The last chapter was boring so I put this up to. Sigh Well, I'm out of things to say. Go ahead, read.
DISCLAIMER: Still own the cheese...eww…maybe I can sell it on EBay...okay, I had one last thing to say...now you can read.
"It's Coming"
Chandler felt around the ground. He had been laying there for nearly two hours waiting to see if he had died yet. He counted the planks of wood on the roof several times already. Just then, a hand came over the ledge. It was Monica.
"Hey, we were wondering where you got off to." Monica sat down next to him.
"Well, you found me." Chandler dead panned.
"Hey, you okay?" She asked. Dang it. Why did she always have to ask?
"I'm fine, alright?" Chandler said, annoyed with her question.
Monica seemed taken aback by his attitude. "Okay. I'm just asking."
Chandler sighed. "I'm sorry. It's just…do you ever feel that…you haven't lived life to its fullest?" He placed his hand over his forehead and threaded his fingers through his hair. "I mean, like, you've just been doing what you have to do instead of what you want to do?"
She looked at him. That's how she had been feeling for the past year since she moved to Florida. She'd never have moved to Florida if it was her decision. "Yeah."
"Okay, I have to tell you something, just don't freak." Chandler sat up and looked at her. "Okay, when I was going and traveling around…I was rushed to the hospital because of alcohol overdose."
"What?" Monica asked shocked. She sat up a straight. Chandler? An alcoholic? Never in a million years would she have thought it. "Wh-Why?"
"I-I spent all my time working and one day, I was just so worked up that," he shrugged, "I drank myself half to death. I almost went into a coma."
"And you never told anyone? Chandler, you can't just hide it. There are people out there can help you understand your problem. Didn't you think before you put the beer to lips? What about the people that care about you?" Monica asked. She felt so angry yet so worried. How could he not have told them?
"I didn't tell anyone because nobody needed to know." He grumbled.
"If you cared about yourself as much as we care about you, you would have thought about doing what you did, Chandler!" She began to raise her voice. She hated when he acted stubborn.
He looked at her. "Do you care about me?" It was a simple question that he already knew the answer to. He just needed to hear it. His head had been playing so many tricks on him that he didn't know what to believe.
Monica calmed down a bit and sighed. She smiled. "Of course, Chandler. You're my buddy. You know all of my secrets and I know all of your secrets. That way, later we can use them to blackmail each other." Monica laughed. Chandler smiled at her. It was great to have a friend to talk to. Especially someone who understood him as well as she did. "Well, I better go back down and talk to Pete." She smiled and climbed back down the ladder.
Her buddy. The joy overfilled him. He had someone that knew his secrets. A realization hit him square in the face. If she knew so much about him and they had been so close, why hadn't it progressed? She cared so much about him, more than, probably, any other woman had. Maybe even more than his own mother. Another thing was that she wasn't half bad looking. Oh, who was he kidding, she was hot. But they always had a sort of brother-sister relationship. But he missed his chance. Now he would have to live with the regret of being too late. But death would soon come.
Rachel continued to look out the window. She didn't want to accept the fact that she and Ross shared a moment. She couldn't have let it go that far. But she wanted it so bad. She looked over at Ross who was sitting on a separate box looking out the window. They weren't going to be able to avoid the hurricane. It would probably be the end.
Phoebe wandered around slowly looking at the walls of the barn. Why had her mother told them to go here? There were probably so many more houses. They didn't have basements, but none of the houses around that area did. Just then, it struck here. No basements. She walked around and examined the ground. Empty. All of a sudden, she tripped over something on the ground.
It was a handle. She came closer to the ground to examine it more carefully. It was just a handle in the ground. She pulled it slightly. The floor began to open up and revealed a small hole in the ground. It was pretty large, enough to fit a dozen or so people. It was deep, too. Joey walked up behind her.
"Whoa!" Joey shouted. It startled Phoebe.
"I know! We can stay under here when the storm comes." Phoebe turned around and raised her hands to cup her mouth. "Monica!"
Monica quickly ran over to Phoebe. She noticed the hole and was shocked. Would they be able to live this? "Oh, my god! Phoebe! How did you find this?"
"I was walking around and I tripped over the handle." Joey and Monica nodded in approval.
"Do you think it's safe down there?" Joey asked worryingly.
"I don't know, but if it's our only chance of surviving, would it matter?" Monica convinced. Joey shrugged. She loved winning.
"Yeah, okay." Joey said. "Ooh!" He jumped. "I'll go tell the others!"
"Okay, I'll go tell Pete!" Monica ran away.
Joey ran over towards Ross and Rachel who were staring out a window. "Guess what you guys?" Joey asked excitedly.
Rachel and Ross turned around, glad that Joey was there to break the tension. "You found a sub stand?" Rachel joked.
Joey looked around. "Where?"
Ross rolled his eyes. "What Joe?"
"Oh! Phoebe found a tornado shelter underneath the barn! She was walking around and she tripped over the handle."
Rachel and Ross jumped up excitedly. "Oh, my god!" They said in unison. They ran over to where Phoebe was perched over a latch in the ground.
"Hey guys! Look what I found!" Phoebe yelled to them.
"Wow, Pheebs. This is amazing! We have somewhere to hide now!" Rachel looked down the hole. "So are we going down?" She looked around. Joey looked over to Phoebe.
"Why don't you go first, Rach. See if there's anything, you know…weird down there." Joey shivered. Ross gave a look towards Joey. "There could be ghosts or something."
"Oh, please, Joey. There are no such thing as ghosts." Ross informed.
"Oh, I beg to differ." Phoebe said smugly.
"Fine, come on, Rach." Ross hopped down the hole. He turned and looked up to Rachel. "Come on, Rach. Don't tell me you believe in ghosts, too." He held up his hand.
Rachel looked down. She reached out for his hand and hopped down. The hole was dark. Ross walked around a bit, trying to see with what little light he had. Just then something hit his face. He jumped back startled, giving out a small scream.
"See. Didn't I tell you there were ghosts down there?" Joey shouted out.
Ross rolled his eyes and reached his hand up to see what had hit him. He felt a string. He pulled it downward and the room lit up. There were several cans and bottles in the corner. In the opposite corner, there were some sheets and cots stacked up on top of each other. The silence was broken by a thud by Joey who had been leaning down the hole and fell.
"Oww." He stood up. "Whoa-huh-ho! Look at this place." Joey focused his attention to something in the corner. "Look at the food!" He ran to the pile of cans.
"Joey, we need to save those for when we need something to eat." Ross stretched a bit. It had been a long day.
"Are you kidding me? I do need something to eat! I'm starving!" Joey shouted.
"Well, you can eat once everybody gets down here." Rachel offered . Joey stood up quickly and climbed up the planks in the wall and out of the room. Ross chuckled to himself, until he realized he was alone with Rachel again. He sighed and looked around.
"So, looks like we have a chance of surviving this thing, huh?" Ross said sitting on the stack of cots.
"Yeah." Rachel smiled and shifted uncomfortably. "Can I sit down?"
Ross looked up at her. "Uh, s-sure." He scooted over so that she had enough room to sit.
Rachel quickly thought of something to say. "So…if we…get through this…what are you going to do?"
Ross put a finger to his lips in contemplation. "Well, um, what do you mean?"
"Well," she took a deep breath, "are you going to get a new job, keep your old one, move to a far away land, travel the world, get remarried…" She quickly regretted her words.
Ross widened his eyes and scratched the back of his head. "Um, well, I'll probably, you know, keep my job. Maybe travel a bit more. I probably," he took a breath, "won't remarry." Rachel looked at him surprised.
"R-Really?" Ross gave her a questionable look. "I-I mean, there are so many gr-great women out there." Rachel gestured with her hands.
Ross looked at her for a second and then down at his feet. "Yeah, I know."
Rachel was surprised by his answer. Was he talking about her? "Um, huh, what?"
Ross looked at her quickly and gave out a small nervous laugh. "Um, nothing."
Rachel smiled. "Okay… hey, I think I'm going to go see where Monica is. You, um, what to come?"
Ross shook his head. "No, that's alright." She smiled before climbing out of the hole and back to the surface. He watched her leave silently. Something about her made his head spin and his stomach churn. He let out a deep sigh and rested his head against the wall. The world was a confusing a place. So many mixed emotions at one time. He slowly closed his eyes as his mind began to drift slowly into a long-wanted sleep.
A thud interrupted his sleep. Ross jumped up and opened his eyes to find the target of the noise.
Chandler was now standing in the room with a slight look of disgust on his face. He quickly turned to Ross. "Oh, sorry were you sleeping?"
Ross shook his head and yawned. "Nah." He leaned his head back and closed his eyes once more.
"Yeah, Joey told me to come down quickly. Something about food." Ross gave a small chuckle, his eyes still closed. Chandler looked a bit apprehensive for a bit, until he made his way slowly over to Ross. "Um, Ross?"
"Mmm."
"Uh, I just want to ask you something." Chandler scratched the back of his neck.
"Kay."
"Not much for talking, huh." Chandler gave out a small laugh. "Well, um, what if we…we don't…make it?" Chandler struggled, searching for the right words.
Ross lifted his head up and looked directly at Chandler for the first time in hours. "What do you mean?"
"Well, I mean if we… die." Chandler shrugged.
Ross was a bit startled by the question. He hadn't thought about that. Everything that he had worked for since he was young would be gone. No more friends. No more family. Life gone forever. "I…I…why the questions all of a sudden?" Ross couldn't possibly answer the question, there was no answer.
Chandler shifted his view to the cans in the corner and then to his feet. "I realized that…" he turned to face Ross directly, "I've never really lived life to its fullest." He swallowed. "I never liked my job, never had a long term relationship. I've never done half the things I always wanted to do. No wife, no children, my family doesn't care about me. Plus, I spent a year working and drinking continuously." Chandler looked back down to his feet. He hated getting out his feelings, but if he wanted his question answered, he had to do it.
"Wait," Ross stopped him, "w-were you an alcoholic?"
Chandler looked at him. "Yeah."
"Oh, my god!" Ross jumped off the cots. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"I told Monica."
"When?"
Chandler shifted his eyes to the side wall. "An hour ago."
"Chandler! I can't believe you, man!" Ross threw his hands in the air. "We're supposed to be friends. You should have told me." He looked at him.
"I know. But there's something else…"
Ross sat down, Chandler next to him. "What is it? Don't tell me you started smoking, too." Ross pointed his finger.
"No, no, no. I-I... You know whentwo peopleare friends?" Ross nodded. "And then they haven't talked to each other in such a long time, but when they do, they see something in each other that they didn't see before…or kinda did, but just ignored it?" Ross looked at Chandler quizzically. He looked at him for a second until realizing what he meant. His eyes widened. He knew about him and Rachel.
"Um, Chandler, how did you find out?" Ross gulped.
"I was just sitting there and I… felt it. You know, what I mean." Chandler shrugged and lay his head back on the wall.
"Okay, there's nothing going on between Rach and I, okay?" Ross stood up furiously.
"Uh…" Chandler looked at him strangely, "I, uh…"
"Okay, you shouldn't be making assumptions like that!" Ross turned to Chandler.
"Sorry, I didn't …know?" Chandler answered strangely, not knowing what to say with Ross's reaction. Ross sighed and sat down.
"Who am I kidding? I love Rach. I always have." Chandler turned his head to look at Ross. "It's just, I feel like loving her will…be going against Emily." Ross groaned and covered his face with his hands.
Chandler placed a hand on Ross's shoulder. "No you wouldn't, Ross. If Emily loved you, which I'm sure she did, I'm sure she'd want you to be happy." Ross looked over his shoulder to Chandler appreciatively.
"Thanks, man." Ross sat up straight. "But, then what would you do if you were in my shoes?" Ross asked. "What would do if you wanted to tell your friend that you loved them?" Chandler looked at him nervously and sighed.
"I…uh…would, um, you know, go up to them and tell them how much I loved them." Chandler shrugged. A picture of Monica ran through his head. "Uh, you know, I would tell them how long I was in love with them, and how much they meant to me." He scratched his nose. "I would tell her how much time I wasted ignoring the truth, by-by covering it up with…other feelings. I'd tell her that she's always been there for me, and…I'll always be there for her. I'd tell her I loved her and then I'd…take her in my arms and kiss her like there was no tomorrow…" Chandler looked blankly at the wall. After a few seconds, he realized his current situation and quickly sat up and awoke from his day dream. Ross looked at him miraculously.
"Wow." Ross gave out a small laugh. "Can you do this for me?"
Chandler gave a small smile. Ross stood up and went to leave the room. "Ross?" Ross turned. "Don't get nervous. If it was meant to happen, it will."
Ross smiled. "Thanks, man."
"No problem."
A/N: I read this over twice and it's then I realized how stupid this story sounds. Sorry, about the 'until there's no tomorrow' thing. My mind is totally blank today and I thought I could stretch it a bit. I also tried to make it more realistic by using the word 'um' and 'uh' and repeating words a lot. If it gets annoying or hard to read, just tell me in the review.