Liron had been running around the dirt with Alenna, both armed with water guns. At some point, Jess and I had joined them, the two of us against the two of them. I'd like to think we were winning. We were gaining ground and pushing them towards the lake when Liron and Alenna announced their surrender, turned around, and ran into the water.

We chased them in. The Beach Boys were singing about good vibrations, and as we splashed around, gradually joined by more of the waking guests, I thought it was one of the best days of my life.

We were a bunch of friends, having fun. Nobody was worrying about responsibilities, or their jobs, or submitting their tax claims. Weekends like these didn't come along often.

Liron and Alenna seemed to be trying to drown each other despite the terms of the weekend. Jess and I exchanged knowing looks.

"Oh no!" I heard Alenna yell, and saw her splashing around a bit further in. Liron was missing. For a moment, my heart stopped, and then I felt my body take over. I had just dived deeper into the water, when Liron surfaced behind Alenna and splashed her with a tidal wave, laughing like an idiot. 

She turned away from him, and noticed me swimming towards them. "Uh oh," I heard her say, "I think one of us is in trouble."

Boy, was she right. 

Liron yelped and started paddling away, and I chased after him. Years of soccer had given me me some semblance of stamina, a lot of which I've lost since I stopped after high school, but still enough to catch up with the boy.

"I will kill you myself," I seethed, "if you ever scare me like that again!" Liron was squiggling like a fish in my grip.

"Let go!" He laughed, splashing me with water. "I'm alive! I'm alive!"

I hugged him closely, breathing heavily. "For a second I thought you were drowning. You really scared the shit out of me."

"Ew!" he said, pushing away from me. "That's gross, man!" I watched him floating, blinking the water out of his eyes. For a moment we stared at each other, before he paddled back over to me and hugged me back. "I'm sorry," he said, "for scaring you like that. I would be scared too if that was you."

"Yeah, just promise me you'll never die."

He giggled, breaking the heavy tension in the air. "I promise that, for as long as I live, I will never die."

I chuckled at his turn of phrase. "Good. Now, because you scared me like that -"

I put my hands on his shoulders and pushed him under the water.

He said he would never die. That was enough for me. I believed him.