Words in Frame, 8/5

“I swear to god, if we are late because of Ty’s food stop, I’ll kill you both.” Mika crossed her arms and sank deeper into the passenger seat.

“Sorry Mika, but Arby’s and I have a deep connection that cannot be broken,” Ty replied as he grinned from the backseat. "Curly fry?"

Mika took the fry before starting again, “Why don't you care if we are late to our own party?”

Isaac chimed in from the driver’s seat, “It’s precisely because it’s our party that we don’t have to worry about being late, dude. We set up this whole thing so we can show up whenever the hell we want." Ty passed him a fry before smirking confidently at Mika.

“Yeah, plus the headliners are never the first ones to show up; we gotta give the people something to look forward to.” Ty posed in the backseat as he spoke.

“Ugh, whatever, there better still be ice cream when we get there...” Mika looked off in the distance, re-folding her arms.

“Ahh,” Isaac started, “The truth comes out: she just wants food like the rest of us. You just wanted to arrive early to take all the good stuff!”

Mika turned, gave the two boys the same smirk Isaac had thrown her way a second ago, and the three shared a laugh. Their old Subaru rolled down the road en route to the shore where a very informal graduation party was being held. The whole thing started as a joke during the final days of class when Mika mentioned that she wanted to have a potluck on the beach after graduation. Her goal was to hoard as much free food as possible, but someone in band overheard her musing and decided to announce that Mika, Isaac, and Ty were throwing a party. The Trio then somehow managed to scrape together invites, get food donations from local stores they had worked at previous summers, coordinate times, and calling city hall to see if they could reserve a public space all whilst dealing with the whole graduation thing.

“Oh goddammit,” Mika hurried to unbuckle her seatbelt and throw open the car door just as Isaac pulled into a parking space. “I can already see Joe’s greedy ass gunning for the strawberry.” Mika jumped out of the car and sprinted full speed toward the beach, tackling Joe before he could dig into the ice cream.

“Jesus Christ, she’s a monster,” Ty closed the door behind him walked onto the beach with Isaac.

As the trio arrived the 20 or so other partygoers let out a collective “Ayee!” and went to go greet their late hosts.

After all the formalities, the trio proceded to lay down blankets they had brought and enjoy the get together they had so hastily assembled.

“Well…it took us 4 years but we finally threw a party.” Ty was basking in the attention and soaking up the sunny day.

“Yeah we did, but not for lack of trying. Remember that time we were gonna throw a band party at your house but your dad came home early from his conference?” Mika’s interjecting laughs made it difficult for her to finish the story.

Ty popped up excitedly, “Yeah we had to convince him that we were just filming something for Mr. Mihoan’s class?”

“He walked in on a bunch of kids huddled around a table with board games, In-N-Out bags, and solo cups scattered around, and still let us off the hook. What a day...”

“To be fair I think he was just as shocked as we were, he did ask me later if I was part of a cult though.”

“What?! Are you serious? How come you never told us that?”

“I was too busy dying!”

Ty and Mika were doubled over in pain holding their stomachs before they noticed that Isaac seemed intensely focused on something other than Ty’s cult history.

“Ayo,” Ty broke Isaacs line of sight, “What are you looking at  dude?”

“What?” Isaac was snapped out of his daydream, “Oh, nothing, just that log over there.It kind looks like a little mountain.”

In front of where the group was sitting, a jagged log jutted out of the sand. This wasn’t uncommon in this area in any way, but the way the water looked behind the log really struck Isaac as beautiful.

“We really did it guys.” Isaacs’s words were distant and sincere.

“Did what? Throw a party? Yeah we covered that dude, we're onto cults now.” Ty seemed a bit confused.

“Cul- what? No I mean like, we climbed the mountain, we graduated and stuff. We are out.”

“Ahh,” Mika chimed in, “so you were just reflecting on life and all of your school experiences…at this beach party.”

While Ty and Mika were trying to understand Isaacs’s line of thinking, Isaac stood up and just started running toward the water. There was no hesitation in his stride and no sign of him stopping. Instinctively Mika and Ty got up and ran after him, confused as to why he took off but too loyal to not chase after him. The trio took a beeline directly into the water, making waves and shouting obscenities as the cold water clashed with their skin on this hot day. 4 years of turmoil, laughs, pain, and food. They had stuck it out and climbed the mountain. In Isaac’s head they had done the impossible and done it together.

This was their party.