Spring Day

nine

chapter ninety seven ~ the one with resolutions
Heather's POV

New Year's wasn't something depressing this year because when the ball dropped, I was able to openly kiss the man that had won over my heart and could celebrate starting this new year with him by my side. None of us knew what this new year would bring but as long as I had Joey and my friends by my side, I knew that everything would work out perfectly because they were all that I needed. We all made resolutions this year because Ross wanted us to do something together to celebrate new beginnings and it was fun to hear what everyone wanted to do. Monica wanted to take more pictures of everyone to make memories, Rachel was told to stop gossiping, Ross was going to do something new every day, Chandler was going to not make fun of his friends, I was going to try cooking a meal every week because I hated cooking, Phoebe was going to pilot a commercial jet and Joey wanted to learn how to play guitar.

Cooking wasn't something that I really enjoyed but seeing as we were all moving on with our lives, I knew that I couldn't rely on takeaways or Monica's cooking for the rest of my life. If I was ever going to mature then I would need to know how to take care of myself and luckily, Monica agreed to help me come up with ideas for meals that weren't too tricky to cook so that my new years resolution would be one of the rare ones completed. Joey's resolution was cute and I wouldn't be complaining if he learned how to play the guitar because that would be a major turn on but I didn't envision him keeping to his word and believed that eventually he would get tired of the instrument, his attention span wasn't the greatest. I was proud of his determination to play the instrument and was happy to gush over him in front of the others now that our relationship was out in the open, Rachel was the unlucky friend that got left with us today but for some reason she didn't seem to mind.

I was sat at the table with Joey when Rachel suddenly brought up something that I had no recollection of. "Hey, remember that big thing I was going to tell you about?"

"Oh, no!" Joey shouted, sticking his fingers in his ears and closing his eyes which made me jump because I had no idea what was going on. "Ah!"

"I'm not going to tell you." She snapped, stopping the screams as I still stared at them shocked, not having a clue what they were so riled up about. "But if you found out on your own, that would be okay and then we could talk about it, right?"

"Well, then it wouldn't be a secret. So, yeah, that would be okay."

"Joe, would you mind going into Chandler's bedroom and getting that book back that he borrowed from me?"

"Now?" Joey repeated, his eyes meeting mine as we both had a moment of panic with this situation. We knew that Monica was currently in Chandler's bedroom with him and neither of us even wanted to think about what they were up to in there. "You want me to go over there, now?"

My eyes narrowed towards our friend, noticing how she smirked at the situation and that made me realise that she must know something about the secret relationship taking place across the hall. "Rach, do you know something?"

"Do you know something?"

"I might know something." Joey shrugged, wanting to be involved in this conversation but I could tell that it was never ending unless someone spilled what they knew.

Rachel couldn't stop herself from jumping away from the table in delight because this was something that she was desperate to gossip about. "I might know something, too."

"What's the thing you know?"

"I can't tell you until you tell me."

It was like watching a tennis match as my head went back and forth between the two, neither of them wanting to be the person to spill the beans but also, at the same time, not wanting to hold back anymore. "I can't tell you what I know."

"Then, I can't tell you what I know."

Joey scoffed, leaning back in his chair. "You don't know."

"How about I go over and walk into Chandler's bedroom and see the thing I think that I know is actually the thing I think that I know."

This comment caused Joey to erupt out of his seat, pointing at Rachel. "You know!"

"And you know!"

"And Heather knows!"

I rolled my eyes at their reaction, thinking that they were making a massive deal out of something that is really obvious if you pay attention. "Of course, I do, he's my brother!"

"Chandler and Monica? Oh, this is unbelievable!" Rachel couldn't seem to calm herself down as she finally released the secret, she had been keeping to herself. "How long have you known?"

"Too long, oh my God, I've been dying to talk to someone about this for so long."

"What am I? Invisible?" I snapped, hitting my boyfriend's arm as he tried to apologise.

"You knew about it the same time that I did, we knew the same things. This is different." He turned to Rachel. "But listen, you can't say anything to anybody. They're so weird about that."

"In their defence, we did ask them not to say anything about us."

"Yeah, but they copied us. We were doing the whole secret relationship thing first."

I couldn't help but feel jealous that this relationship was getting more of an enthusiastic reaction than when Joey and I announced we were dating. Even though I knew it didn't matter, I couldn't help but get worried about why that happened and had to ask. "Rach, I have to ask, why wasn't your reaction the same when you heard about me and Joey?"

"What do you mean? I was excited about you two."

"Yeah, but not that excited."

She shrugged, crossing her arms over her chest. "Okay, maybe I wasn't that excited because I kind of already guessed it would happen."

"What?" I questioned, my eyes widening at her confession.

"There's been this weird tension between you guys ever since you first met. You were bound to get together at some point. I'm personally glad that you did before either of you got married or got too old, because now I know that I'll have cute nieces or nephews."

a/n: another short chapter, i know 🥴 please don't kill me 🥺 -lizzie ⭐️

date published: 05/01/21