Three very distinct laughs.  Three very distinct girls.  It was fitting.  It was pitch black and unless you came up on them, you would never be able to hear them over the crash of the waves they were immersed in.  Alcohol warmed their blood from the freezing water, and they were having too much fun to even notice it.  None of them even cared, so caught up in the moment they were having on a night in early autumn.

One was a high pitched laugh, almost a nervous giggle.  People who didn’t know her thought that’s what it was.  Tinged with almost a manic energy that matched the splashing and jumping in the near-black water.  She was almost attacking her other friends, but that was all part of the game.  Aggressive, not over bearing.  Knows what she wants but she’s still figuring out how to get it.  Wavers between reserved and wild, but tonight she’s free.  Unrestrained.

One was almost silent, punctuated by a snort.  She was a little away from the main action, still testing the waters in more than one way.  She didn’t go as deep, didn’t get as involved.  Unsure, timid, trying to figure out where she belonged and how she fit in.  Awkward in her own skin still, but every once in awhile something shone through, the wild snort of laughter in the midst of silence.  A smile that lit up her face, a dead panned comment that set the others off into wild laughter once more.  Promise.

One was loud and wild.  There was no holding back, no reservations at all as she threw her head back, diving in and out of the water.  Almost showing off, giving too much.  Trying to hard, but she gave everything she had.  Passion and fierce determination.  She didn’t do anything halfway, trying to drag the other two together, bond as three.  For them to be happy together, all of them by themselves as as a group.  Her shoulders would slump sometimes with the weight of what she carried, her raucous laughter muted, but not tonight.  Tonight she was light, open, free of everything.  Hopeful.

Each has their own demons and their own struggles, personal adversaries they fought with the help of each other and by themselves.  In the water at midnight, those were gone and forgotten, and all they know is one thing.  Joy.