Upbeat:

Tongue Tied- Grouplove

The first taste of freedom when you get on the highway at 9 am, set off for your first day at the beach. Getting there and spending the whole day blasting music through a bluetooth speakers and flirting with guys at the snack bar who you’re never going to see again because they say they’re from Ohio.

Singing your favorite song from the late 2000’s at the top of your lungs, doing a little shimmy dance because you’re too tired to do anything else. Splashing water at each other and kicking sand at the ocean, trading seashells and crushing each other’s sandcastles.

Playing volleyball against some strangers and being so horrible at it that you can’t stop laughing. Feeling a little drunk on pure exhilaration from riding your bikes and taking in a cool breeze. Laughing and dancing until you can’t breathe with a red solo cup filled with sprite in your hand.

Out Of My League- Fitz and The Tantrums

Running around Hollywood tourist things that we never have the chance to do. Hand matching at the Chinese Theater. Cleaning the stars of some of our favorite actors. Pictures in sunglasses with the Hollywood sign in the background. Taking a tour of the stars and sitting at the top of a double decker bus.

Walking around Universal Studios Hollywood on the third day of the trip, spending the whole day riding the Mummy and Jurassic World over and over again. A short vlog of too much laughing and pointing at everything like little kids during the Studio Tour, and staring out at the sunset behind the hills at the exit.

Jamming out on the way to San Diego. Fingers drumming against the dashboard and armrests, scream-singing at the top of our lungs. A full performance is happening, a That 70’s Show opening montage. Imaginary mic on full blast, confidence sky high.

Undercover Martyn- Two Door Cinema Club

Hopping off the train at Union Station, starting off with a self-guided photography tour of Olvera Street and the surrounding neighborhoods. Taking pictures every chance you can next to vibrant stalls, buying something at each one that you can. Grabbing raspados and churros to eat on the next train downtown.

Hitting vintage shops and trying on crazy prints and big hats, giving a private fashion show for each other and taking absolutely nothing seriously. Scurrying out with a ring and a beetles brooch when the sales lady gets mad and asks “Are you guys even going to buy anything?”

Trying on prom dresses because you couldn’t find any other time to do it, and you promised you’d do it together. Different dresses and different hairstyles, too much jewelry and too little. Walking out having spent too much money, and spending more of it on baby turtles that some dude is selling out the back of his van. Squish, Crush, and Dash.

Chill:

Summer Is Like A Dream- khai dreams

It’s driving down by Dockweiler early in the morning, just as the sun is greeting the sky. Hues of yellow and blue rippling throughout the clouds, birds flying toward the beach. Salty sweet air whistles through the windows and it brushes you awake.

The movement of your hand weaving up and down outside the passenger seat window., creating quiet waves in the air. It’s letting your hair dry in the wind, just to get more salt and sand in it at the next beach. Sharing sleepy glances and laughs. A happy exhaustion.

It’s quiet hums of conversation that you have at the beach during the bonfire, about the heights of the universe and the depth of the stars within it. Painful spills of family fights and the dreams we’ve never shared with anyone else.

It’s nostalgia for the moment that just passed seconds ago, and the moment that just comes a second later.

Cough Syrup- Young the Giant

On your way to the next place after a sad night, when you got a text from a friend who, within seconds, was no longer a friend. A swerve away from the freeway entrance and a “change of plans” that leads you to the empty park outside the science center. Cold Stone ice cream on the steps of the museum and watching the sunrise, waiting for the doors to open.

Running in and being the first to see the dinosaurs, racing in the elevators and having the whole museum to yourselves for a while. Time to heal in a quietly haunted piece of art. Going to the kids’ section of each floor and hosting your own puppet shows, taking pictures of each other picking the triceratops’s nose, and buying mugs and pens from the gift shop.

Entering the butterfly exhibit an immediately feeling the rush of having some brush by on your shoulders, kiss your nose, and take flight to the next arch of flowers and vines. Competing to see who can identify the most before lunchtime, and picking playful fights over whether the winner got ALL of those right.

Getting wraps and chips at target, eating in the van and getting back on the freeway with a singing heart and soul.

Good Old Days (feat. Kesha)- Macklemore, Kesha

Grabbing dinner at midnight in a little truck stop diner right off the freeway exit, in the middle of Nowhere, California. Laughing so hard that soda comes out of your nose and you damn near choke on your burger. Playing rock paper scissors over who goes to give that cute boy in line their number, and laughing at each other when you sit back down all red.

Driving during sunrise, taking Polaroid pictures of each other to put in a notebook sometime later. Dramatically singing the heartbreaking tracks of your favorite musicals, and head banging to the big dance numbers. Watching the traffic lights change colors and punching each other in the arm each time we see license plates from different states.

Prepping our graduation gowns and helping each other get ready when we get back, taking home video of the process on our phones, getting too many shots of our moms crying and our dad tearing up. Throwing our caps up in the air and hugging each other so tight after group pics, driving off to the beach when all’s said and done.