Your Arms Are Home

2nd Home

The yellow car screeches to a stop outside of possibly Luna's favorite place in the entire city.

She crawled out of the vehicle, as he rolled down his window to collect the cash.

"Thank you!" She hollered into the car, as she passes him a $20 dollar bill.

He receives it, tapping his hat with the tip of his finger as he speeds away, back onto the the sleepless streets of the wild city.

Luna was hoping today that they would have new novels in. She had practically read her way through the romance section.

She was a regular, to the point where the custodian, Lenny, who mops up the Starbucks attached to the store, knew her name.

Life had been moving unthinkably slow for Luna after Derek. Everything took its time to happen, especially finding another lover.

Derek wasn't even that great, if she was being honest with herself. They had only dated for a few months, before he asked for nudes and fairly, Luna was sick and tired of dating grown men who acted like horny teenagers.

So that's where the romanic paperbacks come into play. Her favorite story was the classic, "Forbidden Love" tales. Just anything that was better than her own pitiful loneliness.

Luna started to believe that something might be wrong with her, that's why these books were so much more comforting than the real world.

"Howdy, Luna. Long day at the ole' grind?" Lenny states, tipping his head towards Luna's dirty black clothes that still lay on her body.

"Too long. Just need to pick up a classic and head home." She says, turning to him with a tired smile.

His eyes where glued to the Romance section of the store as she watched him.

"Not to down you in the dumps, but I think someone is eyeing at your favorite hardcovers o'er there." He whispered to her.

Luna glanced at the shelfs, finding a man standing ahead of the area.

Lenny nudged her toward the stranger, even though she could only see his backside.

Creeping over there, she tried to be slick, starring at the books on the wall.

If there was one thing Luna was repulsive at, attempting to "act natural" would most definitely be it.

She made it to the section, somehow quietly.

The man shifts from one leg to the other, as he reads the back of Eat Pray Love, her favorite book on the earth and all of a sudden, she has a hunger to read it.

The man eyes her as she continues to near him. Luna stood, maybe 5 inches away from him as he glanced at her.

Luna strives to be friendly by giving a closed smile, expecting one in return. But, he just looks at her strangely, moving back to the book.

Luna peeked over at Lenny, who greeted her with 2 thumbs up, along with a smile.

She nods to herself, turning back to the man.

"You know that's my favorite boo-" Before Luna could finish, the man hustled away, leaving the book behind.

She whines pitifully, grabbing the book he had just left, hitting herself in the head with it. Lenny smiled warmly at her, in attempt to say "maybe next time".

Dusting off her favorite story, she decided to buy it. Luna marched up to the cash register, knowing the little old lady has seen you 1 too many times here.

"Hi, how are you?" She questions, grasping the book she had lay down on the counter.

"I'm fine thank you." Luna replied, her hand in her wallet trying to gather enough cash.

"That'll be...$8.28." She states, her glance changing from the small screen to Luna.

Luna turns over 10 bucks, waiting for the change.

She messes with the cash register before handing her back her money.

"Alright and your total is..." She begins, waiting for the receipt to print.

"$1.72" Luna gathered her money, shoving it back into her purse, as she viewed the cashier place her book in a bag.

Luna says her thank yous and goodbyes as she turned to the door. Lenny smiles at her, raising his hand to wave.

Luna grinned, waving back.

~~~

Luna was on 18th St., and her apartment was only a few blocks away so she saw no need to get a taxi.

As she walked down the street, she passed many couples, who were all over each other. She tried to keep her cool as she speed up the walk.

Why couldn't she just meet one good guy in her sad life?

Her mother always says, "you'll find the right guy" but when? Luna was the oldest, and her sister was already engaged. She's only 22 fucking years old and is down for a family!

Just the thought alone made Luna crazy.

Unlocking the apartment doors, Luna walked to the elevator. She was way too exhausted to try and climb the long stairs.

Luckily, no one was in there but her.

She pressed the 4 until it lit up, closing the elevator doors.

She was pretty excited to read Eat Pray Love, even if it had been read 100 times by her.

Luna pulled it out of its bag, looking over the book, when all of a sudden...

"Oh you have to be kidding me..." She says to herself as she realized she has this exact book in the apartment right now. Luna didn't think when she bought it, her mind was only set on going home to read it.

"UGHHHH!" She shrieked looking at herself in the reflected mirrors on the elevator doors.

"You." Luna growled, pointing at herself in the
mirrors. "Are an idiot."

That's what days have been like recently. Stressful, unlucky, tiring, and awkward.

Her mother and sister never forgot to bug her about it either. It was always "you're almost 25 and you still work at Starbucks!"

Luna would always roll her eyes and try to explain to them that she was a writer.

She was. Maybe not a successful one but Luna was definitely one. She had just recently been working on a romantic love story...her favorite.

It gave her comfort, in some sort of way. Writing her own versions to her own stories gave Luna the freedom to imagine.

Even if some of the passages she wrote were extremely unrealistic, she enjoyed letting her mind wonder.

But what writer didn't say that?

Luna let herself into the apartment, latching on the lock behind her.

She yawned quite loudly, laying Eat Pray Love with all of the other romance books.

The city lights sparkled like diamonds in a Tiffany display case.

Manhattan was always alive and crowded and part of Luna loved that.

The other part of her wanted to live in the suburbs. A nice neighborhood where she could start a family.

But how could you start a family without someone to start it with?

Strolling into the bathroom, she tugged the elastic out of your long brown wavy hair.

There were dark circles under her eyes from the previous night of no sleep.

She finished up her nightly routine, climbing into bed.

Tomorrow was a new day and she only hoped that something good could come from it.