Dear August

|Twenty-Five|

Dear August,

It's the last day of school, thank the lord. Finley's having a 'start of summer party' tonight and I have to help set it up. I'm so happy it's finally summer. I've always had a love hate relationship with fall and winter. You know this. Fall makes beautiful colors, fluffy clouds, and of course there's Halloween. There's never been snow in Arizona, but let me tell you, in Colorado, winter is super snowy. The snow makes the outside look amazing. Coating the trees and ground in a thick white blanket. But once you're outside in it, it's cold and wet and the air hurts your face. The sun goes down at 4 in the afternoon and doesn't come up till about 8 in the morning. Everything is frozen in the winter. Everything's gloomy. The grass is dead and there's no colorful flowers. Everything is sad. Its beautiful when you don't read too much into it. Summer is something else. Summer is hot and humid during the day but warm and cozy during the night. When you breath in the air during a midnight walk you can smell burning wood from fire pits, sweet flowers, freshly cut grass, and so much more. Summer is the feeling of the itchy damp grass tickling your bare legs as you lay in it, listening to music through your headphones, watching the clouds float by. Summer is cats basking in the sun, sweat building up on your forehead and the rest of your body. It's the sun not setting till about 9, painting colors like light pink, orange and red across the sky. It's midnight drives with your best friends, blasting your favorite songs and shouting the lyrics out the window. Staying up till ungodly hours in the morning and sleeping till 3 in the afternoon and repeating the process. Keeping the window open and listening to the crickets and the ambience of the night sing you to sleep. Summer is the complete opposite of winter. Summer is. . . happiness. And I'm ready for that. It's been sad here for far too long. Anyways, I have to get to school. Don't wanna be late on the last day. We'll talk soon.

With love,
Riley.

Finley signals that she's outside by honking twice. I fold up the paper in a sloppy manner and toss it into the shoebox under my bed.

"I'm leaving mom!" I shout through the house.

"Take pictures with your friends I want some!" She shouts back.

"Ugh, okay. Love you!"

"Love you too!"

I hop out the door, wearing summery clothes, a pair of high waisted shorts a yellow tank top with white flowers printed on it and a black leather belt. And vans of course.

I hop into Finley's car with the a/c blasting.

"Jeez, you trying to make your car an ice box?" I joke. She looks over at me and rolls her eyes.

"Can you feel how hot it is out there?"

I shrug. "I've felt hotter."

"Oh right I forgot, Miss Arizona," she rolls her eyes and puts the car into drive.

"So what's the plan for tonight?" I ask turning the intensity of the air down so I can hear her.

She shrugs. "I think we're all just meeting at my place around 5. We all have to help set up."

"And the magic juice?" I ask, wiggling my brows.

"Eleanor has that covered. But after she gives it to us she's probably leaving."

"Where does she even spend most of her time?" I ask.

Now that I think about it, I've really only seen Eleanor a few times at the diner, and once at home.

Finley keeps her eyes on the road and shrugs once more. "School, work, home. That's pretty much it."

"So she doesn't even go out with friends?"