last hoco

I went to my friend's homecoming the other night.

I got to her house, her friends & I got ready, the music and vibes were good and loud, and we all looked nice, so we went to take pictures at the one appropriate spot in her middle-of-nowhere town: the park lol. We all piled into my tiny EV, even though there was some sitting on laps involved, got out, and took some cheesy-in-retrospect group and individual pictures. Eventually, it devolved into us using the playground equipment. In our full faces of makeup and fake lashes and skimpy, glittery dresses, wholly sans dates, we looked completely ridiculous, giggling and trying to swing higher than the girl next to us, but we did not care, so utterly.

We piled back into the car, went back to her house, did some stupid crap, and finally, music and anticipation blaring, went to the dance. Honestly, that was the worst part: some creepy guy followed my friend around, the music was bad, and the vibes were rancid. We left after half an hour and promptly headed over to our next stop; the local waffle house. We ate more than our fill, gossiped, and, laughing, tried to ignore the old man staring at us. The afterparty was cancelled, but we didn't care.

As I drove us all back to her house, I, stupidly, had a realization. This was almost over. I am almost to college, but I feel like I haven't really "done" high school yet (the 4.54 gpa comes with a cost, y'all). I still have friends and memories to make in this town, but I'm leaving for college. That night, after everything had calmed down, a sinking feeling began to invade my mind, as I stared up at my friend's ceiling for one of the last times.