A Perfect Day: Part 2

It was one of those thick summer nights. The kind that leave your skin sticky and your hair frizzed at the edges. We lay out under the night sky watching the stars dance. Two best friends with their toes tucked neatly into dew strewn grass. Our 18th summer together. The last one we'd ever have of our youth. The world spinning madly on. Barreling too fast for either of us to comprehend. But for one moment, just us girls as time slowed for the last time.

I told her about how he'd never grow to love me. No matter how much I wished he would. She told me of her nights, trying to find comfort in all the wrong things. We drank lemonade until our lips burned. Worried about how everything would change soon.

The whole world was moving as we stood still.

When we were little we would dance around our backyards and sing made up songs about summer. We would swim in my pool until our toes turned into raisins. Then we'd walk up to the park and sit on the bridge and talk about how amazing our lives were going to be and what we would name our children.

As teenagers we'd go for rides in my car. For ice cream cones or slushies at the gas station. We would sing stupid songs way too loud with the windows rolled down so we could feel the night breeze on our cheeks. Then we would sit on my front porch watching cars drift down our street. Never saying too much. Neither confronting how fast life was changing.

I moved away the summer before senior year. I got accepted to UK. I took care of my sick grandmother. I made friends with a group I would have never befriended before. I fell, hard, for a boy who'd never love me. I made bad decisions. Good decisions. Sometimes no decisions at all. Life changed. Our friendship changed.

And yet. On a sticky summer night at my new house, in my new backyard, away from all of the fuss I was reminded of what makes family. How certain friends are different. We laughed and cried until it hurt. And giggled. Cause that's what teenage girls do best. Lots of giggles.

I think of her. And how it's all gone. And how life is so different than I pictured it would be back then. And I remember nights like that. When you find the beauty in just getting to be yourself with your best friend.

The whole world was moving and we were standing still.