I scanned the room, noticing several people studying or talking quietly with their friends, until someone caught my eye. He was staring at me, but looked away when I looked back. I started to notice him, his way as he read his books, his looks of boredom when reading them, but to be honest, he had nothing in common with the men I used to be interested...

And there he was, sitting on your couch, showing as a reflection of the past the trash you turned into when John told you he couldn't do it anymore.

The mistakes of a corrosive past but still alive, united in a look at the still happy present.

He was sure that he loved John and that John loved him. Until that new year...

Four and a half years he hadn't set foot in that place, he hadn't seen the boats docked, nor the train line crossing the small town with all kinds of people. Four and a half years he hadn't set foot in Levittown.

Why was she still looking at the sodden sidewalk with people running around with their colorful umbrellas?

"Prom was over for him, and listening to the band play was the best thing he had to do until his car was released."

" John ran his fingers over one more star, prying it easily from the top, dropping it into the bag attached to his ladder."

And the young man's fingers ran slowly and skillfully over the thin strings of a chipped wooden guitar, with some writings, some stickers, things that denounced its extensive time of use.

While trying to live, some people try to run away from their lives.

The headphones were in his ear, but the iPod hadn't played for a while, and on the bright-light screen, the only light in the dark of the bus, an old song from what he liked to call "his band".

Even when he had just started taking biology classes, he could already tell that this would be his favorite subject.