A.N. Here's the next chapter! I'm about to start the whole finals thing (aka, hell week), so you might not see an update from me for a little bit, and I wanted to post this part before all the craziness began! I hope you like it! Please read and review again, if you don't mind, hehe.
xoxo, Maddy.
…And talked a little while about the year…
"No, Monica, the reactions are inversely proportionate to the- we just went over this!" Ross cried, exasperated.
"I know, I'm sorry! I'm just never going to get this," she said, kicking her textbook off the bed in exasperation.
"Well, that'll help you learn it faster," Ross said sarcastically.
"You don't have to get all arrogant, just because I'm not a crazed scientist… if it were English or Psych, you'd be asking me for help," Monica said defensively.
Ross sighed. Tutoring his sister in chemistry had not been his idea, and he knew it was going to be problematic from the start. Their equally competitive natures made them all the more susceptible to frustration when they didn't understand something, and the fact that the other did only served to make them more frustrated.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be obnoxious. I only get this because I took it last year. Now let's try again," Ross said, taking a deep breath.
Monica shook her head. "I can't right now, my brain is totally fried." She stood up. "I'm just gonna go for a run or something."
"It's pouring rain," Ross pointed out.
"Ross!"
"Okay, fine, do whatever you want, you can be so impossible!" he cried as Chandler walked through the door of their double room.
"Uh oh, sibling rivalry. What are we feuding about today?"
"Monica won't let me help her with chemistry."
"Ross is only confusing me more," she argued.
"Dude, first of all, what do you care if she won't let you help her? You've got better things to do, don't you? And Mon, I can help you with chemistry if you want. I did pretty well in that, and you probably won't get as frustrated," Chandler mediated.
They both considered his words.
"You're right, I do have better things to do. I'm going over to Carol's," Ross said, grabbing his raincoat and saying goodbye.
"So, do you want me to help you?" he asked Monica.
"You don't mind?" she asked. Things had gotten much better between them over the past two weeks since they had been back at school, but things were by no means back to normal. In fact, the time they spent together had decreased substantially, and this was probably one of the first moments they had been together alone since they had gotten back.
"Of course not," he said, patting the bed next to him. She sat down and opened her book again. She sat on the corner, he noticed, not right next to him like she used to.
"Before we start… how have you been?" he asked, causing her to look up at him, surprised.
"Fine. Why?"
"I don't know. I just feel like we haven't been spending too much time together lately," he said, picking at a loose thread of his quilt.
"I know," she said. "We've both been busy."
"How's Will?" he asked, unable to keep the edge from his voice.
"How's Evelyn?" she countered, then sighed. "I'm sorry. Will is… fine. We talk a lot on the phone."
"Evelyn's all right. She's been a lot happier lately."
"I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that you haven't been hanging out with me?" Monica said sarcastically.
"Let's not talk about Evelyn," Chandler said.
"Or Will," she added.
"Fine."
"Fine."
Silence. When had things gotten so incredibly weird? They were either hostile, or uncomfortable, and they both hated it.
"I hate how-" Chandler began, just as she started to say, "I wish that-"
They laughed. "Let's just study, okay?" she said.
"Okay."
Two hours later, and somewhere between positive and negative ions, concentration had been lost, as Chandler and Monica were currently sitting across from each other on his bed, Indian style, trying to balance pencils across the bridge of their noses.
"Okay, okay, my turn," he said, tilting his head to the ceiling and carefully placing the pencil across his nose, where it promptly slid off, causing Monica to erupt in more peals of laughter. They didn't understand why it was funny, it just was.
"Wow, you really suck," she said. "My turn."
He watched her scrunch her nose slightly and gingerly put the pencil down, where it balanced for maybe half a second and fell off. "I totally did it!" she declared.
"No way. That wasn't even a whole second, nice try," he scoffed, taking the pencil and trying again.
"I got it!" he exclaimed, the pencil balanced across his nose finally. "I did it, you suck, I rule at the pencil game, bow down to me-" he didn't get to finish, because Monica flicked the end of the pencil with her thumb and forefinger and it flew across the room. He glared at her in disbelief, and she giggled nervously.
"Oh, you are so dead," he said, grabbing her and pushing her down on the floor where he proceeded to tickle her mercilessly, ignoring her pleas for him to stop underneath her hysterical laughter.
"That was evil, you're getting what you deserve," he yelled, before dissolving into laughter himself. They both stopped laughing when they heard the door slam, and looked up to see a very pissed off looking Evelyn.
"Hey Ev," Chandler said, scrambling to get off of Monica and back onto the bed. Monica pulled down her shirt and stood quickly.
"Hi," Evelyn said.
"Hi Evelyn," Monica greeted.
"I was just tutoring Monica in chemistry," Chandler said.
"Oh yeah, I definitely would have guessed that," Evelyn said coldly.
"We got a little stir crazy," he said.
"I'm gonna go catch up with Rachel," Monica said quickly. "See you later?"
"Sure. Call me if you need more help," he said, then threw caution to the wind. "You know, with chemistry or your lacking skills in pencil Olympics."
Monica giggled and shook her head. "Bye Evelyn," she said, overly sweet.
"Bye Monica. Hey, good luck with that chemistry."
"Thanks!" Kill her with kindness, Monica reminded herself, flashing one more smile before leaving Chandler's room.
"Can you just tell me one thing? Why are you so jealous of her?" Chandler exploded after listening to Evelyn rant about him hanging out with Monica and their "inappropriate position" for a half an hour.
"I am not jealous of her," Evelyn scoffed. "I am concerned when I walk in and my boyfriend is lying on top of some freshman slut-"
"She's not a slut, Evelyn, and you know it."
"Defending her, now?"
"Well, yeah! She's my friend, okay, my best friend, these days, and-"
"I thought I was your best friend!"
"My best friend wouldn't attack me all the time, or try to control who I spend my time with!"
"You can hang out with whoever you want. Just don't try to pretend you don't want her."
"What?" was the only response Chandler could get out without lying.
"I see the way you look at her. And I'm not stupid, I know something happened at her house over Christmas."
"If you're so sure something happened, then why are you still with me?" Chandler challenged.
"Notice how you continue to avoid the issue?"
He sighed. "Okay. Fine. Something did happen on New Years. We kissed at Rachel's party," he said, sitting down on the bed. Evelyn's eyes flashed.
"On New Years? The same night you kissed me, you kissed her?"
"Yes. And I didn't tell you, because I wasn't going to do anything about it."
"Yeah, because she's with Will now," Evelyn said sarcastically.
"It doesn't matter, none of it matters. This is over, Ev."
She paused. "This argument?"
"No. Everything. I think we should just quit before we despise eachother."
"Chandler- no. Please. We can work this out."
"All we do is fight, Evelyn. All you do is make me feel guilty, and all I do is resent you fro it. I don't remember the last time I felt truly happy in this relationship. What are we still doing this for?" he asked.
"You can't be with her," she seethed. "She's with someone else. She doesn't want you."
Chandler stood and opened his door for her to leave. "You never did understand. Our relationship is not about Monica. She's not why it got bad, and she's not why I'm ending it."
Evelyn stared at him. "You're going to regret this. She'll never make you happy."
"Why don't you let me worry about making myself happy, and I'll do the same for you," he called after her as she left his room.
Monica hung up the phone at 12:21, nearly an hour after she had picked it up, smiling widely. Rachel looked up from filing her nails and grinned at her friend.
"That was a long conversation," she commented.
"Yeah. Will's visiting this weekend," Monica said casually.
"Really? That's great, Mon!"
"Yeah."
"Are you excited?"
"I guess. I'm nervous," Monica said, standing to change into her pajamas.
"Are you nervous because you're happy, and you're afraid of that?" Rachel asked. Monica shook her head, consistently amazed by the way Rachel knew her every thought, her every fear.
"Right as always," she said. "I don't know. I guess I just… I'm just conflicted. I didn't even know I wanted to like Will again, you know? It kind of crept up on me, while I was all focused on worrying about the Chandler thing. And at first it was just because I didn't have a good reason to say no, but now… now I don't know what's going on. He's coming to visit, and I sort of can't wait."
"I think it's a really good thing, Monica. You and Will have both grown up a lot since last summer, and I know he's a great guy, and that he can make you smile, and that's good enough for me."
"I guess it's good enough for me too, then," Monica said, only half kidding. Someone knocked at the door, and Monica flung it open to reveal a very worn looking Chandler.
"Hey Chandler," she said. Rachel greeted him and continued filing her nails as he flopped down on Monica's bed.
"I broke up with Evelyn," Chandler said dejectedly. Rachel dropped her nail file, and her jaw, and stared at Monica, waiting for her reaction.
"What?" Monica exclaimed.
"I broke up with Evelyn," he repeated slowly.
"I heard you the first time," she said, annoyed. "Why?"
He looked at Rachel hesitantly, who took the hint and excused herself to visit a friend that lived downstairs.
"So? Why?" Monica prodded once she had left.
"It just sucked. I just hated being with her. She picked a fight about you, again, about how we were hanging out."
"She walked in at an unfortunate moment," Monica recalled, cringing.
"Yeah, I guess that didn't look too good. I told her. Everything."
"Really?"
"Yeah. She said she knew something happened, and I confirmed it."
"So it's over, then?"
"Yeah. It's over."
"How do you... how do you feel about that?" Monica asked carefully.
"I feel pretty good about it. I feel better than I did before I did it."
"Well, then… congratulations," she said.
"That's it?" he asked.
"Were you expecting a parade?" she joked.
"No, I guess I just… I guess I just figured that one of the main things between us is gone, now, and I thought you might-"
"Throw my arms around you and ride off into the sunset?"
"No. But at least be happy we could spend more time together again," he said defensively.
"Of course I'm happy about that," she said, her tone softening.
"Good," he replied. "Because spending time with you makes me really, really happy." He leaned in towards her slowly, placing his hand on her thigh. She knew she should stop him, before something disastrous happened, but she was suddenly lost in his eyes, the warm blue eyes she knew so well enveloping her. He was moving in as slowly as he could, as if to give her time to stop him. She felt his breath on her lips, hot and real, and just as he brushed his lips against hers softly, she jerked away and removed his hand.
"You can't do that," she said angrily. "I'm not here for your convenience, when your girlfriend is out of town, the moment you don't have a girlfriend anymore…"
"Monica, it's not like that, please don't think that," he pleaded.
"What am I supposed to think? You didn't even consider the fact that I am with somebody else right now! Somebody who's coming to see me in five days, someone that I actually care about- what am I supposed to think, Chandler?"
"I thought we both wanted this," he said, gesturing between them. "I thought I knew what you wanted."
"Things change," she said. "I haven't been sitting here, waiting for you to come to your senses and dump Evelyn and come running to me. I've been living my own life. And I'm sorry if I ruined some little fantasy you had of breaking of with her and trying things out with me, but I'm not going to hurt Will like you hurt Evelyn."
"You know what? That's fine," Chandler said, standing. "Because I know the only reason you're mad at me is because you want this too, and you're afraid, and you're confused."
"You think you know me so well," she exclaimed incredulously.
"I do. I also know this isn't over," he said. "Have fun with Will this weekend, convince yourself you're doing the right thing, but when you finally realize the mistake you've made, I'll be around. Because I'm not going anywhere without you."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that I'm in love with you, and that I'll wait until you're ready. Whether it's in a week, a month, or a year. I'll be here whenever you're ready," he said, and with that he walked out the door and left Monica alone, her head reeling with what had happened and the implications that it held for her future.
Aaah- don't forget to review if you want me to keep writing! Thanks again, have a superb day!