St. Cloud

Books

All cities are mad: but the madness is
gallant.
All cities are beautiful: but the beauty is
grim.

There are two people you will meet in your life. One will run their fingers down the index of who you are and jump to the pages that only spark their interest.

The other will read your chapters thoroughly, maybe fold the corners of the pages that inspire them most. He or she will take his or her time reading word for word, even taking note here and there.

You will meet these two people; it is a given.

It is the third one you will never see coming. The one that studies your story and asks questions about it. The one that finishes your incomplete sentences and memorizes lines of importance. The one that keeps the book.

Believe it or not, the third person does exist. I used to believe they didn't, but when Gray came along I was proved to be wrong.

So yes, the third does exist. Even for someone like me. A nonbeliever of love and its stupid ways.

I hated love. I hated the thought that one day someone would break down the barricades I worked so hard to build all these years in only an instant. I hated the thought that someone would potentially make me weaker. I hated the thought of depending on someone and relying on someone because people suck and they all lie. I hated love. I've seen what it does to people. It ruins everything and for that reason, I didn't want it. The book that I was and story I told was meant for my eyes only.

Though I made a mistake, because I never hid my book.

Therefore, a boy named Gray found it lying around on a broken bookshelf and he opened it up. He opened it and started reading. He started wondering. He started memorizing and underlining parts of it he enjoyed and parts that scared him. He folded corners and he even drew on it too. Against my beliefs he took my book to the city of St. Cloud.

Where books never come back the same way they were taken in. They always come back worn out and tired. Pages torn and chapters ruined. Pages missing and ink spilled all over words to the point you can't even read it anymore.

Gray took my book to the city of St. Cloud in order to add on to my story I suppose, but little did he know I was no ordinary book full of pleasing chapters and flowery scenes. It was chaotic here and there, and very different from the rest.

It will not be ruined.

(But everyone says the same thing)

*******

:)