Disclaimer; I do not own Friends, but I do own the main characters in this story – their kids – except four.
We've Had Our Story…
- But What Happened Then?
Chapter 19.
A Castle of Sand
"All right," Erica said, "I'll see you when you get back honey – no of course not honey – I mean Andrew. Yes, yeah. Hmm, let's say that. Just call okay, yeah right. Bye."
"What was that about?" Monica asked, handing her a cookie.
"Andrew left for Miami yesterday." Erica said, and you could clearly hear the sadness in her voice.
"Why did he do that?" Monica asked.
"He wanted us to like take a breather or something." Erica said, "He thought we've been spending too much time together, just because I was talking about cheese."
"I'm sorry." Monica asked, "Why didn't you get the girls to cheer you up?"
"Emma, Shelly and Sandy left with their men and kids to go to the beach this weekend." Erica said, "And Sophie is still on her honeymoon, and yeah, Grace… She's kinda busy with JJ."
"Oh," Monica said, "Why didn't you go with the others to the beach house?"
"Because it was a trip only for families."
"No!" Monica said, "How can Jack do that?"
"It was Ben and Shelly's idea, Jack and Emma couldn't just invite me along." Erica said, "And on the other hand, I would have felt so stupid out there without kids and husband."
"I'm sorry." Monica said, "How's it going with the job?"
"It's bad," Erica said, "I feel like my skills aren't appreciated where I work, but I've got a job interview tomorrow at Javu's where you used to work, so maybe that'll give me some extra points."
"Maybe." Monica said. She sighed and took her daughters hand, "Erica look, life isn't as bad as you're making it. You gotta make yourself happy, no-one else will do it. Do you understand? You have to live your life."
"You're right." Erica said, nodding, "I understand."
--
"Mommy look! I builded a castle of sand!" Samantha yelled, pointing at her castle.
"It's beautiful Sam..." Emma said, "And it's ´I've build´. Just so you know."
"Okay mom." Samantha smiled, padding one of the ´walls´ of the castle.
"Mommy, can I build one too?" Peter asked.
"Yeah." Shelly said, not bothering to look away from the magazine she was reading, "Or you know, you could just ask Sam if you can help her."
"No!" Samantha yelled, "I'm building my own."
"Sam, you have to share." Emma said, "You know that."
Suddenly Peter ran into Samantha's castle and it broke down.
"Mommy!?" Samantha cried, getting tears in her eyes, "Mommy! Peter braked my castle!"
Emma looked up to find Peter jumping up and down on the pieces of Sam's castle. She didn't have the strenght to tell Sam that it was ´broke´ and not ´braked´. It would just make her more sad.
"Shelly, will you look what your son did."
"She probably deserved it." Shelly said.
"I beg you pardon?"
"Well, she's the one who didn't want to share. He's just doing things his way." Shelly said, still not looking up.
"Will you look at me?" Emma said, taking her magazine and throwing it away, "He ruined my daughters castle. She's been working on that since we got down here this morning."
"Mommy!" Samantha said, when Peter was still jumping.
"Wont you do something, Shelly?" Emma asked.
"No." Shelly said, "I think she deserved it. They have to learn how life is. If you cant share, people will get angry."
"Okay then." Emma said, "If you wont do anything, I will" she stood up and approached the kids, "Peter! Why did you ruin Sam's castle? That's wrong!"
"No." Peter said.
"Will you stop jumping and say sorry?"
"No."
"Do it." Emma said.
"No, I don't want to." Peter continued.
"Do it." Emma said, "You don't want to see me get angry."
"I wont do it!" Peter yelled.
"Okay then!" Emma said, taking his little blue plastic shovel which were lying in the sand.
"What are you doing, aunt Emma?" Peter asked, suddenly sounding much more scared then he was before.
"Showing you how you feel when things you care about are broken." Emma said, and then she cracked the shovel into two.
"Mommy!?" Peter yelled, storming to Shelly, "She broke my shovel. She broke it, mommy!"
"What?" Shelly asked, looking up, only to find Emma standing there with two pieces – one in each hand.
"Ooops." was all she had to say.
"Why did you do that!?" Shelly asked, trying to stand up – which was hard to do, considering her 7 months pregnancy.
"I'm raising your kid." Emma said, "You wouldn't do it yourself, so I had to do something, right?"
"What?"
"It's kinda like when you say that Samantha deserved that her castle got ruined."
"You bitch!" Shelly screamed, before she could even think.
And before she knew it, Emma had slapped her across the face, taken Samantha's hand and hurried away.
Shelly just stood there, looking after them, with Peter's hand in hers.
--
"So you think I'll need this one?" Gracie laughed, throwing JJ a weird thing he didn't know what was.
"Is it yours?"
"Yeah." Gracie said, "But maybe I should just throw it out, huh?"
"You sure has a lot of crap." JJ said, sitting down on her bed.
He'd been in Gracie's room before, many times, but he had never been there while she'd cleaned up. Trying to find the things which were most necessary. She had a lot of things.
A lot, a lot.
"Gee, thanks!" Gracie replied, "Maybe I shouldn't even do this."
"Don't say you wont clean up." JJ said, "'Cause it looks like a atomic bomb blew up in here."
"No." Gracie said, "I mean… Since we're getting married and everything… We should probably find an apartment, and then I'll have to pack all this down anyway, so it wont do any point to do it now, right?"
JJ looked at her, "Yeah." he said, "We should really move in together."
--
"Pack your things!" Emma said, breaking up the guy's (and Sandy's) poker game.
"What?" Jack asked.
"Pack you things; we're leaving."
"What happened, Ems?" Ben asked, trying to cool down his sister..
"Your wife!" she said, "Your wife happened. I don't want to be here anymore, I'm going. Are you coming Jack?"
Jack really didn't want to go, but he could tell by the look in her eyes that she was very furious.
"I'm coming." Jack said.
"By the way." Emma added, "We're not friends with Shelly anymore!"
--
"Mom!?" Gracie yelled, storming downstairs to tell the great news, "Mom? Mom?"
"What's wrong Gracie?" Rachel asked.
"JJ and I are moving in together!"
"Oh."
"Isn't that great?"
"Yeah, it's great honey." Rachel said, "But there's just one tiny problem."
"What's that?"
"JJ can't take care of you…"
Well then. Leave me a review and you'll make me smile :D Thanks, Stessa.