It was a freezing day in December. A few days before Christmas. December 20th to be precise. The trees were bare, the air cold and the streets empty. I was out with Joey, Jaime, Brian, Brian and Meredith. I don't remember who of us had the crazy idea of walking around outside while the paths were partly icy. I just remember that it wasn't a good idea. But we didn't notice that until much later.

"Would you like to sit down in the café on the corner and warm up a bit?" Jaime asked. The rest of us nodded and so we carefully crossed the street. Contrary to my expectations, this café was relatively empty. I had thought that all kinds of people would crowd into this café, because there weren't many on the street. But since this was not the case, there were enough free chairs for us and we all sat down at a table. Brolden went to the counter and ordered our standard order for all of us.

"And what are you doing for Christmas?" Meredith asked.

"I wanted to go back to California to see my parents, but they wrote me that they would be on vacation for Christmas and New Year's Eve. So, I'm staying here," Joey said.

"Oh, sorry man. Do you want to come to us? My parents certainly don't mind. I wanted to visit them for a few days," Rosenthal offered.

Joey's face lit up. "Thank you very much!" He patted his friend gratefully on the shoulder.

"I think I'll stay here. Maybe I'll find someone of you who wants to spend some time with me," Jaime said.

"Yeah, same here," Holden said. "Meredith?"

"Me too"

"Looks like I'm the only one who has to drive at least a bit," I finally said after being silent for a while.

"Yep, it seems. But you're not even an hour away from here and you won't be staying long either. I can understand that it's tough for you to be separated from me for so long though," Brolden joked, whereupon I lightly punched his arm, as he was unfortunately sitting on my right.

"Yes Brian, we can't without you"

We laughed. It wasn't even particularly funny, but we laughed anyway. We all loved Brian, in fact we loved all of them. They were all our best friends, even our brothers and sisters at times.

Suddenly a loud shout tore us from our fit of laughter and we fell silent.

"Joeeeeyyyyy!" A high female voice called as she approached us. I sat with my back to her, but judging from Joey's face, she wasn't the kind of person who would fit into the group at our table. Because Joey's face fell. The laugh that was just on his face has turned into an expression of horror.

"Oh no, no, no!" He repeated in a whisper.

"Who is that?" Meredith asked.

"My 'girlfriend'," he said quietly and put quotation marks around the word "girlfriend".

"You have a girlfriend?!" I felt a tug in my chest. Joey had a girlfriend? What was it that I felt inside of me? Jealousy? Yes, I had a massive crush on him but that didn't forbid him to have a girlfriend. But it made me a little sad he didn't tell us, and in particular me.

"No, yes, but I don't want to. I want to break up. That's why I never said anything to you. I actually never really liked her. I'll explain everything to you afterwards"

Just as he had finished the sentence, his "girlfriend" arrived at our table and sat on his lap without hesitation.

"Hiiiii Joeyyy!" She shrieked and gave him a disgusting kiss that was not returned by him. But she didn't seem to care.

"Hello sweetheart, are you having a bad day today?" She asked, ruffling his hair. He actually likes it when you do it in a friendly way. We often do that. I could tell from his face that he would have liked to say, "I always have a bad day when you are around," but he didn't.

"Ohh, that's probably because of your friends here. Come on let's go somewhere else"

That was too much for Joey. Understandable. If my boyfriend were to talk about my friends like that, and in their presence, I would probably react that way too. Judging by the looks of the others, they thought the same thing. We all knew we were true friends of Joey.

"Listen, Jessica," Joey began. I kept my fingers crossed for him. While I knew he was strong enough to tell her the truth in the face, sometimes I wasn't sure, and this time it was important. Not just for him, also for me.

"Yeah, Joey? Where do you want to go?"

"I don't want to go anywhere. I want to stay right here. Here with my friends. With my friends, who accept me for who I am, with whom I don't have to pretend. With my friends who know exactly what I like and who I like. They know that I love them and that I don't even like you. I didn't tell them anything about you until you came in because I knew I would break up with you again in the next few days anyway. I want a girlfriend that I like, that I love. I want a girlfriend who accepts my friends for who they are, because I don't want to give up my friends for anything in the world, and they know it. I would now like to ask you to get up, to go and actually I do not want to see you again. I would say it was nice with you, but that would be a lie. That's why I only say: Goodbye"

Jessica's face was priceless. When she composed herself, she actually got up, but then she did something incomprehensible and unpredictable. She gave Joey a slap in the face, with good taste.

"Leave him alone," Meredith and I said at the same time.

"You-" Jessica pointed to Mere and me and spoke in an angry voice. "You stay out of there, okay?"

"You-" Holden stood up and pointed at Jessica. "Don't talk to any of my friends like that. Not to Joey" - he pointed to Joey - "Not to Mere" - he pointed to Meredith - "Not to Lauren" - he pointed to me - "and also with no other"

"You think you can tell me something? You midget"

It was true, Brian was really small compared to Jessica, but no reason to say that. Rosenthal and Meredith now got up too, but Joey said: "Oh, stop it, she should just run away"

And thank God she did.

Joey looked exhausted.

"You owe us an explanation. When? Why?"

"I ran into her a week ago"

"The classic," I mumbled.

"We barely exchanged a word and she's already giving me her number," Joey continued, ignoring me. "The next day I texted her, please don't ask me why. And she asks me immediately, almost in the same minute, if we want to go for a drink somewhere. I didn't know anything about her, so I thought it couldn't be that bad. I was wrong about that. She got on my nerves. She kissed me all the time, uh" - Joey looked disgusted - "but I didn't have the nerve to tell her not to. I just wanted this to be over as soon as possible. And you still have to keep in mind that this was a public place, we weren't alone. That was really uncomfortable for me. At some point I 'had' to leave. But the next day we ran into each other again and apparently, she understood our meeting to mean that we were together now. I endured this for five days. You just experienced the end yourself."

We were all silent for a moment.

"I'm sorry," I said at some point. I was sorry he went through this, not that it was over.

Joey looked at me in surprise. "Don't. That's not your fault"

"I noticed that something was wrong with you. But I thought if you want to tell us, you would. That's why I left you alone"

A murmur of "Me too" arose among the others.

"It's only half that bad," said Joey finally. "Besides, it's over now. Do we want to go out again?"