Golden Days︱𝐉𝐎𝐄𝐘 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐁𝐁𝐈𝐀𝐍𝐈

43│DANCING PARTNERS

"Hey," He greeted the two and paused as he watched them walk up to the trash chute.

"Ronnie," Rachel called as she turned to her for help with the chute.

"I'm just here for moral support," Veronica held her hands up and shook her head.

Rachel rolled her eyes and managed to get the chute open and stuffed the pizza box in it. She frowned when it didn't slide down the chute and tried pushing it down but gave up quickly.

"What are you doing?" Treeger snapped as he stared at her in disbelief.

Rachel's brows furrowed as she tried to figure out what was wrong. She turned to Veronica for help but she just shrugged.

"Um. Oh! I'm sorry," Rachel chuckled and pulled the pizza box out of the chute and opened it to reveal three stale slices, "It's a little old but-"

"No!" Treeger glared at her, "You're clogging up the chute that I spent a half-hour unclogging!"

Rachel's eyes widened and she smiled sheepishly. "I'm sorry. I didn't- I don't come in here a lot."

"Oh yeah, of course, you don't!" He scoffed.

"Well, we don't," Veronica shrugged with a frown, not seeing the problem.

"'Cause, you're a little princess!" He spat, "Daddy, buy me a pizza. Daddy, buy me a candy factory. Daddy, make the cast of Cats sing Happy Birthday to me," He mocked them.

Rachel sniffled as she shuffled behind Veronica. "I didn't... I never said that."

"You think you could make a mess and the big man in overalls will come in here and clean it up, huh? Well, why don't you think of someone else for a change?" Treeger yelled at them.

"Okay, I'm sorry," Rachel whined as tears stung her eyes, obviously not used to being yelled at.

"Because other people are mean," Veronica snapped as she grabbed Rachel's hand comfortingly.

The two rushed out of the trash room, the pizza box clenched tightly in Rachel's hand, and went back into the apartment.

Monica rolled her eyes when she saw Rachel crying. "God! If you're gonna cry about it!"

Rachel let out an incoherent whine as Monica snatched the box from her and stormed out.

Once Monica came back from the trash room, Veronica and Rachel explained what happened.

Joey's eyes widened. "Whoa, whoa, Treeger made you cry?"

"Yes!" Rachel's lip trembled, "He said really mean things that were only partly true about us."

Joey's jaw clenched at the mention of his girlfriend. "I'm gonna go down there and teach that guy a lesson," He growled as he stormed to the door.

"Joey, please don't do that," Monica begged, "I think it's best that we just forget about it."

Rachel scoffed. "That's easy for you to say, you weren't almost just killed."

"All right that's it, school is in session!" Joey huffed and stormed out.

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"Oh! My hero!" Rachel grinned at Joey as he shuffled into the apartment, "What happened?"

Joey rubbed the back of his neck with a nervous chuckle. "Well, I went down there and told him that no one treats my friends like that and that he'd better come up here and apologize. I'll see you later."