Take It Or Leave It- Cage The Elephant

You bounce into the movie theater with your best friend, jean jackets and wavy hair. Neon lights from the theater’s marquee light up your face, where you take pictures that will be celebrated on snapchat and instagram later.

Whoppers mixed into the popcorn, a slushie and a redvine in each hand. A rom com that makes both of you laugh so hard that you cry, and make you cry so hard that it hurts.

Little glances between each other during the scenes that remind you of what you want, and the sounds of jokes and loud laughter leaving theater room 3. Catching him staring at you, with the remnants of a laugh on your face, and saying “What?” before he kisses you around the corner of the exit.

Walking back to the car holding hands.

Gimme Love- Vista Kicks

The end of a movie about Summer Love, and taking the hand of your own and heading somewhere new.

After an early morning movie, you burst out of the cool hair into the steaming hot breeze, only letting it take the bounce in your step from 100 to 98.

You head to the local water park and spend all day in tubes, racing each other down, and the loser buys ice cream.

Within a few hours, friends come by too before you guys all go back to yours and blast music in the car on the way there, in your backyard while the fireplace is blazing and the desert cold sets in.

Soda in solo cups and brewery lights hanging over the patio that you spend the rest of the summer on, falling asleep in each other’s arms.

Trouble- Cage The Elephant

It’s the third song of the credits, and the list of names seems so long that you wonder if you could actually be in them one day. The drive home is quiet your friend looks over at you with every indication of concern that she can give. She decides it’s time for a detour and you head to your favorite diner.

When she asks what’s wrong, you spill your hopes and dreams all over the table. You need change and you’re going to make it happen. You ask for a placemat and some crayons, and you draw out a plan.

After graduation, you’re moving to LA. Not downtown, not Hollywood. Those places are too expensive. But somewhere close and far enough away from here. Something that will give you the chance to write and act and direct.

Something that will put you in that list of names.

Choke- I DON’T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME

The credits of an alternative action film, something that made popcorn more than just a movie snack and transformed that soda into the best drink you’ve ever had.

When you leave the theater, you’re covered in the same confidence that the main character was just wearing, and you decide to ask that girl if she’d like to hang out. After watching the movie alone, something about it made you want to take the world on with someone, together.

You take her car and blast through the highways, frivign like you’re getting chased while no one else is on the road. 2pm, 8pm, 11pm, 2am.

You drive through bright sun and shining lights, loud laughs and blurry smiles. You’ve seen a brand new world, and you’re hungry for more.

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