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Salute to These Partygoers Pretending to Vape a Wiimote

Do you remember 2008? The sights, the sounds, the smells. You went over to your friend Derek’s pad on Friday nights — apparently a few people were over there just chilling. They have some stuff, but if you’re worried about running out of drinks, pick up a six-pack for yourself. Maybe there was a beanbag you could crash on.

“We should order pizza later.”

“Did someone text Alex and Kevin?”

Your crush, Damien, is probably coming by a little later, so you probably shouldn’t drink too much before he shows up.

“Hey, does anyone have speakers I can plug this iPod into?”

The music starts playing, and almost immediately Derek vetoes. “No this sucks, lemme see that thing. Ah, here we go.”

As the opening strains of “The Great Escape” by Boys Like Girls fill the room, everyone smirks. “Oh my god, I totally forgot about this song,” someone says, even though, at this point, it’s only like a year old.

Before you know it, the party is in full swing. Just you and your best friends, your whole lives ahead of you, the knowledge that you’ll never be this young ever again. Alex and Kevin are fighting in the corner about something, but you can’t hear them over the music, and honestly, you don’t even want to know. They’ll have made up by the end of the night.

Someone — you’re not quite sure who — passes you the Wiimote and you take a big rip. Your friends cheer, and a blurry hand snatches it from you before you can gracefully pass it off to the next person. Everyone takes a hit from the Wiimote, and you all laugh, and whoop, and yell, and you yell, “Hey, play Boys Like Girls again!” Everyone is standing in a circle, ripping from the Wiimote and screaming about making the great escape.

Over the shoulders of the crowd, you peer up at the basement stairs, only to see Damien perched a few steps up, trying to figure out the vibe. You’ve been waiting for him all night, and now you’re too nervous to say hi. You’re not even sure what time it is — maybe it’s just a couple of hours since you got here, maybe it’s been years. He smiles at you, and you smile back.

“Yo, let me get a hit of that Wiimote!” he yells. Everyone cheers.

Salute to These Partygoers Pretending to Vape a Wiimote