By the time by Jimmy Eat World started playing, the sun was beginning to dip, turning the sky a bruised purple that matched the pop-punk angst of their youth. Maya started singing along to the chorus, her voice competing with the wind rushing through the cabin.
The CD reached its end with a mechanical click, leaving a ringing silence in the car.
The windows of Leo’s beat-up 2004 sedan were rolled down so far they’d practically disappeared into the doors. In the passenger seat, Maya was digging through a spindle of scratched CDs until she found it: a Sharpie-labeled disc titled summer_rock_mix_best_summer_rock_songs_2000s
The mix slowed down just once, for the acoustic intro of a song that felt like a collective exhale. They drove past golden fields, the "hip-hip" backing vocals echoing against the glass. It didn't matter that they had mortgages now, or that the car’s AC was temperamental. For these three minutes and twenty seconds, the world was as simple as a four-chord progression and a summer breeze.
"No way," she grinned, sliding it into the dash. "Prepare for a time machine." By the time by Jimmy Eat World started
Maya leaned back, the wind still whipping her hair. "Obviously."
The speakers crackled to life with the palm-muted chug of Suddenly, they weren’t just driving to a lake house in 2026; they were teenagers again, smelling of coconut sunscreen and cheap gasoline. The windows of Leo’s beat-up 2004 sedan were
"Everything, everything will be just fine," she shouted over the guitars.