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it'd been three weeks since the ski trip incidents. ella and brian had been seeing each other pretty much everyday while he was off from his residency, and going what most would deem as, 'well'. ella and chandler had only really exchanged greetings and 'goodbyes' in the barely four or five days they'd seen each other during this time. the other friends agreed to not mention ella and brian with chandler so, ella's absence had been brushed under the rug by everyone. all of the friends except ella sat in central perk drinking coffee and bantering as usual. chandler eventually attempted to light a cigarette in the coffee shop multiple times but, each time he pulled one out of the box, rachel would pull it out from between his fingers. "okay, that's like the least fun game ever," chandler finally broke the cycle. "well, we're all really sick of your smoking. el thought this could help you quit," rachel pulled a cassette tape out of her purse. chandler's response was to do a nicotine patch bit and watching it smoothly slide onto the floor. "come on chandler. it's a hypnosis tape, our friend said it help her quit in two weeks!" "you know what, why isn't el the one giving me a hard time about this tape right now? and while we're at it, where has she been this month?! and the few times i have seen her it feels like she's actively avoiding me, or on the phone, and just been really off too and–" chandler spiraled out loud before only receiving silence from the other friends.
"oh...its brian isn't it?"
silent but collective "yeahs" and nods from the friends followed his depressing realization. "have you two not been talking all this time?!" joey broke the dramatically tense moment. "no! w-w–" chandler's mouth scrambled to even find the words to describe what he was feeling. "chandler, before you go on a long tangent about how you should've talked to her about this sooner, and if you don't know if you can stop this at this point, and yada yada yada, maybe–just maybe, try actually talking to her about it anyways," joey lovingly snapped on the bing. "ugh, fine!" chandler comically made his way out of the coffee shop and straight to the nearest payphone before silence fell between the group once again—that was until phoebe unintentionally broke it about thirty seconds later. "theres a universe out there where we all regularly call ella, 'isabella'."
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"and y'know what, i just realized, in the last year i've only gone out with two guys, richard and julio. you guys have to help me out here, you gotta set me up, you gotta get me back in the game," monica vented to ella and rachel who sat across from her at the moondance diner counter. "well, that shouldn't be a problem. i mean, i work in fashion and all i meet are eligible straight men." "and i don't think i'm one to be setting other people up considering my freshly-two-person track record," ella joked before rachel nervously cleared her throat before speaking back up. "yeah...speaking of which uh, we might as well let you know now that chandler is planning on talking to you about pretty much everything regarding you and him, and you and brian–even though i think you guys should talk about everything going on between you two but it's definitely a start—" she ramblingly spilled. "oh my god, is that why he called to ask to talk tonight?!" ella cut her off and immediately began to spiral. "well, he put the pieces together about why you've been gone pretty much this whole month so–i'm going to have to assume it is. and its bad. i haven't seen him spiral like that since–well, the ski trip," rachel explained with a depressed tone as monica nodded in agreement. "oh yeah, how did he feel about that?" ella guiltily clenched her teeth. "have you two really not been talking all of this time?! you have to talk to him about all of this!" monica passionately exclaimed, her raggedy blonde wig moving as she gestured. "do i have tooooo?" ella childishly fussed. "yes you 'have to'! you can't keep dodging these huge conversations with him when he is very obviously in love with you," rachel lovingly freaked out at her. "he is?!" "ella..." rachel and monica dragged in unison. "firstly, woah. secondly, look i really do like chandler but...seeing how you and ross tore the group apart, i can't help but be terrified that we'd go through all of this again but i'd be the cause of it." "i get that this is your first time experiencing any of this but, why are you so set on you guys not working out? what if it turns out to be the best thing to happen to the two of you? wouldn't you want to give that a chance?" monica softly questioned. "i think about why i don't want us to start dating all of the time and i always come to the conclusion that, i think i'm just scared. i've never been in an actual relationship and i care about him so much and don't want to be the one to mess us up because i don't know what the hell i'm doing. i just miss when things were simple and we were just friends falling in love with each other and t–" "yyyeess!" monica cut ella off with a cheer as rachel facepalmed. "what just happened?" ella questioned the two after watching the opposing scenes for a few seconds. "you just cost me thirty bucks!" "the five of us bet on if you were in love with chandler, and you just won me $60," monica proudly beamed explaining. "who was the second person?!" "ross...i swear this bet was made before we broke up," rachel hesitantly admitted. "aaand another sign that you made the right choice," ella gave her a tight lipped smile.
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later that afternoon, aside from their "hellos" when chandler first came in, the two hadn't exchanged a word. the pair quietly sat on ella's dark blue velvet couch with only 'living single' playing on her tv keeping them from complete silence–for the last thirty minutes. "soooo, what'd ya want to talk about?" ella sarcastically dragged to finally start the conversation. it was only a few seconds before words were just pouring out of chandler's mouth. "firstly, thanks for the hypnosis tape. trust me, i'm getting tired of my smoking too. and, i know this is going to sound like i'm just jealous but, i know brian seems like the perfect guy for you—he's dreamy, he's going to be a doctor, and he's out of the friend group but i also know...you can't just move on from us without us even talking about what's going on right now. not saying he isn't what you really want—and not saying i'm what you want but, as one of your best friends that's seen you maybe four times this month, i know you aren't as happy as you can be with him and it might have something to do with us still lingering," chandler concluded before being met with only silent rapid blinking as ella processed everything that was said. "so you're sureee you're not just jealous?" ella playfully, but seriously, questioned squinting her eyes and tilting her head. "...okay maybe a little—but my point still stands! plus if the tables were turned you'd absolutely be jealous too!" "what?! when have you ever seen me jealous?!" ella immediately defended herself. "you're telling me that if we stopped seeing each other, and talking as often because i started dating another beautiful woman, that it wouldn't upset you? that if she was everything i was raised to be attracted to, you simply wouldn't care?" chandler half-rhetorically asked while teasingly tilting his head back at her. "i wouldn't! of course, you're still one of my favorite people and i love us–and i know brian is a thing but, we're almost back to where we were before the wedding and i do miss talking to you everyday and seeing you every night–but we technically haven't been involved like that for almost a year now and i've been forcing myself to not think about you as more for so long...i just don't know if i can anymore...." ella trailed off her rambling after realizing how close the two had gotten during their conversation. soon after chandler noticed as well, both of their eyes looked to each other's eyes and lips, then lips to eyes, and once again before they both slowly leaned in for a kiss. this was, until a knock interrupted the moment and ella suddenly, and reluctantly, stood up to answer the door. "hey rach!" ella opened the door with a fake smile plastered across her face to reveal an oblivious rachel. "hey–oh am i interrupting something?" rachel giggly asked. "no! i mean no. we talked, we're good, w-we–yeah," ella nervously fidgeted as she was internally freaking out. "oh–kay i'll make my way out," chandler cut the moment short by awkwardly squeezing between the sisters into the hallway. "what was that?!" rachel smiled with enthusiastic curiosity. "nothing for you to worry about right now," ella returned a warm smile to cover up the huge giddy smile wanting to come out, before letting her into the apartment. "do you at least know where you guys stand?" rachel followed up. "damn it!" ella yelled out before facepalming.
❁ ⇔ 1607 words a/n: really didn't mean to take an almost three month hiatus, sorry about that. season finale should be out sometime in january? also, WATTPAD NEEDS TO ALLOW GIFS LARGER THAN 3MB. and lastly, happy holidays!
