Phew! Finally! My next update. It's been crazy and hectic what with exams coming up, I had to finish and post this chapter. All I ask is for reviews! Otherwise it may not be worth continuing. Like even a one word review is fine! And enjoy this chap as another won't come until exams are over. And thanks to everyone who reviewed the previous ones!
The Trip
One sleepless night.
One thought.
No, not thought.
Dream.
A Dream that shifted into a nightmare.
One major headache. One that could thwart someone out of sleep. Chandler climbed out of bed, everything looked blurred and dim, his mind hazy from lack of sleep and a headache that seemed to grow, time providing nourishment. He rubbed his eyes and slowly made his way out of the room. Once in the kitchen he jumped not expecting to see Monica there. The oven gave off a faint glow, which seemed brighter than its surroundings, it read: 4:26 am.
"What are you doing up?" Chandler asked.
"Nothing, ah just-" She had not expected, of all people, Chandler to walk in on her eating something brown and cake-like. Trying to hide her leftover dessert she was eating was to no success. It was too obvious, the chocolate stain, the fact that he was it... well you get the picture. Making up an excuse by this time would have been useless. She frowned at her pathetic answer. 'Nothing' seemed so clichéd. It had taken her almost a year to lose enough weight so she wouldn't be considered fat, but now, she found her feet wandering to the refrigerator, in the middle of the night, hunger grumbling in her stomach.
She quickly stowed it away and turned around to find Chandler clutching his head.
"You ok?" she asked (for the third time that day, she realized).
He groaned, the pain in his head throbbing and thumbing against his temples, black blotches appeared in front of his eyes, obscuring his vision. It passed after a few seconds.
"Do you have Tylenol or something?" he needed a good night sleep.
"Yeah, headache?" she enquired, fetching him the pills.
"It's keeping me from sleep." he said, sitting down by the kitchen table. Quickly swallowing the pill, he got up to leave.
"Hey, you never told us exactly what happened the other day."
"It's nothing really" he mumbled. It was too embarrassing to let a girl, he barely knew, know the full details. And what was the big deal? Not much had happened. So some guy from college almost ran over him causing him to slip and whack his head against a pole simply because he owed the guy money.
"Oh come on, I still want to know! You've got like another head growing out of the one you already have. What happened?" She had meant it metaphorically, eager to know the full truth and nothing but.
"I fell ok? What more do you want to know?"
"The truth" answering his question, matter-of-factly. "You couldn't just have tripped or something. It doesn't add up."
"If you tell me I'll show you a secret your best friend is keeping from you." She added, hoping to make a deal.
This intrigued Chandler very much. He thought he and Ross were best friends, you know, tell each other everything.
"Ok, Deal but you show me the secret first."
Two minutes later, after fetching an old tape, Monica popped it into the VCR and sat down beside Chandler.
Click. Rewind. Stop. Play.
"I am Dee; I drink tea-"sang a very cheery small boy, he looked about six years old, sitting near a small table in the backward. Teacups and plates occupied the table and dolls occupied the remaining chairs around the table. He was holding a teacup in an etiquette fashion while singing; wearing what looked like a pink bubble gum dress, his mother's jewellery, and white gloves. Fat rounded white pearls clipped to his ears.
The spill of water interrupted his singing, replacing it with an annoyed moan followed by a fleeing Ross.
"Ross!"
Younger Monica came running into the scene, holding paper towel and began wiping the table.
Stop.
It was the end of the tape.
Laughter and shrills of laughter (Monica) and all sorts filled the room. Chandler knew he would soon mock Ross about it, possibly to the point where they wouldn't be friends anymore.
"Ross...a girl!"
"I Know!"
After a while their laughter subsided, both realizing it was 5 o'clock in the morning.
"I can't wait to mock Ross about this; it's probably why he never told me, he knows me too well."
"I mocked him plenty of times before." Monica told him, completely forgetting about their deal.
They crept back upstairs, the floorboards beneath their feet making loud creaky noises no matter how slow or carefully they moved. How odd was it for Monica to forget something as simple as a deal? Very. But it seemed, like her mind was somewhere else, somewhere not so familiar...
Whispering goodnight to each other, they went their separate ways.
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It was in the middle of July in NYC. The hottest time of year, In fact pedestrians had second thoughts about their visions. Unmistakably seeing heat waves and fried eggs up in nests had to be a sure sign of madness.
Everyone ate breakfast in silence.
Ross and Chandler went to the living room. Thank God for air conditioning.
Monica went to do dishes.
And parents went to work.
Ross turned to Chandler with a gleeful look on his face.
"Guess what? I-"he started.
"Someone asked you out?"
"No! I'm dating Carol remember? Anyway I... I was in our dorm when Danny came in, told me we were invited to his beach party!" he exclaimed, not bothering to hold the excitement in his voice any longer.
"Wow! Cool... then you could dress up in your pretty pink dress!" Chandler smirked.
Ross frowned at his statement.
"Oh but wait, it's a beach party not a tea party."
Ross gasped, finally understanding Chandler's joke.
"Monica!" he yelled. She came in with an amused look on her face.
"How does Chandler know about the..." He gestured with his arms, the motion of someone holding a cup.
"About what?" she asked, trying not to smile.
"Tell him about me, you-you know about..." he repeated his game of charades.
"Aw, is little Miss Dee embarrassed?" mocked Chandler, patting his head. Ross glared at him for a moment, his expression changing differently in a matter of, uh, second. "Why-Why would I be embarrassed?" he asked innocently.
"Let me see-" began Chandler.
"Ok I was five!" Ross shrieked defensively.
Monica rolled her eyes. "Six, you were six. Anyway why would it matter Ross? Not like you'd be less cool than you already are dinosaur lover."
"Yeah well dinosaurs are much cooler than your obsession over that stupid frog!" he snapped, immediately getting into defensive mode, Thinking that if Kermit was laying there on the couch he would surely take his anger out on it by ripping its head off.
"He's not stupid! Your stupid!-"
Chandler spread his arms out wide in front of them.
"Whoa. Whoa, Guest in the house!" He exclaimed, "Enough with the argument children!"
Ross's tomato-coloured face gradually returned to its normal colour.
They all sat.
One minute passed.
Another 30 seconds.
"I heard about the party, I'm going." Monica stated, breaking the silence with her announcement.
"Um no I don't think so, are you in college? No I didn't think so." Ross stated back.
Monica rolled her eyes. Ignorance.
"I'll be in college in less than two months. Bedsides your so called friend invited me when I met him last week."
"I'll bring Rachel with me." she added with a smirk.
Rachel. Ross sighed. The girl he fell in love with since grade nine. The One, the One who only thought of him as Monica's geeky older brother. But he had to get rid of his feelings, put it aside. What with his current relationship with Carol, he was happy with her, but at times he wondered if he would be happier with Rachel.
"Fine... But you have to get mom and dad's approval first before I let you in my van."
"No problem."
End of Discussion. Except...
"It's in three days. We have to rent rooms in Starbuck Hotel, near the beach, cause it's a two-night party."
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For the next two days it was hectic.
Monica, as Chandler got to know her, was a neurotic, over-anxious, obsessed neat-freak. Who simply had to have everything tidy and organized. And so her packing was so the opposite of hectic.
Chandler had helped Ross pack and in no time, finished. Monica, however, abruptly stopped Chandler from helping her; it was like running into a brick wall. No, No, NO! You're doing it all wrong! She had shrieked. Smack! The Brick Wall.
Thinking it was his cue, he left. Leaving her to fuss about the littlest things wrong. She had to do everything right, it was her compulsive must-be-organized trait (which is very rare amongst 'normal people') it included writing a rather large list of 'Things to take' as well as placing the heaviest objects at the bottom of the luggage and folding her clothes neatly on top. This of course was not his specialty.
As Ross drove Chandler back to their college dorm so he could pack, Monica called Rachel to tell her about the party.
"Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh no way!" Typical.
"Rachel are you always this excited about parties?" She knew the answer to that but it was rhetorical. Monica had already known how Rachel would react once she told her the news. The fact that it was word for word, however, slightly stunned her.
"Aren't you? We're invited to a college party!" Rachel repeated for the billionth time, emphasizing college, as if Monica simply misunderstood.
"I know, I know!" she sighed, barely audible this time, "It's tomorrow, you know the beach outside the city? That's where it is. You need to get money to pay for a room at the hotel."
"Hey I'm not at all worried about the money" the spoiled rich teen explained, "But what about the college boys? We're both single. What if we meet cute guys and start dating? Oh my gosh! We would be the most popular in high school for sure!"
High school? Didn't they already leave it behind? Weren't they starting college? Yep.
As if those last words spoken by Rachel Karen Green were insignificant Monica was elsewhere.
"I wonder... if they'll let me cook there. I could show them my amazing Mac and cheese!" she exclaimed! She even got the author (me) excited!
"Monica, it's a beach party not a Cookhouse!" Rachel laughed.
"Alright. Alright. I'll see you there."
"Can't wait! Bye."
"Hold on-"
"What?"
"Is your dad driving you there?"
"Oh. I haven't thought of that! He's going to be working all day!"
"Ok then, just come over when you're done packing, my brother's got a van. There's room for one more." she smiled.
"Great! Thanks! I'll see you soon!"
"Bye."
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"Are we all set?" Ross asked as he closed the trunk of his van. Everyone nodded and piled into the van.
Ross turned on the radio as he began driving.
"Why don't you turn on the fan?" Chandler asked. The heat was apparent. Sweat gleamed and glided and poured down their faces, like their foreheads produced rain or something. That was foreseeable because the vehicle was stuffy and the metal didn't help either. Their ride was not going to comfortable; at least they had a fan.
Almost everyone seemed engaged in something. Monica was listening to music with her CD player, while sticking her head out the window to get some air. Rachel seemed to have buried her head in a magazine. Top 100 sexiest celebrities alive. Go Figure.
Ross was drumming on the stirring wheel in response to the radio, while driving. And Chandler. Well, he couldn't ask for anything more boring. He opened the glove compartment. All kinds of this popped out at him. Quickly scanning a newspaper he found inside, there imprinted on the back was a crossword puzzle. Smiling because he finally had something to do, he grabbed a pencil and began filling in the blanks.
All of them were so engaged with what they were doing, they did not stop to look at the beauty in front of them, to their left.
Up ahead, the soft sand, the seawater, the smell of saltwater in the air, the crashing sound of waves against enormous rocks, and the sound of seagulls.
They drove passed a sign to their right.
Up Ahead
New York Beach
I don't live in America, so I don't know squat about New York, nor the beaches and hotels. So I made the names up. This chapter is extremely long! So please review!