Summer isn't over yet

 Adulthood takes precedence and somewhere along the way ceases spontaneity. My friends and I are guilty of giving in. Us now meeting is sparse, requiring intense deliberation. 

It wasn't always like that. There was a time where we were free, at least freer than this. I think we all feel it, this urge to go back or to just experience that thrill again. We didn't quite know it was a thrill then. We know now. 

We were driving around the other day. Aimless. Just an excuse to be with each other, enclosed in a space that was intimately our own. It was raining, the kind that pelts against your windows, announcing itself. We rivalled its verbosity. It felt good. Time stood still, like it was waiting. It was our own. 

Someone from the back seat chimed up about a concert taking place a few days later, somewhere thirty minutes to an hour from our houses. A short notice. No checking the mapped out schedules. No hesitation. 

My best friend looked at me with a grin. So mesmerisingly her, so gleeful. It was transportive. I felt like I was in middle school again. Where we shared desks and made plans just as casually over a plate of shared fries. 

I said yes. It was compulsion. It was instinct. A pull, a drive. Magnetic. I just want to exist with my friends. 

I went home and bought the tickets that very night. What followed was giddiness. Endless texts deciding outfits, planning matching makeup looks, a repetition of relayed excitement over and over again. I can't wait to see you. I can't wait to be with you. We were kids again. We were us. 

Crammed in my car, we went out laughing, sharing memories from years prior. Time passes and we remain still. 

We danced. We jumped. We sang and when we didn't know the lyrics, we screamed. I think we all felt it. As we stood amongst a plethora of strangers, waving our hands in unison, we couldn't help but unapologetically catch glimpses of each other. Like we couldn't believe it. Like we wanted to preserve this moment. Freeze it and store it in some part of our brain that would play it on loop when we return to the real world we so readily escaped. Our smiles widened in mimicry. Our eyes brushed by the same glimmer. It was hot, we couldn't help but hug at every moment. I love this moment. I love my friends. I don't know if we will be the same after this final year, if we will go our separate ways and let life drag us apart but we will always have this. I refuse to let it go. This profound love that only seems to expand. That is earth shattering yet so incredibly grounding. 

 

I don't ever want to lose this love. I hope this summer comes again.