"The door's open" said Chandler, "you can come in."
Monica turned the knob and stepped into Chandler's room. There wasn't much to the room, just a bed, a stereo, a table and a few posters of partially naked women on the wall..and a funny smell. Monica, instantly attracted by that smell began sniffing around the room. Chandler sat on his bed watching her paw around.
"Uhm Mon..do I want to know what you're doing?" Chandler asked.
Monica whirled around to face him, "there is something rotting in this room and I'm going to find it!!"
"Oh that.." Chandler said rather non-commitedly. He leaned over his bed and pulled half a watermelon out of under his bed. Monica wrinkled her nose and grabbed it from him. She bolted out the door and took that thing straight to the trash chute.
When Monica returned she was carrying a small bottle of air freshener and began to spray it obsessively around the room. Then, looking very satisfied with herself, sat down on the bed next to Chandler.
"So.." Chandler ventured, "have a nice phone call with Richard?"
Monica noticed the way Chandler practically spat out the name of her former boyfriend and filed that information in her brain. "Actually yes I did." she replied, "We ran into each other earlier but he was running late for work so I told him to call me later and we'd catch up. And he called me."
"When's the wedding gonna be? Just remember to send me an invitation" said Chandler vehemently. And with that he stormed out of the room leaving Monica in a daze on the bed trying to figure out what she said wrong. Monica sighed and went after the man.
As Monica walked the streets around the apartment she wondered why she was doing this. Chandler's girlfriend just died, and now what was happening? It was obvious from Chandler's reaction to Richard's phone call that he cared about her and Monica knew that she cared about him too, she cared a lot. It wasn't just a friendly caring either, she remembered the feeling of being in his arms. She knew it wasn't right for her and Chandler to get involved so soon after Kathy's death...but something, definitely not the rational part of her brain, was urging her on.
Chandler had gone to the park, he wanted to be alone but there wasn't anywhere he could could go that wasn't filled with people. So he took the next best thing. He walked past mothers with small, screaming children, old couples feeding the birds and squirrels and past the sexy ladies on rollerblades wearing nothing but shorts and sports bras. He didn't know where it was that he was aiming for but something was telling him to keep walking.
Monica found herself at the park. She found this to be rather odd because she never had really liked the park. There was too many things here to remind her of the life she didn't have. The mothers with their kids made her heart cry out. She tried her best to ingore the clutter of life around her and kept walking. There were joggers, there were dog walkers, there was police, there was some freak running about flailing their limbs wildly..oh wait that was Phoebe. Phoebe flailed her way over to Monica. Monica looked suitably embarrased as Phoebe approached her, children were laughing and pointing, even dogs looked amused.
"Hey Monica!" said Phoebe sounding just ever so slightly out of breath, "wanna run with me??"
Monica shook her head wildly, "noooooo thank you Pheebs. Say, have you seen Chandler around here anywhere??"
"Oh does Chandler wanna jog??" asked Phoebe, with an almost insane grin on her flushed face.
"No Phoebe I don't think he does, I just want to know if you've seen him anywhere." replied Monica.
"Oh well in that case, no sorry Mon, haven't seen him." said Phoebe and began to flail again. Monica waited until she was sure Phoebe was gone before moving on again.
Chandler found what he was looking for, at least he was pretty sure this was what he had been looking for. He had reached a small place in the park dedicated the soldiers of WW II. It was a memorial with a small pond, a statue and a bench. No one else was within 10 metres of him and he felt a sense of peace. He sat down on the bench and put his head in his hands.
Monica found herself enjoying her mid-afternoon stroll in the park even though she had lost all sense of where she was. She saw ahead a small memorial, at least she figured it was a memorial. There was a man, she noticed, sitting on the bench. Probably someone come to pay their respects she figured. It looked like a nice place to sit down though so she made a bee-line for it.
It wasn't until she attracted the attention of the man on the bench that she realized it was Chandler. "Chandler!" she exclaimed.
Chandler looked up at the sound of footsteps, he couldn't believe his eyes. It was Monica and she was calling his name. He didn't really want to see her after what he'd said in the bedroom. But here she was, coming closer and closer, sitting down now..reaching over to touch him now...
At Monica's touch, Chandler shuddered and Monica noticed. She retracted her hand, feeling almost insulted. Stupid stupid, she thought, he probably came here to be alone and now you're scaring him. Chandler snickered. Monica looked up and saw Phoebe again, this time at a distance and saw her flailing about. "Is that Phoebe?" Chandler asked.
"Who else could it be?" Monica said, "No one else in this city would ever run like that." Chandler snorted this time and Monica realized that he was quite amused.
"It actually looks like fun..." Chandler said slowly...and he got up. Monica grabbed his hand in a vain attempt to stop him.
"No Chandler!!". she cried, "don't give in to the madness!!!" But it was useless. Chandler was on his way.