The One With The Bathroom Door

By: Jana~

 

 

Chapter Three

 

*****~*****

--"There are rules!" Ross insisted as all his friends challenged him… "He had no business kissing her!"

"He wasn’t disrespecting her…" Rachel countered… he's in love."

"Yeah, right!" Ross scoffed… "Doubtful."

"I really think he is…" Joey chimed in… "But he's kept his feelings inside… out of respect for you and cause he didn’t want to lose Monica's friendship…"

Ross considered his words, then dismissed them… "It's still against the rules!"

"What rules exactly?" Phoebe asked…

"You don’t date your friend's old flames! Or possible flames! Or family members!" Ross snapped in reply…

Phoebe nodded her understanding… "And what about a sibling's friend?"

"Right!" Ross agreed with a large hand gesture… "Or a sibling's friend!"

"Kinda like how you've been pining over Rachel, even though she's been Monica's friend for, like, ever."

Ross looked at Phoebe, then glanced over at Rachel, dropping his gaze a moment later… "Alright…" he caved… "I get it. I guess we can't always help who we fall in love with."

Phoebe smiled… "Exactly." She winked at Rachel, then she winked at Joey who returned the gesture…

"Fine…" Ross waved his hands dismissively as he headed for the door to leave for work… "I won't kill Chandler…"

*****

--"There's a Monica Geller here to see you, Mr. Bing…" Chandler's secretary informed over the intercom…

Chandler's heart leapt… why was she there? "Thank you. Send her in."

He tidied the papers in front of him, then stood and straightened his tie…

Monica walked in and their eyes caught… she tore hers away while she shut the door… "Sorry to bother you at work…"

"That's ok…" He attempted his usual smile, but was certain he looked stupid… "What's up?"

"I wanted to apologize to you for this morning…"

"It's ok. I didn’t know how to act around you…" he explained… "I thought acting like nothing happened was best. Guess I was wrong…"

"You weren't wrong…" she sighed… "My reaction was. I don’t know what I was expecting… I just-- I guess I just didn’t know how to react."

"I'm sorry." He apologized… "I'm sorry I did this to us."

She was confused by his apology, and she wrinkled her brow, puzzled… "Did what?"

He looked away before he replied… "Ruin our friendship."

"You didn’t ruin our friendship, Chandler…" she assured him…

His eyes locked with hers again… "Well, I certainly didn’t do it a lot of good. At the very least, I made it awkward between us…"

Now it was Monica who looked away… "I really wasn't expecting you to… do that…"

"Kiss you?" he asked, verifying the question…

She nodded… "I have to know…"

"What?"

"Why did you?" she asked eventually, her hesitation causing an awkward silence…

"Kiss you?" He knew what she was asking, but he had to stall for time… to come up with an answer that would salvage some of his pride…

She nodded…

"I was depressed. I wanted to… feel… better…" he stammered, trying to sound convincing… "I wasn't thinking…"

She looked to the ground as she nodded… "Alright." There was a long moment before she spoke again, the tension thick as pea soup… "Well, I gotta go. I'm already late for work."

He nodded… "Ok."

"Ok." She repeated, watching his emotionless expression for a moment before turning to the door… "See'ya tonight."

"At the coffeehouse… yeah."

Glancing back briefly, she tried a smile before walking out the door, closing it behind her.

Chandler sat at his desk, his face in his hands… he hadn't planned on lying to her, but he wasn’t brave enough to risk his heart…

"I love you, Monica…" he whispered to himself, staring at the closed door for a moment before diving back in to his work…

*****

--"He said what?" Phoebe asked, surprised…

"He said he only kissed me cause he felt bad and thought it would cheer him up!" Monica reiterated… "So much for him loving me…" she mumbled before taking a sip of her coffee…

"Joey was so sure!"

"Well, maybe he felt something at some point, but doesn’t now."

"Maybe…" Phoebe agreed absently… "Still, something doesn’t add up…"

"What doesn’t add up?"

"Well, ok… he's been in love with you for a while, at least, but then he waits to kiss you till he's fallen out of love with you? It just doesn’t add up."

"I don’t think the kiss had anything to do with love."

"Hi!" Rachel greeted as she entered Central Perk and joined her friends… "What are we talking about?"

"The kiss." Phoebe replied…

Rachel turned to Monica… "Did you talk to Chandler?"

"Yeah…" Monica frowned… "I talked to him…"

"Well?" Rachel asked curiously… "What did he say?"

"That he kissed me cause he wanted to feel better about the whole 'Susie-underpants' fiasco." Monica replied somewhat bitterly…

Rachel gasped in shock… "What?! What about being in love with you? What did he say about that?"

"I didn’t ask him about that." Monica explained with a shake of her head… "It's obvious that Joey was mistaken."

"Not necessarily…" Phoebe offered… "Maybe he was nervous! I mean, he's kept his feelings bottled up for how long? Maybe he was afraid to admit them to you."

Monica considered the possibility, then shook her head… "I'm not so sure that's it either."

"One of us could ask him!" Rachel suggested…

"No…" Monica declined… "Cause, what if it's not true? Or, what if it is and he gets upset cause Joey told us? And, cause, well… we're not in jr. high school."

"So, what then? That's it?" Rachel asked, slightly annoyed… "You're just gonna say nothing?"

"For now…" Monica affirmed with a shrug… "Yeah."

*****

--"Dude!" Joey nearly attacked Chandler as he walked through the door… "I gotta talk to you!"

"Ok…" Chandler agreed hesitantly… "What's up?"

Joey shifted uncomfortably… "Ok, now, you're probably gonna get mad, but, see, I have an audition in two days, so if you're gonna hit me, avoid the face, ok?"

Chandler scowled at the request… "I'm not gonna hit you Joe." he assured him… "What's going on?"

"I told everyone about your feelings for Monica." Joey winced as he saw the expression change on Chandler's face from confusion to outrage…

"What?!"

"Man, I am so sorry! I don’t always think! You know that! And, well, everyone was all asking about what was up between you guys this morning, and I kinda… let it slip."

"Oh my God! I did NOT want this getting out! Joe!" He emphasized his friend's name as he stared to pace…

"I'm sorry!"

"Did Ross say he was gonna kill me? Did you tell them not to tell Monica?"

"He wanted to, we talked him out of it."

"And the other?"

Joey hemmed and hawed… "Could you repeat the question?"

Chandler became more agitated… "Did you tell everyone NOT to tell Monica?"

"Not exactly…" he admitted nervously…

"Then WHAT exactly?!"

"She kinda knows too."

"Oh my God! How does she know?!"

"She walked in when we were talking about it…" Joey explained… "But I didn’t tell her, Ross did."

"Why? Why did he do that?!"

"He was still in shock… he just blurted it out."

"Oh, this is just perfect!" he snapped as he paced, looking around the apartment as if an answer would present itself… "What am I supposed to do now?!"

"Just, tell her how you feel!"

"I can't, Joseph! Earlier today she came by my office and I told her I kissed her to feel better about being sad!"

"Why did you do that?"

Chandler looked at him in disbelief for a moment… "Shut up! I didn’t know you had blabbed my deepest secret to everyone!"

"I'm sorry!" Joey apologized again, almost frantically… "I said I was sorry!"

"Big whoop!" Chandler barked, becoming condescending… "Hey, Joe, I just set fire to your room, but, ooops! I'm sorry! And hey, Joe, I just called your talent agent and told her to cancel your next audition! I'm sorry!"

"Ok, ok…" Joey conceded… "Apologizing doesn’t fix what I did…"

"Ya think?!"

"But, I am sorry."

"If things weren't awkward enough! Now it's gonna be even more awkward! And around everyone else as well!"

"Well, maybe we can fix it…" Joey suggested…

"How?! How are we gonna fix it?!"

"I don’t know… maybe--" Joey snapped his fingers as an idea came to him… "I could tell them I was wrong! That I misunderstood! They'd believe that! I do that all the time!"

"I don’t know…" Chandler replied hesitantly… "What did you tell them exactly?"

"That you were in love with Monica and had been ever since I've known you."

Chandler scowled… "Well, that's just excellent…" he muttered sarcastically, heading for his room…

"Where'ya going?"

"To change out of my work clothes… then I thought maybe I'd just hang myself with my necktie--" He slammed the door, his final words lost to the sound.

Joey stared at his friend's bedroom door for a moment, then marched into his own room and grabbed his coat… "I gotta fix this…" he mumbled to himself, walking out the front door…

 

TO BE CONTINUED

 

Thanks for reading!