Putting Life on Hold

He looked around my room, his eyes taking in the walls lined with shelves, shelves littered with books, the books filled with memories I hadn't actually experienced, but had read so many times that the experiences felt like my own. He picked up a random book, grazing his fingers across the cover, staring at it so intently, like he was trying to see through it.

"Do you like to read?" I asked. His head snapped up, as if realizing that he wasn't alone, even though I had been there the whole time. He shrugged his shoulders, the fabric of his shirt moving easily across his skin as he set the book down and grabbed another, opening it this time.

"I used to, but then.."

"But then?" I ventured. I wanted to know him, to know his ins and outs, everything that made him, him. He closed the book quickly, the cover hitting the pages with a thud that seemed to ring throughout the room.

"But then I woke up one day and realized that reading about someone else's life wasn't actually going to help me live my own."

Nicholas Andrew Santino ⌂⌂ Monroe Louise Hughes

Title Credit: Where We Belong, Brighten
©Emily Starich, February 15th, 2010.