Sorry it took so long to update!
Becky: I'm good thanks! I know we haven't spoken in a while:(…I hope to soon!! Oh the role-play is going great!!
Here's the next part!! Tell me what you think!!
Enjoy!
The Truth
By the time Chandler had made his way back to his apartment, he was soaked through and all his friends were waiting for him.
"Where the hell have you been?!" Monica asked as soon as he walked through the door.
"I was thinking…" He replied quietly, hanging his head slightly.
"God, you're soaked!" Rachel exclaimed, quickly handing him a dry towel.
"Thanks…" He mumbled. "I think I'm going to take a shower though…"
He disappeared into the bathroom before anyone could say anything to him.
"You think he's okay?" Rachel asked, concerned.
"Well, no…his best friend just died!" Joey stated. "But give him time…""Yeah, you're right…" Rachel nodded. "If we all support him and all…"
"Course we'll support him!" Ross said. "We're his friends."
"You weren't very supportive early when he told you!" Joey shot back at him.
"What did you expected me to do? Break down in tears!?"
"No…"
"Alright, enough! Both of you!" Monica stepped forward. "Fighting isn't going to help anyone!"
Joey and Ross continued to stare at each other for a few seconds before Joey stepped back.
"Yeah, you're right…I'm sorry.." He said, while Ross nodded.
"Yeah me too…"
They all took their seats again, remaining silent until Chandler re-entered. He finally emerged 20 minutes later, wears a pair of sweats and his thickest jumper.
"Hey, you feeling better?" Rachel asked softly.
"Yeah I guess…" He replied, sighing as he sat down on one of the Barcaloungers.
"You're shaking!" Monica stated, from her position in the other one.
"I can't get warm…" He told them, trying to force a smile to reassure them and not to panic them.
"I'll make you some hot chocolate…" Monica jumped up and moved into the kitchen. Ross and Rachel leaned forward from their positions on the couch, while Joey and Phoebe sat facing him on the bar stools.
"You want to talk about it?" Ross offered.
Chandler looked up, all eyes on him. He shook his head slightly.
"Okay…" Ross nodded. "Is there anything you want?"
Chandler shook his head again before looking back down at the floor. Wondering what had change Ross' attitude; before he had acted like he didn't care at all.
"Well, if you think of anything…just let us know…" Rachel added softly, she sighed when Chandler's only respond was nodding his head, he didn't even look up at her.
Joey glanced around at everyone, silently asking what they should do. Ross shrugged and leant back against the couch. No one spoke, no one knew what to say or do.
"Here's your drink…" Monica said turning to hand to Chandler; she smiled slightly when she noticed he had fallen asleep.
"I guess we should go…" Rachel whispered, standing up.
The others nodded, gathering their things and heading for the door as quietly as they could.
"Night, Joe…" Monica said as Joey walked over to his room.
"Cya in the morning…" He replied before disappearing behind the door, leaving Monica alone with Chandler.
She watched him for a minute before going into his room and bringing out a blanket to cover him up with.
"Sweet dreams…" She whispered, gently kissing his cheek before leaving.
XxXxX
"Morning, guys…" Joey said as he walked into the girls' apartment and saw everyone already there.
"Hey…where's Chandler?" Monica asked.
"He's on the phone again." Joey sat down and reached for the pancakes. "I think he's talking to Kip's wife…"
"So, what's everyone got planned for day?" Ross changed the subject, quickly.
Rachel frowned slightly at him, wondering what his problem was. They all listened to Phoebe complain about the horrible client she had when Chandler walked in, causing the conversation to stop.
"Y'know it feels good to walk into a room and people stop talking…" Chandler said, sarcastically.
Rachel laughed slightly. "Don't worry, Phoebe was just tell us what she's doing today…"
Chandler nodded and sat down, not really bothered if they were talking about him or not.
"So, how you doing?" Monica asked, as he poured himself some coffee.
"Eh, okay…I guess.." He shrugged, staring into his coffee cup.
There was silence for a minute before Phoebe decided to continue with what she had been saying. Once she had finished, no one spoke, they just eat quietly.
"So, what you doing then?" Joey asked Chandler, unable to bear the silence anymore.
"I dunno…I gotta some time off…" Chandler told him, before turning to Monica, Ross and Phoebe. "The funeral is in 3 days…I thought we could drive up the night before and then drive back the day after…"
"What?" Ross frowned slightly. "I'm sorry but I got work, I can't go…"
"What?""I can't just take a few days off work when I feel like it!" Ross stated.
"Your friend has just died! I'm sure they'll understand!" Chandler looked at him but he turned his glaze back to the paper, refusing to back down. "What about you two?"
"I've got clients all week…sorry…" Phoebe said, picking piece off her toast, not being able to look him in the face.
"Mon?"
"The restaurant is kinda of busy at the moment…." She mumbled.
Chandler shook his head, before pushing back his chair, the wood scrapping on the floor. "Fine!"
"Chandler stop acting like this!" Ross put his paper down.
"Like what?!" He stood up, glaring at him. "Like my best friend had just died?! Or like my other best friends don't give damn!?"
"Exactly! YOUR best friend, not ours!" Ross shot back.
"But he was your friend to! You hung out with him nearly 4 years! God, Monica even dated him!!"
"So! We weren't close with him!" Ross pointed out. "We only hung out with him because of you!"
Rachel reached up, trying to pull Ross back down in his seat, not wanting one of them to say something they would regret later.
"Plus we haven't seen him in 6...7 years, that's how great a friend he was!" Ross continued. "I mean, you two acted as if you were brothers or something then one day he just takes off, leaves you without a roommate and he didn't even bother to visit or anything!"
Chandler glared at him for a minute, his fist balled up at his side. Joey was ready to interfere if things got any more out of control but before anyone could say or do anything Chandler stormed out, slamming the door behind him.
"Oh way to be supportive, Ross!" Joey said sarcastically.
"Come on, he was being a jerk!" Ross sat back down.
"Yeah but he's best friend just died…what's your excuse?" Rachel asked quietly, standing up, heading towards to door to go and find Chandler.
She found him pacing around in his apartment; she closed the door quietly behind her. She kind of hoped that Ross would follower her over and talk to Chandler himself but it looked like he was being stubborn, again.
"Hey…" She said, grabbing his attention.
"Hi…" He replied, as calmly as he could. "Why am I not surprised that its you in here and not them!?"
"What do you mean?" She moved closer to him.
"Well, you and Joey seem more upset over Kip's death then them lot put together!" Chandler stated, before dropping into one of the chairs covering his eyes with his hands. "Sorry, I shouldn't have said that…."
"Hey, don't apologise…" She told him. "Look, Ross was a jerk, okay….but its just because he doesn't know what to do or say, just like Mon and Phoebe…"
"They don't need to say or do anything!"
"Then what do you want them to do?"
"I dunno…" Chandler sighed, looking up at her. "I don't what to do myself…"
"Look, why don't you come back over and talk to them…I'm sure they'll understand and you'll feel better…"
Chandler nodded slightly. "Yeah, okay…thanks, Rach…"
"No problem." She gave him a small smile and squeezed his hand gently as they headed back into her apartment.
They all turned to look at them as they walked back, everyone waiting for someone else to speak first.
"Umm, Ross…I'm sorry…uh about the why I acted.." Chandler shuttered, shoving his hands into his pockets.
Ross watched him for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, okay…thanks.."
"Ross!" Rachel hissed when she saw him look back down at his paper.
"What?"
"Aren't you going to say sorry, too?"
"What for? I didn't do anything…" He glared at her.
"So, you're not going to say sorry for what you said about Kip?" Chandler questioned.
"Why should I?"
"Because you were out of line!" Chandler snapped.
"Hang on, what I said was true!" Ross stood up again, causing Joey to as well in fear of a fight.
"Look, why don't we all calm down!" Joey tried to reason.
"You made him sound like he didn't care about anyone!" Chandler exclaimed.
"Well, he didn't!"
"You can talk!" Chandler shot back. Ross took a threatening step towards him but Joey managed to put himself between the two, pushing Ross back.
"Both of you just stop!" Monica said.
"Yeah, look can't you just talk about this like adults…" Rachel added.
"Look, if Chandler wants to cry about some jerk then what's that's got to do with us?" Ross asked, looking around at everyone.
"Okay, now that's differently out of line!" Joey stepped back to stand next to Chandler.
"No, I agree…" Phoebe said, causing everyone to look at her. "I mean, Kip was a jerk… look how he treat Monica!"
Monica sighed heavily and sat back down, she really didn't know what to do.
"How he treated Monica?" Chandler repeated. "So, lets get this straight…you hate the guy because of something you believed happened!?"
"What do you mean believed!?" Monica questioned, staring at him.
"Alright, you wanna know the truth?" Chandler asked, glaring at Ross. He past being nice and trying to sort things out, now he didn't care what they thought. "Mon and Kip start dating… after a while Kip met up with an old girlfriend around this time he realises he's still in love with her…"
"So, it makes it alright for him to cheat on Mon because he loved this women!?" Ross interrupted.
"Kip ends things with Mon because it's not fair on her… Sarah also rejects Kip…" Chandler contained, shooting evil looks at Ross. "Kip's friends jump to conclusions and turn their backs on him, forcing him to move away!""Whoa...hold on, are you saying Kip never cheated on me?" Monica questioned.
"It wasn't until he moved away that he and Sarah got together… over a year…" Chandler explained.
"No, I don't believe it!" Ross laughed slightly at Chandler's version.
"Yeah! If you knew this why didn't you say something?" Phoebe said, believing Chandler was making it all up to stop Kip looking bad.
"Oh yeah, like you got would listen!" Chandler said. "I mean, god…I couldn't do anything with both Ross and Kip at the same time because they would always be arguing about something…Phoebe used every excuse in the book not to spend time with him…. And well, when he started dating Monica, I got pushed out!"
"Pushed out? What you talking about?!" Monica frowned.
"Before, me and you stayed up all night talking or watching some crappy film or something…then when you got together, I hardly saw you…well except when you had arguments and expected me to pick sides!"
"I…I didn't know you felt like that…" Monica said quietly, hanging her head guilty.
"So! That doesn't mean anything…" Ross cut in. "If what you said was true, why did you let us think for so many years that he did do it?"
"I tried! When you lot were talking about I would tell you that we didn't know the whole story but you instead it didn't matter what Kip or I said because you believed what you wanted to believe and I couldn't disagree with you!!"
"Oh don't be stupid!" Ross smirked. "We wouldn't hate you if you disagreed with us!"
"Oh yeah? Well, then how come when I agreed with Kip about who the best Knick's player was, why did you stop talking to me for three days?!"
"Well, that was different…" Ross stuttered.
"How?!"
"Look, its not the point!"
"Yes it is!! My best friend moved all the way across the city because he didn't want to cause me any problems."
"What do you mean?" Rachel asked, softly.
"He thought that if he stayed then they would think that I was taking his side and stop talking to me and he didn't want that…" Chandler told them. "If I would have known it would turn out like this, I wouldn't have let him…."
"Chandler…"
"At least I know how you treat your friends now…" He glanced at him one more time before moving towards the door.
"Chandler wait…" Joey tried to stop him.
"Just leave me alone!" He muttered, pushing past him and out of the apartment."You happy now?" Rachel looked at Ross, shaking her head before walking into her room.
Please review and let me know what you think! Oh and sorry to any Ross fans for making him act like a jerk!