Lighter

t h i r t y - o n e

'cause a picture is all that i have
to remind me that you're
never coming b a c k . . .

⚡️⚡️⚡️

Tommy and I had always joked about needing each other for survival. I've always kept him in check, and he did the same for me. It's been like that since day one – he's the brother I never had. Our friendship is similar to that of mine and Cheyenne's, just not quite as open and "girlish", as he often says.

As any college student can attest to, the last month or so was hell for my entire friend group. We hardly saw one another, aside from whenever Cheyenne would sleep at my house sporadically throughout the week, or Ronnie and I would get a few hours to hang out. Since all of us but Ronnie had one year left until we were done, this year was significantly tougher than the previous ones. There were no big "get together's" at Jonah's shows, no leisurely smoke sessions in Tommy's car, and definitely no time to actually enjoy being twenty-one.

Not until Memorial Day weekend arrived on the last weekend of May. It seemed too good to be true, if I thought too much about it. We were all free from the clutches of higher education, aside from Cheyenne who would always be a slave to retail. She did, however, manage to get a whopping two days off for that weekend so we could have a laid-back party of some sort for the first time in what felt like years.

It was Sunday night, the day before the big holiday, and we'd been scheduled to go to Tommy's house for what he so brilliantly christened as a "Mem-Day Jamboree". Nobody had the heart to tell him how dopey that name was because he wouldn't stop talking about it for the last week in our group chat.

Dressed in similar denim cutoffs and tiny tank tops, Cheyenne drove us over a little before dinner time. She was reveling in the fact that she didn't have to get up in the morning for work, triple-tasking by driving, babbling to me, and looking at herself in the mirror the whole way there. I had to smack her arm a few times to get her to narrow her focus down to at least just two of those three things.

She flung her door shut once we were parked and the patchouli-infested car was turned off. A wide smile spread across her naked face, the only makeup she had on being mascara. "Wow, I can't even remember what it feels like to hang out with like, everyone again," she said with a hint of pure bliss in her voice.

"Me neither, to be honest. It's been so long," I agreed as I rounded her car, stretching out my arm to link it with hers.

"I'm so happy it's almost summer again. I missed this," she sighed happily, "I needed this."

We walked along the side of Tommy's house until we reached his backyard, the familiar sound of his squeaky, prepubescent laugh and Kurt's mellow chuckle echoing in the mild, impending nighttime air. The sun hadn't quite gone down yet, taking longer to do so now that we were about to switch over to the warmest months of the year. By far my favorite time.

They were the only two seated at the outdoor dining table on Tommy's back porch, unaware of our presence until we started climbing the steps and I pranced over to Tommy before he even had a chance to get out of his chair.

"Hey guys!" He shrieked like he hadn't seen us in three years. It felt like that, honestly.

"I've missed you too much," I stated the obvious as I wrapped my arms around his shoulders in a tight embrace, resting my head on top of his. My eyes went to Kurt who was comfortably lounging in his seat diagonal from Tommy, a smile pulling my lips up at the same time as his did for a silent greeting.

I let Tommy go once I realized Cheyenne probably wanted to say hi to her boyfriend, so I gave Kurt a quick, sideways hug before taking the seat at the other end of the table, opposite of Tommy.