Sorry Updates have been taking me so long on...well...everything, but..well...I'm back (for the moment anyways). If you really care you can check my profile for the whole nine yards on the subject.
Well thanks to Irish Holly, Rachna, and CM4ever for the reviews! I'm really enjoying writing this piece, and I hope to write more AU(-ish) Friends fics in the future. I mean, writing LOTR's fanfics are great and all, but people get so mad at you when you try to make it even the slightest bit unlike Tolkien's universe! I think they hated me over in that section! So I have now come to dominate this section with my Chandler-Monica-ness. lol.
Oh, well, I'm done now. The next chapter will be up as soon as I get around to writing it!
Monica bolted up her front steps; her shoes clunking against the old wood porch so loudly that she was sure everybody would hear her entrance. She panted ever so slightly, having turned her speed walk into a brisk jog on the way back from Phoebe's. Might as well keep the parents as happy as possible for as long as possible. She had a feeling they weren't going to be to pleased when they found out her plans for that afternoon, or really the next few years.
"Monica? Is that you?" She heard her mother's voice from inside, her tone slightly angry.
"Yeah, ma!" She shouted back, "I'm home!" She pushed open the front door, and walked inside sluggishly.
"Where have you been, young lady?" Her entire family plus Rachel, who probably did count as a member of the family practically, sat in the living room. Her mother had her arms crossed across her chest, and her brows furrowed with anger. Her father, though never really entirely there mentally, didn't look too pleased either.
"I just needed to get some air, ma. What's with the fifty questions?"
"And getting air took nearly two hours." Her mother snapped back at her, "And on the day of your brother's departure of all days, Monica! I can't believe you would do that!"
"Ma! I said goodbye to him earlier!"
"This could very well be the last time we see our little hero!" Ross visibly flinched at his mother's words, then he forced an uncomfortable laugh,
"Oh, ma, you don't mean that! Of course I'm coming back!" He looked over at Rachel, who suddenly looked quite pale, "I'm coming back," he repeated in a much more serious tone.
"We aren't even in a war yet, ma! I don't see the big fuss."
"Monica!" Her father scolded her, having apparently come out of la la land for once in his life.
"Yeah, Mon. We could very well go to war, and I know that I wanna be there protecting my country because I know it's the right thing to do."
Her mother patted Ross on the back, "That's my little hero," she baby talked him. "Always doing the right thing."
"Ma," Ross blushed a little.
Monica rolled her eyes, "I can't believe this."
"What do you mean, Mon?" Rachel asked her, tearing her eyes away from Ross for a moment.
"What?"
"Mon, Ross is going away. I can't believe your not upset by that," Rachel explained slowly. "I mean, you're my best friend and all, but I just can't believe what I am hearing."
"Rach, I have nothing against Ross! And I am going to miss him! That's not my problem!"
"Then what the hell is your problem, Monica? Enlighten us!" Her mother spewed, waving her hands in a dramatic fashion.
Monica wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly becoming very aware of everyone's eyes on her. It wasn't exactly the most comforting feeling in the world. "It's nothing. I guess I just can't get over the fact that Ross is leaving just yet." She almost slapped herself for saying that. She had cracked again.
Rachel looked at her friend teary eyed, "Mon," she whimpered. She got up and wrapped her arms around Monica's small frame, "We got each other, right? And you said it, we may not even go to war!"
"Uh-huh"
"Mon," Ross cooed, "You don't have to worry. I'll be fine, I promise."
Monica held back the sudden urge to vomit. She knew her brother better then that, the only reason he was enlisting now was because there probably wasn't going to be a war. Therefore no danger and he can now say that he was in the military. No matter what he still came off as a hero in her parents' eyes.
"Monica, why didn't you just tell us you felt like this?" Her father asked, somehow buying her excuse. Her mother, although, didn't look so convinced yet. Her lips were puckered, and Monica could tell she was fighting back the urge to point out her daughter's boldfaced lie.
"I don't know," Monica mumbled, pulling herself from Rachel's embrace. Then she noticed the ring on Rachel's finger, a gold band with a pathetically small diamond. It hadn't been there before. In fact, Rachel didn't own any diamonds. "I need to go and call Phoebe," she choked out, her eyes wide. She walked wearily out of the living room and over her own bedroom, not even bothering to listen to her family's shouts for her to come back.
She picked up the pale green telephone from her desk, dialing the number she knew by heart. "Pheebs?" She asked, more out of habit then anything else. It wasn't like anyone else would be answering the phone.
"She turned you down, didn't she, Mon? I told you not to get your hopes up, but you did, and looked what happened. You're crushed, aren't you?"
"Pheebs," Monica cut her off, "I didn't ask her. I can't. My parents,"
"Monica!"
"But my parents,"
"You said it yourself! You wanted to get away from your parents! Why are you backing out because of them?"
"You don't understand what it's like." Monica mumbled softly, "You're an only child. You've always been an only child. You know how hard it is for my parents to see anything else but Ross and Ross's stupid accomplishments?"
"Someone sounds bitter," Phoebe mused.
"Phoebe, I'm being serious. I can't go, my parents will never let me."
"So what if your parents are against it? You're nineteen! You're legally an adult! Hell, you've been one for almost a year now! You've never cared before, why start now?"
"You should have seen the looks on their faces when I came home, they were so angry that I miss a dear moment with Ross before he leaves. How do you think they'll react when I tell them that I want to enlist?"
"Monica, you don't have to tell them. You just have to leave. You don't need them, Mon," Phoebe reasoned.
Monica sighed, "You have no idea how nice that sounds right now."
"Then why sit there thinking about doing it and just doing it! You're only nineteen once, why waste it just sitting there!"
"I know."
There was silence on the other end of the line, with the exception of Phoebe's heavy breathing. "Monica?" She breathed out.
"Yea?"
"Let's move away together. Go to the city or something, you know."
"Phoebe, that's crazy."
"No, no, it's not crazy. I've been thinking a lot about it, actually. You once, once I'm done with the military and all, I really won't have a place to live, so I thought why not just move into the city. I've always wanted to live there anyways."
"But,"
"Think about it, Mon. You could be completely independent from your family, it would be like a fresh start, you know? Well, you'd have me, so it wouldn't be completely new I guess, but anyways, big picture here."
"I don't know," Monica answered honestly, "I mean, it sounds like it would be fun and all, but is it really that practical? I mean, we don't even have jobs or anything to support ourselves."
"Well," Phoebe said in a 'matter-of-factly' way, "If we enlist, we'll have jobs for a little while anyways. And I've got some cash saved up in the back, and it shouldn't be too hard to find work, I mean it's the city. That place is just crawling with jobs."
"And people who are actually qualified for the jobs."
"I told you I should have cleaned your aura, Miss Negativity."
"Seriously, Pheebs, do you really think we could pull that off? I mean, I guess we have a high school education, which is a step ahead of some people, but still!"
"Monica will you stop and listen to yourself for a second! All through high school you couldn't wait to graduate so you could leave! Look at yourself! You're living with your parents, something you swore you'd never do after graduation!"
"Pheebs, this is different."
"No, Mon, no it's not different. Stop bullshitting me for once second, could you! This afternoon, you couldn't wait to enlist, and now you wanna stay! Hell, you don't even want to move away from your parents!"
"Phoebe this is different for you! You said it yourself, you have nothing left here! Me, I have everything here! How am I just supposed to get up and leave!"
"Forget it, Mon. I don't know why I even asked you. I knew you'd never come."
"What?"
"I knew it was bullshit even when you said it. You're trained, Mon, you can't just reverse that. You're gonna do exactly what your parents want you to do. Marry rich, marry young, be a housewife, have babies." She paused on the other end, although it may have only lasted seconds, it was an entirety to Monica. "Whatever, you know what, just give me a call once you have your first baby. It won't be that long of a wait, I'm sure."
She hung up, for the first time in Monica's life, Phoebe had been the one to hang up. Without even giving Monica a chance to respond. She sat there for a moment, the phone still clutched to her ear, listening to the dull buzz of the ring tone. She just wasn't quite sure how to react. If she should be angry, or sad, or admit to all the things Phoebe had said about her, or if she should cry, she just plain didn't know.
"Mon?" Rachel's voice leaked in through the door, followed by two soft knocks. "Monica? Are you in there?"
"Yea, Rach, I'm here."
Rachel pushed open the door slowly, peaking her head inside first then followed slowly by her slender body. She looked at Monica sympathetically, "It's going to be okay, Mon."
"You don't get it do you?"
"What?"
"Close the door."
Rachel nodded, and did as she was told. "What don't I get, Monica?" Rachel repeated, as she walked over and took a seat next to Monica on her bed.
"I'm not upset over, Ross." She stated flatly, not even bothering to look at the blonde.
"Monica! I can't believe you!"
"No, Rach, I can't believe you! I thought we weren't going to get married right after high school, we promised! We were going to travel together, remember? What ever happened to that?"
Rachel looked down at her feet, her hands fumbling uncomfortably in her lap. "You saw the ring, huh?" She said sadly, "I love him, you know that, right?"
"But what about all of our plans! He expects you're to put your life on hold for two years, and yet he can't do the same thing for you!"
"Now wait a minute here, Monica! I want to get married to Ross! And if I asked him, I'm sure he would wait, because that's how much he loves me!"
"Oh, yeah? Then ask him, Rach. Ask him to wait a couple of years."
Rachel's eyes darted to the door, "I, I, I," She mumbled, unable to come up with any words to say.
"You know he won't like it. He wants to get married as soon as he gets back, doesn't he?"
"What if I don't want to wait either!" Rachel spat back, her frustration growing more and more evident. "I love Ross! What does some silly date matter! I just want to be with him!"
"I can't believe you, Rach! We had it all planned out! We were going to take the train all the way to California! Stick out feet in the ocean! Remember!"
"People change, Monica. We made those plans years ago!"
Monica jerked her head back to look at Rachel, her eyes full of fire. "What happened to you?"
"I grew up, Monica. That's what happened." Rachel said calmly, placing a hand on her friend's thigh. "I know it's scary, Mon, but you gotta grow up and stop living in that world, okay?"
Monica shook her head, her tears building up in her eyes. "No, Rach, it's not growing up that scares me, it's you, it's me, it's this whole world we live in. I don't want settle for what's here, for second best. I know that I want to live on my terms, but I am so fucking afraid that I don't know if I can!" She bowed her head down, and allowed her tears to start coming, feeling all of the emotion she had built up inside of her over the past years falling out in one huge burst of tears.
Rachel wrapped her arms around Monica, and rocked her slowly back and forth, just trying to calm her shaking body. She kissed the back of her head gently, "I'm not settling, Mon."
"Then why are you getting married so soon?" Her voice cracked wildly as she choked out her words.
"Because," Rachel paused, "Because I love him."
"But being married or not being married isn't going to change your love for him, Rach. Why get married now?"
Rachel opened her mouth, but found no words would come out. "I, I, I," she babbled, "I don't know, I guess it just feels right."
"Come with me," Monica whispered, her tears having calmed themselves into a light trickle falling down her cheeks every so often.
"Come where?"
"Phoebe asked me to enlist with her," she stated simply, "And I want you with me. You're my best friend, and I wouldn't have it any other way."
"Monica you're talking crazy."
"Please," Monica looked up at Rachel and pleaded with her eyes, "Please, just do this for me."
"But,"
"Ross is going to be gone anyways, and at least this way, you can tell, for sure, if you are meant to be with him."
"How so?"
"If when you get back, you still love him as much as you do now, having lived an entirely different life for two years, then you'll know that you really aren't just settling."
"Monica,"
"Please, Rach."
Rachel paused in thought for a moment, finding herself lost in thought over what Monica had said to her. She played absent-mindedly with the ring Ross had given her, sliding off and back on her finger, playing out the days events in her head. "I guess that could work," she mumbled.
Monica's face lit up, "Really? You'll do it?"
Rachel nodded, "I guess if I have to put my love life on hold for the next two years, I might as well be spending it doing something worthwhile. Hell, I might even be some place warm doing something worthwhile!"
Monica chuckled a little, "Y'know, I heard they were sending most enlisted people to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii! Can you believe it! Hawaii!"
Rachel's eyes got wide, "Hawaii! Why didn't you tell me this earlier in the speech! I would have said yes sooner!"
"What about the whole Ross thing?"
"Forget Ross, I'll be in Hawaii!"
"Don't get your hopes up, you're not there yet, and we might never actually get to go there."
Rachel cast a look over at Monica, "You seem to forget who's doing who the favor that requires a certain binding contract with a certain government of a certain country that we live in."
"I mean, the chances of us not going to Pearl are pretty slim, and did I mention how beautiful you look today? Absolutely stunning."
Rachel smiled, "That's the spirit!"
Please Review.