Four Day Weekend

"There weren't always dragons in the valley."

"Shut the fuck up Nat," Jenny snickered a laugh. "I thought the last couple months would've made your tolerance better, not worse." She took the blunt back from Natalie.

Natalie coughed and laughed. "Everyone has crappy ditch weed compared to your primo stuff Jenny." She took a sip of her Fresca. "Besides you always liked my ramblings in high school."

It was true. Jenny did like Natalie's ramblings when she was high. They hadn't seen each other since their grad parties back in June. It was November. They both had just returned from college for the long Thanksgiving weekend. It was late and Jenny had walked the two doors over and crawled into Natalie's basement bedroom window for some old fun with her old friend.

"It's true though," Natalie leaned back in the floor rocker, staring into mid space across the room. "Remember when we got baked at the Rosline twin's fourth of July party?"

Jenny took a deep hit and coughed to the memory. "I asked you not to bring that up again."

"Not the thing that happened to you. I specifically mean me. When I talked on that dock for an hour. The next time I saw you, I was beet-red and covered in bug bites."

Jenny tried not to laugh, she tried to have some pity, "I felt so bad. Your poor skin. I had never seen you so burnt before."

"And those weird stripes from my swimsuit. They were practically tattoos or battle scars."

"A true warrior." Jenny held out the blunt and offered the last hit of the blunt to Natalie. "I didn't see you in the days after that, how did it feel? The usual?"

"Yeah, peeling and such. The lines stayed for longer than I care to remember, mostly because I wore that swimsuit for the rest of the summer." Natalie looked across the room again. "Like a second skin." She sighed. "I miss summer."

"You miss summer more than going to college?" Jenny asked confused.

"Not exactly. Freedom. Different freedoms. I like eating whatever I want, only being in places when I absolutely need to be, the smells, the sounds."

Jenny stared blankly. "I have no idea which one you're talking about: college or summer."

"Summer." She finished the Fresca. "This for example. I only drink this stuff because my parent's buy it. I never drink this stuff at school. Summertime, we're free. At school and at home, it's not the same, you know?"

"I know what you mean, I guess I don't feel the same way though."

"Sure," Natalie said a little down.

"Is it that bad?" Jenny asked. "Did you think it was going to be better?"

"Nah." Natalie brushed off. "It's not that. Not at all. It all feels, the same? Boring? I'm not sure. I guess I thought college would be more---"

"Exciting?"

"Why does it feel like 13th grade, somehow?!"

Jenny scratched the back of her head. "Yeah. The more things change, the more they stay the same."

"So true."

The pair yawned simultaneously. "I'm gonna call it a night. I'll probably be able to hang out after supper tomorrow, if not Friday for sure."

"Absolutely."

The pair hugged and Jenny started to crawl out the basement window. "Hey. You forget about something?" Natalie asked.

"Oh shit!" Jenny laughed and stepped back into the room. She put her human flesh skin on over her scales and crawled back out the window for her parent's home. Natalie stretched her wings once more before curling up on her hoard of photo memory books and journals to sleep.