Letting my imagination run wildly..

I climbed to the backseat of the van that we borrowed from Chad's uncle, which I shared with Roger, Bear and Rosie; Chad, Carly, Ellen and Angela sat in front of us; Amy and Angelo were riding shotgun while Bradley was our driver for the day. Our guys had to draw straws to determine who'd be taking the wheel for our weekly routine; but I had a suspicion that Roger knew which straw would save him from that daunting task since he kept his eyes on a single straw as Amy shuffled them. Roger grabbed one before Amy could say that they could; and I saw him smirk as he looked down on his straw. I moved closer to him only to find out that he tampered with what he was holding; I faintly recognized them as teeth marks. He caught me looking, and his eyes widened with horror; I could almost sense that he was about to plead just by looking at me. But I merely raised my eyebrow at him and shrugged before turning away.

Neither he, nor I, have mentioned anything about it during our thirty-minute drive, including traffic, from Chad's house to the nearest park; it was the weekend after all so we wanted to have some fun. But he casually put his arm around my head rest and touched my shoulder briefly. I turned to him, and he smiled; I smiled back before leaning against his shoulder. We didn't need words, because everything that needed to be said, spoke volumes by our simple gestures.

Looking past Bear's head and out the window, I watched as cars whizzed past us in the opposite direction and tress swaying in the breeze. I was wedged in between Bear and Roger while Rosie sat near the other window.

"So, where'd you guys wanna have lunch?" called Bradley from the front. We left around nine in the morning so we could have plenty of time to have fun.

"Anywhere's fine", answered Rosie. "Unless someone's feeling picky".

"And when you mean by 'someone'?" trailed off Amy.

I leaned against the head rest in front of me as I looked at Rosie; she nodded, grimly. "By 'someone', I mean, Bear", she said seriously.

Bear turned his head and he looked put-off. "Excuse me?" he said.

"What? It's true!" Rosie cried defensively. "I mean, you haven't been eating meat for the past few weeks. It's all--veggies", she said with disgust.

"And what's wrong with that?" said Bear, just as defensively.

"Dude, you are so missing out on a lot! And what made you go green all of the sudden?" said Angela as she turned to get a better look at him.

Bear rolled his eyes. "I'm pretty sure that you guys have noticed that I'm probably the size of a baby elephant".

There were different outburts of "no!", "what?!" and "huh?" from all of us. Bear raised his eyebrow.

"I know that your my friends and everything but I can handle the truth", he said stoutly.

"You look great!" said Carly. "Your not big like Ruben Studdard, you know".

"But I'm almost as big as him", Bear interjected.

"Not even close", said Chad, emphasizing "close".

"C'mon, Bear, you can't be serious. What made you think that your weight is such a problem?" asked Roger.

Bear looked away, avoiding my eyes and everyone else's. He stared out the window, and from his reflection I could see the inner struggle he was trying to hide. He looked a little angry, sad and lost all at the same time. I wanted to reach out and touch him, just to let him know that it wasn't really bad. But before I could, he sighed.

"I just know", he said slowly, and his voice sounded strained.

Everyone was quiet. I could see the nervous glances they were exchanging with each other and I didn't think it was making anything better.

I leaned back on my seat, placed my arm in front of his chest and rested my head on his shoulder; I couldn't exactly hug him considering how cramped we already were but I knew it was enough. He patted my arm and I saw that he was smiling a little.

"Bear, you know that we don't care about it", I said quietly and as gently as I could. "To us, that's nothing. You've been our friend for a long time and we hate to see you this way. Just be yourself. We love you just the way you are".

"Yeah, buddy", said Roger as he leaned forward. "I miss our chicken wolfing routine every Thursday. I still wanna beat you", he added jokingly.

"Kelsey's right. You shouldn't worry about that. We miss our old Bear", Angela whimpered. "I wouldn't be able to hug anyone else!"

"Yeah!" agreed Amy enthusiastically.

Despite himself, Bear chuckled, and his eyes were twinkling; it was clear that we were getting through to him.

"Oh, okay", he finally said, in mock defeat. "I wont be a vegetarian anymore".

"Good!" roared Chad in approval, along with everyone else.

"You guys can be so dramatic somtimes", said Bear sarcastically.

"We do tend to do that, huh?" said Bradley, as he turned the van around the U-turn slot. "That's what you get from being in such a big group". He pulled over and we came to an abrupt stop. He turned to us. "Okay, since you guys couldn't decide on what to eat, I decided for you". Then he opened his door and stepped out.

We all looked outside and found that we were parked in front of Pizza Hut.

"Yay! I'm starving!" cried Carly.

As Rosie climbed down, I looked at Bear. "Are you okay with this?" I asked warily.

He smiled. "Yeah, yeah, it is. I guess I really did let it get to my head", he said with a weak laugh.

"That's fine", I said as I followed Roger out.

We were ushered inside by a waiter that was already standing near the door. The cool air from the inside hit us full in the face. The waiter had to put three tables together since our party was pretty big. Once we were settled in, we ordered garlic bread for appetizers, and our drinks.

Most of us started talking to each other and a lot of us got confused with who was talking to who, but it only made us laugh harder than we already were. I felt so at ease with everyone; probably because of the atmosphere, the aura, the ambiance of the place. I took a quick glance around the room and noticed that everyone else was just as relaxed as we were. Chad groaned from beside me.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I hate it when you space out like that", he said as he shook his head.

"Oh, my, I'm so sorry", I said quickly.

He waved off my apology. "Don't worry about it. So, what do you say? Do you think we'll be able to make it in time for the show?"

I glanced at my wrist watch. "We have three hours to go. And besides, Rachel's not going to leave, you know", I said mischievously.

"But Ross is gonna take her away!" Chad cried dramatically, putting his right hand over his heart.

"Phoebe's not that bad", interrupted Bradley, who was sitting across me. Then he took a deep breath. "Smelly cat, smelly cat, what are they feeding you?" he sang, trying really hard to imitate a girl.

We all laughed at his sorry attempt but we joined in the singing anyway. It became a habit of ours to watch the re-runs of FRIENDS almost every Saturday at anyone's place, when we had the chance. Our parents are pretty used to it by now so they don't mind us one bit.

Our singing was interrupted when Angelo cried "Hi!" and waved at someone from another spot in the restaurant. Four guys made their way towards us as Angelo stood up to greet them. All of them greeted each other simultaneously and even a few playful punches were thrown in.

"Hey, guys, these are my friends from high school", he announced. "This is Jerry"--he gestured to the guy who he held by the shoulder; he was a little taller than Angelo with blue eyes; he was wearing a white t-shirt and a baseball cap and his smile was breath taking--"Cornelius"--to the guy beside Jerry; slightly shorter than Jerry, with hazel eyes, blonde hair with dark highlights and nodded at all of us--"Joey"--to the guy beside Cornelius; he was the tallest of them all, with brown eyes; he had a backpack slung over his shoulder and he smiled widely at all of us--"and, Anthony"--the guy at the very end, a head shorter than Joey; he was almost bald and his eyes nearly disappeared when he smiled.

"Nice to meet you all", said Cornelius politely.

"Why don't you join us? I'm sure we can pull out another table", said Angelo.

I could tell that Jerry was about to object but he was overwhelmed by our response.

"Okay. Sure", he said, not bothering to hide his smile. Once everyone was okay, we turned our attention to the new comers.

"So, where are you guys studying?" asked Amy to no one in particular.

"In Rotondus, where you guys are. Just different courses", answered Jerry with a grin.

"No wonder you look familiar. I must have seen you around", I said thoughtfully. "What course are you taking?"

"Cornelius and I are taking up Engineering", said Anthony.

"Psychology", put in Jerry.

"And I'm taking Nursing", said Joey.

Bear gave a low whistle. "Damn, that's a load of crap right there", he said as he laughed.

"It's fine, really", said Joey, shrugging, the sides of his lips twitching slightly. "A lot to do, but hey, it was our choice".

"Yeah, it's really fun. Tiring, yes, but it's one of those things that your glad to lay down your life for", said Jerry.

"Nicely said", said Carly as she raised her glass in a toast.

Our orders came in and since we ordered a little more than we could finish, some of our guests dug in, too.

After we cleaned our plates, I leaned back on my chair and sighed deeply, with a sense of content washing over me. I titled my head back and closed my eyes; it was a long day. And I knew that we weren't even half way done.

"Everyone finished? Let's pay the bill", said Bradley as he called the attention of our waiter.

"Okay, cough up everybody", said Roger, with a bite of regret in his voice.

I smirked but remembering our little moment earlier, I just took out my wallet and didn't say anything.

We walked out of the restaurant a few minutes later.

"Hey, you guys wanna come along? We're headed for the pier", Angelo asked his friends.

"We'll follow", promised Jerry as he walked to the silver Volvo next to our van and climbed in. We all said goodbye before driving off.

It was about a fifteen-minute drive to the pier, but all of us were too full to talk. I dozed off as my head bounced from Roger's shoulder to Bear's, before finally settling on Roger's. I caught a few images from my half-closed eyelids: Bradley making these weird gestures as he briefly let go of the wheel, making everyone in front laugh and I could feel Bear's rumbling laugh from beside me. I couldn't really understand what they were saying but I didn't mind.

Rosie then made a witty comment about some guy being a jackass in our class which everyone agreed to. I knew who she was talking about, but I didn't want to say anything. They like to bash out on some of our classmates and no one in their right mind would even dare to tell other people from outside of the group. It's pretty interesting at how each person feels differently towards someone else. Strangely, I was too tired to think of anything else to I decided to just let my mind go blank.

As their conversations continued, Roger pinched my nose.

"Hey, we're nearly there", he said gently.

"Already?" I said as my eyes snapped open and I sat straight. "That was quick".

"You were asleep the whole time. I'd be surprised if you thought that we took forever", he replied, grinning.

I playfully smacked him on the arm and I felt the van come to a stop.

"Here we are", said Roger as Chad opened the door for us.