Innocence

I went to the one place that I had always gone to when I needed a sense of comfort. It was the same field of poppies. It was smaller than I remembered, but I haven't been here in four years, so it might just be me.

I sat up against the familiar tree and closed my eyes.

"Manda! Get back here!" I heard Matt laughing as he chased me around the tree.

"Never!"

"You know I'm going to get you. So it would just be better if you surrendered now!"

I kept laughing as he chased me all around the field. It was a cool, summer's day and we were happy to get out of the house for a little bit.

"Try all you want, Matthew!"

A few seconds later, he caught me and we both fell down to the ground. "As you were saying," he whispered into my ear, sending shivers down my spine.

"You got lucky," I said, pushing him off of me.

We lay there, trying to catch our breath. Ever since we were little, we would come to this place. It was a bit odd having a meadow in Huntington Beach, but we loved it all the same. If we weren't here, we were at the beach.

But this was one of my favorite places because all of the poppies. They were my favorite kind of flowers.

"Do you have band practice today?" I asked, rolling on my side to look at him.

He was in a band called Successful Failure. They were... Okay. I'm his best friend! Of course I'm going to support him. They just need to be a little bit... Tuned up?

"Yeah," he sighed, looking at the ground.

"What's wrong? You don't sound too happy about that?"

He rolled over onto his back. "I just have something on my mind."

I crawled over to him and lay my chin on his chest, looking down at him. "You know you can tell me." He looked up at me for a second, before looking back at the sky. "Oh, come on, Mattie." I whined like a child, trying to get it out of him. I hated when he kept things from me. We always told each other everything.

He sighed. "Well, there's this girl..."

I felt my heart drop. Matt may be my best friend, but I've had a crush on him since I was nine, and we're now sixteen. Pretty lame, I know...

"Oh." I tried to cover up my disappointment with a smile. "Who is it? Is she pretty? Do we know her?"

"No, she's not pretty." I gave him a confused look. "She's the most beautiful thing I've ever set eyes on."

Thanks, Matt... That's great for my self-confidence.

"Who is it?"

His hand came up and rested softly on my cheek, his thumb gently running back and forth. "You."

"Thought I'd find you down here."

I looked up at Val, startled since I hadn't heard her. "Hey," I said, softly.

"What're you thinking about?" She asked, sitting down next to me.

"Back to the good days," I said staring off into the distance.

She smiled. "I remember when we got Jimmy to come down here and have a tea party with us."

I laughed at the memory. "And how he made us swear that we wouldn't tell anyone,but then Brian ended up finding out."

"Good times," she said, still laughing.

"Yeah... What happened to those times?"

She sighed, laying her head on my shoulder. "I don't know. But what I do know is that I missed my best friend."

I smiled, wrapping my arms around her. "I missed you, too."

"Why'd you go away for so long?"

"You know, Val," I said, pulling away from her.

"Manda, you can't tell me you stayed away that long because of that. She was a whore who was jealous of you all through high school."

I stood up, shaking my head. "It wasn't just that, Val. It was some other things too; things that I don't want to re-visit."

"Then why'd you come here?"

It was an innocent question, but it still stung.

"I wanted to see if I could turn back time," I whispered, before heading back home.