We had a relatively quiet night after the tense dinner.
I’m still confused with Alex’s reaction last night, I guess he didn’t want us to know he applied at Fernbrook. Why? I have no idea.
I wake up, eyes still closed as I stretch and immediately feel something is up.
My feet feels wet.
I look down on my feet and all I see is water.
I sit up and instantly regret it. The air mattress wobbles on the lake.
I look around me and I’m surrounded by water.
What the fuck?
I look back and see that I’m a few meters away from land. Alex is standing there grinning at me with a coffee mug in hand, he yells, “Welcome to the land of the living!”
He always says I sleep like the dead.
I glare at him and I immediately panic since I don’t know how to swim that well.
He’s waving at me and thinks he’s won, but I’ll be damned if I let him get away with this.
So I sit with my legs crossed in front of me and I cross my arms over my chest.
The water is pulling me farther from land and Alex stands straighter when he realizes what I’m doing.
He yells, “Swim back, the tide will push you farther away!”
I take a deep breath before yelling back, “I can’t swim that far you idiot!”
He shakes his head, “Use the mattress as a paddle board!”
I shake my head, “Nope. You put me here, now you have to get me.”
He takes a step back, “I can’t swim in that! The water’s freezing.”
I sigh and lie back down, “Tell my parents goodbye for me then!”
I hear a string of curses and I just stare up at the sky. 
Our parents drank quite a bit last night so I think it will take some time before they get up. My Mom will freak out when she sees me here.
I look back where Alex is standing and I see that he’s taking off his jacket and shoes, still cursing of course. I grin and shake my head. Amateur.
He should know not to do something like this when our parents are around and there’s no one else to blame but him.
Honestly, he’s losing his touch.
He takes off his shirt and dives in the water. He swims toward me.
I rest my head on my palm as I watch him struggle in the cold water. Alex is a damn good athlete so he should know that it was stupid to do this. I don’t have an active bone in my body so I can’t swim in freezing water.
He gets closer and I sigh, “Faster. I want some coffee.”
He pops his head out of the water and glares at me.
I shrug, “Hey, don’t give me that look. You’re the one who did this; you have no one to blame but yourself.”
He swims behind the mattress and starts to push it back to the campsite, I want to cheer him on, but he might get annoyed and stop pushing me, so I bite my tongue.
We get near the campsite and the water is shallow enough for Alex to walk, but then Alex stops pushing and says, “Well, we can’t have you get off that easily can we?”
I look behind me as he grabs me by the armpits and drags me off the mattress into the freezing water. Alex is much taller than I am so I go under and grab at him so I can pull myself up again. 
I spit out the water right on his face and he laughs.
I hit him on the chest with my free hand, “The water’s freezing you jerk!”
I want to punch him in the face, but I need him since the water’s still deep, so I hold on to him as he drags me to shallow waters. My jacket feels like it’s twenty pounds and Alex grunts as he almost carries me to dry land.
When the water is shallow enough for me to walk, I push at his chest shivering as the cold air hits me, “Y- you’re g- going to be so s- sorry.”
I sit on the ground huffing because this damn jacket is freaking heavy and Alex just shakes the water off his hair like a dog.
He laughs as he points at me, “You look like a drowned rat.”
I was about to lunge at him and punch him in his smug face when Mom yells, “What the hell happened?”

#
“At least I tried to save her,” Alex murmurs.
His Dad glares at him from where he’s sitting, “This is not funny Alex. What you did was dangerous.”
Alex’s Mom butts in, “And juvenile.”
Mom sighs, “When will you two grow up?”
My brows furrow, “I didn’t do anything.”
Mom puts up her index finger, and that’s her signal for me to shut up.
I don’t know why I’m being scolded; I was nice for a change.
Dad shakes his head, “We have to do something about this. You kids have to get along somehow, this is getting ridiculous.”
Mom nods, “Yes.”
Mom juts her chin out, “Go stay over there and talk about what happened here. We need to talk about this too.”
I sigh and walk over to the lake; Alex follows me, and we stand there watching our parents discuss whatever they want to discuss.
I roll my eyes at him, “If I get grounded, you’re going to be very sorry.”
He scoffs, “What? Am I hampering our social schedule?”
I glare at him, “As a matter of fact yes. There’s a pre-grad party next week and Nic and I are going.”
He raises an eyebrow, “Were you invited?”
I mimic him, “Were you invited? Of course, I’m invited. I wouldn’t go if I wasn’t. Were you invited?”
He scoffs, “Unlike you I don’t need an invitation.”
Pompous ass.
He looks out on the lake, “So, it’s just going to be you and Nicole?”
I pick the leaves off a tree branch, “Why do you care?”
He shrugs, “I don’t. I’m just making conversation.”
I purse my lips before asking, “So, you’re going? To the party?”
He shrugs again, “I don’t know. I’m not sure yet.”
Mom calls for us, “Alex, Allie, come over here please.”
I sigh as we walk over to where they’re having their small meeting. I sit on the bench and Alex sits beside me.
Mom grins, “We have made our decision on what would be the best approach for the two of you.”
I love my Mom I really do, but she’s just being a pain in my ass right now.
She continues, “You both know all we want is for you both to get along. We want you to be friends because it’s always nice to have a good friend especially one you’ve known your whole life.”
I was going to say I have Nic, but I know what Mom means. She has Jane and that’s great for her, but she should know that not all neighbors can be good friends.
Some of them are just that – neighbors. And sometimes it’s better to keep them that way.
She smiles, “So, we’ve decided that to celebrate your graduation, we will be having – “
She pauses and I want to yell for her to continue.
She grins and claps her hands, “a weeklong vacation!”
Alex and I say at the same time, “What?”
Mom smiles widely, “We’ll do it a couple of days after your graduation and before you set off to College.”
Dad grins, “We’ll take care of everything. And that way you get to spend time with each other one last time.”
No Nic to be my buffer against this Neanderthal? Oh no.