We walked out of my house and to the little table. The great thing about the table was there’s four seats, one for each of us. That may seem weird, like “Why is the number of seats significant?” but something about that made me feel better. Bentley held my hand no matter what and held me as much as possible, Mason always had his arm around Ryder’s waist. We sat at that table for hours everyday talking about everything and nothing, but this day was different. We didn’t talk much at all, really. We smoked a few cigarettes, said a few words, but other moments were occupied by the beautiful silence and feeling of peace. Someone walking by would have thought we were bored out of our minds, thought it was one of those middle of the summer days when you can’t think of anything at all to do. But it wasn’t like that, the awkward silence was anything but awkward. We must have sat there for a few hours before conversation finally started up. It was nearing 6 and my mom would be leaving for graveyard shift soon, Ryder was sleeping over tonight and Bentley’s parents think he’s staying at Mason’s house, while Mason’s grandparents think he’s staying at Bentley’s house. We head to the middle school nearby to hang out in our usual handball court. It gets dark around 7:30 so we have a little while before we can see the stars and a whole lot of energy. So, naturally, we put on music as loud as it will go. There’s not many people in the open back of Mesa Verde, and the few that were there just passed us with weird looks as we danced around in the court. Around 7 we finally got to tired to keep dancing, so we changed the playlist to something mellow and we laid down in the court. Bentley on his back with is left arm out, the back of my head laying on his shoulder and upper arm. Mason and Ryder do the same next to us. We lay there laughing about memories until we can finally see stars. We pretend we know the names of the stars and the boys tease us when we can’t back ourselves up, but in the end they just go along with it. After a while I roll onto my right side and drape my left arm over Bentley’s chest, getting as close to him as i can. I’m sure Ryder has done the same thing somewhere along those lines but i can’t really see. I can feel his chest rising and falling and soon our breath is in sync. I can feel him look down at me and as I look up, he’s leaning down to kiss me. Our lips meet for the millionth time, but every time feels like the first. It’s soft kisses to passionate kisses, every once in a while glancing over at Ryder and Mason who of course are doing the same as Bentley and I. We stayed until it was about 11 and almost too cold for us to handle, no matter how tight we cuddled. We walked back to my house slowly, holding hands, savoring the memory we just created. We came back to my house and immediately crawled into bed and did nothing more than a few more kisses and sleep. The innocence of summer remains, well, innocent. And that, that is beauty.