By Alexis Salisbury
I don’t remember where we were going to or coming from. We were driving along 680, somewhere in between Youngstown and Boardman, with the lights of the city clustered in the distance, creating a blanket across the landscape and hiding the stars above. I don’t remember whose car we took or who was even driving. But I do remember what I heard that night, staring at a lit-up Youngstown, and how it made me feel.
You put on the latest album from Superfruit, which, if I’m being honest, is a really good album. It’s upbeat enough to keep me awake, but not so much so that I feel like I’ve done 3 shots of espresso. It’s catchy, really. Easy to sing along to. Makes you feel good.
And one particular song came on. “Imaginary—” something. Friends, parties, whatever it is, it’s in the lyrics. All it took was one little verse, and I was no longer sitting in that car, watching Youngstown’s lights flash by. It brought me to a restaurant downtown, a small coffee shop on campus, a makeshift Midwestern Diner in a small town no more than fifteen minutes from our apartment, in a booth, sitting across from you. I’m staring at you, you’re staring at your menu, torn between this-with-bacon or that-with-bacon. And those lyrics resonate in my ear, over and over until I can find their meaning in the lights passing by.
“I wanna make it better than it’s ever been before.”
And suddenly those lyrics mean something entirely different. Mitch and Scott have their own version of the song—one that’s all about you. But I heard something else—a song that’s all about me, and being with you.
I’m staring at you in this Nowhere Booth situated in Everywhere, Ohio, and the faces and memories of my lovers past fly through my head as one entity, one Person that I have loved. One Person that I’ve shared so many memories with, but not here. One Person that has seen a different me, in a different place, at a different time. One Person that, for this reason or that, has moved on. Have I?
I see this Person’s face, and everything swirling about in their eyes. The lights clear my vision, and suddenly I see you. And those lyrics are singing what resides within me, within my heart.
That I wanna make this time, with you, here, better than it’s ever been before.
As I come back to the moving car, skating down 680 towards who knows where at who knows what time, I look over at you, the lights flashing by and illuminating your face as we drive, and I know. With you, it can be better this time. It will be.
Alexis Salisbury is an East Coast transplant, born in New York and raised in New Jersey, now living in Ohio with her girlfriend. She is a double major, studying Italian Education and Integrated Language Arts. She is hoping to graduate in December 2018.