Chandler.

"Uhhh," Rachel groaned, sinking into her seat even further than she was slumped before. "I have no idea what to wear for the party tonight." Classic Rachel, switching her frustration over to something she can control rather than constantly thinking about Ross and her feelings for him. Which she still wouldn't admit.

Monica grabbed a couple of our coffees from the counter and placed them on the counters she brought and changed every single day, after every single coffee.

"If only I had an amazing best friend who would let me dig through her closet in hopes that I find something beautiful." Mon never let Rachel borrow her clothes. Or rather, anything she owned.

"Nice try." Monica took a sip of her coffee, her legs crossed and eyebrow raised.

"Oh come on, Monica!" Rachel whined and leaned forward out of her chair. "What about that gorgeous grey dress you bought so long ago and haven't worn it ever?"

"What? So you can spill something down it, try to wash it and turn it pink like you did with my pants?" I kinda understand why she would never let her wear her stuff now.

"Well what about that time when you shrunk my cute little cami top in the dryer?" She tried to hit back but Monica shut her down.

"That was you!"

We laughed and Rachel rolled her eyes.

"I have something you could borrow, Rach." Phoebe chimed in, whilst she tuned her guitar. About 2 weeks ago, Gunther said she could play a few songs around 2PM because the comedian who was meant to be coming slipped in the shower and almost died or something, which sucked because I was really excited to tell better jokes than him. Though I think she misunderstood because now she plays every single day. It's always good entertainment though. I think I caught Gunther staring at Rachel a couple of times too, if I cared enough I'd probably wonder what that's about.

"Oh, don't take this the wrong way, Pheebs? But I think your style is just a little too..." Rachel noticed the sudden change on Phoebe's face so she let her brain catch up with her mouth for once. "Too unique. I'm pretty basic you know?"

"Yeah, I know." Phoebe muttered under her breath and carried on with what she was doing, and she smirked when I chuckled because I was the only one who heard what she said.

"What's funny, Chan?" Joey asked.

I shrugged and drank some of my black coffee which Gunther let us have for free for some reason, but only when we were with Rachel? Not that I'm complaining.

"Please, Mon?" Rachel practically begged at her feet, reminding her how much she loves her.

She eventually caved and Rachel squealed and slouched back in the chair, with a huge grin on her face. "But you get your own outfit for the actual wedding, okay?"

"Of course. Thank you!"

"Hey guys, what do you think Emily's gonna wear for the wedding?" Joey wondered, obviously not realising he had been ridiculous.

I looked at him with my eyebrows raised as if to say 'think'.

After a minute - a whole minute - he finally laughed and seemed to remember how the world works.

"Ooh Ooh! It's my time to play!" Phoebe got up and sat on the seat that resided next to the mic permanently. I swear it was glued to the ground.

We spent a few more hours just chilling and talking before we figured it was time to start getting ready for Ross and Emily's engagement party.

"We have to get dressed now?" Joey moaned while we walked upstairs. "The party's not for another 2 hours."

"Joe, if you think about it, 2 hours isn't enough." Monica laughed.

"What are you talking about? It's plenty of time!"

Rachel chuckled. "We have to take showers, do our hair, our makeup, find an outfit and shoes and jewellery that match."

Joey rolled his eyes, "that doesn't take 2 hours. I could do all of that and more in 30 minutes!"

"The truth is, Joe, you just don't understand the effort it takes to just exist as a woman." Phoebe schooled him. I was actually on the girls' side here, I had grown up watching my mother... my parents doll themselves up for just a normal day.

Joey shrugged and we walked into our apartment as the girls walked into Rach and Monica's. Phoebe had brought her outfit and makeup earlier before we went downstairs because she apparently had a phobia of getting ready for events alone. It's bullshit, we all knew.

Joey and I changed into our suits and ate some leftover pizza before we went across the hall.

"Hey, you don't actually believe that it's easy to be a woman do you?"

"How hard can it be?" He stuffed his face.

"Well they can't do this."

"Do what?"

I pointed to the pizza and his face dropped.

"Yeah, it's something about getting bloated so they just eat less before they wanna look nice. I don't quite understand it, but then again, I don't understand anything women do."

"I need to go apologise." I laughed as he put the pizza down and ran over. The way to get through to Joey was with food, every single time.

We sat on the sofa and watched some TV while Monica did her makeup next to us, Phoebe was doing her hair that she always made look so cool, and Rachel was still in the shower.

"You guys look nice." Monica noticed what we were wearing after she had just put her mascara on and pulled a funny face doing it, which I (of course) joked about.

"So do you." I said, looking at her, smiling.

"Though you don't need all of the makeup or the shower or the hair! You could be bald and still be nice!" Joey felt super guilty and all of the girls had already told him it was okay.

She laughed at Joey's comment. Though he was just sorry and trying very hard to show it, there was some truth in what he had said. Monica was beautiful. Well so were Rachel and Phoebe, but something about Monica was different. She really didn't need all of that makeup, but I have to admit she was good at it. I had been brought up surrounded by women wearing pounds and pounds of cakey makeup which I could only imagine feels like you're touching sand paper. But Monica's always looked good.

10 minutes later, Rachel came out of the shower and started to get ready in her room as Phoebe came out to do her makeup as Monica just finished and left to get dressed. The girls worked well together like that, it's like they just clicked.

Joey helped Phoebe do her makeup and apologised for what he said earlier approximately 14 times. He held her brushes and told her of any spots she missed. I was tempted to grab some of her black liner stuff and give her a big beauty spot on her face, but I resisted my urges.

"Chandler!" I heard Monica shout from her bedroom. "Can you come in here please?" I did a double take because I didn't think she was serious. I supposed she was after Phoebe encouraged me so I went into her extremely tidy room that I had only seen a handful of times. One of the more memorable ones being when Rachel and Ross broke up and we spent the whole night trapped in there.

I opened her door and walked in to see her sat on her bed, looking too fed up.

"Hey, you okay?" I sat down next to her and placed my hand on her shoulder.

"I'm fine, I just can't decide on which shoes to wear. Can you pick between those?" She pointed to 4 different pairs of heels.

I looked at them all, not really having a clue on this topic. I had never helped a girl pick out her outfit before.

"Well which do you like the most?"

"If I knew that would you be in here?" She chuckled.

"Got it." I nodded. "Well with what you're wearing..." I looked at her to hopefully give her an answer that wasn't terrible. She looked beautiful. She was wearing a red, tight dress with an expensive looking gold necklace around her neck. She wore her gold watch and 2 rings on one hand. I don't remember one single time when Monica didn't look gorgeous. Actually, scrap that, when Phoebe have her the Dudley Moore haircut... well let's just say I made a lot more jokes than usual that day.

"Chandler? Shoes?" She broke me out of my trance, and I realised how long I had been staring at her.

I shook my head and took another look at each pair. Eventually, after not so much accurate evaluation, I pointed to a strappy pair of black heels with little gold rhinestones on the strap part.

"Thanks, Chandler." She started to slide her feet into the shoes and buckle them, and as she leant forward I couldn't help but notice the fact that she was ever so clearly not wearing a bra. I felt myself go red immediately and my throat getting stuffy. Damn my inability to be cool.

"Everything okay?" She asked, noticing my weird behaviour.

I cleared my throat and turned back round. "A okay."

She stood up and did a little twirl. "What do you think?"

"You look good. Want some pizza?"

She laughed and agreed. When we walked into the living room, Rachel was there doing her makeup in her dressing gown and rejecting any help from Joey. I assumed Phoebe was getting dressed into one of her wacky outfits we all just loved. She really brought the diversity to the group.

We walked over to mine and Joey's to eat some more pizza. She took the smallest slice whereas I took the biggest.

"I thought you couldn't eat like this before an event."

She looked confused and swallowed her bite so she could reply.

"Who said that?"

"Practically every woman I've ever spoken to."

She chuckled, "well I haven't eaten all day and I don't wanna upset the little fat girl inside of me."

I laughed and ate some more.

"So how are you feeling about this party tonight?" I made conversation.

"I've already prepared myself for my mom. I swear that woman thinks I'm going to die alone." She seemed upset that her mother felt that little of her, but as if she had just gotten used to it.

"Well hey," I tried to make her laugh, "I'm probably gonna die alone too, so if you wanna, you know..."

"Are you asking me to die with you, Chandler Bing?" She giggled, taking another bite.

I nodded and felt embarrassed, but happy that I made her smile. I always felt so proud of myself whenever I made anyone laugh.

"But really, you're not gonna die alone." I reassured her, knowing that what she wanted most was a family.

"Try telling my mom that."

"I'm pretty sure you're mom already hates me, so I think I might just have to be silent and nod my head with whatever she says." I said.

She frowned, "why do you think that?"

"Well do you remember thanksgiving 1987? The day we met?"

"I tried to block those years out, but yes unfortunately, what about it?"

"She seemed really pleased to meet me until Ross told her I didn't eat any thanksgiving food and ever since I've seen her, every time she's made some sort of remark. I don't know, maybe I'm just being over dramatic." I laughed and shrugged what I said off.

"Chandler, I'm pretty sure she hates me. She hates anyone but Ross." She put her arm on my shoulder. "But hey, it's not like she has to like you anyway, right? It's not as if you and Ross are together." She joked.

"I think Rachel would prefer if we were so she could openly hate Emily."

We laughed and I asked if she wanted a beer before we went back over to her apartment.

"Sure, if you're having one." I threw her a can and we spoke a little about Ross and Emily's plans for the wedding. Neither of us knew much, but Ross had experience from before with Carol, and Emily seemed kinda low maintenance, so we guessed it was going to just be quiet and simple.

"We better go see if they're ready to go, it's almost 6:20 and we have to be there before everyone starts to arrive." She was always so prepared.

We walked across the hall and saw that everyone seemed to be ready. Joey had raided the girls' fridge after he stopped feeling guilty, and was stuffing his face with potato chips. As soon as he noticed us he tried to hide the bag behind his back as if we hadn't just seen what he was doing.

"Joey, I already know you steal my food." Monica told him it's fine. "But remember there will be food at the party, so don't get too full now." Rookie mistake, Mon.

Joey and I both laughed at her silly comment; as if Joey could ever be full.

"Let's see what's on TV." Phoebe said as she grabbed the remote.

"Guys!" Monica stormed over to stand in front of the boxy television. "We have to go!"

They looked at each other, each slumped on the sofa, "why exactly? It starts at 7."

"There could be traffic! Or the cab could break down! Or Joey could get lost again!" Monica listed many things that wouldn't happen which would cause us to be late to the engagement party, well, I guess Joey probably could easily get lost from the apartment to the street.

"2 times that happened!" Joey defended himself and I patted him on the shoulder.

"Mon, calm down." Rachel chuckled. "We'll leave soon."

Monica took a deep breath and sat down next to Joey, who already had a arm ready to wrap around her. I didn't know how Joey was always so touchy-feely - it took me many shots of vodka before I could be that affectionate. I guess that's another issue my childhood has caused, or maybe I was just born to be emotionally damaged?

We chatted after not being able to find anything other than Buffy the Vampire Slayer - which Rachel was happy to watch - for around 20 minutes until 6:40 and we finally let Monica leave.

We got two desperate cabs and Joey and Phoebe went together, whilst Monica, Rachel and I travelled without them.

We got in a cab and made it to Monica and Ross's parents house, where the party was taking place. I even think Emily's parents were flying in from London.

I somehow took notice that Monica's breathing was crazy. She was obviously trying to prepare for the shit her mother was going to give her about not being married or in a relationship yet. I don't think Rachel could tell, or she was just too busy in her own head to focus on anything other than getting through tonight.

I placed my hand on Monica's hand, rested on her knee, which was practically shaking. She turned her head to me and I just shot her a small smile to hopefully try and calm her down. I think it seemed to, so she squeezed my hand.

"Thanks." She whispered, just before she let go, to clutch back onto her purse.

Now we all just had to keep her cool tonight and prevent her from freaking out on her mom.