Part 8, The Trip
By Anna
Chandler sighed and threw the last bag in
the trunk. They had decided to
stay away for about a month, but Rachel
seemed to think they’d decided on a
year. At first they’d thought one car would
be enough, but when they saw all
of Rachel’s bags they quickly realized
they’d be needing more than Phoebe’s
cab. So Ross had borrowed the Porsche from
his and Monica’s father, but he
had to return it within a week. He was
planning on paying his parents a
visit to return the car and then take the
train back out.
Phoebe, Rachel and Ross were getting in the
cab. Chandler was waiting for
Monica and Joey to show up. After a little
convincing they’d managed to get
Jack to let someone else than Ross drive
the car.
Joey and Monica exited the coffee house
with a coffee-to-go each. Chandler
sighed. No drinking was allowed in the
Porsche, that was one of Jack
Geller’s main rules. They would be late if
they had to stay and wait for
Joey and Monica to finish their coffees.
"Hurry up you two, drink up!"
Chandler said, feeling annoyed. He was alloyed
very often these days. He was bitter at
Monica for having changed, but he
knew he shouldn’t be and that annoyed him.
Her ignorance towards him also
annoyed him.
"Mon, you know you can’t drink coffee
in dad’s car" Ross said, as Monica
passed by the cab, where he was sitting
with the door open.
"Okay, then YOU drink it" she
said, casually throwing her coffee-to-go mug
in his lap. Ross yelped and caught it just
before it landed.
"Hey, be careful!" he cried out.
Monica shrugged her shoulders and smiled
mischievously. Ross made a face at
her, closed the door and told Phoebe to
drive.
When the problem with the coffee was
solved, Joey and Chandler got another
one to deal with.
"I’m driving!" Monica said,
taking place behind the wheel.
Joey and Chandler looked at each other.
That Monica was going to drive had
not even been a possibility.
"Hey Mon, are you really sure--"
Joey begun, but got cut off by Monica
starting the engine.
"Are you gonna ride with me, or are
you going to walk?" she asked, placing a
tape in the car stereo and putting on
sunglasses to avoid the bright June
sun.
"Look Mon, honey, it’s been a while
since you sat behind a wheel…" Chandler
said, trying to talk her out of it. No one
was even sure if she remembered
how to drive.
"Relax" she said, and Chandler
got a strange feeling she was reading his
thoughts when she continued; "It’s
just like riding a bike, you know. You
never forget."
"Funny, I’ve always said the same
thing about loving" Chandler said, rolling
his eyes, and took place next to her in the
car.
Joey got in right behind Chandler and
Monica showed them that she hadn’t
forgotten how to drive.
‘She drives like she’s Nicky Lauda’
Chandler thought, amazing at the speed
she kept. This was another thing that the
old Monica would have never done.
Once they got out of the city Monica found
the silence disturbing, so she
turned on the stereo. The Cardigans’
"My Favourite Game" started to play at
a loud volume, and Chandler couldn’t help
but be scared that she was going
to put on a performance like in the video.
Monica drummed her hands against
the steering wheel in rhythm with the riff,
and she did look like an
American version of Nina Persson.
"Hey Mon, slow down a bit, would
you?" Joey said from the backseat.
"Joey, do the words ‘boring’ and
‘dull’ mean anything to you?" Monica
replied.
"Yeah, but Mon, if the cops pull you
over you won’t get to drive anymore."
Monica thought about it for a second, then
slowed down some, but she was
still driving a bit too fast.
"You ran a stop sign" Chandler
pointed out, and wondered if she had
forgotten the traffic rules but not how to
drive.
"Whatever" Monica replied, and
sang along in the chorus. Ever since the
accident she had started to sing allot,
which was another thing that she
never did before. She used to claim she
couldn’t carry a tune if her life
depended on it. Now she either thought
differently or she just didn’t care.
Either option was kind of scary.
Joey eyed Monica for a few minutes.
"My Favourite Game" had ended, and
Meja’s "All ‘Bout the Money" was
playing instead. Monica was still humming
along, and Joey felt like he was in the middle
of "Twilight Zone". He
glanced over at Chandler, who didn’t bother
to pretend anymore. He hated the
situation, hated the new Monica’s attitude.
And he hated having to hide it
all the time.
Monica noticed the look on his face, smiled
mischievously and sang a line
from Bon Jovi’s "Blaze of Glory".
Her smiled turned more pleased when she
saw his reaction, and she felt proud of
having remembered something all on
her own. Chandler had once secretly
confided in her that he liked that
particular song by Bon Jovi.
In that moment she could almost sense what
she had once felt for him. But
she brushed it off as a reaction to his
smile. It wasn’t often that she
caused people to smile these days.
A few hours later they united with Ross, Rachel
and Phoebe at Phoebe’s
mother’s house. Phoebe Abbot was un Europe
for the summer, so they’d gotten
to borrow her house. Rachel came running
out of the house as soon as they
parked, because she wanted the rest of her
bags.
"I don’t see what you need ten bags of
clothes, we’re only gonna be here for
a month" Chandler said, lifting yet
another one of her bags from the trunk.
"Yeah, yeah" Rachel said.
"Be careful with that, that’s my party-dress bag!"
Well inside Ross and Phoebe told them that
there were six bedrooms in the
house, one of each of them. Phoebe was
going to sleep in her mother’s
bedroom and the rest of them in guest
rooms.
"Four of the rooms are upstairs"
Phoebe said. "Three of you can get to sleep
there, so you four can get to debate on who
sleeps downstairs."
"There’s five of us" Chandler
pointed out.
"I know, but since Rachel brought half
the Ralph Lauren store she sleeps
downstairs. Too hard to carry all of her
bags upstairs."
It didn’t take them long to get settled.
Chandler took the first room
upstairs, Monica the second. Opposite
Chandler’s room was Phoebe Sr’s
bedroom and Joey took the last room
upstairs, after winning a dice roll
between him and Ross.
Chandler sat down on his bed and wondered
if this trip was going to work out
okay. He hoped for all of their sakes that
Monica would go back to her good
old self again.
The gang gathered in the living room to eat
dinner, and Chandler started to
think that Monica was starting to remember.
She made dinner for the first
time since the accident, and while she made
it she remembered that Phoebe
didn’t eat meat, so she made a vegetarian
meal.
"Looks like this trip idea was a good
call" Joey said low to the other two
guys, watching Monica cook. They were
seated on the living room couch.
"It was only a matter of time before
her memories would come back more and
more" Ross said. "he can’t go on
not remembering forever."
"According to Dr. Barkley that’s
exactly what she can" Chandler remarked.
"Besides, no one said she remembers
everything" Joey pointed out. "But her
remembering how to cook is something that I
have been looking forward to."
Chandler couldn’t help but laugh at that
comment. It was so typical Joey.
The other guys stared at him, not having
heard him laugh for so long.
Chandler quickly quieted, and felt as if
he’d committed a crime or
something.
"Okay, dinner’s ready!" Monica
called out.
The gang took place around the table, and
for the first time in a year they
had a pleasant meal together. Monica was
acting a bit more like her old
self, and the food was good.
"Anyway, did I mention that Don is
coming up over the weekends?" Rachel
asked when they were almost finished.
"Don?" Monica said. "Yeah,
he’s yum. But not as yum as this guy I saw at the
hospital the other day."
Chandler nearly dropped his fork. Although
he knew she flirted with guys all
the time, he hadn’t expected her to talk
about it in front of him.
"Uh, is there uh… anything for
dessert?" Joey asked, noticing Chandler’s
reaction and wanting to change the subject
before they got a more detailed
description of the guy at the hospital.
"Yeah, there’s some ice cream in the
fridge" Monica said, starting to pick
up the plates. "You can probably have
one of those."
Joey shrugged his shoulders. He wasn’t
really interested in dessert. As long
as they were talking about something else.
The guys, Phoebe and Rachel had planned on
playing Trivial Pursuit after
dinner. Each one of them had different
reasons for wanting to.
Joey wanted to see if it could trigger some
memories with Monica, Phoebe had
never played before, Ross was always up for
a game of TP and Rachel wanted
to get back at Joey for winning over her the
last time. She found it
embarrassing that he’d won over her.
Chandler just wanted to have a pleasant
night with the gang, like the old days.
They sat down in the living room and
started discussing how to team up.
"I can be with Monica" Phoebe
said, and looked around. "And speaking of,
where is she?"
Joey and Chandler shared a confused look,
and Joey rose and went over to the
kitchen.
"I thought she was still in
here!" he said. "Where did she go?"
"Ill go up and check" Phoebe
offered, running up the stairs.
"Monica?" she said, opening the
door to Monica’s room. "Mon, are you here?"
Monica was laying on the bed, with a book
in front of her, biting an apple.
"Mon, there you are." Phoebe
closed the door and walked up to her friend.
"Come on, we’re playing Trivial
Pursuit."
"Nice" Monica said, not looking
up.
"What are you reading?" Phoebe
asked, trying a different topic to get her
attention.
"’Lucky’" Monica said.
"’Lucky’? But you hate Jackie
Collins."
"That was before." Monica
replied. "Probably. Because I can’t see what’s so
wrong with it."
"I thought you used to say that books
like that were degrading to women!"
"Look, Phoebs…" Monica said with
a sigh, clearly annoyed, and turned to look
at Phoebe. "I didn’t read the first
book, at least. Now what do you want,
I’m not in the mood for playing the memory
game."
"We, uhm…" Phoebe all of a sudden
felt nervous. Her best friend was making
her nervous. "We’re just about to play
TP. Don’t you want to join?"
"As if" Monica replied, and
turned her attention back to the book.
"You sure?"
"Am I sure?" Monica looked up at
her again. "Phoebe, is there water in the
Pacific Ocean?"
"Well you obviously feel like asking
questions, come on down and play with
us. The teams won’t be even if you
don’t."
"I’m so glad you want me to join just
because you want to be around me"
Monica sarcastically replied, and went back
to reading.
"Monica, come on… It could be
fun."
"So could this if you kept
quiet."
Phoebe looked at Monica for a second, then
sighed and went back down. She
wondered if she should ask Joey or Chandler
to go up and talk to her, but
she gave up the idea pretty soon.
"So, where is she?" Chandler
asked as Phoebe came down the stairs. "We’ve
decided to let the Gellers fight for the
family honour against the rest of
us. Phoebe, you’re with Joey."
"Yeah, change of plans" Phoebe
said, sitting down.
"What do you mean, do you want to be
on my team instead?" Rachel asked.
"No, but it looks like Ross will be
defending the family honour by himself.
Monica’s not coming."
"What do you mean, she’s not
coming?" Rachel asked. "There is no such thing
as Monica not wanting to join when we’re
playing games!"
"Well, there is now" Phoebe said.
"So I’m guessing we’re playing one on one,
instead of teams?"
The others nodded, forcing smiles to their
faces, unlike Phoebe who didn’t
bother. They’d all hoped for a game with
all six of them, now the thrill of
the game was somehow taken away. It wasn’t
as fun playing just five, not
when they were used to always being six.
The next day Monica came down for breakfast
long after everyone else.
Phoebe, Joey and Ross had already gone out
to take a swim, and Rachel and
Chandler were off grocery shopping.
Monica smiled when she saw that she was
alone. She cherished her moments of
peace, she just couldn’t get used to having
five people near all the time.
Last night had been a wonderful evening on
her part, she hadn’t heard a word
from the others after Phoebe had gone back
downstairs.
She opened the fridge and took out some
milk, to have cereal. She then
opened the cabinet and saw that there were
four different kinds of cereals
to choose from. And she had no idea which
kind she liked.
She slammed the cabinet door shut and
sighed deeply. Would she ever remember
things like that? It was both frustrating
and annoying to not even remember
what kind of food you liked. Not to mention
that it was embarrassing when
she had to ask her friends.
"To hell with breakfast" she
said, putting the milk back in the fridge.
She decided to try and spend the day all by
herself. She went upstairs and
got changed. She’d only brought three
suitcases, which was little compared
to Rachel. But the difference was she had
all new clothes in hers. She had
lots of money in the bank, ‘cause she had
once decided that she never wanted
to go broke again if she was unemployed.
She saved as much of her pay check
as she could every month, and by the time
of the accident she had over $10
000 in her account. That amount had gotten
higher during her time at the
hospital, since money had been put in the
account, but she hadn’t been
around to take any of it out. So the day
before they left for Montauk she’d
taken out $2000 and gone shopping for it.
She put on an armless purple top with a
v-neck and a short white skirt,
complete with pockets. In one of the
pockets she placed her wallet and keys,
and she put her sunglasses in the other.
Then she hurried down the stairs
and outside before anybody came back to ask
her questions.
She remembered at the last minute to write
down a note, saying she was out.
The others would probably get mad at her if
she didn’t.
She took her father’s Porsche and drove
away, planning to be gone for about
five our six hours.
Ten minutes later Chandler and Rachel came
back, bickering. Chandler was
carrying both the grocery bags.
"Well you’re not exactly off on a good
start, are you?" Rachel said.
"Hey, nobody expected her to be back
to normal the first day" Chandler
defended himself. "Now would you
please give me a break and open the door?
Don’s not here, she can’t hit on him while
he’s in New York."
Rachel opened the door and they went
inside. Chandler started unpacking the
groceries and Rachel pulled herself up on
the counter and sat there,
watching him, with no intention of helping
him out.
"Is that the receipt?" she asked,
pointing to a small piece of paper next to
one of the bags.
"’I’ve gone out. Will be back later.
MG’" Chandler read from it, and sighed.
"Well, look at the bright side… at
least she left us a note…"
"At least who left us a note?"
Ross asked, entering with Phoebe and Joey.
"Ross? You’re, you’re here?" Rachel
asked, slightly confused.
"I think so, yeah" Ross
sarcastically said, after having looked around.
"You haven’t gone to return the
Porsche to your father?" Rachel asked.
"Relax, I’ll do it tomorrow."
"But then who’s got the Porsche?"
Rachel said, even more confused.
The others looked at each other.
"Monica" Joey, Chandler and
Phoebe said in unison.
"What? My, my sister has taken of with
the car?" Ross asked, clearly
starting to freak out.
"Don’t worry, she’ll be back…
later" Chandler said, waving the note in front
of Ross.
Ross shook his head. He didn’t trust his
sister with the car in her current
condition.
"Is that a note from her?" he
asked. Chandler nodded. "Well does it say
where she’s gone?"
This time Chandler shook his head. Ross
frowned.
"So my unstable sister has taken of
with the Porsche and nobody knows where
she is?" Ross summed up.
"Hey, don’t call her unstable!"
Chandler said, offended. He couldn’t take
any bad words about Monica.
"Fine, my not-as-stable-as-she-was
sister."
"This isn’t a joke" Chandler
replied, placing the last item from the bags in
the cabinet. "Now I’m gonna go
upstairs and get some work done, and I trust
Monica and I know she won’t get into
trouble. Just let me know when she gets
back."
With that he was up the stairs, leaving the
others to wonder if they should
trust Monica or not.
Monica returned seven hours later, around
five o’clock. She had a pet-bottle
of water in her right hand, and the keys to
the Porsche in the left. She was
pleased with her day, she’d had a very good
time. But one look on the
others’ faces told her they hadn’t.
Everyone except for Chandler had waited
down in the living room for over two
hours, and Ross flew to his feet and yanked
the keys away from Monica.
"Don’t ask me why we weren’t smart
enough to take the keys back last night"
he said.
"Excuse me?" Monica said, getting
defensive.
"What on earth were you thinking,
taking off with dad’s car?"
"What?" Monica was getting angry.
"It’s a car! What else was I supposed to
do with it? Eat it?"
She coldly stared at him, her eyes warning
him not to accuse her of being
untrustworthy, and at the same time daring
him to pick a fight.
"Sorry" Ross mumbled, deciding it
was better to let it go. He went back to
the couch and sat down.
"Great, now excuse me for a second, I
need a shower" Monica said, heading
for the second floor.
Once she was gone the others shared a look.
"Where did she get that outfit
from?" Rachel said, breaking the silence. "I
don’t recognize it."
"Oh, does it matter?" Joey said,
clearly annoyed. Then he turned to Ross.
"Ross, you shouldn’t let it go like
that! She shouldn’t have left with the
car for hours, you should have told her
that!"
"She’s not a kid, Joey" Phoebe
pointed out. "For crying out loud, she’s 29
years old and she has the right to do
whatever she wants."
"Not with my dad’s car, she
hasn’t" Ross replied, whining like a little kid.
"Someone go up and tell Chandler she’s
back" Rachel said, changing the
subject.
"I think he knows, he probably heard
her" Ross replied, leaning back in the
couch. "And if not, he’ll find out
when he hears her singing in the shower.
Why does she always insist on doing that
these days? She sings everywhere."
"Yeah, in the shower and in the
car." Joey sarcastically said. "That’s
everywhere."
The next day Monica tried to take the car
down to town again, but found out
Ross had taken it back.
"Phoebe?" she said, walking into
the kitchen where the others were. "Can I
borrow your cab?"
Chandler stared at her. She was wearing a
skirt similar to the one she’d
worn the day before, only it had no pockets
and it was a few centimetres
longer. To that she wore an armless brown
top with a small v-neck and collar
and she had her wallet in a small purse,
the same colour as the top. He’d
never seen her in any of it before, and he
wished he hadn’t now either. She
looked great, but he felt he couldn’t tell
her.
Phoebe was also staring at Monica, but for
different reasons.
"You, you want to borrow the
cab?"
"Yeah. How am I else supposed to get
anywhere?"
Phoebe quieted for a minute while she
thought of an argument. She didn’t
want Monica to take the cab, but she knew
she’d get mad if she found out
why.
"Uhm… Joey’s gonna take it soon to go
pick Ross up" she blurted up, urging
Joey with her eyes to play along.
"Well great, he can drop me off. And
pick me up on his way back."
Joey glared at Phoebe. Trapped. And now he
would have to go pick Ross up,
even though Ross would already be on the
train by the time Joey arrived at
Jack and Judy Geller’s.
"He’s, uh… going another way"
Phoebe said.
Monica looked from one to the other.
"Fine" she said. "I know
what’s going on."
She turned on the spot and left, slamming
the door behind her. If they
didn’t trust her with the cars, she could
walk. And she knew she’d only have
to walk one way, she was sure to find some
guy who could drive her home.
At eight o’clock that night the others were
seated in the living room,
wondering where Monica could be. Chandler
feared the worst, was only waiting
for a phone call saying she’d had another
accident. Ross was mad at Phoebe
for not letting her take the cab.
"But you did the same thing
yesterday!" Phoebe defended herself, near tears.
"You didn’t want her to take the
Porsche, you would have lied to her too if
she’d asked for the keys!"
Ross knew it was the truth, but he still
needed someone to blame. Phoebe was
the easiest target.
"Enough, both of you!" Chandler
said, not wanting the fight to continue.
"Until Monica comes back, if she ever
does come back, I suggest you two shut
up and act adult!"
Phoebe and Ross angrily glared at Chandler,
and declared peace between
themselves to stand up for each other
against their common enemy, Chandler.
"Stop fighting EVERYONE!" Joey
said. "No one fights with no one, and
Chandler, no more name calling."
"I didn’t call them names"
Chandler pointed out, and returned his stare to
outside the window.
Less than a minute later Monica entered,
with Rachel’s boyfriend Don with
her.
"Don!" Rachel said, taken by
surprise.
"Guess who gave me a ride back
home?" Monica said. "I guess some people
stand up for others and help them
out."
After that, she strolled right past her
five friends who had all risen to
give her a piece of their minds. She
completely ignored them and went
upstairs to her room.
"She’s like a rebellion
teenager…" Joey sighed, sinking back down in his
chair.
Chandler couldn’t let it go that easily. He
was furious with her for scaring
him like that, and even more mad because
she had ignored him once she got
back. He hadn’t even gotten a look from
her. He stormed outside, to get the
anger out of his system somehow. He was
afraid that if he stayed indoors he
would end up throwing something of Phoebe’s
mother’s in the wall, breaking
it.
Rachel forgot all about the fact that
Monica had been gone for long once she
got home with Don. It was the fact that she
had gotten home with Don that
she worried about. She wondered if Monica
had tried some flirting to get him
to take her back to the house. And she
wondered what had been said between
the two in the car.
"Uh, come on Don, let’s go out and
eat!" she said, tugging his arm. She
didn’t want him anywhere near Monica at the
moment, and at a restaurant
they’d be far away.
"Thanks Rachel, but I’m not
hungry" Don said. "Monica and I ate before we
went back here."
He didn’t see how Rachel froze at that, and
he didn’t see how her face
turned angry. She had had enough of
Monica’s tricks and she wasn’t willing
to take it anymore.
"Remember your promise to Chandler"
Phoebe said, guessing what Rachel was
thinking. "Don’t you let him down as
well."
Chandler returned about an hour later. It
was dark out, and he felt like his
heart was just as dark. She hadn’t even
looked at him, she’d just walked
right past him. As if he didn’t exist.
He felt relieved when he saw that the
living room was dark. That would mean
the others were in their rooms. He didn’t
want to meet anyone.
"Chandler this has gone too far"
Rachel’s voice said when he entered.
Chandler recoiled, slightly startled by the
sound of her voice. He squinted
and saw that she sat on the couch.
"There’s a light switch, you
know" he said, switching on the lights.
"She had dinner with Don. With MY
boyfriend" Rachel said, low but annoyed.
"Yes, apparently her own boyfriend
isn’t that fun to have dinner with"
Chandler replied, discreetly trying to
remind her that this subject was one
he didn’t want to hear about.
"Tell her to keep her paws off,
Chandler."
"You tell her yourself" Chandler
replied, getting angry. "You think you’re
the one to feel sorry for? Yeah, well it’s
not your partner who’s hitting on
others big time. And it’s not your
girlfriend, or, well, boyfriend, who
would rather spend every night alone than
to touch you!"
Chandler heard her say something, but he
didn’t hear what. He hurried up the
stairs, upset. It was hard to tell himself
that Monica was just going
through a rough time when she was hurting
him like that. Hurting him by
hitting on others. And the question that
tormented him more than anything,
was if she did it to hurt him. He hated
himself for even thinking the
thought, but he couldn’t ignore the fact
that it was a possibility. He hoped
that it wasn’t, because he loved her so,
and he wanted to believe that even
if she didn’t love him back, she at least
didn’t want to hurt him.
The next day Monica came down for breakfast
last again. The others were
waiting for her, planning on giving her a
piece of their minds.
Monica came down the stairs, and as if
nothing was wrong she poured herself
a cup of coffee and headed for the living
room. And as far as she was
concerned, nothing WAS wrong.
"Monica, where the hell were you last
night?" Ross asked.
"Yeah, and don’t you DARE go near Don
again!" Rachel said, getting an angry
nudge from Chandler.
Monica turned on her way to the living
room, sighed and glared at the
others.
"What are you after?" she asked.
"Has it skipped all of you that I’m grown
up? I don’t need to tell you everything I
do, or DON’T do." She turned to
Rachel. "And just because you’re so
insecure in your boyfriend that you
can’t trust him with another woman it
DOESN’T mean that you’ve got every
right to take it out on me." Then she
turned to Chandler. "And that goes for
you too!"
With that she was gone.