A summer of endings

 Colleen drove out her neighborhood, packed and ready for college. It didn’t feel like she was leaving; it felt like any ordinary day. She lit up a cigarette and watched the kids from the elementary school walking along the sidewalks. It seemed like only yesterday she was one of them.

The excitement racing through her as she ran home from school on a Friday wondering whose house Samantha and her would try to tee-pee that weekend. The joy of leaping on her bike and riding side-by-side to Taco Bell with Tyler; just to get a 39 cent taco. She distinctly remembered being thankful that even though Tyler was a guy, the taco sauce lingering on her chin made no difference to him. The anticipation of praying that her hiding spot was discovered while playing ghost-in-the-graveyard on the late summer nights.  It seemed as if the little memories began hitting her, harder than she imagined they would as they followed one another out of their childhood town.

It had been the summer of many parties, the summer of laughter. One that Colleen would remember forever. Even though it was just three months of drinking and being lazy, it was a turning point for any group of friends. She couldn’t or maybe wouldn’t ask for anything better than what came from that summer. Whether the next four years were going to be just another hundred lazy days of copying each other’s homework, or talking one another into actually going to class, it was going to be all those things, but it was more than that. It was the start of a time where they could gain independence, not from their parents, or their teachers, but from each other. She was beginning to see that no matter what happened her friends will always be there for her. Now all they had to look forward to was the future, the future together.