The Experiment (Draft)

Reading

Lydia:

I wake up to a rhythmic thumping seeming to come from the rec room. It takes a minute to stretch and rub the sleep from my eyes. As I brush my teeth, I hear the thumps occasionally slow, but they stay consistent. I avoid brushing my hair, waiting for the boys, what is going on? I walk out into the hallway in shorts and Luke's shirt, and when I open the door, I am hit with sound, music and the thumps in rhythm with the music.  It's some rock-techno-rap something or another, and it is extremely hot and humid in here. and smells overwhelmingly of Old Spice and a little BO. I found were the pounding is coming from, Luke on a treadmill, and a fainter clicking sound from Owen weightlifting.

"Hey guys, where did this come from?" I ask walking farther into the room.

"We found it in the closet." Owen says, sitting up, his bare glistening with sweat. He runs into me.

"Come here!" He screams as he runs to me, wrapping his sweaty arms around me before I can protest, and now he is wiping his sweaty forehead in my ratty hair.

"Ewie!" I exclaim, trying to pry myself from his beefed-up arms. "You know, if you spent as much time on your studies as you did on your physique, you'd be top of the class."

"Yeah, but big rains don't get the babes." Owen counters.

"Ok, maybe not the ones you want. But someday, all this muscle," I squeeze his bicep, "Will turn to flab, but your brain can be your biggest muscle if you try, and it won't shrink over time." This seems to shut him up. I walked over to the shelf of movies, looking for "The Fault In Our Stars", and I found it. Oh, I feel so ashamed watching the movie, for the book was so much better. I come up with an idea.

I turn to Owen and turn off the treadmill, and he wipes his forehead with a sweatband, complaining how he only had a few more minutes.

"Y'all need to learn." I started, dragging them by their wrists to my room. I looked for TFIOS on my bookshelf, and found three copies of it. How curious. I handed them each one, paperback, keeping the hard-bound one for me.

"No. Oh no. Nu-uh. Nope." Owen tossed his back on my bed.

"How dare you!" I exclaim, shoving the book back into his hands. "Your perspective on pretty much anything will change. Your perspective on life, death, love, relationships, family, all will change. You need to read it! Three chapters, by dinner."

"I like reading, but not that much." Luke explains.

"I plain just don't like reading." Owen shrugs. "I'd rather to math homework to be honest." 

"Well, you are going to read this."

"I'm willing to read it." Luke nods. Owen huffs in defeat and stalks off to his room. Luke and I giggle, and hold our copies, unsure of what to do next. Luke reaches his hand out, sliding it in the small of my book, his other raising my face to his. He stares into my eyes for a moment, before pulling back. What is he doing? It's not until he pulls away, that I notice I'm straining to reach him, I'm standing on tiptoes, my neck stretched to him. He smiles, and picks me up and carries me to his room, our books in hand. I try to get out of his grip, but it's no use.  I settle my head into his neck, his pulse beating against my lips. He stands me up at the foot of his bed, and hands me my book. I give him a puzzled look.

"I just wanted to read in my room." He smiles, and we sit next to each other on his bed, reading until lunch.