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"Oh my god! Turn this song up!" I exclaimed, Ethan and I both laughing as he cranked up the radio. I instinctively rolled down the passenger side window to my right all the way down and stuck my head and arms out the window, cheering and screaming the lyrics of the music playing.
The musty california temperatures accompanied with a slight breeze from the car currently cruising down the empty road and the luminesce of the pinkish orange sunset painted across the sky accumulated a carefree feeling arising inside of you. Your hair blew behind you, lightly brushing up against the cardoor of the seat behind you as you continued to scream out the lyrics of the song on the radio with Ethan.
Ethan watched your childish behavior from the driver's seat, lightly laughing to himself with a sweet glint in his eyes before you calmed down and refrained from leaning out from the window. Instead, you rested your upper body's figure on the bottom part of the rolled down window, crossing your arms slightly and gently resting your head on your arms, hair still blowing behind and eyes staring intently at the colored sky.
The whole atmosphere felt like it was hugging you: your long-time friend going on an adventure with you, the radio playing your favorite song and almost sounding muffled when you're in your thoughts, being in California for the summer, the humidity getting less thick with the sun going into hiding yet providing a brief view of splashing saturation. It felt surreal to travel the world in an adult's body but a teen's mindset.
You took your head off from your arms and sat up straight, still letting your right hand stick out from the window and linger against the breeze brushing against them. You turned your head towards Ethan and caught his gaze as he looked back into your eyes. Smiles crept up on your faces. This moment simply felt right. You two had to go through a lot in order to get where you are now and it's extremely hard to admit that everything happening didn't feel rewarding.
Even if some things feel like they're crashing down on you, maybe life was meant to be hard in order to gain experience and find rewards like this. However, you'd never know that unless you found a new adventure to go on and you were glad to go on this one with someone by your side.
