"Wake up you lazy asshole," Kuza said loudly, laughing a bit as he pushed Angelo's door open.

Angelo groaned when Kuza's voice awoke him, rolling over in bed. "Fuck off," he grumbled.

"Come on, Ange, you've actually gotta get out of bed before noon today," Kuza joked. "Your friends are coming today, remember?"

Angelo slowly sat up in bed, rubbing his face a bit. Mike was right, Devin and Ricky were supposed to be in San Diego in the late morning today. The rest of the week had gone by faster than he realized, really, and now he was finally gonna get to see his best friends after almost a month away from them. He was excited, really, but it didn't show just yet, considering he had just been awoken.

"Alright, give me a few minutes, I'll be out there to eat something," Angelo said.

"You go out with Ryan again last night?" Kuza questioned.

"What do you think?" Angelo replied. "Of course I did. I do every night."

"And when did you get back this time?" Kuza asked.

"At, like, three, I think," Angelo shrugged. "But I didn't fall asleep until almost four thirty."

"So you're planning on going through the day with only about three and a half hours of sleep?" Kuza responded.

"Yeah," Angelo answered. "I usually do. At home, anyway, considering I'm pretty much always expected to wake up at a certain time. Here, though, I've been letting myself sleep in a bit. I would've slept longer today, but somebody had to come disturb me," he joked.

"Well, I figured if I didn't wake you up now, we would end up running late on picking them up from the airport," Mike said. "We have to be there by ten, and it's eight now. So, wake yourself up, eat a little something, get yourself ready and all that shit, and then we can head out."

------------------------------------------

Just as planned, Kuza and Angelo were on the road, on the way to the airport, by about nine thirty. They made it there just before ten, waiting by the terminal that Ricky and Devin were supposed to be getting off at.

The wait wasn't all that long, and soon enough, Angelo saw his two best friends emerging from the crowd of people exiting the plane. He smiled brightly when he saw them, standing up as they began to approach him and his cousin. Angelo was quick to envelope Ricky in a hug, doing the same to Devin right after.

"It's so good to see you guys," Angelo smiled. "I mean, I know it's only been, like, a month, but it felt like it was longer."

"That's probably because you were practically forced to travel across the country before you could hang out with us this summer," Devin chuckled. "It's good to see you, too, Ange."

Ricky and Devin went off to grab their couple of bags, then followed Mike and Angelo outside to the car. They took their seats in the back, while Angelo sat in the passengers' seat, and Kuza, of course, took his place in the drivers' seat.

"Alright, one of you can stay in the living room, the other can stay in Angelo's room," Kuza told them. "He's barely ever in there at night, anyway."

"Well, you aren't wrong," Angelo replied with a slight laugh.

--------------------------------------

After the four caught up a bit at Kuza's apartment, Angelo took Ricky and Devin down to the local beach. He and Ryan had already made plans to have everybody meet up there for the afternoon, after all.

Ryan and his friends were already there, of course, as Angelo, Ricky, and Devin strolled onto the beach. Ryan smiled wide when he saw Angelo making his way over to him, his two friends trailing closely behind him. Ryan opened his arms to the younger boy, bringing him in for a hug, placing a gentle kiss on his forehead, making him giggle a bit. Both of their friends awed at the two, before they broke away from each other.

"So, this is the guy you haven't stopped talking about since you've met him," Balz smirked.

"Yep," Ryan replied with a grin, glancing back at Angelo. "I almost forgot, you and Vinny haven't actually met him yet. Ange, this is Balz and Vinny," he said, gesturing at each of them respectively. "And guys, this is Angelo, obviously."

"It's good to finally meet you, dude," Vinny said. "My mom told me she was hoping to see you again sometime, by the way," he added with a laugh.

"I'll be sure to stop by the ice cream place again before I have to go back home," Angelo responded, laughing along. "Oh, and, these two are my friends, Devin and Ricky," he introduced them.

When Vinny finally caught a glimpse of Devin, he found it hard to keep his eyes off of him. Devin caught him staring, smirking a bit, sending him a wave.

While the others were distracted, Ricky stepped up to Ryan, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, listen, thanks for making Ange so... I don't know, happy," he said quietly. "I haven't seen him this carefree in ages. It's almost like his worries started to fade away once he met you. Keep treating him well, yeah?"

"Of course," Ryan replied, smiling. "Just seeing him smile makes me happy. I'm not letting him go just yet."

"Good," Ricky chuckled. "You know, you and I are gonna get along just fine, I think. Devin, too. You're a good guy, as far as I can tell."

"Thanks," Ryan chuckled.

"Hey, I don't know about you guys, but I'm dying to test out the water," Devin said to the group. He received a few nods of agreement.

Devin stripped himself of his shirt, leaving himself in only his swimsuit, and showing off the couple of tattoos he had gotten recently. Vinny was still gawking at him after he removed his shirt.

"I didn't know you swung that way," Balz whispered to him, jabbing him lightly with his elbow.

"Yeah," Vinny breathed out. "Neither did I."

"Hey, take a picture, if you want, it'll last longer," Devin snickered, catching Vinny eyeing him again, causing the rest of the group to laugh, and Vinny to blush a bit.