Monica.
"So it's settled then? November 4th?" I asked Ross and Emily, who were stood in front of the 5 of us.
"Yeah, that's when we're getting married." Ross said happily before kissing his bride to be on the cheek. I had to admit, they were sweet together and I was so happy for them... but I still believed Ross and Rachel were meant to be together.
"And you guys are absolutely sure this is what you want? Only 3 weeks to plan the wedding?" Rachel asked. "I don't know maybe you should wait a while, say 3 years?" She muttered that last part but I still heard it.
"Well actually, we sort of have to do it soon." Emily spoke and noticed our confused faces. "You see, when Ross and I were discussing venues, I remembered this beautiful hall back in London."
"It's where her parents got married, and it's gonna be torn down real soon so..."
"So we're flying to London for the wedding?" Joey squealed, interrupting Ross.
"Why are you so excited about that?" Phoebe asked.
"Well I read this article that said British chicks are really into tourists, especially from New York!" He said, with a beaming smile.
Chandler spoke after him, "oh you see knowing Joey I just figured it was for the architecture." We all laughed but I don't think Joey knew what architecture was, so he just raised an eyebrow.
"So you'll all make it?" Emily asked, hopeful.
We told them 'of course' and after saying goodbye, they left.
"I can't believe Ross is getting married," I said, leaning up against the front door.
"Let's just hope she's not a lesbian." Chandler joked. We actually all missed Carol - she would hang out with us all the time when she and Ross were together.
For the rest of the night we ordered Chinese food and lounged in the living room watching old episodes we had recorded of Days Of Our Lives and Joey spent the whole time pining about the fact that he was killed off.
"Don't worry about it, Joe, you'll get your big break eventually. I promise." Chandler consoled him.
"How? By being so bad that I get killed in the best thing that ever happened to me? Or by not getting any new auditions?" He was being so hopeless. Sure Joey wasn't the best actor, or the best singer, and definitely not the beet dancer, but there was something about him. And with the money and support from Chandler, I'm sure that one day he will be so big that he'll have to stop women from jumping into bed with him just so he didn't die from too much sex.
"Cmon, Joey, you're a great actor!" Rachel said, and we all (including Joey) turned to look at her, confused. "Okay fine you're an actor." Joey nodded and lost even more faith in himself. "But you know what you have that all of those amazing actors out there don't? 5 amazing friends who love you and believe in you. And I know that might not mean that much to you right now, but it's true." She leaned over the coffee table and held his hand.
"You're right that means nothing to me." Oh, Joe.
"What'd you say we find something a little less soapy and more..." Chandler stood up and grabbed something down the back of my sofa. "Saucy!" He pulled out some book with shirtless men on the cover.
Rachel gasped and tried to grab it from him, but his reflexes kicked in and he bolted backwards. "Where did you find that?"
"Well, it might come as a shock to you, but usually people don't keep their books under the ice trays in the freezer." He snarked, making her gasp more. "Especially when it starts to smell like the inside of Atelier Cologne!"
I stood up and scoffed. "Is that why the ice tastes of perfume?"
Rachel shrugged and while he wasn't looking, grabbed her novel from Chandler's hands.
"So did you read it?" Rachel asked, her arms folded.
"No, because I respect your privacy." He said, grinning.
She scoffed and figured he was lying, "then how'd you know it was saucy?" She copied just mannerisms.
He chuckled quickly and pointed to the cover, "have you looked at it?"
We laughed but Rachel was still not too pleased.
"What were even you doing with the ice trays?" Pheebs asked.
His mouth twitched and he seemed insecure for a second. "Sometimes..." he muttered, "I like to crush it in my mouth and eat it." Dear god.
Joey, Rachel, Phoebe and I looked at one another before bursting into laughter. He frowned and put his hands in his pockets. The fact that he was so uncomfortable about it was even funnier than it itself.
"Is that another thing your parents' divorce caused? Cause if it is that's so weird." Phoebe laughed, practically crying. Looking back it probably wouldn't have been as funny.
"And if it isn't?" He defended himself.
"Then it's still weird."
We carried on laughing until eventually we calmed down and just chilled for an hour or so until it was about 10pm. Then the boys said they were gonna crash and have an early night, so they headed back across the hall.
"Stay out of our freezer!" I shouted, a smile still on my face.
"Stay out of our freezer." Chandler mimicked me, making me laugh more.
"And stay away from my book!" Rachel added, still kinda annoyed about that.
"Sure... Florence." Chandler whispered just as he and Joey made it out into the hall. Rachel gasped and went to chase after them but stopped herself and turned around, practically pacing.
"Florence?" I raised an eyebrow.
"She's one of the characters in the damn book. I knew he was lying! I knew he read it! God, I can't believe him!" She growled, stamping her foot.
"Come on, Rach, there's nothing wrong with a woman enjoying some... erotica." I tried to comfort and calm her, but I cringed when I said that, and they did too.
"As uncomfortable as I just felt hearing her say that, Mon's right." Phoebe walked over to us and I chuckled to her. "Don't feel bad about it. It's normal, even more when you're pregnant. You know, like me?" She acted as if we forgot.
"Really, Pheebs? I thought you just shoved a watermelon up there." I said, sarcastically, glancing at her huge stomach which was currently holding 3 babies.
"I don't know, guys, I just wish there was a way to get back at him, you know? Sort of like revenge." Her voice went all evil there for a second.
"Come on, Rach. Revenge? Seriously? He probably read the first page, felt awkward and put it down." I tried to reason with her, but she informed me of something.
"It doesn't mention Florence's name until halfway into the book." She said firmly, her arms crossed.
"Okay, revenge it is!" I shouted.
Over the next hour, we hatched a plan to sneak into the boys' apartment to try and find something on Chandler.
"How are you so certain that we'll even find anything?" I asked.
"He's a guy. Guys leave their shit all over the place." She said like it was obvious, and she had a point.
"Fair enough."
"I assume we've already established that I will not be doing the sneaking?" Phoebe pointed to her very pregnant stomach.
We told her to wait by the door and keep a look out in case either Joey or Chandler had left before we looked for something to use against Chandler. It was 12am, so we didn't think they would've, but there was nothing else for Phoebe to do, and she insisted she was a part of the master plan.
Meanwhile, Rachel and I sneaked around the living room, trying so hard not to make any noise. I didn't expect to find anything but Rachel told me to be positive and look hard. She was really into this revenge thing.
I looked around the barcaloungers and in some cupboards, and Rachel focused on the kitchen. She had her fingers crossed that one of the guys got rid of the dead rat we found in the drawer while we lived there.
Just as I was about to tell her to give up and to go home, I found something in the drawer under the TV.
It was full of old cameras, DVDs and mixtapes with names on. Some were dated, so I assumed they were their home videos. There was one from last year named 'ChandlerJoey 1997' and I couldn't really imagine would that one would've been. Probably some stupid bit they recorded.
I dug through loads that had Joey's name scribbled on them, however I eventually find the only one with Chandler's name on it. It was under all of Joey's childhood videos that his dad left the last time he visited, and it said 'DO NOT WATCH'. So I figured...
"Rach!" I whispered, but just loud enough so she could hear. Her head shot up and she creeped over to me. "Look at this."
She held it and read what it said. "Well it's either this, or nothing. Turns out Chandler is actually quite tidy."
"Pft." I scoffed, smirking.
"Relax. I said tidy, not Monica tidy. Now let's get outta here. Close that drawer." She told me and we scurried out, quietly.
When we got back to our apartment and shut the door, Rachel squealed and jumped up and down. 2 years ago, we would've heard a banging from downstairs. Ever since Mr Heckles died, we had been able to be a little louder, and honestly? I kind of missed the old guy.
"Well then? Should we watch it?" I asked.
She seemed like she was planning something else.
"You know what? I think we should wait." Wait? Why would she want to wait? She had been so eager to find something and now it was in her hands and she wanted to wait?
"Why? What if we play it and it turns out to be nothing?" I questioned.
"What if we play it and it turns out to be perfect? Let's just take a chance. Plus I'm so tired from coming up with the plan." She yawned. I didn't quite understand what her logic behind that was, but I was tired too and honestly didn't really care.
I shrugged and told her okay.
"Phoebe, do you wanna crash here? You can share my bed." I stroked her back and belly. I wasn't gonna make her sleep on the couch when she's 8 months pregnant.
"Thanks, Mon."
We said goodnight to Rachel and I got changed into my pyjamas. I didn't really have any pyjamas suitable for a heavily pregnant woman, so I offered Phoebe a duvet cover, not realising how offensive that actually was...
But it turns out, Phoebe had left a bunch of clothes in the apartment in case she ever got stranded here alone. Her words, not mine.
I chuckled, at how random she was, and she got changed while I brushed my teeth. I came back and she was in the weirdest, funkiest pyjamas I think had ever been made. Perhaps she made them herself, it's something she would do.
When we got into my bed, she began talking about random stuff, and as hard as I tried to converse back, I was just too tired. I felt my eyes becoming heavier and heavier like boulders, and I almost immediately fell asleep.
I woke up at 8am and got dressed, I thought she could do with all the sleep she got, so I didn't wake Pheebs up. I threw on some black jeans and a cute green top, and paired it with my short red cardigan and black mules.
I walked out to the living room and saw Rachel making coffee in the kitchen. Before, I would've turned around and pretended to never have woken up, just so I didn't have to taste her attempt at coffee, but she honestly had gotten a lot better at it. You'd think so, seeing as she was a waitress for 3 years.
"Good morning." I sat down on one of our mismatched chairs that I loved. I always liked the idea of having somewhat ugly furniture and making it look good, and if I do say so myself, I think I did a pretty great job at getting this apartment to look nice. And I was never going to lose it again over a silly bet to the stupid boys.
"Morning." She chirped, and passed me a cup.
I took a sip and it was kinda nice. A little cold and a bit too bitter, but for Rachel, nice.
"How'd you sleep?" I asked.
"I didn't!" She admitted, smirking. "Yeah, I accidentally stayed up wondering what that video could be."
"Did you watch it without me?" I jumped down her throat, grabbing her arm, causing her to spill her coffee a little.
She raised her eyebrows, "no. But, I was thinking, how bout we watch it now?"
"I don't know if I'm even awake yet." I said, quite seriously.
"Really? You felt it from your grip." She held her arm, and I rolled my eyes. "Come on, Mon. I doubt it'll even be anything."
"Can't we wait until later?"
"Why? We're the only two awake, the boys and Pheebs won't be around for ages."
I complied and we walked over to the couch, mugs in our hands, ready to find out if we had anything over Chandler.
Once she had put the disk in the DVD player, we got comfy and waited. At first, it was just black fuzz on the screen, and no sound. We waited for a while.
"Right, it's nothing." I stood, ready to give up. "We need to take this back and apologise for digging through their stuff." Rachel rolled her eyes and agreed with me, though she was disappointed.
Just as I was about to take the disk out, the screen changed and now all that was showing was a sofa.
We looked at each other, confused, and back at the TV.
Then, some soft music began to play. Rachel was leaning forward, a tiny smile on her face that what we found wasn't completely nothing. Although it was probably still not revenge worthy.
As the music got quieter, a woman, probably in her 30's, walked over the to sofa and sat down. She had black hair and was wearing a red, tight dress.
"Hey, Mon, it kinda looks like you." Rachel joked. She almost maybe had a point, but that's ridiculous. I rolled my eyes and told her shush.
A man followed her after, and sat next to her, with two wine glasses in his hands. He was attractive, but not so attractive that you watched him instead of the lady. She was clearly the focal point.
They spoke for a while, until that's when it hit me...
"Rachel, oh my god, turn it off." I said, worried.
"What why?"
"It's porn!" I shouted, but while keeping my voice down. I really did not want this to be the thing that wakes Phoebe up.
She laughed, "that's more reason to watch it! See what he's into!"
I rolled my eyes once more and turned around to face the front door, "it's 8 in the morning, Rachel. Surprisingly I don't feel like watching porn."
"Well don't watch then. I'll watch and tell you."
"Fine." I scoffed, still not looking. I could hear what was going on, it sounded like they were kissing and removing each other's clothes.
Rachel gasped, and I asked her what happened.
"That lying little twerp!" She chuckled. "Mon, you have to see this."
"Just do you know I'm really not comfortable that we're invading his privacy like..." my voice trailed off when I turned around and saw what was going on.
I walked back down to the sofa and sat next to my friend, who had the same shocked expression as me. But maybe a little more pleased with herself.
"Maybe it'll end soon." I hoped.
"If she keeps going like that it will." Rachel joked before leaning in for a better look. "She really knows what she's doing huh?"
I chuckled with her and we kept watching. We waited to see what else happened and how much more shocked Chandler could make us. I really didn't expect him to be into this stuff.
Just then, to our worst nightmares, in he walked. Oh god. Both of our faces dropped when we heard him speak, and we didn't dare to move. I thought he'd be asleep!
"Monic-" he saw what we were watching. When he realised it was his video, he ran over by the speed of light and pressed every button on the machine to get the disk out. He managed to get it off the screen very quickly actually, and didn't fumble around too much.
He turned around, slowly, an angry expression on his face. Shit shit shit.
"Do you think he sees us?" Rach whispered, looking anywhere but him.
I scoffed and jumped to my feet, to apologise. "Chandler, I'm so sorry! It was Rachel's idea, she wanted revenge!"
He didn't say anything at all, I think he was waiting for one of us to say something else.
Finally, Rachel did. She stood up with her arms on her hips and smiling. "Ice cubes, huh? Kinky."
It's as if a bomb went off in his head and he shouted. "Oh my god!" His voice high, like whenever he got stressed, or angry, or nervous.
"I know, we're so sorry!" I grabbed his hand and brought it to my chest, apologising over and over again.
"You guys went digging through our stuff?" He shouted again, waving his arms around. He apparently wasn't worried about waking anybody up.
"Well you went digging through ours first!" Rachel pointed around him.
"I found your book by accident!" He defended himself, gritting his words.
"Oh yeah, I remember, did you actually eat those ice cubes after you did whatever that was?" Rachel gave him it back. I kinda just wanted her to apologise and have it be over with.
He shook his head and rolled his eyes, smirking out of anger.
"You guys had no right to want revenge."
"Just Rachel." I stepped aside and let them hash it out.
"Are you kidding? I had every right! You read through my book, so I watched your crazy porn." I felt kind of bad for him, but it would blow over later and we'd all be fine.
Just then, Phoebe waddled out into the living room and laughed. "Crazy porn and it's only 8AM! I like mornings at Mon's!" I tried to hide my chuckle and told her to sit down and be quiet, and Rachel said she'd explain later.
"No you won't! There will be no explaining later!" He shouted.
"You don't want Phoebe to know about your weird kink?" Rachel teased.
"First of all... it's not weird!" He gestured with his hands, which was something he always did. And he would say some words funny. Rachel and I looked at him with a raised eyebrow and a smirk, but he chose to shake it off. "And second... it's not weird!" I suppose he felt too judged and forgot his second point, or perhaps there was never a second point in the first place.
As soon as he spoke, he stormed out of the apartment and back into his and Joey's.
"Is that enough revenge for you?" I asked Rachel, hypothetically.
"Yeah, actually, that was quite satisfying." She crossed her arms, smiling.
I rolled my eyes and followed Chandler because I felt too bad. I knew he would get over it, but I still wanted to apologise again. I think we all knew this internally, but there probably wasn't anything that could cause the 6 of us to not be friends. We've had some pretty serious arguments before and days where we'd be off with each other, but if we needed to be, we'd be there for each other no matter what.
I walked in and shut the door behind me. I saw him slouched on his chair, playing with the corner of his shirt. He looked up and asked what I wanted. "Come to witness some more of my embarrassment?"
"Of course not. If it helps, I told her to forget this revenge thing. But she was just so mad that you read her book." I reasoned with him.
"Yeah I get it, but still," he shrugged, "it's just weird."
"What's weird?" I walked closer to him and sat down on one of the barstools opposite him.
"Apart from the obvious?" He glared.
I chuckled softly at my stupidity, "I'm sorry, I guess it just doesn't bother me."
"It doesn't?" That seemed to make him feel better.
I scoffed and smiled. "Of course not! Come on, Chandler, we all have our things that we like. Don't be ashamed of them." I leaned forward and placed my hand on his knee. He put his hand on top of mine and squeezed it.
"Thanks, Mon." He said, smiling. I'm glad I could make him feel a little better.
I reassured him that no matter how weird he was, nothing could make me not wanna be his friend, and he told me that he felt the same way.
"So why were you even awake? Isn't it quite early for you?" He usually woke up around 9 ish, and with Chandler, that 1 hour of sleep could completely change his mood for the rest of that day.
"Well last night after we went to bed, Ross left a message asking if I could take Ben to the carnival in town. He and Emily have to go to this last minute wedding planning thing. Plus, it's the last night and Ben really wanted to go."
"And he asked you and not me?" I was quite offended. My brother knew how much I loved Ben, he was my nephew!
"Calm down..." he widened his eyes and smiled sarcastically, "he only asked me because you have that date with Ken tonight, remember?" He reminded me of my first date with some guy I met at work. Ken was new and we got to talking, and he asked me out. He wasn't that interesting, and not that cute, but he was sweet so I figured why not?
"Oh I forgot," I chuckled, "I can cancel."
"I don't wanna be the reason you blow him off." He said.
"Well good, because you're not." I stood up after smiling sarcastically. "I wanna see Ben! I don't get to see him much and plus I love the carnival!"
"Wow, you sure know how to make a guy feel important." He held his heart and pretended to be offended.
I laughed and told him that I will take Ben instead of him. "You don't even like watching him, ever since you and Joey lost him on the bus you said Ross should never leave him with you."
"Well then I guess he had a change of heart." Why did he wanna take Ben so bad? He looked like he was thinking about something. "Hey, how about we take him together?" Now that he mentioned it, I feel weird that I didn't think of it. It's not like a big deal or anything, we're friends. We've done loads together, all of us. We went to Hootie And The Blowfish together, oh and with Ross. It was kinda sad that Rach, Joey and Phoebe didn't come too, but when we all made up, we went to see a movie and we promised that the next time the band were having a concert in the city that we'd all go.
"Okay, sure." I smiled and we figured out a time that we'd leave. Ross said he'd bring Ben over at 6 and we could go then.
"I guess I better go talk to Rachel." He said, and I told him that was a good idea.
We walked over back to my apartment and saw Rachel and Phoebe laughing together on the couch. Their laughter died as they saw us stood by the door, but their smiles stayed.
"Hi, Chandler." Phoebe giggled, nudging Rachel playfully. I suppose she told her.
"I was just gonna make some lemonade? You guys want one?" Rachel stood up and walked to the kitchen. She seemed okay now, thankfully.
"Sure, thanks." Chandler smiled.
"I assume you'll want ice." There it was.
He rolled his eyes and I told her to listen to him.
"I came to apologise for reading your book. It wasn't fair. So, yeah, I'm sorry." I'm glad he could be the mature one, for once.
Rachel smiled - sincerely this time - and told him she forgives him. "I'm sorry too."
They hugged and I squealed, happy that they could get over it.
"Now about that lemonade!" Chandler pulled away but kept his arm around Rachel.
"Oh I wasn't actually making lemonade, I just wanted to tease you again." She admitted and we all chuckled.
We all chilled in the living room for about 4 hours until Joey stumbled in, yawning, in his pyjamas.
"What's with all the shouting?" He rubbed his eyes.
"Joe, that was 4 hours ago. It's noon." Chandler told him. Joey could only wake up before noon for like half the week, and then the other half he would have to make up for the sleep he apparently lost.
"Oh." He said, and walked back into his own apartment. We laughed and figured he'd be back in a half hour when he's dressed and a little bit more awake.
At around 5, I decided to start getting ready for the funfair. I put on some brown pants on and a long sleeved, orange turtleneck. I threw a black scarf over it and my brown long coat. I shoved on my trusty black ankle boots that were getting a little wrecked if I admit. After I spent a few minutes overthinking and panicking that I'd be too cold, I wrapped another scarf around my neck, which at this point was practically dripping with sweat. It was October after all.
By the time I'd gotten dressed, flat ironed my hair, figured out what the hell was going on with my bangs which caused me to lose my patience and clip them back, it was almost 6.
I ran over to Chandler and Joey's to see if he was ready yet, and saw him and Joey say on their chairs watching TV.
"You ready, Chandler?" I asked. "Ross will be dropping Ben off any minute now."
They spun round in unison and Joey has a huge smile on his face and almost the same outfit as me. Chandler was just wearing an oversized shirt and some tan pants, with his black coat over the top.
"We're ready!" Joey jumped up, he was very giddy. I guess he wanted to come with.
"Turns out, besides sex, sleep and food, in town commercial carnivals are his 'favorite thing in the whole world'!" Chandler mocked Joey.
I chuckled and told them it was okay, but that we should really be ready to leave straight away.
"Remind me again why we're being shoved out of the door when Ben isn't even here yet?" Chandler moaned as I dragged him and Joey into my apartment.
"Because I know you guys, and I know that one of you will just decide to take a nap or some over crap that will make us late and ruin this experience for Ben!" I shouted.
"Okay okay." Chandler muttered and they walked to sit on the dining chairs.
"He's 5 and never been to the carnival before?" Joey asked. "How old do you think he'll be before Ross tells him what sex is?" He joked, but we didn't laugh.
Chandler patted him on the shoulder and smiled, sarcastically. "Just as long as he hears about it from anyone but you." I snorted and Joey clicked his tongue.
We waited for about 5 minutes until Ross swung open the door in a hurry, with Ben's hand in his.
"Hi guys, thanks for taking Ben, I'll be back around 9 to pick him up, have fun," he spoke quickly and loudly but managed to kiss his son on the cheek and tell him he loves him, "bye guys!" He ran back out just as fast as he ran in. They were clearly late for this wedding fair thing.
"Sorry, what was that?" Chandler asked, sarcastically, knowing full well what Ross had said.
"Aunt Monica!" Ben ran into my arms and I swung him around. Although this time I managed to not bang his head on the wooden beam in the kitchen like I did last time. God, that day was stressful.
"Hi, Ben!" I kissed his forehead and bopped his nose. I put him down slowly and asked if he was ready to go to the fair.
"Are you forgetting about us, Ben?" Joey smiled, knelt on the floor with his arms open, ready for Ben to run into them. We didn't really get to see Ben that much, so when we did, we liked to make the most out of it.
"Hi uncle Joey." Ben squirmed in Joey's big arms, laughing.
With that, Chandler fake coughed to attract Ben's attention.
"Hi uncle Chandler." Ben high-fived him, and Chandler ruffled his hair.
"Hey little guy." Chandler was really good with Ben. He'd never admit it, because of the time he and Joe lost him on the bus. But even so, he was really good with him, it was sweet.
I zipped up Ben's coat just to make sure he'd be warm enough. He had the cutest little gloves on, and I had to internally applause Carol and Susan for dressing him so adorably.
We left the apartment, Ben holding one of mine and Chandler's hands to make sure he didn't run away or anything. Not that he would, apart from the cheeky comments or when he'd copy what you say, Ben was a good, well behaved kid.
Joey tried to hold Chandler's other hand but Chandler told him to 'stick it where the sun don't shine', which made Ben laugh, and I wondered how he knew what that meant and panicked that he would repeat it to Ross.
After that, we had a strict 'no bad word' rule. That ruled out the main words, crap, hell, even heck, and damn. Now half of those were the main words in Chandler's vocabulary, so it took him a little more effort than Joey and me.
Now the fair was a couple blocks away from Central Park, so really we only had to walk for like 5 or 10 minutes. And it wasn't as cold as I'd anticipated, so after about 15 minutes, I started to sweat. I assumed Joey would be in the same position, purely because he matched his outfit with mine.
When we got there, I think Joey was more excited than the actual child we brought.
The first thing that caught Ben's attention was the hook a dooks, and after spending 12 and 20 minutes so that he could win, he finally did. And now we had to carry around a goldfish swimming in a plastic bag. Great.
Next, Ben wanted to go on the Ferris wheel, and so did Joey. Chandler was afraid of heights, or as he likes to say 'big heavy chairs floating in the air' - he was such an over-exaggerator. But still, I didn't wanna leave him alone.
"You guys go ahead," I told Joey and Ben, and watched them get seated in one of the carts. Ben asked me if I could keep a hold of his new fish, because he didn't wanna drop it from the top.
As we watched the wheel begin to turn, Ben and Joey waved to us from the top as I grabbed my camera that I had brought with us and took a picture of them.
"Did Ross ask you to take pictures?" Chandler asked.
I nodded and told him that I also wanted to capture the memories.
"Yeah, because that thing called memory storage in your actual brain is so 1924."
I rolled my eyes and hit him playfully in the shoulder, stuffing the camera back into my coat pocket.
I noticed he kept staring at the food.
"You wanna grab something? They'll be up there for a while and I'm kinda hungry." I suggested.
He sighed, "that sounds amazing."
We walked together to the pop up stall which was selling donuts, hot dogs and so much more unhealthy shit I would've eaten on a regular basis as a child.
We told the clerk what we wanted and he prepared it while we simultaneously got out our money. I tried to hold my money out, without dropping and murdering this fish.
"I'll get it," he said, pushing my purse down softly.
I thanked him and smiled. He passed the money to the guy working, who for some reason seemed very unhappy, and we grabbed our desserts.
I got a pretzel covered in glorious sugar, and he got a hotdog which was more or less just ketchup and mustard.
"Can you actually taste the hotdog through all that sauce?" I joked, but seriously wanting to know.
He copied what I said in a funny voice, mocking me, as we walked away from the stall. Joey's cart hadn't even been round a full time yet, and usually those rides go on like 10 minutes. Which is one of the reasons why I don't enjoy the Ferris wheel - it just goes on and on and on.
We figured we could go on a walk and look what else was around. It looked really beautiful, there were crazy lights everywhere and big, colourful balloons all over the place. It was quite loud, because of all the different music playing from all different directions. But in a weird way, it felt peaceful too.
"If I ask you a very serious question, will you answer truthfully?" He asked, making me nervous and overthink what he could possibly ask me.
"Of course... What is it?"
He leaned in closer to me, "do you think we're too old for this?"
I laughed and pushed him away, "you maybe. I'm still as young as the day we met." I joked.
"You certainly don't look like you did the day we met."
"You think I don't know that?" I smirked, shaking my head slowly.
We talked about our favourite rides as a kid, and I found out that his was the Canyon Blaster in Las Vegas. I never even knew he had been there before. My favorite rollercoaster was one in Luna Park, in Coney Island. I liked learning new things about my friends, we always thought we knew each other the most we possibly could, until we learn more.
We had finished our food, and were now sat on a community bench that people had decorated with lights and paint, which I don't think is technically allowed.
"What'd you think Ben's gonna name his fish?" Chandler asked, poking lightly at the bag.
"I don't know, what do you call a fish?" Admitting that I'd never had a fish in my life was something that a lot of people never believed. I just never really wanted one, we had a lot of dogs.
"Well my fish was called Fish." He told me, and I burst out laughing.
"Creative."
We chuckled and I kind of wanted to ask him about the video from before. I just didn't want him to get angry or upset again.
"What're you thinking about?" He asked, looking at me. He could clearly tell my mind had wandered.
I turned my head to look at him, and shrugged.
"Oh it's nothing." I lied.
"I can tell when you're lying, Mon." And he always could! I don't know how he did it.
I giggled, but it slowly died into a straight, blank face. I was worried to ask more about it, not because I felt weird or anything, but because I didn't wanna offend him again.
"I was just thinking about... that video." I admitted, and he sighed. "I don't wanna talk about it if it's gonna piss you off again though."
He thought for a second before shrugging and tilting his head. "What about it?" He said with a welcoming half smile.
"Have you ever... done that with someone?" I asked, timidly. I wasn't sure why I really wanted to know, maybe I was just curious.
The corner of his mouth curled up, and formed an embarrassed smirk. He shook his head, slowly, before laughing under his breath. "Nope. Not with someone else."
So he had done it alone like we figured, just not with anybody else.
"Is that super pathetic?" He screwed his face up, while smiling.
"No." I turned to him and gave him a reassuring grin. "Well not any more pathetic than you already are." I joked with him and we both chuckled. "But really, like I said before, we all have our things. And though it was kinda funny to hear at first, it could be weirder."
He held his hand out and I put mine in it. His hands were so much bigger and warmer than mine.
"Thanks for being cool with it."
"Whatever kinks you have don't affect me either way," I said.
"Which was your choice." He teased and I rolled my eyes.
"Which I will not change my mind on." I teased him back harder and he groaned.
We sat in silence before he spoke, obnoxiously. "So what's your thing?" I clicked my tongue loudly and pulled our hands apart.
"And that's the moment gone." I said and he laughed at what he had said.
"We better get back to the big, deadly wheel." Classic Chandler, afraid of something that kills less than 0 Americans every year.
We started walking again over to the Ferris wheel to see if Joey and Ben's turn was over. And it wasn't. But we figured they'd be coming off any time soon, so we just waited.
We watched Joey point things out from up top to Ben for his little, perfect face to light up every single time.
"So really what is it?" I looked at him, confused at what he meant. He had his hands in his pockets, looking straight up to the carts, and not at me. He didn't even look at me when I replied.
"What do you mean?" I asked, repeating his name twice before he finally looked at me with a smug smirk on his face. The face alone just translated what he meant and I rolled my eyes immediately. "Shut up."
"No really. You've seen a whole lot of what I like today. So from the way I see it, you can either tell me now, vaguely- or the next time you have a guy over, I will make sure to interrupt mid fornication and ask him myself." I wasn't sure wether to be intimidated, laugh in his face, or cringe over the word fornication. I eventually chose the right answer was all 3.
"Chandler Bing." I looked at him with a defeated, impressed smile. "Are you blackmailing me?"
"Not at all, just taking what I'm owed." I laughed, and so did he.
"Well what do you wanna know? And then I'll decide if I want to tell you." I had no intention of telling him anything, but I wanted to see what he said.
He shrugged, "anything you do or like."
I still felt a little uncomfortable with telling him, but he convinced me it was okay.
"Come on, we're friends. And Joey talks about sex all the time."
Unfortunately, I gave in. "Fine." I shook my head, ashamed that I was even having this terribly personal conversation with Chandler Bing.
I swear out of the corner of my eye I could see his face light up that what he said actually worked.
"When I'm... fornicating," I mocked his choice of words, "I'm pretty vocal." I can't believe I'm admitting this. I'll probably look back in the morning and over-analyze the hell out of it, but I figured he'd been pretty exposed the entire day, so it was only fair.
He spoke almost straight after, "what like, loud?"
"No, Chandler, vocal where I start yodelling. Yes loud." I cringed, and made a sarcastic comment.
He laughed and then his eyes went wide when he must've started to imagine it.
"If you're picturing it in your head right now, please stop." I covered my face with my spare hand, clutching the fish bag in the other.
"Let a man dream." I elbowed him softly and we both grinned. "Thanks for telling me."
"Yeah let's not be telling anything else for a while, alright?" I joked, sincerely.
He nodded and promised that our sexual fantasies will stay private unless the other (meaning me) changed their mind.
"But I won't." I reminded him, and he put his arm around my shoulders.
"I know, Mon. I know."