Rachel looked out the window. Will had promised to pick her up two hours ago, but the phone hadn't rung and she couldn't see his 1999 red Buick LeSabre anywhere. Instead of being angry, like she usually would have been, she was worried about him, Will was her fiancé and she knew him well enough to know that he was almost never late. She had tried calling his cell about 15 times already and got his machine right away, which meant he either had it off or it was broken, Rachel was hoping it was the former.
She decided it would be best to just sit and wait until getting wind of him. Then the phone rang.
"Hello, this is Rachel Green," she said after picking up the phone, "Yes; I'm his fiancée, who is this? The hospital, what happened? What? No, it can't be, he drives a… oh. Ok. I'll come as soon as I can." She tried desperately to hold back tears, but her efforts were all in vain. Thick droplets ran down her face, soaking the pale blue satin camisole she was wearing as a shirt, "Oh god, oh god, oh god." Hugging her knees tightly to her chin, she picked up the phone again and called her best friend from high school, the only friend she had ever fully relied on.
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The phone rang. Monica tripped over her brother's foot on the way to answer it, "Get the hell out of my way Ross!" she got up and grabbed the phone just in time, "Hello? Yes, this is Monica, who's asking? RACHEL GREEN??? I haven't seen you for like five years!" Ross jumped up,
"It's Rachel Green? How is she?"
"Can you wait a sec?" she covered the receiver with her hand, "Ross, shut up, I'm on the phone!"
"Monica-a! I just want to know how Rachel is!"
"By the sounds of it, she's crying really hard, so I'm guessing not well!"
"Sorry about that Rach, Ross is being stupid. What's wrong?"
"My… I… Well I… I was engaged to, um, r-remember um, Will? I was going to marry him but…" she broke down, "he died in a car crash today! I don't… I don't know what t-to do. I loved him so m-much and now he's gone."
"Wasn't Will that fat dude who had an I hate Rachel Green club in high school?"
"MONICA! That doesn't matter. I loved him. And, well, he got hot. And now he's d-d-dead!" Rachel sobbed, "Please come with me to the hospital. Please?"
"Their sure Will's dead?" Ross looked up, shocked, "I mean, well, never mind. Of course I'll come. Should I pick you up?"
"Yes please, the address is…"
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Two weeks later, there was a funeral for William Colbert. Rachel went with her parents for moral support. Sandra thought he was a lovely young man, just perfect for her daughter, while Leonard didn't think he was good enough money- wise and only came out of respect and for Rachel. She cried through the whole ceremony, and left the room when the priest started talking about the horrible way he died, it was too hard to listen to.
Much to her surprise, when she went outside to get away, Ross was there.
"Hi Ross," she said, startling him, "What are you doing here?"
"Will was one of my best friends in high school. We had that club together, remember, the…" He trailed off.
"The 'I hate Rachel Green' club. Yes, I remember him telling me about it."
"So um, how long were you two dating?" Ross asked, trying to find something to talk about that wouldn't upset her more.
Unfortunately, he chose the wrong thing to say, she burst into tears all over again.
"We were close friends for a few months in college and then we started dating. On our two year anniversary, just three months ago, he proposed. It was so beautiful, he filled up this restaurant, where we had our first date, with lilies, my favourite flower."
Ross frowned at this, wasn't that HIS idea of a perfect proposal from high school? Will had stolen his idea!
"…And then he asked me to marry him." Rachel ended the story, of which Ross had only heard half of.
"That sounds amazing! I wish I had thought of proposing to Carol like that." He referred to his ex-wife.
"Oh, you're married?" Rachel asked, a little too surprised for his liking.
"We got divorced; she was cheating on me with a woman!"
"Oh, that must have been terrible, realising your wife was… Wait, what?" Rachel was confused, had he just said cheating on him with a woman? Or was she so upset about Will that she was going crazy?
"Yeah," Ross said, seeing her confusion, "Carol's a lesbian. Who just so happens to be pregnant with my baby. Marriage sucks huh?" he realised too late the horror of what he had just said.
Rachel turned, as if to walk away, and then changed her mind.
"Ross," she said, "Are you TRYING to hurt me?"
"No, no, no, no! I'm sorry, I didn't think of the effect that sentence would have on you. Please don't be mad."
Rachel sighed, "Its okay Ross. Just, try to be a little more… considerate."
"Hey, Ross," came a voice from behind Rachel, "Who ya talking to?"
It was Chandler with Joey, Phoebe, and Monica."
"Oh, hi Chandler. This is Rachel. Remember, thanksgiving? You met her, she's Monica's best friend from high school and the guy this funeral is for was engaged to her."
Rachel turned around to face them all, "Hi. I'm Rachel Green, I don't know who you two are yet." She gestured to Phoebe and Joey.
"I'm Phoebe Buffay; I was Monica's roommate until a few weeks ago."
"Joey Tribbiani; Chandler's roommate. Hey, how you doin'?"
"JOEY! You can't hit on a woman at her fiancé's funeral!" Monica scolded.
"What, like there's a rule about that or something?"
"Hi guys. Um, I'm going back to my house soon, do you want to come?" Rachel asked.
"Err, no thanks, I don't think I want to." Joey said rather rudely, "I'm feeling a bit, you know, sick."
"Really? A lot of my friends will be there," she could tell he was a ladies man, "and, you know what? They've been known to get reallllly drunk!"
"Ok, I'm there." Chandler said immediately.
"Yeah, I think I'll come too." Ross added.
"Me and Pheebs will come to, but, of course, not for the drunk women."
"Hey! Speak for yourself; some women are so fun when they get drunk. Monica, remember that time you were dancing naked to…"
"Oh, yeah, I'll come!" Joey shouted with excitement.
"Phoebe! That was never supposed to leave the group, now you're telling RACHEL?"
"Well… hey! What's wrong with her telling me?" Rachel said indignantly, "I was the most popular girl in school and I always kept your secrets!"
"Oh reeaaly? What about that time at the time you told Roy Gublik that I had a crush on him?" Monica pointed out, "Or when you told Chip Matthews about…"
"Okay, okay, I get the point!"
"And anyway, I didn't tell her the whole story! Joey interrupted me!" Phoebe argued, "So technically, I didn't tell anyone that you danced naked to the soundtrack of Miami Vice!"
"Ew," Ross said, "could you please not tell stories about my sister naked when I'm around? It's just a little too much information thank you very much."
Rachel started crying again, she wished she had friends like these, the only real friend she had was Will, and now he was dead.
"Rache-el, you need to pull yourself together, not for me, no. for your friends, for Will's family." Phoebe said gently, "I know exactly what you're going through; at least Will didn't kill himself."
Rachel stopped crying and looked at Phoebe, she was actually serious!
"W-what?"
"My mom killed herself when I was a teenager, leaving me and my twin sister orphaned."
"Where's your sister now?"
"Oh, I don't know, probably doing porn or something, she always stole and broke my stuff when we were little. We lost touch when I went to live on the street in a cardboard box."
"Phoebe, why are you depressing Rachel with this?" Monica asked somewhat angrily, "she doesn't need to hear about your childhood woes, her fiancé just died two weeks ago!"
"No Mon," Rachel replied, "I think Phoebe's just trying to show me that I should suck it up, it could be worse, at least I still have a family."
"Dude, why are we standing here talking when there's food, "Joey pointed to the funeral home, "in there!" he started toward the building.
"Hey Joe," Ross shouted, "I think the food will be at Rachel's house!"
Joey came back, looking disappointed, "Aw man, I'm hungry!"
"Joey, you're always hungry!" Monica pointed out, "So shut up and stop being rude. This is a fu-n-er-al, not a wedding!"
"Rachel couldn't stop tears from spilling over the brim of her eyes, "this was going to be our wedding day!"
"Seriously Rachel, you're too sensitive!" Chandler said, "You're like Monica when she misses a spot on a pan times three! And, believe me, that's saying something!"
"Chandler!" Ross almost yelled, "This is her fiancée's funeral, she's allowed to be sensitive! Just because you haven't shed a tear in 15 years doesn't mean other people can't!"
"Whoa, dude, I was just joking. You didn't need to bring out red Ross to yell at me."
"Would you guys just shut up?! You're making Rachel uncomfortable with all your yelling and stuff."
"No, Monica, they're not making me uncomfortable. I think it's great how close you all are. I've only ever had that twice in my life, first with you, then Will. I mean, I'm 23 and I've never lived in my own place. You guys are all independent from your parents and still having a great time. I just started working a year ago, and that's at Bloomingdales, it's not exactly a great job!"
"You know… I need a new roommate, you could move in with me!"
"Really? I mean, we haven't seen each other for 5 years, you wouldn't mind me just moving in?" Rachel was surprised, that didn't seem like the Monica she grew up with.
"Oh, yeah, that's a great idea!" Joey jumped up and down in excitement, "A new hot girl for Joey! And this time, she'll live right across the hall!"
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Okay, I know that's a weird way to end the prologue, but I didn't know what else to write. Just in case you don't know, this will be an R&R story, so if you don't like them, too bad :P. so um, please review, I need to know whether or not I should continue the story. Thanks.