Sam and Colby: The Penitentiary

4

"Seriously? You're wearing that?" asked Vance as I walked out of my room.

                "What, are you Dad?" I asked. I walked past him and made my way out to the living room to tell our parents we were leaving for the bonfire.

                "Seriously? You're wearing that?" asked Dad.

                "Well then, to answer your question, yes I am," Vance said from behind me.

                "Oh, leave me alone. I'm a lingerie brand ambassador for god's sake," I said. Everyone here was much more conservative than the people in LA.

                "She does look cute," my mom said.

                "Thank you," I replied. I was wearing a red bandana print tube top under some short black overalls, only one of the straps fastened around my shoulder, my same cowboy boots from earlier on my feet. My dark hair was in two French braided pigtails.

                "But she's going to be out with that boy and—," my dad started.

                "Honey, she's 22. She's not a little girl anymore," said Mom.

                "Thank you. I would not like a repeat of every morning before I left for high school, thank you very much," I said.

                "Alright, well let's head out before you disappoint this family any more than you already have," said Vance.

                "Hey! I'm embracing a cute country girl aesthetic, okay? Fuck off," I said.

                "V, language," Dad said.

                "Yes. My language is English. We'll see you tonight," I said.

                "Make sure she makes it back in one piece, Vance," said Dad.

                "I'll try my best," said Vance.

                "Drama queens. Let's go," I said, grabbing Vance's hand to tug on it. We made our way out to Vance's car, a Ford F150 silver pickup truck, and hopped in.

                The drive to the bonfire was shorter than the drive into town. We did it in this circular clearing in the middle of the woods on the edge of our property, only a 10 minute drive away. Vance parked his truck on the side of the road among all of the other cars, mostly pickup trucks, and we hopped out and made our way out to the clearing, a five minute walk into the dense woods.

                Before we got there, we could hear the sound of buzzing chatter and loud laughs, country music blasting from a speaker someone had brought. It was already dark out, Vance and I using our phone flashlights to make it to the clearing.

                "Oh, wow," Vance said as we got to the edge of the woods. Someone had built a gazebo on the edge of the tree line furthest away from the fire pit, bright fairy lights strung around the top of it. Under the gazebo's top were several beer kegs and giant stacks of red solo cups. The fire pit was already set up with its giant teepee style logs, a couple guys walking around the edges of it squirting out lighter fluid.

                "V! Vance! I knew y'all would make it," Hunter said, running over to us. He gave Vance a short bro hug and then gave me a regular hug before leading us over to the gazebo.

                Vance and I hadn't been here in years. I hadn't come since high school. The high schoolers usually came for the lighting of the fire and then cleared out by 10pm, leaving all of the actual adults to stay out late and get drunk and crazy. Vance was old enough to have done that a few times, but I'd left Alva right after high school and hadn't been here since.