Spring Day

thirteen

chapter eighty ~ the one with janice (again)
Heather's POV

Somehow, we had managed to get Chandler into a better mood without the help of either of the boys and now my brother was happier than I had seen him in a long time. Maybe the fact that he had moved on from Kathy would mean that he was finally going to be okay being single and wouldn't care if I told him that I was kind of not single. My relationship with Joey hadn't reached any clarification and neither of us had embarked on trying to work out what exactly we were because right now we didn't need any labels. He had told his Father about me without naming names, and he seemed to be happy for us; Joey wouldn't tell me what he said exactly but promised me that he didn't say anything that would make me look bad because I didn't want his parents to hate me before they had gotten to know me.

Ross currently seemed to be happier than any of us as he enjoyed spending time with Emily. Emily was the girl that Rachel had supposed to have taken to the Opera but had cancelled on her when she was asked out by Joshua. The issue was resolved when she had convinced Ross to take Emily to the Opera instead and when we had first met the British girl, she hadn't left the best impression on us. She was very angry and took out her anger on everyone in the room, even though it wasn't our fault that Rachel had cancelled last minute; luckily Ross had managed to get her to the show and they hit it off. Without any of us knowing, they made a surprise trip to Vermont and were now dating, which was a surprise to all of us.

All I wanted was five minutes of no drama to use the bathroom but just as I closed the door behind me, I heard the familiar scream of Joey and I knew that these five minutes was over before it even began. I rushed out of the bathroom to see what had happened, swearing under my breath that I would kill him if this was something stupid, like if he had seen a spider because I was getting sick of having to get rid of them all the time. But even I wanted to scream when I saw who had come into the apartment with my brother, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. After the last time that we had seen her and things had ended between her and Chandler, I was sure that we would never bump into her again but apparently New York was a smaller city than I had thought.

"Guess who we ran into today?" Rachel jumped off the stool next to the counter and pretended to look happier than ever at our guest.

Chandler seemed to be smiling at the news but I wasn't completely buying how happy he was about this. "Isn't this amazing?"

"Janice, how have you been?" Monica questioned, embracing the woman as she was trying to be polite but we all knew that none of us wanted to know.

"Well, I'm divorced. Yeah, I'm riding the alimony pony."

Just when I was wondering why we all hated Janice so much, her machine-gun laugh went straight through me and in that moment, I remembered exactly why none of us could stand the woman. She was so annoying. How did my brother manage to date her several times over the last few years? I couldn't even manage being in the same room as this woman for more than five minutes and he slept with her multiple times. I wasn't the only person who felt as though razorblades were being drawn through my skin as she laughed because my friends all had similar reactions; they were just too nice to say anything. Someone that I could always count on being too honest though, couldn't help but say something about what we were all feeling.

"And there it is." Joey cringed, his eyes tightly closed shut as he tried to think about something other than the irritating woman stood in the kitchen.

I decided to make my presence known by talking to my brother and hoping that Janice wouldn't acknowledge me but in the back of my mind, I knew that there was no chance of getting away from her. "Chandler, what happened to both of us being happy and single together?"

"My sister-in-law, I bet you thought you missed that opportunity?" Janice smirked, running over to embrace me tightly as I held my breath and counted in my head to keep myself calm. If I hadn't then I may have pulled my own hair out.

"Thought? Wished."

"I just came up to say hi. Hi. And you sweetie, I'll see later." She kissed Chandler and then stepped out of the apartment. "I'll see you tonight."

Just when I thought that I had lost my brother to the dark side of Janice once again, he slammed the front door and turned to us. "I can't stand the woman."

I was more than happy that this chapter of our lives was over because a part of me wondered if one day, somehow, Janice would end up being part of our family and I would never forget Chandler if he ever did that. For some reason, I could imagine Chandler getting really upset after being single for a while, watching his friends get married and have children; he would want something like that himself and he would report back to the one person that he could rely on. He would end up eloping with Janice or something and then they would end up having a baby, then I would have to deal with this woman for the rest of my life because she would be a part of the family. At least now I knew that it was officially over because Chandler couldn't stand her either and she was officially not an option.

"What?" Phoebe seemed to be the only person who was actually upset about this news because she was the only person who kind of liked Janice, none of us had any idea why. "I thought you were crazy about her."

"I know, but you know all those little annoying things that she did before we fell in love. You know, like her voice, and her laugh and her personality? They're all back!" He explained, his arms flaring as he spoke but we just ignored that because we were so happy that he had finally come to his senses. "And she's picked up, like, nine new ones."

"So, what are you doing bringing her here?" Joey asked frustratedly, his eyebrow raised. "There's people here."

"Don't worry about it. I'm taking care of it tonight."

"You are not." Rachel laughed, folding her arms across her chest. "You have never been able to break up with her."

"Well, I don't have to break up with her this time. We're not involved, I'm going to do a pre-emptive strike. I'm going to end it with her before it starts. My ass is, like, frozen."

"Try sticking it in the freezer for twenty minutes, I'm telling you." Joey said, looking directly at me for backup but I wasn't getting involved with this debate; all I could hope was that Chandler was going to stick to his word and break up with Janice before things got out of hand once again as they always seem to do.

a/n: a slightly shorter chapter than normal but things are starting to get interesting 😆 i'm spending my two weeks off, planning new books so that's really exciting 🥰 -lizzie ⭐️

date published: 26/12/20