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chandler
sunk in the couch beside rachel, he had smiled at phoebe when his name had come up and remained hunched in his corner. unlike thanksgiving, chandler had nothing against christmas, and was therefore enjoying the festive evening with his friends. even though he wouldn't say it aloud, spending the night with them was already the best present he could ever get. it was far better than being on his own or with his family, anyway.
once the song had ended the group waited for phoebe to return, eager to compliment her performance. chandler, having witnessed a bit of its writing, wanted to tell her how great it had turned out—the cheers from the rest of the audience told him that he wasn't the only one.
he turned around, an arm pressed against the edge of the couch, and craned his neck to check up on phoebe. great surprise came over him when he saw her chatting with someone he couldn't recognize, a young woman he'd never seen before; both of them were smiling, with phoebe talking fast and gesturing.
just as he was about to inform the rest of the group, monica spoke first. "guys, look, phoebe's talking to someone."
"that's alarming," chandler joked, making a few of his friends sigh playfully, but he found himself as interested as everybody else. they knew that phoebe's past had been eventful to say the least, so she naturally must've had acquaintances that they hadn't heard about.
their friend returned several minutes later, accompanied by her unknown acquaintance. a long black coat hung over her forearm, she had layered dark ginger hair, almost a chestnut shade, and clear hazel eyes. chandler could tell she was a bit of a wallflower, as it must've been stressful to meet so many people at once.
phoebe introduced her as caroline and the young woman smiled at them, joey's 'how you doing' thankfully getting muffled by the group greeting her.
monica and rachel made her room on the couch while ross asked her about how she and phoebe had met, the latter going away to get them some coffee. it turned out that caroline was a cellist and had only come back to new york today after touring. chandler listened curiously, taking part in the conversation.
since phoebe's friend wasbeing really nice to them, he felt like it was just impossible not to do the same.
