Soco Amaretto Lime - Brand New 

I am driving down a long, almost-empty road after spending the entire afternoon and evening walking down forest trails and exploring the woods, submerging myself in nature. It is now 10:48 PM and I have two of my best friends in the car with me- Christina and Dan. I had just gotten my license about two weeks before, and I am feeling a level of happiness that I have not felt in a very long time. Without saying anything, I pull over, turn off my friend’s way-too-repetitive electronic music, and announce excitedly that I have a song that my friends HAVE to hear.

I play “Soco Amaretto Lime” and tell my friends to listen to the lyrics because they are ‘perfect for us’. I actually am only seventeen, so that isn’t quite right. I zone in to the song as I drive down the dark road, almost near tears because I am finally, silently realizing that I actually am able to still feel happiness, even after the complete shithole I have been going through. I wonder how I will feel when I am 18: how I will feel when I am like them. Will I want to “stay 18 forever so [I] can stay like this forever”? I really do hope so– but then, I realize how pathetic it is that I am using something as minuscule as a song to cling to as my last hope for pushing myself to get through the rest of the year.
Dan interrupts the almost-complete silence to complain about how he could “write these lyrics in five minutes: they sound like a seventh grader wrote them”. I angrily tell him that he is missing the point of the lyrics. I tell him that he is ignorant for not realizing that they are supposed to sound that way, in order to communicate the themes of innocence and naivety in all teenagers minds. I do not even know if that is true, but it sounds about right, and he believes me.

As the song comes to a close, I yell out with the stereo, “you’re just jealous cuz we’re young and in love”. I quickly glance in the rear-view mirror, just fast enough to notice that Dan is doing the same.