Part 2

Firing the engine, the two vehicles made their way to the park. At the park, the girls told the guys to go somewhere else while they set up the blankets and plates and food. The guys grinned and launched into an immediate game of touch football.

“Men,” muttered Isabel under her breath. The other girls heard this and laughed.

Liz took in the smiling faces around her, and tears began to swell in her eyes. Maria was the first to notice.

“What’s wrong Liz?” she asked as a concern look spread thickly on her face.

Liz quickly brushed away her falling teardrops with her sleeve and smiled faintly at Maria. “It’s nothing.”

“Nothing?” exclaimed Maria, “you’re crying! That’s not nothing!”

Liz smiled reassuringly again at her best friend. “I’m just happy that we finally got a get-together. This may be the last day we’ll get some free time to spend together.”

Maria’s eyes started to tear up also. She reached over and gave Liz a brief hug and whispered in her ears, “Hey, we’ll always be able to find the time. If not tomorrow, then tomorrow’s tomorrow, and if that doesn’t work, we’ll just have to wait until the day when we do.”

Liz buried her face into Maria’s long thick mane, holding onto Maria as if she was her lifeline. Maria allowed this until she felt her blood and air circulation slowly being cut off.

Tess noticed and said to Liz, “If you want your best friend breathing for the next few minutes, I advise you to let go.”

Liz did and apologized to Maria non-stop. Maria laughed and just tugged Liz to continue their setting up of the picnic.

“Guys!” Tess shouted to the sweating group of men on the field, “Time to eat!”

The guys stopped what they were doing and ran to the grass area where the girls had laid clean blankets for them to sit on. They took one look at the delicious food and began devouring them like hunger wolfs. The girls looked at them, some jaws were dropped, and waited for them to finish their meals.

In between bites, Alex noticed that his girlfriend, best friends, and almost-friend not laying a single finger on their plates. “What’s wrong? How come you’re not eating?”

Isabel gave him a look and said, “Are you kidding me? We can’t eat when you … you pigs are practically stuffing yourself full of it!”

Alex stopped his chewing, grinned, and just shrugged. Maria could stand it anymore and so, she took a deep breath and whistled sharply. Michael, Max, and Kyle stopped cold, with bits and pieces of food hanging from their open jaws.

Michael sent Maria a glare and resumed his eating. Maria clenched her fists and Max knew instantly that Michael was in deep shit. She marched right up next to Michael with Liz, Isabel, Tess, and her own plate and filled it with food. Giving Michael one last smug smirk, she marched back to the girls and stated in a loud voice so everyone could hear, “Let’s chow down ladies!”

Michael tried to snatch one of her fried chickens from her plate but Maria quickly swatted his hand away. He gave her his best puppy eyes but she gritted her teeth and looked away. Michael remained by her side, nudging Maria with his head.

Isabel took one look at him and said, “Michael, you’re so pathetic.”

“Isabel,” Michael replied from clenched teeth, “I’m hunger.”

Tess shook her head with laughter. She reached over to the picnic basket, took a piece of fried chicken, and cried to Michael, “Catch!”

Michael’s head snapped at the direction of her voice and his hand reached out to grab the flying piece of chicken. He managed to say a thank you to Tess and quickly began to devour he chicken. Before the group knew it, the food in the picnic basket was all gone and they all had a satisfied full stomach.

“What are we doing next?” Kyle asked and then burped.

Tess, who was sitting next to him, wrinkled her nose in disgust. Kyle rolled his eyes good-naturally and said sarcastically to her, “Excuse me.”

“Let’s go to Michael’s place,” Maria piped in.

“What? No way is everyone going over there,” Michael replied. He didn’t feel comfortable having so many people over at one time. If it were for a meeting to discuss which evil alien they should blast next, he would be willing to invite them over, but not for pleasure time.

Maria pouted her lips and pleaded with her eyes, “Please.”

One look into her eyes and he knew he was a goner. “Fine! Just don’t mess the place up!” Michael cried in defeat, earning himself a few sweet kisses from Maria.

“You’ve become too soft Michael,” Isabel whispered into his ear.

“Like you haven’t,” Michael said back, gesturing to the backside of Alex.

A dreamy smile crossed onto Isabel’s face and a long sigh escaped her lips. *I don’t even want to know what she’s thinking about.* Michael thought, seeing how Isabel just entered her own little dream world.

By the time they got to Michael’s not-so shabby apartment, it was already 6 PM. They each took turns on the phone calling their parents and explaining to them where they were and that they were going to be home late. Luckily, their parents were quite flexible and allowed them to stay at Michael’s until they wanted to go home. But, different from the others, Liz had something else in mind then staying at Michael’s for that long.