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There is something quite special about summer nights in Kentucky.
Beth can't really put her finger on what it is, exactly; but she has spent many warm evenings on a lot of different places, some across the world from her little back porch, and nothing ever felt as nice. No high-end hotels of Paris or Moscow, with their huge windows and overpriced cocktails could compare to a cool glass of sparkling water in her hand and an old wicker chair.
She takes a sip of her water, and then takes a deep breath, her eyelids fluttering as she takes in the scent of warm ground, summer flowers and freshly mowed grass her neighbour cut a few hours earlier. It is quiet, and the only sounds Beth could hear was an occasional buzz of a car engine or distant barking of a dog at the end of the street.
And then there is a quiet cracking of the back door, and Beth smiles before she even opens her eyes, knowing exactly who that is.
“We should go for some shopping tomorrow.” Jolene says, sitting in a chair on the other side of a small table Beth made last year from an old wooden box when she had one of her redecoration phases.
“I could always use a new dress.” Beth smiles, raising her eyebrow, knowing very well it is not the kind of shopping Jolene has in mind. Her friend doesn't fall for that little game, only rolls her eyes and reaches for her own drink, a glass of orange juice with a couple mint leaves threw inside for an additional flavour.
Beth smile grows even wider, and she thinks that this is also a part of why she loves summer nights at home so much. How was she even spending her before Jolene found her way into Beth's life again? She can barely recall it.
Now, whenever she comes back here, from no matter how far away, she always looks forward to these hours spent together, in peace and quiet, with her best friend by her side.
It wasn't always the case during the past few years. They both had men in their lives, men who would come and go and leave little cuts in their hurts that yet always managed to heal with time and each other's company. And at this point in her life, Beth is absolutely content. To be totally fair, she can't really imagine herself in another place in both space and time.
"Where did you go?"
Beth realizes she closed her eyes again for a moment, and she blinks in the dim light of a single bulb hanging over their heads.
Her heart flutters, one hard squeeze before it comes back to its normal pace.
"Nowhere." she says, and she means that, "Here is all I need."
Jolene smiles, and tilts her head to the side, like an elegant, graceful bird.
"Except carrots." she says, "We will get some tomorrow."
Beth laughs and shakes her head, although she knows very well she will do just as Jolene pleases, and that she won't mind it at all.
Sometimes she wonders if it is weird, that they don't really have to talk that much, and sometimes they can sit for long minutes barely saying anything out loud. But there is nothing wrong about that kind of silence, not when they are so absolutely aware of how much they mean for each other.
A couple of years back, during some of the darkest days of her life, Beth promised herself to never relay completely on other people, believing that all they would do in the end was hurting her. But then some of them prove her wrong, and Jolene was one of them; and now, Beth isn't afraid of having her as a pillar of her strength.
Her best friend. Her family.
Forever.