Dying in Your Arms Tonight - Three
ooooo
About half an hour later, I finally felt that I had enough strenth to pull myself off the floor. I wearily stood on my rubbery legs and stared down at the mess of clothes scattered around the hallway. I was too exhausted to pick them all up, so, having no where else to go, I opened Joey and Rachel's front door and started shuffling them in with my feet.
Joey and Rachel obviously weren't home so I decided to collapse on their couch until one of them got there. I didn't know if I should just take off and hide at a hotel or stay and see if they'd let me rent their couch for a few days. Monica was obviously not gonna let me stay at her place. I wondered if I'd ever be talking to her again. She had to let me explain what had really happened, she'd cool off after a few days, I'd tell her my story, and everything would be the way it was supposed to be.
My exhaustion took over me and I fell into a deep sleep on the big yellow couch.
ooooo
It must have been just over three hours later when Rachel found me on their couch. My black button down shirt was untucked and wrinkled with half of the buttons undone. My sleeves were rolled up and my black slacks looked like they had been..well..slept in.
"Chandler," she called and nudged my shoulder.
I sat up quickly and glanced around. It took me a few minutes to realize where I was and for it all to come back to me. I brought my arm up and glanced down at my watch. 6:21.
"Hey," I said, looking up at Rachel, who still stood above me.
"Chandler, Monica told me what happened."
"Oh, God," I sighed, sliding my head into my hands and resting my elbows on my knees.
Rachel paused and sat on the edge of the recliner, staring at the ground in front of her dazedly. "Honestly, it doesn't sound like something you would do, especially not to Monica. So I'll let you explain your side of the story before I do any ass kicking."
I sat back and stared at her with my tear stained face. "I..had to fire this girl, and she went kinda..crazy. She started swinging at me and then she got me pinned against the desk, and that's when Monica came in. She saw what was going on, thought it was something else, and just went blasting out of there. I chased her taxi the whole way home, and when I got here, she wouldn't talk to me. She just threw all my clothes at me and told me to get out. I didn't have anywhere else to go, so I came over here, I hope you don't mind."
"Oh, Chandler, hun, I'm sorry," She came forward and wrapped her arms around me. "I won't kick you out, I promise."
"Do--do you think she'll let me explain?'' I said, starting to cry again.
"Oh, I'm sure she will. Just give her some space. I'll try to talk to her tonight."
"Thanks. Hey, do you think I could sleep on your couch? It'd just be for tonight, I'll try to find a hotel tomorrow."
"Chandler, you can stay here for as long as you need. We're friends, I'm here for support. You've helped me through more than I can remember, I'm gonna get you through this," she said, sliding her hands up to my cheeks and smiling at me.
"Thanks, again. Want to play 52 pick up clothing-style with me?"
ooooo
A few days went by and Monica still wouldn't talk to me. I had heard from the others that she was thinking of staying at her parents for a few days, just to get away from it all. Each of them had tried to explain what had really happened, but she wouldn't believe them, I was doubtful that she'd believe me too.
Ross was ticked at first, but then the others helped me out in explaining it all to him, mostly because I couldn't talk with the death grip he had had on my throat.
It was day three and counting. I stayed home the day after this whole fiasco and returned to work yesterday. I didn't get much done though, only if you count staring at Monica's picture on my desk, work.
I couldn't get her out of my mind, I didn't want to. She was my life, I couldn't live without her. I didn't know what I'd do if she never talked to me again after this.
I'd probably move away to some place on the west coast, as far from here as I could get. I loved New York, but being in the same city as the woman I loved and knowing there was nothing I could do about it would be too much to handle.
I trudged in from work about two hours ago and immediately went to the faithful recliner for comfort. I was on my third beer, with two empty bottles sitting on the floor beside me.
Joey strolled in and looked at me sadly. Here I was, sitting in the middle of his apartment, still dressed in my work suit, minus the tie, drinking beer, watching the strangest tv shows known to man, and pining over my girlfriend, quite possibly ex-girlfriend.
"Dude, you have got to get out of this apartment," he said, taking off his jacket and tossing it on the counter.
"Why? Do you want me to leave? Cause if you don't wa--"
"No, Man, you need to get out, in the real world, with people. You haven't been to Central Perk in three days, you sit here all day, depressed out of your mind. You don't even try to talk to Monica," he paused and stared at me for a few seconds. "We're going out tonight, go get changed, get cleaned up, stop drinking, let's get going. This girl I went out with last night told me about this kick ass club that I really wanna check out, we're going!"
"Joe, I don't really feel like going--"
"No, come on, we are going out!" He said, walking over to me, grabbing my shirt collar and lifting me out of my chair.
"Hey! Alright, alright, I'll go."
He turned me toward my room (Rachel moved back over to Monica's until this all got settled down) and gave me a little shove.
I had no idea that I was about to get into the worst trouble of my life.
ooooo
to be continued...
ooooo
Ok, so this isn't as long as I really wanted and I'm sorry I made you guys wait so long! I've been dealing with a lot of stuff and, honestly, I think I'm losing my intrest in Friends fiction writing. I'll finish this story for sure (I'm almost done writing it) and maybe do one more, but after that, I think I'm gonna be done. Retiring after just 1 and a half years, wow. I'm starting to turn more towards One Tree Hill. I can relate to that show so much more, and it's younger, and I'm young, and it's just easy to write. I don't know, we'll see how things go.
Thanks for reading, please review! (btw, thanks for all the reviews!)
