picnic in the park

The original plan was pizza, but we ended up with takeout bags of Thai appetizers, plastic containers of berries, Tostitos, and a giant bag of Skittles (and a to-go salad for me because I wanted to spend a little extra to be ~healthy~). We sat at a peeling picnic table, the local lake beach right there, sun battling with the clouds for real estate. Car keys and dipping sauces littered the table. Conversation and laughter bubbling, bouncing. We all knew it was likely our last hurrah, as they say, before back to school, but that didn’t bring things down; everything easy, no forethought. Just real—really real—good times. We popped strawberries in between sets of beach volleyball while the sun sank lower, looking more Tatooine by the minute. (You know the scene in Star Wars where Luke looks out dramatically at the two suns setting over the desert huts? Yeah, like that.) Sand everywhere. Shorts. Hair. Eyebrows. Rinsing it off by diving into the lake when the light turned blue, the pink sun an afterthought now.