Rico
" Te quiero, mama. Bye" My mom loves when I say I love her in Spanish, as I say good bye to her. I turn my phone off as Cody and Chris stand with me.
"You good man?" Chris asks me.
I look at them as I snap out of the guilt driven misery, "Yeah man. I'll see them soon with some nuggets in my hand." I say in a cheering tone putting out my fist, waiting for them guys to fist pump me.
"YES my MAN!" Cody says giving me a fist pump, "That's it. We'll make it up to our parents with a gold nugget each!"
I nod my head. But why do I feel like a terrible fucken son.
Okay we all called our parents, can we get moving... and figured out what we're going to eat. I'm starving!" Chris says.
"I have some protein bars." Nicole says as the girls walk to us.
"I have some to, courtesy of my dad." Chris says.
We all walk to the grassy area and sat down. Nicole passes out a bar to each of us, "let's have one each so we can have more later." Nicole says.
"Come on Nicole, I'm starving!" Chris says.
Nicole looks at the food supply that she has. I got a sneak peek of her bag; granola bars, breakfast bars, I think two bags beef jerky and the protein bars. She is our saviour. Other then Chris being told to bring protein snacks by his dad, I bet the rest of us didn't.
I didn't.
"Unless someone here can guarantee me that we'll find a gas station or restaurant today, we are only having ONE bar each right now." Nicole settles in a boss women tone.
" She's right," I add, "this map doesn't show us where there are gas stations." I said to the others as i held the paper map up.
"Then use one of the phones and go on google maps." Chantel suggests.
Cody goes in his bag and pulls out Chantel's phone and presses bottoms.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Chantel asks Cody in distain.
"Going on google maps. You're idea, you're phone." Cody says as he continues using Chantel's phone.
"You don't even know my password." Chantel says.
Cody faces Chantel's phone to Rico, "Nicole's right. There's nothing showing up on google."
"Fuck me! How did you know my password?" Chantel says in shock as she watches Cody showing the map on her phone to each of us.
Cody looks at her, "To your first comment, yes, I would love to. In relation to you second question, you suck at picking passwords. You're predictable." Cody says putting Chantel's phone back in his bag.
"And you're an obsessive jealous guy with no fucken life." Chantel screams as she gets up and starts to walk down the road.
The rest of us eye Cody. I hope these two make amends soon cause this trip will not go well for any of us.
"Ah Cody." I call out, as I get to his side, "You need to back off from Chantel a bit. We need to focus on getting our shit together and get back on track on this road trip. Got it?"
Cody opens a medicine container and pops a pill in his mouth, " Yeah, I know. It's just she pissed me off with her phone. Always on her stupid fucken phone. Post this and shout out that," Cody looks at me, " she's so busy perfecting her fake version, that the real Chantel is fading away," then i feel a hard hit on my chest from Cody slapping me, " Then she has the audacity to spit out that she's talking to some fucken guy she met at the mall, to shut me up."
I get it. Cody's upset. I mean Chantel has changed in the last two years and although she's on her phone all the time, it doesn't mean Cody has the right to take her phone.
"And you're the ass hole who's going to bring her back?" I ask with a hint of sarcasm, "by the way, what's the pill for?"
Cody looks at me for a second, "All this bull shit is causing me a headache." Suddenly he starts coughing. I look at him with worry. Cody clears his throat, "The moss in the air is choking me too." Cody says.
"Cody, if there's anything wro..."
"Hey man. We need to figure out where we're sleeping tonight. Nicole!" And off runs Cody. He never runs, I thought to myself. Somethings up with him.
"Hey!" Chantel comes and walks by my side.
"Hey." I said as I smile at Chantel. Cody's right, Chantel does look better without all that makeup on. Her skin has a chocolate shade that glows in the afternoon sun. Her eyes sparkle and her smile is beautiful. I quickly look away. I can't say anything. I mean, I can talk to her but I can't tell her the truth. Or any of them. Friends shouldn't crush on friends like these idiots are doing, but worse is crushing the same girl that your best friend is crazy for. Even worse then that, is when the girl is your best friend. If Cody hasn't convinced Chantel to consider dating him then I have zero chance. But for now I'll be her friend.
"So what were you and Cody talking about?" Chantel ask.
"Nothing much. He took a pill." I said trying to act... neutral.
"Drugs?!" Chantel whispers.
"I don't know. He said he had a headache." I tell her.
"Did he tell you anything about my phone?" Chantel asks.
"No," I smile.
"Why are you smiling?" Chantel says, looking at me.
I look at her, "Nothing. Just happy I got a chance to talk to my mom. I feel better now."
" Yeah me too. Even though it was scary and guilt wrenching at the same time." Chantel admits.
"I know. Fuck, when we're done this trip we have to agree that Cody doesn't pick stuff for us to do." Chantel and I laugh. She has a beautiful smile.
Shit Ricardo!! She's only a friend. Nothing else. Don't look at her any other way. I scream inside my head.
"Hey Rico!"Cody shouts and waves me to him and Nicole. I run up to them, "yeah"
" Nicole has a great idea. We should maybe walk another hour and then find a place just inside the trees where we can pitch our tents, before it gets too dark."
"We need to gather wood for a fire," Nicole adds, "and find a good spot for our tents while we still have some daylight."
"Sounds good to me." I say as the three of us walk together.
"What were you and Chantel talking about?" Cody asks me.
How did I get between these two clowns, now, "Nothing. She's just asking for her phone." I said keeping my response short.
" She's obsessed with that shit." Cody says, "she's not getting it back until I think she deserves it or begs on her knees for it."
Nicole and I don't answer. We learn that sometimes its best to not get involved.
About an hour in, we are exhausted. We make our way into the tree line to see if we find a good spot to set camp. Nicole and Cody move around. They always had better knowledge of the great outdoors and so, me, Chantel and Chris are waiting for them to tell us what to do.
"Okay guys this looks like a great spot." Cody says taking the tent bags off his back.
"So I guess we're setting up the tents while the girls find something to eat." Chris jumps in with a suggestion.
"Excuse me." Chantel reacts in disgust, "you didn't just assume our roles as females did you."
Oh shit, Chris did it now, I thought.
"I mean. I'm not a good cook. And the guys here might agree, that we need good food right now. And I've seen your lunches, they look delicious." Chris says trying to add support to his weak comment.
Chantel puts her backpack down, "Yeah let's go to the grocery store and buy some meat and potatoes, you idiot!! Or would you prefer animal shit that I can scrounger around in the woods?
Oh shit. Even I'm frozen in place. When Chantel starts you have nowhere to go. I look at Cody. He has a goofy smile on his face. Probably very proud of Chantel or happy that he's not the guy receiving Chantel's wrath.
"Plus," Nicole pipes up as she grabs the bags with the bags, "you can't assume stereotype roles anymore. It doesn't work and it's insulting to all women, including your mom." Nicole leaves the line of fire.
"Look I'm sorry Queen Chantel. I didn't mean to assume. I'm hungry. I'm tired and I'm just trying to get shit done before I crash on the ground." Chris tells Chantel. I bet he regretted opening his big mouth now.
"You need to say sorry." Chantel tells him.
Chris stands staring at Chantel, you can see he is tired, "Fuck this. I'm done for the day," he stands straight, looks at Chantel, "I'm sorry Queen Chantel for underestimating the women of today. I don't know how I can ever look at myself in the mirror again. I guess I should smoke some weed tonight and forget that you'r on this trip."
Cody and I try not to laugh as Chris ends his speech. Chantel sticks up both middle fingers.
"Yeah, I got two middle fingered for best performance of a bullshit apology." Chris laughs.
I can't hold it in any longer, then simultaneously Cody and I burst out laughing and high five Chris.
"Fuck off guys!" Chantel screams. She looks around, "Where Nicole?" She asks.
We look around and behind us we see one tent up. Nicole steps out and zips the door up. She sees us looking at her.
"What?" She says.
We all look at her with shame.
"I'll look for firewood." Cody says.
"Me too." Chantel says.
"I'll put the other tent up." Chris says.
I smile at Nicole, I'll dig a hole for the fireplace."
See, we can work together. We just have to learn to communicate.