𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠, chandler bing.

the one without the ski trip

❁

while the girls were trying to call aaa, ella and brian just could not stop talking. the two stood in front of the women's room across from the rest of the group at the payphone.
"yeah, i'm doing my residency at presbyterian," brian enthusiastically explained to the blonde with a cheeky smile.
"oh my god! my dad is the head of cardio there!" ella excitedly brought up before the two continued to flirt as chandler jealously scoffed from his view across the rest stop.
"what is with you greens and your doctor types?" chandler looked over to rachel as they still waited for aaa to answer.
"well give her some credit, shes also gone for you," rachel truly unintentionally insulted him.
"and probably daddy issues," monica shrugged her shoulders from the other side of phoebe, the friends pausing for a moment before phoebe spoke up.
"okay. we are at a rest stop on route 27. okay, there is no route 27. okay, either 93 or 76?" she asked turning to rachel.
"i don't know, i'm sorry, i always slept in the back when we drove up here."
"okay. hey, can you send somebody up and down 76 and check every rest stop, and, and also 93? okay! yeah, no they don't do that," phoebe hung the phone up smiling back at the four.
"chandler you had to consider this being a possibility when you two became 'just friends' again, right?" joey immediately continued.
"yeah, but, i have to say it is a little insensitive to do this right after everything thats happened between them," monica chimed in.
"'right after'? ross and i were still together when they split. i say chandler may have to just deal with this one," rachel put in her two cents.
"what if we asked chandler how he feels," phoebe fake smiled at the loud trio.
"i'm perfectly fine for your information," chandler instinctually scoffed at the others.
"dude, you'd be on your fifth cigarette of the day if you could right now," joey called him out, the other four slowly nodding in agreement.
"okay, fine. do you all want me to confirm that this sucks and i absolutely hate this feeling? that i haven't felt this awful since–well-actually i don't know when," chandler snapped before a rush of sadness came over him.
"chandler, you have to tell her how you feel!" monica exclaimed with her arms still crossed over her chest.
"last time i did that we 'broke up'. i think my only choices are to try to bring up the option of what we had before or just let this happen," chandler listed with heavy defeat in his tone.
"at the very least, can someone ask her if she knows what route we're on?" phoebe broke the tense moment in attempts to ground everyone.
"fine!" rachel annoyedly rolled her eyes.
"don't huff and puff like you aren't going over there to get a better view of brian," monica almost-jealously pointed out.
"yeah but, at least i wont have to do it from over here like the rest of you," rachel fake smiled before walking over to the two.
"okay now we can call ross!" phoebe excitedly cheered before dialing his phone number.
"so shes not ready for a relationship with me but, the hot surgical resident immediately sweeps her off her feet?!" chandler continued as he put a cigarette in his mouth just to "feel" the sensation of smoking.
"you know i love you two but, she might just think hes the safer option. her biggest fear with you two getting together is if you breakup, it'd do the same–if not worse–damage to the group that ross and rachel's has. and if this actually goes somewhere...well–she wont have to worry about that with him," joey honestly laid out for him as the two continued to watch the pair flirt and joke together.
"that...actually makes so much sense–why doesn't she ever tell me about these feelings?" chandler spoke his thoughts aloud as he processed all of the information being thrown at him.
"because you get all chandlery on her and she feels like she can't tell you how she really feels without hurting you. and it doesn't help that you also pick and choose when you want to open up either. look–i know you're scared but, just have one more conversation about all of this with her before this even has a chance to go somewhere," joey closed off before the two, and everyone else, waited for someone to come rescue them.

❁

it'd been about two hours after phoebe had called ross and the group was still stranded at the rest stop in the increasingly-unbearable cold.
"nice of you two to finally join," rachel shivered as ella and brian came back to the group after their bantering, flirting, and everything in between for the last few hours.
"if my intuition is right about what i think is about to happen is correct, our presence is about to be the least of your worries," ella gave her a sarcastic smile while gesturing her hands that were still in her coat pockets. the banter between everyone continued until a car made its way into the rest stop.
"op, op, car! oh ugh!" rachel prematurely cheered.
"oh, it's ross on one of his drives!" phoebe terribly lied as ross exited the car. of course, this triggered an argument between ross and rachel until she finally gave into letting him help them. the friends quickly felt guilty about the situation and began considering if they should invite ross to the trip.
"you guys are unbelievable. no! he cannot come," rachel immediately rejected the idea after overhearing the discussion.
"oh so the new hot stranger you guys just met can go but i'm where the lines drawn? and you're welcome by the way," ross scoffed after hearing the exchange.
"oh, i'm sorry, were you speaking to me or sleeping with someone else?" rachel bounced back, tilting her head for effect.
"we were on a break!" ross immediately exclaimed–a unanimous eyeroll from everyone but brian following.
"soooo, welcome to the group," ella turned to brian with a forced smile before the ex-couple continued the heated argument, even involving the group this round.
"hey! hey! hey! look what you're doing to chandler! yeah, look, we know this is really, really hard for you guys. okay, alright you don't have to love each other, okay? you don't, you don't even have to like each other much right now. but please, you have to figure out a way to be around each other," phoebe eventually spoke up for the exhausted and strained friends. ross and rachel soon began to cool down and become civil once again.
"no, no, really, i've got to take the car back anyway, i'm spending all day tomorrow with ben, it's fine, no guilt i promise," ross decided for everyone.
"thank you," rachel genuinely thanked him before her and the rest of the friends made their way into the cab.

❁
⇔
2930 words
a/n: hope you guys enjoyed the longer chapter! it was really to make up for me losing motivation to finish this chapter in the middle of it for like a month and a half but here it is! i also have another survey coming out soon regarding the bigger things about this book (its structure, cover, how you guys read this book, etc)! thank you for the support and stay safe!