Hey everyone, sorry for not updating in like a month. lol. FirstI was in Vegas, then came testing, then I was sick, then I forgot (lol), now I'm really sick...again.

I'll forget the excuses, though, because this is really like three chapters in one. This entire week I've been periodically coming over to my computer when I wasn't feeling that bad and typing. So if it's bad, blame it on the fact that I'm (still) highly overmedicated. lol.

Thank you for putting up with me. lol.

Disclaimer: No. Not. Mine. Right. :)

The night hummed softly, the trees waltzing in the breeze to a smooth dance in the wind. Bronzed shadows painted across the stretch of horizon distinguished between what was real and what was make-believe. Dim lights shone into the room as Monica sighed, recalling the events that took place mere hours before.
----

Understandably, it had all began when they arrived. True to their word, Monica and Rachel pulled into campus about an hour after the phone call. Pulling into a rare parking spot, Monica spotted Julie walking past their car.

Nearly calling out to her, Monica held her breath. 'Does she even know who I am?' She remembered the party a while back, the party that Ross still didn't know she knew he was at. 'God, that's confusing,' she laughed.

"What are you laughing at?" Rachel yawned, stretching from her uncomfortable position on the seat.

"Oh, nothing." Monica blushed.

"C'mon!" Rachel sat up straighter and grinned at Monica.

"Rach, why are you grinning like that?" Monica pulled into the parking space and looked over at her friend.

"Like what?" The grin widened.

"Like a maniac," Monica shook her head and laughed.

"She's a maniac, maniac on the dance floor!"

"Are you kidding me?"

Rachel doubled over laughing. "It's about Chandler! I know it is!"

Glancing warily over her shoulder, Monica almost expected Chandler to pop out of no where and go, "What's about me?" Picturing his head flying out from under the car like an ill-fated torpedo, another laugh slipped from her lips.

"It is!" Rachel's eyes brightened as she delicately nursed what was left of her diet Sprite. "I knew it, Mon. You don't hide things well, you know."

'Ha, if only she knew.'

"It's okay, I'm not going to tell him anything."

"I didn't think you were going to, Rach." Pressing her hand against her growling stomach, Monica took a deep breath. "And, since you know that I like Chandler...maybe you could, well, give us some time on our own or something while we're here."

Rachel shrugged. "Sure."

"But that might entail you spending time...with Ross." She bit her bottom lip, tearing quietly away at the dry pattern.

"Oh." Rachel rested her eyes on the hood of a beat up Chevy and sighed heavily. "Yeah."

"Is that...okay?"

"Yeah. It'll be fine." Shaking wisps of her hair from her eyes, Rachel plastered a smile on her face. "I know how much you like Chandler. And besides, Ross isn't that bad."

"Oh, thank you so much!" Monica flung her arms across the seats and proceeded to nearly choke Rachel with her gratitude.

"You're welcome," laughed Rachel. "But can we go in now?"

"Yeah. Let's go."

Leaving the confines of the station wagon, Monica swung her duffle bag over her shoulder and walked along the black pavement. Her shadow, stretched out longer than Rachel's, seemed to possess so much grace and dignity.

As she passed a large lake encircled by dozens of willow trees, Monica concentrated on her surroundings. Hundreds of college students milled around aimlessly, free of work on the Saturday mid-morning. Bathed in rows of glistening sunlight, the whole scene looked rather picturesque and movie-like to Monica.

After walking across much of the common grounds, the girls finally reached the building where Chandler and Ross lived.

When they were in front of Ross and Chandler's room, Rachel retreated.

Monica dropped her duffel to the ground and turned around to look at Rachel. "Rach, what are you doing?"

"Nothing," she shook her head and squinted at the dim fluorescent lighting. "Nothing."

Raising her eyebrows, Monica knocked on the door nonetheless. 'She can be so shifty sometimes...but then again, I'm not Miss Straightforward, so...'

From behind the door, Monica heard shuffling.

And then he appeared. "Hey!" His grin broadened and Monica could feel her face rush beet red.

'Stay calm, stay calm...just breathe.' Monica smiled and she could feel her eyes bugging out of her head. 'Oh my God, you look like a freaking blow fish, just breathe!'

"Hi!" Monica shouted, and, forgetting all plans to hold her cool, threw her arms around him.

'Crap. Well, there goes my staying calm idea.'

Rachel felt her jaw scrape the floor, practically dusting the worn blue carpeting. It was so unlike Monica to just put herself out there. Emotionally, Monica had always seemed to her like a closed book, an enigma. Typically, if you wanted to know anything that she was feeling- really feeling- you had to pry until your teeth bled.

Monica had always been the type of person that loved everyone else and delighted in hearing their stories. Always cheerful (or so she led them to believe), Monica escaped her own personal woes by focusing on neutral topics such as food and the weather.

Her heart warming, Rachel soaked in the scene carefully: Her best friend finally letting her true character show in front of someone other than Rachel herself.

Tears began to form, first in Rachel's throat and then behind the pale blue of her eyes. Though she didn't let them seep through, the moment never left Rachel's heart.

Finally, Monica found someone to like, someone to focus her attention on instead of her own latent insecurities.

From the way Chandler hugged her back, first surprised at her unusual emotion and then engulfing her with a smile on his face, Rachel believed that he might like her, too.

As Ross appeared from behind the door, Rachel was reminded of the fact that constantly tugged at the back of her mind. Pushing it away, she followed Chandler and Monica inside the cramped dorm room.

"Rach!" Monica whispered, lingering for another moment in the hall.

"Hmm?"

"Did you see that?"

"Yeah. You guys are really cute."

Monica squealed underneath her breath. "Really? Was he smiling or anything as I hugged him?" Not even waiting for an answer, Monica launched into another revelation. "And you know what? I didn't even think about it, hugging him. I just...did. And it felt good."

Hearing Ross and Chandler's calls beckon them inside, Monica followed, feeling lighter than air.

Merely shaking her head in a pleased awe at her friend's new persona, Rachel was struck by the image of Monica smiling broadly, her rosy skin beaming brightly in the artificially darkened building.

Never before had she looked so radiant, so happy, so unlike the image Rachel perceived herself to give off.

So beautiful.
----

"...and this is the place we come to get coffee all the time," Chandler finished.

Monica nodded, surveying the quaintly vintage-looking cafe. "It's cute."

"Great food, too. Did you guys eat lunch?" Chandler looked over at Rachel who was toying with her split ends.

"I did," Rachel spoke up. "But Monica didn't."

"Really?" Ross asked sarcastically.

"Shut up, freak." Monica rolled her eyes at Ross, who had insisted at coming along with her and Chandler everywhere because of the way he saw Chandler looking at Monica.

As Monica gently smoothed the table cloth across the length of a small booth, Chandler was struck with just how much weight she had lost.

Not that he based his affections ('I'm having affections now?') for her off her weight, but the pounds seemed to be sliding off of her.

While Ross explained the workings of campus life to a dubious Rachel and Monica, Chandler pondered some thoughts that had been permeating his brain.

'What is this here, what's going on? I wonder if Monica and Rachel really came here just to visit or whatever. For someone so eager to explore campus life, Monica sure seems uninterested.'

As in all great struggles between will and conscience, another part of Chandler's mind seemed to take control in a dictator-like fashion.

'Wake up, you jackass! She didn't come here to see the campus. No, she came here to see you. Why else would she willingly come out here to see the school where her brother is, nonetheless her brother himself? She likes you. She likes you in ways other girls have repulsed you, so you better not mess this up.

'But do I even like her? I mean, I do like her as a friend for sure. Nobody else has actually come to visit me, not even my parents! But Monica...she did. I just...it's Ross's little sister. Ross's chunky little sister.'

Looking back over at Monica, Chandler noticed something other than the few extra pounds she carried. Her smile. ----

There she was. The most beautiful girl he had ever seen. The way her hair floated aimlessly about her shoulders, the shape in which her clothing molded to her body.

Rachel.

Her name sounded so sweet to Ross, though he was only whispering in a barely audible tone.

"Hmm?" She whipped around, dangling her purse carelessly off her smooth arm.

His face melting a deep crimson (a trait he and Monica shared), Ross turned his back to her and pretended to be immensely interested in the chalk-coated menu.

"Ross, did you just say my name?"

"Oh, right. Sure."

"Did you...want something?"

"Uh..."

Monica glared at him, mentally urging Ross to ask Rachel to go do something so she and Chandler could be alone.

Lucky for Monica, Rachel took the initiative. "Ross, will you show me around town?"

"Uh, alone?"

"Well, the two of us."

Tiny beads of sweat trickled down his hairline. "Yeah, sure."

Monica knew her friend could be somewhat brazen, yet she never expected Rachel to willingly go off with Ross.

Sometimes, she was learning, the people that you think you know the best are often completely different than you thought that they once were.
----

"So, hey, I guess it's just the two of us then?" Chandler smiled at Monica as she blushed.

"Apparently."

"Well, should we get something to eat? Rachel said you didn't eat anything earlier."

"Nah. I'm not hungry." As with all awkward moments, Monica's stomach chose that exact moment to roar, a painstaking cry for a morsel of food.

"Right. That's why your stomach just screamed at the entire coffee shop. C'mon. I know this great little pasta place not too far away. They have the best food."

Reluctantly, she gave in. "Yeah, all right."

'If he sees me eat, he'll be disgusted! No one likes to watch a cow chomp on grass, and I'm not an exception. I'll have to take it easy, maybe a salad or a lemon slice. Maybe.'

Out the door she walked, Chandler following in her demure footsteps.

Did she come to see the college?

No.

Was she endearingly self-depreciating and insecure, much like himself?

Yes.

Was she perhaps the best thing that ever happened to him?

Chandler shook his head, rays of sunlight tickling his nose.

Maybe.
----

"Are you sure you want just a salad?" Chandler fiddled with his menu, stealing periodic glances at Monica.

"Yeah, I'm really just not that hungry."

"Really? Because the food here is good, I promise. I wouldn't subject you to a place that served Chef Boyardee or anything," he grinned, teeth glinting in the high afternoon sunlight.

"Well, I wouldn't have minded, anyway. I happen to like the Chef," laughed Monica.

"Nothing against the Chef or anything, but I thought you would rather eat here."

"It's very nice."

Plushy chairs and dim lighting added to the very eclectic and chic air of the restaurant. With its combined hippie and modern feel, it made it a haven for the college students with taste.

"Yeah, I like it."

An awkward silence floated through the air, weaving in a snake-like fashion through the beaded picture frames and the apple-scented candles.

Reaching across the table for a napkin, Monica accidentally knocked over her ice-water, spilling it all over Chandler.

"Oh my God! I'm so sorry!" She blushed, pulling out several more napkins out of the holder. Rushing over to Chandler to help mop up the sopping mess, Monica frantically apologized.

"Hey, it's fine. I don't care, really." Chandler got up, and mistakenly sloshed his water all over Monica.

She took one long look at him and they both burst into a fit of laughter.

"I-I-I'm sor-"

"No you're not!" She screeched, chucking an ice cube at his head.

Feigning anger, Chandler buried his eyes under his hair. Monica's heart dropped because she didn't expect this of him. About to apologize, Monica felt a straw wrapper hit her square on her forehead.

Grinning, Chandler brushed the hair from his eyes. "You're right. I'm not."

"All right, that's it!" Reaching up on the table, Monica plucked a handful of napkins, but not without waving the bunch through a lit candle. Seeing that the napkins were on fire, Monica screamed in horror.

"Oh my God! Chandler!" She searched his eyes, the sturdy length of his jaw, the chiseled point of his nose...she was getting lost in his face with a pile of burning napkins in her hand!

Rushing to his feet, Chandler reached over to the nearest table and snatched their waters. "Sorry," he mumbled. "Sort of an emergency." Choking back laughter, he tossed the glasses of water all over Monica and the napkins, putting the fire out.

Peering through her soaked hair, Monica smiled. "Well, thanks."

"Anytime," he laughed, looking around hurriedly. Chandler reached down and pulled her up from the ground. "But we have to get out of here. Like now." He tossed a twenty on the table, handed the empty glasses back to the dumbfounded couple, and grabbing her hand, they ran.

Panting through laughter, the two collapsed on the grass by the lake after putting quite a bit of distance between them and the restaurant.

"I think it's safe to say that you can never go back there again," breathed Monica.

"Ya think?" Chandler lay on his back, squinting in the sunlight. "And neither can you for that matter."

"If I ever come back here, that is," she joked.

"You'll be back."

Propping herself up on her elbows, Monica questioned him in jest. "And what makes you so sure of that?"

"Eh, I just know."

"Well, I hope you're right."

They both sprawled out, fanning themselves in the sunlight.

"You know what I just realized?" Monica asked.

"That you realized something?"

"Very funny," she poked him in the side with a stick. "That one time at, uh, Joey's party when we were talking on the deck, you went down to lay in the grass. And you asked me when the last time I did that was."

He smiled. 'God, she has a good memory.'

"Anyway, I was just thinking if you were to ask me when the last time I just laid down in the grass was now, I'd have an answer," Monica smiled sweetly.

Chandler could feel his palms sweating. Was she flirting with him?

"What would your answer be?"

She stared into the never-ending sky, pondering the double-meaning behind his question. Pretending to think about it for a great deal of time, she sighed. "I think it would be a yes"
----

"And this is the School of Fine Arts over here," Ross gestured towards a large brick building towering above them.

Yawning, Rachel shielded her eyes from the now-setting sun. It was nearly seven-thirty and she was starved.

"So, if we were to walk from Fine Arts over to the Theatre, it would probably take about five minutes, but-"

"Ross, cut the crap." She looked at him very seriously, sending a chill down his spine. "No one else is here. You don't have to talk to me like I'm a stranger or something." As she headed over to a nearby bench, he followed.

"What do you mean?" He sat down beside her.

"I think you know," she whispered softly, searching his deep brown eyes.

"Uh-what?" Frantically, he searched the grounds with his eyes, combing the premises for someone he knew.

"Relax, no one else is here, I swear."

"All right," He loosened the grip on the back of the bench and relaxed his entire body.

"I think you know why I suggested we go off alone today." The wind blew through her hair, fanning the satin sun-drenched strands around her head. She sighed.

"But could you make it more obvious? I mean, Chandler and Monica were bound to notice something was up. You would never be willing to spend time with me, they think."

"Trust me, Ross. They're clueless."

"Nice way for you to describe my sister and best friend."

"You know what I mean. And would you rather them know?"

"I think you need to ask yourself that."

"That's why I needed to get you alone." She took a deep breath, knowing that her life would change after this conversation. As the sun began to set, she exhaled deeply. "We need to talk."
----

"Do you realize that we've been laying here for a very long time?"

A smile crept up from behind Monica's ears. "I was about to say the same thing. I think I may have fallen asleep for awhile there, though."

"You did. You snore." Chandler put a hand over his mouth to suppress laughter.

"I do not!"

"I hate to break it to you, but yeah, you do." He nodded solemnly, as to signify the seriousness of the situation.

"I've never snored a day in my life!"

"Consider this a first, then." He was so comfortable with her all the time, nothing felt forced or fake. 'This doesn't happen all that often.'

"I promise you, I don't snore," she reiterated.

"Well, it was a light snore, a feminine snore."

Finally, she gave in. "Fine. This is just a day of firsts, then! My first time running from a restaurant, my first time nearly dying on the highway, my first time discovering that I do snore."

'She is really cute, you know. Six months ago, I could never imagine myself liking a girl like her. But now...I don't know. Everything seems to be changing. And we get along really well.' Chandler pondered his thoughts.

Night was falling over campus as the sun melted sleepily into fading horizon. The newly risen moon began to glow over the lake, crickets eliciting chirps from their hiding places beneath the haven of grass.

"That's another first, my first time coming to this campus. It's so pretty out here, almost like something out of a romance movie. Dusk," she sighed, not even realizing that she was thinking out loud. "In the movie, this is when the heroine would get kissed."

"Hmm?" Chandler propped himself up on his elbows.

"Oh my God." Tears of humiliation stung her eyes as she realized she had spoken out loud. "No, I didn't mean it like that. I saw this movie the other day, and it was on a campus like this and I was just remembering-"

Not even knowing what he was going to do, Chandler leaned over and kissed her. He moved in gently at first, smoothing the hair out of her eyes and cupping her chin in his hands. Softly, he moved in closer, molding his body into hers and supporting her head with his hands.

For several minutes, they lay bathed in the moonlight, a crescent silhouette pressed against the canvas of grass. In the darkness, Monica was glad he couldn't see her face, red and beaming or her body, large and heaving. She'd heard stories about incredible first kisses, but never dreamed she'd actually experience one.

"Wow," she breathed. "I didn't expect you to do...that."

"Was it...bad?" He cringed. Never the spontaneous one, Chandler completely abandoned his typical character and decided to seize the moment.

Answering his question, Monica did something completely unlike herself and reached over, kissing him for her perfect, second kiss.
----

Thanks for reading! I better go because the screen is starting to look all blurry again. lol. Can't be good.

Leave me a review if you feel like doing so, please. :) I know it ended happy there, but I'm not that nice. lol. There's still a lot to resolve. hehe.

Thanks!

Mel