It was a stunning summer day, the sun’s rays emitting a scorching heat that was balanced with a cool and peaceful breeze making the weather tolerable. I sat out the front of my house on the front lawn basking in the sun letting my toes curl in the soft grass as I ate a fruit platter I prepared for myself earlier. A sigh of content escaped me as my body relaxed knowing I had a great break to look forward to; my soft gold hair blew gently with the breeze. I took a bite into the fresh, refreshing piece of watermelon looking to my right watching my best friend Zack play his acoustic guitar. I watched his fingers gliding across the fret board while he gently strummed the guitar strings producing a beautiful melody. Zack’s musical talent was remarkable and when my stare moved to his face I could notice how effortless playing guitar was for him, it was second hand nature and his greatest passion. I decided to throw a piece of grass at him to break the rhythm, it landed right between his green eyes and caused him to abruptly stop playing his guitar. Before he had a chance to get me back I had gathered a small pile of grass and threw it at him again, the pile landing in his ash blonde hair.

“Cassie!” he whined as he shook his mop of curly hair running his fingers through the strands trying to remove the grass. I just poked my tongue out at him like a little kid and took a bite of a strawberry with a cheeky grin of victory on my face.

“If you actually bothered to get a haircut it wouldn’t be that difficult to get rid of the grass!” I explained while he struggled to shake the grass from his long, untamed hair. He refused to get it cut over the summer until it reached an uncomfortable and knotty length.

“If I didn’t have such an immature best friend who teased me all the time and threw grass at me I wouldn’t have to get it cut!” He rebutted, his eyebrows raised as if to show he had won and therefore concluded the argument.
Before I had the chance to challenge his statement he had launched his hands onto my stomach and was tickling me vigorously.

“Stop! Please, Stop! No! Plea-” I protested through my uncontrollable laughter struggling to catch my breath. My whole body rolled and squirmed as Zack continued to tickle me like crazy, my stomach was aching from laughter.

“Zac- No!!” I giggled as I tried my hardest to tear his hands away; he had a mischievous grin planted on his face. He knew my weak spot where I was extra ticklish, right near my ribcage, and he was willing to exploit that knowledge and continue tickling until I backed down.

“Okay, Okay! I’m sorry” I yelled in between laughter forfeiting the battle in hope he would stop torturing me. He finally stopped and flicked his hair out of his eyes though still didn’t release me from his grip

“That’s right Cassie! You better be sorry. Now tell me how sorry you are by saying how you love my hair just the way it is!” he requested.

“Zack, I love your hair as it is, I wouldn’t have it any other way.” I said in a monotone and rolling my eyes as I reached up with one hand to ruffle his hair.

“Why, thank you Cassie.” He accepted the compliment shaking his hair as the actors did in shampoo ads, even though it was delivered with an underlying sarcastic tone.
That’s pretty much what the summer holidays consisted of for Zack and me each year, just messing around and relaxing by doing nothing. The holidays were always enjoyable as long as no school or work was required and we had each other’s company; with each other we could make any situation fun or at least bearable. I was especially looking forward to this particular summer as it would be our last one before we left school and all the seniors planned to make it the greatest one yet. I was ready to party and just sit back and soak up the summer sun, even though I most definitely wouldn’t tan with my pale, porcelain white skin- the only colour I could tan was a burning red! Regardless of the lack of tanning I would achieve, I was pumped.