Windows To The Heart

Allow her into your room/Page 2

"Yeah sure, why not," you say.

You open the door to the room closest to the bathroom, although the room used to be yours, it's now just used as a guest bedroom, the only belongings of yours inside are what you brought in your suitcase. You awkwardly look around for someplace to sit for a few seconds, before settling on the bed located at the center of the room. Maria does the same, sitting next to you only a few feet away.

"So how do you like the room? I hope it was clean enough, I made sure to really clean it up in anticipation of your arrival," she gleefully exclaims.

"Oh yeah," you gaze around the room, "I guess it is pretty clean."

Maria pouts a little at your apparent disregard for her hard work.

"Hey," You laugh a little and lazily hold your hands in front of you as if to protect yourself, "d- don't look at me like that, I just haven't had much time to look around yet, I woke up not that long ago, remember?"

"Aww I know," she says defeated, "I just wish you would appreciate what I did more."

"I do, I swear!" you reassure.

You take a closer look around at the spotless room, it almost seems like everything has a polished shine to it, even the walls, "Wow, you really cleaned everything huh." 

"Yep!" Maria says proudly, "I didn't want you to think I was slacking since you last saw me. What kind of person would I be if I screwed up my only job? I even brought you breakfast! Though, I guess it was cold by the time you ate it," she lets out an awkward laugh.

"Oh yeah..." you awkwardly laugh too.

"I'm sorry, I- I just didn't know you were going to sleep for so long," She says, looking as if she was legitimately sad by the thought that you had to eat cold food.

"Oh no, it's fine ok, I still enjoyed it, Maria, it was great," you assure, "you know how much I love your cooking, hot or cold!"

Maria's face lights up from your compliment and she moves closer to you, "Thank you so much! It... it means the world to me that you would say that!"

You feel something on your hand, it's Maria's hand, following your gaze, she notices it too, it stays this way for just a brief moment before you both quickly move your hands away, and Maria moves back to her original spot at the end of the bed. You two look away from each other and a thick atmosphere of awkwardness looms over the room extending every second. This goes on for several painful seconds until you finally clear your throat and speak up. 

"So umm... are my parents home?" You basically force the words out of your mouth, anything to move on from THIS.

"N-no," her voice cracks, she quickly clears her throat to regain her composure, "They umm, they left about an hour ago, they're having dinner at some fancy restaurant, so it's just me and you in the house. If you're still hungry, I can make whatever you want...!" 

You two go quiet once again, and just as you think the awkwardness from before is about to return, Maria speaks up, "Lucas, I'm really glad you came home, even though you're just going to be here a short while, it's so nice to see you again. You know when you see someone every day, you really take for granted them being there, but now that you're never here, you never have any time to see me... and your parents too of course! I wish you could visit more often," she looks back up at you and smiles.

"I wish I could visit more too, but my job demands so much of my life these days, I hardly have any time to do much of anything other than work, let alone have time to visit you guys," you chuckle a little at this, "hell, it's a miracle they even let me off to come visit for the holidays, work has been really backed up recently. So it's nice to be back in my own room, even if this is just a guest bed now!"

You flop on the bed, spreading your arms and legs out. Maria lets out a small giggle.

You reminisce on days gone by, "It's almost crazy to think we use to see each other every day, my parents bought you when I was like what... eight?"

"Yeah, and I was seven! Fourteen years we've known each other, and this is the first time I've seen you in over a year," she says sadly.

"It's been a year already? Wow," you look off into space, "time sure does fly... where does it all go?"

"It's called 'life,' silly!" she lays on her stomach, right next to your legs,  "And maybe you should live it a little."

You laugh, "What do you think I do every day, I am living!"

Maria pouts once again, "You're not REALLY living Lucas, you're just going through the motions, like do you really enjoy what you're doing?"

You're about to answer, but when you look at Maria you're caught off guard by a sudden realization, she's... attractive, of course, you knew she was pretty, but something about the way she's laying next to you, thoughts you've never really had about her start to race through your mind, you silently look her up and down, and then you notice something else, and your eyes drift down to her chest.

"Well?" Maria questions.

You jolt back to attention, "What huh, oh yeah... well no, I don't really enjoy it, but doing this means that I can be set up later down in life so that I can eventually do something that I actually do enjoy."

As if possessed by some perverted force, your eyes slowly start to drift back down to her body.

"IF it ever leads to that you mean," she states, "you know, most people never end up doing what they actually want to do, most just end up settling for jobs that they don't really like and work there for the rest of their lives, so by the time they retire it's already too late, they wasted the best years of their life. I don't want that to happen to you Lucas, you're in your prime RIGHT NOW, I want you to be able to look back at your life and be happy, not filled with regret because you think you wasted it."

Keep Looking. Page 3

Look Away. Page 5