That same night later, Angelica, Chuckie and I were still quite awake.
"Wanna go on a 'midnight ride' with me, cowboy?" she asked the red-head.
"Why, I would love to ma'am."
Seriously, they're really into it when it comes to making out, from just a kiss, to the 'intense level'. But who am I to judge them though?
"Whatever, just don't disturb the rest of us while you're doing it" I told them and went to sleep, placing my sidearm under my pillow.
They both blushed. "Gotcha"
Yep, before you know it, they commenced their 'midnight ride' until morning. But that didn't wake any of us up, luckily.
The next morning the rest of us woke up, and noticed Angelica and Chuckie weren't there.
"Hey, you guys seen Angelica and Chuckie anywhere?" Tommy asked. The rest of us simply shook our heads 'no'.
"You guys head to the house. I'll find 'em" I sat up, streching my arms and holstering my Colt.
"Sure" Tommy and the rest agreed. "Meet you there."
The rest of them headed to the house while I walked around for a bit, finding the two. I found them sitting by a nearby fence moments later.
"Oh hey, there you are" I told them.
"Morning" Angelica replied. "Hope Chuck and I didn't wake you guys up."
"Well, you didn't" I smirked. "The rest of us were awake about ten minutes ago; now c'mon, I'm making breakfast."
Chuckie spoke up. "What'ya making?"
"Well, I'm planning on a traditional Western-style breakfast; sausages, bacon, sunny side up eggs and maybe some pancakes."
"Sounds good. Let's go"
The three of us headed towards the house, where we joined the others for breakfast.
"Hey Mike" Lil commented. "This is pretty good." The others agree.
"Yeah, I've never tasted sausages this good" Susie chimed in.
"Thanks" I replied.
During breakfast, Phil and Dil have been acting kind of... well, strange.
"Hey guys, you...should...try this...ginger ale..." Phil said in between hiccups.
"Yeah...it'll knock your...socks off..." Dil added, hiccuping as well.
"Ginger ale, my ass" I told them.
"Did they drink alcohol?" Chuckie asked.
"Ask Big Red; he's the one in charge of the drinks" I told him.
Everyone just stared at him.
"Uh, I think they found the 'hard cider' instead of the soft, non-alcoholic one" Big Red told us, rubbing the back of his head.
"Way to go, Big Red" Lil muttered.
Just then, Phil and Dil were about to have some sort of drunken brawl.
"Alright you two, knock it off" Lil ordered them.
"Cut it out" Susie said.
Just before the fight can go out of hand, I took out my sidearm and shot a bullet upwards towards the cieling, to which got everyone's attention, including the drunken pair.
"Now will you two simmer the fuck down?" I asked them, holstering the gun.
With that, both of them cooled down and began to sober up.
"Good" Big Red told them, now facing me. "Now you too, go take a bath, and come back to repair the cieling."
"Uh, yeah... sorry about your cieling" I apologized.
With the cieling repaired and myself washed up, we got to work, from repairing fences, to lasso lessons, to raising a wall for a shed. We're exhausted by late afternoon.
"All that's left is to bring these ostriches to Big Red's sister's place" I pointed out at the ostrich den.
"Heh, it's nice to see Reject again" Angelica said.
"I don't think he'll even remember yo ass" Susie smirked.
"Uh, Reject? Who's Reject?" I casually asked.
"A baby ostrich I hatched, but Susie's right; he's an adult by now and he probably won't recognize me."
"You actually named him Reject?"
"Yeah well, I didn't like him at first... but I grew fond of the little guy after a while."
"C'mon guys. We here to talk about Reject or are we here to head back to the house for dinner?" Tommy asked. The rest of us agreed.
After dinner, I went to the shack to grab my rifle when I saw Chuckie and Angelica in the middle of their make-out session.
"Man, what the fuck?!" I exclaimed. The both of them covering themselves in the hay.
"Uh... hi, Mike..." Angelica slyly grinned.
"Don't mind me" I told them. "I'm just...yh...gonna grab my rifle...and I'll...let you two continue." I grabbed my M1A and sprinted back to the house, where everyone paused to see me panting.
"Woah...you look like you just saw a ghost" Kimi told me.
"Worse... How long has Angelica been in love with Chuckie?" I asked the rest of the gang,sitting down and placing my rifle beside me.
"Since Jr High" Lil answered. "But they didn't wanna express their true feelings for a while."
"You have no idea what I just saw in the fuckin' shack."
"I can imagine. It's like more than a hundred rabbits when the'rye active" Tommy spoke up.
"No shit. If I didn't know any better, I'd empty this entire mag on them both" I told them.
"Yeah, they always make too much noise every time the do it" Phil smirked, Kimi smacking the back of his head.
"For God's sake, Phillip!" Lil scolded her brother.
"Yeah well, I'm gonna do some target pracice" I told the gang. "Just let me know when they're done."
"Sure" Kimi replied.
"Happy shooting" Susie added.
And wih that, I left, bringing my rifle and sidearm to an open field in order to put some rounds down range for the next hour or so.
With my shooting practice done, the gang and I decided to head to the shack to get some rest when we saw Angelica and Chuckie already asleep.
"Looks like they made out so much, they're tired" Phil whispered.
"Well, we gotta get up early to bring these ostriches" Lil yawned.
"Well, we better get some sleep then" I told them. "G'night." The others went to sleep as well.
It was past midnight and I woke up since I couldn't sleep. Blame Phil's loud snoring and Dil mumbling in his sleep as part of the reason.
'Huh?' I thought to myself and noticed something; Angelica's not in here. 'Where is she?'
I holstered my Colt sidearm and snuck out to see Angelica sitting on a haystack. "Hey..."
"Hi" she grinned. "I though you'd be sleeping."
"Eh, I can't really sleep" I said and sat next to her. "Enjoying the stars?"
"Yeah."
Moments later to my amazement, tears started to form up in her eyes.
"Uh, Angelica? You ok?" I asked.
"I'm fine" she answered, tears falling down her face. A few seconds later she broke down crying all of a sudden.
"Angelica? Hey... what's wrong?" I asked, trying to comfort her.
"It's... it's just... I really regret... how... I treated... everyone growing... up over the years" she replied in between sobs.
"I understand how you feel" I told her.
She continued to break down crying, unable to hold back. She cried on my shoulder. "Oh, Angelica!"
But then I thought to myself, 'I do feel a bit helpless, but at the same time, I understand it's important for her to cry; from the sound of it, she'd been bottling a shit ton of things up, and needed to let it all go.'
I let her cry on my shoulder. "It's alright, Angelica; you can take as long as you want."
It took her about a lengthy 20 minutes before she lifted her head from my shoulder and spoke again.
"I've... drenched your vest" she blubbered.
"It's cool" I told her. "It'll be dry in the morning anyway."
"Thanks..." she quietly said. "I've vented like this with Chuck sometimes, but I didn't see myself waking him up."
"I'll get us something hot to drink from the house" I suggested. "Hot chocolate? Tea? Coffee?"
"Chocolate's fine... Wait, I'm coming with you."
"Be my guest."
We got up and headed towards the house, where I brought two steaming mugs to the table with Angelica's mug having a bright smiling sun, which was my attempt of cheering her up.
"Here ya go" I handed over her mug. "Careful though, it's still piping hot."
"Thanks" Angelica told me, drying her tears.
"Look, Ang" I told her. "I know what you've been through: spoiled brat at three, overworking parents who barely spend any quality time with you, choosing popularity over your friends, the list continues. Sure I admit, you were an asshole when I first met you and the gang at age 14; but eight years later, you've significantally changed and matured. Just so you know, I've been through worse."
"Yeah... but what happend to you was unavoidable, while everything I did was all my fault" she said, trying to hold back her tears again.
"Never doubt this, Ang" I held her close while brushing the tears off her face."We'll always be here for you... me, Chuck, Tommy, the twins, Susie, Kimi, hell... even Harold."
"Thanks" Angelica softly said. "I never really had any real friends aside from you and the others." She hugged me close for a couple minutes.
"Now, finish your cocoa; we gotta get up early in the morning" I said.
"Not with Phil, Kimi and Lil snoring as beasts" she chuckled. "Let's just sleep here; we gotta prepare breakfast anyways."
"True" I yawned. "Well, we'll sleep here then." I rested my handgun on the table and closed my eyes.
"And Mike?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for giving me comfort and company."
"That's what friends are for, right?
"Yeah... well, g'night." She finally closed her eyes, feeling peace, relief and happiness in her.
"Night."