Baby Bing - F.R.I.E.N.D.S

The One with the Thumb

The gang where at Central Perk relaxing when Phoebe walked in.

"Hi guys." she greets them, receiving a variety of 'Hi' and 'Hellos'.

"Hey, how did it go?" Ross ask, curious to know if the date was a success for the blonde.

"Um, not so good." She reveals. "He walked me to the subway and said, 'We should do this again'".

Sympathetic groans rang out, the excuse a familiar one heard among most members of the group.

"I'm sorry Pheebs" Ronnie says, lifting her head from her school copy of To Kill a Mockingbird to offer her a smile which earns her a weak one back and a head pat from the woman.

"What?" Rachel asks confused. "He said 'We should do it again.' That's good, right?"

"No," Monica answered. "Loosely translated 'We should do this again' means you will never see me naked."

"Since when?"

"Since always." Joey chimes in. "It's like dating language. You know like 'It's not you' means 'It is you'."

"Or 'you're such a nice guy' means 'I'm gonna be dating leather-wearing alcoholics and complain about them to you'." Chandler adds, Ronnie nodding her head in agreement, unable to remember just how many times Chandler had had this issue in the past.

"Or 'I think we should see other people' means 'haha I already am'." Phoebe laughs.

"Or 'We no longer want the same things' means he's got what he wants and is onto the next girl." Ronnie mumbled absentmindedly making Ross point at her in agreement.

"Even the 11-year-old gets the lingo."

"Wait a minute. Ronnie your 11, where the hell did you hear that?" Rachel asks incredulously.

Ronnie freezes, almost dropping her book. "Um..." she mumbled, knowing she couldn't out Joey who was currently shaking his head at her from behind Rachel. "Oprah?" she answered slowly.

Rachel nodded, not satisfied with the answer but was temporally content with it. "And everybody knows this?"

"Oh yeah, it cushions the blow." Joey says nodding his head.

"It's like when you're a kid and your parents put your dog to sleep and they tell you it went off to live on some farm." Chandler further explained.

"That's funny." Ross pips up. "No, because our parents actually did send our dog up to live on a farm."

"Um...Ross?" Monica says, trying to break the news as gently as she could.

"What, hello? The Milners' farm in Connecticut? The Milners had this unbelieve farm." he went on to say, only coming to the realisation of what actually happened the more he talk and saw the expressions on his friend's faces.

"Oh, my god. Chi Chi!"

~~~

The following day Joey was rehearsing for a role with Chandler's help in their apartment

"So how does it feel knowing you're about to die?" Chandler read off the script.

"Warden, in five minutes my pain will be over, but you'll have to live with the knowledge that you sent an honest man to die."

Chandler was momentarily speechless. "Hey, that was really good!"

As both men kept acting, Joey's character had to smoke which he was failing miserably at, coughing and spluttering constantly. Chandler tried giving him pointers on how to improve and eventually tried to snatch the cigarette out of Joey's hand.