“Let’s skip ahead to the last chance dance,” shouted Ableson near the end of the Edward 40-hands game. “It was spectacular! We all hooked up!”

Meanwhile, William G. Bain ’02 finished his drinks and fell to the floor.

“This is normal,” Levin said, familiar with Bain’s habits.

After being thrown together four years ago by the Freshmen Dean’s Office, the group is certain they will remain friends into the distant future.

“Josh always talks about having barbeques when we’re older with kids. And how his kids are going to beat up all our kids,” says Micheolangelo V. D’Agastino ’02 . “We’ll keep in touch, but it will be weird not just having each other around.”

“I totally think of these guys like my family, in the sense that they are always with me and the love is so deep,” says Ableson. “It’s so heart-breaking to think this world is ending in a week and a half.”

—Staff writer Eugenia B. Schraa can be reached at schraa@fas.harvard.edu.