Top 40 Kiss Fm 2012 -

The list was a time capsule. They’d scream every word to Gotye’s "Somebody That I Used to Know," even though neither had ever actually been through a real breakup. They’d pump their fists to Flo Rida’s "Whistle," a song their parents naively thought was about, well, whistling. And when Carly Rae Jepsen’s "Call Me Maybe" came on for the third time in an hour, they didn't roll their eyes. They held invisible phones to their ears and serenaded the cows in the passing fields.

Number 10: Maroon 5 – "Payphone." Number 9: fun. – "Some Nights."

Mia reached over and turned the key to "ACC." The radio died. The crickets rushed in to fill the silence. top 40 kiss fm 2012

Her best friend, Chloe, had just gotten her driver’s license—a beat-up Honda Civic with a shattered cupholder and a CD player that only ejected if you hit the dashboard just right. Every afternoon, they’d roll down the windows, let the heat swamp the vinyl seats, and turn the volume until the speakers rattled.

The song faded. The DJ came back on. "That was your number one. Keep it locked." The list was a time capsule

She never forgot the list. Not the exact order, not the key changes, not the way the bass thumped through her best friend's broken cupholder. In the years that followed, whenever she heard one of those songs at a wedding reception or a grocery store, she wasn't an adult with a 401(k). She was sixteen, windows down, chasing the horizon with the volume maxed out, convinced that 2012 would last forever.

Number 1 was inevitable. It had been number one for eleven weeks. As the opening synth pulse of "We Are Young" by fun. featuring Janelle Monáe filled the car, Chloe pulled over onto the gravel shoulder of County Road 9. And when Carly Rae Jepsen’s "Call Me Maybe"

But in that moment, frozen in the static of the KISS FM bumper, they were exactly where they belonged.

They stopped for slushies at the gas station. They drove the loop around the high school parking lot. And as the sun bled orange and pink across the cornfields, the countdown began.

"It's time," Chloe would whisper, pressing the preset button for the third time. The robotic voice of the DJ would crackle through: "KISS FM. Your home for the Top 40."

They didn't say anything. They just sat there, the engine ticking, the stereo blasting: