All Grown Up by Sadie Grubor

bed.
    Most of Friday was spent gathering things that Mina thought we would need for tonight. Roni was in charge of music, I was in charge of food and drinks and Mina, well, Mina was in charge of everything else.
    Mina was already at the beach when Roni and I arrived. She had wood already piled in a fire pit and four tiki torches set up. I shook my head. "Jesus Christ," Roni sighed out in disbelief. "You would think that by now I would be used to her, but sometimes she still just…"
    "Freaks you out?" I smirked at Roni.
    "Yeah!" She laughed.
    "She could take over the world, I’m telling you." I grabbed the blankets and the cooler heading toward s Mina.
    As soon as my toes touched the sand , I felt the night begin. It was time for frustration, anger and hurt to be released. These nights were always held in honor of bad break-ups, but they were so much more than that. It was a night where we could let it all out, completely release our stress and just let go; it was empowering. Girl bonding at its finest.
    "Finally!" Mina shouted as she ran up and grabbed the cooler from me. "What took so long? I was gonna start without you."
    "Well, since I’m the one who got cheated on , I would like to thank you for waiting on me." I laid on as much sarcasm as I could and chuckled.
    We were all sitting around on blankets , our legs crossed, listening to a random playlist that Roni had put together while eating some sandwiches that Elaine had made for us. It was almost time to start the ‘ritual’ of the evening. Mina started digging through the cooler for a drink when she blurted out "Chloe, I love you so much!"
    I looked up at her smiling. I knew she had found the vodka. "What did she get?" Roni questioned , trying to peek over Mina’s shoulder. Mina sat back with three different bottles; blueberry, watermelon, and raspberry vodka. They were our personal favorites: watermelon was Mina’s, raspberry was Roni’s, and blueberry was mine. Roni smiled at me appreciatively.
    Mina grabbed the traditional cups (pilsner cups that have rainbow light up effects at the bottom), filled them with ice and our preferred vodka. After passing the drinks out , we gave our toast.
    "Here’s to the men we love . Here’s to the men who love us. Here’s to the men that we love that don’t love us; FUCK THE MEN LET’S DRINK TO US!" We said in unison, laughing. Ah, thank you Willa Ford.
    Man bashing ensued . We trash talked past boyfriends, joked about guys and ragged on men in general. We laughed, we joked, we got pissed off, we screamed. It is so liberating and ridiculous. They say laughter is the key part of healing, so we laughed and laughed.
    "Okay, okay…" Mina broke up our hysterics. "It’s dedication time !" She smiled and pulled out her IPod as I grabbed mine. "Okay, Roni, you first." Dedication time was where we each took turns choosing songs that described our mood for the evening.
    "Alright, first song is…drum roll please…" Roni stood up and we followed suit, making a drum roll sound as we did so. " Loser by Saving Jane!" she plugged her IPod into the radio and started it. We laughed and started dancing around wildly, loudly singing the words to each other.
    Once the song ended, Mina picked her first. "Okay, my first song, Don’t Bother by Shakira." I saw a gleam in Mina’s eye and knew this one was going out to Oliver. She plugged in and hit play, as we started moving to the beat, singing the lyrics.
    "Okay, my first song for the night…" I smiled since it was one of my favorites. " You Oughta Know by Alanis Morrisette." Roni smiled. We started singing, once again, to the gritty lyrics, getting louder and louder while our inner angry rock stars’ made their debut. The song ended and we collapsed to the ground. Pouring another drink, we each sat in silence for a moment, lazily sipping.
    Mina spoke up first. "Okay, song two…" She stood and we followed. " Smile by Adele" she hit play and we started up again. Roni’s second choice