Another Day In Life: Chapter 5: Roll with it

Chandler sat at a small table outside a LA café with his friend Jeff.

The sun was shining, people in their usual Hollywood attitudes, the paparazzi just around the corner, trying to get a picture of the prestigious Chandler Bing and Jeff Rivers, sitting together, enjoying a cup of coffee.

It had taken him a while to get used to this way of life. Not being able to go out without people yelling his name, knowing that the second you stepped out your front door that you had three different cars following you to figure out where you ate, what you bought at the grocery store, who you talked to.

It was insane. That was the only word that came to his mind when he thought of his life nowadays.

"You ready to get out of here? I think I've had enough sun for one day. And plus, I told the guys I'd be home almost an hour ago." Chandler said, looking over at Jeff.

"Yea I guess I'm ready, I've got nothing to do today anyway." Jeff said, pouting.

Chandler just stared back at him while Jeff gave him a sad puppy dog look. "Fine, you can come over." Chandler said, giving in. Knowing Jeff's usual routine of begging and pleading until Chandler let him follow him around, he had no choice but to give in.

"Yay!" Jeff yelled and hopped up out of his seat, running towards the car.

Chandler just laughed and followed behind him.

((((

"So, what do you guys want to do today?" Joey asked shortly after Chandler had left.

Nikki had gone home to take a shower and run some errands.

"I don't know. What is there to do in LA?" Ross asked, finishing off his bowl of cereal.

"I don't really feel like going out just yet. I'm still tired." Rachel said from her spot on the couch.

"Yea, me either. If we go out I think we should wait until Chandler gets back." Monica agreed.

"Does Chandler have any board games or anything?" Phoebe asked.

"Yea, I think he has some down in the basement." Joey said. "They're in a box next to the furnace."

Phoebe walked over to a door that led to the basement and opened it, listening to it creak with ever inch it moved.

"He doesn't go down here much, does he?" She asked.

"No, he never told me why though. I think it would be great down there if he cleaned it up, it's pretty much just a bunch of boxes of old stuff from when he moved." Joey replied.

Phoebe turned around and walked down the uncarpeted wooden stairs and flicked on the light.

It was a fairly large room, dusty boxes lined the walls and the lights flickered, never finding a steady pace.

She walked around until she found a box marked 'games and stuff' stacked under another unmarked box.

She tried to lift the top one off but it was too heavy, so she carefully started to slide the one she wanted out from underneath it.

Just when she thought it was free, the top box fell over; it's contents spilling across the floor.

She bent down to pick the stuff up and found it was a bunch of pictures of a beautiful girl and videotapes marked 'Amanda'.

She set them off to the side and cleaned up the rest of the mess.

Once she was done, she put them on top of the box with the games and carried it all upstairs.

"Hey Joey? Do you know who Amanda is?" She asked as she set the box down on the floor.

"I don't know. Chandler may have mentioned her a few times like a year after he moved here but I never met her. Why?" He said as he stood up and walked over to her.

"Because I found these video tapes marked Amanda and I was just curious." Phoebe held up her findings so the rest of the group could see.

They all gathered around her and looked at the tapes.

"Well put one in, let's see what's on it." Rachel said as she sat back down on the couch.

"Don't you think that's invading Chandler's privacy? What if he doesn't want us to see the tapes?" Monica said.

"Oh, I'm sure he won't mind." Joey said. "I go through his stuff all the time and he never gets mad at me."

"Ok then, but if he gets mad, it's your fault!" Phoebe replied and walked over to the VCR to put one of the tapes in.

---The video tape---

The screen slowly faded from black to the shot of a beautiful house in the suburbs of what most likely was somewhere in California, judging by the palm trees that lined streets.

The picture was moving around so you could tell somebody was holding the camera and walking with it.

After a close up on the house, Chandler's voice filled the room. "And this, is our beautiful new house in the lovely suburbs of Beverly Hills. By the mention of Beverly Hills, that tells you that we spent a fortune on this house." He laughed and then walked inside.

The camera tilted down towards his shoes as he opened the door.

He tilted the camera back upwards and it showed just how beautiful the house really was, on the inside as well as the outside.

"As you can see, we haven't completely finished moving everything around yet, you can see all of our beautiful boxes are lying everywhere." Chandler laughed lightly and continued walking through the house.

He showed the kitchen, the living room, and various other rooms before walking up the winding staircases that were on the right and left sides of the front entryway.

He came to a set of double doors and opened them, walking inside and showing a very large bedroom with an amazing fireplace.

The camera swung to the left, and on top of a ladder, stood one of the most beautiful women any of them had ever seen.

She was wearing coveralls and a painter's hat, hard at work, painting the room a tan color.

She hadn't noticed Chandler standing behind her yet.

He walked up to her until he was about five feet from the ladder.

"Hey beautiful." He said, she shrieked and spun around, almost falling off the ladder.

Chandler laughed and slowly backed away as she came down.

"And this would be, the most beautiful fish in the sea. Oh, and of course, standing behind her would be my soon to be wife, Amanda." He laughed again.

She laughed and leaned against the ladder. "So now I'm a fish?" She said with a smile on her face.

"You forgot I said beautiful before fish."

"Ok funny man, give me the camera." She came forward and tried to take the camera from Chandler but he kept backing away.

"Chandler come on! I look horrible, don't do this to me! If you don't give me the camera, I won't marry you!"

Chandler finally gave in and handed the camera over, she was laughing so hard, it was obvious that she was having a hard time controlling it.

She finally got it all worked out and pointed the camera towards Chandler.

He looked heavy; he had a lot more muscle, especially in his arms and chest.

He was wearing a pair of jeans, a black T-shirt, and a worn pair of tennis shoes.

His hair was very different; it was really short, like a buzz cut.

"Ah, and this would be handsome in human form." Amanda laughed and zoomed out so you could see Chandler's whole body.

He spun around and walked back and forth like a model.

Amanda kept laughing and Chandler came closer to the camera, but focused his attention on her.

"You like that huh?" He smiled. "Well let me show you what else I can do."

He pushed the camera downwards and kissed her.

You could hear them giggling and then somebody shut the camera off.

A few seconds later the black faded away and another picture came into view.

It was a beach.

Somebody else was holding the camera because Chandler, Amanda and another woman were all lined up along the beach, lying on towels.

The girls were both wearing bikinis and Chandler was wearing an off white pair swim trunks that went down to his knees.

The girl lying next to Amanda opened her eyes and quietly stood up, careful not to wake Chandler or Jennifer.

She grabbed a bucket and headed toward the ocean.

She filled the bucket with water and walked back towards the sleeping couple.

Motioning for the person behind the camera to be quiet, she threw the water across Chandler and Amanda.

They both leaped up of the ground, screaming and yelling.

Chandler looked up towards the laughing woman with a very shocked expression on his face.

"Katie, I am going to KILL YOU!" She shrieked and took off towards the ocean with both Chandler and Amanda chasing behind her.

They got about 15 feet out into the water before Chandler caught up to her and tackled her in the water. Amanda came running up behind and leaped on them both.

"Jeff help!" Chandler laughed as Katie climbed on his back.

Jeff walked to the water edge, still holding the camera, and shouted back. "Looks like you got it under control man!" He laughed.

By this time, Amanda had switched sides and was now also climbing on Chandler's back.

He spun around quickly, making both of them fall off. He tried to hold them under water, but his laughing was making it too difficult.

Amanda and Katie came back up at the same time and pushed Chandler under the water.

He went down and grabbed both sets of legs and came back above the surface, holding a woman in each arm.

With all the strength he had left, he threw them both as far as he could and ran back towards shore.

"Jeff! Run!" He yelled as he took off past him.

Both men took off running but the women gained up to them in no time.

They both jumped on Chandler and tackled him down to the ground.

He rolled onto his back trying to breathe between the laughter.

They were all laughing so hard that it was impossible to talk.

((((

Chandler walked through the front door with Jeff close behind.

He threw his keys on the thin table by the door and called out to his friends, "Guys? Anybody here?"

He spun his head around and looked at Jeff, who just shrugged in response.

They moved further into the house and could hear sounds coming from the living room.

"Hello?" Chandler said again.

They walked up behind the couch where they were all sitting, watching something on TV that neither Chandler or Jeff had noticed yet.

The five friends stared at the TV, so mesmerized by this mystery woman that, they had not noticed that Chandler had come up behind them

Chandler had to smile; his friends really could be engrossed by something so simple.

"What are you guys wa." He stopped mid sentence when he looked up at what was on the screen.

The five friends jumped at the sudden voice behind them and spun around to see Chandler and the man from the video.

He looked at the three figures rolling around on the sand in fits of laughter.

He looked at her.

He looked at her beautiful smile.

He looked at the shine of her bright blue eyes.

He looked at himself.

"Amanda." He said just loud enough to be considered a whisper.

He slowly walked around the couch and kneeled before the TV that was perched up on the wall.

He slowly raised his hand as if he could reach out and touch her.

Before his hand could come in contact with the screen, Jeff came up from behind him and gently pushed his arm down.

"Come on Chandler, get up." Jeff said quietly and wrapped his arms around Chandler's chest in an attempt to pull him up off the ground.

The friends stared at the two men in front of them, confused.

"Chandler come on, she's not really there. It's just a video tape." Jeff tried to talk Chandler out of his trance but he knew it was no use.

This had happened dozens of times before, years earlier.

"Does somebody have the remote?" Jeff turned around and faced the group.

The friends looked at each other as if they didn't know what a remote was.

"Oh! Yea!" Phoebe piped in and held the remote up.

"Well turn the VCR off then!" Jeff yelled, loosing his patience, as if he was expecting these people to know what was going on.

Phoebe searched the remote for the power button and pressed her finger down on it.

"NO!" Chandler yelled as if somebody had just killed her by turning the machine off and making the screen turn to fuzz of black and white.

He jumped up off the ground and stared at the TV with wide eyes.

Jeff took this opportunity to wrap his arms around him again and forced him into one of the stuffed chairs.

He tried to calm Chandler down by speaking quietly to him but he just kept yelling and looking towards the TV.

Ross, Phoebe, Rachel, Joey and Monica all pushed themselves further into the couch, scared by the situation that they were witnessing.

"Bring her back!" Chandler yelled and tried to get up but Jeff shoved him back down.

"Chandler!" Jeff yelled back. "She's gone! She wasn't really there! Just let her go! It wasn't real!"

Chandler stared at Jeff, shocked at his sudden outburst.

He moved his lips but no words came out.

After clearing his throat he was able to manage, "I need some air."

He slowly stood up on wobbly legs and ran a hand through his hair.

"You ok? You don't need your meds do you? Because I have no idea where they are, or if you even still have some." Jeff said as if he was talking to a six-year-old.

"I, I don't, I don't know. Yea, no I'm fine. I just need some fresh air." Chandler stuttered quietly.

"Ok. Just go outside and cool off for a while alright?"

Chandler nodded and headed towards the doors that lead to the back of the house by the beach.

Jeff turned towards the shocked friends.

"I'm sorry you guys. I'll explain in a second, could you just give us a few minutes?"

"Sure," Ross whispered, too confused to say it any louder.

"Ok, hold on, we'll be right back."

Jeff turned and walked towards the doors that Chandler had just gone out of, leaving the guys behind to think to themselves.

T B C

AN: I'm sorry this is so long, I just got carried away, and I used more spaces between the lines. I don't know when I'll update this next, I'll probably update Line of Duty again before this one. Anyway, don't forget to review! I really appreciate good review and bad reviews!

(sorry for any mistakes, like if it's the wrong word in the wrong place, but It's really long and I don't have time to go over this again and check everything.)