Disclaimer: I do not own either friends or Joey and am not making any money on this story whatsoever.
Chapter One ------
One door down, the hall was half done, he only had half a hallway and one door to go. Three steps and it would be over, why did the walk seem so difficult, it had never been hard before, probably because he was never walking to anything other than normal before, now he was walking towards a future he didn't know if he was ready for, he was walking towards letting somebody else in on his secret, he was about to confess what he had been bottling up for what felt like an eternity. He was about to bare not only his soul but his heart as well, something he had never bore before.
As he was standing there, in the middle of the hall, in the middle of two closed doors, one of which led to what could potentially be freedom from the pain which was now cursing his being and the other of which led to a life of solitary longing and hopelessness, his mind kept on flashing back to events gone by, events which at the time had seemed just another part of that day, another part of normal, which had seemed insignificant, which now seemed so much more.
Eight Years Earlier
"Do you think its wrong that we still come here?" asked a beautiful light brown haired woman who was currently perched on top of the monkey bars in Central Park.
"WRONG!" exclaimed the dark haired man beside her, "Why would it be wrong. It'd only be wrong if we were old and I don't known about you but I am not old!"
"You're older than me," the woman stated matter-of-factly, but the sparkle in her eye gave away her amusement at the indignation in his tone.
"Well that settles it then, neither of us are old," he said with a definite nod of his head.
"Well I suppose even if we were claimed to be old we could simply say we're recapturing our youth or something to that effect," she said with a little laugh while running her fingers though her hair.
"Yeah! Yeah, we could do that," he said agreeing enthusiastically.
"Ok sweetie that's enough for today," she said jumping down to the ground, "I've got to get back to work, walk me?" she asked looking up at him and sticking out her arm.
"Of course," said the man jumping down beside her and taking the offered arm, "lead the way."
The two walked out of the park arm in arm chatting merrily about everything and nothing. They were just two of a group of six, they were best friends, they were completely comfortable in the others presence and they loved each other as all friends do and that was it.
Almost two years had passed since that day and the pair were once again back in Central Park. This time the man could be seen dragging the woman by the arm through the park.
"Where are you taking me and why am I blindfolded?" asked the woman exasperated.
"Just be patient," he said continuing to pull her.
Finally they reached their destination.
"Okay here we are," he said removing the blindfold, "Happy Birthday!" he exclaimed.
"You got me a skateboard!" she said with false excitement.
"Yep and I picked it up on sale so its non-returnable," he said with a mischievous gleam in his eye.
"I wouldn't -"
"Yeah right," he said cutting her off before she could even finish that false proclamation.
"You're not actually expecting me to ride this thing are you?" she asked eyeing the board wearily.
"Ah yeah, I am," he said rolling his eyes.
"Is it also non-refundable?" she moaned.
The man just laughed heartily at that.
"Well at least you picked a pretty one," she mumbled eyeing the baby pink Barbie top.
"Come on just give it a go, you might even end up liking it," he said trying to push her in the direction of the skateboard.
"No way, I could hurt myself," she said backing away slightly.
"Don't be such a baby, besides I thought of that."
"You thought! Well that's an achievement in itself," she commented dryly.
"Hey! I might not be smart but I still got feelings," he said slightly hurt, "Now try these on," he continued, pulling a florescent pink helmet and matching knee and wrist guards out of a brown paper bag.
Ten minutes and five short lived arguments later the woman was standing on top of the skateboard clad in all the gear she had been given, looking ridiculously cute, hands shaking and grasping the shirt of the man for dear life.
"Calm down, I won't let you get hurt. Now bend your knees a little and let go of me. I'm going to give you a little push," he said, eyes twinkling in amusement.
"No, no, don't push, there will be no pushing," she cried fretfully, "just standing is nice." The man ignored her pleas and gently began to make her move.
All went fine for about fifteen seconds, and then everything went wrong. First, the skateboard began to gather up much more speed than it should have. Then a kid ran out in front of her. Somehow, miraculously, she managed to turn the skateboard and stay on. Unfortunately she turned right into a tree. With an ear-splitting high-pitched scream she crashed right into it. The board went up, her bum went down, hitting the pavement with a painful thud.
"Oh my god! Are you alright?" yelled the man slightly hysterically.
"I think I broke my butt," the woman mumbled, groaning and rolling over onto her stomach.
"Should we go to the hospital?" he asked panicked, "Maybe you hit your head."
"Yeah just help me up," she answered in a pained tone.
He helped her hobble to her feet and began to lead her towards the nearest place to hail a cab.
"Oh wait, the skateboard!" he exclaimed suddenly.
"Leave it," came the sharp reply.
"Well I guess it did only cost me twelve bucks." She glared at him as they kept walking.
Three hours later the pair exited the hospital. The woman was frowning but the man was laughing.
"I can't believe you broke your but!" The man laughed louder.
"I didn't brake my but, I fractured my coccyx," she said shooting a glare in his direction.
"Whatever you say dude." He kept a straight face for a good eleven seconds before bursting out into peals of laughter once more, "You broke your but!"
The woman smacked him around the head then stuck her hand into the air and yelled out, "Taxi!" before hopping into a yellow cab and trying very hard not to brake out into laughter herself.
Three years later the brown haired woman dragged her feet moodily into her apartment. She went straight for her bedroom, changing into her pajamas in an attempt to get comfortable and be able to forget her day.
When she walked out of her bedroom she was startled to see someone else in the kitchen, who currently had their head in the fridge, and their bottom was the only thing that could be seen.
"Hey!" she exclaimed.
A loud bang was heard next and then just as suddenly a dark head popped out of the fridge. The blue eyes of the woman, which had jumped wide in shock, relaxed completely when she saw who it was.
"Oh sorry sweetie, I didn't know you were here. Is your head ok?" she asked looking on worriedly as he rubbed the part that had connected with the roof of the fridge.
"Yeah its fine. I'm sorry too, I thought everyone was supposed to be out tonight" he apologized from his position in the kitchen.
"Don't worry about it," she waved him off, "What are you doing here?"
"Oh our video player is broken, I was just planning on using yours," he answered.
The woman walked over and flopped tiredly onto the couch, "What are we watching?" she asked.
"Titanic," he answered grabbing the cassette off of the table and walking over to the lounge area, "I haven't seen it yet and everyone is always going on about how good it is."
"Oh it's great," she said excitedly.
The two settled into an embrace on the couch and watched the movie together. When it was finished the woman turned to her side and switched on a lamp before turning back only to find a very misty eyed best friend beside her.
"Oh sweetie, are you alright?" she asked softly while stroking his arm.
"Yeah I just have something in my eye," he answered unconvincingly.
"You don't have to lie to me." She bore her blue eyes into his fudge brown ones and his resolve finally broke.
"Those two had only each other and then he died and she had to live without him for like a hundred years. She had to marry someone else and she couldn't even talk to people about him. It's all that stupid mans fault who wanted to make the ship go faster to, I hate that man."
"Oh sweetie, it's alright, they were together at the end," she said while rubbing his back in an effort to comfort him.
"Yeah but they had to die to be together, that sucked!"
The two sat on the couch for quite a while talking about the movie before finally drifting off to sleep, only to be found hours later by their other four friends.
Now here he was, back in the present, those memories and many others playing like a motion picture through his mind. It had only been one week since he realized he was completely and totally in love with the woman he had friends with for so many years. He truly had no idea how long he had been in love with her but he had an inkling that it was probably since around the time she waltzed into his life eight and a half years before, sopping wet, in a beautiful white wedding dress.
Joey Tribbiani took the final three steps into the apartment that was situated across from his, the last three steps into the next phase of his life.
"Hey Chandler, have you got a minute? I really need to talk to you," Joey asked his best friend.
"Yeah ok, is this a cold pizza talk or a left-over meatloaf talk?" asked Chandler going to the fridge.
Just when Joey was about to answer the apartment door burst open. It was Ross.
"Hey Chandler, I really need to talk to you," he exclaimed out of breath.
Chandler looked towards Joey who lowered his eyes, "Cold pizza," he answered quietly.
"Well can it wait?"
"Sure," he answered before turning to leave.
"I think I'm still in love with Rachel," he heard Ross say to Chandler and he could not bear to hear it. He kept walking and neither of the other two men noticed.
Six years had passed since that day, and Joey Tribbiani was now a completely different person. He had experienced love but he had also experienced loss. In all of his years he could only truthfully say he had been in love twice. The first time it had been a disaster, it had hurt him from the very beginning, and the second time it had ended in disaster. The second had ended a year ago from tomorrow, a day that he was dreading immensely.
He lived alone now. He had one of his best friends living across the way and family who were constantly on his doorstep. He had a brilliant job, a star in a hit T.V show, but that came at a price. Constantly he was put into the public eye. If he went to a bar to drown his sorrows he was labeled for months after as a tragic alcoholic who was still suffering after his recent loss, if he walked down the street an ignored the people who came up to him, he was labeled rude and insufferable. He was surrounded by people, by friends and by hundreds of adoring fans but he was alone, he had lost his will to live his life properly a year ago, and he did not know if he would ever get that will back.
A/N: I'd like to thank every person who took the time to read this. There is much more to come so please keep looking for the updates and also some feedback would be much appreciated, so if you could just leave a little review that would be fantastic.