A Reason to Love

Present.

“Conrad fucking Owens!”

I stomped my foot angrily, ignoring the many gazes coming from various students around the classroom. It was the last class of the day- Geometry, to be exact- and my patience with Conrad was wearing thin. He had been acting up all day, stealing my pencil case in Drama, pushing me into a handicapped girl in the hall, and spilling red paint down my white top in Art. Now he had the nerve to steal my notebook?

The notebook was one of my most prized possessions; I took it with me everywhere I went. I had been working on a journal entry when Conrad had snatched it away, holding it high over his head, his whole body shaking with laughter. Normally, it would not have bothered me so much, but today I had been writing something that was particularly private.

The teacher was out of the room making copies of the quiz we were supposed to be taking, and I realized I had absolutely no ally to come to my rescue. My only friend in the class- in the whole school, probably- was the boy who was standing in front of me, smirking like a madman.

“Give that back,” I pleaded, my voice sounding less harsh and more like it usually did- soft, innocent, defeated.

“I dunno about that, Macyn,” Conrad said, a smirk crossing his handsome features. “You really hurt my feelings a minute ago. You know my middle name isn’t ‘fucking’, it’s Noah.”

I rolled my eyes, reaching for my notebook, only to have Conrad pull it out of reach again. I sighed frustratedly, standing up on my tiptoes as I tried in vain to grab hold of the notebook. Conrad took several steps backwards, making a tsk, tsk sound with his tongue.

“I don’t think so, missy.” Conrad made his way down the aisle of desks, winking at one of the pretty brunettes at the front of the room. “I think you owe me an apology, Macyn.”

“Mr. Owens!” a voice exclaimed from the doorway. I turned to see who it was, sighing in relief when I saw Mr. Murphy.

Mr. Murphy was a sweet, middle-aged man. His dark hair was thinning, and streaks of grey clustered around his temples. He wore large-rimmed glasses that magnified his brown eyes to twice their normal size, making him look a bit like a bug.

“Why am I surprised to see you interrupting my class again?” Mr. Murphy went on, beginning to pass a quiz paper to each student. I took my seat again, not wanting to get into trouble like Conrad was bound to. “Give Miss Iver her notebook back, and get in your seat.”

Conrad sighed and tossed the notebook onto my desk before he flopped into his chair. Not a second later, the bell rang loudly, signaling the end of the school day.

“Take home your quizzes, please!” Mr. Murphy exclaimed, his voice managing to raise over the sounds of students gathering up their books and rushing for the door.

I stood, tucked my quiz into my notebook, and shoved the rest of my books into my shoulder bag. Conrad and I were the only students remaining in the room, though it wasn’t because he was busy gathering up his books.

“I guess I’m still driving you home today?” I asked, looking expectantly at him. Conrad nodded and we headed out the door, passing easily through the abandoned hallways.

“We should stop by the field today,” Conrad said nonchalantly, shrugging out of his leather jacket as we stepped out into the summer heat. He kept it slung over one shoulder as I lead the way through the parking lot, searching for my Volkswagen van amongst the other cars.

“The field?” I repeated, nodding absentmindedly. We had not been to the field in months, since it was kind of a special occasion place. We normally only went there when one of us was having a bad day, or it was one of our birthdays, or we needed an escape from our miserable little town. “Why in the world d’you want to go to the field?”

“I can’t tell you here,” Conrad said, rolling his eyes. He took the place more seriously than I did most of the time, which was odd within itself. Conrad did not take many things seriously, but the field was one of the things he did. He treated it as if it were sacred, even. I still had not managed to figure out why.

I unlocked the car with a sigh, and we both got in. Conrad immediately turned the radio to a Rock and Roll station, the music blaring so loudly I thought my eardrums were going to burst. I scrambled to turn it down, shooting Conrad a glare- he was grinning from ear to ear.

“You’re so fun to aggravate,” he said after a moment.

I scoffed, staring intently out the window as we turned out of the school’s parking lot. “Oh, is that why you were being so mean today?” I asked grudgingly.

“No,” Conrad admitted. When I glanced over at him, the grin had fallen from his face. “I was trying to distract myself… Sorry, Macyn.”

“It’s fine,” I assured him, not wanting to make him feel any worse than he already seemed to.

The rest of the ride to the field was quiet, though it was not an uncomfortable silence. Conrad and I had been friends for years, and we didn’t generally feel the need to keep up a constant conversation.

I parked the van at the edge of the field, and we got out, heading towards the center of the field. There was an old, gnarled tree in the middle of the field, and this was where Conrad and I usually found refuge. We took our seats as usual, leaning against the tree’s black trunk.

I turned to Conrad, my eyebrows raised expectantly, “Okay, now spill.”