excitedly. The four friends followed her finger to see Ross and Rachel's familiar forms hovering near the big airport window. Phoebe dropped her suitcase and disappeared quickly within the crowd, and Joey grabbed her suitcase and followed Monica and Chandler. They met their friends just at the entrance, and took turns hugging one another.
"I can't believe you're here!" Rachel cried, as she released Phoebe. "Wow. Pheebs, you're old!"
"You're not, bitch."
The two friends just looked at one another, then hugged again.
"Monica, hi," Rachel wept happily, and hugged Monica at the same time. "Me and my sisters."
"What?" Joey exclaimed. "How come nobody told me you were all related?"
The girls just stared at him.
Chandler turned his head and couldn't help but make a face, however he managed not to jump back at the sight of a strange girl lurking near him, giving him the evil eye. She had dyed her long hair a rich, mahogany red, and wore black lipstick and a lip ring. She was wearing tattered gray jeans and a black Metallica hoodie.
What Rachel said had a shiver crawling up his spine. "Emma, do you remember the best friends your dad and I ever had?"
"Not at all," came the non-committal answer. She turned dismissively to Ross. "Ben's stuck in the washroom with an erection," she said bluntly. "He needs your words of wisdom, or whatever."
"Okay. Uh, where's the washroom?"
"Try following the toilet signs and opening the door with the same symbol on it," came the impassive answer. "Can't be that hard; he figured it out."
Monica's brows rose as she heard the way she was sassing her dad. But Ross went without laying down the law, and Monica began to zero in on Emma's problem.
"Well, that was awkward," Chandler said. "I could go for a coffee."
Rachel grinned at him as he walked by.
"So. Emma," Monica said, and the sour-faced youth cringed at her voice. "You sure have...changed."
Emma just looked at her.
"You learn how to use the toilet okay? I can't. I can't speak to her." Monica turned and walked toward Joey, who was peering around the airport. She sighed and put a hand around one of his broad shoulders. "Come on, Sid; I'll show you where the cookies are."
"Sid? You know I'm Joey, right?"
They left.
Rachel looked at Emma at the same time Emma looked at her. Their gazes locked, and Phoebe could literally see the hatred in Emma's eyes and the disappointment in Rachel's. Phoebe delicately cleared her throat. "Um, Emma, do you want to hear about how I got off the streets?"
"No," she bit.
"You sure? It's true."
Emma turned and walked quietly away, taking her cloud of gloom with her.
In her daughter's absence Rachel let out a quick groan of frustration. "I don't know why she turned out this way!" she wailed. "I have a great job, so she gets nice things; she has her favorite breed of dog; and she never goes hungry or cold...What am I not doing?"
Phoebe reflected upon her own painful childhood. "Do you spend time with her?"
"Sure! We drive her to school all the time."
"Well, maybe you should stop buying her nice things and let her get her own job. And I'd stop driving her to school, too...She's in college, not kindergarten. Does she even have a cell phone?"
Alarm filled Rachel's eyes. "No. Is that important?"
"Are you kidding? Cell phones are the first step into independence!"
"Really!"
"Yuh-huh; did you learn nothing from the day you cut your apron strings?"
"Actually, I...I cut a credit card; my dad cut the apron strings."
"And how did you feel when you got your first job?"
"Miserable. Terrified."
"Uh-huh, and after that?" Phoebe pressed.
Rachel considered. "Good. Really good."
Phoebe watched her friend awhile before Joey suddenly materialized. "Pheebs, check it out! I got three for the price of two!"
Rachel ignored him, wishing she could throw a tantrum without it being weird.
"Nice! Rach, does Emma like cookies?" Phoebe asked. "They might help. You know, whenever I was depressed, eating always lifted my spirits."
"You were homeless, you were practically eating from the Dumpster," Monica said in disgust. "For you, finding something to eat was Christmas."
"Nooo, at Christmastime I went into the donation bins and stole all the clean clothing I could find," Phoebe corrected her.
"What? How could you do such a thing?" Rachel asked.
"Well, it was my Christmas, too! And I was just as needy as others, if not more needy."
The friends considered and decided to let it slide.
"I'm sorry, Pheebs. Your parents should have been there for you," Rachel told her.
"Well, they are now; it all worked out. And I'm glad it all happened the way it did, because if my life had been different, I would be different, and you guys might not like me."
"Well sure we would've! We liked Rachel - " Too late Joey realized his mistake, and the friends all looked at him.
She put her hands on her hips. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"I think it means you were a spoiled, snobby princess who left her groom at the altar," Chandler said casually, as he returned with his coffee. Rachel glared at him and he stopped in his tracks, looking disgruntled. "Whoaa, this isn't decaf," he said lamely, and turned and walked away again.
"If it helps ease your minds," Phoebe broke the silence, "I've been donating clothes once a week since I got hired."
Joey paused and looked down, pulling his waistline away from himself. "I thought this underwear looked familiar!"