Author's note: This is my second fan fiction in a series of 6 FRIENDS prequels. The timeframe is July 1990. Monica moved into her grandmother's apartment two months ago. She has graduated culinary school and is working full time. Phoebe is looking to move out of her current living space and Monica is looking for a roommate.
I do not own Friends; I'm just a huge fan.
The One Where Phoebe Meets Monica
It's a hot, breezy day in New York City. Phoebe is in Union Square playing her guitar and singing her original songs. Her guitar case lied open on the ground so passersby could drop money in. It was lunch hour on a Friday afternoon and Phoebe has already made $30 in two hours. She paid her way through massage classes by playing guitar on the streets, bartending and reading tealeaves at Madame Sahara's Psychic Readings, Bar and Grill.
Next week will be Phoebe's masseuse licensing exam, after which she can work in any massage parlor she wants in any of the five boroughs of New York.
Phoebe was only going to play through lunch since she had a class at two.
"I'm standing at the bar, serving drinks
Billy orders a round and is wearing a mink.
He says he had a hard day,
His wife left him for a novelist
And I said 'No way!'"
The wind blew Phoebe's long wavy blonde hair in her face. She looked up at the clock in the square and it said five to two. A man dropped a dollar in her case. She thanked him, quickly packed up her guitar and ran to catch the L train to 8th Avenue.
Monica and Chandler were in Monica's new apartment sitting on the sofa, watching TV and eating ice cream sundaes. This was their weekly Friday afternoon ritual. Chandler would come straight from his morning class to Monica's place. Monica would spend her morning cleaning and preparing an afternoon snack for her and Chandler. Monica worked the night shift at Iridium. After an afternoon of hanging out, Chandler would walk Monica to work before going to meet Ross at the bar that would one day become Central Perk.
"I need to find a roommate," said Monica.
"I could move in, but we'll have to flip a coin to see which one of us has to break it to Ross," Chandler jokingly responded.
Monica smiled, "Ha-ha, very funny."
"Why do you need a roommate?"
"I need some help with the rent and utilities, plus it would be nice to have someone around.
"You can put and ad in the papers and I could hand out some fliers around school for you."
"Thanks," Monica smiled, "I get paid tonight so this weekend I'll work on ad."
It was very humid and raining like cats and dogs. Phoebe came running into work closing her umbrella and taking off her bright, shiny, pokadot raincoat. It was only her second day at the message parlor. She passed her exams and is now a licensed masseuse. Jasmine, Phoebe's friend from class helped her find a job. Phoebe was so glad she didn't have to bartend and read tealeaves anymore. It was fun for a while, but not the life she imagined for herself when she was living on the streets. Now all she needed to do was move out of that smelly, cockroach infested shoebox apartment above Madame Sahara's bar.
Phoebe walked up to Jasmine who was at the reception area reading the paper. "What's wrong, Phoebe?"
"Ugh, I have to move out of that place. The noise from the bar keeps me up all night. I almost missed my stop on the train because I fell asleep."
"Oh no. That would not have been good on your second day."
"I know. Thank God my friend, Willie, from the streets licked my neck."
Jasmine handed over a section of the paper, "Well here are the apartment listings."
"Thanks, Jas."
"The apartment ad sounds great, Mon," Chandler said as he put the paper down and picked up his beer. Chandler and Monica were out on the balcony barbequing burgers, hot dogs and corn on the cob. Monica flipped a burger and screeched, "I know!" As she flipped the burger with so much enthusiasm it flew over the balcony to the street level. A passerby who was a pizza deliveryman intercepted the burger. The burger landed on the pizza box and nearly scared him half to death. He looked up but didn't see where it came from. He then thought it was a gift from the heavens since he was very hungry and couldn't eat the pizza he was delivering. He smiled and kept on walking hoping a bun and some ketchup would fall out of the sky too.
Meanwhile, up on the balcony Monica and Chandler watched the pizza guy walk away with the burger. Monica looked at Chandler and said, "Oops. Guess I better put another one on the grill before Ross and Carol get here."
"So how's the roommate search going?"
"Okay, I guess. One asked if she could bring her pet ferret. Someone else has a bottle cap collection of over 10,000, and is also an exotic dancer. One girl seemed pretty cool; she's a librarian who loves to clean!"
Chandler groaned, "Oh no does that mean you're not going to pick the bottle cap collecting exotic dancer?" Chandler was only joking of course. He knew he wouldn't have a chance with an exotic dancer, even if she were a bit eccentric with her strange hobby.
Monica flipped the burgers more carefully this time. "No, I am not. I still have a few more people to meet. I want to live with someone who's fun and won't drive me crazy, someone I could be friends with."
"Well who doesn't want that, but that's incredibly hard to find."
"What are you talking about? You and Ross are great roommates."
"Yeah, but I still want to throw his humidifier out the window," Chandler said while thrusting his arms like he was actually throwing it out a window.
Just then the intercom buzzed. "Speak of the devil, that's Ross and Carol now." Monica crawled through the window to buzz them up.
Phoebe was sitting in a beanbag chair and trying to listen to the TV above the noise from the bar downstairs. It was hard to relax after a long day at work. Phoebe hardly heard the pizza delivery guy knock on her door. Phoebe answered the door and saw a cute Italian carrying her pizza in one hand and a burger in his other. "One vegetarian pie and do you have a bun for this?"
Phoebe took her pizza and said, "Yeah, sure. Hold on."
Phoebe got a bun, sliced a tomato and some lettuce and toped off the burger with some ketchup. She handed it to the cute pizza guy on paper plate along with what she owed him for the pizza. "Mmm, this is good. Thanks!" Then he turned and left. Phoebe stuck her head out the door and yelled, "You're welcome!"
She then sat back on the beanbag chair with her pizza and the paper. As she skimmed the possible ads she circled she suddenly saw a great one she missed on Bedford and Grove. She called the number.
"Hello?" Monica answered.
"Hi, this is Phoebe Buffay. I'm calling about the apartment."
