Helloo it's been quite a while again... I just have too many excuses, I'm sorry.
But, I'm glad to hear that I'm not a freak. And yes, I agree with you guys! I'm giving you some personal thanks here for a change..
hugefriendsfan00 - Aww, thank you :) good to know!
anistoncox - Perv or not, I sure do agree..! Thank you.
The Irish Gleek - Haha I know, I wasn't planning on that either, it just suddenly popped into my mind just like most of my ideas, and I decided to go for it. I tried my best and it's great to know you think I nailed it! Thank you so much!
Prof-the F.R.I.E.N.D.S fanatic - Monica would be proud! I'm just gonna do the same..
1. Great! You're reading my mind, I guess I do need some kind of a filler thing on the side just to keep it going or whatever. Your opinion helped!
2. Yay!
3. Well, um.. I think I'm in love with you.
PS. Thank you very much!
Blunz - Thanks, that's what I thought! Phew, one thing less to feel like such a freak for.
Mondlerfan101 - Really? I'm glad you thought so! Thank you :)
Pola - Aw, thank you so much :) I love Matteney too!
Guest - Okay..!
Well there you go.. also thanks to everyone else who's reading this, if somebody is :) Speaking of Matteney though, did you see the mini reunion video with Matthew, Courteney and Jennifer in it? It made my life complete.. almost.
What a long author's note, oh dear. Anyways, here's the next chapter..
Chapter 11 ~ Keys
She figured us out. Rachel freaking figured us out. What do I do? Should I just admit it or pretend that she's wrong? Definitely going with pretending.
"What do you mean..?" I ask, just a little too quickly.
"You know what I mean!" Rachel hisses, still pointing at me.
I exhale shakily as I realize there's no point in trying to deny it. It was pretty obvious, after all. "Okay.. Okay, Rach. The truth is-"
"You don't have to tell me, I already know the truth!" Rachel cuts me off. "I know exactly what you and Chandler were doing in there."
"Look, I didn't want to lie to you-"
"But Monica, you know that I'm the biggest fan of hers! Did you just have to meet her first?"
I open my mouth to respond before even noticing that her words make no sense. "What..?"
Rachel rolls her eyes, frustrated, before some kind of realization hits her. Suddenly her lips curl up into a soft smile. "Oh my god - of course! I'm sorry, Mon, now I get it. Sorry."
"Get what?" I shake my head in confusion, having no idea what she's talking about.
"You know, that you're planning me a meeting with Nora Bing," Rachel says excitedly.
"What?"
She frowns. "Oh, it's supposed to be a secret, like a surprise meeting kinda thing?"
I give it a thought before shrugging my shoulders. "Sure... yeah."
"Well that's okay, I promise I'll act surprised," Rachel says with a smile before rushing to hug me. "I can't believe you're doing this for me!"
"Shh, it's a secret, remember?" I say with a laugh. "You know nothing about it."
Rachel pulls back. "Oh yeah, absolutely nothing," she agrees.
How the hell did she come up with that? She really must be at least obsessed with Nora Bing. Well, as long as she's not suspecting the truth, fine by me. Now we'll just have to plan a surprise meeting.. with Chandler's mom.
"Let's go inside," Rachel suggests.
"Sure," I say.
Rachel tries the handle, but it turns out to be locked. She looks at me expectantly as we stand there for a moment. "So... you're gonna open the door?" Rachel asks, gesturing towards it.
"What? I don't have the keys," I let out a nervous laugh.
"What are you talking about? Of course you have them."
"You were home when I left so, no, I don't."
"Well, I don't have them either!"
"You don't have the keys?!" I gasp.
"You think I took a break from the making out just to grab the keys with me?"
"Oh my god, Rachel!"
Before I have time to start scolding her, the door behind me opens.
"What's going on?" Chandler asks as he joins us in the hallway, Joey close behind.
"Neither of us have the keys to our apartment!" Rachel says, on the verge of tears.
"Don't you start crying when this is all your fault!" I say.
"But.. but -" Rachel starts, but as expected, starts to cry.
"Jeez.." I roll my eyes at her. "What the hell do we do now?"
"Well, you could always come to our place," Chandler says, winking at me.
I look at him, trying to hide my smile. "I don't think we'd be able to sleep well," I point out, knowing that is completely true.
"Who cares? It's already five in the morning," Chandler says, giving me a look.
I shake my head. "I care."
"Yeah, me too," Rachel sobs. "I have some stuff to do tomorrow."
"Hey!" Joey snaps his fingers suddenly. "Don't we have like a key to their apartment?"
"Wait - you have a key to our apartment?" I ask. "How is that possible?"
The guys share a look before Chandler lets out a sigh - he always does that, especially when he's about to tell something serious or important. "I, um.. Well, the last person who lived there," he motions towards our apartment, "she was my girlfriend."
I stare at his serious face, my eyebrows rising in surprise. Wow.. I did not see that coming. "What? Really..?"
"Yeah, and later she had this really hot roommate who had nothing to do with me," Joey says.
"Joe," Chandler rolls his eyes. "I'm just gonna tell the story.. So, my girlfriend's.." his eyes land on me for a second before he corrects, "my then-girlfriend's friend needed a place to stay, so that's how she got a roommate. And Joey here," he puts his hand on Joey's shoulder, "decided to sleep with the roommate without calling or even talking to her again. I'll tell you once more; good job, man."
Joey just nods with a weary smile on his face, clearly finding the subject uncomfortable.
"What happened after that?" Rachel asks.
"Well, as you can imagine, things got very awkward. Susie - that was her name - for some reason she started to blame me for what had happened between Joey and Laura, and one day they just moved out," Chandler explains.
So they had left right before we moved in? Am I just some kind of a substitute to this Susie person? I can't be, can I? Oh dear. I know that was the short version of the story, and I am so going to ask more when I'm alone with him.
"Oh.. I had no idea," I say and see Rachel nodding along. "Sorry."
Chandler shrughs negligently. "Why would you be sorry?" he asks, but soon continues, "Let's just get the keys so you can go to sleep at your own place.."
Since when did he start wanting me to go back to my apartment? I'll tell you; since he told the story. Now he's avoiding me, and I need to talk to him.
Reality hits me when Joey says something. "It's locked."
All the three of us turn to look at him in disbelief. "What?" we ask in unison.
"The door is locked!" Joey repeats, once again trying to open the door with 19 on it.
"It can't be," Chandler says, rushing to try the handle.
"Yeah, it wasn't locked when we came in," Rachel adds.
"Well, it is now," Joey sighs. "But Chandler, you have the keys, right?"
Chandler turns to look at him in frustration. "Of course! That's why we're still standing out here," he says sarcastically.
"Dude, relax," Joey says. "Do you have a bobby pin?"
"Yeah," Chandler says, starting to search his hair. "Oh no - wait, I'm not a nine-year-old girl."
"Then why do you throw like one?" Joey scoffs with a restrained smile on his face.
Chandler simply glares at him before turning to us. "Do you have any bobby pins?"
"No," Rachel says, and I shake my head as a response.
"Hey, what if one of you gave me the under wire from your bra?" Joey suggests.
Rachel and I share a terrified look. "What?" I ask with a laugh.
"No way," Rachel counters.
"Come on, we need to get inside!"
"But I'm not.. I'm not wearing a bra," I say quietly, glancing at Chandler accusingly. But as intended, the other two don't notice.
Instead, all eyes turn to Rachel. "Yeah, me neither," she says. "See? I'm in my pajamas."
Chandler rolls his eyes, his hands running through his hair in frustration. He breaks the silence by letting out the deepest sigh. "Great, now we'll have to stay here for the night," he says finally.
"What do you mean? Doesn't the janitor have the keys too?" Rachel asks.
"Yeah, of course. He's probably been waiting for something like this to happen at five o'clock in the morning right since he saw you for the first time," I say bitterly.
"Don't blame this on me! You don't have the keys either, we're both in this," Rachel says.
I let out a sigh. "Fine, fine! Sorry," I give in, sitting down on the floor against our door. "What, now we just wait until Mr. Treeger comes?"
"Guess we have no choice," Joey mutters, sitting down against his door.
"Yes, we do," Chandler says. "Ross said he'd come over before work, so he'll come in a few hours."
Rachel sits down next to me. "Yeah, so? Are his karate skills good enough to break down these doors?" she asks, causing me to smile. I find the way Ross pronounces the word 'karate' very hilarious, and now that Rachel said it, it's even funnier.
"I'm thinking no, but he always carries all of his keys around and he's got one to our place," Chandler says, also sitting down, next to Joey and opposite me.
"I hope so," I sigh quietly before yawning. "Tomorrow - or today is gonna be hell. I have to go to work and there's no way I'll ever be able to fall asleep out here."
"And I have to go shopping in the morning," Rachel says. Chandler and I both give her a look. "What?" she frowns.
"Nothing."
We sit there for a minute, before Joey's loud snoring causes us to wince.
"Yeah, that'll make it easier to fall asleep," Chandler mutters, gently moving his friend's head away from his ear.
Joey's snoring doesn't seem to be a problem to Rachel, as we look at her falling asleep in less than ten minutes. When she's definitely asleep, I turn my head to look at Chandler. And he's not staring back at me. I nudge his foot with mine to get his attention, and that's when he abandons his thoughts to stare at me back silently.
"I'm tired," I whisper truthfully. It's been awhile since I've been this tired - and yet I still can't sleep.
"Come here," he says, sitting up more.
I look hesitantly at Joey - then Rachel.
"Come on, they're unconscious," Chandler says.
That's true.. I crawl next to him and he takes me willingly into his embrace. Wrapping my arms around his torso, I feel his hands starting to stroke my hair soothingly.
"What if they wake up and find us cuddling like this?" I ask. This sneaking around is already starting to stress me out.. but I know it's for the best.
"We'll just tell them that you were cold or something," he suggests.
"Well, that's true. And you're really warm."
"And you're beyond hot."
"Don't go there, I'm seriously tired," I say with a smile.
"Fine," he says before pausing. "Was everything okay with you and Rach? 'Cause I heard some yelling."
"Oh, totally," I say. "It's just that we have to plan her a surprise meeting with your mom."
"What?"
"Don't even ask."
And he doesn't. We sit there in silence, completely lost in our own thoughts.
I keep thinking about this Susie girl.. I wonder what she was like. How come she blamed Chandler for something that had nothing to do with him? And is Chandler still in love with this woman? What if I'm not the one who's special to him? What if he's thinking about her right now?
Yeah, I'm crazy, and way too tired for this. I'm going to have this conversation with him later on. Now I just wanna close my eyes...
Stirring awake in the next morning, I open my eyes slowly. I find myself lying on my bed, alone. I can't help letting out a sigh - what a familiar feeling.
But wait a minute.. Didn't we sleep in the hallway last night..? Yeah, I'm still wearing the same clothes.. or the lingerie and the robe. So what am I doing here?
I turn to look at my watch, and it shows 11:15. Oh god, and I don't have an evening shift today! I'm so late for work!
I get up in hurry, getting a head rush from standing up so fast. I don't have time to care, I just start changing into my work clothes. My makeup from yesterday looks awful right now but I really don't have time, so I just leave my room as soon as I've changed.
Entering the living room, I find Chandler sitting in the kitchen and eating something.
He turns to look at me, giving me a wide smile. "Morning, Monica and the boobies," he says.
I shake my head, for the first time ever able to ignore his grin. "Not funny. I had to be at work like 2 hours ago," I say, coming to the kitchen to grab some water. "Why was I sleeping in my room anyway?"
"Well, you were asleep when Ross came in the morning, so I just carried you there."
"And why didn't you wake me up earlier?"
"I tried once, and in a way that I thought you'd appreciate. But you just told me to.. leave you alone and go pick up the sock that I keep next to my bed. I took that as a sign to do so."
I roll my eyes. "Well, I'm relieved to know that the sock isn't there anymore, but still you should've waken me up."
"Okay, sorry. But seriously, you're still going?"
"I have to," I say, drinking my water.
I hear him standing up and soon I can feel his arms snaking around my waist.
"What if you didn't go at all?" he suggests in my ear. "I mean if you think about it, you kind of owe it to me. The other day I didn't go when you didn't want me to."
"That's different," I mutter, feeling his stubble against my cheek.
"Yeah, but come on, Mon. I took the day off, and Joey has an audition, Rachel went shopping.. we have two apartments to ourselves, what do you say?"
I sigh, breaking away from his embrace. "I say that I have to go! You see, all jobs aren't like yours. I can get fired for just being late."
He cocks an eyebrow. "Well, isn't that just good? You hate your job, right?"
"Well, you hate yours!" I protest. "And I need to make money. In case you didn't notice, Rachel just got fired."
"And she's shopping?"
I roll my eyes, ignoring the question. "Chandler, I'm not even sure if my salary is enough for us. As much as I hate it, I need this job and I would really, really appreciate it if you understood."
"I do understand."
"Well then, don't make me feel bad about it."
"Okay.." he shrugs. "I didn't know it meant that much to you."
Exhaling, I give him a weak smile. "I mean, I really wanna stay. You know that, right?"
"Well, for a minute there, I wasn't so sure."
Unable to suppress my smile, I take a step closer. "Sorry.. I just really need to go," I say, running my hands up along his arms.
"I guess you do," he says.
I look at him expectantly for several seconds. "Aren't you gonna kiss me?" I ask.
"Aren't you busy?" he asks teasingly, before kissing me happily.
I pull away a moment later. "I am," I respond, heading towards the door. "I hope you're waiting for me when I come home," I wink at him before going, and leaving him smiling like an idiot.
Hahaa, I just had to write the bobby pin -thingy XD
Oh, and there's some familiar names in there! Susie was the girl from season 2, played by Julia Roberts, and Laura was the 'Adoption Lady' from season 10 :D I have no idea why I chose them.
This story is going pretty slow (just like my updates), I guess that's my thing - being slow.
Well, I have a question for you again. I'm not completely sure (my mind changes all the time) but there's probably going to be this scene where Monica isn't present, so do you want me to write it in third person or in Rachel's POV, for example? Please leave a review and let me know what you think! xxo