Abdullah went to school the next day. He was in his German class when he got a little tap on the shoulder from Agim.
"Hey, wanna go for a walk sometime? I know a good spot. We could bring Jan and Tomek or something, and you could finally see Kyle do that backflip."
"Hell yeah, I gotta see it. Is it a long walk?"
"Not too bad," he replied with a smile.
After some time, the day had come.
Jan, Tomek, Agim and Abdullah met in the playground in the park. Agim started leading them towards a pathway that went up.
"I've never been up this way before. I always wondered what was up here," Abdullah said.
"I suppose today's the day you see," Agim replied.
"First time for everything, right?" he added on.
The boys met up sometime in the evening and eventually made it to a crossroads.
"How much have we walked so far?" Abdullah asked.
"Just about two kilometres," Agim replied.
"Bro, how long is it to this guy's house? My mom will throw me out the window if I don't come back in time," Jan said.
"Oh, only about five more kilometres up."
"Are you insane? I'm not gonna survive that," Abdullah said.
"Also, I won't make it back in time," Jan added.
"Alright, well, I know a nice spot. It's literally just up the hill, left on the crossroads," Agim said.
They started walking up the hill.
It was a rough uphill walk, with rocks and bumps along the path, horse feces scattered around and some patches of grass.
"This shit is killing my legs," Abdullah said.
"It's worth it, trust. And there's a nice bro bench up here."
Once Abdullah made it to the bench, he looked down on everything.
He froze still and stared.
The huge lake. The clouds forming all sorts of intricate shapes. The mountains surrounding them from every angle. He saw an island in the centre of the lake, with boats looking like small dots in the distance. The wind was blowing heavily.
"Told you it'd be worth it," Agim said, smirking.
Abdullah stayed silent.
"After my whole life and only now I find out a place this beautiful is this close to me."
"The next time we come, we should go earlier in the day so we can make it to Kyle's estate," Agim told them all.
When Abdullah made his way home, he added a girl called Anna through Quick Add. They started a small conversation. She said she liked playing Roblox, so that night Abdullah decided to play with her for a few hours.
Afterwards, the first weekend came.
Abdullah and Agim met up. The weather wasn't looking great to start off with, dark clouds forming on top of them.
Abdullah and Agim started to walk with their jackets on.
The start of their trek was alright, but the deeper they went, the worse the rain started to get.
"Man, we chose such a shit day to go," Abdullah said.
"Yea, but look how cool it is running through the dark forest. I feel like a ghost might get us."
As he said that, they heard some strange noises.
"Oh shit, I think I jinxed it."
"RUN! RUN! RUN!"
Agim started to shout.
Abdullah and Agim panicked and started sprinting.
Then they made it to an opening.
"See, already here," Agim said.
Abdullah, still gasping for air with his heart racing, said:
"You motherfucker."
Agim laughed, and then Abdullah chuckled through his wheezes.
They went to the entrance, and Abdullah instantly saw that this wasn't any ordinary place.
The road was huge.
The houses were ginormous.
The pavement was enlarged.
The grass was methodically cut, as if it was designed to be a certain length.
"What type of a place is this?" he blurted out.
"A very posh place," Agim replied.
They walked up further, and a huge opening appeared.
Rows of giant houses surrounded a field so big it couldn't have been less than three soccer pitches combined.
Abdullah looked up and saw a house so grand it couldn't have been anything less than a mansion.
It sat at the very top of a giant hill, with dozens of trees growing over fifty metres tall around it, looking down upon all the other homes.
"What kind of a person lives there?" Abdullah asked.
"Our good friend Kyle, the backflip master."
Abdullah's jaw dropped.
They went up to the home, but Kyle said he couldn't come out.
By this point, Abdullah and Agim were drenched by the rain. They started walking out.
As Abdullah thought to himself:
"I didn't know places like this existed five kilometres from where I lived."
Agim and Abdullah walked down to a gas station afterwards.
Abdullah didn't have any money on him, though.
"You want anything?" Agim asked.
"Oh, it's fine. I don't have any money."
"I'll buy you something. Just pay me back another time."
"Yeah, I'll pay you back when I can. I don't wanna owe you too much."
Soon after, they both got picked up and taken home.
Abdullah came home and told Anna about the place he visited and about Agim.
"Yea, this guy, man. Idk how he does all this walking. I'm wrecked."
The next weekend came.
Abdullah, Erop and Agim met up at the park. This time, Abdullah brought his e-scooter, Agim was on his bike, and Erop was hopping on the back.
They made it to the place much faster this time.
This time around, Kyle actually came out.
Erop started climbing the trees, and Kyle started to stress out.
"Hey, you can't. The people here will go mad."
Erop refused to listen.
Then Abdullah asked again.
"Do the backflip, I beg."
Kyle gave in and did it.
"HOLY SHIT!"
"You gotta teach me how to do that."
"Uh, I can give you a few pointers, but really practice on a trampoline first."
Kyle gave him some advice.
Then Abdullah told Agim to record him.
"Trust me, I got this."
Abdullah jumped and rolled back, barely getting off the floor before his knee went flying into his nose and he folded over.
Kyle and Agim shouted.
"Oh my god!"
They started checking up on him.
"Are you okay, bro?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. My nose hurts like hell."
Agim laughed.
"Yo bro, I don't think you had that."
Abdullah laughed back.
"Doesn't feel like it."
They went down to the gas station afterwards, and Agim bought him a drink and a snack.
"Just pay me back next time," he said.
"Alright, no issue," Abdullah replied.
When Abdullah got home, he showed the video of the backflip to Anna.
"God, that looks painful," she said.
"Yeah, it was."
The third weekend, Agim bought a basketball and took Tomek and Abdullah to a court that was on the way to Kyle's house, but not as far.
At first, they played soccer.
Tomek was far better than both of them, so they had a 2v1.
Abdullah ended up getting the ball with an open goal in sight.
He shot.
Complete miss.
"Bro, how on earth did you not get that in?" Tomek said.
Agim was laughing in the back.
Tomek got the ball, and Abdullah started defending. He got the ball off Tomek and passed to Agim.
The ball went straight through his legs.
"BRO!" Abdullah yelled.
"You guys are actually way too shit," Tomek added on.
"I'm way better at basketball probably," Agim said.
The three of them switched to shooting hoops from the three-point line.
Abdullah air-balled.
Agim hit the rim.
Tomek got three points.
"I've been practicing, but I'm not that good at basketball," Tomek said.
The next shot he took, the ball rolled off.
"I got it," Abdullah said.
He tried kicking the basketball into the soccer goal, but it rolled over his ankle and he came crashing down.
"OW FUCK!" Abdullah yelled.
Agim and Tomek started rolling around laughing.
"How does that even happen?" Agim said.
"You're actually hopeless," Tomek added.
Abdullah started laughing through the pain on the floor with his arm over his face.
They headed off to the gas station again.
"My bad, man. I'm just broke as shit."
Agim just shrugged and said:
"It's fine."
One of the days over the week, Abdullah asked Agim if he wanted to play Roblox with him and Anna.
They hopped on a call and started playing a game.
Anna asked for bamboo in the chat, and some girl started making fun of her for asking for an early-game item.
"Mate, it's not that hard to get," the random person typed.
Agim and Abdullah were on the call talking.
"Yo, why's she being a bitch for no reason?" Abdullah said.
"Yea, can we just like bully her into leaving the game?"
"She said mate. Let's just start making fun of her for being Australian."
Abdullah typed into the chat:
"Shush Australian."
"I'm portugeese," she replied.
"Then why aren't you speaking portugeese?" Agim added.
"Because I speak both."
The three of them went back and forth until she was ragebaited into leaving.
When she left the game, Agim and Abdullah started maniacally laughing in the call.
"That was amazing," they both said.
Then the final weekend before the month was over came.
The two met up and started walking up to the bro bench.
"This month has been so hectic," Agim said.
"Yeah man, the walks have been fire."
They continued talking and sat on the bench, looking at the view.
The same usual shit happened.
They walked around, explored a field or two, looked at deer, and just talked.
But in that moment, staring off at the view, looking down at everything below him, Abdullah couldn't help but ponder.
"I don't know when it happened."
"How long has it been?"
He felt tears, but held them back.
"When was the last time I had fun like this?"
He looked out at the view for a while longer.
"I hope it can stay this"
Feeling...