A/N: So this is going to be my first real multi-chapter (and not just two-part) Friends fanfic, and I'm kind of super excited about that. I had actually started working on a completely different fic when I had this idea, and I'm not quite sure if I'm going to try to finish this one first or work on them both at the same time, but we'll see what happens. I had never even considered doing anything at all like this, but I was scrolling through tumblr a couple days ago, and I happened to see a gif set on my dash from "TOW the List" with Phoebe singing her song about Ross having to choose between Rachel and Julie, and I suddenly had this idea (except at that point I had to go to class, and seriously it's impossible to concentrate on statistics when all you want to do is try to figure out the plot of a fanfic). I think this should be pretty fun and pretty different than a lot of the stuff I've done previously, so I really hope you guys like it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Friends, but some dialogue is taken from "TOW the List."


Phoebe took a seat in front of the microphone in the coffee house, and began to speak, clearly doing some quick thinking. "Okay, um, hi. Hello. Hi! Okay, so, um, this is a song about a love triangle between three people that I made up."

Chandler, sitting in a chair with his back to Phoebe, exchanged glances with Monica on the couch. Of course when asked to sing right after Ross had been talking about having to choose between Rachel and Julie, Phoebe would obviously make up a song about their situation; Phoebe sings about whatever's going on in her life. Chandler wished Ross had thought through his demand for a Buffay guitar performance.

Phoebe kept going. "Um, it's called, um, 'Two of Them Kissed Last Night.'"

Chandler could see Ross and Rachel shifting around uncomfortably. Julie, in contrast, was smiling brightly, evidently perfectly content at Ross's side.

Well this is gonna be fun, Chandler thought to himself, sighing slightly.

Phoebe began to sing. "There was a girl, we'll call her Betty, and a guy let's call him Neil."

Ross gave Phoebe a death glare.

"Now I can't stress this point too strongly, this story isn't real," Phoebe continued her song. She went on for a minute or so with a cryptic story about how "Neil" had kissed "Betty," but how there was another girl in Neil's life too.

Chandler saw Ross's expression grow more and more cloudy. Chandler glanced at Monica, who flicked her eyes to Ross and then looked back at him. She took a deep breath, clearly as unsure about how Ross was going to deal with all this as Chandler was.

Finally Phoebe began to finish. "Now our Neil must decide, who will be the girl that he casts aside. Will Betty be the one who he loves truly? Or will it be the one who we'll call… Loolie?"

Chandler shut his eyes and slumped down in his chair, trying to remove himself from the disaster that was going on around him.

"He must decide! He must decide! Even though I made him up, he must decide!" Phoebe finished dramatically.

Everyone in the coffee house clapped politely as Phoebe finished, the gang doing so very tentatively, stealing furtive glances at Ross and Rachel. Julie applauded more enthusiastically than anyone, a big smile still on her face. Phoebe stepped down from the microphone and moved to sit beside Joey on the couch, as Rachel had gotten up in the pretext of actually doing her job.

"That was great, Phoebe!" Julie said enthusiastically as Phoebe sat down.

Phoebe offered her a smile that looked more like a grimace. "Oh, thanks, Julie."

Ross's girlfriend kept grinning at her. "Where do you get song ideas like that from? I mean I know you said it wasn't real, but with that kind of story in a song, were you drawing on past experiences or something like that?"

Chandler saw Rachel would-be-casually moving to a more distant table as Ross leaned back away from Julie.

Phoebe looked slightly panicked. Chandler knew she sometimes cracked when she was under pressure like this.

"Um, well," Phoebe started to say, looking around almost frantically. "It's just, um, well it wasn't real."

Julie nodded her understanding, but continued to press her. "It just seemed like such a lifelike story. How did you come up with it?"

Chandler knew Phoebe was going to give in about a second before it happened.

"Okay! Alright!" Phoebe exclaimed, throwing up her hands. "It was a real story!"

Julie looked surprised. "Really? So who are Neil and Betty? Anyone we know?" She leaned in curiously.

Chandler saw Ross look at Phoebe pleadingly. Rachel moved back toward the couch, apparently holding her breath.

Phoebe's eyes moved around from friend to friend, trying to find a solution.

"Um," Phoebe said slowly, "Neil is–"

"Me!" Chandler broke in suddenly, flailing his arms, as he made a last ditch effort to save his suffering friends. "I'm Neil!"

Julie gasped, her hands coming up to cover her mouth. "It was about you?!"

Behind her, Ross and Rachel stared at him, open-mouthed. Phoebe's expression was a mix of gratefulness and surprise, while Joey just looked confused. Monica, however, seemed to be trying as hard as she could to restrain herself from laughing at him.

Chandler sat up straighter, committing himself to his lie. "Yeah, it was about me." He looked at his friends defiantly, Monica in particular, since she was still laughing. "And how I have to pick between two women, both of whom I care very much about, but I can only choose one."

Everyone seemed hesitant to say something except Julie, who looked extremely excited by this "revelation."

"Who are they?" she asked breathlessly.

Chandler paused. He really didn't have two women in his life that he could use for this. He thought for a moment. Well I mean there's always… "Janice. I still have feelings for Janice. And I know I have to move on because she's married now, but that's still there."

Julie nodded at him understandingly. The rest of the gang still seemed torn between amusement (Monica) and shock (everyone else) at how far Chandler was going into this. Rachel began haphazardly gathering up dirty mugs on an empty table.

"So, then, who's Betty?" Julie asked, a grin appearing on her face. "Who did you kiss last night?"

Chandler looked around at his friends, searching, trying to come up with some plausible answer. His eyes landed on the dark-haired woman next to him whose eyes were watering with scarcely concealed mirth.

"Monica," Chandler said definitively. "Betty in the song is Monica."

Rachel gave up any pretense of working as she turned and stared at him.

"WHAT?" Julie almost shouted, sitting back.

"What?" Ross repeated his girlfriend's word, his expression seeming to be chastising Chandler for his apparently poor choice of victim.

"Um, what?" Monica said, finally straight-faced as she stared at Chandler, her mouth falling open.

It was her own fault for laughing at him. Chandler gave Monica the closest thing he could to a loving glance. "I know we weren't going to say anything, but I just had to tell Phoebe. You're my Betty, Monica. I'm your Neil."

Chandler was pretty sure Monica was going to murder him.

Julie, on the other hand, looked absolutely thrilled. "I knew there was something going on with you two!" she said excitedly.

Chandler and Monica both stared at her, completely bewildered.

"Huh?" Monica said, voicing Chandler's thoughts on Julie's comment for him.

Julie gave her a knowing smile. "Oh, it's obvious! You're always sitting together, like on the sofa or even on the same chair, and you get along so well. I mean you're basically each other's best friends. You work so well together; it just makes sense!"

Chandler locked eyes with Monica. Now that he thought about it, it kind of did make sense. He had known Monica for years now; Chandler had lived in apartment 19 almost as long as Monica had lived in apartment 20, and of course they had known each other even longer than that. Until Phoebe had moved in with Monica and Kip had moved in with Chandler, he and Monica had hung out, just the two of them, almost all the time. Ross had Carol, so he wasn't around a lot, which had left Chandler and Monica to do a lot of stuff alone. Time had passed, and Phoebe had moved in, Kip had come and gone, to be replaced by Joey, Ross and Carol had gotten divorced, and Rachel had joined the gang, but, through all that, it was still him and Monica – really great friends. Best friends, really, like Julie had said. Chandler was amazed that Ross's girlfriend had picked up on all that about he and Monica's relationship in just the few months she had spent with them. Apparently the closeness that he and Monica had was even visible to outsiders. Chandler wasn't quite sure how he felt about that, and the look he was getting from Monica told him that she didn't know either.

"That does make sense!" Joey's voice broke the silence.

Chandler looked away from Monica and up at the rest of his friends. Joey, Phoebe, Rachel and Ross were exchanging nods and thoughtful glances as they evidently worked through what Julie had said.

Chandler looked back at Monica. She was staring at the ground, her face unreadable.

Julie sat up so excitedly it was almost as though she was bouncing. "Well, go on, Chandler! Kiss her! You know this is meant to be!"

Chandler inhaled quickly. He had not signed up for this when he had tried to draw focus away from Ross and Rachel. Those two owed him big time for this. "Um…"

"Yeah, Chandler! Kiss her!" Joey said enthusiastically.

Chandler and Monica simultaneously turned to him, glaring.

Their friend shrunk back on the couch. "Or, um, don't kiss her."

"Isn't this what you guys want?" Julie said, more softly, the excitement in her voice turning into empathy.

Chandler saw Monica glance at Ross and Rachel. They were both looking at Monica and Chandler pleadingly. Chandler got the message: any attention on Monica and Chandler drew attention away from Ross's situation.

Monica spoke finally. "Yeah, it's what we want."

Chandler's eyes grew wide as he stared at his friend, trying to wordlessly ask her if she was sure.

Monica gave a half smile and shrugged slightly, gesturing her head to her brother and her roommate.

Chandler gave half a nod in return. They were doing this for Ross and Rachel.

They both leaned in, Chandler very conscious that all eyes were on them, and after the briefest of pauses, which felt much longer than it was, their lips met.

Chandler had expected alarm bells to go off in his head alerting him to the fact that he was kissing his best friend Monica and that this was wrong, but they never came. It felt almost… normal. Like this was just another thing he and Monica should be doing. It was like sitting close together on the couch or hanging out all the time. Somehow kissing Monica was the next logical step.

He moved a hand into Monica's hair and let the other one rest on her leg. He felt Monica's hands slide up on either side of his face.

Chandler had stopped thinking about Ross's problems or Phoebe's song or anything around them. For all he knew, it was just him and Monica, alone in the world, and, at that moment, that sounded pretty good to him.

There was a not-so-subtle cough from beside them, and he and Monica immediately jumped apart. Chandler averted his gaze. He had just kissed Monica. Monica. One of his absolute best friends. And it had been… kind of amazing. Chandler shook his head quickly and looked up to face his friends.

Rachel looked amused. Joey was smiling, though there was some confusion in his eyes. Phoebe was looking at them appraisingly, as though trying to figure them out. Julie was positively beaming, but Ross looked less than thrilled. It was immediately clear to Chandler that it had been his old college roommate who had made the noise that had brought he and Monica back to reality.

Julie looked down at her watch and immediately frowned. "Oh no, I have to get back to work! But this is so amazing! I'm so happy for you guys!" She stood up, kissed Ross quickly and then hugged Monica and Chandler before rushing out the door.

The gang watched her go, fake smiles plastered on their faces until the door shut behind her. Then everyone turned to Chandler.

"I'm your Betty?" Monica got started on him immediately. "Seriously? You had to drag me into this weird thing you made up?"

Chandler put his hands up to defend himself. "Hey! You were laughing at me; it served you right. I did what I did to take the pressure off Phoebe and save you guys," he gestured at Ross and Rachel, "from having Julie find out about stuff she doesn't need to know so you two can work through this. I saved the day here, so you all need to stop looking at me like that!" Chandler was referring to the critical stares he was receiving from the rest of the gang.

Phoebe relented first. "Thanks for doing that Chandler. Who knows what I would have said if you hadn't interrupted me."

At Phoebe's words, Joey frowned slightly and shrugged, removing his gaze from Chandler's face.

Rachel nodded too, mouthing "thanks" at him before moving to finish clearing the table she had been working on before.

Ross finally shook his head. "Okay, thank you. But seriously, dude, don't go kissing my sister like that."

"All part of the act, Ross," Chandler responded quickly. "Had to be convincing." At this, Chandler checked his watch too and discovered that he also had to go. "Gotta head back to work. I'll see you all later then." He nodded at the rest of the gang, Ross, Rachel, Phoebe, and Joey waving at him in response.

Monica, however, didn't acknowledge his leaving. She was still staring at him, searchingly, her expression almost confused. Chandler, who was usually so good at reading Monica, had no idea what she was thinking. Their eyes met for the briefest of instants, and Chandler saw something like uncertainty behind them.

But Chandler had to go, so he turned and exited the coffee house. As he made his way down the street, he thought about what he had said to Ross, that kissing Monica like he had was "all part of the act." He was pretty sure that his response had been convincing enough for the rest of the group, but, at this point, Chandler wasn't too convinced by it himself.


A/N: Thanks so much for reading, and reviews are amazing! I'll try to have the next chapter up soon.