I'm back from my 'forced' vacation and I have a new chapter for this long ago started story. The next chapter for my other story should be posted soon too.

And now enjoy.

*****************

That was how things were like for the next two years. Well, if you looked at it practically, I had no real life. I more or less threw myself into my studies. And at home I had to endure the same treatment I received since I could think. But by then I had more or less stopped to think about it as wrong. It was that way from the beginning and it would be that way till the end. My will to fight or do something about my situation was broken. Or was it never there to begin with? I don't know.

But then the hope came back into my life. And it came in shape of a woman.

Monica…

********************

Chandler was sitting on the couch watching TV when a knock on the door pulled his attention away from the lifesaving taking place on the screen. Well, to be correct his attention was more on the actresses clad in small red swimming suits then on the plot of the show. He pulled himself up and strolled over to the door while looking over his shoulder, eyes still glued on the television. Just as he reached the door and put his hand on the handle the person on the other side knocked a second time.

"Hi! I'm your new neighbor, Monica." Said the young woman excitedly and extended a hand to shake. She was getting a little nervous when Chandler just stood there, his mouth open, watching her. "Ehm, are you alright." She questioned.

If he was alright? He was more than alright. There in front of him stood the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. 'Well, in real life anyway.' He thought and smiled a little. Then he realized that she was getting uncomfortable because of his staring, so he tried to snap out of his fantasies.

"Oh, sorry. Just got a little lost in my thoughts." He quickly said. "Yeah, I'm alright. Chandler, by the way. Ehm, that's my name. I mean…" He was starting to sweat as he tried to get a halfway logical sentence out. But he relaxed when she giggled.

"Chandler. That's quite an unusual name…I like it." She said, smiling at his nervousness.

Chandlers face broke into a big smile. She liked his name. That had to be a lie. Maybe to be polite. But he was in heaven nonetheless. And again staring at her.

"Hey! Don't leave me again." She said with amusement in her voice. "Anyway, I just wanted to say that my name is Monica and that I live now right there." She pointed at the apartment behind her. "And…I think that is all. But…maybe we could do something together sometime? Getting to know each other…" She trailed of when she saw the look on his face. She couldn't quite place it. But it seemed like he was afraid of the thought to spend time with her.

"Oh, sure. Maybe sometime. Ehm, ok…nice meeting you Monica. But…ehm, I have to go back to my books now. Y'know, college." Chandler said as Monica looked over his shoulder to see his TV running with this new show on, 'Bayguard' or something like that. "And my roommate is coming home soon and I have to…" Chandler stopped. "Ok, I'll see you." And with that he closed his door leaving a dumfounded Monica alone in the hall.

He observed through the peephole how Monica turned around to go into her apartment with a confused look on her face.

He exhaled audible and turned around to lean his back against the door. She wanted to get to know him. That thought scared him to his inner core. Sure, he would love to know her. And in a perfect world he could even see someone like her as his girlfriend. But this wasn't a perfect world by far and he had long lost his trust in the people around him. Now he was petrified every time he had to meet people he didn't know.

Chandler still stood in front of the door when ten minutes later Kip tried to get into the apartment.

"What the…Chandler what are you doing?" Kip demanded to know loudly after he pushed the door open forcefully.

"Nothing. I was just thinking." Chandler quietly said.

"And you can't think in your room? That is, if you can even think at all." Kip said with a smirk on his face. "You have to go there anyway. I have some friends coming over." Kip ordered before he went to his room to change his clothes.

When Kip came out of his room ten minutes later he found Chandler sitting on the couch.

"Chandler! Didn't I say you should go to your room?" Kip yelled. "What if my friends had come in already? Huh? You know I don't want them to be bothered with you!"

Chandler just starred at Kip. He didn't know why but he felt the urge to stand up for himself against Kip. Maybe it was that girl from before which awoke this side in him. But that feeling didn't stay for long. His little resistance was broken when Kip hit him upside the head.

"What are you staring at, stupid? Move it!" Kip pulled him up from the sofa and pushed Chandler in the direction of his room. Defeated Chandler walked inside and closed the door.

Chandler wasn't sure what happened out there right then. He had felt a strange will inside himself pushing him to speak up. He had never felt anything like that before. His thoughts were too confused to come to a conclusion. So he lied down on his bed and tried to bring his mind in order. He hadn't made much progress when there was a knock on the door for the second time that day. It couldn't be Kip's friends because they never knocked.

**************

Monica sat at her new kitchen table. She didn't know why but she couldn't get her neighbor out of her mind. He seemed nice. There was just something about him that she couldn't grasp. He appeared in some way vulnerable like a little child. It was something in his eyes, she concluded. They held an innocence in them she'd never seen in a man's eyes. But there was also a great deal of pain and hurt visible that made her want to hug him and never let go.

Monica decided that she would try again to get to know him. She had seen that she had frightened him before. So she thought when she talked to him again she would be more subtle and careful in her approach to get him to open up a little. She had a feeling that the two of them would make great friends. And she could use a friend. Although she had wished to move away from her parents and be on her own since she could remember that didn't mean that it didn't scared her to be alone in the big city.

There is no time than the present. So Monica got up from the chair and made her way through her own door ready to knock on the one across from her apartment. She just lifted her hand to knock when she heard a man yelling. She stopped her fist in midair and leaned her ear closer to the wood. The voice was too muffled to understand but she was sure she heard Chandler's name.

'Maybe Chandler has an argument with his roommate.' Monica thought. Although she found it weird that she couldn't hear Chandlers voice. 'Wouldn't he yell too if it would be a fight?' Monica realized that the screaming had stopped and that her ear was still pressed against the door. She straightened herself and then knocked.

*******************

Curious as to who was at the door Chandler climbed out of his bed. But just as he was about to open the door to the living room he heard Kip answer the apartment door.

"Why hello. How may I help you?" Kip asked flirtingly while giving Monica the look-over.

"Oh, ehm…my name is Monica. I've moved into the apartment across the hall today." Chandler heard Monica's voice.

"Ah, that is nice." Kip replied. "Up till now there lived this really ugly old woman. I'm glad to see that at least now there lives some one as beautiful as you." With that he winked at her.

Monica looked at him, shocked about the behavior of this guy.

"Ok, yeah. That was my grandmother." Monica said firmly.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't know that." Kip said as an apology. "Y'know, I have a weird sense of humor." He laughed.

"Yeah, I'm sure." Monica replied already knowing that she didn't like this man. "Anyway, I came by to talk to Chandler."

"Hmm…I'm sorry but Chandler is not here right now." Kip lied. "But I make sure to tell him you came by."

"Ehm…ok." Monica said slowly. Either this guy talked to himself then or Chandler was at home and he was lying. And Monica would bet all her money on the second possibility. "I come back later then." With that she turned around and walked back into her apartment.

Kip closed his door after Monica disappeared inside her apartment. He turned on his heels and stomped over to Chandler's room. When Chandler heard Kip coming he quickly laid down on his bed and pretended to be asleep. He jerked up when Kip barged into his room.

"What did you hear?" Kip wanted to know.

Chandler tried his best to look puzzled.

"What do you mean? Did something happen?"

"So you didn't hear that someone was at the door?" Kip asked suspiciously.

"No. I was asleep. Why? Who was at the door?"

"Nobody of your interest." Kip said. "And if you know what's good for you, you should stay away from our new neighbor."

"You mean Monica? Why should I stay away from her?" Chandler asked baffled.

"Because I say so! Do you really think she would want to get to know a loser like you?" Kip replied. "Oh god, you think she likes you. Don't you?" Kip laughed as he saw the look in Chandler's eyes. "Well, forget about it, buddy. You don't really think a beautiful woman like her could be interested in a pathetic loser like you, do you?"

"No." Chandler mumbled with his head down.

"I thought so." Kip said triumphantly. "Well, I can't waste more time on your stupid little fantasies. My friends should be here any minute." With that he left Chandler's bedroom.

Chandler sat a few moments in his room when suddenly an idea hit him. He stood up and went into the living room. Kip looked up from the couch, a questioning look on his face.

"I think I go for a walk. And I have to run some errands too. We are short on almost everything." Chandler was nervous. And when he was nervous he tended to talk too much. But luckily Kip didn't pick up on it.

"Yeah, whatever. As long as you are out of my sight." With that Kip turned his concentration back on the TV.

Chandler grabbed his jacket and left the apartment.

******************

He knew what he wanted to do. And Kip would be busy with his friends. So he wouldn't miss Chandler.

TBC...

******************

Ok, now that you read it please leave me a review and tell me what you think.