Disclaimer: I don't own Friends.

A/N: Wow. Over 100 reviews? For ten chapters? This has never happened to me before! Oh man! You all rock! (And MightyRikimaru, thanks for the constructive criticism)

This chapter is pretty long, I think. Hope you all are still enjoying :)

XXX

Rachel didn't even have time to close her eyes and prepare before Ross had bent over enough so his lips could meet hers.

Her first thought after she had closed her eyes was: Ross was a good kisser.

For the moment, Rachel forgot about her fears. She let her arms snake up around Ross' shoulders while he made a mess of her perfectly-done hair. All she could focus on was how amazing she felt; how just this one kiss from Ross made her feel like she was the most important girl in the world, and he wanted to prove that to her.

However, when it seemed to be starting to get a little out of control, Rachel backed away suddenly, breathing heavily and staring at the ground.

Ross blinked slowly, his eyes on her bent head. "Uh…," was all he said.

Rachel looked up to meet his confused face. "I…," she began. "I've got to go." And with that, she ran off, past the garage, through the dancers on the driveway, and down the street towards her own home.

Her frightened feelings had returned full force with that kiss, but now, they seemed to be magnified by a thousand.

XXX

Ross watched her run off, and felt like a complete ass. Had he just made a mistake?

Chandler and Monica stumbled towards him, both leaning on the other for support as they laughed hysterically at something. They stopped when Ross turned towards them.

"Ross? What's wrong?" Monica asked gently, stepping towards her brother.

Ross shook his head, looking back to where Rachel had run off. "I… uh… Rachel and I just kissed."

"Whoa!" Chandler said. "Way to go, man!" He lifted his hand for a high five. When Ross didn't respond, he pulled it back. "Uh… is this a bad thing all of a sudden?"

"She ran off," Ross confided, sighing dejectedly. "I thought she wanted this…"

Monica rubbed his shoulder. "She did, Ross. She's probably just confused. You know how Rachel is."

Chandler nodded. "Yeah, I mean, if she doesn't mention it the next time you see her, then you can go back to being uncomfortable best friends who both secretly long for the other!" He waited for a response, which never came. "No?" he asked, then stepped back slightly.

"Give her time," Monica advised wisely.

Ross nodded. This was all much harder than he had expected it would be.

XXX

She didn't know why she ran out. Her heart was telling her not to. Pleading, actually. In fact, it had been downright begging her not to break that amazing kiss.

Her head, however, was a whole different matter. It yelled at her, warning her that he was her friend, she couldn't mess that up; she'd break his heart.

So, she stepped back. Which, ironically enough, seemed to break Ross' heart anyway.

Rachel sighed as she placed her blue dress on a hanger. After running home and racing up to her room, she'd fallen back on her bed, intending to suffocate herself with a pillow, or something a little less violent. Anything that would get the image of Ross' face out of her mind. Suddenly, it felt like every time she thought, or moved, or blinked, or even breathed, his smiling form would show up in her mind's eye.

She took just one more glance at the dress before shoving it in the closet and closing the door, making it slam a little for an added affect. Her mother's words from earlier came back to her: "Who knows? Maybe a nice young man will take notice at the party."

Damn her mother for suddenly becoming clairvoyant! Someone did notice. Ross noticed. Right before he kissed her, he said that her dress matched her eyes. Damn her! Damn him! Damn them all!

Realizing how silly she sounded, Rachel flopped back down onto her bed. She could still hear music from the party blasting away. Her nightstand clock informed her that it was only ten.

She didn't know why she was so worked up about this. This was what she wanted, wasn't it? Yes. Of course. It was just her stupid fears that were haunting her that were making this so much harder.

She couldn't face Ross now. He'd be furious with her; or uncomfortable. They'd be awkward and there would be those annoying long silences filled with tension, and maybe even a moment or two sprinkled in where each one of them thinks, "this is it," and then the opportunity is missed.

That'd be just like them.

Letting out a long puff of air, Rachel rolled onto her side, flicking off her bedside light so her room was dark.

One thing was for certain: she'd probably just ruined the best thing that could've ever happened to her, and it hadn't even started yet.

XXX

Rachel celebrated her birthday two days later. It was a simple thing, really; her mother, sisters, grandmother, and some other aunts, uncles, and cousins came for a gathering at their home. Monica and Chandler took her out to a fancy restaurant, and happily let her order the wine to solidify the fact that she was now twenty-one.

Ross "had to work late", Monica told her.

She'd be lying if she said she hadn't been disappointed. Even though Rachel had been fretting over the kiss with Ross ever since the moment it happened, she still felt that a piece of her was missing while they were out.

When she got home late that night, there had been a gift on her doorstep. A pair of teardrop earrings. They were special, though; Rachel and Ross had been walking down a street in the city when she'd spied them in a window. She'd told her companion that they were just like a pair of her grandmother's, which she loved. Instead of buying them, though, she'd kept walking, saying they really weren't that big a deal, and had forgotten about them by the next day.

But, apparently, Ross remembered.

Add that to the list of reasons why she was afraid of starting anything with Ross; he remembered the little things, and always knew when she was lying.

XXX

Ross spent the remainder of the summer pretty miserably. He'd soon realized that he needed to be closer to the museum if he was going to be commuting every day, and so, with a heavy heart, he'd come to Chandler one day in late June and informed his best friend that he was moving out. He'd even already found an affordable place; now, Chandler just had to find a new roommate.

Chandler had joked that he'd invite Monica to live with him. Ross had joked (threatened, really) to remove one of his limbs.

He spent all of his spare time at the museum, or visiting his parents, or hanging out in Nana's apartment. He was finding it more and more difficult to just relax with Monica and Chandler, since they always reminded him of the thing he was trying to forget. Or, actually, who he was trying to forget.

He'd left the earrings he'd secretly known Rachel had wanted on her doorstep on her birthday while she was out with Monica and Chandler. Just because they were avoiding each other didn't mean Ross couldn't give her something he knew she'd love for her birthday.

In fact, Ross had received a note from her only a week after her birthday. It had been taped onto their apartment door with his name printed on it in her neat handwriting. Inside, it'd simply said:

Ross,

Thank you for the earrings. I had been lying when I said I didn't care about them when we went past them in that store window, and you saw that. You notice a lot about me.

-Rachel

It wasn't much, and Ross had spent days pouring over it, trying to find some hidden meaning behind her wording. He didn't find much. She didn't even really sign it; no "love", or "from", or, (thank God) "your friend".

What did strike him was the fact that she said, "You notice a lot about me." Now that, that short statement seemed to hold so much promise.

So Ross kept going on during the summer; he kept going to the museum, he slowly packed his belongings and was in the process of moving them into his new apartment, and was even helping Chandler find a new roommate.

Because, as he liked to think, there was still potential.

XXX

Monica glanced over at her subdued best friend as they stepped into Chandler's apartment building. Rachel had been acting so unlike herself ever since the kiss between she and Ross at the beginning of the summer, and it was stating to flat-out scare Monica, since they'd just moved back to school for their senior year of college, and classes began in a week. In all the years she'd known her, Rachel Green had never become this despondent over a guy.

The two women were on their way up to Chandler's apartment to meet his new roommate, an aspiring actor with a very Italian name which escaped Monica at the present time. Apparently, this guy hadn't been her boyfriend's first choice, but the other guy had never shown up, and so the actor got the roommate spot. He'd just moved in this morning.

Rachel and Monica made their way up to the stairs, towards apartment number 19. Nana, who lived just across the hall, was in Florida for two weeks, and so the place was empty.

"Is Ross going to be here?"

The sudden question spoken by Rachel nearly made Monica stop in her tracks. She hadn't uttered his name in a very long time.

"Uh… I'm not sure," Monica said slowly, the wheels in her head beginning to turn. If she could just get them together in the same room, and then somehow give she, Chandler, and his new roommate a reason to leave them alone…

"Oh."

She didn't say anything else, and Monica decided not to push it. She wondered idly if something else had happened between her best friend and brother that neither of them were telling as she knocked on her boyfriend's door.

A good-looking guy who only appeared to be a year or two older than them opened the door. He looked the two women up and down, and then said in a sexy voice, "How you doin'?"

Chandler rushed up behind the guy and put a hand on his shoulder. "Uh, Joey, please don't do that," he said seriously. Joey shrugged and raised his hands in defeat, and then stepped back to let the other two into the apartment.

Monica gave Chandler a greeting kiss, and then asked, "So that's the new roommate?"

Chandler nodded with a small groan. "That's the new roommate."

"He's good-looking," Monica pointed out.

Glaring at his girlfriend, Chandler just waved his hands. "Yeah, yeah."

"So, listen," Monica started quietly as Joey attempted to make conversation with Rachel, "is Ross coming?"

Chandler nodded. "Well, yeah!"

Monica hit him on the chest. "Doofus!"

"He's my best friend! Why shouldn't he come?" Chandler asked defensively, recoiling at her attack.

"Because Rachel is here!"

"Oh come on. It's not like they're divorced!"

Monica shook her head. "Fine. But if one of them ends up hurting at the end of this evening, you're paying."

"As long as we can still have sex, I'm fine with that," Chandler said with an evil smirk, which Monica rolled her eyes at and walked away from.

"So, listen, how about you and me-" Joey was saying as Monica reached he and Rachel.

Interrupting, she stuck out her hand towards the new guy. "I'm Monica Geller, Chandler's girlfriend."

Joey nodded and shook her hand. "Wow, you've got a strong grip," he commented. "I'm Joey Tribbiani. Chandler's got good taste."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

The apartment door opened and a tall blonde women entered. "Hey!"

No one responded, save for Joey, who walked over to her. "Hey Pheebs!"

At Rachel and Monica's questioning looks, Chandler shrugged. "He and Phoebe are like, best friends." They accepted this explanation.

"Okay, guys, this is Phoebe," Joey introduced as he and his blonde friend rejoined the other three. "Pheebs, this is Rachel and Monica."

"Hi," Rachel greeted.

"Good to meet you," Monica said kindly.

"Wow! You're Chandler's girlfriend?" Phoebe questioned of Monica, slightly surprised. "You're so much prettier than I thought you'd be!"

Chandler crossed his arms over his chest, annoyed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Monica smiled. "Shut up, she called me pretty," she whispered to her boyfriend. "So, how long have you two known each other?"

Joey grinned at Phoebe, then told them, "Well, I was on the subway two years ago, and there weren't any seats, and well, Pheebs was sitting down and her purse was taking up most of the two seats next to her, but she put it on the ground and let me sit, and then I hit on her, and we've been friends ever since."

"Your purse took up two whole subway seat?" Rachel questioned.

Phoebe nodded good-naturedly. "Yeah. I had needed my biggest one, because I was carrying a lamp and a pair of shoes, plus all the regular stuff I carry around."

Chandler blinked. "Oh. Well… that's not at all weird." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, how about we head out to check out the new coffee place? It had some cutesy name like Caffeine Central or Perky Place or something."

"Oh, but hey, shouldn't we wait for your other friend, uh, what was his name?" Joey scratched his head in thought. "Gus?"

Rachel sighed to herself. "Ross."

Joey snapped his fingers. "Yes! That's the one."

Monica glanced over at her best friend. "We can just leave him a note saying where we are."

As they were exiting the building, Joey sidled up beside Rachel again while Monica and Phoebe chatted about something or other and Chandler tried to remember the name of the coffee place.

"So," Joey said, his voice lowering in pitch. Rachel rolled her eyes. "How do you know Chandler?"

"He's Monica's brother Ross' best friend and old college roommate, and Monica and I have been friends since we were little."

"Wow, sounds like you guys got a pretty tight-knit group," Joey commented suavely.

Rachel inwardly groaned. You ain't kidding.

"Maybe you'd let me buy you some coffee-" Joey began, just as earlier in the apartment, but was cut off when Chandler let out an "oof!".

Rachel looked over towards her friend to see that he had stumbled into someone. But not just any someone.

Ross.

She froze up immediately. She hadn't seen him since the night of the kiss, when she'd let her fears take over and had run away and broken his heart three months ago. Had it really been three months?

And there he was, standing there, asking his best friend if he was all right, looking as good as ever. His hair was shorter, and he'd spiked it up in the front in that way that Rachel loved. He looked so much more grown up; but, Rachel realized, of course he did. He was out of college, had a good job, and his own apartment. He really was an adult.

Their eyes locked for an instant in such an intense way that Rachel just knew it'd be included as a minute-long moment if their lives were turned into a movie or TV show. He shot her a tentative smile, and she sent one back, though it faltered slightly.

Monica noticed the tension between them, having witnessed the whole moment, and declared loudly, "Alright! So let's get a move on, people!" She began ushering them out of the door.

Phoebe passed Rachel and mumbled quietly, "She seems kind of pushy." All Rachel could do was nod wordlessly.

XXX