Stay Young

I was dancing with the devil
I was singing dirty songs
Pulling whiskey from the bottle
'Till the early break of dawn

Oh my gorgeous Arizona
Here's to gettin' caught with you
I was runnin' with the wolves
I was howlin' at the moon

The hot Arizona sun beat down on my face as I threw my suitcase into my car. I wiped the sweat off my forehead and shut the trunk. I love Arizona, but good god it'll be nice to be in places that aren't a desert.
"Ari, what time's your plane?" my best friend Taylor yelled running towards me. The tall blonde almost ran into me and was followed by a slightly annoyed Rachel, my other best friend. I looked at my phone to check my reminders.
"Um, 8. Wh-"
"GREAT!" Taylor said cutting me off. She grabbed my hand and tried to drag me to her car but I shook her off.
"Where are you dragging me off to?" I said, crossing my arms and raising an eyebrow. A car honked at us and we all ran back to my car.
"Okay so I was at Starbucks waiting to meet Rach, right? So I'm getting a mocha frap and this really cute guy walks in with my friend Steven from my psychology class. And he's like, REALLY cute. So I order my drink and walk up to Steven and we get to talking and his name is John and so they invited me to this party on the lake at like 3 and apparently John's in a band and they're going on tour I don't know they're leaving in like a few days. But I asked if I could bring my 2 cute friends cause one of them is going out of town tonight and they said yes! So you need to come! PLEEEAASSSEE"
I sighed, uncrossing my arms. "Where's this party at?"
"I already figured it out and you'll just leave at like 5 or 6 and you'll be there in time to catch your plane!" Taylor looked like she was about to bust with excitement.
"Okay fine"
_________________

We got to the party and everyone was in baiting suits. I felt kinda weird that I wasn't dressed for a lake party, but whatever. There were at least 15 college students sitting on lawn chairs drinking beers. Taylor saw who seemed to be Steven and John. She waved to them and smiled, as they walked over to us.
"Taylor, you made it! Are these the two cute friends you were telling us about?" John said.
"Yeah, this is Rachel and Ariel!"
"Ariel? Like the little mermaid?"
I rolled my eyes. Like I've never heard that one before. "You can say that. It's short for Ariella."
They both nodded and offered to get us drinks. I opted out and my friends went off with the guys. I looked for an empty chair and sat down. I didn't like this part of going to parties. I always felt so awkward.
"Um, that's kinda my chair," a tall guy with long brown hair said. I looked up and he was talking to me.
"Oh my god I'm so sorry I didn't realize..." I said getting up out of the chair.
"No no it's fine, here I'll just take John's. Don't worry about it." he said as he smiled at me. I sat back down and mirrored his smile.
"Thanks um..."
"Garrett." he extended his hand as he sat down in the seat next to me.
"Ariel." I shook his hand.
"That's a pretty name."
I looked at him, shocked. I waited for him to add a disney reference, but he didn't. "Wow, you're probably the first person I've met that didn't make a little mermaid joke."
He shrugged, grabbing 2 beers from the cooler next to him and handing me one. "I figured you get it a lot. If I had a name like that, I'd get annoyed if everyone made a joke about my name."
"Well, it's not so bad. I mean I have it coming with the red hair and everything."
After that we talked about music, Star Wars, art, a lot of things. I almost didn't realize it was time for me to go. We exchanged numbers and I called a cab to take me to the airport. I boarded the plane and turned up my speakers, blasting Fun. to calm my nerves.