It was silent in the car as we raced down the highway. The driver’s window was open and I could hear cars whizzing by. The sky burned red. Miles tapped his chubby fingers against the glass along to the song that was playing lazily on the radio. I opened the window and stuck my arm out. My hand tried to grasp the cold wind.
The song ended and a commercial for laundry detergent came on. Daniel murmured something indistinct to Steve. They sounded miles away. My eyelids started to droop.
I was jolted awake by the sound of clapping blasting from the radio. My mind went blank as my eyes adjusted to the darkness. The car had gotten significantly colder and my blue t-shirt was not enough to keep me from shivering. Miles’ knuckles turned white as his grip on the wheel tightened. Suddenly, Patrick Stump’s voice ripped through my ears.
“Be careful making wishes in the dark, dark
Can’t be sure when they’ve hit their mark, mark”
They had opened all the windows and were shouting the words at the night. Their deep voices echoed through the dark forest. Miles raised the volume all the way and put all of his weight on the gas pedal. Steve’s eyes glistened with laughter.
“So light ‘em up, up, up
I’m on fire!”
I was no longer confused. I stuck my head out of the window. My hair lashed like a whip in the wind. The car vibrated from the force of the music. I did not know how fast we were going. I did not care. All that mattered was now. It was mid-July, but the cold bit at my cheeks like it was January. I did not let it stop me. The trees were nothing more than a dark blur. no cars passed us, no cars followed us. We were untouchable, unstoppable. The sky was an inky blue. The stars shone brighter than I had ever seen.
“Burn everything you love, then burn the ashes”
We were nothing more than wolves and this was our song to the moon. Every breath I took made me feel as though my lungs would collapse any second. If this were to be my last moment, I did not care. My heart was like an animal beating furiously against my rib cage, trying to be free. I granted its wish. With every syllable I shouted at the stars, I let a piece of my heart fly into the sky. My mind felt like I was running too fast, tripping over my own legs. I was soaring, but I stayed in one spot. I wanted to be no where else. There was nothing except this.
“My songs know what you did in the dark!”
With every cell in my body I believed that this was the place to be born and this was the place to die. I sent every molecule of my soul to dance with the stars. We all did. We were nothing compared to the stars, to the galaxies, to the universe. We weren’t even a speck of dust. We were just four heavy bodies screaming some words into the wind. But what did the stars know? They were nothing more than burning gas. We were here. We were now. We were everything.