WHEN YOU SAY THAT IT'S GONNA BE, IT ALWAYS TURNS OUT TO BE ANOTHER WAY
Nights like this past one make everything worthwhile because there's nothing better than being entertained with your friends from high school, the girls who have seen you go through just about everything possible over the course of three years, while the power is out, leaving the neighborhoods emersed in darkness save for a few candles lit here and there.
You take flashlights and entertain yourselves by shining them in your mouths or noses. You sit around the kitchen table, three of you in chairs and two of you on the floor, and act like Donald Trump by saying "you're fired!". A knock on the front door or window sends you into fear and you run through the house, peaking around the corners, and screaming when you bump into each other. When one of your older brothers and his best friend leave two empty Starbuck's cups under your windshield wipers, you and your friends declare war- heading to one of the boy's trucks and wrapping it with toilet paper, pressing it against the sides of the truck so it will stay thanks to the rain that falls and has left the car wet. Later on, you head back to put pieces of ham or turkey or something on the windows, taking two pieces to make a butt with legs on the side window and sticking a piece of the lunch meat in the door handle.
Then you stand outside, in the late, cool, wet night, and argue or talk with each other, one of your best friend refereeing the entire time. And you know she'll hold the things said over your head in a way that doesn't bother you but makes you laugh and think about the rest of your life. It's war that has been declared, a war of who can get the other's cars the best, and it makes you look forward to coming home for three months because these people make everything fun.
Its time like this that I feel blessed to be able to revisit the days of high school and all the things I though I wouldn't miss.