A.N. Hi!! Back with the third chapter. At this point, just so you know, I have absolutely no idea how long this story will end up to be. I could either make it a nice, neat 5 parter, or another epic (haha). I think I'll just see where it goes! Hope you like chapter three—please review!!! I can't believe I have 45 reviews from 2 chapters- you guys are so awesome!! And have a fabulous day (and a Happy Easter, or late Happy Passover, or Happy Sunday!) OH!! I almost forgot- some of you are really a whole lot smarter than me (especially Dupton), and seem to have made a few connections that were unintentional, including the mention of Will, who actually had no connection to the Brad Pitt character in my head. But you guys can imagine him however you want J So bravo to everyone smarter than me! *Maddy ends rambling novel of an author's note*
All at once you look across a crowded room
Too see the way that light attaches to a girl.
"You promised, Chandler. You said ten thirty, and I stayed home because you were going to call!"
Chandler held the phone away from his ear as Evelyn whined for several more moments, before bringing it back and closing his eyes.
"Ev, I'm sorry I ruined your night. But seriously, I just forgot, okay? Nothing sinister, no ulterior motive, no hidden subconscious meaning. I fell asleep watching a movie, and called you as soon as I woke up this morning. I'm sorry, but it happens."
"Watching a movie with who?" she asked, her voice as warm as a steel trap.
"Ross, who else?" he lied. Ross had been sick for days and was asleep last night before eight. He and Monica had been spending the past week together, just joking around and watching TV. Chandler didn't know why he didn't want Evelyn to know that, but he didn't.
"Evelyn, I'm sorry. It won't happen again."
"Okay," she said, her voice softer. "I'm sorry, baby… I guess I just miss you. I over-reacted. But I know it's harder on you. I mean, I'm home, with my friends… you're in Long Island with… Ross."
"It's not so bad. I'm having a lot of fun, actually," said Chandler.
Evelyn's brief pause before her "I'm glad," revealed her true feelings, which were the exact opposite. If they weren't together, he should be miserable, was her general sentiment, one that he clearly did not share.
"Chandler!" Monica called as she bounded through the back door. "Could you help me load the car?"
"Just a second!" he yelled back.
"Monica?" Evelyn asked, unsuccessfully trying to hide the bitterness in her voice.
"Yeah, I have to go," he said, knowing the trouble he was asking for. "I promised I'd help her."
"With what?"
"Bring some stuff over to Rachel's. She's having a party tonight."
"Are you going?" she asked.
Chandler hadn't even been sure he was, especially with Ross still practically comatose on cough syrup, but something about her controlling tone and the constant guilt trip she was giving him made him reply, "Yeah, I am."
"I thought Ross was sick," she said sharply.
"He is. I'm going by myself."
"By yourself, or with her?"
"Her?" he echoed. "She has a name. And she's my friend, and yes, I'm going to the home of another friend who is having a party, where I will most likely meet a group of their collective friends and proceed to socialize with them."
"Don't be an asshole," she seethed.
"Going out on New Years Eve is me being an asshole?"
"Forget it, Chandler. Do what you want. Go get completely wasted with Monica and screw her and get it over with," she said, right before she hung up.
Chandler groaned, and prepared to re-dial her number and apologize, again. He had to hold the record on number of apologies before noon.
"Hey, the card table's heavy. What are you doing?" Monica asked, entering the living room. He looked at the phone, and back at her.
"Nothing," he said, hanging up the receiver and following her into the kitchen. "I'm ready for my heavy lifting."
"You sure you don't want me to stay home and hang out with you?" Chandler asked Ross as he ran a comb through his hair.
Ross shook his head and sneezed from under the afghan on his bed.
"I'm fine, man. My night's gonna be all about Kleenex, NyQuil, and Dick Clark. Even my parents are getting out of here. You'd die of boredom." Ross sneezed again, which set off his hacking cough.
"Or of germs," Chandler grimaced.
"Plus, I'm glad you'll be there. To keep an eye on the girls," he wheezed.
"Okay, I'm getting out of here before I end up in intensive care," Chandler deadpanned, grabbing his wallet. "Call me if you need anything- like an ambulance."
Downstairs, Monica was already on the couch waiting for him.
"I can't believe I was ready before you," she said, rolling her eyes. "You're so high maintenance."
He couldn't help but look her up and down as she stood up. The red silk halter top she wore was practically backless, and her jeans slung just low enough on her hips to reveal a half inch of skin when she moved.
She pulled a black cardigan over her shoulders and flipped her hair out from beneath it's collar. "Ready?" she asked.
"Yeah," he said. She halted him with her arm as he headed for the door.
"Hey, you look nice," she said, almost as if surprised. The dark blue shirt he wore emphasized his blue eyes, and she hardly ever saw him dressed up.
"You're not disgusting to look at, either." She punched him lightly.
"Can you ever just be serious?" she asked, shaking her head.
"Nope."
There were already close to fifty people at the Green's house when they arrived. Rachel ran over to them as soon as they walked through the door.
"You guys, this is insane. Amy invited like her entire graduating class or something! I'm so screwed if the neighbors tell my parents…" she rambled nervously.
"Rach, relax, it's fine. It's not even that loud. You can't even hear that much from outside," Monica said, exaggerating the truth to calm her friend.
"Really?" she asked. "Okay, good. Because this is only, like, the best party ever! Hi Chandler!"
"Hey," he greeted.
"Okay, Mon, everyone's already here, Holly and John and Beth are over there, and Lauren and Ashley are right there, and of course, Will is right there," she said pointedly.
Chandler's head whipped faster than Monica's did to the corner Rachel pointed to. "And, I must say, he looks really good," Rachel said, raising her eyebrows suggestively.
"Okay," Monica said.
"I mean, like really hot, like off the charts, ridicul-"
"I said okay, Rachel!" Monica interrupted. "Why don't you go get a drink?"
"Okay!" she said, making her way back towards the kitchen.
Monica smiled at Chandler a little awkwardly as she took off her sweater.
"Is this weird? Bunch of people you don't know?"
"I know you," he said, taking her cardigan from her. "And Rachel. And I've heard stories of Rachel's hot, slutty sister. Who is where, by the way?" he joked.
"There," Monica said, pointing across the crowded room to a scantily clad Amy Green dancing on the Geller's twenty year old card table.
"Nice," Chandler said sarcastically. "I'll go get us drinks."
When he came back out of the kitchen, Will was throwing his arms around Monica excitedly. He approached them.
"How are you? You look… awesome," Will was saying, holding her hands and surveying her. She grinned. "You too," she said. "How's UConn treating you?"
"Pretty good," he said. "I've missed the old crew though. Especially you," he said, lowering his voice. Monica noticed Chandler at that moment.
"Hey!" she said.
"Hey," he replied, handing her one of the two plastic cups he was carrying.
"Will, this is Chandler, Chandler, this is Will." The two shook hands.
"Nice to meet you, Chandler."
"You too," he said.
"Chandler!" Rachel squealed, grabbing his arm suddenly and jerking him away. "You have got go meet our friends! Come on!" she pulled him away. Chandler gave Monica a helpless smile before being lost in the crowd.
Will laughed. "Rach's had a few already, huh?"
Monica agreed. "So, are you here with anyone?" she asked.
"No. There isn't anyone," he said honestly.
"Come on," she said with a smile. "A suave starting short-stop like yourself?"
"Doesn't quite impress the way it did in high school."
She laughed. "You mean, like it did with easy-to-impress me?"
"Hey, do you wanna get some fresh air with me for a minute?" he asked abruptly.
"Sure…" she agreed.
Chandler watched Will lead Monica out the back door from his seat in between Rachel and Holly on the couch. Holly was drunkenly entertaining them with tales of her college experience and Rachel was half listening, half keeping an eye on her wild child older sister. Trying to ignore the unfamiliar feeling that overcame him as he watched who he could only assume was Monica's high school boyfriend lead her through the crowd with his hand lingering a little too low on her back.
"So, I've sent you a few letters," Will said. They sat on Rachel's porch swing, each nursing a beer.
"Yes. I meant to thank you," she said.
"So you got them then. I wasn't sure when I didn't get a response. I guess NYU has you too busy for old friends," he teased, only half kidding.
"Not at all," she protested. "It's not like that."
"Then what's it like?"
She picked a piece of lint off her jeans. "We were pretty clear about the way we left things in August," she finally said.
"Yeah. I remember. We said we would stay friends. Last time I checked, friends still sent eachother letters."
"I know. I'm sorry I've been MIA. I was just unsure of how to… be, with you."
"I've missed you, Mon," Will said. "I know we were never like, officially dating, but… you're the only girl I ever really cared about." He put a hand on her knee and she looked at him, then removed it gently.
"I care about you too."
"…But?"
"But I'm having a really great time at college. I'm meeting all these new people and I have this totally separate life, and I love that. I really can't go back, now."
"You can't tell me you don't feel anything for me. I know you," he said. He leaned in to kiss her, but she turned her face.
"Is it that guy? Charlie?"
"Chandler," she corrected. While she answered "No, it's not," she didn't know why it felt like a lie.
"So, what's the deal with Monica and that guy?" Chandler asked Rachel casually.
"Will?" she asked, just drunk enough to be completely honest but not too drunk to be coherent. "Oh, they had this weird relationship last year. He was this super popular baseball player and they were lab partners. He started hanging out with our group of friends a lot, and then asked her to prom… there was this total attraction and they were kind of together but not really, you know? He didn't want to get too involved before the summer and she didn't want to get hurt so they just kept it casual."
"Casual?" he asked, raising his eyebrow.
Rachel laughed. "Please, they didn't have sex or anything, because she wouldn't," she said too loudly. Chandler hushed her. "I didn't ask you that," he hissed.
"That's what you wanted to ask. Since when are you so interested in Monica, anyway?" she asked.
"Is your sister supposed to be smoking in the house?" he asked quickly. She hurried away, momentarily rescuing him from answering that question, even to himself.
After leaving a disappointed but understanding Will on the porch, Monica returned to the party to find Chandler. She had to figure out why she was feeling like this, and if her sudden apathy toward Will, who she had been completely obsessed with, had something to do with Chandler. She found him still on his first beer, leaning against the wall.
"Sorry," she said, standing next to him with her back to the wall.
"Oh, that's okay. Everything all right?"
"I think so. We just had something he wanted to talk about."
"You never told me you had a boyfriend," he said, trying to keep the jealousy out of his voice.
"For one thing, I don't, and for another, does it matter?" she asked pointedly.
"I don't know," he admitted quietly. She stepped back, surprised.
"What?" she asked, fidgeting with her belt buckle.
"Nothing," he said quickly.
"Okay…"
"I'm sorry, I don't know… I don't know what my deal is," he said in frustration.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know why I'm asking all these jealous questions and getting… I don't know… agitated about this guy. I don't know why… why I can't stop thinking about you, and why my phone's been vibrating in my pocket this entire time and I know it's Evelyn, and I don't care."
Monica looked up at him curiously. "What are you saying?"
"One minute to go!" yelled a drunken guest, as a crowd hurrying to get to the TV and watch the midnight countdown pushed Monica into Chandler.
"I'm saying I'm confused," he said. "And you look beyond beautiful. And I'm being serious, like you asked me to be."
She blushed. "I'm confused too," she admitted. "I'm always thinking about you, wanting to be around you, and you have a girlfriend, and it's wrong, and I can't… I can't make myself want to be with Will, or even explain to him why I don't want to be."
"I'm so incredibly attracted to you," he said lowly, licking his lips. Their faces were inches apart in the compactness of the crowd.
"I know," she said, evading his intense gaze.
"10! 9! 8!" the count down continued.
"I'm kissing you at one," Chandler said.
"No. No, Chandler," she protested, but didn't move.
"Yes. At one, I'm kissing you."
"You'll regret it. You're drunk."
"I haven't even had a whole beer. I might regret it, but I don't care. I'm kissing you at one."
She stared at him. "Okay," she said finally.
"Three, two-"
His lips were on hers before "1", actually. As if he couldn't wait any longer, he covered her mouth with his. Her body had never responded so completely to something, and she pressed herself closer to him almost involuntarily. His tongue pushed past her lips and her hands tangled in his hair as party horns were blown, confetti strewn, and people cheered, kissed, and sang around them, but Chandler and Monica were lost in only each other.
They knew subconsciously that there were going to be consequences when they finally pulled themselves apart and back to reality. So they just kept kissing, until their lips were swollen and their hair mussed from the other's hands, long after the TV was turned off and the crowd had gone back to their respective activities before the countdown. Both afraid of what would happen once their moment was over, they held onto it for as long as they could.
How long was THAT?!?? Sorry to leave you all hanging, but I had to cut it off somewhere! Thanks for reading- please don't forget to review! Thanks!