"You have two of the same novel?"

He asked it slowly, as though I may have somehow addled my brain in the duration of the last five minutes. Not that I would put the thought past me, either. After all, if it were to happen to anyone, I was perhaps one of the most likely to bring it upon myself. But still, last I checked a person did not need brain damage to own two copies of something.

I perked an eyebrow, mocking offense as I turned back to face him once more. "Yeah," I stated, just as slowly, as though talking to a child, "it happens. Sometimes I'll buy one and then receive it as a gift. Or even get multiple copies fro different people as gifts. Creepily enough at the same holiday, too."

"And you keep them," he deadpanned, clearly not understanding the point.

"Of course. I could never get rid of them, not when someone else buys them. Plus, they come in handy. For when I lend some." I crossed my arms and leaned back against the wall, sliding down to a sitting position as he glared at my bookshelf, almost quizzically.

"Your books?"

I furrowed my brow, trying to decipher the meaning in his words before giving up, "Er, what?"

"You lend your books? To other people?"

He was mocking me now, a glint in his eye because he knew how closely I guarded my books. And yet I couldn't stop myself from laughing. I was pathetic, really. I know.

"Yep," I rasped when I'd finally calmed down enough. Moving towards the shelf, I started tugging out examples, "Like The Queen's Fool, edges fraying not a week after I bought it, my own shame for letting my sister read it -- Cut, the end points of the cover's binding is tearing away, and you see how it's bent all over? Not to mention on various pages, plausibly to hold her spot. . . Oh, and Perfect." Here I paused and tilted the slim book to show the once pristince edges where the pages all came together, "Dropped in a puddle of slush."

---

Well, there you have it, I'm alive. Drowning in the homework I loathe because my history teachers have a knack for summer homework, apparently, but still breathing at any rate. Hopefully next time I'll bring sometime better than a fragment to those who are still there.