365 DAYS 365 TALES

The Guy who Stole My Hardcover

CLANG! BOOM! BOOM! CLANG! BOOM! DUMTSS!
"What the hell are you trying to do Harry?," I ask my little brother out of frustration.

"I am trying to learn here. If you will, let me get to the major part."

"Argh!" I grunt.

"Oh. Come on Josh. Can't you support your little brother a bit?"

"You got to go learn it somewhere from a professional. Just owning a drum set doesn't make you an artist," I try to explain my brother in the midst of the noise he was making. Yes. Noise. Not music.

"Alright! I will go. But I hate tutors. The way they boast about everything they know which we absolutely don't know," Says Harry.

I roll my eyes and walk towards the door to close it behind my back and silently go to my room to read my book.

"Will Grayson Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan."

I look at the cover. Hardbound.

I flip through the pages. Clean, smooth and flawless.

I smell it. Utterly authentic.

Usually, when I do this, my brother gives me a nonplussed look. But he wouldn't understand what it feels like to hold a beauty like in your hands and feel every bit of it.

It is like you are about to unravel a new mystery, a new world, full of mysteries.

I love going to the library, enjoying the free books and silently reading, smiling with the characters and living with them.

My brother though, is a jock. He is just one year younger to me. Oops. I forgot to tell you. I am a 23 year old who works at a call center.

Our parents live in Canada. And we are left here under our aunt's supervision. Basically we live in our own house and our aunt stays next in the neighborhood, which makes things simple and easy for my brother. He can actually get out of the house anytime he wants.

I am an indoor person, as you know, I would prefer reading in my bed comfortably over a rave party. I don't even get the hype about it.

I had just started reading when I hear a voice -

"Hey!" Zainad says standing at the threshold of my bedroom door.

Zainad had been my best friend since I don't know for how long. But she had been behaving very awkwardly in the past few days.

We have not been in touch much after we left college and started working at different places. We stopped talking like before which was "for hours". We rarely saw each other. And as my stupid low esteemed self-conscience used to tell me "She probably has new friends now." But here she is.

"Hi." I reply back still looking at my book. Sometimes I act like a jerk with no manners. Well, jerks are jerks because they have no manners right? Why am I talking to myself?

STOP TALKING TO YOURSELF. My brain yells at me.

"Can we talk?" She asks politely.

"Oh yeah. Just a moment." I say and I have no idea why we are acting so formal after all. I make space for her to sit and close my book to carefully place it on my table.

"Umm. I just wanted to ask if you would...umm..like to go out with me tonight." She says hesitantly, sitting beside me

"Yeah sure!! Why not? It's been a while already." I say immediately. I can cancel out on parties but not a good 'get-back-together-with-your-bestie' time.

"I mean it is not as what you think it is gonna be." She says looking at her feet.

"Huh? I don't really get it. I mean yeah I love some drama but don't you think that you have been acting a little weird lately?" I blurt out.