"Can I tell you something?" Conrad asked. I only nodded. "You're the strongest person I know." To this day, I still think he lied to me. I should be the least strongest person he knows. How did he consider me strong when I could list dozens of people who were stronger? "That night, you told me I was the strongest person you knew. Why did you lie to me?" He stopped doing whatever it was that he was doing, but he didn't look at me. He simply sat there, looking at the corn like it was the most interesting thing in the world. "I wasn't lying." He finally said. "Everyone else might not see it, but I do. I see the pain in the way you smile. Smiling takes every thing out of you because your smile doesn't look genuine anymore. Your pain begins to make cracks in the walls you took years to build and it starts to escape." He gave me a sincere look and continued. "Sonny, no one I have every met has ever been strong enough to do that. I could never do that. The sad thing is, you don't fake it because it's easier for you, but it's easier for the people around you. For your dad especially." conrad fisher x fem!oc started: june 17th, 2022 finished: february 3rd, 2024