The next morning came and we all (aside from Chuckie, who's bringing his van) gathered at Tommy's. Fortunately for us, Lou and Senior Red went on ahead and agreed we'd meet them there.

"You kids have fun and be safe out there," Didi, Tommy's mother said, kissing Tommy's forehead.

"MOM! You're embarrassing me!" Tommy whined. The rest of us just snickered as we watched.

"Hey, that means your mother loves and cares about you." I told him.

"I'm already 21."

"Still... like my parents told me back in Indonesia, 'surga ada di telapak kaki Ibu.'"

"Uh, you wanna translate that for us?" Angelica asked.

"It means Heaven is at the feet of the mother" I answered. "Basically if you don't respect your mom, you'll regret it for the rest of your life in both Earth and Heaven."

"Wow... I never really realized that" Tommy commented, the others agreeing as well.

"Yeah well, just respect your mothers while you they're still around" I said.

A few minutes later, Chuckie arrived bringing his van. "Hey guys."

"Well, looks like it's time for us to get going" Lil said.

"Let me drive, Chuck" Tommy volunteered to drive.

"I don't see why not."

We loaded our bags in the back, said goodbye to Didi, and took off.

"This is gonna be one hell of a journey" Susie spoke up.

"Yeah, but at least it might not be like the first time" Phil said.

During the ride, if there's anything that changed, it's the fact that Chuckie and Angelica were now being romantic on each other. When I moved here from Indonesia at age 14, about 8 years ago, the Angelica I met in the freshman year of high school was more of a spoiled, egotistic bitch who always treated the gang like slaves and focused more on her own self and school popularity. Sure, as time passed she'd significantly changed in her behavior and had been more mature. But nobody expected her to fall in love with him. As for Chuck, well I met him as this timid, nervous wreck with that messy hairstyle whom everyone used to bully the shit out of. Now, he's a lot braver, has this manly build and wears contacts. Still that spiky uncontrollable hair though, but I didn't mind. Another person was Susie, who's always the "Miss Goody" type, but now she has this sassy attitude which we all find fucking hilarious, but she's the best friend anyone could ever ask for.

The ride consisted of us discussing how awesome this ranch trip would be, a shit-ton of laughs (mostly from Susie's sassiness remarks), sing-alongs, lunch and a quick nap (except Tommy, since he's driving).

"Hey Mike, what's that on your right side of your belt?" Kimi asked, pointing at my sidearm.

"Oh, you mean this?" I replied, taking out my Colt .45 and ejecting the mag out. "This is my Colt M1911 .45. Chambered in .45 ACP, with 7 rounds a mag." I loaded the mag back in and holstered the gun.

"Woah, you know how to handle guns?"

"Bet your ass I do. Also got a Springfield M1A rifle in the back."

"Uh, okay... Just don't do anything crazy."

"Relax, I only use it for absolute emergencies."

We arrived at the ranch at around 2 in the afternoon, where we were greeted by the Red family. We walked over to our shack, which was this pretty empty room and only had nine matresses plus some lamps, which the gang was already used to. We rested for a good half hour and did some menial labor, which was cleaning out the horse shit, fixing the fences around the ranch,etc.

Later that night after dinner in the house, we all headed back to the shack and then this happened...

"Yo guys, check out my 'wood'" Phil said as he held a piece of wood in front of his balls.

"Phillip, what the fuck's wrong with you?" Lil said to her brother, while the rest of us just laughed. That fuckin' idiot was delightful.

"Hold on: Phil's Log Number 111... it appears that Angelica, Susie and Kimi're about to take off their shorts and reveal their 'third moons'..." he said taking out his iPhone and pointed the camera at them.

"Man, what the fuck?!" Susie said with sass, Tommy and Chuckie just punched him, laughing. "You want the white girls they clothing, but you don't say nothing to me."

"Phil's Log..." he said again. "There's a different colored young woman who's displeased with her breast size." We're all laughing so hard we were in tears.

"Whateva, I'm sure yo dick ain't no damn bigga'" she said.

Again, we were all in tears, laughing.

We got up the next morning, got dressed into our cowboy wear, had breakfast and got straight to work. We were pretty exhausted by sunset.

"We got a few hours of free time" Chuckie said, the others agree.

"Well, I'm gonna do some target practice. I'll be near the back of the shack" I told them, taking off while cocking my sidearm.

As it was night out, we decided to make a fire, because reasons.

"You sure this is where we make the fire?" I asked Phil.

"Yup, right here."

"I guess this is how it's done" Tommy said as he stood the logs in a pyramid form.

"Forget what they taught you in scouts, Pickles; we're doing this the DeVille way" Phil told him.

And as we followed Phil's advice on building the fire, the entire thing collapsed.

"PHILLIP, YOU IDIOT!" I yelled at him.

"Right! I guess we'll just burn it like that now" Dil said, the rest of us chuckling, with Chuckie lighting the fire.

A few minutes later we all sat around the fire.

"Did you think even if we weren't friends that this friendship would last this long?" Lil asked.

"No" I answered.

"No, definitely" Angelica added.

"I didn't think so either" Lil said. "I think we balanced each other out."

"I think no matter what we do after this, like, no one would ever beat this" Dil chimed in.

"What's mad is that one day, we won't be together" Phil spoke up.

"So, do you think like we'll still be friends?" I casually asked.

"I think so..." Tommy answered.

"I think we've done too much together" Susie said.

"We'll always be in each other's lives" Kimi said.

"Y'now, there're a lot of friendships that have like, come and gone." Angelica spoke up. "And they don't really meet each other any more."

"You know what? It's just been amazing to be friends, like even as babies to pre-teens, like we just had fun" Phil added.

By then, it was getting late.

"I think we should get some shut eye" Tommy spoke up, the rest of us agreed.

We headed back towards the shed. It was actually fun chatting around the fire together, considering I've been friends with them for only 8 years, while they've been friends for more than twice as long.