Days passed. Chandler saw Monica
each day, but it was as if the barrier
between them had grown. He
couldn't reach her, they didn't even speak. And
Phoebe's clear siding with
Monica hurt him more than he wanted to admit to
himself.
That weekend they all decided
to go to a beach party. It would do them good
to socialise a bit, and to
have some fun.
"I sure hope this will be
fun!" Chandler remarked to Joey as they arrived at
the party. The sun hadn't
begun to set yet, people were swimming, laughing
and playing. Some were tossing
Frisbees, some were playing volleyball or
beach tennis and some were
dancing to music being played from a large
stereo. Close to the stereo
a group of people were serving barbecued food
and salad.
"This looks like your typical
high school party" Joey replied.
"All of my typical high school
parties meant 300 guys sitting in a ring
reading sucky poetry, wondering
how the 100 guys that were missing had
gotten out of it all" Chandler
informed Joey.
"Oh man, we should have brought
swim clothes!" Monica said, walking past
them on her way down to the
beach. "I don't wanna bathe in the ones I'm
wearing, I HATE wearing wet
bathing suits when I sunbathe."
Phoebe followed in her trails.
They were carrying a basket, a blanket and a
cool bag filled with beverages.
"Guys, don't go to close to
the shoreline!" Ross called after them. "I want
to sit away from the surf!"
Chandler made up his mind
to have a good time that night. He sure needed it,
he hadn't enjoyed himself
for months. The only exception had been the night
when Monica had pretended
to want him again. He shut the memory out and
followed after Monica and
Phoebe.
The two women sat down about
ten meters from the shoreline and lay down on
the blanket, passing a coke
between them. Chandler smiled when he saw them,
he could almost trick himself
into believing this was just a normal day in
his life like it had been
before.
Rachel sat down next to Phoebe,
not taking her sunglasses off.
"I HATE sand" she remarked,
and kicked her shoes off. "I hate walking in it,
I hate how it burns my feet,
I hate laying on it, I hate getting it in my
shoes, I hate how it sticks
to my feet when my feet are wet!"
"And _I_ hade when Rachel
starts to whine" Monica said, putting sunglasses
on.
"So, who wants to go swim?"
Joey said with a smile. No one was interested,
so Joey headed off on his
own.
"I wonder how warm it is"
Monica said and pulled her t-shirt off. Chandler
looked away, not wanting to
see her in just shorts and a bikini, not
trusting his reactions if
he would.
Monica noted his reaction
and haphazardly tossed her t-shirt his way. She
watched him blush as it landed
in his lap. He quickly folded it but didn't
look at her when he handed
it back.
"You might want to try not
throwing your clothes" Rachel said. "Just think
of all the sand you could
get in them."
Monica ignored her and started
putting on sun block, a task she found was
not quite as simple as it
seemed. She couldn't reach to put some on her
back. She looked up. Ross
and Phoebe had gone to get some ice cream and
Rachel wouldn't want to get
her hands full of sun lotion. She didn't even
consider asking Chandler for
help. She didn't want him to touch her, she had
grown to dislike him more
and more.
Chandler watched her acrobatic
exercises as she tried to reach her back to
get the block on, but tried
to do it discreetly. He didn't want her to know
how much he actually spied
on her, he watched her as soon as he got the
chance. He was used to seeing
her allot, and now that she pushed his company
away he used the spying method
to get to see her enough.
"Damn it." he heard her mutter.
She was having some great trouble. Then
Chandler sighed and rolled
his eyes, when a tanned, muscular guy came up and
offered to put the sun block
on for her.
Ross and Phoebe came back
and sat down with their ice cream. They watched
Monica and the unknown man,
but they didn't say a thing. And they watched
with amazement how Monica
simply thanked the man once he was finished, then
ignored him completely and
took her shorts of. She then laid down on her
stomach and looked as if she
was planning on going to sleep. That was yet
another thing that the old
Monica wouldn't have done. She'd felt forced to
talk with the guy for a while,
but the new Monica now acted as if he didn't
exist.
Chandler had looked away as
soon as she'd started to take her shorts off.
Seeing her in shorts and a
bikini top was one thing, seeing her in just the
bikini was another.
"Hey guys!" Joey said, coming
up from his bath, dripping with water.
"Watch out!" Rachel whined.
"You're getting water all over me."
Joey ignored her and looked
from one of his friends to the other.
"Are you sure none of you
want to come with me? The water is great!" he
said.
"No thanks" Phoebe said with
a yawn. "I prefer to stay here with my ice
cream."
Joey sighed and gave Chandler
a questioning look.
"No thanks Joe" Chandler said.
"Swimming is not my type of sport. And there
are no hot lifeguards here."
Monica sat up and took her
sunglasses off.
"I could use a swim" she said.
"Whatever happened to not
wanting to wet your bikini?" Rachel asked.
"What are you, my mother?"
Monica asked, annoyed. Then she followed Joey
back into the water.
"Twenty dollars to whomever
gets into her head enough to understand her"
Chandler said and laid down
on the blanket, watching Joey and Monica through
his sunglasses. "Last time
I heard, Joey was a backstabbing jerk."
Phoebe sighed.
"Give it a rest, Chandler"
she said. "There's something called forgive and
forget."
"Let's just hope that includes
ex-boyfriends" Chandler said, having trouble
saying 'ex-boyfriend' without
sounding too pained.
Ten minutes later he was nearly
asleep when he felt cold water drip all over
him. He sat up in a hurry
and took his sunglasses off, seeing Monica stand
over him. Water dripped from
her long, wet hair and she looked content after
the swim. And that was pretty
much the most positive reaction you could get
out of her these days. Contentment.
Chandler felt a sharp pain
in his stomach as he looked up on her. She looked
like she had done when they
were going out, most visible traces from the
accident were gone now. Her
hair was much longer than it had been before and
she was tanned, looking healthy.
And Chandler knew she wasn't his. He
couldn't say exactly when
he had lost her, but he knew that he had.
"If you're gonna squeeze the
water out of your hair I suggest you do it
elsewhere" he said once he
got the strength to speak. "I don't feel like
getting anymore cold water
on me."
Monica said nothing, sitting
down next to him and putting her sunglasses
back on. Joey sat down on
his other side and grabbed a beer from the cool
bag.
"Seriously guys, you should
go in" he said. "The water is perfect, right
Mon?"
Monica didn't answer.
"No thank you" Ross said.
"I prefer to lay here and get tanned. I've got my
sights set on getting healthy
sun-burned!"
"I would more call it fried
crunchy" Joey remarked, and tossed him a bottle
of sun lotion.
Once again Chandler eyed Monica
through his sunglasses. She had laid back
down on her stomach, she looked
asleep. He had to force down a will to reach
out and touch her hair. But
she was no longer his and she had made it quite
clear to him that she wished
to keep it that way.
By the time the sun had started
to set, more people had started to dance.
Monica had only waited for
a few minutes before she'd joined the commotion
on the 'dance floor'.
"How long are you gonna keep
staring at her?" Phoebe asked Chandler. "You
can't hide it when you're
not wearing any sunglasses."
Chandler didn't reply, he
simply lifted up his sunglasses and put them on,
never taking his eyes of the
group's whirlwind out on the dance floor.
"I think I'll join her" Rachel
said and rose to her feet. Ross and Joey
followed her, leaving Chandler
and Phoebe alone.
"Don't you think I know what
you're doing, Chandler?" Phoebe said.
"What am I doing?" Chandler
asked back.
"You're monitoring her every
move, it's scary, you're, you're like a cross
between Jondalar from Zelandonii
and Matthew Broderick's character from
'Addicted to Love'."
"Sam" Chandler said.
"What?"
"Sam. His character in that
film is named Sam. Monica rented that film once
and I watched it with her."
Phoebe sat quiet for a bit.
Chandler's newfound obsession with watching over
Monica scared her. She was
afraid of what step Chandler would take next, and
she knew it wasn't good for
him to refuse to let her go like that.
"Chandler won't you just accept
that Monica's gone now, and, and get on with
your life?" she finally said.
"I mean, what are you waiting for, yet another
argument with her where she
tells you she doesn't love you?"
"Phoebe don't meddle in others'
business" Chandler replied, still eying
Monica.
"That's not what I am doing"
Phoebe said. "I am trying to protect a friend
here."
Chandler finally took his
eyes off Monica and turned to look at Phoebe. He
raised his glasses to look
at her.
"Which brings me to a subject"
he said. "I've gotta tell you, I think you're
a huge traitor for just dismissing
me all of a sudden. How come you all of a
sudden have joined Monica's
weird 'let's hate Chandler' thing?"
"What?" Phoebe said. "I don't
hate you!"
"You don't?" Chandler asked.
"No."
"Then how come you always
side with her, you argue with me about everything
that I do!"
"Chandler." Phoebe said, and
sighed. "You know, I'm the only person Monica
has now. I'm the only one
that's on her side. She fights with the rest of
you, and you all fight with
her."
"Oh, and you don't?" Chandler
hissed.
"No, I don't. Not anymore."
She watched him for a second. "Monica is my
friend now. She and I are
back being best friends. She's remembered that I
was her close friend, and
I don't want to backstab her now."
"Oh, buy ME you can backstab?"
Chandler said, visibly upset.
"That's not what I am trying
to do!" Phoebe said, trying to make him
understand. "I am trying to
be there for her. With six of us and three
clearly on your side, I think
she could use at least ONE on hers."
"So what you're trying to
say is that since Ross, Joey, myself and Rach are
mad at her, you are not?"
"Not like that" Phoebe said.
"That's not exactly what I mean. What I meant
was that someone has to stand
on HER side, no matter what. I know you want
that someone to be you, but
it CAN'T be and no matter how much you want it
that's not gonna change. I
still love you as a friend, you're one of the
best ones I've got. But someone
HAS to take Monica's side in everything, and
I'm the only confidante she's
got. So please, please, if you love her like I
know you do. let me stick
up for her. Don't deny her what you take for
granted."
Out on the dance floor Monica
all of a sudden danced into the arms of
someone familiar. She looked
up and saw a face she didn't recognize, but
that recognized her.
"Monica!" Pete Becker exclaimed,
and quickly recoiled his hand from her
shoulder. "Monica, you're,
you're okay!"
Monica had no idea whom he
was. But apparently he was someone from her past.
"Come" she said, grabbing
his hand.
"Monica, I'm so glad you're
okay, you don't know what hell this past year
has been for me!" Pete said,
nervously trying to get out what he'd been
wanting to say to her for
a year. "I really hope you can forgive me for what
I did, I never meant to--"
"Sch! Just come!" Monica interrupted
him, and led him away from the crowd,
out of vision for Chandler's
watchful eyes.
When over an hour had passed
Chandler was ready to go insane with worry. He
searched for his friends on
the dance floor, trying to get any information
out of them. He hoped one
of them had seen Monica disappear.
"Joey!" he said, finding his
old roommate. "Joey where's Monica, have you
seen her?"
"Yes, actually" Joey said,
turning his attention away from the girl he was
dancing with.
"Well where is she, I haven't
seen her in over an hour!" Chandler said, not
able to hide his concern.
"She took off with some guy"
Joey told him.
"WHAT? But why didn't you
try to stop her?"
"Chandler like it or not,
but Monica is 30 years old" Joey said. "Do you
know that you're free to take
care of yourself when you turn 18?"
"Most people her age don't
have amnesia and a new, unpredictable character"
Chandler pointed out. "Look,
no time to argue, where did she go?"
Joey pointed and Chandler
ran off into the night.
Monica and Pete were sitting
on a small bank, sharing a bottle of wine
between them. Pete had no
idea why Monica was acting the way she was at
first, but he'd soon come
to realize what the problem was.
Once he understood that she
didn't remember him he gave up all attempts to
try and talk about the accident.
She seemed interested and he didn't want
her to hate him for knowing
what he'd unintentionally done to her. And for
years he'd been hoping to
get her back. Now he saw his chance.
Chandler found them after
fifteen minutes of searching. He felt sick to his
stomach when he not only saw
Monica kissing another man, but saw that the
other man was none other than
the one who had caused all of this. Chandler
had secretly blamed Pete for
the entire situation ever since day one. He
knew it wasn't reasonable,
but he needed someone to blame it on and Pete had
been the one to hit her.
He saw Pete motion to lift
up her shirt, and so he marched right up to them
and grabbed Pete by the shirt,
yanking him away.
"Hey, what's going on?" Monica
asked. Chandler could hear that she'd broken
her usual rule of not getting
drunk. She was out of it.
"That's it Pete, take a hike!"
Chandler commanded, let Pete go and pulled
Monica to her feet.
"Who is this?" she said, sluddering
on the words.
"Someone who cares about you,
even though you don't care about him" Chandler
said.
He could hear Pete protesting
but he ignored it, angrily walking back to the
party with the woman he loved
being led by him, having trouble walking
thanks to the alcohol.
"Where's Monica?" Chandler
asked the next weekend, coming down the stairs.
The question was aimed at
Phoebe, even though all of his other friends were
there.
"Out." Phoebe answered, clearly
hiding something.
"With?" Chandler asked, sitting
down in an armchair.
"Pete Becker" Phoebe said,
after much hesitation.
"With WHOM?" Chandler asked,
his jaw dropping.
He couldn't for his life understand
why Monica would want to go with him
somewhere. On their way home
the week before she had barely been able to
walk, and when they got into
the house she kept hitting her head in the wall
accidentally, having so much
trouble walking straight. And the next day she
had been very hung over and
had vowed never to touch that much alcohol
again. She'd confided in Phoebe
that she'd shared three bottles with Pete
that night, and that they
were working on the fourth when Chandler had found
them.
"Why is she out with Pete
Becker?" Chandler now asked, eying Phoebe closely.
"I don't know Chandler" Phoebe
truthfully said. "I'm not even sure where he
took her."
"Where do you think?"
"Probably to his beach house"
Phoebe said, then looked away. Chandler's
facial reaction was probably
not one she would want to see.
"This is the pool!" Pete told
Monica, leading her out to the pool that
belonged to his large, luxurious
beach house.
"Great" Monica said.
"Do you want to go for a swim?"
"I don't have a suit with
me" Monica said. "But who says I'll need it?"
She smiled mischievously at
him and went over to a sun chair and sat down.
"You know, this place isn't
that bad" she said. Pete laughed.
"Most women tell me it's the
most wonderful house they've ever seen" he
said.
"I'm not like most women"
Monica simply said. Pete sat down close to her,
but she immediately rose and
walked back inside. Pete followed her.
"Anything else in this casa
that I should see?" she asked.
"Oh yes" Pete hurriedly said.
"Upstairs is where the bedrooms are."
"Oh great" Monica said.
She started walking up the
stairs and Pete followed her, feeling nervous and
excited all at once. He had
started to hope that she would spend the night
with him. And maybe she'd
even come back to him. She was the only woman he
had ever loved, and he was
not willing to let a chance to get her back slip
through his fingers.
Monica went in to the first
bedroom she saw, and Pete followed closely
behind her. He put his arms
around her from behind and kissed her neck.
Monica said or did nothing.
He moved down to her shoulder.
"Do all the bedrooms look
the same?" she asked all of a sudden.
"Huh?" Pete asked, confused.
"No, each one is individually decorated."
Monica broke from his embrace
and moved for the door. He grabbed her hand.
"You know, I was thinking.
Why don't we take a. closer. look on this one
first and then you can see
the rest?"
Monica could see his real
suggestion in his eyes. She shrugged her
shoulders. 'Why not?' she
thought.
"Hold on, I'm gonna go get
some wine!" Pete said, and hurried out.
Monica sat down on the bed.
She wasn't going to drink any of the wine he was
getting. The memory of the
day after the party was fresh, she had no
intention of getting that
drunk again. Pete had already given her two
glasses and she was determined
to let it end at that.
She lay down on the bed and
looked around her, liking what she saw. Pete
Becker was a man with class,
and he was also a man who could afford it. Cost
was no problem to him. After
all, he was a millionaire, and Monica knew it
just from seeing his large
house and expensive decorations.
She felt like kicking of the
high heels she was wearing. They were a little
too high and she had problems
walking in them.
She rose to walk over to the
door and turn on the lights. Pete had turned
them off when he left, and
the room was quite dark. It was a little after
nine o'clock in the evening.
Taking a few steps, she felt a little dizzy
from the two glasses of wine
and took a wrong step in her high heels,
feeling a sharp pain in her
ankle.
Chandler watched the dark ocean.
Phoebe and Joey were upstairs, Ross was
away with Maxine, they'd gotten
together again at the party. And he had no
idea where Rachel was. But
he didn't care either. The only person he cared
about where she was, had taken
off with an ex-boyfriend that had caused them
both so much misery.
Chandler sighed, turned the
tape recorder on and wondered what Pete Becker's
re-entering in their lives
would lead to.