Monica ran out the hallway and down the stairs as fast as she could, knowing
that Phoebe and Chandler were most likely right behind her.

She heard Phoebe snap for Chandler to go home and Monica finally stopped,
breathing hard, just as she'd gotten a little bit past her apartment
building. She crossed her arms and just let herself cry, knowing that there
was no stopping it.

Phoebe caught up to her a second later, running normally for once. "Monica,"
she started softly. She broke off, realizing that nothing she could say
would make Monica feel better, and pulled her best friend into a tight
embrace.

After a few minutes, Monica pulled away and wiped her cheeks with her sleeve.
"Why would he do that?" she whispered hoarsely. "Why would he do that to me?"

Phoebe looked at her friend, feeling the pain right along with her in a
lesser degree. "Men are pigs," she said softly, but she trailed off. It
wasn't going to work; not the speech girls gave each other after every
break up. For one, Chandler and Monica weren't even together, and for
another things were different between them. Whether the two realized it or
not yet, they were in love. The normal 'men are pigs' speach wouldn't work,
things were too serious between the two.

"I-I just went out on a date with that guy," Monica began to rant. "I didn't
even like him! Let alone sleep with him." Fresh tears cascaded down her
cheeks. "I thought that out of all the men who've treated me badly and
cheated on me that-that Chandler would do better than that. I thought he
was different."

"So did I," Phoebe agreed. "I guess it turns out all men are the same. No
matter how well you think you know them."

"Does it have to be that way?" Monica asked painfully. "I didn't want it to
hurt this much . . ."

"Monica!"

The two women turned around to see Chandler running towards them; now fully
equipped with jeans. Phoebe turned to Monica with a look that said she'd
deal with it and walked up to Chandler.

Phoebe grabbed Chandler's arm and twisted it, hard. "You bastard! You iditot!
How could you do that to Monica, *your best friend*?"

Chandler got a hard look on his face. "I didn't do anything to her. I've
slept with women before. What makes this time different?"

Phoebe considered this. On one hand, Chandler was right: he and Monica
weren't going out. But they both knew that they had feelings for each other,
serious feelings. They both knew that something was there, that although they
weren't "officially" together, they were going to get together sometime
soon. That for the time being they had just been playing games with each
other.

Chandler had made the wrong move. No matter what he did, he had lost the
game.

"As right as you may be, you know deep inside that you're wrong," Phoebe
hissed before pushing him hard against a wall and turning to Monica,who was
standing a few feet away, staring at her feet with glistening eyes -- a sign
that she had been crying.

* * * * *

Chandler stared after the two women, two of his best friends, and guilt
washed over him. No matter what he ever did, his relationship with Monica was
ruined. Including their friendship. And Phoebe would stick by her friend no
matter what. He didn't really know how Rachel would react, but she would most
definately side with Monica. And Ross would go from being his best friend
to Monica's older brother -- her very protective older brother.

Chandler slowly turned around and trudged the little walk back to his
apartment. Monica and Phoebe were headed to Phoebe's grandmother's apartment,
he could tell by the direction they had been headed.

As soon as Chandler stepped into his apartment, Joey was sitting at the
counter eating a bowl of cereal. He gave Chandler a knowing look and Chandler
looked in confusion to slowly growing horror to see the woman he'd slept
with last night coming out of his room, fully dressed.

"Hey, sweetie," she greeted. Chandler winced at the nasal sound of her voice
and the messege in those two words.

"Um . . . hi," Chandler said awkwardly.

"I need to go. Work," she explained. "But I'll see you tonight, right?"

"You see . . ."

"Great!" she came up and pecked Chandler on the cheek. "I love you."

Chandler stared at the door which closed with her retreating back and started
to freak out; arms moving wildly and his jaw dropping.

"Dude, what's with the girl?" Joey asked.

Chandler sighed heavily, coming back to his senses. But to be safe he went
and locked the door. Then he turned around and leaned against it. "I made
a huge mistake," he whispered, more to himself than Joey.

"What?" Joey asked curiously. He knew something was going on and that it was
serious. Despite how little he knew his new room mate, he knew that Chandler
needed some support.

Chandler heaved himself over to the counter and sat down next to Joey. "That
woman . . . I slept with her."

"Duh."

Chandler gave him a look and continued: "But, see, Monica and I have this
. . . thing between us," he said with difficutly. It was hard to describe
what had been going on between him and Monica.

"Oh, no," Joey said. "I thought you guys just slept together."

"We did," Chandler said. "And we were drunk. But even before that we'd had
a thing between us. It was just . . . understood that both of us had feelings
for each other and we were, like, an unofficial couple. Both waiting for the
other to make the first move."

"Why'd you sleep with that other chick, then?" Joey asked. "Who, by the way,
was ugly and had an annoying voice. She's nothing compared to Monica. Hell,
she's nothing compared to most women."

"I didn't mean to," Chandler said. "I was drunk. And mad. Monica went out on
that date yesterday just to make me jealous and it worked. So I got mad at
myself and her and decided to drink my problems away. And somehow I managed
to hook up with that abomination of a woman. I think her name was Janine or
Janice . . . something like that."

"Janice," Joey confirmed. "We started talking." He paused. "More like she
started talking. And talking. And talking. And talking."

"I get the point," Chandler said. "But what am I going to do? Phoebe and
Rachel are most definately going to be on Monica's side through this and
Ross is Monica's very overprotective older brother. When he finds out I hurt
Monica he's going to . . . *try* and beat me up. I made one stupid mistake,
under the influence of alcohol, and I ruined my life. I don't have any of
my friends left."

"You have me," Joey offered.

"You're sleeping with Phoebe. She's going to turn you against me," Chandler
explained.

Joey didn't disagree.

There was a pounding on the door suddenly and a high pitched, "Chandler!"

"What the hell?" Joey asked, staring at the door in confusion.

"Oh, dear God, it's Ross," Chandler said, jumping up. "He may be a geek with
no muscles, but in college Monica started crying because some guy dumped her
for someone else and Ross punched him so hard there was a bruise there. For
a week as Monica told me. He's going to--"

"Stop babbling," Joey said. "He doesn't have a . . ." the sound of the lock
being undone rang out as the pounding and yelling ceased ". . . key." He gave
Chandler a sorrowful look. "You're dead."

Ross came in and Chandler jumped behind the couch so that it was between him
and Chandler.

"You bastard!" Ross yelled. "Why did you do that to my little sister? Why
did you even hook up with her if you were just going to hurt her?"

"I didn't mean to," Chandler stuttered, knowing his excuse was lame. "I was
drunk."

"You still slept with somebody else," Ross accused.

"No," Chandler corrected, "I just plain slept with somebody. To cheat on
Monica, I would have had to be going out with her. And we weren't."

Ross shook his head. "Chandler, you are so naìve," he said sadly before
turning and leaving the apartment. "You just let the best thing that's ever
happened to you slip away."

"I know," Chandler whispered.