Chandler.
"And that's when he asked me out!" Phoebe beamed as she told us the story of how she met her date, who she claimed to be her soulmate.
"Really, Pheebs? He waited that long to ask?" Rachel chuckled.
"Yeah and?"
"I mean it just seems a little weird for a guy, that's all. You know, to not just make a move straight away and be a gentleman." She realised that he seemed perfect. "Does he have a brother?"
Monica laughed from the kitchen and accidentally added something to the conversation which would cause Rachel to be offended. "She'd even take a father!" However once she saw the look on Rachel's face and saw that none of us laughed at her joke which we all -including Rachel- knew was true, she stuffed her face with the first thing she could find around her.
"I'm a brother." Joey winked at Rachel, hoping this time his flirting would lead to success, though he lost hope again when she glared at him as if to say 'in your dreams'. He is best friend, but at this point Joey had hit on every single girl in New York, so now he was trying it again with the 3 women closest to him...who weren't his mother. "Hey, so is Ross!"
Rachel rolled her eyes at his comment. "Ross is also in a very committed relationship and I am very happy for him." She said, with a ridiculously fake smile. We all knew she still loved Ross, or at least still wanted to be with him, so we fake smiled too and pretended to believe her.
"Yeah of course you are." Phoebe laughed, taking a sip of her coffee which Monica had made. Out of everybody's, her coffee was the best. We didn't hang out at Ross's or Phoebe's much, and Joey didn't know how to make it, so the huge task of making the perfect cups of coffee usually came down to myself or Monica. And we don't speak of Rachel's coffee; we're all just silently grateful she got her new job at Ralph Lauren so now when we go downstairs to the coffee house we can actually enjoy our time there and not have our tastebuds feel like they're peeling off.
"What? I am!" Rachel laughed.
"Yeah exactly! You're so happy for him and you're not at all still in love with him." God damn Phoebe's inability to hide the truth. When she noticed Rachel's frown, she shut her mouth quickly and slapped her hand over it. "Shoot, is that the thing we're not allowed to bring up?"
Monica and I nodded, sat next to each other on the sofa, while Rachel scoffed once more.
"You guys have a thing?" Rachel imitated.
"It's not a big deal, Rach, it's just our way of making sure no one falls back into old habits." Monica tried to reassure her, but from the look on her face, her attempts definitely didn't work. Despite her best efforts, Rachel was always far too stubborn to listen to any advice Monica had to give. Though I was glad she tried because I'm terrible at giving advice, Joey's answer to everything is sleeping with him, and Phoebe just thinks a (horribly written) song will solve all of life's biggest problems. Ever since Ross started dating Emily, he had hung out with us less and less, don't get me wrong, we still spoke to him pretty much every day. He seemed happy in his new relationship, but a part of all us knew something was missing in Ross without Rachel. However he is our friend so we've gotta be there for him no matter what and like whoever he next wants to get divorced to.
"How come I haven't heard about this?" Joey crossed his arms and seemed offended. I don't know why because he was a part of it, he probably just forgot, knowing him.
"You have heard of this." I reminded him, in a condescending tone.
He squinted and pouted, so I assumed that was his thinking face. He was constantly making new faces and new walks to make sure everyone noticed his presence at all times. "Oh yeah." He remembered and chuckled, taking a bite of his sandwich that Monica made him for his dinner. We all had Chinese food but Joey had an audition coming up and his agent told him to lay off the carbs. So he asked Monica to keep him on a strictly healthy diet until the audition. Now if I know Monica, and I do, I could imagine how heavenly that was to hear for her. To be able to control some part is someone else's lifestyle: it was her porn.
"Hey, what do you mean old habits?" Rachel hissed.
"Oh you know..." Monica tried not to make her any angrier. "Um, Pheebs, can you pass the remote?" When she felt uncomfortable or awkward, Mon usually tended to try and change the subject, however it never worked, especially not with Rachel.
"Phoebe, do not touch that remote!" Rachel shouted, startling Phoebe. "Now what do you mean?" Nothing was gonna stop her from finding out what she wanted to know now, she was already in the stance. Arms crossed, hip popped, eyebrows perched as if they were trying to rip off her face.
Monica sighed, "just... We all know that you've got a habit of falling in and out of love very fast."
Rachel clicked her tongue and chuckled under her breath, obviously still annoyed. "So?"
Monica stood up and walked over to the TV, where her currently irritated best friend was, and placed her hands on Rachel's shoulders. "Just that, when you fall for certain people... It can make things kinda awkward."
I decided to help her out a little, however the second I spoke I regretted it after receiving a deathly glare from Rachel. "And by certain people she means Ross."
"So that's what this is about! I'm glad one of you specified because I was getting really confused over here." Phoebe chimed in, with some weird stuff which didn't make sense, but we were used to that from her.
"You brought it up!" Monica turned and shouted, chuckling soon after when she faced Rachel again. "We really didn't mean to upset you with it, honey. We were just trying to save you from getting hurt again."
"So now I need saving?" Rachel took what Monica said, offensively. We all groaned at not being able to make Rachel understand what we were saying. "No really, what makes you guys think I'm completely incapable of protecting my own feelings?"
"Oh I don't know, maybe because you were so depressed after you and Ross broke up." Monica tried to reason with her.
"For like the 6th time!" Joey wrongly added, and once he realised - after getting stares from everyone - he shut up and carried on eating his sandwich.
"Monica's right, Rach. Not even my songs could cheer you up!" Oh Phoebe.
"Oh well maybe you could write a song about right now, huh Pheebs? You could call it, oh I don't know, 'Backstabbing Bitch'?" Rachel mocked Monica but she tried not to let it get to her. Although, I could already start to see the vein forming on Monica's forehead.
"I don't think people would wanna listen to that..." Phoebe tried to ease the tension.
"And hey, I may fall in love quickly, but at least I didn't fall in love with my dad's best friend!" Damn, that was a low blow.
While scoffing, she smiled, but sadly. Her face seemed to say It can't believe you'd say that'. She looked really sad. "Whatever, Rach, we're just trying to help." Monica walked back over to me with her hands up as if she was finally giving in, and I knew she had trouble doing that, but Rachel meant a lot to her, and I know she hated fighting with her.
I put my arm around Monica and gave her a little squeeze, making her smile. When Monica and Richard broke up, she was really shook up for so long, and for Rachel to use that... I could tell she needed a pick-me-up.
"Look, Mon." She knew what she said was wrong. She walked over to the other side of Monica and sat next to her. "Thank you for trying to protect my feelings. But I'm a big girl! I can handle myself."
"I know." Mon smiled at her. "You're a lot stronger than we all think, and if you say you're not in love with Ross anymore, then we all believe you."
"Thanks." She put her hand on her back, and then apologised for bringing up the Richard thing.
"It's okay, I know you didn't mean it. Besides, I'm over Richard now!"
"Oh is that another thing we have to lie about now?" Phoebe asked, and I really don't know if she was being serious or not. Regardless, Monica rolled her eyes and after I said some clever joke which made everyone laugh, the tension was gone.
We were all watching some lame show on TV, waiting for the next episode of Joey's show to come on.
"Only 10 more minutes guys!" He squealed, excited and proud of the 'best episode yet'. I don't think he realised he had said that about every single episode that had aired. But I gotta give it to him, Days Of Our Lives is good television, as cheesy as it is, we actually all loved it.
"I'm gonna take all of this downstairs to the garbage chute while we wait." Monica stood and started grabbing garbage bags and throwing all of our food boxes in them. She had her hands full so I helped her and told her I'd go with her.
"Ooh! Go to the one on sexy-dreamy-guy's floor!" Phoebe pointed from the cushion she loved to sit on on the floor. "He's super hot, maybe you'll get to see him! Ooh! Maybe I'll come with you!"
"Pheebs, aren't you going on a date with your 'soulmate'?" Joey asked, causing her to gasp and feel guilty. She then started to question wether or not he was her soulmate because she forgot about him. Phoebe always read too much into things like that.
"We'll be back in a sec." Monica and I left the apartment with our hands full of garbage; she decided it would be a good time to empty all of the trash cans in the apartment. Sometimes her obsession for cleanliness worked for us, and sometimes it was a real pain in the ass.
Our floor didn't have a garbage disposal, so we had to climb either 2 staircases down to get to the floor of the guy Phoebe was talking about, or 1 staircase up. Ever since he moved in and the girls met him, he was all they could talk about, and he caused Rachel to start taking out the garbage more often than she did before when it was an old granny living there.
We decided to go up, and I could tell Monica was still bummed out a tiny bit by what Rachel had said, but she would never admit it.
Once we got to the top of the stairs and put the bags in the chute, I stopped her to speak.
"Hey, Mon?"
Her head turned to me and she smiled, "yeah?"
"Just so you know, you totally deserve better than what happened with Richard."
I could tell straight away that made her happy, and that made me happy.
"You think?" She squinted and tilted her head.
I nodded and told her yes. "Really, you're the most beautiful, funny, sweet woman I've ever known in real life." She laughed a little, but I knew she appreciated it. "You're amazing. Any guy would be lucky to have you."
She touched my arm and blushed. "You too, Chandler."
"Oh but you see, I'd really rather not have guys be lucky to have me." I said, as a way to hopefully make her laugh again. She did.
"We better get back, Days Of Our Lives is gonna be on soon, and you know what happens if we miss it..." Monica laughed, and we both remembered the time Joey warned us about what he'd do if we ever missed or skipped an episode of his show.
We started walking back down to our floor, and I tried really hard not to fall down the stairs which for some reason appeared to be especially slippery today!
"So you think Rachel really is over Ross?" I tried to speak, whilst still focusing on my feet and trying not to give her another way to embarrass me. She already had a lot of things she could make fun of me with. The Wendy's incident which everybody seems to think was a Taco Bell for some reason, as the biggest example. Goddamn Janice for telling her and Rachel that.
"Not at all."
"Didn't think so."
We both chuckled and agreed not to let Joey and Phoebe in on this information, assuming they didn't already know. What am I saying? Of course they didn't know. Phoebe really hates conflict and would do anything to avoid it, and Joey just believes anything you tell him.
Just as we reached our floor, she stopped us between our two apartments. "Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for coming with me."
"We only took out the trash, no big deal." I smiled, and shrugged my shoulders.
"Yeah but, you came and you cheered me up, and I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate it."
I could tell that she was being honest, I usually could, just like she could easily tell when I was lying.
"Anytime you need." I pulled her into a friendly hug. As we were hugging, Joey opened the door and shouted.
"Hey! Enough of that!" We pulled apart and looked at him. "The shows on!"
We all ran inside and jumped on the couch, ready for what could be the best episode yet. We got about halfway into it before Rachel needed to pee.
"Really, Rach?"
"Amateur!" Phoebe shouted, angry that we had to pause the episode which really was the best one yet to be released.
"I'm sorry, you guys! I've been holding it since the start!" She scurried along time the bathroom and just as she shut that door, the front door came flying open and in walked an excited Ross and Emily, hand in hand.
"Hey, you guys, guess what?!" Ross seemed really really happy, I wonder what's happened. Emily looked super happy too.
"Outta the way of the TV guys." Joey got up just to move them aside.
"It's not playing?" Ross looked and frowned.
"You don't wanna hide that face, huh?" Joey squealed and pointed at his face.
"What, Ross?" Monica grabbed Joey and pulled him to sit down next to us.
"We're engaged! We're getting married!" Ross shouted, clearly very happily. Emily showed us the ring, which was just... a hoop?
But what? They're getting married? They've known each other for 6 weeks.
Monica and Phoebe gasped and got up to talk to Emily, and Joey and I stood with Ross. We all hugged each other and congratulated them, as confused as we all were, we were still happy for our friend.
"What's up with the hoop?" Phoebe asked.
They laughed with each other, "I actually haven't gotten a ring yet, it was kinda a spur of the moment decision." Ross told us.
"Are you sure you guys are ready for this? You've known each other 6 weeks!" Monica tried to make them see that this was kinda crazy.
"I guess we just know. We love each other." Emily spoke, before Ross kissed her.
"You'll really do anything to get divorced, huh, Ross?" I joked, and Ross hit me playfully in the shoulder.
"So you're really doing this? You're getting married?" Joey smiled, still not being able to wrap his head around it.
"Yep, we're getting married!" Ross announced it, and he seemed to even shock himself a little.
With all of the excitement, we didn't notice Rachel stood at the bathroom door just looking in silence. She looked as shocked as all of us, maybe even more. Probably more, with all of the history between them. She looked obviously sad, but as if she was trying to hide it for Ross's sake.
"Rach," Ross smiled and walked over to her slowly, "I'm getting married." He grabbed her hands.
"Yeah," she fake smiled, and pulled him in for a hug. "You are." She said, embracing him.
We all knew that she wanted to cry, you could read it, it was all over her face.
We spent the next half hour talking to the newly engaged couple about their plans for the wedding. They didn't really seem like they had thought about it, and I suppose they haven't if they are using Ross's earring as an engagement ring. However they said they wanted to have some couple time and headed back to Ross's apartment. Rachel pretty much stayed quiet throughout the whole conversation but we could all see that she was trying.
"Wow!" Monica sighed and leaned on the door after she let them out. "Big news huh?"
"Compared to some of the stuff Ross does, no not really." I joked.
They call laughed, except Rachel. She looked blank.
"Rach? Are you okay?" Monica walked over to her and held her hands.
Rachel broke out of her trance, shaking her head quickly. "Yeah! Yeah, I'm great! Really."
"You wanna talk about it?" Phoebe asked, comfort in her voice.
Rachel smiled and stood up, "there's nothing to talk about. I'm happy for him." She started to walk over to her room but Monica stopped her from going in.
"You know it would be okay if you weren't. Happy for him, I mean."
"With all of your history, it would be kinda weird if you were." I added, standing next to them both. She chuckled and placed her small hand on my shoulder.
"I think I wanna be alone for tonight, you guys. Is that okay?" We told her that was fine, and each gave her a hug before she walked into her bedroom.
Joey spoke some logic for once. "She can't just avoid Emily if her and Ross are married."
"I know, but what can we do?" I asked, rhetorically, knowing there was nothing we could do. "We can't stop Ross from marrying Emily just because Rachel isn't happy about it."
"Everything's changing." Phoebe sighed, "I mean do Ross and Emily realise how crazy this is?"
We all shrugged, and Mon said we'll figure it out as it comes, and that's all we could do, I suppose.
"We should go, it's late." I told Joey and Phoebe. "See you tomorrow, Mon."
Just before we walked out of the door, Joey turned around and groaned. "We didn't finish the show! Damn Ross and that British woman."
I sighed, "just a heads up. That 'British woman', Joe, is gonna be married to our best friend soon."
"Doesn't mean I gotta like her."
"Well just pretend you like her!" Phoebe told him and Monica agreed.
"I can't do that! That's too hard!"
Oh, it's a good thing his livelihood doesn't depend on pretending to do someone else! Really Joey...
"You are still an actor, right?" I glared at him.
"You guys wouldn't know cause you didn't finish the show." He said, childishly.
"We'll finish it tomorrow, now will you let Monica get some rest?" I reasoned with him.
"Alright!" He rolled his eyes and we left finally.
"Bye guys."